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.

January 6, 1989

The Hockey News Janaury 6, 1989

The frustrations of a senior men&rsquo;s league goalie in northern California 10 years ago have led to a new type of goalie pad.Jim Lowson, a 40-year-old native of Mill Valley, Calif., was feeling the strain of moving around his crease in bulky leather pads.&ldquo;I said, &lsquo;There must be a better way,&rsquo;&rdquo; says Lowson.&ldquo;I was looking for something different.&rdquo;He took matters into his own hands, spending six months researching different types of plastics and foams to make a lighter goalie pad.Through the process of elimination, Lowson figured out which materials were suitable for what he had in mind.The result of his research was Win-Lite, a goalie pad made of foam covered in cordura nylon, the type of material used to manufacture &lsquo;soft&rsquo; luggage.The Win-Lite pad is used by NHL goalies Reggie Lemelin of Boston, Greg Millen of St. Louis and Greg Stefan of Detroit.All three goalies find the lighter pads have helped their agility in the crease area.Conventional goalie pads are stuffed with deer-hair&mdash;favored because it absorbs shock better&mdash;and covered in leather. They weigh 16-18 pounds each and during the course of a game gain an extra four or five pounds because of moisture.Lowson&rsquo;s pads are four pounds lighter&mdash;stuffed with a type of foam he says is a &ldquo;trade secret&rdquo;&mdash;but also possess tremendous absorption qualities. Since they are covered in synthetic material, they gain no moisture.A Toronto-area doctor, Larry Komer, uses the pads while playing senior men&rsquo;s hockey. He says the Win-Lite pads wrap around the leg and offer better protection than traditional goalie pads. They also provide less strain on the knee when it has to bend.But their best quality is lightness, says Komer.&ldquo;At the end of the game you don&rsquo;t feel like lead,&rdquo; he says.The only disadvantage to the Win-Lites is they allow long rebounds, especially when brand new.&ldquo;Pucks come off like a rocket,&rdquo; says Lowson. &ldquo;But once the foam is broken in, you can use a lot of control over where you want to direct a puck.&rdquo;Lowson said the greatest compliments he&rsquo;s received on his work have been from female hockey players, who find the Win-Lite pads less cumbersome than traditional models.The pads have become increasingly popular since hitting the market two years ago. They are marketed through Canadian hockey equipment manufacturer Torspo of Renfrew, Ont.For more information, contact Torspo representatives Rob Barnes or John Lee at 613-4325859. &#9632;

IN THIS ISSUE

The Lighter Look In Goalie Pads

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div>The skipping rope, now in its sixth full season, still accompanies Tim Hunter on his NHL travels.It saw more duty in his early years when Hunter, then a fringe player on the Calgary Flames&rsquo; roster, would find out on game day whether or not he&rsquo;d be in the lineup that night.No longer. Unlike past years, this may be the first time in his NHL career Hunter will not be asked to sit out a game. Apart from two games he missed with an eye injury, Hunter had been in every one of the Flames&rsquo; first 33 games.Only a year ago, the Flames put a quiet challenge to Hunter. In January, they acquired rugged right winger Shane Churla from the Hartford Whalers and in March they picked up mammoth center Craig Coxe from the Vancouver Canucks.The signs were not lost on Hunter. Churla and Coxe were brought to Calgary to challenge&mdash;and perhaps replace&mdash;him as the team&rsquo;s undisputed heavyweight champ.&ldquo;Every team is always looking for someone who&rsquo;s tougher,&rdquo; said Hunter, who had three goals, four assists and 151 penalty minutes in 31 games this year.On the evidence of the team&rsquo;s first 33 games&mdash;23 of them Calgary wins&mdash;Hunter overcame the challenge. Coxe, along with center Mike Bullard and defenseman Tim Corkery, were dispatched to the St. Louis Blues for center Doug Gilmour, right winger Mark Hunter and left winger Steve Bozek in September. Churla played in only two of the Flames&rsquo; 33 games.As always, Hunter recently tested as one of the Flames&rsquo; fittest players. Last summer, he invited some newcomers&mdash;Churla, Dana Murzyn, Mike Bullard and Brian Glynn&mdash;to train with him, apayback for the years that other players like Doug Risebrough, Lanny McDonald and Jim Peplinski took him under their wings.There was also ex-coach Bob Johnson&rsquo;s influence.&ldquo;He was constantly teaching me something,&rdquo; said Hunter. &ldquo;Every day, before practice, after practice, on the plane, on days off, he had something to teach me. That really improved me as a player. He saw Tim Hunter as a project and wanted to make it work. He wanted to get Tim Hunter out there to play so he could use his toughness and aggressiveness to help the team.&rdquo;When Terry Crisp took over in the summer of 1987, he appointed Hunter assistant captain to replace the retired Risebrough.&ldquo;He did the one thing Bob Johnson didn&rsquo;t do,&rdquo; said Hunter. &ldquo;He gave me responsibility and more ice time. Bob was not willing to put me out incrucial situations. He didn&rsquo;t play four lines. Terry Crisp does. He gets me out in the third period more and in overtime. That makes you better because you play in pressure situations. You have to experience that.&rdquo;One area of Hunter&rsquo;s game that really improved was his ability to avoid bad penalties. Hunter, the team&rsquo;s all-time penalty-minute leader with 1,590, found the fine line between playing aggressive and playing stupidly.Most of the time, anyway.&ldquo;I took a penalty against New York (in a 6-3 win over the Rangers Dec. 1),&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;(Rangers&rsquo; defenseman Michel) Petit ran me in the comer and I wanted to get back at him right away. So I slashed him. That&rsquo;s a bad penalty. Those are the ones I&rsquo;ve tried to get away from.&rdquo;<h2>CALGARY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Joe Nieuwendyk, Doug Gilmour, Joel Otto. Jiri Hrdina.LW&mdash;Gary Roberts, Colin Patterson, Jim Peplinski. Tim Hunter.RW&mdash;Hakan Loob. Joey Mullen. Mark Hunter, Perry Berezan, Lanny McDonald, Shane Churla.LD&mdash;Gary Suter. Jamie Macoun, Dana Murzyn.RD&mdash;Brad McCrimmon, Al Maclnnis, Rob Ramage.G&mdash;Mike Vernon, Rick Wamsley.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None &#9632;

THE NHL

RUGGED RIGHT WINGER NOW REGULAR ON ROSTER

<div class="byline">BY DAVE MOLINARI</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0017-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011018/5479711-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">ROCKET TOCCHET</figcaption></div>Tom Barrasso came to Pittsburgh in midNovember with a gaudy price tag and gory reputation.The Penguins had to surrender two superb young players, defenseman Doug Bodger and left winger Darrin Shannon&mdash;their first-round choice in 1988, currently playing for Windsor of the Ontario League&mdash;to pry Barrasso from Buffalo, where he had been widely assailed as a divisive force on the Sabres.A month after the trade, Barrasso was being a force of a different kind. And he was making Penguins&rsquo; general manager Tony Esposito look like a felon.No matter how much Bodger and Shannon ultimately contribute to the Sabres, Barrasso has been the force that hoisted the Penguins from the periphery of contention into the middle of it.After playing poorly and losing his first two starts with the Penguins (8-5 to Toronto Nov. 16 and 6-3 to the Islanders Nov. 18), Barrsso was 8-1-2 in his next 11 games. It was hardly a coincidence that, during that span, the Penguins burst into sole possession of first place in the Patrick Division with an overall record of 19-112.And it wasn&rsquo;t a case of Barrasso being merely an interested observer while Pittsburgh&rsquo;s highoctane offense overran opponents.Unlike in Buffalo, Barrasso is not a fixture in the headlines. And with teammates like Mario Lemieux and Paul Coffey garnering most of the attention, that&rsquo;s just the way he likes it.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not the center of attention, and I enjoy that,&rdquo; said the 23-year-old veteran of five NHL seasons. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s easier to play that way. People aren&rsquo;t looking to me and really, they shouldn&rsquo;t. I&rsquo;m just part of the hockey club, I&rsquo;m not the winning factor.&rdquo;Trouble is, it&rsquo;s awfully difficult to stay in the shadows when Barrasso turns in performances like his 49-save effort on Long Island Dec. 15.The Penguins were outshot 51-24, but beat the Islanders 8-2. And when the Penguins were looking for heroes that night, they focused their attention on Barrasso&rsquo;s stall in the dressingroom.&ldquo;He just lifts the guys up so much,&rdquo; said left winger Bob Errey.&ldquo;If you get beat on a play or it&rsquo;s a 2-on-l or a 3-on-2, you know that if they&rsquo;re going to score a goal, it&rsquo;s going to have to be one heck of a shot,&rdquo; said Coffey.Barrasso&rsquo;s play was of particular importance since the Penguins struggled through a stretch in which they were eking out victories despite frequent, and potentially lethal, lapses.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re having moments of sloppiness,&rdquo; said left winger Randy Cunneyworth after a 5-4 win over Los Angeles Dec. 14 in which the Penguins were outshot 39-25. &ldquo;And when it comes down to crunch time, that kind of play won&rsquo;t do.&rdquo;&ldquo;We&rsquo;re still not flowing properly,&rdquo; said defenseman Randy Hillier the same night. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to feel fortunate we&rsquo;re winning when we&rsquo;re not playing all that well.&rdquo;Literally translated, that means the Penguins should have felt fortunate Barrasso was around to correct most of their mistakes.Despite starting 13 of 14 games after he joined the Penguins, Barrasso thrived under the staggering workload. He missed one game as the result of a league suspension, after getting his second high-sticking major in the Penguins&rsquo; 5-3 win over Washington on Nov. 25.<h2>PITTSBURGH</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 17: Ville Siren, D, and Steve Gotaas, C, traded to Minnesota for Scott Bjugstad, RW, and Gord Dineen, D.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mario Lemieux, Dan Quinn, John Cullen, Dave Hannan.RW&mdash;Rob Brown, Scott Bjugstad, Dan Frawley, Richard Zemlak.LW&mdash;Bob Errey, Randy Cunneyworth, Phil Bourque, Troy Loney.LD&mdash;Paul Coffey, Zarley Zalapski, Steve Dykstra, Chris Dahlquist.RD&mdash;Randy Hillier, Rod Buskas. Jim Johnson, Gord Dineen.G&mdash;Tom Barrasso, Frank Pietrangelo, Wendell Young.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Jay Caufield, RW, pinched neck nerve, day-to-day. &#9632;

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BRILLIANT BARRASSO HAS PENS ATOP PATRICK

&#9632; Number of the 15 Jack Adams Award winners whose teams won the Cup the year they were honored as coach of the year: Two, Scott Bowman in 1977 and Fred Shero in 1974.&#9632; Number of years since the Vancouver Canucks had their last winning season: 12.&#9632; Difference in capacity between the NHL&rsquo;s biggest and smallest arenas (Calgary&rsquo;s Saddledome and the Boston Garden): 5,175.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02449/5481642-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="684" height="410"><figcaption class="caption-body">Vancouver&rsquo;s Tony Tanti</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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NUMBERS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011252/5479105-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="551" height="639"><figcaption class="caption-body">Viacheslav Fetisov</figcaption></div>Who&rsquo;ll be the hottest rookie in the NHL in 1989-90 or 1990-91?You don&rsquo;t know now but, chances are, it will be someone whose name you first read in the Jan. 13 issue of The Hockey News. Meet 210 of the best young hockey players not in the NHL&mdash;10 for each of the 21 NHL teams&mdash;in our annual &ldquo;In the System&rdquo; review. We&rsquo;ll take you through Europe, minor pro, major junior and college hockey&mdash;anywhere there&rsquo;s a good NHL prospect.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-021020/5479098-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="545" height="640"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gerard Gallant</figcaption></div>On our travels, we&rsquo;ll stop by the Soviet Union to talk with Central Red Army defenseman Viacheslav Fetisov, arguably the best rearguard in hockey today.And we&rsquo;ll interview Detroit Red Wing left winger Gerard Gallant, a tireless worker who rates as one of the most underrated players in the game.It&rsquo;s all in the Jan. 13 edition&mdash;don&rsquo;t miss it. &#9632;

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NEXT ISSUE

My response to Barry Meisel&rsquo;sDec. 2 column concerning hysteria over stick infractions, is to ask him what he would have written if Jeff Norton&rsquo;s ribs had been fractured and his liver had perforated? Then Meisel would have written a column saying it&rsquo;s time the NHL cracked down on stick violence. Do we have to wait until a player is as seriously injured as Ted Green was in 1969 during a stick fight with Wayne Maki before people take this matter seriously?Hysteria over stick infractions? Somebody better get excited about it. Wake up NHL, before we have to send flowers.LeAnna White, Columbia, Mo.<h2>NEVER MIND</h2>I don&rsquo;t understand why THN columnists Jay Greenberg and Barry Meisel constantly condemn fighting. It&rsquo;s an exciting part of the game. The next time a fight occurs I think Barry and Jay should listen to the crowd cheering. It&rsquo;s obvious the fans don&rsquo;t mind.David DeFilippo, Revere, Mass.<h2>POOR HANDLING</h2>I understand trades have to be made. But the way the Philadelphia Flyer management went about trading Peter Zezel on Nov. 29 was a disgrace and an embarrassment not only to the hockey club, but to the fans.You don&rsquo;t let a player of five years come to practice, suit up and then call him to the office to inform him he no longer belongs to the club and will be on the road to Washington for a game with his new team, the St. Louis Blues.How about giving the man some time to adjust to the idea? At least a day, not hours.Adele Magee, Bensalem, Pa.<h2>ROOKED AGAIN</h2>The Philadelphia Flyers became the latest team to take advantage of the St. Louis Blues when general manager Bob Clarke traded Peter Zezel for Mike Bullard.Bullard is a proven scorer who had 48 goals last year. Zezel&rsquo;s statistics are far less impressive. He has only surpassed the 30-goal barrier once in four seasons. He scored 33 in 198687.St. Louis has developed a reputation for being too generous in dealing with other clubs. Take Calgary, with Joey Mullen, Doug Gilmour, Rick Wamsley and Rob Ramage, all exBlues.By trading away a scorer like Mike Bullard, St. Louis has further weakened an already stumbling offense.Hassan Lakhani, Ottawa, Ont.<h2>TIGER TIME</h2>When John Brophy is fired as coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, general manager Gord Stellick will be faced with the dilemma of finding a competent replacement and pleasing owner Harold Ballard with his choice. Stellick should look no further than Dave (Tiger) Williams.Tiger is one of the few former Maple Leafs who left Toronto on good terms with Ballard. Though he was known as a fighter during his playing days, he has the human qualities and hockey experience to be a good coach. He would inspire his players to play the kind of hockey he and linemates Darryl Sittler and Lanny McDonald played for the Leafs in the late 1970s.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011362/5479136-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="541" height="1088"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tiger Williams should be the next Maple Leaf coach.</figcaption></div>Tiger was a member of the last respectable Leaf team during the Ballard regime. Only he can bring the Leafs back to that level while Ballard is alive.John Vidovich. Ottawa, Ont.<h2>NICE SUITS</h2>After years of skating in their insipid Los Angeles Laker-like uniforms, the Kings finally had the smarts to don new and good-looking outfits. Why the Vancouver Canucks continue to wear their hideous attire is beyond me. I&rsquo;m sure most hockey fans would agree with me that their Halloween colors must go.Todd Bank, East Meadow, N. Y.Make your feelings known. Send your comments to:&nbsp;Letters, The Hockey News, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont., M3B 2R2.&nbsp;Include home and business phone numbers. THN reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

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DEPARTMENTS

STICK HYSTERIA NOT UNFOUNDED

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021105/5479167-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="522" height="642"><figcaption class="caption-body">BOB McKENZIE</figcaption></div>If it weren&rsquo;t such a serious matter, you&rsquo;d be tempted to crack a joke.Something along the lines of, &ldquo;Now, there&rsquo;s a Swede not even Don Cherry would want to mess with.&rdquo;But a death threat is no laughing matter.Especially if you&rsquo;re on the receiving end, like Rickard Fagerlund, president of the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation, and Curt Berglund, treasurer of both the SIHF and International Ice Hockey Federation.In mid-November, Fagerlund, 51, and Berglund, 65, received copies of the same letter, threatening their deaths if the 1989 World Championships (in Stockholm) are not televised on Swedish public television.&ldquo;We want very much to believe it is just some lunatic who would do no worse than write a letter,&rdquo; says Berglund. &ldquo;But when we gave the letters to the police, they took the whole matter very seriously. They are investigating.&rdquo;A few years ago, Berglund and Fagerlund&mdash;and the police for that matter&mdash;may have been more likely to dismiss the death threat as harmless overreaction by an outraged hockey fan.But on Feb. 28, 1986, Sweden was rocked by the assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme. That act of violence, by a lone gunman, shook the country to its very roots.&ldquo;The scary thing about the letter,&rdquo; says Berglund, &ldquo;is it said, &lsquo;This is no joke, it is dead serious. Remember what happened to Olof Palme.&rsquo; I think that is what concerned the police, too.&rdquo;Coincidentally, on the day (Dec. 14) Berglund told his story to a caller, police arrested a 41-year-old Swede in Stockholm in connection with the Palme assassination.In the meantime, Berglund doesn&rsquo;t wake up each day worrying it may be his last, but says rarely does one go by that he doesn&rsquo;t give thought to the threat.&ldquo;I worry,&rdquo; he say s.&rdquo; I&rsquo;ve got three daughters and nine grandchildren. I worry about them. I was more jumpy the first week I got the letter. I&rsquo;ve calmed down a bit now, but if we can&rsquo;t resolve the television situation, I think I will be getting worried very quickly again.&rdquo;Oh, yes, the Swedish television situation.The IIHF, which owns TV rights for the World Championships, sold them, along with all board advertising (etc.), to CWL, a Swiss company.CWL, in turn, negotiated with Eurovision, the umbrella organization for all western Europe&rsquo;s national TV networks. But an agreement between CWL and Eurovision could not be reached.CWL then struck a deal with TV3. a regional cable outfit in Sweden with only 500,000 subscribing households. To get TV3, a special antenna, worth about $4,000 (Cdn.), must be purchased.Swedish hockey fans, anticipating being shut out from World Championship games at the new Globe Arena in Stockholm, were outraged.Sound familiar? It bears a striking resemblance to the National Hockey League&rsquo;s decision last summer to award its national U.S. TV rights to a regional pay/cable system. SportsChannel.But the Swedish saga isn&rsquo;t over yet. TV3 doesn&rsquo;t possess the technology to produce the World Championship telecasts without assistance.Berglund suggests TV3 could allow Sweden&rsquo;s national network to produce the show. The national network would pay TV3 the equivalent of $1 million (Cdn.) in exchange for the rights to telecast the games to all Swedish homes.Negotiations are set to resume in January.&ldquo;If something isn&rsquo;t worked out,&rdquo; says Berglund, &ldquo;this (threat) is going to prey on my mind a great deal. I think that it will be very scary.&rdquo; &#9632;

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COLUMNISTS

DEATH THREAT NO JOKE TO THIS SWEDE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03710/5479198-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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Elston

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011385/5479243-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="248" height="248"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021274/5479236-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="89" height="91"></div>MONTREAL&mdash;Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; goaltender Ron Hextall, who led his club to three consecutive wins while registering a 1.00 goals-against-average, was named Chrysler Canada Performer of the Week for the period ending December 18.Hextall, who was in the midst of a seven-game undefeated streak (6-0-1), edged two Pittsburgh Penguins&mdash;center Mario Lemieux and goaltender Tom Barrasso&mdash;to capture the award.The Chrysler Canada divisions of Chrysler Motors and Dodge will donate $500 to the youth hockey organization of each performer&rsquo;s choice. The Chrysler Canada divisions of Chrysler Motors and Dodge also sponsor the Performer of the Month and Performer of the Year Awards, for which the latter receives the Dodge vehicle of his choice. In four years, Chrysler Canada and Dodge have contributed more than $120,000 to youth hockey associations across North America.</div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031084/5479229-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="569" height="587"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ron Hextall</figcaption></div>Hextall began his week by turning away 32 shots in a 4-1 victory over the Washington Capitals (Dec. 15). The 24-year-old Brandon, Man., native then led his club to a 7-1 road win over the Toronto Maple Leafs (Dec. 17) before returning home for a 5-1 defeat of the Winnipeg Jets the following night. By defeating the Jets, Philadelphia reached the .500 mark (17-17-2) for the first time since Nov. 9. Hextall, who was tied for third in wins among goaltenders (13), finished his week with a .961 save percentage.Lemieux led all NHL scorers with 10 points (3-7-10) in three games, while Barrasso led the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 3-0-0 record. &#9632;

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NHL PERFORMER OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>Regarded as the world&rsquo;s premier goalie, Edmonton Oiler Grant Fuhr is also notorious as an awful interview, someone whose image is not conducive to selling products. This is all changing as a &lsquo;new Grant Fuhr&rsquo; is being presented to advertisers, marketing agencies and businessmen to the tune of big bucks for the Oiler ace. Edmonton-based agent Rich Winter is in charge of the transformation. &ldquo;Grant is becoming more sure of himself,&rdquo; Winter says. Fuhr&rsquo;s endorsements, which include a large furniture chain and a car dealership, will pull in more than $200,000 this year. That total will continue to grow, says Winter, as Fuhr reveals his &ldquo;unique bubbly personality.&rdquo; Winter hopes to attract $500,000 a year for his client in endorsement fees alone. One of Fuhr&rsquo;s ads is for Nu Maid Dairies, a rival of Palm Dairies, a company run by Oiler owner Peter Pocklington.<h2>TV TALK</h2>Ranger coach Michel Bergeron, who like most of his fraternity is not averse to delivering blue language behind the bench, was furious when The Sports Network (TSN) placed a handheld camera with microphone beside the Ranger bench during a game at The Saddledome. The feed, which also was carried on the New York broadcast, clearly captured some of Bergeron&rsquo;s more colorful bleeps, many of which were directed at referee Bob Hall. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m thinking of suing,&rdquo; says Bergeron. &ldquo;I feel very badly about this and I know kids were watching. I have kids of my own. I should have been told that a mike was on me because I didn&rsquo;t know it.&rdquo;&hellip;Darryl Sittier&rsquo;s appearance at a Maple Leaf Garden practice ignited whispers that the ex-Toronto hero is angling for the Leaf coaching job if John Brophy gets canned. That&rsquo;s doubtful, though. Fired Islander coach Terry Simpson is also rumored to be in line for the Maple Leaf coaching job, though it would likely to go to George (Chief) Armstrong on an interim basis.<h2>L.A. SOAP</h2>The longest-running soap opera of the 1988-89 season&rsquo;s first half continues to be the Wayne Gretzky-Robbie Ftorek odd coupling. Either stories filtering in from all parts of the continent are contrived in a dream machine or there truly is smoke&mdash;and maybe even fire&mdash;in the relationship. One story has Ftorek explaining his benching to The Great One with the tag: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m trying to teach some of the guys a lesson.&rdquo; Gretzky responded, &ldquo;If you want to give lessons, I can give you a job teaching in the American Hockey League. I&rsquo;m here to win the bleeping Cup.&rdquo; Another tale has Ftorek admonishing Gretzky for sprinkling talc on his stick in the dressing room. The coach supposedly suggested that was better done in the hallway. These yams are counterbalanced by L. A. sources who insist that the &lsquo;feud&rsquo; is being blown way out of proportion by anti-Ftorek reporters outside the L.A. area who are miffed over what they regard as his brusque behavior&hellip;A fly on the wall buzzes that the Oilers are running a pool, trying to fix the date when Ftorek gets his walking papers.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011267/5479274-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="536" height="820"><figcaption class="caption-body">Buffalo Sabre Mike Foligno likes to talk.</figcaption></div><h2>BLUES ON BLOCK?</h2>The sale of the St. Louis Blues would not come as a surprise to some insiders&hellip;The gag in the Sabres&rsquo; dressing room is that a reporter could hand Mike Foligno a microphone, turn on the recorder, step out for a dinner, come back and find Foligno not quite finished yakking&hellip;It&rsquo;s said Glen Sather is not overly concerned over his club&rsquo;s failure to keep pace with Calgary and that he&rsquo;s letting the pieces fall into place. By March he&rsquo;ll make moves&mdash;if necessary&hellip;Detroit GM Jimmy Devellano says when his club was at its lowest ebb (40 points in 1985-86) he offered 10 players for Hartford&rsquo;s Ron Francis.<h2>HULL OF A FEUD</h2>One of the longest-burning feuds in hockey&mdash;Hall of Famer Bobby Hull vs. union boss Alan Eagleson&mdash;still simmers. Says Eagleson, &ldquo;Bobby should be in the game the way Gordie Howe is. He could be to the NHL what Vladislav Tretiak is to the Soviet Union. (But) Bobby burns a lot of bridges.&rdquo; To which Hull shoots back: &ldquo;What he means is that I tell it like it is. I don&rsquo;t kiss anybody&rsquo;s posterior.&rdquo; In a recent interview, Hull was brutally critical of the NHL players&rsquo; pension fund&mdash;he says he gets less than $ 10,000 a year from it&mdash;and the late NHL president, Clarence Campbell, who supervised it. &ldquo;Imagine a guy working 23 years and not getting a thousand dollars a month,&rdquo; Hull said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what the great Clarence Campbell did with our pension (plan).&rdquo; &#9632;

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FUHR LOOKING TO CORNER MARKET

<div class="byline">BY STEVE DRYDEN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011449/5479312-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Paul Coffey, a first-team all-star defenseman twice and a second-teamer once, will make the second team again&mdash;though this time as a left winger.</figcaption></div>Predictions are for fools and hockey writers.Is there a difference? You tell us at the end of 1989 when you&rsquo;ll know just how accurately we forecast the new year&rsquo;s happenings.Here&rsquo;s a checklist of 89 predictions&mdash;ranging from the serious to the sublime&mdash;for 1989.1) Not since 1986 has the Soviet Union won the World Junior Championships. It will regain the gold in 1989&mdash;bringing to seven the number of championships the Soviets have won since the tournament began in 1977.2) The U.S. will, as one scout said, find a way to screw up its bid for a medal. The best-ever finish by the Americans was a third in 1986. This year, they are loaded for bear&mdash;but the bear will win.3) American star Mike Modano&rsquo;s performance at the WJC will make Minnesota regret it couldn&rsquo;t sign the 1988 No. 1 draft choice for this year.4) Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour will be a standout for Canada at the WJC.5) Viacheslav Fetisov will play in New Jersey, but as a member of Red Army on Jan. 2. He will not play for the Devils in 1989.6) The touring Soviet teams will win nine of 14 games. Red Army will lose only once&mdash;to Mario Lemieux and the Pittsburgh Penguins on Jan. 4.7) On Jan. 14, John Kordic will attempt to fight Stephane Richer and Claude Lemieux of the Montreal Canadiens&mdash;holding true to a promise he will exact revenge upon those former teammates he doesn&rsquo;t like.8) Neither will fight him, so Kordic&mdash;who broke notorious tough guy Keith Acton&rsquo;s nose late in 1988&mdash;will go after Hab enforcer Russ Courtnall, for whom he was traded to Toronto.9) On Feb. 2, the Penguins will fail to win in Philadelphia for the 43rd consecutive game.10) There will be brawls all game long and fans will yell, &ldquo;Old-time hockey!&rdquo;11) Old-time hockey players Orest Kin-drachuk, Bill Barber, Joe Watson and Dave Schultz will be delighted.12) On Feb. 4, Guy Lafleur will play in Montreal for the first time since his comeback. He will score the winning goal and be named the game&rsquo;s first star.13) Wayne Gretzky and Jari Kurri, who last played together on May 26 when Edmonton won the Stanley Cup, will team up to lead the Campbell Conference past the Wales Conference in the NHL All-Star Game on Feb. 7 in Edmonton.14) On Feb. 14, Ranger defenseman James Patrick and Philadelphia center Ron Sutter will meet for the first time since Patrick broke Sutter&rsquo;s jaw with a cross-check. No Valentine&rsquo;s Day cards will be exchanged.15) New Jersey GM Lou Lamiorello, former coach of the Providence Friars, will trade Kirkp Muller for Providence grad Scott Kleinendorst of the Hartford Whalers. Asked why he got so little in return for Muller, Lamiorello will say, &ldquo;Kleinendorst was the best Providence player I could get.&rdquo;16) Al Arbour will discover what Terry Simpson did&mdash;Bill Torrey has not regenerated his team like Glen Sather has the Oilers.17) Toronto coach George Armstrong, longest-serving captain in Maple Leaf team history (1958-59 to 1968-69), is named captain&mdash;filling a vacancy left open for two years.18) Armstrong, 58, appears in full gear behind the bench, and plays the occasional shift in a bid to inspire the troops against Winnipeg on March 18.19) Armstrong is the best Leaf on the ice.20) The NHL will continue to allow fighting, reasoning it is an important outlet for high emotions. And besides, nobody ever gets hurt in fights.21) New York Ranger farmhand Mark Janssens will continue to convalesce from head injuries suffered when his bare head struck the ice during an International League fight this past December.22) Goon defenseman Marc Laforge of Binghamton, banned for life by the OHL last year, will do something stupid in the American League.23) John Tucker will get injured.24) Borje Salming will miss 10 games with a cold, and play the remainder of the season wearing a muffler and toque.25) Lamoriello will obtain former Friar Paul Cavallini from St. Louis in return for John MacLean, Patrik Sundstrom and Craig Wolanin.26) St. Louis GM Ron Caron will trade MacLean, Sundstrom and Wolanin to Calgary for Colin Patterson and Dana Murzyn.27) The Blues won&rsquo;t trade any more good players to Calgary&hellip;because they won&rsquo;t have any left.28) Serge Savard will file a complaint with the league, claiming Calgary has infringed on his exclusive trading rights with the Blues.29) Pittsburgh, averaging 40 penalty minutes a game this season, will establish an NHL record for most penalty minutes in a season&mdash;breaking Philadelphia&rsquo;s 1980-81 mark of 2,621 (33 per game).30) The Penguins will remain winless in 44 games at the Spectrum, after a visit on April 2.31) Los Angeles will have three 50-goal scorers&mdash;Bernie Nicholls, Gretzky and Luc Robitaille&mdash;equalling Edmonton&rsquo;s record for most 50-goal men. Lemieux, Joe Nieuwendyk, Steve Yzerman, Jimmy Carson, Rob Brown and Tim Kerr will also score 50 goals.32) Gretzky will score more than 181 points in 1988-89 to surpass Gordie Howe (1,850 points) as the all-time scoring leader.33) But Mario Lemieux will win the scoring championship, his second straight, with a record 220 points.34) The Devils will not make the playoffs, but will obtain a restraining order preventing post-season action from commencing. A lowercourt judge in Hackensack, N.J., will issue the order, and then order his Devils&rsquo; season tickets.35) Lamoriello will argue regular-season results should be overturned because Winnipeg would not trade him Peter Taglianetti&mdash;thereby keeping Lamiorello from cornering the market on all former Friars.36) The Calgary Flames will win the President&rsquo;s Cup.37) Calgary coach Terry Crisp will say, &ldquo;Pitter, patter, let&rsquo;s get at &rsquo;er,&rdquo; as his Flames prepare for the playoffs.38) There will be no playoff blackouts this year. As a precautionary measure all Bruin fans will be supplied with high-powered flashlights with instructions to shine them on the ice should a power outage occur.39) Off-ice officials at the Meadowlands will refuse to work a playoff game because of unsafe working conditions. Backup officials Dave Newell, Gord Broseker and Ray Scapinello will swing into action in yellow blazers.40) The Montreal Canadiens will beat Boston Bruins in the Adams Division final. It will be 44 years before Boston beats Montreal in the playoffs.41) Ron Hextail will carry Philadelphia to another Patrick Division title, as Pittsburgh&rsquo;s winless streak at the Spectrum is extended to 47.42) In the Smythe Division, Calgary will knock off the Oilers, who will blame their shortcomings this season on Grant Fuhr&rsquo;s poor play&mdash;not the absence of No. 99.43) Edmonton GM Glen Sather will still smirk. GM Cliff Fletcher of Calgary will smile.44) NHL president John Ziegler will be conspicuous by his presence during the playoffs.45) NHL vice president Gil Stein&mdash;who spent quality time with his family during last year&rsquo;s Mother&rsquo;s Day fiasco in New Jersey&mdash;will celebrate the occasion this year by spending quality time at an NHL game.46) The Detroit Red Wings will easily win the Norris Division. Steve Yzerman will outscore the St. Louis Blues in the final.47) Jacques Demers will say he loves Yzerman like a son, bringing to 35 the extended family Demers loves like a son, a cousin, an uncle, an aunt, a courtesy cousin, a second son, a stepson, a mother, a brother-in-law and a third cousin twice removed.48) Montreal will knock off the Flyers in the Wales Conference final. But Stephane Richer, still angry at Michael Thelven for breaking his thumb last year, will clobber Kjell Samuels-son&mdash;figuring the only good Swedish defenseman is a dead Swedish defenseman.49) Brian O&rsquo;Neill will suspend Richer for 10 minutes&mdash;one of the stiffest playoff sentences ever handed out.50) Montreal fans will gather on the streets and storm the NHL&rsquo;s office in the Sun Life Building. It will be called the Richer Riot and the right winger&rsquo;s supporters will announce intentions to boycott all Ryan O&rsquo;Neal movies.51) Calgary will derail Detroit in the Campbell Conference final.52) The Flames will beat the Canadiens in the final. Trust us.53) Doug Gilmour will be named the playoffs&rsquo; most valuable player.54) Lanny McDonald will retire&mdash;finally&mdash;with 500 assists and a Stanley Cup ring, but without 500 goals.55) The Winnipeg Jets and St. Louis Blues will be up for sale.56) Michigan State will win the NCAA title.57) Goalie Robb Stauber of the Minnesota Golden Gophers will become the first player in NCAA history to win back-to-back Hobey Baker Awards as college hockey&rsquo;s top player&mdash;? edging out Harvard&rsquo;s Lane MacDonald.58) Right winger Bill Guerin of the Springfield Olympics will be the first American chosen in the 1989 entry draft.59) The Quebec Major Junior League, whose only victory at the Memorial Cup last year came when Hull (of the QMJHL) defeated Drummondville (also of the QMJHL), will not win a game at the national championship in Saskatoon.60) Swift Current will win the Memorial Cup.61) Niagara Falls&rsquo; Bryan Fogarty, who will break the OHL record for most goals by a defenseman (38, shared by Bobby Orr and Al Maclnnis) and points (123, Denis Potvin), will be named Canadian major junior player of the year, edging Modano.62) The Soviet Union will win the World Championship in Sweden.63) Under defense-minded coach Dave King, Canada will tie every game 0-0.64) Gretzky will be named league MVP. Kings&rsquo; coach Robbie Ftorek will heap praise on Gretzky: &ldquo;Wayne was one of 22 players on the team.&rdquo;65) Ftorek will be named coach of the year. He will grimace joyously.66) Chris Chelios will be named top defenseman, Patrick Roy top goalie and Kurri (no kidding) best defensive forward.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011294/5479305-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="698" height="1252"><figcaption class="caption-body">John Ziegler will be there live and in color, applauding playoff hockey.</figcaption></div>67) Jiri Hrdina will be overlooked as rookie of the year because most voters don&rsquo;t consider a 30-year-old with considerable international experience a legitimate candidate.68) Joe Sakic will be named the NHL&rsquo;s top freshman.69) Paul Coffey will be named to the second all-star team at left wing.70) Marcel Dionne will retire.71) No team will exercise its right to make a pick in the first round of the 1989 entry draft&mdash;figuring the pool of talent is so bad no player could possibly live up to first-round expectations. Selection will begin in the second round.72) Adam Bennett of the Sudbury Wolves will be the first defenseman chosen first overall since Gord Kluzak in 1982. New York Islanders, the worst team in the league, will take Bennett and then immediately trade him to the Rangers. Bennett will become a big star and Gotham City will have a new nickname&mdash;Adam&rsquo;s Apple.73) The NHL will indicate it plans to move slowly, but surely, on the issue of expansion&mdash;adding one team at a time over no less than a three-year period. Franchises will be determined largely on the basis of marketing potential, which means major U.S. markets, even the non-hockey oriented ones, will get preference over any Canadian city.74) Hamilton will not get an NHL franchise, but it will get an OHL team&mdash;again. By December of 1989, Hamilton&rsquo;s OHL team will announce plans to uproot and move to: A) St. Catharines; B) Niagara Falls; C) Brantford or; D) Grimsby.75) Vladislav Tretiak will be deserving of nomination to the Hockey Hall of Fame but not get voted in as a member.76) Darryl Sittler, Richard Martin and Steve Shutt will also be deserving, and will be inducted.77) Teams starting the 1989-90 season with new coaches will be Boston, New Jersey, Toronto, Washington and the New York Islanders.78) Rick Ley will finally get a chance to coach in the NHL.79) Modano will be the early leader in speculation over who will be 1989-90&rsquo;s top rookie.80) Chicago&rsquo;s Bob Pulford will get kicked upstairs and Mike Keenan named coach-GM. Pulford will show no emotion.81) Trevor Linden will firmly establish himself as Stan Smyl&rsquo;s successor for the Vancouver captaincy.82) Michel Goulet will be traded from Quebec and Denis Savard from Chicago. The Philadelphia Flyers will trade Moe Mantha to the Winnipeg Jets for Brent Ashton.83) Winnipeg will trade Mantha to Philadelphia for Ashton.84) OHL teams will continue to trade indiscriminately, much to the displeasure of commissioner David Branch.85) Center Mike Ricci of the Peterborough Petes, who set an OHL record by scoring in 19 consecutive games this season, will prove himself to be the best prospect for the 1990 entry draft.86) Goalie Mike Dunham of Canterbury School (Conn.), eligible for the 1990 entry draft, will be labeled &ldquo;the next Tom Barrasso&rdquo; for his high school exploits.87) AHAUS executive director Bob Johnson will push for longer Olympic preparation periods&mdash;despite collegiate opposition.88) Harvard&rsquo;s Bill Cleary and Minnesota&rsquo;s Doug Woog will be frontrunners to be named head coach of the 1992 U.S. Olympic team.89) Brian Bellows will be traded. His dog will leave its Canadian safehouse to accompany him. &#9632;

f0006-01

YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011382/5479343-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">The most difficult part of recovering from his car accident, says Jamie Macoun, was surmounting the mental obstacles.</figcaption></div>Photos of Jamie Macoun&rsquo;s wasted automobile in 1987 suggested the 6-foot-2. 197pound Calgary defenseman was fortunate to emerge alive from the mess of crumpled steel and chrome.Playing professional hockey again for the Flames was another story&mdash;and not a very optimistic one. The Newmarket, Ont., native suffered severe nerve damage in his left arm. among other wounds. His career was all but written off as he missed the entire 1987-88 season.But Macoun had other ideas. Relentlessly, he labored through hundreds of hours of therapy and showed up at Calgary&rsquo;s training camp determined to not only make the team but lend an even bigger contribution to a first-place run and the Stanley Cup. Macoun survived the camp and has been a diligent and efficient worker once again.THN: How surprised are you at the level of play you&rsquo;ve reached so far?JM: I&rsquo;m playing a lot better than most people expected and, hopefully, in the next 40 games I&rsquo;ll be that much better. Right now it feels great just to be back. You wouldn&rsquo;t believe how often I&rsquo;m asked the question: &lsquo;How do you think you&rsquo;re doing out there?&rsquo; It shows they&rsquo;re interested and that makes me feel good.THN: Who was most helpful in your comeback?JM: When the odds were still pretty steep against me. the guys on the team were always right behind me. and the Flames&rsquo; management was unbelievable with their support. They took good care of me.THN: Did you have any doubts that you&rsquo;d enjoy a complete recovery and would play again?JM: No. I never thought I wouldn&rsquo;t be able to play for the Flames. I always figured that it was just a matter of time. Originally, I had hoped to be back by December, 1987, but there were still some (therapy) things that I had to do. Eventually, I began practising and was actually ready to play for the playoffs but. by that time, I had been declared ineligible so we wound up playing it the safe way. Believe me. it was a hard pill to swallow but in the end I&rsquo;m happy we went that route.THN: How did you overcome the mental obstacles confronting you on the road to recovery&rsquo;.&rsquo;JM: When a person is in a situation the way I was, the mental part is very important and, when you&rsquo;re in the hospital, you&rsquo;re basically on your own. It&rsquo;s hard, especially when you&rsquo;re in bed and see other people working out and doing stuff. The pitfall is feeling sorry for yourself. But in the hospital I saw young people with broken backs. They were completely out and had no chance at all of recovery. When I saw examples like that, again and again, there was no way I could feel sorry for myself. Besides, I had my own determination and I had unbelievable support from my family and my girlfriend.THN: Has the injury caused you any noticeable loss of talent?JM: If you ask any guys on the team they&rsquo;ll tell you I never had much talent; that I was a hard worker. I imagine that if I had been a 50-goal scorer I wouldn&rsquo;t have been able to be near what I had been before the accident. But I&rsquo;ve been more of a slugger, a hard worker who did lots of hitting. Thus far, I really haven&rsquo;t noticed anything that I&rsquo;ve had trouble with as a result of being injured. Hopefully, I&rsquo;ll keep getting stronger as the season goes on.THN: How has your play changed on the ice since the injury?JM: The thing that&rsquo;s changed my play has been the change in coaching. When I left the team we were with Bob Johnson and I had a little bit more of a license to float up. I was up the ice quite a bit. With Terry Crisp, we&rsquo;re concentrating on our defense. As far as my hitting and shooting and all the other things that made up Jamie Macoun before, there&rsquo;s not much difference.THN: Are you enjoying the game more since your comeback?JM: Sure, there&rsquo;s quite a bit of hard work involved&mdash;the stretching, icing down, a lot of things I never used to do&mdash;which are a bit of a pain but there&rsquo;s the idea that I could come back and have a second career that makes it so enjoyable. I&rsquo;ve played five years already, which is probably the average in the league, and now I&rsquo;m hopeful I can play another five.THN: What did the experience teach you?JM: I realized that even if I never came back to the NHL I still had a pretty good life and would continue to have a pretty good life. In the end I realized that if you don&rsquo;t try (to get better), you&rsquo;ll never know if you&rsquo;ll succeed or not. &#9632;

f0008-01

‘IT FEELS GREAT TO BE BACK’

<div class="byline">BY BOB McKENZIE</div>Pick a prospect, any prospect.The only consensus concerning the 1989 National Hockey League entry draft is that there is no consensus No. 1 overall selection.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s never been like this,&rdquo; says one scout of the inability to pick one, two or even three players who stand out above the rest.&ldquo;Everyone is flawed. I have no idea who&rsquo;ll be No. 1.&rdquo;It might be Laval defenseman Patrice Brisebois, rated tops in the Quebec League by the NHL&rsquo;s Central Scouting Bureau in its first listing of the 1988-89 season. Or Belleville center Scott Thornton, rated No. 1 in the Ontario League. Or Kamloops left winger David Chyzowski, first in the Western League.Perhaps even Bill Guerin, a 17-year-old, 6-foot-2, 190-pound center from the Springfield Olympics of the New England Junior League, could be the first overall selection.A member of this year&rsquo;s U.S. national team competing at the World Junior Championships at Anchorage, Alaska, Guerin had 19 goals, 18 assists and 37 penalty minutes in 16 NEJHL games this season.He, of course, appears on CSB&rsquo;s first ratings list, but because Guerin&rsquo;s not playing major junior hockey, he&rsquo;s not ranked numerically.The confidential CSB list only ranks players numerically from the three major junior leagues.The top-rated players from the OHL, QMJHL and WHL are listed below. After each player&rsquo;s name is his age, position, height, weight, 198889 team and current statistics (games, goals, assists, points and penalty minutes). Goaltender statistics listed are age, height, weight, 1988-89 team and current statistics (win-loss-tie record, goals-against average, shutouts).<h2>ONTARIO LEAGUE</h2>1. Scott Thornton, 17, C, 6-2&frac12;, 200, Belleville, 31-10-21-31-54; 2. Adam Bennett, 17. D. 6-4. 206. Sudbury, 37-3-7-10-49; 3. Steve Bancroft, 18, D, 6-1&frac12;, 214, Belleville, 34-6-16-2251; 4. Steven Rice, 17. RW, 6-0, 212, Kitchener, 34-19-15-34-20; 5. Mike Speer, 17, D; 6-2, 202. Guelph, 34-6-17-23-110; 6. Shayne Stevenson, 18, RW, 6-1, 190, Kitchener, 2612-29-41-40; 7. Jarrod Skalde, 17, C. 6-0,178, Oshawa, 36-22-22-44-16. 8. Rob Zamuner, 19, C. 6-2, 202, Guelph, 35-24-35-59-14; 9. Scott Feasby, 18, D, 6-1&frac12;, 187, Belleville, 24-1-4-535; 10. Jason Soules, 17, D. 6-2, 212, Niagara Falls. 25-1-6-7-87; 11. Paul Laus, 18. D, 6-1, 200, Niagara Falls, 32-0-8-8-165; 12. Adam Foote, 17, D, 6-1. 180. Sault Ste. Marie, 38-4-14-18-62; 13. Cory Keenan, 18, D, 6-0&frac12;, 185, Kitchener, 34-6-17-23-43; 14. Brent Grieve, 19, LW. 6-1. 202, Oshawa, 27-24-18-42-58.15. Richard Borgo, 18. RW, 5-11, 190. Kitchener, 34-17-13-30-46; 16. Tom Nemeth, 17. D. 6-0, 174, Cornwall, 34-3-12-15-17; 17. Bob Boughner, 17, D. 5-11&frac12;, 202, Sault Ste. Marie. 36-3-7-10-110; 18. Louie DeBrusk, 17, LW. 6-1&frac12; 201, London, 27-5-3-8-67; 19. Jeff Gardiner, 17, LW, 6-1, 197, North Bay, 30-812-20-5; 20. Colin Miller, 17, C, 5-11, 185, Niagara Falls. 33-24-34-58-31; 21. Mike Bodnarchu, 18, RW. 6-0, 166, Kingston. 35-1616-32-9.Goalies: 1. JohnTanner, 17,6-3,182. Peterborough, 12-5-0, 3.57, 1; 2. Mike Parson, 18, 6-0, 169, Guelph. 14-11-1, 3.87, 0; 3. David Schill, 18,5-11, 150, London, 14-9-2,4.08, 1; 4. Todd Bojcun, 18, 5-8, 150. Peterborough. 10-5-1. 3.27. I. 5. Sean Gauthier, 17, 5-10, 200, Kingston, 4-10-1,4.56, 0; 6. David Goverde, 18. 6-0. 191, Sudbury, 8-7-1,4.99. 0.<h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE</h2>1. Patrice Brisebois, 17, D, 6-1, 173, Laval, 30-11-27-38-49; 2. Eric Dubois, 18, D, 6-0, 193, Laval, 35-7-27-34-56; 3. Yanic Perreault, 17, C, 5-11, 174, Trois-Rivieres, 35-28-26-5420; 4. Pierre Sevigny, 17, LW, 5-11&frac12;, 181, Verdun, 32-19-22-41-32; 5. Sylvain Thibault, 18, LW, 6-0&frac12;, 209, Granby, 32-7-19-26-28; 6. Jean-Francois Quintin, 19, LW, 6-0&frac12;, 187, Shawinigan, 34-36-51-87-81; 7. Steve Larouche, 17, C, 5-11&frac12;, 165, Trois-Rivieres. 35-26-44-70-18. 8. Jean Blouin, 17, LW, 5-11. 175, St-Jean, 27-11-14-25-37; 9. Craig Martin, 17, RW, 6-2&frac12;, 210, Hull. 34-8-10-18-123; 10. Andy Ross, 18, RW, 6-2, 179, Hull, 34-7-1320-10; 11. Mil Sukovic, 17, C, 6-1&frac12;, 200, Verdun, 35-2-9-11-37; 12. Eric Rochette, 17, D, 6-2, 205, Chicoutimi, 30-0-9-9-31; 13. Todd Sparks, 17, LW, 6-0, 169, Hull, 34-5-9-14-15; 14. Patrick Lebeau. 18, LW, 5-10/i, 173, St-Jean, 33-30-37-67-42.15. Stephane Morin, 19, C, 6-0&frac12;, 174, Chicoutimi, 37-44-58-102-32; 16. Carl Mantha, 18, D, 6-2, 186, Laval, 37-4-14-18-54; 17. Daniel Montmarquette, 17, LW, 6-l&frac12;, 195, Drummondville, 34-1-3-4-9; 18. Marty Woodford, 17, D, 6-3, 211, Laval, 16-2-2-4-14; 19. Denis Chalifoux, 17, C, 5-8&frac12;, 162, Laval. 3728-53-81-14; 20. Michel Picard, 19. LW, 5-ll&frac12;, 190, Trois-Rivieres, 32-26-38-64-43.Goalies: 1. Felix Potvin, 17, 5-11, 167, Chicoutimi, 16-15-1,4.34, 1; 2. Andre Bouliane, 17, 5-9&frac12;, 162, Shawinigan, 6-11-1.4.23, 0; 3. Bruno Gagne, 18, 6-3, 192, Trois-Rivieres, 23-0, 5.44, 0; 4. Pierre Gagnon, 17, 5-8, 143, Victoriaville, 9-4-2, 3.61,0; 5. Boris Rousson, 18, 6-0&frac12;, 179. Laval. 7-5-0. 4 81. 0.<h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>1. Dave Chyzowski, 17, LW, 6-1&frac12;, 190, Kamloops. 33-23-24-47-77; 2. Travis Green, 18, C, 6-0&frac12;, 196. Spokane. 33-18-28-46-41; 3. Lindsay Vallis, 17, RW, 6-2&frac12;, 202. Seattle, 26-9-12-21-27; 4. Kevin Haller, 18, D, 6-2&frac12;, 182. Regina, 35-5-14-19-54; 5. Jason Miller, 17, C, 6-1, 180, Medicine Hat, 36-23-32-55-19; 6. Mike Sillinger, 17, C, 5-10. 191. Regina. 35-23-38-61-36; 7. Stu Barnes, 18, C, 5-10&frac12;, 175. Tri-City, 30-26-24-50-49. 8. Jamie Heward, 17. RW, 6-2, 183. Regina. 22-11-14-2511; 9. Troy Neumier, 18, D, 6-1&frac12;, 181, Prince Albert, 34-3-11-14-34; 10. Terry Hollinger, 17, D, 6-1, 181, Regina, 30-0-13-13-24; 11. Mark Woolf, 18, RW, 5-10&frac12;, 196, Medicine Hat, 30-14-28-42-45; 12. Jim Mathieson, 18, D, 61, 209, Regina. 30-2-12-14-74; 13. James Black, 19, C, 5-11&frac12;, 180, Portland, 31-24-2448-18; 14. Dan Kordic, 17. D. 6-5, 220, Medicine Hat, 35-1-6-7-102.15. Jason Prosofsky, 17, RW, 6-4, 220, Medicine Hat, 32-3-8-11-98; 16. Frank Kovacs, 17. LW, 6-2, 202, Regina, 35-8-7-1539; 17. Steve Tillmans, 17, D, 6-4, 216, Prince Albert. 30-1-5-6-48; 18. Rob Sumner, 18, D, 6-0,210, Victoria, 30-2-6-8-119; 19. Todd Nelson, 19, D, 6-0, 201, Prince Albert, 34-6-29-3534; 20. Kevin Barrett, 18, D, 6-2, 181, Swift Current, 29-4-2-6-104; 21. Kim Deck, 17, D. 6-1, 178, Kamloops, 27-0-4-4-12.Goalies: 1. Olaf Kolzig, 18, 6-3, 207, TriCity. 2-5-0. 4.43, 0; 2. Don Blishen, 17, 5-10, 175, Swift Current, 5-4-0, 4.13, 0; 3. Byron Dafoe, 17, 5-11,175, Portland. 14-6-2, 4.77, 1; 4. Jamie McLennon, 17, 5-10, 174, Spokane, 4-5-0, 6.54, 0; 5. Patrick Backlund, 19, 6-0, 168, Medicine Hat. 7-9-0. 4.88, 0. &#9632;

BUMPER CROP?

<h2>WJC UPDATE</h2>Canada&rsquo;s bid to defend its gold medal at the 1989 World Junior Championships suffered a severe blow when it was discovered netminder Jimmy Waite&rsquo;s collarbone was broken.On loan from the Chicago Blackhawks, Waite arrived at the national team&rsquo;s training camp in Calgary on Dec. 14 with what he thought was only a bruise. Further examination detected the broken collarbone, suffered in a Blackhawk game.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s disappointing,&rdquo; said Team Canada director of operations/scouting Dave Draper. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not that we don&rsquo;t have any good goaltenders to choose from. We do. It&rsquo;s just that none have the experience and track record of Jimmy Waite.&rdquo;The 19-year-old was instrumental in Canada&rsquo;s gold medal win a year ago and guaranteed Canada&rsquo;s status as no worse than co-favorite, with the Soviets, in this year&rsquo;s tourney, Dec. 26-Jan. 4, in Anchorage, Alaska.Canada, which was to name its final 18-skater, two-goalie roster on Dec. 22, had three goaltenders remaining in camp after dropping London&rsquo;s Peter Ing. Victoriaville&rsquo;s Stephane Fiset, Kitchener&rsquo;s Gus Morschauser and Seattle&rsquo;s Danny Lorenz were the three goalies.There was more bad news. Edmonton defenseman Chris Joseph was also expected to be on loan to the team, but injuries to other Oiler defensemen required him to stay with the NHL club.&ldquo;We may still get him in time for the tourney,&rdquo; Draper said. &ldquo;And we&rsquo;re still awaiting word on a few others (Los Angeles defenseman Wayne McBean and Hartford forward Jody Hull).&rdquo;In its first two exhibition games, Canada split, losing 6-4 to the University of Calgary and beating Sweden&rsquo;s national team 7-5.Canada needed to drop only one forward after cutting Oshawa&rsquo;s Brent Grieve and Kevin Miehm, Russ Romaniuk of the University of North Dakota, Ottawa&rsquo;s Mike Griffith and Philadelphia Flyer farmhand Jeff Harding.Laval&rsquo;s Eric Dubois was the only defenseman among the first wave of cuts.Meanwhile, at the U.S. camp in Colorado Springs, Colo., all members of the American entry arrived healthy.As expected, defenseman Adam Burt was loaned to the team by the NHL Whalers.<h2>IZVESTIA</h2>Mission accomplished.Dave King, coach of Canada&rsquo;s national team, came to this year&rsquo;s Izvestia tournament in Moscow with only one major goal&mdash;to win at least one game.A 7-1 rout of Finland on Dec. 19 did the trick. It gave Canada a 1-2 record after three games. Canada lost its opening game 7-1, to the Soviets on Dec. 16 and followed that with a 4-1 loss to Sweden on Dec. 17.If Canada were to beat Czechoslovakia in their Dec. 20 meeting, King&rsquo;s team would be guaranteed a medal.The Soviets and Swedes led the way with a 2-0-0 record, followed by Canada (1-2-0), Czechoslovakia (0-1-1) and Finland (0-2-1).Not one player remains from King&rsquo;s Izvestia gold-medal team of a year ago.Steve Graves, with four goals, and Malcolm Davis, with three assists, led the win over Finland. Members of Turkku of Finland, the two were loaned out to King&rsquo;s team for Izvestia.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011339/5479398-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="552" height="593"><figcaption class="caption-body">Lou Nanne was one of three Lester Patrick Trophy winners.</figcaption></div><h2>SUPER SERIES</h2>The 14-game Super Series between two Soviet club teams and NHL clubs was scheduled to begin Dec. 26 when Central Red Army visits the Quebec Nordiques at Le Colisee.Red Army, of course, is well known to North American fans. Its top players represent the core of the formidable Soviet national team. They are coached by national team coach Viktor Tikhonov.He may, however, be without five of his youngest and most exciting players. And he apparently isn&rsquo;t happy about it.Netminder Alexei Ivaschkin and skaters Alexandr Mogilny, Sergei Fedorov, Pavel Bure and Alexei Malikhin, all junior eligible, are likely to be at the World Junior Championships in Alaska, Dec. 26-Jan. 4.According to reports, Tikhonov argued the young players should stay with his Red Army Elite League club.The other touring Soviet club team, Dynamo Riga, may be described as the New Jersey Devils of the Soviet Elite League. Riga finished in the middle of the pack a year ago, only to gel in the first-ever Soviet playoffs and win a silver medal, losing in the final to Red Army.This year, however, they have slipped back to the lower half of league standings.<h2>STUCK ON THEM</h2>It was a red-letter day for the NHL&rsquo;s crackdown on stick violence Dec. 14 when league referees in four of five scheduled games combined to call five stick majors&mdash;the highest single-night total since the rule was instituted this season.The board of governors passed new legislation at their Sept. 7 meeting in Toronto.New rules call for any major penalty for high sticking, slashing, buttending, cross-checking or spearing to be accompanied by automatic ejection from the game. Repeat offenders have their suspensions increased by one game for each additional ejection.The Dec. 14 calls and the referees who made them were as follows:&#9632; Edmonton at Toronto (referee Bob Myers): Mark Messier Edmonton, high-sticking; John Kordic, Toronto, cross-checking.&#9632; Hartford at Chicago (Kerry Fraser): Tom Martin, Hartford, high-sticking.&#9632; Islanders at Rangers (Rob Shick): Gary Nylund, Islanders, high-sticking.&#9632; Buffalo at Winnipeg (Mike McGeough): Jim Kyte, Winnipeg, high-sticking.<h2>PATRICK WINNERS</h2>St. Louis Blues broadcaster Dan Kelly, Minnesota North Star president Lou Nanne, International League commissioner Bud Poile and the late Lynn Patrick, a coach and general manager with the Boston Bruins and general manager of the St. Louis Blues, were named winners of the 1989 Lester Patrick Trophy.Kelly, gravely ill with cancer, will be presented with his award Jan. 6 in a special ceremony at the St. Louis Marriott Hotel.The award is presented annually by the NHL and the New York Rangers for outstanding service to hockey in the United States. The late Lester Patrick, father of Lynn, coached the Rangers to two Stanley Cups in a 13year career as coach and GM with the team from 1926-27 through 1938-39.<h2>OBITUARIES</h2>Walter (Babe) Pratt, a Hart Trophy-winning defenseman elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1966, died Dec. 16 after suffering a fatal heart attack during the second period of a game between the Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames at Pacific Coliseum. He was 72.Pratt had served as the Canucks&rsquo; goodwill ambassador since their inception in 1970. He won the Hart Trophy in 1943-44 with Toronto, going 17-40-57 in 50 games. He also played for the New York Rangers and Boston Bruins.Sid Solomon III, who helped bring NHL hockey to St. Louis in 1967 with the Blues, died Dec. 18 in Tampa after an 11-month battle with cancer of the shoulder and chest. He was 51. Sid III and his father, Sid Solomon, Jr., bought the Blues in 1966 and sold the team to Ralston Purina in 1977. A St. Louis native, the younger Solomon served as president of the Blues from 1973 to 1977. &#9632;

f0009-01

CANADIAN JUNIORS LOSE KEY PERFORMERS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011421/5479429-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="452" height="628"><figcaption class="caption-body">JAY GREENBERG</figcaption></div>Whomever said records are made to be broken has probably listened to some of the ones done by Mark Laforest&rsquo;s favorite group: Guns and Roses.These guys kind of sound like Mike Keenan, just at the point where he&rsquo;s knocking over the water bottles in the locker room.But this isn&rsquo;t Rolling Stone magazine. The only music reviews you want to read about in this publication are the bells ringing in somebody&rsquo;s head after an impromptu concert conducted by maestro Marty McSorley. And the kinds of records you want to talk about are the ones that begin on page 113 of the NHL Guide. That&rsquo;s right, the ones held by the immortals. The records that, unlike Mario Gosselin these days, were meant to stand.In thumbing through the record book, trying to find out just how close Greg Millen came to immortality with his 184 minutes and 47 seconds of continuous shutout hockey, I was struck by some of the remarkable achievements recorded during the long history of the NHL.It turned out that Millen didn&rsquo;t even get close to the mark recorded by Alex Connell of the Ottawa Senators in 1927-28. Connell was unscored upon for 461 minutes and 29 seconds. This was back in the days when goalies didn&rsquo;t use masks&mdash;or for that matter, teeth.Of course, when one is discussing records, the point invariably comes up how the game has changed and how unfair it it is to compare players from different eras. For instance, Connell set his record in a year where passing the puck forward in the offensive zone was not permitted. Of course, Millen recorded his shutouts against Toronto, Minnesota and the Islanders, three clubs that also generally do not pass the puck forward in the offensive zone.As inconceivable as it may be, some of the following records will probably be broken some day. We just don&rsquo;t know how:Fastest goal from start of game: Five seconds, Bryan Trottier, New York Islanders, at Boston, March 22, 1984.Fastest goal from start of game in which opposition goalie was Ed Dyck: One second, shared by six players.Most points one season by a right winger: 147, Mike Bossy, N.Y. Islanders, 1981-82.Most points, one season, by a right winger playing on a line with Raimo Helminen: Zero, held by too many.Most empty nets missed, one period: 16, Ray Neufeld, Winnipeg Jets, Nov. 16, 1986.Most empty nets missed, one shift: Eight, Ray Neufeld, Winnipeg Jets, March 13, 1987.Most times carried off the ice on a stretcher, game: Four, Claude Lemieux, Montreal Canadiens, Feb. 22, 1987.Most times said, &ldquo;To use a basebail analogy&hellip;&rdquo;: 2,345,763, Ted Sator, Buffalo.Those are achievements that certainly should never be surpassed. A look through the Guinness Book of World Records turned up several more that we believe to be within the reach of NHL players.Most dedicated dentist: Brother Giovanni Battista Orsenigo of Rome, Italy, conserved all the teeth he extracted as a dentist in three enormous boxes during the time he exercised his profession from 1868 to 1904. In 1903, the number was counted and and found to be 2,000,744 teeth, indicating an average of 185 a day.The NHL average, recorded during a fivegame Edmonton homestand from Jan. 24 to Feb. 3, 1986, was 153, extracted by Mark Messier. Messier also holds the Guinness record for the removal of Rich Sutter&rsquo;s teeth: 13.Strongest bite: In August, 1986, Richard Hofman of Lake City, Fla., achieved a bite strength of 975 pounds for approximately two seconds in a research test at the College of Dentistry at the University of Florida. This figure is more than six times normal biting strength.Claude Lemieux&rsquo;s chomp on Jim Peplinski&rsquo;s finger, recorded under the precisely-controlled laboratory conditions of a bench-clearing brawl following Game Four of the 1986 Stanley Cup finals was less than half that of Hofman&rsquo;s. But Peplinksi, Lemieux reported, tasted much better.Longest heart stoppage: Four hours, in the case of a Norwegian fisherman. Jam Egil Refs-dahl, who fell overboard in the icy waters off Bergen on Dec. 7, 1987. He was rescued and made a full recovery.The NHL mark is held by Pittsburgh goaltender Michel Dion who, on Nov. 11, 1981, peered through a screen and saw Doug Wilson winding upfrom30feet. It was previously set onJan. 13, 1975, by former Minnesota winger Pierre Jarry, an occasion when he found himself fewer than two zones away from Dave Schultz. Neither Dion nor Jarry survived.Longest coma: Elaine Esposito of Tarpon Springs, Fla., who never stirred after an appendectomy performed Aug. 6, 1941, and died on Nov. 25, 1978, having been in coma for 37 years and 111 days.At his current pace, Glenn Anderson would break Ms. Esposito&rsquo;s record in March, 1999.Yawning: In 1888, a 15-year-old female patient yawned continuously for a period of five weeks. This feat was considered all the more remarkable since there is no record of her being a St. Louis Blues&rsquo; season-ticket holder.Most travelled man: Parke G. Thompson of Akron, Ohio, has visited 308 countries, including 79 not recognized by the United Nations. Remarkably, Mr. Thompson is one of dwindling number of living persons in North America who was never traded for Brent Ashton.Tap dancing: The fastest rate ever measured for a tap dancer is 1,440 taps per minute by Roy Castle on a BBC-TV &ldquo;Record Breakers&rdquo; program on Jan. 14, 1973. Kings&rsquo; owner Bruce McNall, however, continues to pick up speed each and every time he is asked about problems between Wayne Gretzky and Robbie Ftorek. &#9632;

f0010-01

DENTIST MESSIER HITS RECORD BOOK

<h2>WHALERS</h2>Hit by injuries, the Whalers decided against sending right winger Jody Hull to the Canadian national junior team for the World Junior Championships in Anchorage, Alaska. Whaler general manager Emile Francis, however, did agree to send rookie defenseman Adam Burt to the U.S. juniors for the tournament. &ldquo;It will be a great experience for him,&rdquo; said Francis. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll play in all situations and probably be their top defenseman. He&rsquo;ll be going against the best players in the world his age.&rdquo;&hellip;Rookie right winger Scott Young had a nine-game scoring streak snapped by goalie Grant Fuhr and the Edmonton Oilers in a 4-2 loss Dec. 17&hellip;Center Dean Evason sprained ligaments in his left ankle after being hit by Chicago&rsquo;s Trent Yawney in a 4-3 Blackhawk victory Dec. 14.<h2>BRUINS</h2>Coach Terry O&rsquo;Reilly broke up his goalie rotation by playing Andy Moog in back-to-back games against Edmonton and Quebec Dec. 15 and 17. His reasoning: Moog had never lost to the Nordiques in his career, going 11-0-1. Now it&rsquo;s 11-0-2&hellip;The Bruins suspended right winger Moe Lemay for refusing to report to Maine of the American League, but Lemay said he was hanging around Boston just to talk to GM Harry Sinden about his future with the Bruins. They talked, the suspension was lifted and Lemay reported to Maine. No word on how the talk went.O&rsquo;Reilly refused to talk to the media for two days after the Bruins lost 3-1 to Montreal Dec. 12. On the second day of silence, he scribbled the words, &ldquo;Talent, discipline, intensity,&rdquo; on a yellow notepad, drew a circle around them, then crumpled the paper and threw it away.<h2>NORDIQUES</h2>The Nordiques tied Boston 2-2 in Jean Perron&rsquo;s Quebec coaching debut Dec. 17 and defeated the Bruins at Le Colisee 4-2 Dec. 18&hellip;Assistant coach Guy Lapointe was fired Dec. 13 because of &ldquo;irreconcilable differences&rdquo; between him and coach Ron Lapointe. Despite Ron Lapointe&rsquo;s resignation two days later, Guy Lapointe will not be rehired&hellip;Right winger Anton Stastny scored his 250th career goal against Montreal Dec. 15&hellip;The Nords called up tough guy Jacques Mailhot from Halifax of the AHL Dec. 11. He&rsquo;s expected to fill the role left by Gord Donnelly, who was traded to Winnipeg. In 18 games with Halifax, Mailhot was 3-03 with 122 nenaltv minutes.<h2>CANADIENS</h2>The Canadiens honored play-byplay broadcaster Dick Irvin and former players Buddy O&rsquo;Connor and Guy Lafleur prior to the Dec. 17 game against the New York Rangers. Lafleur, who could not play for the Rangers because of a fractured foot, received a three-minute ovation&hellip; Veteran defenseman Larry Robinson scored his first goal of the season, against Boston in a 3-1 victory Dec. 12&hellip;Brian Hayward was the winning goaltender in the 6-3 triumph over the Rangers, his first home start since losing 5-4 to the Pittsburgh Penguins Oct. 29. Hayward, who plays the majority of road games for the Canadiens, is 2-3-0 at home&hellip;Center Shayne Corson snapped an 11-game goalless streak with his 10th goal of the season against the Bruins&hellip; Defenseman Chris Chelios had four goals and 13 assists in his last 15 games, including two assists against the Rangers&hellip;Defenseman Mike Lalor resumed practising Dec. 17. He had been sidelined since Nov. 1 with a cracked bone in his left leg.<h2>SABRES</h2>A threatened shakeup amounted to one move, the recall of left winger Mikael Andersson from Rochester of the AHL Dec. 13. The Sabres did scramble their lines, but it resulted in a 4-3 loss at Winnipeg Dec. 14 and 2-2 tie the next night in Minnesota&hellip; Right winger Kevin Maguire picked up an assist in the Winnipeg game and then sparked his teammates in Minnesota by engaging North Star right winger Basil McRae in a major fight that saw the two combatants struggle through three zones on the ice&hellip;Right winger Mike Foligno scored the tying goal against Minnesota, his first goal since Nov. 13. He was 9-9-18 in 31 games this season&hellip;Pierre Turgeon equalled his season total of a year ago when he scored his 14th goal of the season at Winnipeg&hellip; Defenseman Doug Bodger had gone 2-8-10 in his last 10 games as of Dec. 19. &#9632;

WHALERS LOAN BURT BUT KEEP HULL

<div class="byline">RY GLENN COLE</div>Russ Courtnail likes the view from the penthouse.After spending the first four-plus seasons of his NHL career with the Toronto Maple Leafs&mdash;who picked him seventh overall in the 1983 entry draft&mdash;Courtnail was dealt to Montreal Nov. 7 for right winger John Kordic and the Canadiens&rsquo; 1989 sixth-round draft choice.For Courtnall, the change has been as marked as night and day. While the hapless Leafs slipped into a 10-game winless streak and an 11-20-2 record. Montreal became the No. 2 team in the NHL with a record of 20-10-6 for 46 points, five behind Calgary (23-55).Courtnall said the difference between the two teams is reflected in more than the standings.&ldquo;I had heard about the dressing room.&rdquo; said Courtnall. &ldquo;I had heard about the way the guys were treated here, but I had never experienced it. When 1 got here, I realized how good it was.&ldquo;Having guys like (Larry) Robinson, (Bob) Gainey and (Ryan) Walter around, it&rsquo;s a lot more serious here,&rdquo; Courtnall said. &ldquo;There is a lot of tradition around here. They know how to win and they pass it on. That&rsquo;s the big difference here and where I played before in Toronto.&rdquo;Courtnall&rsquo;s speed has been a welcome addition to the Canadiens, who have gone 13-3-4 since he joined the lineup. In nine games with the Leafs, he had a goal and assist. With the Canadiens he was scoreless in his first four games, but 5-6-11 in his last 16.However, with the wins and the tradition comes a pressure unmatched in most other NHL cities. Courtnall said he&rsquo;s ready for it.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if being here puts any more demands on you. I think it makes you more prepared for the game because you take things more seriously.&ldquo;You are aware of who you are playing and you know the opposition well because of the videotape. They get you a lot better prepared.&rdquo;An added bonus resulting from Courtnall&rsquo;s acquisition has been his versatility. Courtnall was used as a right winger while Stephane Richer served a 10-game suspension from Nov. 17 to Dec. 7. When Richer returned. Courtnall was back at center, flanked by Richer and left winger Shayne Corson. He returned to the right side when Claude Lemieux was suspended one game after receiving his second stick major of the season. Dec. 15 against Quebec.&ldquo;I played right wing for those games and it was a new thing for me.&rdquo; Courtnall said. &ldquo;I think it was great for me to learn how to play that position. Now that I am back at center, there are a lot more important things to do.&ldquo;I think it is tougher to play center than wing. You&rsquo;re in deep with the defense and center is an important job on this team. Here, all the centers play well in their own zone. I think I am really going to have to concentrate on playing in my own end and doing the job they want me to do.&ldquo;I think the offense will take care of itself. As long as I play well in my own end, then everything will fall into place.&rdquo;<h2>MONTREAL</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 13: Randy Exelby, G, assigned to Sherbrooke (AHL).Dec. 14: Eric Desjardins, D, loaned to Canadian national junior team.Dec. 19: Claude Lemieux, RW, returned from one-game suspension.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Bobby Smith, Guy Carbonneau, Russ Courtnall, Brian Skrudland, Brent Gilchrist, Gilles Thibaudeau.LW&mdash;Mats Naslund, Bob Gainey, Shayne Corson, Mike McPhee, Steve Martinson.RW&mdash;Mike Keane, Ryan Walter, Stephane Richer, Claude Lemieux.LD&mdash;Craig Ludwig, Petr Svoboda, Mike Lalor.RD&mdash;Chris Chelios, Larry Robinson, Rick Green, Jyrki Lumme.G&mdash;Brian Hayward, Patrick Roy.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

COURTNALL ADMIRES THE VIEW

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN JOHNSTON</div>I was a change rumored since Jean Perron was hired June 27 as assistant general manager of the Quebec Nordiques, but no one expected the change to occur this way.Coach Ron Lapointe announced Dec. 15 he was resigning due to a malignant tumor on his right kidney.That evening he coached the team for the last time, a 6-4 win over Montreal. An emotionally-charged Nordique team dedicated the game to Lapointe.It was the second crisis of the season for the Nords, who were nearly bought by an unidentified group until team president Marcel Aubut formed a group of investors which purchased the team Nov. 29.Lapointe&rsquo;s steadiness in the face of his own setback had the normally unflappable Aubut unravelling.&ldquo;Life was unbearable,&rdquo; Aubut said. &ldquo;We couldn&rsquo;t look at him (Lapointe) without shedding tears. And he was the one who was in control. He was telling us to calm down, that what mattered the most was to beat the Canadiens.&rdquo;The day after Lapointe&rsquo;s resignation. Perron was named his replacement. Perron&rsquo;s return to the bench was predicted for months, but gained steam Dec. 13 during Quebec&rsquo;s 4-1 loss to Washington, when fans in Le Colisee began chanting &lsquo;Perron, Perron.&rsquo; With the Nords at 10-20-2 and 3-7-0 in their last 10 games, it seemed only a matter of time before Perron would take over.Lapointe, meanwhile, had been having problems for about three weeks.&ldquo;He was constantly tired, would sleep longer than usual, had urinary tract problems and was losing weight.&rdquo; said Dr. Pierre Beauchemin, the Nords&rsquo; physician.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011396/5479508-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="544" height="1107"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ron Lapointe bid an emotional farewell to the Nords.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;We thought it was the stress that was getting to him, so we finally decided to send him to the hospital for tests. And you now know what we found.&ldquo;Ron showed us all what kind of a fighter he is. He didn&rsquo;t have to go behind the bench against the Canadiens, but he wanted to get one last win.&rdquo;After the game, Lapointe met the media in an emotional press conference. He was teary-eyed when goalie Mario Gosselin gave him the game puck.&ldquo;I wanted to coach the team one last time for personal reasons,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I started my career in this building with a win and I wanted to end with a win. Mario had given me the game puck after my first win here, and he wanted to do the same tonight. I was touched.&ldquo;I will continue to fight this setback in my career. When they told me what was wrong with me. it was as if I had gotten slapped in the face. But I finally had a few good moments today by beating Montreal.&ldquo;I might be repeating myself, but I will fight it. I&rsquo;m not finished yet, far from it. I&rsquo;d like to thank (Nordique GM) Martin Madden and Marcel Aubut for their support.&ldquo;And I&rsquo;m telling you guys&hellip;I&rsquo;m going to be in perfect shape for the playoffs. I&rsquo;m sure the team will make it.&rdquo;Perron, who coached the Montreal Canadiens to the 1985-86 Stanley Cup in the first of his three seasons with them, is not an interim coach.&ldquo;Ron had full powers when he was here and Jean Perron will have the same control,&rdquo; said Madden.Perron accepted the job two hours after Madden offered it to him.&ldquo;I really didn&rsquo;t want to come back as coach this season,&rdquo; said Perron. &ldquo;But on certain occasions, you don&rsquo;t have any choice but to go to the front for the well-being of your organization.&ldquo;I want this team to be proud as Quebecers, a team that will be proud to represent this city. Ron Lapointe left here talking about pride and I agree with him. I want an emotional team. And I want to make the playoffs.&ldquo;Players like the Stastnys, Michel Goulet, Robert Picard and Mario Marois will help me greatly in this new adventure. They will help the youngsters feel more comfortable.&rdquo;The Nordiques, in their first two games under Perron, earned a tie (2-2) and a win (4-2), both against the division-rival Boston Bruins.<h2>QUEBEC</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec 11: Jacques Mailhot, LW, recalled from Halifax (AHL).Dec. 12: Tommy Albelin, D, traded to New Jersey for future considerations.Dec. 15: Ron Lapointe, coach, resigned.Dec. 16: Jean Perron hired as coach.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Peter Stastny, Walt Poddubny, Paul Gillis, Marc Fortier.LW&mdash;Michel Goulet, Jeff Jackson, Mike Hough, Gaetan Duchesne, Dave Latta, Jacques Mailhot.RW&mdash;Anton Stastny, lira Jarvi, Alain Cote, Trevor Stienburg, Dean Hopkins.LD&mdash;Steven Finn. Bobby Dollas, Curtis Leschyshyn, Jeff Brown.RD&mdash;Mario Marois, Jeff Brown, Robert Picard, Randy Moller.G&mdash;Mario Gosselin, Bob Mason<h3>INJURIES</h3>Joe Sakic, C, sprained ankle, indefinite. &#9632;

f0012-01

LAPOINTE ILLNESS PUTS PERRON BACK BEHIND BENCH

<div class="byline">BY JIM KELLEY</div>On the surface, Buffalo Sabre netminder Daren Puppa&rsquo;s numbers didn&rsquo;t look all that good.After 32 games he was 9-7-3, including a 4-7-1 mark since Tom Barrasso&rsquo;s trade to Pittsburgh on Nov. 12 made him the team&rsquo;s undisputed No. 1 goalie.He was yanked early in a 5-4 loss at Los Angeles Nov. 19 just three games after he shut out the New York Islanders 3-0 on the day Barrasso was traded. He was yanked late in a 6-1 loss to Hartford Dec. 2 and again in a 9-0 debacle against the Whalers Dec. 6. He was also pulled Dec. 11 in a 6-4 loss to Washington.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011316/5479539-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="550" height="593"><figcaption class="caption-body">Despite several blowouts, Daren Puppa has played well.</figcaption></div>But given the Sabres&rsquo; status, fourth in the Adams Division with a 12-17-3 record, Puppa&rsquo;s goals-against average was certainly acceptable.He held a 3.60GAA when Barrasso was traded and a respectable 3.63 after a 2-2 tie at Minnesota Dec. 15.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not worried about Daren,&rdquo; said Sabres&rsquo; coach Ted Sator at a time when he had cause to worry about just about everything. &ldquo;On the days we took him out it was simply to have him ready for the next time.&ldquo;Daren certainly hasn&rsquo;t been a problem for us.&rdquo;When the final horn sounded after Buffalo&rsquo;s 4-2 win at Boston Garden Dec. 8, Puppa was mobbed by his teammates.&ldquo;As far as coming right back (after being pulled in Hartford) I didn&rsquo;t feel I played that badly in that game,&rdquo; said Puppa. &ldquo;There were a lot of breakaways we gave up. I knew if I played the same game every night, we&rsquo;d win eight out of 10 times.&rdquo;For Puppa, the key word is &lsquo;we.&rsquo; It is his acceptance of the team concept that endears Puppa to both the coaching staff and teammates.&ldquo;The losing hurts, and you never like to come out, but right now the whole team is struggling,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no sense pointing to any one guy, we&rsquo;ve all been having our problems. You look at the way we play and if we don&rsquo;t play as a team we don&rsquo;t win. I&rsquo;ve had bad games too.&rdquo;Puppa looked respectable in the 9-0 defeat at Hartford, but he took the loss and the resulting embarrassment as hard as the rest of the team. In the win at Boston he was sharp and he performed well in Minnesota.Puppa said the key to the team&rsquo;s success this season is a return to the kind of hard-working and closechecking style that has been its trademark the past few seasons.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to pull together more as a team,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We know we&rsquo;re supposed to and we think we do, but we get away from it from time to time. I think we have to put what&rsquo;s happened to us in the past and go on.&ldquo;Once we get to that point we&rsquo;ll be all right.&rdquo;<h2>BUFFALO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 13: Mikael Andersson, LW, recalled from Rochester (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Pierre Turgeon, Benoit Hogue, Christian Ruuttu, John Tucker.LW&mdash;Scott Arniel, Mike Hartman, Mike Donnelly, Mikael Andersson.RW&mdash;Mike Foligno, Kevin Maguire, Ray Sheppard, Mark Napier, Adam Creighton.LD&mdash;Mike Ramsey, Doug Bodger, Lindy Ruff, Larry Playfair.RD&mdash;Phil Housley, Uwe Krupp, Calle Johansson.G&mdash;Daren Puppa, Jacques Cloutier.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dave Andreychuk, LW, sprained knee, indefinite.Bob Halkldis, D, shoulder, indefinite.Jan Ludvig, RW, sprained knee, Jan. 1.Jeff Parker, C, finger, day-to-day.Joe Reekie, D, knee, indefinite. &#9632;

f0013-01

PUPPA REMAINS SOLID AS SABRES RATTLE

<div class="byline">BY JEFF JACOBS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011372/5479570-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="591" height="1364"><figcaption class="caption-body">POLISH POWER</figcaption></div>In Binghamton, where he played four seasons with the American League&rsquo;s Whalers, he was nicknamed &lsquo;The Pole Between The Pipes.&rsquo;One of the New York tabloids tagged him &lsquo;The Polish Prince.&rsquo;No, we&rsquo;re not talking about singer Bobby Vinton here. This is Hartford Whaler goalie Peter Sidorkiewicz, born in Dabrown Bialostocka and believed to be the only native-born Pole in NHL history.But his roots aren&rsquo;t the only thing special about the 25-year-old rookie.Before being beaten 4-2 by the Edmonton Oilers Dec. 17 at the Civic Center, Sidorkiewicz had built an 8-51 record with a 2.77 goals-against average (fourth in the NHL) and .905 save percentage (second in the NHL). Kingpin Mike Liut, by contrast, owned a 5-10-1 mark with a 3.99 average and .876 save percentage.&ldquo;My dad took quite a chance taking six kids and virtually no money and going to a place with an entirely different culture,&rdquo; said Sidorkiewicz, who was only three years old when he arrived in Canada. &ldquo;But getting out of Poland was no big deal, it wasn&rsquo;t like it is now. My aunt on my father&rsquo;s side was in Canada, so she sponsored us. We took a train to Gdansk, then a boat to Quebec. We went on to Oshawa, and my folks still live there. I consider myself a Canadian.&rdquo;With Liut out for nearly a month after suffering a shoulder injury Nov. 21, Sidorkiewicz built a 6-2 record. And after three successive victories, which included his first career shutout (9-0 against Buffalo) and a 4-1 triumph to snap Calgary&rsquo;s 13-game unbeaten streak. Sidorkiewicz was runner-up to New Jersey&rsquo;s John MacLean for NHL performer of the week for the period ending Dec. 11.&ldquo;Peter has proven he belongs in the NHL,&rdquo; said Whaler coach Larry Pleau. &ldquo;His confidence is there. He believes it. too.&rdquo;Sidorkiewicz, at one point, looked to be buried in the minors. In 1986 and 1987, he was billed as a challenger to since-traded Steve Weeks for the No. 2 job behind Liut. In last year&rsquo;s training camp, he fell flat on his face and he appeared in only one game during the 1987-88 season.&ldquo;I felt so sorry for Peter because he has had worked so hard, but the more we played him (in the 1987-88 preseason) the tougher it got for him,&rdquo; said Whaler general manager Emile Francis. &ldquo;He had a horrible training camp, and it was all because he wasn&rsquo;t relaxed.&ldquo;He came in here this year and it was like night and day. When a guy has gone through what he&rsquo;s gone through and earned his spurs, you like to see good things happen to him.&rdquo;Ironically, much less was made of Sidorkiewicz, acquired from Washington along with center Dean Evason for center David A. Jensen in 1985, before this season&rsquo;s camp. Kay Whitmore, considered the Whalers&rsquo; ace of the future, caught most people&rsquo;s eyes. Yet when Richard Brodeur, acquired last March from Vancouver for Weeks, was phased out, and Whitmore was deemed to need more seasoning in Binghamton, Sidorkiewicz slipped into the NHL.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t nearly as nervous this time,&rdquo; he said.<h2>HARTFORD</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 15: Mark Reeds, RW, recalled from Binghamton (AHL).Dec. 17: Adam Burt, D, loaned to U.S national junior team.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Ron Francis, Ray Ferraro, Carey Wilson, Brent Peterson.LW&mdash;Tom Martin, Dave Tippett, Sylvain Turgeon.RW&mdash;Scott Young, Kevin Dineen, Paul MacDermid, Jody Hull. Mark Reeds.LD&mdash;Grant Jennings, Randy, Ladouceur, Joel Queneville.RD&mdash;Ulf Samuelsson, Dave Babych, Sylvain Cote.G&mdash;Peter Sidorkiewicz, Mike Liut.<h3>INJURIES</h3>John Anderson, LW, groin pull, day-to-day.Dean Evason, C, sprained ligaments in left ankle, day-to-day.Scot Kleinendorst, D, fractured left cheekbone, day-to-day.Torrle Robertson, LW, fractured right leg, indefinite. &#9632;

f0014-01

‘POLISH PRINCE’ A PILLAR OF STRENGTH

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div>When he&rsquo;s at home in Kamloops, B.C., and the spirit moves him, Greg Hawgood goes down to the store and rents a video tape of Bobby Orr&rsquo;s greatest plays.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve watched it over and over again,&rdquo; said the 20-year-old defenseman, who wears No. 38 for the Boston Bruins. &ldquo;He was my idol. I wore No. 4 all my life until now. It&rsquo;s just great to be playing in the same place as he played.&rdquo;It was even greater Dec. I7, when he scored both goals in a 2-2 tie with Quebec. After the Quebec goals, someone commented his skating style resembled that of Orr.&ldquo;Shooting style, too,&rdquo; someone else suggested, noting Hawgood had fired 22 shots on goal in 10 games since he was recalled from Boston&rsquo;s American League affiliate in Maine. After four of his shots had gone in the net, the Bruin front office told him to find an apartment.&ldquo;His hockey sense is showing,&rdquo; said coach Terry O&rsquo;Reilly. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s really showing a lot of savvy out there for a young man.&rdquo;O&rsquo;Reilly was particularly impressid by Hawgood&rsquo;s goal that tied Quebec at 2-2 with 4:06 to play.&ldquo;He could see that Randy (Burridge) was starting to win the battle dong the boards,&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Reilly, &ldquo;so he stepped in and was in perfect position. But if we had lost the battle, he would have been in good position to get back as well. That&rsquo;s hockey sense.&rdquo;The Bruins had a pretty good idea what they were getting when they made Hawgood their ninth choice, 202nd overall, in the 1986entry draft.Already he had scored 59 goals and 184 points in two seasons with Kamloops of the Western League. In the two junior seasons after he was drafted, he had 78 goals and 256 points, all while playing defense. He capped last season&mdash;48-85-133 in 63 games&mdash;by being named Canadian junior defenseman of the year.The rap on Hawgood has always been his size. He stands only 5-foot-8 and weighs 180 pounds.&ldquo;All my life people have been telling me I&rsquo;m too small,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When I was six I was too small to play with the eight-year-olds. In junior I was drafted late because I was too small. Then people told me I was too small to play in the NHL. I&rsquo;m not going to kill anyone in the comers and I&rsquo;m not going to make the big hits at mid-ice. But I&rsquo;m not giving away a lot in weight, just height. And I have a few tricks to handle bigger people.&rdquo;For most of his first 10 games with the Bruins. Hawgood had been paired with the 6-foot-3, 205-pound Allen Pedersen, who had scored one goal in 180 NHL games. They call themselves David and Goliath and they complement each other nicely.&ldquo;I let him do all the wheeling,&rdquo; said Pedersen, a stay-at-home defenseman who tries not to venture too far on the other side of the red line.<h2>BOSTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 11: Ray Podloski, C, recalled from Maine (AHL).Dec. 12: Moe Lemay, LW, suspended by team after refusing to report to Maine, Nevin Markwart, LW, assigned to Maine.Dec. 14: Lemay reports to Maine, suspension lifted.Dec. 18: Alain Cote, D, Paul Guay, RW, recalled from Maine.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Ken Linseman, Steve Kasper, Bob Sweeney, Ray Podloski.LW&mdash;Bob Joyce, Randy Burridge, Jay Miller, John Carter.RW&mdash;Cam Neely, Keith Crowder, Greg Johnston, Paul Guay.LD&mdash;Glen Wesley, Stephane Quintal, Alain Cote.RD&mdash;Michael Thelven, Greg Hawgood, Garry Galley.G&mdash;Reggie Lemelin, Andy Moog.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Ray Bourque, D, left knee ligament sprain, indefinite.Andy Brickley, LW, groin strain, day-to-day.Craig Janney, C, right groin pull, indefinite,David Jensen, C, left shoulder surgery, Jan. 8.Gord Kluzak D, left knee arthroscope, indefinite.Billy O&rsquo;Dwyer, C, left knee inflammation, indefinite.Allen Pedersen, D, abdominal muscle pull, day-to-day.Lyndon Byers, RW, right shoulder, day-to-day. &#9632;

STYLE CASTS HAWGOOD OPPOSITE ORR

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011282/5479625-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="473" height="633"><figcaption class="caption-body">STAN FISCHLER</figcaption></div>This vignette had to be seen to be believed and I wouldn&rsquo;t have thought it possible if I hadn&rsquo;t viewed it myself.Taking the face-off at one side of the circle was Himself, Wayne Gretzky. Opposite Gretzky, bent ankles and all, stood Gilberto Garcia, a resident of New York&rsquo;s Spanish Harlem, where crack is as prevalent on the streets as abandoned tenements.More improbable was the venue. The puck was dropped on an outdoor rink in the Harlem sector of Central Park. If that wasn&rsquo;t bizarre, consider the time: it was Sunday morning Dec. 11. not many hours after Gretzky&rsquo;s Kings won a gruelling 4-3 game against the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum.If there could be a topper to that, picture the entire L.A. lineup adorned in their black uniforms, skimming across the frigid, uncovered glacier with Fifth Avenue as a backdrop. Onlookers braved frostbite, while the pros scrimmaged on the coldest day of the season at a time when they could have been comfortably turning over in their hotel beds.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re here to help,&rdquo; said The Great One after bobbing and weaving his crafty way through a dozen black and Puerto Rican kids who normally would be in a gym heaving basketballs. &ldquo;They remind me of me when I started skating on the backyard rink in Brantford.&rdquo;Well, not quite. Talk about underprivileged, the Gilberto Garcias and George Riveras are it. They are among the least likely lads you&rsquo;d ever find in a hockey program where skates go for $80 a pair and a uniform costs more than a kid&rsquo;s father makes in a week&mdash;assuming his father is around and working.Which is where Pat Hickey and Dave Wilk come in. Hickey you may remember as a quality big-leaguer with the New York Rangers who quit as a Wall Street stock broker last spring to become general manager of the American League&rsquo;s New Haven Nighthawks. Wilk is simply a New York hockey nut who implicitly believes inner city kids deserve a shot at shinny. Together they combined with The Upward Fund to launch a program called Ice Hockey In Harlem, which provides free equipment, instruction and inspiration to low-income city kids.Hickey&rsquo;s commitment is something else. He has his hands full trying to run an AHL team in Connecticut, yet still finds time to hustle to Harlem every week to teach Pablo Catala and Pedro Marquez how to stickhandle like Mario Lemieux and Steve Yzerman.&ldquo;Given a chance,&rdquo; said Hickey, &ldquo;these boys can develop hockey skills the way Canadian boys do. Interest has grown tremendously in just two years.&rdquo;Hickey figured interest would really soar if he could persuade Gretzky to kick off Ice Hockey In Harlem&rsquo;s 1988-89 season by bringing himself and teammates to a morning workout. The trick was convincing L.A. owner Bruce McNall.&ldquo;It was no trick at all,&rdquo; chuckled McNall, leaning on the Central Park sideboards. &ldquo;We&rsquo;retrying to promote hockey in the (United) States the way it&rsquo;s never been promoted before. Getting down to the grassroots like this is what it&rsquo;s all about.&rdquo;That&rsquo;s easy for McNall to say but the show would have been a bomb had his players not given a damn. There were reports the night before that Gretzky would not show up. Others said Wilk and Hickey would be lucky if a handful of Kings made it to Lasker Rink. Those who did would be in such a foul mood the date would be a disaster.But when the Kings hit the ice every single one of them was there. As they took their first strides under the wintry sun, they suddenly became kids again.&ldquo;How d&rsquo;ya like my new helmet,&rdquo; shouted Bernie Nicholls, tugging a wool hat over his ears. Tom Laidlaw noticed a friend and skated to the side boards. &ldquo;This is the first time I&rsquo;ve been on an outdoor rink since I was 11.&rdquo;As always, the crowd came to see Gretzky and what they saw was an unpretentious 27-year-old who seemed to be reliving his childhood, whether it was playing &lsquo;keep the puck,&rsquo; the Kings&rsquo; first drill, or doing one-on-ones with the goaltenders.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m wearing the same hat I wore in Brantford,&rdquo; Gretzky grinned, pointing to the earband under his helmet.Thanks to Gretzky and teammates, Hockey In Harlem is a small step towards providing a new source of hockey talent. When a kid like Manny De La Cruz has Gretzky, not a seven-footer like Patrick Ewing of the NBA Knicks, on his mind, you know hockey has a chance with inner city kids, not just in New York but all over.&ldquo;You guys are the NHL stars of the future.&rdquo; Wayne said to the kids.&ldquo;Gretzky told me I was good,&rdquo; De La Cruz glowed after the workout. &ldquo;He told me I had a chance to become a great hockey player. He said when he was small, his dream was to become a hockey player, and he stuck with it. He gave me so much hope.&rdquo;When I mentioned to Gretzky that this skate was an extraordinarily superb gesture, he replied in a manner proving he&rsquo;s hockey&rsquo;s all-time ambassador of goodwill and promotion.&ldquo;We tend to take a lot of our good fortune for granted,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;so it&rsquo;s nice to give something back in this small way.&rdquo;Actually, there was nothing small about it. The media horde was astonishing to say the least, including a crew that jetted down from Toronto for Hockey Night In Canada.In time, the Kings began to understand what a wonderful thing they had done and how much it was appreciated by everyone there, mostly because the New Yorkers sensed the pros were genuinely enjoying themselves.The beautiful scene ended all too soon for New York Daily News columnist Harvey Araton. Before leaving, he said it best: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s too bad that all the critics who write nothing but bad (stories) about hockey weren&rsquo;t here today.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0015-01

THE KINGS WIN OVER SOME NEW SUBJECTS

<h2>FLYERS</h2>Captain Dave Poulin had to leave the 4-1 victory over Washington Dec. 15 after the first period, due to an irregular heartbeat. He was sent home as a precautionary measure, and further tests prove there was no problem. Two nights later Poulin was back in the lineup and celebrated his 30th birthday by scoring his first goal since Oct. 29 in a 7-1 win at Toronto Dec. 17. He added another goal ina5-l win the next night against Winnipeg. According to Poulin and his medical advisors, there is no major problem. The exaggerated heartbeat is caused by a heart valve which opens slightly more than it should. If the condition persists, Poulin might need to take a medication to rectify it, but as of now he needs none.At the same point last season (35 games) the Flyers&rsquo; power play ranked last in the NHL at just under 14-percent efficiency. The big difference was the return of Tim Kerr, who had 15 power-play goals&hellip;Kerr&rsquo;s goal against the Leafs was the 282nd of this career, moving him past Reggie Leach and into fifth place on the Flyers&rsquo; all-time goal scoring list.<h2>PENGUINS</h2>The Penguins planned to try center Scott Bjugstad, acquired from Minnesota with defenseman Gord Dineen Dec. 17, on right wing, where Rob Brown was their only consistent scoring threat. In that deal, the Penguins gave Minnesota Ville Siren, a solid all-around defenseman, and Steve Gotaas, an accomplished checking center. Bjugstad played four games for the North Stars&rsquo; Kalamazoo farm team in the International League and went to Switzerland to play for the Geneva Servette. When he returned to Minneapolis in December, he was suspended by the North Stars. Dineen was playing in Kalamazoo while Gotaas was playing for the Penguins&rsquo; farm club in Muskegon of the IHL&hellip;Mario Lemieux became the Penguins&rsquo; all-time assist leader Dec. 15, when he had four in an 8-2 win on Long Island. That gave Lemieux 351&mdash;two more than former recordholder Syl Apps&mdash;in 321 NHL games.The Penguins accumulated 18 game misconducts in their first 32 games, for offenses ranging from spearing to swearing. Goalie Tom Barrasso, centers Dave Hannan and Dan Quinn, left wingers Troy Loney and Randy Cunneyworth and defenseman Jim Johnson had two each, although one of Barrasso&rsquo;s came while he was with Buffalo.<h2>ISLANDERS</h2>The sight in rookie defenseman Dean Chynoweth&rsquo;s left eye was permanently affected by Flyer Rick Tocchet&rsquo;s punch or eye gouge (depending on who tells the tale) Oct. 27. Chynoweth was fitted for a contact lens to wear during games because the vision in his left eye went from 20-15 to 20-25 or 20-30. &ldquo;They say I&rsquo;m nearsighted,&rdquo; said Chynoweth, who holds no grudge because he doesn&rsquo;t think Tocchet injured him intentionally&hellip; Right winger Patrick Flatley scored a goal and an assist in two games for Springfield of the American League, his first action since blowing out his right knee on Feb. 2, 1988. Flatley reported no problems with his surgically reconstructed knee.<h2>CAPITALS</h2>Center Mike Ridley and right winger Geoff Courtnail both reached the career 100-goal figure with two-goal efforts in a 6-3 victory over Winnipeg Dec. 17. Ridley, who scored a careerbest 28 goals last year, had 20 in 33 games this season&hellip;Clint Malarchuk stopped the Jets&rsquo; Dale Hawerchuk on a penalty shot in the same game. Referee Terry Gregson awarded the penalty shot because Malarchuk, caught out of his net by a crazy bounce off Capital Centre&rsquo;s new boards, threw his stick at the puck.<h2>RANGERS</h2>When Denver center Mark Janssens suffered a fractured skull during a fight in an International League game in Salt Lake City on Dec. 11, the Rangers&rsquo; timetable for his development went out the window. &ldquo;The way Mark was progressing,&rdquo; Ranger GM Phil Esposito said on Dec. 12, &ldquo;he would have been up with us by the end of January, at the latest. Now, the important thing is that he take at easy&mdash;he is definitely out for the season&mdash;and recover completely.&rdquo;Despite his 39 deals, Esposito doesn&rsquo;t enjoy the human elements of making trades and it was obvious he felt sad when he had to tell Czechoslovakian winger Igor Liba he had been traded to Los Angeles for Dean Kennedy on Dec. 12. &ldquo;Igor was upset. He didn&rsquo;t understand and he was disappointed. He said, &lsquo;I no like.&rsquo; I told him that it was going to be 80 degrees where he was going and that he was going to play with Wayne Gretzky, but I don&rsquo;t think it registered.&rdquo;<h2>DEVILS</h2>It was more than a year between NHL games for George McPhee, but the injury-plagued LW finally made it back to the Devils after a long battle with a severe groin pull. Recalled from the AHL&rsquo;s Utica Devils by GM Lou Lamoriello. McPhee collected an assist against the Islanders on Dec. 17. The entire game I was just thinking about my groin on every shift,&rdquo; said McPhee, who last played an NHL game Nov. 20, 1987, and was able to play in only two minor league games before his recall. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s okay, although it&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;m going to have to live with for a while.&rdquo; &#9632;

HEART PROBLEM HAMPERS POULIN

<div class="byline">BY BOB FACHET</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011164/5479680-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Washington Capital coach Bryan Murray won his 300th regularseason game Dec. 17 and was named first star.</figcaption></div>Twelve days after his 46th birthday and eight days before Christmas, coach Bryan Murray received a present from his Washington Capitals: Victory No. 300.Murray became the 17th NHL coach to reach that milestone when the Capitals defeated the Winnipeg Jets 6-3 on Dec. 17 at Capital Centre.Murray was presented the game puck by his players and was chosen No. I star of the game.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very nice, very thoughtful and I didn&rsquo;t even score a goal,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;This isn&rsquo;t something I looked forward to or dreamed about when I was hired here (in 1981). It speaks well of what&rsquo;s happened to the team and organization as a whole.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve looked at the list of coaches who have won 300 and there are some big names there. Most have won Stanley Cups and I&rsquo;d like to do that too. But this says a lot for the Washington Capitals, not Bryan Murray. There have been some great players here and it&rsquo;s one hell of an organization.&ldquo;We have a way to play, a style of play and a certain discipline that has helped accomplish what we have and I say helped because we have some pretty talented guys like Mike Gartner and Rod Langway, to name a couple, who have actually done the job for us on the ice.&rdquo;Since he was hired by owner Abe Pollin to take over for the fired Gary Green in 1981, Murray posted a record of 300-206-73, a success ratio of .581. If Murray is behind the bench for every game until the Capitals play the New York Rangers Feb. 1, he will become only the seventh person to have coached 600 NHL games.Still, as Murray noted, he has yet to win a Stanley Cup or even get out of the Patrick Division at playoff time. So despite his remarkable regularseason record, there were those who wondered whether his contract would be renewed if the Capitals stumble once again in April.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no question that the thing I&rsquo;d like to see happen is to win come playoff time,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;I want the Washington Capitals to get recognition for being a top team. Winning as many of our 80 games as we do year after year is pretty darn good, but mostly what people remember is: &lsquo;Did he win the Stanley Cup?&rsquo; I want us to win it.&rdquo;It was only a month ago that team president Dick Patrick and general manager David Poile were busy denying rumors that Murray was about to be axed. Such rumors invariably surface in October, as the Capitalscrawl out of the starting gate, and die in November, when they charge into contention.That&rsquo;s what happened this season, with a 2-6 start virtually forgotten in the euphoria of an 11-4-2 run from mid-November to mid-December.Murray confessed that on two occasions he actually was concerned about his job. The first time was in 1983, when the team started 0-7 before winning five straight and eventually rolling up 101 points. The other was in 1986, when the Capitals dropped the divisional final to Ted Sator&rsquo;s sub 500. New York Rangers.&ldquo;The first couple of years, we weren&rsquo;t good enough,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;But a couple of years we certainly could have and should have gone beyond where we did. The failures in April have been some of the low points for me.&rdquo;April has provided some high points, too, like the divisional semifinal victories over the Philadelphia Flyers in 1984 (3-0) and 1988 (4-3).&ldquo;That 3-0 sweep was kind of nice and it was important at the time,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;Last year. Dale Hunter&rsquo;s overtime goal (against Philadelphia in game seven of the Capitals&rsquo; Patrick Division semi-final series) was a high time for us and it was very important, too, because we&rsquo;d had some struggles at the end of the year.&rdquo;<h2>WASHINGTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Bengt Gustafsson, Dale Hunter, Mike Ridley, Bob Gould.LW&mdash;Michal Pivonka, Geoff Courtnall, Kelly Miller, Lou Franceschetti.RW&mdash;Mike Gartner, Dave Christian, Steve Leach, Peter Sundstrom, John Druce.LD&mdash;Scott Stevens, Rod Langway, Grant Ledyard.RD&mdash;Larry Murphy, Kevin Hatcher, Neil Sheehy.G&mdash;Pete Peeters, Clint Malarchuk.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

f0016-01

MURRAY WINS 300TH, SETS SIGHTS ON SUCCESSFUL PLAYOFFS

<div class="byline">BY AL MORGANTI</div>According to right winger Rick Tocchet, when the fifth-place Philadelphia Flyers were 9-16-1 and on a 1-8-1 skid towards the bottom of the Patrick Division, the players made a Yuletide promise to themselves.&ldquo;We wanted to be at .500 by Christmas,&rdquo; said Tocchet. &ldquo;It was a long way to go, but we thought we could get there. We knew we were a good club, and when we made that trade (acquiring center Mike Bullard from St. Louis for center Peter Zezel Nov. 29), we really started moving.&rdquo;Bullard was placed on a line between Tocchet and left winger Brian Propp. Heading into a Dec. 22 game against the New York Islanders, the Flyers were in the midst of a five-game winning streak which raised their record to 1717-2.&ldquo;To tell you the truth, we&rsquo;re getting greedy,&rdquo; said Tocchet, who scored a total of five goals in back-to-back victories over Toronto (7-1 Dec. 17) and Winnipeg (5-1 Dec. 18). &ldquo;Now we&rsquo;re thinking about getting over .500 by Christmas and then getting into first place in the division.&rdquo;Tockhet was a key in the five-game winning streak, the Flyers&rsquo; longest unbeaten streak this season. He scored his second hat trick of the season at Toronto as the Flyers recorded their biggest margin of victory at Maple Leaf Gardens. He scored his 100th and 101 st career goals in the Winnipeg game.The victory over Toronto was made easier with three power-play goals in four chances. Overall, the Flyer power play was ranked second in the NHL with a 27.3 per-cent efficiency rating. Winnipeg led at 27.8.During a seven-game stretch, the Flyer power play was 14-for-33, for a scorching 42 per cent efficiency rating.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been rather remarkable,&rdquo; said Flyer coach Paul Holmgren, &ldquo;especially because (defenseman) Mark Howe has been out of the lineup. He&rsquo;s usually the guy who gets things going for us, but now with the Bullard line playing so well&hellip;&rdquo;Howe missed the first four games of the winning streak due to a pulled groin muscle. Bullard has made a major impact.It certainly isn&rsquo;t coincidence the Flyers were 8-1-1 in their first 10 games after Bullard&rsquo;s arrival. He scored at least one point in nine of those games. He added his 15th point (5-10) in 10 games as a Flyer with an assist against the Jets. On the season his totals were 9-22-31.But it was Tocchet and goalie Ron Hextall who carried the team in the five-game streak. The Flyers outscored their opposition 25-10, as Hextall started every game, including a brilliant 32-save performance in a 4-1 victory over the Washington Capitals Dec. 15 at the Spectrum.&ldquo;There were times when some people were doubting me, but I never doubted myself, and I never will,&rdquo; said Hextall after that victory. &ldquo;I could feel myself getting better, and I never lost confidence in myself.&rdquo;Hextall gave up only one goal in consecutive victories over the Caps, Leafs and Jets, giving him the best three-game showing for a Flyer goalie since the late Pelle Lindbergh pulled off a similar feat during the 1984-85 season.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s back big-time,&rdquo; said Flyer right winger Tim Kerr, &ldquo;and that rubs off on everybody.&rdquo;<h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 16: Kerry Huffman, D, Don Nachbaur, C, assigned to Hershey (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mike Bullard, Pelle Eklund, Dave Poulin, Ron Sutter.LW&mdash;Brian Propp, Derrick Smith, Murray Craven, Doug Sulliman, Craig Berube.RW&mdash;Rick Tocchet, Tim Kerr, Scott Mellanby, Dave Brown.LD&mdash;Mark Howe, Terry Carkner, Jay Wells, Moe Mantha.RD&mdash;Kjell Samuelsson, Jeff Chychrun, Gord Murphy.G&mdash;Ron Hextall, Mark Laforest.<h3>INJURIES</h3>llkka Sinisalo, RW, sprained ankle, day-to-day. &#9632;

TOCCHET HOLDS FLYERS TO PROMISE

<div class="byline">BY WALT MacPEEK</div>How desperate have the New York Rangers been for a center who can rise above mediocrity?So desperate that coach Michel Bergeron brought his best defenseman, James Patrick, off the injury list to play center for one period on Dec. 17 at Montreal, before moving him back to more familiar territory.&ldquo;It is a very difficult time to be experimenting,&rdquo; Bergeron admitted following a 6-3 loss to the Canadiens, &ldquo;but I&rsquo;m concerned about our club in the middle. I don&rsquo;t think, though, that we&rsquo;ll use James at center too much; he&rsquo;s our best defenseman.&rdquo;As the Rangers watched Philadelphia, Washington and New Jersey gain ground on them in the Patrick Division standings, weaknesses in the middle were a familiar theme.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re losing 70 per cent, sometimes 80 per cent of the face-offs,&rdquo; Bergeron complained. &ldquo;Especially against the top clubs that handle the puck well, we find ourselves having to chase the puck all night. It&rsquo;s a big disadvantage.&rdquo;Bergeron said the generally uneven performances of centers Brian Lawton (7-10-17 in 29 games as a Ranger), Kelly Kisio (8-16-24 in 23 games), Lucien DeBlois (2-11-13 in 26), Jason Lafreniere (2-7-9 in 14), and Marcel Dionne (6-12-18 in 23) were difficult to anticipate.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got some guys,&rdquo; the coach said, apparently referring to Lawton and Lafreniere, &ldquo;who aren&rsquo;t taking advantage of the opportunity (to earn a spot on the roster) that is here. They&rsquo;re up and down, up and down. We need more consistency from them.&rdquo;In Montreal, Bergeron questioned some players&rsquo; desire.&ldquo;We gave away three goals,&rdquo; he complained, &ldquo;just gave them away in our end. I don&rsquo;t know if it&rsquo;s because we don&rsquo;t want the puck, or some guys are afraid to play.&rdquo;Bergeron hinted that trades or demotions could be in the works if the problem isn&rsquo;t rectified soon.&ldquo;I know it is Christmas,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but we need to do something.&rdquo;Although Bergeron credited GM Phil Esposito with doing a good patch job on defense (adding Mark Hardy from Minnesota and Dean Kennedy from Los Angeles), he seemed to hope his soon-to-be surplus on defense might be turned into a centerman.&ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t have speed then, usually, you at least have some size-&hellip;but we don&rsquo;t have much of either one in the middle,&rdquo; Bergeron added.&ldquo;Tony Granato, a rookie, is supposed to be a winger who is just helping at center. But, look, he is my best center lately.&rdquo;Granato, who still plays right wing on occasion, was moved to center on an apparent full-time basis Dec. 8against Hartford. In 33 games at both positions this season, he was 17-8-25.Dionne, a sometime right winger and power-play specialist, no longer was a regular. The coach didn&rsquo;t seem to know quite what to do with the 37-year-old future Hall-of-Famer.<h2>N.Y. RANGERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 12: Dean Kennedy, D, and Denis Larocque, D, acquired from Los Angeles in exchange for Igor Liba, LW, Michael Boyce, D, and Todd Elik, C, Larocque assigned to Denver (IHL).Dec. 14: Jason Lafreniere, C, and Rudy Poeschek, D-RW, assigned to Denver.Dec. 17: Lafreniere and Poeschek recalled from Denver.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Tony Granato, Brian Lawton, Jason Lafreniere, Lucien DeBlois, Marcel Dionne.LW&mdash;-Brian Mullen, John Ogrodnick, Ulf Dahlen, Don Maloney.RW&mdash;Tomas Sandstrom, Jan Erlxon, Chris Nilan, Rudy Poeschek.LD&mdash;Michel Petit, Ron Greschner, Mark Hardy, Norm Maciver.RD&mdash;James Patrick, David Shaw, Dean Kennedy.G&mdash;John Vanbiesbrouck, Bob Froese.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Paul Cyr, LW, surgery on right knee, out for season.Guy Lafleur, RW, fractured bone in left foot, indefinite.Brian Leetch, D, fractured bone in left foot, indefinite.Normand Rochefort, D, arthroscopic surgery on right knee, indefinite. &#9632;

RANGERS TEAM DOUGHNUT: BIG HOLE AT CENTER

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div>It seemed Tommy Albelin&rsquo;s career in the NHL had reached a dead end after a season and a half. But a Dec. 12 trade from the Quebec Nordiques to the New Jersey Devils has given the 24-year-old Swedish defenseman new direction.The Devils gave up undisclosed future considerations for Albelin, who had fallen out of favor with Quebec coach Ron Lapointe.Joining a team in need of an offensive-minded defenseman, Albelin assisted on seven goals in his first four New Jersey games. Only right winger John MacLean, with 12 goals in his last seven games, was more important to New Jersey&rsquo;s offense during the team&rsquo;s 5-1-1 surge.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m quite impressed,&rdquo; said coach Jim Schoenfeld. &ldquo;He seems to be getting better with each game. He has good composure with the puck, along with being a great skater and passer. If it continues, it will have been a great pickup for us.&rdquo;While welcoming the move, even Albelin was taken aback at how easily he fit in.&ldquo;You can say that I am a little surprised at how well it&rsquo;s gone,&rdquo; said Albelin. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m playing a lot here. I&rsquo;m even killing penalties and playing on the power play. I haven&rsquo;t done that in a long time. I like it. You&rsquo;re a part of everything.&ldquo;It was sort of a dead end inQuebec. I didn&rsquo;t get to play much. As soon as I made a mistake I was benched. It&rsquo;s hard to play that way. You become afraid to do anything with the puck. Your confidence goes down and it snowballs.&rdquo;The Nords drafted Albelin with their seventh choice, 152nd overall, in the 1983 entry draft. His first season was last year, after coming over from Djurgardens in Sweden. In 60 games with Quebec, he was 3-23-26. This season he was 2-4-6 in 14 games with the Nords.Skeptics questioned Albelin&rsquo;s ability to adjust to the physical Patrick Division, but the 6-foot-1,198-pound Albelin is big enough to take the pounding.Albelin said he prefers the offensive game, which is why his Quebec stay was short.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think he (Lapointe) liked European-style players,&rdquo; said Albelin. &ldquo;In Quebec it was dump it in from the red line. I thought I was a good player from the red line in.&rdquo;While Albelin has been injecting offense from the blue line. MacLean has been finishing it off around the net.In his fifth NHL season, the 24-year-old was making a strong bid for NHL player of the month honors for December. Heading into the Dec. 21 game at Winnipeg, MacLean had three hat tricks in his last five games.Adding drama to his production, MacLean returned to Chicago Stadium Dec. 18 for the first time since April 3 when he scored the overtime goal that put the Devils into the Stanley Cup playoffs. Once again MacLean seized the moment, scoring the tying and winning goals as New Jersey won 5-3.<h2>NEW JERSEY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 12: Acquired Tommy Albelin, D, from Quebec for future considerations.Dec. 16: George McPhee, LW, and Chris Terreri, G, recalled from Utica (AHL). Doug Brown. RW, assigned to Utica.Dec. 18: Chris Terreri, G, assigned to Utica.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Aaron Broten, Claude Loiselle, Mark Johnson, Anders Cartsson, Brendan Shanahan.LW&mdash;-Kirk Muller, Patrik Sundstrom, Pat Conacher, Perry Anderson, George McPhee.RW&mdash;Pat Verbeek, John MacLean, David Maley, Jim Korn.LD&mdash;Ken Daneyko, Randy Velischek, Tommy Albelin.RD&mdash;Joe Cirella, Tom Kurvers, Jamie Huscroft, Jack O&rsquo;Callahan.G&mdash;Sean Burke, Bob Sauve.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Bruce Driver, D, broken right leg, indefinite.Steve Rooney, LW, dislocated right shoulder, indefinite.Craig Wolanin, D, arthroscopic surgery on right knee, indefinite. &#9632;

ALBELIN ASSISTS DEVILS IMMEDIATELY

<div class="byline">BY BARRY MEISEL</div>For the first time in 28 days, the New York Islanders won a hockey game.For the second time in nearly 16 years, it was goalie Billy Smith who helped put an end to a suffering team&rsquo;s paralyzing 12-game losing streak.&ldquo;The aggravation&rsquo;s over,&rdquo; said Smith after stopping 25 shots in the Islanders&rsquo; 5-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils at Nassau Coliseum Dec. 17. The last time the Islanders won before the New Jersey game was a 6-3 win over Pittsburgh Nov. 18.&ldquo;What a relief,&rdquo; Jeff Norton said.&ldquo;Oh, it feels so good,&rdquo; Mikko Makela added.When Al Arbour replaced Terry Simpson as head coach on Dec. 7. with the Isles on an eight-game losing streak, nobody expected the team would approach the 1972-73 expansion edition&rsquo;s symbol of futility&mdash;12 straight losses.Smith helped end that streak on Jan. 18, 1973 with a 9-7 victory at Boston Garden.Arbour lost his first three games by one goal and his fourth by six, an 8-2 blowout at home to Pittsburgh Dec. 15. That game typified the Islanders&rsquo; plague. They dominated the first period, but gave away two goals and fell behind 3-2 after one. They outshot the Penguins 51-24, but fell victim to Mario Lemieux and Paul Coffey&mdash;each had a goal and four assists&mdash;and red-hot goalie Tom Barrasso, who kicked out 49 shots.&ldquo;I guess what can go wrong will go wrong,&rdquo; Arbour said. &ldquo;And it&rsquo;s going wrong.&rdquo;But against the Devils, it finally went right. David Volek and Brent Sutter had a goal and assist each, Raimo Helminen assisted on each of the Islanders&rsquo; three power-play goals and the penalty-killers foiled all six New Jersey power plays. Bryan Trottier scored his first goal in eight games and Makela added his third since Arbour took over.&ldquo;Now maybe the whole team can have a little fun,&rdquo; said Makela. who took heat from the Coliseum fans for criticizing their support during the losing streak. &ldquo;Now the guys can look forward to the next game, to doing what we know we can do.&rdquo;The victory was Smith&rsquo;s second of the season and first since Oct. 22. It was the 595th of Arbour&rsquo;s coaching career.&ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t relax until that horn went.&rdquo; Arbour said, referring to the final faceoff with five seconds left. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t relax even with two seconds left. You never know what could happen. Maybe they had a field-goal kicker.&rdquo;Although the music from the stereo system blared in the dressing room for the first time in a month. Randy Wood offered a few sobering words of caution with one look at the standings. The win only pulled the 8-22-2 Islanders to within 11 points of the fifth-place Devils. The fourth-place Flyers remained 16 points away. A 12-game winning streak wouldn&rsquo;t even pull the Isles back to .500.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not over yet,&rdquo; Wood said. &ldquo;We have 48 games left. We&rsquo;ve got a lot of games to make up.&rdquo;<h2>N.Y. ISLES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 14: Mike Walsh, RW, assigned to Springfield (AHL).Dec. 15: Walsh recalled from Springfield, Patrick Flatley, RW, assigned to Springfield for conditioning purposes.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Brent Sutter, Pat LaFontaine, Bryan Trottier, Raimo Helminen.LW&mdash;David Volek, Greg Gilbert, Randy Wood, Rich Kromm.RW&mdash;Mikko Makela, Brad Dalgarno, Mick Vukota, Mike Walsh.LD&mdash;Rich Pilon, Gary Nylund, Marc Bergevin, Jeff Norton.RD&mdash;Tomas Jonsson, Reed Larson, Ken Morrow.G&mdash;Kelly Hrudey, Billy Smith.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dean Chynoweth, D, shin splints, day-to-day.Gerald Diduck, D, hand, day-to-day.Alan Kerr, RW, knee, Dec. 31.Derek King, LW, shoulder, day-to-day.Brad Lauer, LW, kneecap, Jan. 3.Mike Stevens, LW, shoulder, Jan. 3. &#9632;

VICTORY A BIG RELIEF FOR ISLES

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01983/5479845-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="481" height="647"><figcaption class="caption-body">BARRY MEISEL</figcaption></div>It&rsquo;s been a two-year, five-month odyssey filled with 39 trades (at last count), three coaching crises and renaissance projects named Marcel Dionne and Guy Lafleur. But in the time it takes for more than a few NHL general managers to pull the trigger on a single deal, New York Ranger GM Phil Esposito has transformed a motley franchise into one sitting atop the Patrick Division.Laugh at him for all the trades he&rsquo;s made. Hate him for his flamboyant style. Then take a look at where the New York Rangers are today. Take a look at the Rangers&rsquo; defense and goaltending before you decide if the collection of players he inherited on July 14, 1986 isn&rsquo;t halfway to the Stanley Cup he promised the team&rsquo;s long-suffering fans by 1991.&ldquo;When I took this job I told my bosses that in five years we&rsquo;ll be as competitive as any team in the league,&rdquo; said Esposito. &ldquo;I told them we&rsquo;d be as competitive as any team or they wouldn&rsquo;t have to fire me. I&rsquo;ll quit.&rdquo;Last month his three-year contract was extended through the 1989-90 season, assuring him of the job for four of the five years he said he&rsquo;d need. He&rsquo;s not quitting so fast. As long as there&rsquo;s a GM whose telephone works, so will Trader Phil.Okay, okay, so the Rangers probably aren&rsquo;t going to win their first Cup since 1940 this May. But don&rsquo;t blame 48 years on Espo. He&rsquo;s only 0-for-two seasons, same as 19 other GMs not named Glen Sather. There aren&rsquo;t too many other teams in this league&mdash;Calgary, Los Angeles, Edmonton, Montreal and Detroit are the only ones I can think of&mdash;that I&rsquo;d bet on to win the big prize ahead of the Rangers today.Now for a little history.During Espo&rsquo;s first season as GM, 1986-87, he fired coach Ted Sator and eventually went behind the bench himself to replace Tom Webster, who was forced to resign because an inner ear infection temporarily prevented him from flying.In March Esposito boldly bellowed, &ldquo;Enough waiting,&rdquo; announced he was shooting for that season&rsquo;s Stanley Cup. and traded for aging Marcel Dionne. The Rangers went 34-388, finished fourth, and got knocked out of the playoffs in the first round.That&rsquo;s when everybody started giggling.&ldquo;I knew that wasn&rsquo;t the team I wanted,&rdquo; Esposito said. &ldquo;When I went behind the bench, that proved it. Going behind the bench gave me insight into what players I liked, who&rsquo;d be good for the organization, and what players I didn&rsquo;t like. I knew I needed to build a defense.&rdquo;Prior to the 1987-88 season, Espo traded away a first-round draft pick for Quebec Nordique coach Michel Bergeron. His fiery new coach went 36-34-10, but the Rangers missed the playoffs. Quebec used the Rangers&rsquo; first-round pick, fifth overall, and everybody laughed again at Trader Phil.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02727/5479838-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="695" height="578"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ranger GM Phil Esposito is still doing things his way.</figcaption></div>But look now. James Patrick, Ron Greschner and Norm Maciver are the only defensive holdovers from Espo&rsquo;s first season. He knew Brian Leetch was coming. He turned Terry Carkner into David Shaw, Mike Allison into Walt Poddubny into Normand Rochefort, Willie Huber and Larry Melnyk into Michel Petit&mdash;all through trades.Goalie John Vanbiesbrouck was coming off a Vezina Trophy season in 1985-86, so Espo swapped Kjell Samuelsson for Bob Froese Dec. 18, 1986 and gave the Rangers one of the best goaltending tandems in the league.It&rsquo;s ironic that only at center, where Espo lived as one of the game&rsquo;s greats, are the Rangers vulnerable. They do not own a physically dominating two-way pivot or a 40-goal scorer.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s one thing I have not been able to do,&rdquo; he admits. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve tried hard. I&rsquo;m still trying.&rdquo;He&rsquo;ll get one. He always does. &#9632;

f0019-01

LAUGH AT ESPO, BUT LOOK AT RANGERS NOW

&#9632; Edmonton&rsquo;s Grant Fuhr is the only NHL netminder to have posted 20 or more wins in each of the last five seasons (40, 22, 29, 26 and 30).&#9632; New York Ranger Marcel Dionne has 17 consecutive 20-goal seasons, second on the NHL&rsquo;s all-time list. Gordie Howe is tops (22).<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-03499/5479876-1-eng-US/f0019-032.jpg" title="f0019-03" width="970" height="507"><figcaption class="caption-body">Grant Fuhr</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0019-03

DID YOU KNOW…

<h2>BLUES</h2>Goalie Greg Millen recorded his fifth shutout of the season&mdash;tops in the NHL&mdash;in the Blues&rsquo; 4-0 win over Chicago Dec. 17. It was Millen&rsquo;s second shutout of the year against the Blackhawks, whom he shutout 2-0 on Oct. 20. Millen&rsquo;s last four victories had been by shutout. On Dec. 15, he signed a three-year contract (two years plus an option)&hellip;The shutout of Chicago occurred in front of the largest crowd of the season (17,364) at the 17,188-seat Arena.Defenseman Gordie Roberts suffered a cut lower lip when he was high-sticked by Chicago&rsquo;s Duane Sutter Dec. 17. Sutter received a major penalty and game misconduct. Said Roberts: &ldquo;Another nick on the oil painting. I didn&rsquo;t get many kisses from my wife last night.&hellip;Left winger Sergio Momesso returned to the lineup Dec. 15 after missing 15 games with a broken ankle. He had an assist his second game back, against Chicago.<h2>MAPLE LEAFS</h2>Tough guy right winger John Kordic received a two-game suspension from the NHL for incurring his third stick major of the season. Kordic jumped Edmonton center Keith Acton from behind with a cross-check in an 8-2 loss Dec. 14. Kordic took exception to a slash by Acton, chased him across the ice and broke his nose. He faced further discipinary action from league vice-president Brian O&rsquo;Neill, after a Dec. 21 meeting-&hellip;Right winger Mike Blaisdell was called up from the American League&rsquo;s Newmarket Saints Dec. 16 to take Shedden&rsquo;s place and he scored the only goal in a 7-1 loss to Philadelphia Dec. 17&hellip; Goalie Jeff Reese was also promoted from Newmarket and was a standout in his first start, a 4-4 tie with Calgary. But he was bombed for seven goals in two periods by the Oilers.<h2>RED WINGS</h2>Bob Probert&rsquo;s troubled season was interrupted again with a three-game suspension Dec. 15, this time by the NHL for hitting Toronto goalie Allan Bester Dec. 10. Detroit coach Jacques Demers, who predicted a day earlier Probert would not be suspended, was angered and frustrated by the ruling. But he was guarded in his comments. &ldquo;The hell with it,&rdquo; he shrugged. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t say too much now.&rdquo; The suspension came as the embattled Probert began to improve his play. He had a goal and two assists against Minnesota in a 5-4 win Dec. 13, the last game before the suspension. It was the Red Wings&rsquo; second league suspension this season. Right winger Miroslav Frycer served a 10game suspension for hitting Philadelphia&rsquo;s Murray Craven in the eye with his stick Nov. 4.The L A. Kings completed a three-game season-series sweep over Detroit with a 6-4 win Dec. 16. L.A. won the series by a combined score of 22-9. &ldquo;We just want to get that tear out of our face this year,&rdquo; said Demers.<h2>NORTH STARS</h2>North Star right winger Stewart Gavin suffered a broken cheekbone when a puck hit him underneath his visor during a 5-4 loss to Detroit Dec. 13. He was expected to miss at least 10 days and to wear a full facemask when he returned to play&hellip;Center Dennis Maruk, 33, returned against the Kings Dec. 17 for his first action since he suffered a broken kneecap Feb. 20 against Washington. &ldquo;I liked what I saw,&rdquo; said coach Pierre Page. &ldquo;Obviously, he hasn&rsquo;t played for a long time, but he was moving well and he played good defensive hockey. He didn&rsquo;t just go out there looking to score a lot of points.&rdquo; Maruk was held pointless in the game.<h2>BLACKHAWKS</h2>The Hawks sent goaltender Jimmy Waite to the Canadian national team for the World Junior Championships in Anchorage, Alaska, but got bad news after Waite reported to the team in Calgary. A medical examination showed Waite had a fractured right collarbone, apparently suffered when he blocked a shot in Pittsburgh Dec. 6. Waite played with the injury half that game and two periods at Philadelphia Dec. 10, saying only his shoulder was &ldquo;a little sore.&rdquo; He is out two to three months&hellip;In what is threatening to become a running joke, the Hawks were talking trade with the Buffalo Sabres about center Adam Creighton again. But the deal went nowhere because the Hawks wanted a 2-for-l trade, with the Sabres giving up two players. The Hawks have been pursuing Creighton for two seasons&hellip;The crowd of 14,279 on Dec. 14, with Hartford in town, was the smallest of the season at the 17,317-seat Chicago Stadium. The Hawks had three sellouts in 13 home games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-04399/5479907-1-eng-US/f0019-042.jpg" title="f0019-04" width="548" height="869"><figcaption class="caption-body">Adam Creighton: Chicago bound again?</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0019-04

MILLEN NETS SHUTOUT LEAD

<div class="byline">BY KEITH GAVE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01852/5479938-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="747" height="466"><figcaption class="caption-body">KLIMA FAMILY REUNION</figcaption></div>Josef and Kveta Klima probably wished for better circumstances when they walked out of the international terminal at Detroit&rsquo;s Metro Airport to greet their son Dec. 15.Detroit Red Wing left winger Petr Klima&rsquo;s assorted scrapes with the law in recent months put an unexpected edge on this family reunion. Still, Klima remained joyous when the 3&frac12;-year dream of seeing his parents finally came true.&ldquo;Welcome to America,&rdquo; he told them.After hugs and kisses all around between Klima, fiancee Irena Zclenak and his parents, a limousine whisked them away.The next morning Klima pleaded guilty to charges stemming from his second arrest for drunken driving Oct. 9. Sentencing, which could be as high as a $500 fine and 90 days in jail, was set for Feb. 3.The day before his parents arrived, Klima finished a nine-day stay at Detroit Children&rsquo;s Hospital, completing terms of a complex jail sentence handed down Dec. 2 for violating terms of his probation stemming from his first drunken driving conviction.Klima said he kept his parents informed of his misdeeds, but as they undoubtedly discovered in greater detail after their arrival, all has not been so wonderful in America for son Petr since he defected from Czechoslovakia in August, 1985.He described himself as nervous, &ldquo;like before a game&rdquo; while he waited for his parents at the airport.&ldquo;I feel great,&rdquo; Klima said after greeting his parents and helping them fill out baggage forms. &ldquo;They do not speak English. It&rsquo;s so nice to see them. I thought I would cry, but I&rsquo;m not. That will come. Maybe in the car.&rdquo;He has missed them almost since he took his first step toward freedom.&ldquo;After two days (in America), I wanted to see them again.&rdquo; Klima said. &ldquo;I have missed them in many ways. I needed them.&rdquo;Maybe what he needed most, he acknowledged, was some fatherly discipline from time to time. It was the one thing he couldn&rsquo;t buy in America.In weekly telephone conversations, Klima&rsquo; kept his parents informed of the all the news, good and bad.&ldquo;They know everything,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;My father is not happy. He wants to talk about it.&rdquo;Josef Klima, 51, a mechanic in Kadan. Czechoslovakia, raised his three children with a liberal dose of discipline. Petr, who will turn 24 on Dec. 23, is the youngest of the family.&ldquo;I want to show them everything,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I want to spend every minute with them.&ldquo;It has been very hard. My parents, they were always there for me. Now, they&rsquo;re getting a little older and I should be there for them, but I can&rsquo;t.&rdquo;The 50-day visa the Klimas received was unexpected. They-were rejected so many times Petr nearly gave up hope of ever seeing them again. He credits the warming of East-West relations through glasnost as the main reason the Czech government acquiesced. His brother, Josef, 28, and sister, Iva, 26, however, had to remain behind.&ldquo;They keep the family separate,&rdquo; Petr said, &ldquo;to make sure my parents go back home.&rdquo;<h2>DETROIT</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 12: Jeff Sharpies, D, assigned to Adirondack (AHL).Dec. 15: Sam St, Laurent, G, recalled from Adirondack, Bob Probert, RW, suspended by NHL for three games. Eligible to return Dec. 23.Dec. 17: John Chabot, C, recalled from Adirondack.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Steve Yzerman, John Chabot, Adam Graves, Joe Murphy.LW&mdash;Shawn Burr, Gerard Gallant, Tim Higgins, Kris King.RW&mdash;Paul MacLean, Miroslav Frycer, Joe Kocur, Jim NHLLD&mdash;Steve Chiasson, Doug Halward, Lee Norwood, Jim Pavese.RD&mdash;Gilbert Delorme, Doug Houda, Mike O&rsquo;Connell, Rick Zombo.G&mdash;Glen Hanlon, Sam St. Laurent.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dave Barr RW, broken left wrist, day-to-day.Petr Klima, LW, groin pull, day-to-day.Adam Oates, C, thigh bruise, day-to-day.Greg Stefan, G, back, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0020-01

KLIMA GRATEFUL FOR PARENTS’ VISIT

<div class="byline">BY JERRY ZGODA</div>The North Stars picked the right night.The biggest home crowd since Wayne Gretzky was last in town filled the Met Center Dec. 17, but the 13,506 fans didn&rsquo;t get what they expected&mdash;which was Gretzky shoots, Gretzky scores, Los Angeles wins.The fans came out in numbers not seen since last March&mdash;when 14,291 showed up to see the Gretzky-led Edmonton Oilers&mdash;and the Stars produced a 3-2 victory, their first win over the Kings in almost two years. The last time Minnesota defeated the Kings was Feb. 28, 1987 when they won 3-2 at home.&ldquo;We couldn&rsquo;t have picked a better night,&rdquo; said North Stars&rsquo; coach Pierre Page. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been rehearsing and rehearsing, everybody comes and we play like that.&rdquo;The win gave the North Stars a 10-16-6 record and put them two points ahead of Toronto for third place in the Norris Division.Asked if the fans came to see the Stars win or Gretzky light up the scoreboard as he did Dec. 6, 1987&mdash;when he scored five goals in a 10-6 Oiler win&mdash;Page said they came to see the Stars beat Gretzky and Company.&ldquo;We kept telling the guys on the bench that they came to see us win,&rdquo; Page said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to keep dreaming.&rdquo;The North Stars&rsquo; sense of good timing carried beyond the final score.They lost defenseman Frantisek Musil for four to six weeks because of a fractured foot suffered in the first period, but by the end of the second period general manager Jack Ferreira had a replacement&mdash;Ville Siren of the Pittsburgh Penguins.Left winger Scott Bjugstad and defenseman Gord Dineen were sent to Pittsburgh for Siren and center Steve Gotaas.The Stats gave up a player who most likely was never going to play for them again and an extra defenseman in their minor-league system for Siren, a 24-year-old Finn who was expected to step straight into the lineup two nights later in Vancouver and be one of the team&rsquo;s top defensemen. Siren was 1-0-1 in 12 games with the Penguins.Bjugstad, 27, was unhappy when the Stars asked him to report to their Kalamazoo farm club in the International League at season&rsquo;s start. He refused for more than a week, then did so grudgingly with the agreement that he could go to Europe if an offer came along. Bjugstad went to Geneva, Switzerland, in early November, but returned to Minneapolis in December after that arrangement didn&rsquo;t work out.His agent, Ron Simon, asked Ferreira to trade him to another NHL team by Dec. 21, when Bjugstad was scheduled to report to Team USA for the Spengler Cup in Davos, Switzerland.Bjugstad, who was born in St. Paul and played for nearby Irondale High School, the University of Minnesota and the 1984 U.S. Olympic team, scored 43 goals and 33 assists in 80 games for the Stars in 1985-86, but had just 14 goals and 21 assists in 72 games over the next two injury-filled seasons. He played four games for Kalamazoo this season, scoring five goals and no assists.Dineen, 26, had two goals and six assists in 25 games for Kalamazoo. Gotaas, 21, had nine goals and 16 assists in 19 games for the Penguins&rsquo; Muskegon farm team in the IHL. He reported to Kalamazoo.<h2>MINNESOTA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 14: Mike McHugh, LW, recalled from Kalamazoo (IHL).Dec. 17: Scott Bjugstad, LW, and Gord Dineen, D, traded to Pittsburgh for Ville Siren, D, and Steve Gotaas, C, Gotaas assigned to Kalamazoo.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Neal Broten, Dave Gagner, Dave Archibald, Dusan Pasek, Dennis Maruk.LW&mdash;Basil McRae, Brian Bellows, Curt Fraser, Brian MacLellan, Mike McHugh, Terry RuskowskiRW&mdash;Dino Ciccarelli. Marc Habscheid, Bob Brooke, Larry DePalma.LD&mdash;Craig Hartsburg, Ville Siren, Shawn Chambers.RD&mdash;Bob Rouse, Curt Giles, Mark Tinordi.G&mdash;Jon Casey, Kari Takko.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Stewart Gavin, RW, fractured cheekbone, indefinite.Frantisek Musil, D, fractured foot, indefinite &#9632;

STARS TREAT LARGE CROWD TO VICTORY OVER KINGS

<div class="byline">BY STEVE DRYDEN AND RICK MATSUMOTO</div>Call him the reluctant coach.George Armstrong has taken over as Toronto Maple Leaf head coach in the wake of John Brophy&rsquo;s firing Dec. 19.The 58-year-old former Leaf captain, who last coached the major junior Toronto Marlboros in 1977, did not seek out the position and will likely just finish out the season.&ldquo;This is definitely on an interim basis,&rdquo; said Armstrong. &ldquo;Coaching is not something I really want to do.&rdquo;Armstrong was in his first year as assistant general manager/scout with the Leafs before being summoned for emergency duty behind the bench. He is doing it only out of desperation&mdash;the Leafs&rsquo; desperation.Facing the Leafs&rsquo; 10-game winless streak (0-9-1) upon his return from a vacation in the Cayman Islands, team owner Harold Ballard finally decided to dismiss Brophy.The firing came as no surprise&mdash;the Leafs were fourth in the Norris Division with a 11-20-2 record&mdash;but the timing was unexpected.Brophy, 55, was told he had until Christmas to straighten out the struggling Leafs. Three games&mdash;including one the night of Dec. 19 with St. Louis&mdash;remained before the Yuletide break.&ldquo;The pressure was becoming insurmountable on Broph,&rdquo; said general manager Gord Stellick, who broke the news to Brophy.Brophy was unavailable for comment. During his two-plus years as coach, the Leafs compiled a 54-11118 record. Toronto made the playoffs both years, coming within one victory of the Norris Division championship in 1987. He was named to the post July 3, 1986. Brophy&rsquo;s contract runs through the 1989-90 season.The Maple Leafs played capably enough to raise expectations. Toronto started the season 8-3-1 before going on a six-game losing streak. How the Leafs came to lose 17 of 21 games was a mystery Brophy could not unravel. And that, of course, was why he was fired.Stellick recommended Brophy&rsquo;s firing Dec. 3, but Ballard wanted to give the Antigonish, N.S., native more time.Brophy had undergone a remarkable personality change, calming down considerably from last year when he periodically unleashed tirades of monumental proportion.&ldquo;He was calm at the beginning, but things built up and he was frustrated and we were frustrated,&rdquo; said right winger Gary Leeman. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s when you need somebody to take control.&rdquo;Leeman said Brophy&rsquo;s inability to provide stability was a major shortcoming.&ldquo;A coach is someone you have to look to for advice, good or bad,&rdquo; said the sixth-year Leaf. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s the person who makes 20 people think one way and that&rsquo;s the only way you can win. If you&rsquo;ve got any type of confusion, then obviously the team will become confused and look confused on the ice.&rdquo;Leeman said the Leafs would be better off with a change in coaches.&ldquo;They&rsquo;ll play better just because there&rsquo;s been a change,&rdquo; said Armstrong. &ldquo;The real test will come in one or two months when they get bored with me.&rdquo;<h2>TORONTO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 11: Jeff Reese, G, recalled from Newmarket (AHL).Dec. 12: Doug Shedden, RW, recalled from Newmarket.Dec. 14: Paul Gagne, LW, recalled from Newmarket, Chris McRae, LW, Ken Yaremchuk, C, assigned to Newmarket.Dec. 16: Mike Blaisdell, RW, recalled from NewmarketDec. 19: John Brophy, coach, fired. George Armstrong named coach.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Ed Olczyk, Vincent Damphousse, Tom Fergus, Dan Daoust.LW&mdash;Mark Osborne, Al Secord, Dave Reid, Paul Gaane.RW&mdash;Derek Laxdal, Daniel Marois, Craig Laughlin, Mike Blaisdell, John Kordic.LD&mdash;Borje Salming, Todd Gill. Brad Marsh, Brian Curran.RD&mdash;Allafrate, Darren Veitch, Chris Kotsopoulos, Luke Richardson.G&mdash;Ken Wregget, Allan Bester, Jeff Reese.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Wendel Clark, LW, back, indefinite.Rick Lanz, D, flu, day-to-day.Gary Leeman, RW, inner ear, day-to-day.Doug Shedden, RW, tom knee ligaments, out for season. &#9632;

BROPHY OUT, ARMSTRONG IN AS LEAFS’ COACH

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02355/5480017-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="545" height="1201"><figcaption class="caption-body">Andy Bathgate</figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01638/5480024-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="146" height="146"></div>When Andy Bathgate was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs from the New York Rangers with 15 games left in the 1963-64 season, his biggest worry was how he would be accepted by his new teammates.&ldquo;Punch (Leafs&rsquo; coach-general manager) Imlach really went out on a limb because the Leafs had just won two (Stanley) Cups and here he was breaking up that team,&rdquo; said Bathgate, who was traded along with Don McKenney for Dick Duff, Bob Nevin, Arnie Brown, Bill Collins and Rod Seiling.&ldquo;Dick Duff had played all of his hockey in Toronto and that team was a pretty close bunch. I kind of felt out of place at first.&rdquo;Bathgate&rsquo;s new mates were ready to accept him by the end of that season. Bathgate contributed three goals and 15 assists in the last 15 regular-season games, then really came through in the playoffs.Bathgate had five goals and four assists in 14 post-season games as the third-place Leafs captured their third straight Stanley Cup. In the final series against Detroit, Bathgate scored two gamewinning goals and assisted on another (by George Armstrong) as Toronto won the set 4-3. Bathgate points to his game-winner in the seventh game, a 4-0 Leaf win, as the highlight of his 17-year NHL career.&ldquo;I caught (Wings&rsquo; defenseman) Junior Langlois flat-footed at the point,&rdquo; said Bathgate. &ldquo;And I had a breakaway from our blueline and I beat (Wings&rsquo; goalie) Terry Sawchuk cleanly. It wasn&rsquo;t often you were able to do that.&rdquo;</div><div style="clear: both;"></div>The trade to Toronto triggered a series of moves for Bathgate. After the Cup win, he played the 196465 season for the Leafs before being traded to Detroit along with Billy Harris and Gary Jarrett for Marcel Pronovost, Ed Joyal, Larry Jeffrey, Lowell MacDonald and Autry Erickson.He spent two seasons in Detroit before Pittsburgh Penguins claimed him in the expansion draft. After playing the 1967-68 season for Pittsburgh, he joined the Vancouver Canucks of the professional Western League for two years before returning to the NHL as a player with the Penguins in 197071. He also coached and played for the World Hockey Association&rsquo;s Vancouver Blazers, retiring as a player after 11 games of the 197475 season.Bathgate, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1978, was easily the best player on bad New York Ranger teams during the 1950s and early 60s. He won the Hart Trophy as NHL most valuable player and was first all-star right winger in 1958-59. He also made the first all-star team in 1961-62 and the second team in 1957-58 and 1962-63.Since 1964, the former right winger has operated his own golfing business in Mississauga, Ont. A five-handicapper, Bathgate operates a facility equipped with a 200 tee driving range, a miniature golf course and several putting and chipping greens.&ldquo;With the business, I don&rsquo;t get out on the golf course as much as I&rsquo;d like to,&rdquo; says Bathgate, 56. &ldquo;But I enjoy the business because it keeps me in touch with the public.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0021-02

Much-Travelled Bathgate Won ’64 Cup With Leafs

<div class="byline">BY DAVE LUECKING</div>Coaches don&rsquo;t vote for game stars, but if St. Louis Blue coach Brian Sutter had a choice after his team&rsquo;s 4-0 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks Dec. 17, center Rick Meagher would have been the No. 1 star.The honor went to goaltender Greg Millen, who recorded his fifth shutout of the season&mdash;tops in the NHL.Meagher, 35, played a big role in the shutout, shutting down Chicago center Denis Savard. He held Savard to two shots.Savard had two goals the last time the Blues played Chicago&mdash;a 5-2 St. Louis defeat Dec. 11&mdash;but Meagher wasn&rsquo;t being used in his usual role as a defensive specialist.You could tell the difference Dec. 17.&ldquo;Rick Meagher could have been the No. 1 star,&rdquo; said Sutter. &ldquo;Towin, you&rsquo;ve got to check and checking is hard work. When you stop a guy like Savard you&rsquo;ve got a dam good chance of winning. Rick Meagher did an outstanding job.&rdquo;Meagher did such a good job Savard became somewhat frustrated.He was ejected late in the game for being the third man in a fight between St. Louis left winger Gino Cavallini and Chicago defenseman Keith Brown.Meigher said his work on Savard was no big deal. The big thing was the Blues&rsquo; 2-0 lead in the first six minutes.Meagher has always drawn the top checking assignments. He shut down Savard earlier this season, in the Blues&rsquo; 2-0 win over the Blackhawks Oct. 20.That followed the eight-point night (2-6) of Pittsburgh center Mario Lemieux Oct. 27 against the Blues. Both goals and an assist came during even-strength situations against Meagher&rsquo;s line. Meagher made up for that Oct. 27, holding the high-scoring Lemieux to two assists, while scoring two goals in the Blues&rsquo; 4-3 victory over the Penguins.Since that game, Sutter used Meagher in a utility role on the penalty-killing unit, at center, left wing and even right wing. Meagher had 10 goals and five assists in 31 games.&ldquo;He (Sutter) isn&rsquo;t really a big fan of using checking lines against scoring lines,&rdquo; Meagher said. &ldquo;If you do that, you worry about what the other team&rsquo;s doing and let them dictate the game.&rdquo;At 35, Meagher is three years older than his head coach and one year older than assistant coach Joe Micheletti. Meagher&rsquo;s the oldest player on the team and only seven players are older in the NHL.But the 5-foot-8, 165-pound Meagher is in his 10th NHL season and credits a healthy diet for his staying power in the league.Lynn Kessler, a dietician formerly at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, introduced Meagher to a more nutritious diet. It worked. Once nicknamed &lsquo;Doughnut,&rsquo; Meagher dropped 18 pounds after arriving in St. Louis for Perry Anderson in August, 1985.&ldquo;I wanted to play as long as I could anyway, but if I hadn&rsquo;t met her, maybe I would have lost that half step,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;With the way kids skate today, if I had lost that extra step I&rsquo;d be done. I owe her a lot.&rdquo;<h2>ST. LOUIS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 16: Jim Vesey, RW, recalled from Peoria (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Tony McKegney, Cliff Ronning, Rick Meagher, Tony Hrkac.RW&mdash;Brett Hull, Greg Paslawski, Herb Raglan, Jim Vesey.LW&mdash;Doug Evans, Gino Cavallini, Sergio Momesso, Craig Coxe.RD&mdash;Tom Tilley, Dave Richter, Paul Cavallini, Tim Bothwell.LD&mdash;Gordie Roberts, Gaston Gingras, Brian Benning.G&mdash;Greg Millen, Vincent Riendeau.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Todd Ewen, RW, torn right eye muscle, indefinite.Bernie Federko, C, laceration of left ankle, day-to-day.Steve Tuttle, RW, sprained left knee, day-to-day.Peter Zezel, C, pulled groin, day-to-day. &#9632;

BLUES CASH IN ON MEAGHER CHECKING PLAN

<div class="byline">BY MIKE PERRICONE</div>Here is everything you need to know about this season&rsquo;s Chicago Blackhawks&mdash;they posted their first two-game winning streak, Dec. 11 and 14, defeating St. Louis 5-2 and Hartford 4-3.But then it was back to normal, losing 4-0 to St. Louis Dec. 17 and 5-3 to New Jersey Dec. 18.&ldquo;We can make excuses every night,&rdquo; said Hawk coach Mike Keenan. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the goaltender, it&rsquo;s the referee, it&rsquo;s this, it&rsquo;s that&mdash;nonsense. Winners don&rsquo;t make excuses.&rdquo;There were none necessary for two games. Goaltender Darren Pang had a solid game in the victory over St. Louis, which ended Chicago&rsquo;s nine-game losing streak. He stopped 24 shots and also received some unaccustomed words of praise.&ldquo;One thing that was pleasing and different was Pang played a good, solid game for us,&rdquo; Keenan said.Pang acknowledged the pressure on him and the rest of the Hawks.&ldquo;I felt I couldn&rsquo;t give up a bad goal. My concentration was there. I know what kind of goaltender I am, and the guys played great.&rdquo;It lasted another game when right winger Wayne Presley scored twice, short-handed and the game-winner against Hartford. Presley has gone about as far between extremes as a player can go in the current regime. The Hawks had him on waivers Nov. 3, ready to send him to the minors.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s developed into a real asset for this team,&rdquo; said Keenan. &ldquo;As everyone knows, I wasn&rsquo;t particularly pleased with him in training camp. He didn&rsquo;t play, and he was on his way to the minors. But he&rsquo;s probably taken the change in attitude, the change in approach from this coaching staff, most effectively. He&rsquo;s probably changed his behavior more than anyone else on the hockey club. We&rsquo;re very pleased.&rdquo;Presley has the proverbial happy to-be-here outlook.&ldquo;I feel that whatever it is he (Keenan) puts me out there to do, that&rsquo;s what I&rsquo;m going to try to do my best at,&rdquo; Presley said. &ldquo;If he puts me out to score goals, I&rsquo;m going to score goals. If he puts me out there to play defensively or to kill penalties. I&rsquo;m going to break my butt to do that.&rdquo;But after two more losses. Keenan seemed ready to break some things himself.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to air anything publicly. but anyone who has watched our games can draw his own conclusions. We&rsquo;ve repeatedly discussed the aspect of leadership. I&rsquo;m sure they want to do it, but they are not exemplifying the tough mental attitude you need.&rdquo;The Hawk captain is Denis Savard, appointed by Keenan.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s his comment,&rdquo; said Savard. &ldquo;The coach is the boss. I&rsquo;m not going to say anything against him. This game is tough. It&rsquo;s not easy to play. All I can say is, I&rsquo;m trying to do my best. Leadership is going out and playing as hard as you can every night.&rdquo;Keenan said the situation is getting hard for him to take.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t particularly like to lose. I&rsquo;ve done a hell of a job keeping my composure. I&rsquo;ve been more patient than I ever thought I could be.&rdquo;<h2>CHICAGO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 12: Jimmy Waite, G, loaned to Canadian national junior team, Ed Belfour, G, recalled from Saginaw (IHL).Dec. 14: Waite returned to Chicago after being diagnosed as having a broken collarbone.Dec. 18: Mike Hudson, C, recalled from Saginaw.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Denis Savard, Troy Murray, Mike Eagles, Bob Bassen, Mike HudsonLW&mdash;Steve Thomas, Dan Vincelette, Everett Sanipass.RW&mdash;Steve Larmer, Rick Vaive, Dirk Graham, Wayne Presley, Duane Sutter. Brian Noonan.LD&mdash;Doug Wilson, Steve Konroyd, Dave Manson, Bruce Cassidy.RD&mdash;Trent Yawney, Keith Brown, Bob McGill.G&mdash;Darren Pang, Ed Belfour.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Jimmy Waite, G, brdken collarbone, March 15. &#9632;

BLACKHAWK SURGE SHORT-LIVED

<div class="byline">BY PAUL ABRAMOWITZ</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0024-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01723/5480127-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Strader, right, now broadcasts Detroit Red Wing games with Mickey Redmond. Strader got his start in play-by-play with the Adirondack Red Wings.</figcaption></div>Dave Strader never saw a pro hockey game until he did radio play-by-play for the Adirondack Red Wings during their first season. 1979-80.A basketball junkie. Strader used to impersonate New York broadcaster Marv Albert, but Strader&rsquo;s mimicry was always Albert broadcasting the basketball Knicks, not the hockey Rangers.&ldquo;It sort of got me interested in announcing,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always admired him.&rdquo;Six years later, Strader combined announcing and hockey to land a job in the National Hockey League. This season. Strader&rsquo;s fourth in the NHL. he will work 62 games as TV play-byplay man for the Detroit Red Wings on Ann Arbour. Mich.-based Pro-Am Sports Systems (PASS).Strader is one of several NHL broadcasters whose roots reach back to the American League, proving the minors develop not only players and coaches, it&rsquo;s a good place for the headset set to gain experience, too.And like players and coaches, NHL teams are partial to promoting from within.Mike Emrick was hired by the Philadelphia Flyers, by way of ESPN, after having spent three seasons with their former farm team, the Maine Mariners. Dale Arnold replaced Emrick in Maine, and was hired by the New Jersey Devils, who became Maine&rsquo;s parent team when the Flyers left after the 1982-83 season. Arnold left New Jersey this fall after two seasons with the Devils and now works New England Patriot football games. Nick Nickson was in New Haven for three-plus seasons when the Los Angeles Kings needed a color commentator a month into the 1980-81 season. He was in the right place at the right time as it was the Kings&rsquo; first season affiliated with the Nighthawks.Increasing hockey coverage on cable TV during the last 10 years has created more jobs. Others leaving the AHL for the NHL in recent years are Rick Peckham, who went from Rochester to Hartford, and John Kelly, son of St. Louis Blue broadcaster Dan Kelly. The younger Kelly, who has worked in St. Catharines and Adirondack, splits time this season doing New York Ranger and Adirondack Red Wing games on radio.Riding the buses in the minors is a grind for players and coaches. The same holds true for broadcasters.&ldquo;Everyone who worked in the AHL put in a full week and weekend,&rdquo; said Peckham, who worked for seven years at WHAM-AM in Rochester and left for WHCT-TV in Hartford in 1984. &ldquo;You could easily put in a 70- to 75-hour week.&rdquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;EVERYONE IN THE AHL PUT IN A FULL WEEK AND WEEKEND&rsquo;</blockquote>In addition to broadcasting in the AHL, Peckham worked as the Amerks&rsquo; public relations director, helped write the program and coordinated advertising. Some minor pro broadcasters even act as travel agents, arranging hotel accommodations and bus travel.&ldquo;You were paid more for your PR duties in the AHL than broadcasting,&rdquo; said Peckham, whose only other duties with the Hartford Whalers, besides doing the games, are a few community appearances. &ldquo;You had to justify your existence with the team. You couldn&rsquo;t be just a broadcaster.&rdquo;There are rewards to reaching the big time. The lighter workload, a more convenient travel schedule&mdash;planes, not buses&mdash;and no three-game weekends give the AHL grads more time to prepare for their broadcasts.Emrick, who grew up in Indiana and listened to legendary Bob Chase doing play-by-play of the International League&rsquo;s Fort Wayne Komets on WOWO-AM, says he spends about eight hours preparing for each broadcast.&ldquo;I guess what I learned in the AHL was that you worked hard, but you also must have a lot of fun,&rdquo; Emrick says. &ldquo;The games have to be fun or else the schedule will kill you. I like broadcasting. It&rsquo;s play, not work. There is work in preparing, but like the players, you&rsquo;d rather play the game than prepare for it.&ldquo;I view it as brain candy, not brain surgery,&rdquo; Emrick says of his approach to his broadcasts. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s something meant to be enjoyed. It&rsquo;s supposed to be entertaining and fun.&ldquo;It might not be as important as world affairs, but it is important to the people who enjoy it.&rdquo;Emrick, who will work 70 of the 80 Flyer games this season on WGBS-TV and PRISM and another 15 NHL games on SportsChannel, has a unique approach to his broadcasts. He wants to entertain and spends time gathering stats not supplied by the NHL. If you want to know which team leads in bench minors because they had too many men on the ice, go see Mike.&ldquo;Philadelphia and Boston were each tied with four,&rdquo; he says.The minor-league conditions have caused some embarrassing moments. On one of Kelly&rsquo;s first road trips to Fredericton, he took too long with his post-game show and the bus left for Moncton without him. One of the off-ice officials drove him there.But a broadcaster&rsquo;s biggest nightmare&mdash;dead air&mdash;was experienced by Strader during an Adirondack game at Maine.Strader had a lengthy interview between periods with Rudy Pilous and never made it to the men&rsquo;s room. At the start of the next period he instructed his engineer at the radio station to play enough commercials to allow him a quick trip to the bathroom. When he returned a few minutes later, he discovered the station left the mike open after one commercial.&ldquo;As it turned out, the people could only hear the crowd noise for three or four minutes. I really heard about it when we came home. People came up to me and said, &lsquo;What happened to you? We only heard the crowd noise.&rsquo; But they knew.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0024-01

AIR SUPPLY

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Paul Abramowitz</div>Maine Mariners were mired in a season-high five-game losing streak.So they traded their top scorer, right winger Jean-Marc Lanthier, to Utica Devils for right winger Dan Dorion on Dec. 9.Although Dorion, who had seven goals and four assists in 17 games with the Devils, was held pointless in his first two games as a Mariner, Maine won both home games. The Mariners beat Halifax 3-1 the night the trade was made and Sherbrooke 3-2 in overtime the next night. The wins ended Maine&rsquo;s longest losing streak in two seasons under coachgeneral manager Mike Milbury.Lanthier, meanwhile, earned an assist in his first game for Utica, a 5-5 tie with New Haven Dec. 10. It brought his season totals to 7-17-24 after 25 games.The American League&rsquo;s No. 2 scorer last season (35-71-106 in 74 games with Fredericton), Lanthier was one of the first free-agents signed during the off-season. But the trade was not a total surprise.After a fast start, Lanthier&rsquo;s production slowed considerably. He had one point in his last four games before the deal.&ldquo;Obviously I was not happy with the way things were going,&rdquo; Milbury said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think Jean-Marc ever settled in and I could see he was becoming increasingly unhappy. And his heart was not entirely in it.&ldquo;There was not much fire to his game. We need someone who can score goals. Jean-Marc liked to pass.&rdquo;In his 24 games with the Mariners, Lanthier had 32 shots on goal. Dorion had 38 shots in just 15 games with Utica. But setting up goals, rather than scoring, has always been Lanthier&rsquo;s strength, evidenced by last year&rsquo;s assist total.&ldquo;Obviously I&rsquo;m not the type of player Terry O&rsquo;Reilly likes or a Boston Bruin-type player,&rdquo; said Lanthier, 25. &ldquo;But they knew that before the summer.&rdquo;<h2>HAWK PLUCKED</h2>Moncton Hawks also lost a player signed as a free agent during the summer. Tough left winger Steven Fletcher was traded by the Winnipeg Jets to the Philadelphia Flyers for future considerations Dec. 9 and assigned to Hershey.In 19 games with the Hawks, Fletcher had a goal, an assist and 89 penalty minutes, moving him into sixth place on the AHL&rsquo;s all-time penalty minutes list with 1,500 minutes. Long-time Cleveland Baron great and former NHL coach Fred Glover leads with 2,402.Fletcher became expendable in the Jet organization when Winnipeg traded for Quebec&rsquo;s Gord Donnelly Dec. 6. The Hawks will rely on second-year right winger Mike Warus and AHL rookie Neal Meadmore. who played for Milwaukee of the IHL last year, for toughness. Warus, out with an injured shoulder, had 52 penalty minutes in 14 games while Meadmore had 122 minutes in 22 games.<h2>TOUGH AT HOME</h2>Sherbrooke Canadiens were four games away from tying a league record for the longest home unbeaten streak. The Habs extended their home unbeaten streak to 18 games (16-0-2) with a 3-2 win over Adirondack Red Wings Dec. 11. The Canadiens had not been beaten at home since a 3-2 loss to Bingamton in the season opener Oct. 7. The league record of 22 straight games without a home loss was set by the 1971-72 Boston Braves&hellip;Cape Breton goalie Daryl Reaugh. who served as Grant Fuhr&rsquo;s backup in Edmonton for the first half of last season, was assigned to Karpat Oulu, of the Elite Division in Finland. In eight games, Reaugh was 2-6-0 with a 5.40 goals-against average. &#9632;

TRADED LANTHIER WASN’T A MAINE MAN

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div>Tom McVie used an old line to describe the reconstruction job done on his new-look Utica Devils.&ldquo;The saying is, &lsquo;If it&rsquo;s not broke don&rsquo;t fix it.&rsquo; But this was broke,&rdquo; said McVie.At the time of their mid-December overhaul, the Devils had a 6-12-4 record, the worst in the American League. They were 0-8-2 on the road, 24 points behind first-place Adirondack in the South Division standings and 12 out of a playoff spot.The changes began on Dec. 9 with a trade that sent right winger Dan Dorion to the Boston Bruins&rsquo; organization for Jean-Marc Lanthier, a center/left winger at Maine.The next night, with Lanthier in the lineup, the Devils blew a 5-3 lead in the third period and had to settle for a tie with New Haven. At the end of the game, in an apparent show of disgust, many fans at the Utica Memorial Auditorium hurled the complimentary seat cushions at the Devils&rsquo; players as they left the ice.Four days later. McVie sent a vastly-different team out to play the Red Wings. In addition to Lanthier and veteran George McPhee, both of whom were making their second appearances of the season with the team, McVie had defenseman Bob Woods, left winger Lyle Phair and right winger Claude Vilgrain in the lineup. Two other newcomers, left winger Dave Saunders and defenseman Paul Kelly, did not play.Lyle and Kelly came to the Devils from the Los Angeles Kings. Phair, 27, was acquired in a trade between the Kings and the New Jersey Devils. He had been playing for New Haven while Kelly, 21, was loaned to the Devils.McVie got Vilgrain and Saunders, who were both playing for Flint of the International League, on loan from Vancouver. Woods, 20, was playing as an overage junior with Brandon in the Western League. He was selected by New Jersey in the 10th round of the 1988 entry draft and had taken part in the club&rsquo;s training camp before being returned to Brandon.McPhee, 30, was attempting a comeback after missing almost a year with a pulled groin muscle. He played in only five games with New Jersey last season and didn&rsquo;t make an appearance with Utica this year until the first week of December.With the revamped lineup, the Devils defeated the Red Wings, 6-4, on Dec. 14 before an announced crowd of 1,264, the smallest in the AHL this season.<h2>DOUBLE TROUBLE</h2>Binghamton Whaler rookie defenseman Marc Laforge was in trouble again. This time, he was serving a six-game sentence for his misadventures.Laforge was hit with the automatic suspension for coming off the bench to start an altercation in an 8-0 loss to Cape Breton on Dec. 8. It was Laforge&rsquo;s second game of eligibility after he completed serving a three-game suspension for head-butting Lou Crawford of Adirondack in a game on Nov. 26. This time he attacked Cape Breton defenseman Rob Maclnnis.In addition to Laforge&rsquo;s penalty, Binghamton coach Claude Larose was given an automatic five-game suspension and the team was penalized $500. But AHL president Jack Butterfield rescinded Larose&rsquo;s suspension after he served two games. In a poll of the AHL governors conducted after the incident, the rule mandating an automatic suspension for a coach was modified. Dropped from the rule was the coach&rsquo;s suspension when a player comes off the bench during a line change to start an altercation.During Larose&rsquo;s suspension, Jacques Caron, a former NHL goalie who lives in Binghamton and works with the club&rsquo;s goaltenders, handled the team.<h2>GAGNE&rsquo;S BACK</h2>The resurrection of Paul Gagne&rsquo;s faded pro hockey career was progressing smoothly.Not only was the 26-year-old right winger called up to the Toronto Maple Leafs from the Newmarket Saints Dec. 14, he notched his first goal in two years in a 6-3 loss Dec. 15 to the New Jersey Devils.Gagne limped away from the game in October, 1986, because of a problem with a herniated disc in his back.Playing on an NHL oldtimers&rsquo; team with such notables as Guy Lafleur and Steve Shutt convinced him the back was ready again this year. In July, he signed as a free agent with the Leaf organization and was assigned to the Saints. In 27 games with Newmarket, he had 15 goals and 17 assists. &#9632;

SLUMPING DEVILS DO MAJOR RECONSTRUCTION

<div class="byline">BY BOB WAGNER</div>There was one rule Al Sims followed when he was Bobby Orr&rsquo;s defense partner with the Boston Bruins in the mid-1970s.&ldquo;I remember (Bruin coach) Bep Guidolin saying, &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t go over that red line, Al, when Bobby&rsquo;s got the puck,&rsquo;&rdquo; said Sims, now a playerassistant coach for Fort Wayne Komets of the International League.Sims appeared in 476 NHL games during a nine season career with Boston, Hartford and Los Angeles, beginning in 1973-74 with Boston and ending one game into the 1982-83 season with the Kings. He had 49 goals and 116 assists.The 35-year-old Sims spent the last five years playing in Europe, the last two in Scotland.&ldquo;I was really looking into getting into coaching after 14 or 15 seasons of playing,&rdquo; said Sims. &ldquo;(Fort Wayne coach) Robbie Laird said he would like a playing assistant.&rdquo;Sims said he&rsquo;ll probably retire after this season and concentrate on coaching. He worked the bench alone Dec. 4 in a 5-4 overtime loss to Saginaw and in a Dec. 6 5-4 overtime win over Indianapolis, when Laird went home to Regina to visit his ailing mother.Sims, who had three goals and 13 assists in 21 games, had helped the Komets to the league&rsquo;s second-best defensive record. Fort Wayne allowed 93 goals in its first 27 games compared to Muskegon&rsquo;s 87 in 25 games.<h2>SEARCH IS ON</h2>Muskegon attorney John Snider, chairman of the IHL board of governors and a member of the committee hiring a successor to retiring commissioner Poile, was close-mouthed about applicants for the job. Poile retires at the end of the 1988-89 season, but said he&rsquo;d like to have a replacement chosen by February.<h2>JANSSENS UPDATE</h2>Denver Ranger center Mark Janssens. who suffered a cerebral concussion during a fight with Salt Lake&rsquo;s Martin Simard in a Dec. 10 game at Salt Lake City, returned to Denver from a Salt Lake City hospital Dec. 14 but will miss the rest of the season.The 20-year-old Janssens&rsquo; helmet came off during the fight and his bare head struck the ice. He went into convulsions and a CAT scan later revealed a blood clot on the brain. Surgery was not required.Meanwhile, IHL commissioner Bud Poile. who attended the game, reviewed tapes of the incident and ruled Dec. 15 that the combatants were suspended from playing in the 10 remaining games between the teams. In assessing the suspensions. Poile ruled that the fight occurred between &ldquo;two willing participants.&rdquo;<h2>DYNAMIC DEFEAT</h2>In the first of two exhibition games against IHL teams, touring Moscow Dynamo defeated the Peoria Rivermen 6-2 Dec. 8 before 3,683 people in the 9,104-seat Peoria Civic Center. Dynamo forward Aleksandr Semak scored three times. Center Terry MacLean and defenseman Scott Paluch scored for Peoria, which was outshot 57-20. The Dynamo were scheduled to play the Milwaukee Admirals Dec. 19. The Admirals were 12-5 in one-goal games through Dec. 14, including 4-1 in overtime. &#9632;

SIMS EASES INTO COACHING

<div class="byline">BY ED WILLES</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01674/5480230-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Peter Soberlak (16), racing Brandon captain Kevin Cheveldayoff for the puck, was one of seven Swift Current Broncos among the WHL&rsquo;s leading scorers.</figcaption></div>Heading into this season, Graham James wasn&rsquo;t quite sure what lay in store for the Swift Current Broncos.First and foremost, the head coach and general manager had to deal with the loss of center Joe Sakic, the Broncos&rsquo; franchise player who graduated to the NHL&rsquo;s Quebec Nordiques. In two seasons with the Broncos, Sakic accounted for 138 goals and 293 assists. Last season. Sakic had 88 goals and 82 assists and shared the Western League scoring title with Moose Jaw Warrior center Theoren Fleury (78-92-160).Clearly, replacing Sakic, Canada&rsquo;s major junior player of the year, would not be an easy task. And James knew it.&ldquo;I got a lot dumber the moment Joe Sakic left Swift Current,&rdquo; James says.But James had problems to address beyond the loss of Sakic.Center Peter Soberlak, the No. 1 draft pick of the Edmonton Oilers in 1987, was with the Oilers through the start of the 1988-89 NHL season. Sheldon Kennedy, a fourth-round draft pick of the Detroit Red Wings this summer, was with the Wings until the start of the season.James was also fearful defenseman Bob Wilkie, a second-round Detroit pick in 1987, might stick with the parent team. And overage center Tim Tisdale was given a good chance of sticking with the American League&rsquo;s Cape Breton Oilers.In addition, there were the traditional questions surrounding the Broncos. Everyone liked the team&rsquo;s speed and skill factor but observers also feared the Broncos&rsquo; adorable collection of moppets would get pureed the minute they stepped into Saskatoon, Prince Albert or any of the other East Division back alleys.So what happened?James repealed Murphy&rsquo;s Law, that&rsquo;s what. At the start of this season, everything that could go right for the Broncos did. Kennedy came back from Detroit and became the division&rsquo;s dominant player. He had 30 goals and 27 assists in 23 games, good for 10th in league scoring as of Dec. 16. Soberlak, Wilkie and Tisdale returned. The Broncos beefed up their lineup with tough guy Mark McFarlane, a 5-foot-9, 182-pound fireplug who had 335 penalty minutes in Nova Scotia Junior A last season. Law enforcement, WHL style, was no longer a problem.With their personnel intact, the Broncos burst out of the gate 12-0. After a mild slump, precipitated by a knee injury to Kennedy, the Broncos had run up an eight-game winning streak.Overall, the team was 26-5-0, the top major junior record in Canada.&ldquo;I felt we had a lot of talent coming back in terms of putting the puck in the net,&rdquo; James says. &ldquo;Certainly, one of the most frustrating things for a hockey team is to play well and lose because you&rsquo;re not scoring. But 26-5? Yes, I&rsquo;m surprised.&rdquo;The Broncos are relentless as a, well, swift current.&ldquo;Their speed in moving the puck is the best in the league. No one moves from offense to defense as quick as they do,&rdquo; says Saskatoon Blade general manager Daryl Lubiniecki. &ldquo;You can never let up against them. One game this year we had a 6-1 lead against them in the third period and we ended up losing 7-6.In his two years in Swift Current, James&rsquo; teams have been characterized by a high-octane offense and entertaining, creative play. But this season, the Broncos had turned the WHL scoring list into their personal roll call.Seven Broncos occupied the league&rsquo;s top 29 scoring spots. Tisdale (30-33-63 in 31 games) led the way in fourth place. Others were 19-year-old center Peter Kasowski (26-33-61 in 31 games), Kennedy (30-27-57 in 23 games), 19-year-old defenseman Danny Lambert (8-41-49 in 27 games), Brian Sakic, Joe&rsquo;s 17-year-old brother (16-33-49 in 31 games), Soberlak (1927-46 in 26 games) and Wilkie (4-37-41 in 29 games).Complementing the Broncos&rsquo; offense is goalie Trevor Kruger, who&rsquo;s recorded a 3.92 goals-against average and mind-boggling 22-20 record.&ldquo;One thing I think that everyone has overlooked has been their goaltending,&rdquo; says Lubiniecki. &ldquo;I think Kruger has to be seen as the biggest surprise this year.&rdquo;Kennedy suggests the Broncos simply kill the opposition with pure talent.&ldquo;A lot of teams aren&rsquo;t able to play our style because they lack the speed and skill,&rdquo; says Kennedy, a veteran member of Canada&rsquo;s national junior team competing at the World Junior Championships, Dec. 26-Jan. 4, in Alaska. Lambert was also invited to the national team&rsquo;s final selection camp.Adds Kennedy: &ldquo;When the refs are calling the game the way they should, the hooking and holding and tripping, and we&rsquo;re getting powerplay opportunities, that&rsquo;s when we&rsquo;re at our best.&rdquo;They&rsquo;ve been supreme this season. The power play was working at a 35 per cent efficiency rate.The nucleus for the this year&rsquo;s edition of the Broncos was laid two seasons ago when the team transferred from Lethbridge for the 1986-87 season.The process of landing a franchise took the better part of three years. John Rittinger, the team&rsquo;s president, presided over the commute which brought the Broncos to Swift Current.At various times, Rittinger thought he landed the now-defunct Calgary Wranglers; the Seattle Breakers, now the Thunderbirds (Rittinger&rsquo;s group controlled the franchise&rsquo;s player list for a time); the Kamloops Blazers; the Winnipeg (now Moose Jaw) Warriors; the extinct Kelowna Wings; the Brandon Wheat Kings; and the Regina Pats.Finally, with its patience worn, the Swift Current group started haggling for the Lethbridge Broncos. Ironically, the Broncos moved from Swift Current to Lethbridge in 1974.The sequel in Swift Current has been a hit. That success has resulted. Kennedy says, from continuity. Kennedy is in his third year with the team, as are Soberlak, Lambert, Wilkie, Kruger and Tisdale. Defenseman Darren Kruger (4-3337 in 30 games), the goalie&rsquo;s twin brother, and Kasowski are in their second seasons.&ldquo;The longer guys stay together, the better they play together,&rdquo; says Kennedy. &ldquo;There are a bunch of us who feel secure here and that gives you confidence when you step out onto the ice.&rdquo;But the Broncos&rsquo; esprit de corps is forged from something stronger than familiarity. It emerged from a difficult, and sometimes tragic, history.Tragedy occurred on Dec. 30, 1986. Just midway through their first season, the Broncos&rsquo; team bus left for a road game in Regina, hit an ice patch on the Trans-Canada Highway and somersaulted. The accident killed Bronco players Chris Mantyka, Trent Kresse, Scott Kruger and Brent Ruff.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s much doubt the community was drawn together after the accident,&rdquo; Rittinger says. &ldquo;But the community was drawn together before the accident. I don&rsquo;t really know what the effect of it was. But I do know there was a communal loss.&rdquo;That bond between the hockey team and the community has since been reinforced and is the root of the Broncos&rsquo; success. Somewhere in the evolution of their relationship, the line between the Broncos and Swift Current blurred, then virtually disappeared. Now, they are one.Last season, the Broncos played to 99 per cent of capacity in the 2,275-seat Centennial Civic Centre. The team is further supported by a vast network of volunteers who man bingos, concession stands and organize and work on other activities for the team.As a result, the Broncos turned a profit of approximately $200,000 last season. Not bad for a community-owned team in a city of 18,000. They expect to surpass that profit this season.&ldquo;I think everyone in Swift Current is aware they have a stake in the team,&rdquo; says Rittinger. &ldquo;I think the fact that we already lost a team had a big impact. Community involvement is the secret in keeping the team alive.&rdquo;&ldquo;This is a great place to play,&rdquo; Kennedy says. &ldquo;Everybody knows everybody, the players are all very close and the citizens treat us like kings.&rdquo;And right now, the Broncos reign atop the WHL. &#9632;

f0026-01

BUCKING BRONCOS

<div class="byline">BY RANDY RUSSON</div>Citing &ldquo;irreconcilable differences&rdquo; with the City of Kingston, Kingston Raider owner Lou Kazowski vowed to move his team out of the city before next season.Kazowski made the announcement Dec. 12, saying he&rsquo;s fed up with the Kingston Memorial Centre, where the Raiders play their home games. He said he is looking for places to relocate.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sick of having to beg them to get rid of the flies around the concession stands and put toilet paper in the washrooms.&ldquo;The pettiness has become too much. It&rsquo;s obvious to me the city doesn&rsquo;t want an OHL team.&rdquo;Kazowski signed a three-year agreement with City of Kingston officials this summer, but had an escape clause if he served notice of his intent to leave by Dec. 31.John Clements, a Kingston alderman and spokesman for the city, was critical of Kazowski&rsquo;s announcement.&ldquo;To me, the move is a smokescreen. I think Mr. Kazowski&rsquo;s problem lies in the marketing of the club.&ldquo;How can the fans relate to a team that is always trading players? The popular kids like Scott Pearson and Mike Fiset have been shipped out.&rdquo;Earlier this season. Pearson, a first-round draft choice of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1988, was traded to Niagara Falls. Fiset was dealt to the North Bay Centennials.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll bet you most fans would have difficulty recognizing or naming three Raiders,&rdquo; said Clements.Clements shrugged off Kazowski&rsquo;s charges about the concession and washroom areas.&ldquo;The Board of Health is there regularly. In fact it was just there (Dec. 9) a few days before Mr. Kazowski made his grandstand announcement.&ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s upset because the team isn&rsquo;t drawing better. He doesn&rsquo;t want to tell the fans he&rsquo;s moving because of attendance. He&rsquo;d rather blame the city.&rdquo;<h2>SALE APPROVED</h2>It appears Hamilton will get its fourth OHL franchise next season.But the sale of the Toronto Marlboros to Hamilton businessmen Mario Cupido and Jack Pelech almost hit a major snag Dec. 12 at the OHL board of governors&rsquo; meeting. Niagara Falls Thunder owner Jack Robillard used his territorial right of veto to block the sale.Robillard, who owned the Hamilton Steelhawks and moved them to Niagara Falls this season, wanted assurances from Copps Coliseum (where the Steelhawks played) that no legal action would be taken against him for breaking his lease with the arena. Robillard still had a year remaining on his lease with Copps when he moved the team to Niagara Falls.Robillard said he received a letter from Copps&rsquo; officials Dec. 15, indicating they wouldn&rsquo;t pursue the matter, so he approved the sale. He was the only dissenting vote among the 14 OHL governors.Robillard&rsquo;s approval gives the green light for the Marlies to move to Hamilton. The city of Hamilton has had OHL franchises from 1973-73 to 1976-77, 1977-78 to 1978-79 and 1984-85 to 1987-88.<h2>NO THANKS. NATS</h2>Cornwall Royals&rsquo; goalie Rick Tabaracci declined an invitation to try out for the Canadian national team competing at the World Junior Championships in Anchorage, Alaska, from Dec. 26 to Jan. 4. The 19-year-old Tabaracci said he felt his services were needed more in Cornwall. Tabaracci, a second-round choice of the Pittsburgh Penguins (26th overall), was 11-5-2 with a 3.62 goals-against average in 18 games&hellip;Overage center Kelly Cain was released by the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds Dec. 13. Cain, who was second on the Greyhounds in scoring (16-25-41 in 22 games), had been suspended twice by the team this season for disciplinary reasons. The Greyhounds are Cain&rsquo;s fifth OHL team. &#9632;

RAIDER OWNER VOWS TO LEAVE KINGSTON

<div class="byline">BY HERB ZURKOWSKY</div>Just as the Hull Olympiques regained their championship form, they lost perhaps their most important commodities to the World Junior Championships in Anchorage, Alaska.Not only did the last year&rsquo;s Quebec League champions lose head coach Alain Vigneault, who will assist Team Canada head coach Tom Webster, but the Olympiques would also have to do without the services of at least two of their front-line players for four games. The championships were scheduled for Dec. 26 to Jan. 4.Playing for the U.S. national team were Olympiques&rsquo; goalie Jason Glickman and center Jeremy Roenick. The team also faced the prospect of losing right winger Martin Gelinas, who was trying out for the Canadian team.Glickman, with a 3.26 goals-against average in 24 games, and Roenick, with 27 goals and 29 assists in 21 games, had been the Olympiques&rsquo; catalysts this season. Gelinas had eight goals and 15 assists in 11 games since returning from the Edmonton Oilers.Hull had a 7-2-1 mark in the 10 games before Vigneault&rsquo;s departure and was to play four games, all at home, during his absence. The Olympiques were 15-15-1 and in sixth place when Vigneault left for the national team.Olympiques&rsquo; assistant coach Guy Charron will run the team in Vigneault&rsquo;s absence. Vigneault&rsquo;s assistant from last year, Denis Heon, who is now a physical education teacher in Trois-Rivieres, was brought in to help Charron.Charron is no relation to former NHLer Guy Charron, the assistant coach to Dave King with Canada&rsquo;s national team.Vigneault hoped the players wouldn&rsquo;t attempt to take advantage of Charron.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s where your leaders come in,&rdquo; Vigneault explained. &ldquo;I hope I know the players well enough that some, like Joe Suk, Cam Russell and Stephane Charbonneau, will assume leadership roles.&ldquo;Guy and Denis will do as I did. The system won&rsquo;t change.&rdquo;<h2>SAGS SAG</h2>Chicoutimi Sagueneens were still trying to figure out how the west is won.Or, in other words, how to win on the road. Every team in the QMJHL is west of Chicoutimi, located 250 miles northeast of Montreal.Of the Sagueneens&rsquo; 16 losses after 35 games this season, 11 were away from home. Overall, the Sagueneens were 18-16-1 and in fifth place. The Sagueneens&rsquo; closest competition is Granby, which is 180 miles west. The farthest is Hull, almost 450 miles away.Chicoutimi&rsquo;s most recent trip concluded with a 9-3 loss at Hull on Dec. 11 followed by a 5-4 setback in Laval the following night.&lsquo;I concede the travelling is tough,&rdquo; said Sags&rsquo; right winger Patrice Tremblay. &ldquo;But that&rsquo;s not the reason we lose. (Chicoutimi coach Gaston) Drapeau gives us one way to play. If we don&rsquo;t follow that system&mdash;staying in position and taking the man&mdash;we don&rsquo;t make it. We have to live with that (the travel). We have no choice because we&rsquo;re far away.&rdquo;<h2>MORIN HITS 100</h2>Chicoutimi center Stephane Morin became the first 100-point man (43 goals and 57 assists) in the league this season when he scored two goals and an assist against Laval on Dec. 12. It took Morin exactly half the season (35 games) to reach the century mark. Morin, 18, a 6-foot, 174-pounder, was rated 15th among 1989 draft-eligible QMJHL players in the Central Scouting Bureau&rsquo;s preliminary rankings issued the second week of December. &#9632;

JUNIOR TOURNEY COMES AT BAD TIME

<div class="byline">BY ED WILLES</div>No one could accuse the Moose Jaw Warriors of being afraid to make changes.In their third front-office shuffle of the season, the Warriors promoted head coach Greg Kvisle to general manager and moved assistant coach Lorne Molleken into the coach&rsquo;s office on Dec. 7.Gerry James started the season as Warriors&rsquo; head coach and general manager but was replaced by Kvisle Nov. 10 with Moose Jaw at 5-12-0.Kvisle, who coached the Warriors in 1986-87, became the organization&rsquo;s seventh general manager and Molleken the seventh head coach since it moved to Moose Jaw from Calgary in 1984-85.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s important that someone is in the office full-time to structure and rebuild the organization,&rdquo; said Kvisle, who led the Warriors to a 3831-3 mark in 1986-87, the best record in Warrior history. Under Kivisle&rsquo;s guidance this season, the Warriors were 2-8-0. &ldquo;I told the executive when I came here that I had a limited amount of time to commit and I didn&rsquo;t feel I was being productive riding the bus. I feel that Lorne is more capable of handling the coachino duties.&rdquo;Molleken, 32, started the season as assistant coach and general manager under James. He went 1-1 in his first two games.<h2>SIM TRADED</h2>Earlier this season, the Regina Pats couldn&rsquo;t give Trevor Sim away.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01646/5480309-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="551" height="743"><figcaption class="caption-body">Trevor Sim joined his third team in less than two years.</figcaption></div>Their second attempt at dealing the 18-year-old right winger proved more successful.The Pats traded Sim to Swift Current for 17-year-old defenseman Joel Dyck, younger brother of Pats&rsquo; defenseman Mike Dyck. It was Dennis Sobchuk&rsquo;s first deal since taking over as Pats&rsquo; general manager Nov. 14.&ldquo;We had a hole on defense,&rdquo; said Sobchuk, &ldquo;and we got Joel without giving up our future.&rdquo;The Pats had tried to trade Sim, a third-round choice of the Edmonton Oilers (53rd overall) in 1988, in early November after they sent the Calgary native home for lacklustre play. Regina didn&rsquo;t receive any quality offers and Sim returned to the Pats in midNovember. In 21 games with Regina, Sim had four goals and eight assists. Dyck had five goals and seven assists in 28 games for the Broncos. Sim came to the Pats in a Sept. 26 trade with Seattle for defenseman Bart Cote and left winger Gregg Nicol.Sim had 17 goals, 18 assists and 87 PIM in 67 games with Seattle last season, his rookie year.&ldquo;Trevor was never comfortable here,&rdquo; said Sobchuk. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got the talent. Now it&rsquo;s up to him because he&rsquo;s going to a very good team.&rdquo;At the time of the deal, Swift Current was 26-5-0 and in first place in the East Division.In another deal, Medicine Hat Tigers traded 17-year-old center Don Laurin to Brandon Wheat Kings on Dec. 8 in return for future considerations. Laurin had one goal in 15 games with the Tigers but scored two in his first game with Brandon, a 7-3 loss to Moose Jaw Dec. 11.<h2>HAT BIDDING</h2>The city of Medicine Hat announced it would bid to host the 1992 Memorial Cup. Mayor Ted Grimm made the announcement Dec. 8, saying a community-based committee would begin preparing a bid.Saskatoon will host this year&rsquo;s Memorial Cup and receives an automatic berth in the tournament. The Ontario League will host the Cup next season, followed by the Quebec League in 1991&hellip;Portland Winter Hawk center Dennis Holland was the WHL plus-minus leader (plus-14) for the season&rsquo;s second segment, from Nov. 1 to Dec. 15. The third segment runs from Dec. 16 to Jan. 31, the fourth from Feb. I to March 24. &#9632;

f0028-01

WARRIORS SHAKE UP FRONT OFFICE

<div class="byline">BY VANCE OLIVER</div>Fifth-year right winger Stacey Wakabayashi&rsquo;s first assist in the Alberta Golden Bears&rsquo; 5-1 win over the Manitoba Bisons Dec. 2 moved him past former linemate Dennis Cranston into first place on Alberta&rsquo;s all-time scoring list.The assist gave Wakabayashi 294 career points, the most by a Golden Bear in the team&rsquo;s 76-year history.Alberta swept the weekend series with a 6-2 win over Manitoba the next day. Wakabayashi, a first-team Canada West all-star last season, collected two goals and four assists to finish the weekend with 299 points on 135 goals and 164 assists.The six-point weekend gave Wakabayashi 17 goals and 21 assists in 14 games and moved him into a second-place tie in the conference scoring race with fourth-year right winger Mark Fioretti of the Calgary Dinosaurs (15-23-38 in 12 games). Calgary&rsquo;s fourth-year center Barry Bracko led Canada West with 21 goals and 21 assists for 42 points in 12 games.<h2>HOLTBY GONE</h2>The Holtby family gained a farmhand but the Saskatchewan Huskies lost their starting goalie.Huskies&rsquo; fourth-year goalie Greg Holtby graduated at Christmas break with a degree in agriculture and announced he wouldn&rsquo;t be returning to the team. Holtby left for home in Marshall, Sask., to help his father on the family-owned farm.Holtby had a 4.62 goals-against average in 10 games for the 7-5-0 Huskies.Rookie goaltender Pat Nogier, who compiled a 5.48 GAA in five appearances, was expected to assume the bulk of the goal tending duties with Garvin Weber playing backup.The Huskies did, however, receive some pleasant tidings at Christmas.Left winger Troy Edwards, who collected 31 goals and 41 assists with the Moose Jaw Warriors of the Western League in 1986-87, and defenseman Pat Beauchesne (1-19-20), who played with Moose Jaw last season, were expected to join the club after Christmas.Edwards, who had been attending the University of Saskatchewan since last January, had to sit out a year because he played 12 professional games for the International League&rsquo;s Milwaukee Admirals, scoring two goals and three assists with 19 penalty minutes.Beauchesne, whose brother George is a second-year defenseman with the Huskies, was a fifth-round selection of the Washington Capitals in 1987.<h2>BUSY HOLIDAYS</h2>Host Calgary, Alberta and Saskatchewan were entered in the Dinosaur Invitational Dec. 27-30. Manitoba, the host team, and Regina were scheduled to play in the Silverwood-Bison Classic Dec. 28-30. And the British Columbia Thunderbirds were to meet Alaska-Fairbanks, a U.S. Division I independent, in a two-game series Dec. 29-30 in Vancouver. &#9632;

SCORING RACE HEATS UP

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01558/5480371-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="685" height="1259"><figcaption class="caption-body">PAPA BEAR</figcaption></div><h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2>For Maine right winger Bob Corkum, &ldquo;changing on the fly&rdquo; is more than a hockey term.More than once, the Bears&rsquo; senior captain has changed 10-month-old daughter Carley on the fly. He&rsquo;s had to. A schedule that includes hockey, school and part-time jobs to help pay the inevitable bills of a college marriage, doesn&rsquo;t leave too much time for babysitting.But it&rsquo;s a life the 6-foot-2, 195-pound native of Salisbury, Mass., wouldn&rsquo;t trade for anything.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a lot more relaxed on the ice,&rdquo; says Corkum, Maine&rsquo;s third leading scorer with seven goals and 15 assists in 16 games. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s more stress when you&rsquo;re a bachelor. You&rsquo;re more out of control. Once you get married and have a baby, your life centers around your home.&rdquo;Corkum, 21 on Dec. 18, was a third-round pick of the Buffalo Sabres in the 1986 NHL entry draft. Next year, he has a chance of getting paid to play, probably with the Sabres&rsquo; American League farm team in Rochester, N.Y. Until then, he&rsquo;ll have to make do with the money from a full scholarship&mdash;which is fine for a single man with no responsibilities.&ldquo;Our parents have been helpful, thank God.&rdquo; adds Corkum&rsquo;s wife Jessica.Northeastern right winger Dave Buda, like Corkum a senior and team captain, knows all about it. He, too, is married with a young daughter, two-year-old Heather. Through Northeastern&rsquo;s cooperative education program, he has spent the last two off-seasons in Boston at the Bank of Boston, working hard to augment his full scholarship.Buda, 22, is a finance and marketing major, and budgeting money is something he does very well.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s always after me to save, save, save,&rdquo; grins Buda&rsquo;s wife Wendy.&ldquo;Yeah, I&rsquo;m the thrifty one,&rdquo; admits the 6-foot-4, 190-pounder, who led Northeastern in scoring with 13 goals and 10 assists in 14 games.But the Budas, like the Corkums, know their financial straits are temporary. The seventhround choice of the Boston Bruins in 1985, has an outside chance of cracking a pro line-up. But even if he doesn&rsquo;t, he has a pretty good fallback position&mdash;a 3.3 grade-point average.Corkum, who transferred from business administration to education in the fall of 1987, is not the student Buda is, but he has elevated his GPA more than a full point to 2.3.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02387/5480364-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="1462" height="1596"><figcaption class="caption-body">Maine&rsquo;s Bob Corkum, right, takes a break from his hectic schedule to spend time witn wife Jessica and 10-month-old daughter Carley. (Photo by Marc Blanchette)</figcaption></div>Northeastern sophomore left winger Peter Schure, who was suspended indefinitely for striking linesman John Jones during a brawl against Lowell on Nov. 18, was allowed to return to league play Jan. 3.His suspension lasted eight games.After reviewing tapes of the incident and meeting with Schure and Huskies&rsquo; coach Fern Flaman, Hockey East officials decided Schure, a native of Timmins, Ont., did not attempt to injure Jones during the incident.When the suspension was announced Nov. 19, Hockey East assistant commissioner Kathy Walsh said Jones was trying to hold Schure back from the fight and Schure struck him.&mdash;Larry Mahoney<h2>ECAC</h2>The next time Dartmouth draws a penalty against Harvard, the Big Green may be well advised to decline it.In a Dec. 12 game against the Crimson, Dartmouth had a power-play opportunity when Harvard sophomore defenseman Kevan Melrose received a double minor for charging at 19:17 of the second period.Enter Harvard junior right winger C.J. YoungYoung scored three shorthanded goals in the space of 49 seconds while killing the penalty. The outburst set an Eastern College Athletic Conference record for the fastest three goals in one game. The record was part of a five-goal performance for Young in a 10-0 win over the Big Green. The Harvard single-game record is seven, set by Mike Baldwin against Brown during the 1932-33 season.No wonder St. Lawrence hit the Christmas break with a 7-0-0 league and 11-0-0 overall record. The Saints&rsquo; three goalies&mdash;senior Paul Cohen, junior Mike Mudd and sophomore Les Kuntar&mdash;combined for a 2.35 GAA and .927 save percentage&hellip;The Blaeser brothers met head-to-head for the first time when Yale took on Princeton on Dec. 11. Both Bart, a junior winger for the Tigers, and Jeff, a freshman winger for the Elis, scored a goal, but Yale won 4-3. The Blaeser brothers hail from Boxford, Mass.&mdash;Tom Boggie<h2>CCHA</h2>Since losing their opening game of the season against Lake Superior Oct. 14, the Michigan State Spartans haven&rsquo;t looked back.And to paraphrase baseball legend Satchel Paige, nobody is gaining on them. How could they when Michigan State had won its last 17 games, the second-longest streak in school history? The school record is 22 straight wins, set during the 1984-85 season.The Spartans were on course for their first Central Collegiate Hockey Association championship since 1985-86.&ldquo;We would have to fall completely apart for that not to happen,&rdquo; said Michigan State coach Ron Mason.The Spartans, ranked No. 1 in the Dec. 12 NCAA poll, were 17-1-0 overall, 15-1-0 in the CCHA. Their 10-point lead over Illinois-Chicago (9-5-2), represented the largest first-place margin of any of the four major U.S. college leagues.After Michigan State the rest of the CCHA race was hotly contested.Illinois-Chicago was second with 20 points, but only seven points separated second place from seventh. Following UIC were Lake Superior (8-5-3), Michigan (7-6-3). Ferris State (7-81), Bowling Green (7-9-0), Western Michigan (5-8-3), Ohio State (4-10-2) and Miami (3-130).&mdash;Kevin Gordon<h2>WCHA</h2>Early this season. Minnesota appeared to have a lock on first place in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.But with nine wins in their last 10 games, the Northern Michigan Wildcats were making their presence felt in the race for first place.After falling behind the Golden Gophers by seven points in late November, Northern Michigan had pulled to within one point of Minnesota with a sweep of Minnesota-Duluth (3-2 in overtime and 6-5) Dec. 9 and 10. But Minnesota, 13-3-0 in the WCHA, held three games in hand.A big reason why the Wildcats were surging was sophomore goalie Bill Pye, whose 3.02 goals-against average was third in the league. Upfront, the Wildcats had 13 players with 10 or more points. Topping the list was senior right winger Phil Berger, who had 10 goals and 15 assists though 19 games.With junior goalie Robb Stauber sidelined until at least Dec. 22 with a strained left knee and left ankle ligaments, Minnesota finally had a chance to look at its other goalies.Stauber had started 62 straight games for the Golden Gophers before being injured during a 7-1 win over Minnesota-Duluth Dec. 3.Stauber&rsquo;s replacements had varying success. Sophomore Al Fritsinger made 25 saves in a 7-4 loss to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Dec. 9 in his first college start. RPI scored three straight breakaway goals in the final 6:51 to break a 4-4 tie.Freshman goalie Jeff Stolp had better luck, making 29 saves in Minnesota&rsquo;s 9-3 win over RPI on Dec. 10.&mdash;Virg Foss &#9632;

f0029-01

MARRIED, WITH CHILDREN

<h2>STANDINGS</h2>NHL STANDINGS AS OF MON., DEC. 19/88(PCT) PERCENTAGE OF ACTUAL POINTSVERSUS POSSIBLE POINTS<h2>CLARENCE CAMPBELL CONFERENCE</h2><h3>NORRIS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01637/5480661-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="979" height="158"></div><h3>SMYTHE DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02463/5480654-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="977" height="157"></div><h2>PRINCE OF WALES CONFERENCE</h2><h3>ADAMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03317/5480647-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="983" height="157"></div><h3>PATRICK DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-04217/5480640-1-eng-US/f0030-042.jpg" title="f0030-04" width="976" height="183"></div><h2>RESULTS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-05147/5480633-1-eng-US/f0030-052.jpg" title="f0030-05" width="477" height="916"></div><h2>POINTS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-06113/5480626-1-eng-US/f0030-062.jpg" title="f0030-06" width="485" height="576"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-0789/5480619-1-eng-US/f0030-072.jpg" title="f0030-07" width="173" height="177"></div><h2>FUTURE GAMES</h2>WED., DEC. 21BOSTON AT HARTFORDBUFFALO AT NY RANGERSQUEBEC AT MONTREALNEW JERSEY AT WINNIPEGPITTSBURGH AT TORONTOWASHINGTON AT CHICAGOMINNESOTA AT LOS ANGELESVANCOUVER AT EDMONTONTHUR., DEC. 22MONTREAL AT BOSTONPHILADELPHIA AT NY ISLANDERSDETROIT AT ST. LOUISFRI., DEC. 23HARTFORD AT PHILADELPHIATORONTO AT BUFFALOQUEBEC AT WINNIPEGNY RANGERS AT WASHINGTONPITTSBURGH AT NEW JERSEYDETROIT AT CHICAGOCALGARY AT EDMONTONLOS ANGELES AT VANCOUVERMON., DEC. 26BOSTON AT BUFFALOPITTSBURGH AT HARTFORDNY ISLANDERS AT TORONTONEW JERSEY AT NY RANGERSST. LOUIS AT CHICAGOWINNIPEG AT MINNESOTACALGARY AT VANCOUVERTUES., DEC. 27MONTREAL AT LOS ANGELESNY RANGERS AT NEW JERSEYPHILADELPHIA AT WASHINGTONWED., DEC. 28HARTFORD AT QUEBECDETROIT AT BUFFALOMINNESOTA AT CHICAGOST. LOUIS AT WINNIPEGTHUR., DEC. 29BOSTON AT NEW JERSEYMONTREAL AT CALGARYTORONTO AT QUEBECPHILADELPHIA AT PITTSBURGHVANCOUVER AT LOS ANGELESFRI., DEC. 30DETROIT AT HARTFORDBUFFALO AT WASHINGTONMINNESOTA AT ST. LOUIS<h2>HOME-ROAD RECORDS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-0879/5480612-1-eng-US/f0030-082.jpg" title="f0030-08" width="978" height="860"></div><h2>DIVISIONAL RECORDS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-0970/5480605-1-eng-US/f0030-092.jpg" title="f0030-09" width="988" height="807"></div><h2>TEAM POWER PLAY</h2>(ADV) TOTAL ADVANTAGES (PPGF) POWER-PLAY GOALS FOR (PCT) ARRIVED BY DIVIDING NUMBER OF POWER-PLAY GOALS BY TOTAL ADVANTAGES<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1061/5480598-1-eng-US/f0030-102.jpg" title="f0030-10" width="992" height="624"></div><h2>TEAM PENALTY KILLING</h2>(TSH) TOTAL TIMES SHORT-HANDED (PPGA) POWER-PLAY GOALS AGAINST (PCT) ARRIVED BY DIVIDING - TIMES SHORT MINUS POWER-PLAY GOALS AGAINST - BY TIMES SHORT<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1155/5480591-1-eng-US/f0030-112.jpg" title="f0030-11" width="984" height="629"></div><h2>LEADING SCORERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1251/5480584-1-eng-US/f0030-122.jpg" title="f0030-12" width="1008" height="589"></div><h2>INDIVIDUAL LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1348/5480577-1-eng-US/f0030-132.jpg" title="f0030-13" width="1009" height="972"></div><h2>LEADING DEFENSEMEN</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1444/5480570-1-eng-US/f0030-142.jpg" title="f0030-14" width="1005" height="329"></div><h2>LEADING ROOKIES</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1544/5480563-1-eng-US/f0030-152.jpg" title="f0030-15" width="1007" height="346"></div><h2>ROOKIE LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1636/5480556-1-eng-US/f0030-162.jpg" title="f0030-16" width="1005" height="1093"></div><h2>TEAM-BY-TEAM SCORING</h2><h3>BOSTON BRUINS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01583/5480549-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="988" height="832"></div><h2>BUFFALO SABRES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02407/5480542-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="984" height="746"></div><h2>CALGARY FLAMES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-03299/5480535-1-eng-US/f0031-032.jpg" title="f0031-03" width="983" height="637"></div><h2>CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-04222/5480528-1-eng-US/f0031-042.jpg" title="f0031-04" width="989" height="790"></div><h2>DETROIT RED WINGS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-05175/5480521-1-eng-US/f0031-052.jpg" title="f0031-05" width="990" height="778"></div><h2>EDMONTON OILERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-06141/5480514-1-eng-US/f0031-062.jpg" title="f0031-06" width="989" height="643"></div><h2>HARTFORD WHALERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-07122/5480507-1-eng-US/f0031-072.jpg" title="f0031-07" width="978" height="717"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES KINGS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-08106/5480500-1-eng-US/f0031-082.jpg" title="f0031-08" width="982" height="683"></div><h2>MINNESOTA NORTH STARS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-0992/5480493-1-eng-US/f0031-092.jpg" title="f0031-09" width="981" height="661"></div><h2>MONTREAL CANADIENS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01615/5480486-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="974" height="688"></div><h2>NEW JERSEY DEVILS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02450/5480479-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="977" height="813"></div><h2>NEW YORK ISLANDERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-03300/5480472-1-eng-US/f0032-032.jpg" title="f0032-03" width="974" height="790"></div><h2>NEW YORK RANGERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-04186/5480465-1-eng-US/f0032-042.jpg" title="f0032-04" width="976" height="831"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA FLYERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-05126/5480458-1-eng-US/f0032-052.jpg" title="f0032-05" width="977" height="817"></div><h2>PITTSBURGH PENGUINS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-0696/5480451-1-eng-US/f0032-062.jpg" title="f0032-06" width="975" height="683"></div><h2>QUEBEC NORDIQUES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-0780/5480444-1-eng-US/f0032-072.jpg" title="f0032-07" width="977" height="734"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS BLUES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-0868/5480437-1-eng-US/f0032-082.jpg" title="f0032-08" width="975" height="703"></div><h2>TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-0958/5480430-1-eng-US/f0032-092.jpg" title="f0032-09" width="982" height="806"></div><h2>VANCOUVER CANUCKS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1053/5480423-1-eng-US/f0032-102.jpg" title="f0032-10" width="979" height="632"></div><h2>WASHINGTON CAPITALS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1146/5480416-1-eng-US/f0032-112.jpg" title="f0032-11" width="974" height="604"></div><h2>WINNIPEG JETS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1245/5480409-1-eng-US/f0032-122.jpg" title="f0032-12" width="978" height="690"></div><h2>GOALTENDING</h2>ALL GOALS AGAINST A TEAM IN ANY GAME ARE CHARGED TO THE GOALTENDER OF THAT GAME FOR PURPOSES OF AWARDING THE BILL JENNINGS TROPHYWON-LOST-TIED RECORD IS BASED UPON WHICH GOALTENDER WAS PLAYING WHEN THE WINNING OR TYING GOAL WAS SCOREDEMPTY-NET GOALS ARE NOT COUNTED IN PERSONAL AVERAGES BUT ARE INCLUDED IN THE TEAM TOTAL AND THE SHOTIS) IS INCLUDED IN THE GOALTENDER&rsquo;S SHOTS AGAINST (SA) TOTAL (GP) GAMES PLAYED IN (MIN) MINUTES PLAYED (AVG) 60 MINUTE AVERAGE (GA) GOALS AGAINST SHOTS AGAINST (PCT) SAVE PERCENTAGE<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01551/5480402-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="1009" height="2608"></div> &#9632;

f0030-01

NHL STATISTICAL REPORT

<h2>ALL LEAGUE STANDINGS AS OF MON., DEC. 19 AHL</h2><h3>NORTH DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02394/5480867-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="570" height="211"></div><h3>SOUTH DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-03287/5480860-1-eng-US/f0033-032.jpg" title="f0033-03" width="566" height="213"></div><h3>RESULTS</h3>TUES., DEC. 13MONCTON 5 AT HALIFAX 8WED., DEC. 14CAPE BRETON 6 AT HERSHEY 5SPRINGFIELD 5 AT NEW HAVEN 3ADIRONDACK 4 AT UTICA 6FRI., DEC. 16ADIRONDACK 10 AT BALTIMORE 6SHERBROOKE 5 AT BINGHAMTON 4CAPE BRETON 6 AT NEWMARKET 3NEW HAVEN 4 AT SPRINGFIELD 2HERSHEY 3 AT UTICA 7SAT., DEC. 17NEW HAVEN 4 AT ADIRONDACK 7BALTIMORE 5 AT BINGHAMTON 6SHERBROOKE 5 AT HERSHEY 4HALIFAX 4 AT MONCTON 7MAINE 3 AT SPRINGFIELD 3 (OT)NEWMARKET I AT UTICA 6SUN, DEC. 18BINGHAMTON 3 AT BALTIMORE 10MONCTON 5 AT HALIFAX 3SPRINGFIELD 2 AT HERSHEY 4UTICA 6 AT NEW HAVEN 3CAPE BRETON 3 AT ROCHESTER 3 (OT)MAINE 3 AT SHERBROOKE 6<h2>SCORING LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-04227/5480853-1-eng-US/f0033-042.jpg" title="f0033-04" width="569" height="574"></div><h2>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-05186/5480846-1-eng-US/f0033-052.jpg" title="f0033-05" width="592" height="163"></div><h2>IHL</h2><h3>EAST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-06154/5480839-1-eng-US/f0033-062.jpg" title="f0033-06" width="567" height="157"></div><h3>WEST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-07137/5480832-1-eng-US/f0033-072.jpg" title="f0033-07" width="567" height="157"></div><h3>RESULTS</h3>TUES., DEC. 13INDIANAPOLIS 7 AT SALT LAKE 12PEORIA 3 AT DENVER 4WED., DEC. 14FLINT 3 AT MILWAUKEE 4INDIANAPOLIS 4 AT SALT LAKE 11PEORIA 2 AT DENVER 4FRI., DEC. 16KALAMAZOO 3 AT MUSKEGON 6FORT WAYNE 3 AT MILWAUKEE 4SAGINAW I AT FLINT 4PEORIA 2 AT DENVER 4SAT., DEC. 17INDIANAPOLIS 3 AT FORT WAYNE 8FLINT 2 AT MUSKEGON 7MILWAUKEE 2 AT SAGINAW 4PEORIA 7 AT KALAMAZOO 6DENVER 1 AT SALT LAKE 3SUN., DEC. 18FORT WAYNE 3 AT FLINT 1MUSKEGON 6 AT INDIANAPOLIS 2<h2>SCORING LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-08114/5480825-1-eng-US/f0033-082.jpg" title="f0033-08" width="566" height="360"></div><h2>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-0999/5480818-1-eng-US/f0033-092.jpg" title="f0033-09" width="565" height="160"></div><h2>OHL</h2><h3>LEYDEN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1092/5480811-1-eng-US/f0033-102.jpg" title="f0033-10" width="565" height="209"></div><h3>EMMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1188/5480804-1-eng-US/f0033-112.jpg" title="f0033-11" width="570" height="239"></div><h3>RESULTS</h3>TUES., DEC. 13KITCHENER 6 AT LONDON 5PETERBOROUGH 5 AT TORONTO 3WED., DEC. 14KITCHENER 3 AT GUELPH 5THUR., DEC. 15OSHAWA 5 AT CORNWALL 2IAGARA FALLS 9 AT PETERBOROUGH 3S.S. MARIE 1 AT SUDBURY 3LONDON 6 AT WINDSOR 4FRI., DEC. 16S.S. MARIE 2 AT GUELPH 9CORNWALL 6 AT KINGSTON 3SUDBURY 4 AT KITCHENER 5WINDSOR 2 AT LONDON 5OSHAWA 3 AT OTTAWA 4SAT., DEC. 17OTTAWA 4 AT BELLEVILLE 7S.S. MARIE 2 AT TORONTO 3SUN., DEC. 18KITCHENER 3 AT KINGSTON 9ETERBOROUGH 0 AT NIAGARA FALLS 8BELLEVILLE 6 AT NORTH BAY 5 (OT)CORNWALL 2 AT OSHAWA 2 (OT)OTTAWA 1 AT TORONTO 2GUELPH 5 AT WINDSOR 2<h2>SCORING LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1285/5480797-1-eng-US/f0033-122.jpg" title="f0033-12" width="566" height="543"></div><h2>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1369/5480790-1-eng-US/f0033-132.jpg" title="f0033-13" width="563" height="152"></div><h2>WHL</h2><h3>EAST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1462/5480783-1-eng-US/f0033-142.jpg" title="f0033-14" width="568" height="233"></div><h3>WFST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1554/5480776-1-eng-US/f0033-152.jpg" title="f0033-15" width="566" height="179"></div><h3>RESULTS</h3>TUES., DEC. 13BRANDON 1 AT SASKATOON 2MEDICINE HAT 5 AT SEATTLE 4MOOSE JAW 3 AT PRINCE ALBERT 4 (OT)SWIFT CURRENT AT LETHBRIDGE (PPD. SNOW)WED, DEC. 14BRANDON 4 AT REGINA 1MEDICINE HAT 3 AT PORTLAND 4SPOKANE 3 AT KAMLOOPS 4FRI., DEC. 16LETHBRIDGE 3 AT SASKATOON 6MEDICINE HAT 5 AT TRI-CITY 3PRINCE ALBERT 8 AT REGINA 5SWIFT CURRENT 8 AT BRANDON 6VICTORIA 5 AT SEATTLE 6 (OT)SAT., DEC. 17MEDICINE HAT 7 AT SPOKANE 10PRINCE ALBERT 2 AT MOOSE JAW 5KAMLOOPS 8 AT SEATTLE 5VICTORIA 4 AT TRI-CITY 8SUN., DEC. 18MOOSE JAW 3 AT LETHBRIDGE 6REGINA 6 AT SASKATOON 5SWIFT CURRENT 6 AT BRANDON 1KAMLOOPS 5 AT SPOKANE 6VICTORIA 8 AT PORTLAND 4<h3>FUTURE GAMES</h3>WED., DEC. 28REGINA AT MOOSE JAWSWIFT CURRENT AT LETHBRIDGESPOKANE AT PRINCE ALBERTTRI-CITY AT VICTORIAFRI., DEC. 30MEDICINE HAT AT LETHBRIDGEPRINCE ALBERT AT BRANDONSASKATOON AT SWIFT CURRENTPORTLAND AT TRI-CITYSPOKANE AT REGINAVICTORIA AT KAMLOOPSSAT., DEC. 31SWIFT CURRENT AT MEDICINE HATKAMLOOPS AT VICTORIASEATTLE AT PORTLANDSPOKANE AT MOOSE JAW<h2>SCORING LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1648/5480769-1-eng-US/f0033-162.jpg" title="f0033-16" width="568" height="549"></div><h2>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1746/5480762-1-eng-US/f0033-172.jpg" title="f0033-17" width="566" height="154"></div><h2>QMJHL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1840/5480755-1-eng-US/f0033-182.jpg" title="f0033-18" width="571" height="315"></div><h3>RESULTS</h3>MON., DEC. 12CHICOUTIMI 4 AT LAVAL 5VICTORIAVILLE 6 AT LONGUEUIL 3TUES., DEC. 13SHAWINIGAN 3 AT HULL 10VERDUN 2 AT TROIS-RIVIERES 7WED., DEC. 14DRUMMONDVILLE 3 AT LAVAL 6ST-JEAN 2 AT GRANBY 6FRI., DEC. 16VERDUN 4 AT CHICOUTIMI 6DRUMMONDVILLE 3 AT GRANBY 7LAVAL 2 AT LONGUEUIL 4TROIS-RIVIERES 8 AT ST-JEAN 4VICTORIAVILLE 4 AT SHAWINIGAN 5SUN., DEC. 18CHICOUTIMI 1 AT VICTORIAVILLE 44GUEUIL 7 AT DRUMMONDVILLE 6 (OT)GRANBY 5 AT VERDUN 4 (OT)LAVAL 3 AT HULL 4ST-JEAN 2 AT SHAWINIGAN 8<h3>FUTURE GAMES</h3>WED., DEC. 28VICTORIAVILLE AT CHICOUTIMIVERDUN AT HULLTHUR., DEC. 29GRANBY AT LONGUEUILST-JEAN AT TROIS-RIVIERESFRI., DEC. 30GRANBY AT CHICOUTIMIVERDUN AT DRUMMONDVILLETROIS-RIVIERES AT HULLLAVAL AT ST-JEANSHAWINIGAN AT VICTORIAVILLEMON., JAN. 2ST-JEAN AT LAVALLONGUEUIL AT SHAWINIGANTUES., JAN. 3CHICOUTIMI AT TROIS-RIVIERESDRUMMONDVILLE AT HULLGRANBY AT VICTORIAVILLE<h2>SCORING LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1935/5480748-1-eng-US/f0033-192.jpg" title="f0033-19" width="571" height="365"></div><h2>GOALTENDING RECORDS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-2031/5480741-1-eng-US/f0033-202.jpg" title="f0033-20" width="568" height="159"></div><h2>ECHL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-2129/5480734-1-eng-US/f0033-212.jpg" title="f0033-21" width="568" height="156"></div><h3>RESULTS</h3>WED., DEC. 14JOHNSTOWN 7 AT CAROLINA 6THUR., DEC. 15JOHNSTOWN 3 AT VIRGINIA 4 (OT)FRI., DEC. 16JOHNSTOWN 5 AT KNOXVILLE 6 (OT)VIRGINIA 4 AT ERIE 8SAT., DEC. 17KNOXVILLE 3 AT CAROLINA 7VIRGINIA 6 AT JOHNSTOWN 9SUN., DEC. 18VIRGINIA 2 AT ERIE 3 (OT)CAROLINA 3 AT KNOXVILLE 8<h2>SCORING LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01628/5480727-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="568" height="420"></div><h2>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02480/5480720-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="564" height="158"></div><h2>USHL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03373/5480713-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="575" height="297"></div><h3>RESULTS</h3>FRI., DEC. 16SIOUX CITY 3 AT THUNDER BAY 10NORTH IOWA 5 AT ROCHESTER 8SAT., DEC. 17DES MOINES 4 AT DUBUQUE 2SIOUX CITY 4 AT THUNDER BAY 9ST. PAUL 1 AT MADISON 6NORTH IOWA 3 AT OMAHA 5ROCHESTER 3 AT WATERLOO 1SUN., DEC. 18SIOUX CITY 2 AT ST. PAUL 9DUBUQUE 3 AT WATERLOO 2DES MOINES 2 AT MADISON 8<h2>SCORING LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04273/5480706-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="567" height="427"></div><h2>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-05212/5480699-1-eng-US/f0034-052.jpg" title="f0034-05" width="560" height="153"></div><h2>SUPER SERIES</h2>MON., DEC. 26RED ARMY AT QUEBECTUES., DEC. 27DYNAMO RIGA AT CALGARYWED., DEC. 28DYNAMO RIGA AT EDMONTONTHUR., DEC.29RED ARMY AT NY ISLANDERSFRI., DEC. 30DYNAMO RIGA AT VANCOUVERSAT., DEC. 31RED ARMY AT BOSTONDYNAMO RIGA AT LOS ANGELESMON., JAN. 2RED ARMY AT NEW JERSEYWED., JAN. 4RED ARMY AT PITTSBURGHDYNAMO RIGA AT CHICAGOTHUR., JAN. 5DYNAMO RIGA AT ST. LOUISSAT., JAN. 7RED ARMY AT HARTFORDDYNAMO RIGA AT MINNESOTAMON., JAN. 9RED ARMY AT BUFFALO<h2>WORLD JUNIOR</h2>WORLD JR. CHAMPIONSHIP(ROUND-ROBIN SCHEDULE)(AT ANCHORAGE. ALASKA)MON., DEC. 26CZECHOSLOVAKIA VS SWEDENCANADA VS NORWAYSOVIET UNION VS WEST GERMANYFINLAND VS U.S.A.TUES., DEC. 27CZECHOSLOVAKIA VS NORWAYU.S.A. VS SOVIET UNIONWED., DEC. 28SWEDEN VS FINLANDWEST GERMANY VS CANADATHUR., DEC. 29FINLAND VS NORWAYSOVIET UNION VS SWEDENCANADA VS U.S.A.CZECHOSLOVAKIA VS WEST GERMANYFRI., DEC. 30SOVIET UNION VS NORWAYU.S.A. VS CZECHOSLOVAKIASAT., DEC. 31WEST GERMANY VS FINLANDSWEDEN VS CANADASUN., JAN. 1SOVIET UNION VS FINLANDU.S.A. VS WEST GERMANYNORWAY VS SWEDENCZECHOSLOVAKIA VS CANADAMON., JAN. 2NORWAY VS U.S.A.CZECHOSLOVAKIA VS SOVIET UNIONTUES., JAN. 3WEST GERMANY VS SWEDENFINLAND VS CANADAWED., JAN. 4NORWAY VS WEST GERMANYSWEDEN VS U.S.A.FINLAND VS CZECHOSLOVAKIASOVIET UNION VS CANADA(END OF TOURNAMENT)<h2>IZVESTIA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-06182/5480692-1-eng-US/f0034-062.jpg" title="f0034-06" width="566" height="157"></div><h3>RESULTS</h3>FRI., DEC. 16SOVIET UNION 7, CANADA 1SAT., DEC. 17SWEDEN 4, CANADA 1FINLAND 4, CZECHOSLOVAKIA 4SUN., DEC. 18SOVIET UNION 5, FINLAND 2SWEDEN 2, CZECHOSLOVAKIA 0FUTURE GAMESMON., DEC. 19CANADA VS FINLANDTUES., DEC. 20CZECHOSLOVAKIA VS CANADASWEDEN VS SOVIET UNIONWED., DEC. 21SWEDEN VS FINLANDSOVIET UNION VS CZECHOSLOVAKIA(ALL GAMES PLAYED IN MOSCOW) &#9632;

f0033-02

SCOREBOARD

f0034-07

NHL SUMMARIES

<h2>ALL LEAGUE STANDINGS AS OF MON., DEC. 19 CCHA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01497/5481580-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="568" height="259"></div><h3>RESULTS</h3>THUR., DEC. 15MICHIGAN STATE 8 AT FERRIS STATE 2FRI., DEC. 16FERRIS STATE 0 AT MICHIGAN STATE 3MICHIGAN 3 AT ILLINOIS-CHICAGO 4 (OT)MIAMI 1 AT LAKE SUPERIOR 4OHIO STATE 4 AT BOWLING GREEN 7SAT., DEC. 17MICHIGAN 6 AT ILLINOIS-CHICAGO 1MIAMI 2 AT LAKE SUPERIOR 3 (OT)BOWLING GREEN 2 AT OHIO STATE 3 (OT)<h3>FUTURE GAMES</h3>FRI., JAN. 6ILLINOIS-CHICAGO AT MICHIGAN STATELAKE SUPERIOR AT MICHIGANFERRIS STATE AT OHIO STATENON-CONFERENCEBOWLING GREEN AT W. MICHIGANMIAMI AT MICHIGAN-DEARBORNSAT., JAN. 7ILLINOIS-CHICAGO AT MICHIGAN STATELAKE SUPERIOR AT MICHIGANFERRIS STATE AT OHIO STATENON-CONFERENCEBOWLING GREEN AT W. MICHIGANMIAMI AT MICHIGAN-DEARBORN<h3>SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02361/5481573-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="566" height="549"></div><h3>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03278/5481566-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="562" height="156"></div><h2>WCHA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-04230/5481559-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="570" height="235"></div><h3>RESULTS</h3>NON-CONFERENCETUES., DEC. 13ST. CLOUD STATE 1 AT WISCONSIN 8MOSCOW DYNAMO 6 AT MINNESOTA 2THUR., DEC. 15MOSCOW DYNAMO 6 AT WISCONSIN 2FRI., DEC. 16DENVER 2 AT N. MICHIGAN 9COLORADO COLLEGE 2 AT NORTH DAKOTA 3NON-CONFERENCEALASKA-FAIRBANKS 1 AT MINNESOTA-DULUTH 5SAT., DEC. 17DENVER 2 AT N. MICHIGAN 5COLORADO COLLEGE 1 AT NORTH DAKOTA 5NON-CONFERENCEALASKA-FAIRBANKS 1 AT MINNESOTA-DULUTH 6SUN., DEC. 18MOSCOW DYNAMO 7 AT NORTH DAKOTA 5<h3>SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-05201/5481552-1-eng-US/f0037-052.jpg" title="f0037-05" width="574" height="420"></div><h3>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-06172/5481545-1-eng-US/f0037-062.jpg" title="f0037-06" width="563" height="159"></div><h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-07149/5481538-1-eng-US/f0037-072.jpg" title="f0037-07" width="571" height="210"></div><h3>RESULTS</h3>TUES., DEC. 13LOWELL 3 AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY 6NON-CONFERENCESALEM STATE 2 AT PROVIDENCE 6<h3>FUTURE GAMES</h3>NON-CONFERENCEWED., DEC. 21MOSCOW DYNAMO AT BOSTON COLLEGETHUR., DEC. 22PROVIDENCE AT VERMONT<h3>SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-08122/5481531-1-eng-US/f0037-082.jpg" title="f0037-08" width="568" height="390"></div><h3>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-09104/5481524-1-eng-US/f0037-092.jpg" title="f0037-09" width="567" height="160"></div><h2>ECAC</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1095/5481517-1-eng-US/f0037-102.jpg" title="f0037-10" width="565" height="340"></div><h3>RESULTS</h3>MON., DEC. 12DARTMOUTH 0 AT HARVARD 10NON-CONFERENCEFRI., DEC. 16DARTMOUTH 3 AT ST. CLOUD STATE 7SAT., DEC. 17DARTMOUTH 3 AT ST. CLOUD STATE 4SUN., DEC. 18HOLY CROSS 0 AT PRINCETON 12<h3>SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1179/5481510-1-eng-US/f0037-112.jpg" title="f0037-11" width="569" height="368"></div><h3>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1268/5481503-1-eng-US/f0037-122.jpg" title="f0037-12" width="565" height="159"></div><h2>OUAA</h2><h3>EAST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1362/5481496-1-eng-US/f0037-132.jpg" title="f0037-13" width="569" height="181"></div><h3>CENTRAL DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1456/5481489-1-eng-US/f0037-142.jpg" title="f0037-14" width="566" height="184"></div><h3>WEST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1550/5481482-1-eng-US/f0037-152.jpg" title="f0037-15" width="570" height="157"></div><h3>SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1645/5481475-1-eng-US/f0037-162.jpg" title="f0037-16" width="568" height="419"></div><h3>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1741/5481468-1-eng-US/f0037-172.jpg" title="f0037-17" width="563" height="158"></div><h2>CWUAA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1840/5481461-1-eng-US/f0037-182.jpg" title="f0037-18" width="570" height="235"></div><h3>RESULTS</h3>NON-CONFERENCEFRI., DEC. 16CANADIAN JUNIORS 4 AT CALGARY 6<h3>FUTURE GAMES</h3>NON-CONFERENCETHUR., DEC. 29ALASKA-FAIRBANKS AT UBCFRI., DEC. 30ALASKA-FAIRBANKS AT UBCREGULAR SCHEDULE FRI JAN 6SASKATCHEWAN AT LETHBRIDGEUBC AT BRANDONREGINA AT CALGARYMANITOBA AT ALBERTASAT., JAN. 7SASKATCHEWAN AT LETHBRIDGEUBC AT BRANDONREGINA AT CALGARYMANITOBA AT ALBERTA<h3>SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1936/5481454-1-eng-US/f0037-192.jpg" title="f0037-19" width="568" height="367"></div><h3>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-2035/5481447-1-eng-US/f0037-202.jpg" title="f0037-20" width="565" height="155"></div><h2>AUAA</h2><h3>McADAM DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-2134/5481440-1-eng-US/f0037-212.jpg" title="f0037-21" width="566" height="154"></div><h3>KELLY DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-2233/5481433-1-eng-US/f0037-222.jpg" title="f0037-22" width="569" height="159"></div><h3>SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-2332/5481426-1-eng-US/f0037-232.jpg" title="f0037-23" width="566" height="312"></div><h3>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-2430/5481419-1-eng-US/f0037-242.jpg" title="f0037-24" width="562" height="158"></div><h2>TOURNAMENTS</h2><h3>RESULTS</h3>NISSAN-JEEP CLASSIC(AT ANCHORAGE. ALASKA)FRI., DEC. 16ANCHORAGE-ALASKA 5, MICH. TECH 1W. MICHIGAN 9, MINNESOTA 3SAT., DEC. 17CONSOLATIONMICH. TECH 2, MINNESOTA 2(MICH. TECH WINS THIRD PLACE)SUN., DEC. 18CHAMPIONSHIPALASKA-ANCHORAGE 5. W. MICHIGAN 4FUTURE GAMESDEXTER SHOE CLASSIC(AT ORONO, MAINE)TUES., DEC. 27CLARKSON VS LOWELLPRINCETON VS MAINEWED., DEC. 28CONSOLATION & CHAMPIONSHIPCALGARY-MOLSON INVITATIONAL(AT CALGARY, ALTA)TUES., DEC. 27ALBERTA VS WATERLOOCALGARY VS SASKATCHEWANWED., DEC. 28WATERLOO VS YORKSASKATCHEWAN VS McGILLTHUR., DEC. 29YORK VS ALBERTACALGARY VS McGILLFRI., DEC. 30CONSOLATION & CHAMPIONSHIP(ROUND-ROBIN TOURNAMENT)SILVERWOOD BISON CLASSIC(AT UNIV. MANITOBA, WINNIPEG)WED., DEC. 28MOUNT ROYAL VS REGINASAIT VS MANITOBATHUR., DEC. 29REGINA VS SAITMOUNT ROYAL VS MANITOBAFRI., DEC. 30SAIT VS MOUNT ROYALREGINA VS MANITOBA(ROUND-ROBIN TOURNAMENT)SYRACUSE INVITATIONAL(AT SYRACUSE. NY)WED., DEC. 28COLGATE VS BOWLING GREENCORNELL VS BOSTON UNIVERSITYTHUR., DEC. 29CONSOLATION & CHAMPIONSHIPRPI INVITATIONAL(AT TROY, NY)THUR., DEC. 29PROVIDENCE VS AIR FORCENOTRE DAME VS RPIFRI., DEC. 30CONSOLATION & CHAMPIONSHIPRIVERFRONT CLASSIC(AT CINCINNATI, OHIO)THUR., DEC. 29YALE VS BOSTON COLLEGEOHIO STATE VS MIAMIFRI., DEC. 30CONSOLATION & CHAMPIONSHIPGREAT LAKES INVITATIONAL(AT JOE LOUIS ARENA. DETROIT, MI)THUR., DEC. 29MICHIGAN VS MICHIGAN TECHMICHIGAN STATE VS NORTH DAKOTAFRI., DEC. 30CONSOLATION & CHAMPIONSHIPAULD LANG SYNE TOURNAMENT(AT PROVIDENCE, RI)FRI., DEC. 30VERMONT VS NORTHEASTERNNEW HAMPSHIRE VS DARTMOUTHSAT., DEC. 31CONSOLATION & CHAMPIONSHIPCAPE BRETON INVITATIONAL(AT SYDNEY, NS)SUN., JAN. 1LAURENTIAN VS CAPE BRETONMONCTON VS ACADIAMON., JAN. 2CONSOLATION & CHAMPIONSHIPYORK INVITATIONAL(AT TORONTO, ONT)FRI., JAN. 6GEORGIAN COLLEGE, SENECA, YORKLAURENTIAN, WESTERN, SHERIDANWATERLOO, HUMBER COLLEGESUN., JAN. 8CONSOLATION & CHAMPIONSHIPBEANPOT TOURNAMENT(AT BOSTON GARDEN)MON., FEB. 6BOSTON COLLEGE VS HARVARDNORTHEASTERN VS BOSTON UNVIERSITYMON., FEB. 13CONSOLATIONS CHAMPIONSHIP &#9632;

f0037-01

Bauer College ScoreBoard

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01575/5481611-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="517" height="613"><figcaption class="caption-body">ERIC DUHATSCHEK</figcaption></div>John Brophy doesn&rsquo;t believe in Santa Claus, but I do. He&rsquo;s a roly-poly fellow with a heavy French accent who drops down Cliff Fletcher&rsquo;s chimney a couple of times every year, bearing gifts of Wammer and Rammer and Killer.The last time in, I saw him making his list and checking it twice. On Christmas morning, he&rsquo;s giving:Lanny McDonald: Hemingway&rsquo;s The Old Man And The C plus a Stanley Cup ring.Bob Pulford: Grecian Formula.Mike Keenan: The Helsinki Formula.Viacheslav Fetisov: An exit visa and a CitiBank VISA card.Lou Lamoriello: Season tickets to the Bolshoi ballet.Viktor Tikhonov: A Crazy Shirts&rsquo; catalogue and a weekend on the Black Sea to wow the natives.Igor Larionov: A protocol officer.Jiri Hrdina: A Metallica poster and new ear drums.Iiro Jarvi: The chance to buy a vowel.Vanna White: An introduction to Iiro Jarvi.Guy Lafleur: The last laugh.Harold Ballard: Gorbachev&rsquo;s memoirs and an all-expense paid visit to Moscow&rsquo;s Sport Hotel.Dave King: Membership in Aeroflot&rsquo;s frequent-flyer program.Don Koharski: One chocolate, two honey-glazed and three jelly-filled.Jim Schoenfeld: The Meadowlands&rsquo; Dunkin&rsquo; Donuts franchise.Mike Modano: Winnipeg agent Don Baizley&rsquo;s phone number.Petr Klima: A case of Diet Coke.Jacques Demers: A case of Maalox.Bob McCammon: A spot on The Tonight Show.Harry Neale: See Bob McCammon.Charlie Bourgeois: An evening at the Improv.Mario Lemieux: A 14-carat scoring championship.Gene Ubriaco: A playoff berth.Tony Esposito: George Alien&rsquo;s memoirs.Phil Esposito: See Tony Esposito.Michel Bergeron: Valium.Bruce McNall: Passage out of the Smythe Division.Milwaukee: Passage into the NHL.Chicago: See Milwaukee.Mike Bullard: A copy of Blue Highways and a Winnebago.Brent Ashton: See Mike Bullard.John Ziegler: Tap shoes and the Joy of Cooking.Pat Quinn: Judge&rsquo;s robes and a chance to meet John Ziegler in a best-of-seven series in the British Columbia Supreme Court.Brian O&rsquo;Neill: A gavel and an excuse to rap the knuckles of a couple of repeat offenders.Jimmy Carson: An end to the Wayne Gretzky questions.Jari Kurri: See Jimmy Carson.Mark Messier: A padded hockey stick to soften the blow.Robbie Ftorek: A copy of How To Win Friends And Influence People.Wayne Gretzky: A corner table at Spago.Janet Jones: A healthy, happy baby girl.Peter Pocklington: An Oscar for his cameo appearance in Police Academy VII. What an actor.Bernie Nicholls: An Emmy for his cameo appearance on Night Heat.SportsChannel: More outlets in the U.S. west and south.Herb Brooks: Head coach of the Kikudo Bunnies.Sports Illustrated: A new soapbox.Kevin Lowe: Membership in the Professional Hockey Writers&rsquo; Association.Jack Falla: A Pulitzer Prize.Jay Greenberg: An award for humor writing.Darren Pang: Lifts.Theoren Fleury: A perm.Joey Kocur: A top 10-ranking from Ring magazine and a shot at Mike Tyson&rsquo;s heavyweight title.Jim Kyte: A rematch.Glenn Anderson: Greta Garbo&rsquo;s press agent.Tom Barrasso: A bonus for his new press agent.Larry Felser, columnist for the Buffalo News: Stephen King&rsquo;s The Tommyknockers.Pierre Creamer: The Flintstone video library.Don Cherry: A muzzle. For the new Blue, not Don.Gord Stellick: A pacifier. For old Harold, not Gord.&hellip;and a Merry Christmas to Serge Boisvert and all the North Americans playing overseas this year. &#9632;

f0038-01

A CHRISTMAS GIFT LIST

<h2>KINGS:</h2>Defenseman Dean Kennedy called the Dec. 12 trade sending him and defenseman Denis Larocque to the New York Rangers for left winger Igor Liba, defenseman Michael Boyce and center Todd Elik a shocker. &ldquo;You might as well have hit me with a sledgehammer,&rdquo; said the five-year veteran of the Kings. &ldquo;It was almost as much of a shock as when I got a hole-in-one on the golf course.&rdquo; The trade was made in part because the Kings coveted Liba and Elik. But they were also logjammed with eight defensemen and wanted to give youngsters Wayne McBean and Ken Baumgartner more playing time&hellip;Unlike Larry Playfair, Jay Wells and Rollie Melanson, all of whom were critical of coach Robbie Ftorek following trades or demotions, Kennedy said, &ldquo;I respect him. He&rsquo;s a damned hard worker. We butted heads a few times, but never over anything serious. He can&rsquo;t burp without something getting into the papers. I think he&rsquo;s handled things very well.&rdquo;&hellip;Trade talks involving Melanson, in New Haven of the American League since Nov. 15, apparently had fizzled.<h2>FLAMES:</h2>Center Joe Nieuwendyk had perhaps the most unusual week of his short career, taking two penalty shots four days apart. On the first, Dec. 12 against Toronto&rsquo;s Jeff Reese, Nieuwendyk showed backhand, went forehand and hit the post. On Dec. 16 against Vancouver&rsquo;s Steve Weeks, he reversed the move and scored with a neat deke to the backhand side. &ldquo;I thought maybe he saw the first penalty shot on the TV highlights,&rdquo; said Nieuwendyk. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t want to try the same move.&rdquo; The goal stood up as the winner in Calgary&rsquo;s 5-3 win&hellip;In the game, Vancouver left winger Petri Skriko&rsquo;s second-period goal with a two-man advantage ended Calgary&rsquo;s shutout span of 92 minutes and 57 seconds against Vancouver. Included in that span was Rick Wamsley&rsquo;s 10th career shutout, a 2-0 win Dec. 15 in Calgary. That lowered Wamsley&rsquo;s league-leading goals against average to 2.30&hellip;The Flames were 19-0 when they held the lead after two periods.<h2>CANUCKS:</h2>When general manager Pat Quinn and company arrived two seasons ago, they talked about having an aggressive team. But in year two of the rebuilding process, that has fallen by the wayside. &ldquo;It really bothers Pat and me&hellip;but we had to give it up to acquire more skills,&rdquo; said director of hockey operations Brian Burke. &ldquo;And we went with a big lineup at the beginning of last year with (6-foot-4, 200-pound Craig) Coxe, (6-foot-5, 220-pound Dave) Richter and (6-foot-2, 200-pound Daryl) Stanley and we didn&rsquo;t win. We would like to do something about it, but we don&rsquo;t feel it&rsquo;s good just to have a guy who does only that (provide a physical presence) on your hockey club. We can&rsquo;t afford it.&rdquo;<h2>JETS:</h2>Left winger Doug Smail was cut by a skate blade for 22 stitches on his left calf in a 6-3 loss to Washington Dec. 17. Smail, who had 10 goals and 11 assists in 28 games, was expected to miss at least two weeks of action. His absence permitted right winger Hannu Jarvenpaa to dress for the first time in 10 games&hellip;When left winger Brent Ashton scored on a penalty shot in an 8-6 loss to Vancouver Dec. 11, it was the first time a Jet had scored on a penalty shot since the club joined the NHL in 1979. It was also Ashton&rsquo;s 200th career goal&hellip;Center Dale Hawerchuk missed on a penalty shot Dec. 17 in Washington. It was the third time this season Winnipeg was involved in such a confrontation. Besides Ashton&rsquo;s goal and Hawerchuk&rsquo;s miss, Pokey Reddick stopped the New York Rangers&rsquo; Guy Lafleur in Winnipeg Nov. 29.<h2>OILERS:</h2>Right winger Jari Kurri went over 900 NHL points with a six-point night (2-4) against Toronto in an 8-2 win Dec. 14. Kurri was 420-486-906 in 634 career games. He is only the third native European to break the 900 mark of the 31 NHLers who have done so. Chicago center Stan Mikita (1,467 points in 1,394 games) and Quebec center Peter Stastny (937 in 630 games), both natives of Czechoslovakia, are the others&hellip;Canadian junior team officials wanted to add defenseman Chris Joseph to the team for the World Junior Championships in Anchorage, Alaska, but the Oilers hung onto him after the Dec. 16 deadline because defenseman Randy Gregg pulled a leg muscle&hellip;Goalie Bill Ranford stopped 23 shots in a 4-3 overtime loss, as he faced his former Boston Bruin teammates Dec. 15 for the first time since the March trade to Edmonton. &#9632;

DEPARTED KENNEDY THROWING NO STONES

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div>Hockey players are people, too.At least that&rsquo;s what the Los Angeles Kings think. And even if it meant having Wayne Gretzky out of the lineup for a 5-4 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins Dec. 14, the Kings&rsquo; attitude of &lsquo;family first&rsquo; prevailed.&ldquo;Our policy,&rdquo; said Kings&rsquo; general manager Rogie Vachon, &ldquo;is it&rsquo;s a long season and you have to put your family first.&ldquo;We try to treat our players as people, which they most certainly are. If they have personal problems or family responsibilities to attend to. those come first.&rdquo;Gretzky was flown to his hometown of Brantford, Ont., in club owner Bruce McNall&rsquo;s private jet the previous day to be with his family following the death of his paternal grandmother, Mary. She was 85.Gretzky and his grandmother, who played the part of goaltender for him when he was growing up. were extremely close. After attending funeral services Dec. 14. Gretzky telephoned coach Robbie Ftorek to tell him it would be very difficult to play against the Penguins that night.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure he&rsquo;s a big pillar in the family,&rdquo; Ftorek said following the game. &ldquo;He realized he had to stay. Certainly we missed him. Obviously, not having a player of Wayne&rsquo;s magnitude is going to affect you.&ldquo;But we feel if a family is having problems, you&rsquo;ve got to take care of that first. It was more important that he be with his family, no question about that.&rdquo;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s probably the first time I put my family ahead of my career,&rdquo; said Gretzky. &ldquo;My mind was not 100 per cent on hockey and I don&rsquo;t think I was ready to play.&rdquo;He returned to the lineup Dec. 16 and contributed a goal and two assists in the Kings&rsquo; 6-4 win in Detroit.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been tough.&rdquo; said Gretzky. &ldquo;People have to understand that athletes go through emotional things also. It&rsquo;s a tough time for my family. It&rsquo;s especially tough for my father (Walter), who was so close to my grandmother. But she had a great life. She lived for 85 years and we enjoyed her time.&rdquo;These were particularly emotional times for Gretzky because his wife. Janet, was expected to give birth to their first child.In an about-face from past Kings&rsquo; regimes, the managerial team is responding to the emotional needs of its players.During the 1982-83 season, the pregnant wife of goaltender Markus Mattsson went into labor after arriving at the Forum for a game between the Kings and the Toronto Maple Leafs, and she was rushed to the hospital by several players&rsquo; wives.Mattsson, who played that night in a Kings&rsquo; win, wasn&rsquo;t even told until after the game, and he missed the birth of the couple&rsquo;s first child.Then-general manager George Maguire and his coaches, Don Perry and Brad Selwood, tried to justify that decision by saying they wanted Mattsson to concentrate on hockey.This year, goalie Glenn Healy was given a few days off during training camp to visit his father, who at the time was hospitalized with a heart problem.Last year, former King defenseman Mark Hardy was permitted to leave camp to be with his wife after she had a miscarriage.Czechoslovakian left winger Igor Liba&mdash;acquired Dec. 12 from the Rangers along with defenseman Michael Boyce and center Todd Elik for defensemen Dean Kennedy and Denis Larocque&mdash;speaks very little English and had great difficulty comprehending the trade, even though it was his second in seven months. After starting his first season with Minnesota. Liba was traded to the Rangers in November.Rather than force Liba. who was recovering from a broken finger, to immediately join the Kings, management flew him. his wife and the couple&rsquo;s 16-month-old son to Los Angeles.Ftorek spoke with Liba&rsquo;s wife, who does speak English, &ldquo;because we wanted to make sure that she and her son will be fine,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;He (Igor) was still a bit confused, but we wanted to make sure that everyone was okay.&rdquo;Ranger Chris Nilan, who learned a little Czechoslovakian from Petr Svoboda while they were teammates in Montreal, was also helpful.&ldquo;He talked to him a lot and we are appreciative of that.&rdquo; Ftorek said.Liba and his family were met at the airport by Vachon, injured right winger Jim Fox and Mike Bilek. a Czechoslovakian immigrant who helped Petr Prajsler (now in New Haven) adjust last year.&ldquo;Mike, who happens to be a big hockey fan. has been very helpful in the past,&rdquo; Vachon said. &ldquo;I called him the other night and asked him to call Igor. He and his family will be living with Mike in his home until we can find them an apartment.&rdquo;<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 10: Brian Wilks, LW, assigned to New Haven (AHL). Ken Baumgartner. D, recalled from New Haven.Dec. 12: Dean Kennedy. D. and Denis Larocque. D, traded to New York Rangers in exchange for Igor Liba. LW. Michael Boyce, D. and Todd Elik, C. Boyce and Elik assigned to New Haven.Dec. 13: Lyle Phair, LW, sold to New Jersey.Dec. 16: Bob Logan, LW, and Dave Pasin, RW, recalled from New Haven.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Wayne Gretzky, Bernie Nicholls, Mike Krushelnyski, Ron Duguay.LW&mdash;Bob Carpenter, Luc Robitaille. John Tonelli. Gilles Hamel, Bob Logan.RW&mdash;Mike Allison, Dave Taylor, Marty McSorley. Dave Pasin.LD&mdash;Tim Watters, Ken Baumgartner. Wayne McBean.RD&mdash;Steve Duchesne. Tom Laidlaw. Doug Crossman.G&mdash;Glenn Healy, Mark Fitzpatrick.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dale DeGray, D, concussion, day-to-day.Jim Fox, RW, knee surgery, rest of season.Igor Liba, LW. broken finger, day-to-day. &#9632;

KINGS ALLOW PLAYERS TO PUT FAMILY BEFORE HOCKEY

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div>Edmonton Oilers have learned how the other half lives.Not only could the defending Stanley Cup champions not escape third place in the Smythe Division&mdash;despite a record of 19-12-3 which would put them in first place in the Norris and Patrick Divisions&mdash;but they also ran into a rash of injuries.Two players&mdash;defenseman Randy Gregg and right winger Normand Lacombe&mdash;were sent home early from a four-game eastern swing.Gregg aggravated a pulled leg muscle and was sent to Edmonton from Toronto Dec. 15 without even participating in one game on the safari to Toronto (8-2 win Dec. 14), Boston (4-3 loss in overtime Dec. 15), Hartford (4-2 win Dec. 17) and Buffalo (where they played Dec. 19). He missed four games initially with the injury but came back for the Oilers&rsquo; 8-3 win over Quebec Dec. 7.&ldquo;I played back-to-back games (a 5-3 loss to Calgary Dec. 8 and 7-6 loss to Winnipeg Dec. 10) and it got sore again&rdquo; said Gregg, a medical doctor. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re here to play, not to watch, but the doctor&rsquo;s not always the best patient.&rdquo;The uncertainty with the Gregg situation prevented rookie defenseman Chris Joseph from joining the Canadian national team for the World Junior Championships in Anchorage, Alaska, Dec. 26 to Jan. 4.Lacombe suffered two broken fingers on his right hand when he tripped and crashed into the boards early in an 8-2 rout of the Maple Leafs in Toronto Dec. 14.&ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t do anything, I had to put my hand out to protect the fall,&rdquo; explained Lacombe. &ldquo;I shot the puck and I was tripped.&rdquo;Lacombe flew home Nov. 16 and was expected to be out at least a week.Also in the Toronto game, Oilers&rsquo; Keith Acton suffered a broken nose when the Leafs&rsquo; John Kordic raked his stick over Acton&rsquo;s face from behind.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it was Kordic&rsquo;s fault,&rdquo; said Oilers&rsquo; general managercoach Glen Sather. &ldquo;You could see he was going to do something out of frustration.&ldquo;But I still don&rsquo;t condone it and we&rsquo;re going to the league for supplementary action.&rdquo;Kordic, who received a five-minute major for cross-checking and an automatic game misconduct, said he acted out of frustration.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll probably get suspended by the league,&rdquo; said the Edmonton native, who also drew a butt-ending major on Nov. 19 in Edmonton.&ldquo;Isn&rsquo;t this the kind of stuff the league is trying to clean up?&rdquo; asked Acton, who missed one game with the second broken nose of his NHL career.The injuries forced the Oilers to re-activate left winger Craig Simpson for the Dec. 15 loss to Boston after he missed four games with a bruised ankle. He suffered the injury while blocking a shot from Ranger defenseman Brian Leetch in a 10-6 win Dec. 4. He was expected to miss the Sabre game.To further complicate matters, defenseman Craig Muni took a shot on the ankle Dec. 17 in Hartford.&ldquo;I had just decided to rest Simpson in the third period, he was hurting and I didn&rsquo;t want to take a chance, and Muni gets hit,&rdquo; sighed Sather.Muni finished the game, scoring the insurance goal in a 4-2 win, but his ankle was swollen the next day.<h2>EDMONTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 13: Daryl Reaugh, G, assigned to Karpat Oulu of Finnish Elite Division.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mark Messier. Jimmy Carson. Craig MacTavish, Keith Acton.LW&mdash;Greg Adams, Kelly Buchberger, Esa Tikkanen, Glen Cochrane.RW&mdash;Jari Kurri, Glenn Anderson, Kevin McClelland, Doug Smith.LD&mdash;Kevin Lowe, Steve Smith, Charlie Huddy.RD&mdash;Craig Muni, Jeff Beukeboom, Chris Joseph.G&mdash;Grant Fuhr, Bill Hanford.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Randy Gregg, D, pulled leg muscle, day-to-day.Normand Lacombe, RW. two broken fingers on right hand, day-to-day.Craig Simpson, LW. bruised ankle, day-to-day. &#9632;

INJURIES KEEP HAUNTING OILERS

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div>When the Vancouver Canucks were having success early in the season, they played it close to the vest and prayed for offense.It came on half the nights and they played .500 hockey up until Nov. 29, when they were 11-11-5.But after running into a string of Smythe Division opponents, the Canucks found themselves at 12-17-5 and in last place, two points behind the Winnipeg Jets. But the Jets had five games in hand.All season long, the Canucks had trouble scoring goals. But when they concentrated on offense to rectify that situation, they were often on the short end of shootouts.They got back to playing their defensive style, but a 2-0 loss in Calgary Dec. 15, followed by a 5-3 loss to the Flames the next night at home left Canucks with one win in eight games. With all three goals in the first loss to the Flames coming on the power play, the Canucks had gone two full games without scoring an even-strength goal.Scoring droughts were the rule, not the exception in the Vancouver lineup.Center Greg Adams (12-7-19 in 34 games), who carried most of the first-half offense last year, was goalless in nine games. Right winger Jim Sandlak (6-8-14 in 28 games), in his fourth year of NHL play, had one goal in 17 games. Tony Tanti (12-15-27 in 34 games) had one in seven. Center Brian Bradley (8-9-17 in 31 games) scored on the power play against the Flames, but it was his first in 11 games. Right winger Stan Smyl (4-812 34 games) had just one in 12 games.&ldquo;For us to make the playoffs we&rsquo;re going to have to string together about eight or 10 wins,&rdquo; says Canucks&rsquo; coach Bob McCammon.Much of the problem for the Canucks was in their own division. Every time they put a couple of wins together, they ran into one of the Smythe Division teams. Even the fourth-place Winnipeg Jets (13-11-5) were playing above .500 and Calgary (23-5-5), Los Angeles (21-12-1) and Edmonton (19-12-3) were first, third and fourth overall in the NHL.With precious little forward help down on the farm in Milwaukee of the International League, McCammon was at a loss to know what to do. He juggled the lines ad nauseam, leaving the trade route the only way to go if the team is serious about doing some thing about the offense this year.&ldquo;We make just about every goalie who comes into our building look good,&rdquo; says McCammon. &ldquo;We get shots, some good chances but there is no bottom line. I don&rsquo;t know how long it can go on like this.&rdquo;The Canucks&rsquo; problems were everywhere up front, but most serious at center. Barry Pederson (10-15-25 in 30 games) was playing well, but the struggling Adams was moved to left wing. The tiny trio of centers consisting of Bradley (5-feet-10, 170 pounds), Steve Bozek (5-feet-l 1, 175 pounds and 5-8-13 in 34 games) and Dan Hodgson (5-feet-10, 175 pounds and 2-9-11 in 12 games) were getting very little accomplished.The Canucks had nobody to stack up against the division&rsquo;s physical centers, such as Edmonton&rsquo;s Mark Messier, Calgary&rsquo;s Joel Otto and Winnipeg&rsquo;s Laurie Boschman.<h2>VANCOUVER</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 13: Rob Murphy, C, loaned to Canadian national junior team.Dec. 15: Troy Gamble, G, recalled from Milwaukee (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Barry Pederson, Steve Bozek, Dan Hodgson, Brian Bradley.LW&mdash;Greg Adams, Rich Sutter, Petri Skriko, Tony Tanti, Ken BerryRW&mdash;Stan Smyl, Jim Sandlak, David Bruce, Trevor Linden.LD&mdash;Larry Melnyk. Jim Benning, Harold Snepsts, Paul Reinhart.RD&mdash;Gafth Butcher, Kevan Guy, Robert Nordmark, Doug Lidster.G&mdash;Steve Weeks, Kirk McLean, Troy Gamble.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

LACK OF PRODUCTION PLAGUES CANUCKS

<div class="byline">BY GRANT McGINNIS</div>Two years ago, the Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; penalty killers were often worth the price of admission.Some went so far as to describe the team&rsquo;s shorthanded situations as works of art. Opposition power plays occasionally ended in a standing ovation at the Winnipeg Arena. With right winger Ron Wilson, left winger Doug Smail and defensemen Jim Kyte and Mario Marois hopping over the boards for most of the situations, the Jets finished the year with the league&rsquo;s best penalty-killing efficiency at 83.6 per cent.Wilson is now a playing coach with the Jets&rsquo; American League farm team in Moncton. Marois was dealt to Quebec for right winger Gord Donnelly Dec. 6. Kyte was coming off a bad season on defense and only Smail remained as a member of the unit.Jets&rsquo; coach Dan Maloney may have had the NHL&rsquo;s best power play at 27.8 percent, but the team&rsquo;s penalty killing was struggling like never before. Despite neutralizing five shorthanded situations in a 5-1 loss to Philadelphia Dec. 18, the Jets were at a 78.1 percent rate, 15th in the NHL.&ldquo;We started off slowly once again this year,&rdquo; said Maloney. &ldquo;Usually when you come out of the gate slow, your penalty killing struggles the whole year, but there was a stretch where we were going very, very well.&ldquo;When we were No. 1 two years ago, I thought Ronny Wilson and Dougie Smail were a real dominant force. Jimmy and Mario were a very strong pair at that time and were really tough defensively. Basically, those were the guys I used probably 60 to 70 per cent of the time and they did a big job for me.&rdquo;This year&rsquo;s unit, with Smail and center Thomas Steen as its only permanent fixtures, was doing anything but the big job for Maloney. Every defenseman on the team had been used in shorthanded situations, but Maloney&rsquo;s juggling did nothing to improve the inconsistency.On a recent four-game road trip through the Smythe Division, Winnipeg&rsquo;s opposition scored six times in 19 man-advantage chances, a success rate of 68.4 per cent. Maloney said the Jets&rsquo; problems were primarily behind their own blueline.&ldquo;I think one of the biggest things we have to do is clear the front of the net better,&rdquo; said Maloney. &ldquo;And certainly when we get a chance to put the puck down (the ice), it&rsquo;s gotta go down. There are a lot of variations in the power plays we&rsquo;re working against, but basically where we&rsquo;re getting ourselves in trouble is the front of the net.&rdquo;Smail, who was cut for 22 stitches in a 6-3 loss to Washington Dec. 17 and was expected to be out until at least Jan. 1, was frustrated by the lack of shorthanded success.&ldquo;Well, let&rsquo;s face it,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;we don&rsquo;t have the same personnel here. I don&rsquo;t know. I guess we&rsquo;re really concentrating on positional hockey out there, playing certain areas of the ice. I don&rsquo;t think there is as much aggressiveness outside of our zone.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not saying it&rsquo;s conservative but I think it&rsquo;s more structured.&rdquo;There were two other factors to ponder. First, in 1986-87, with Daniel Berthiaume, Eldon (Pokey) Reddick and Steve Penney in goal, the Jets finished with a 3.35 goals-against average, fourth in the league. This season with Reddick and Alain Chevrier sharing the duties, the Jets GAA was 4.26, 17th in the league. Second, the number of opposition opportunities rose a whopping 32.5 per cent last year.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t really blame it on one certain area,&rdquo; said Maloney. &ldquo;When the puck does come from the top to the front or the side to the front, those guys have got to be knocked out of there. It&rsquo;s usually the second opportunity or a deflection that&rsquo;s costing us.&rdquo;<h2>WINNIPEG</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 13: Brad Jones, C/LW, assigned to Moncton (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Dale Hawerchuk, Thomas Steen, Laurie Boschman, Andrew McBain.RW&mdash;Pat Elynuik, Ray Neufeld, Gord Donnelly, Hannu Jarvenpaa.LW&mdash;lain Duncan, Brent Ashton, Dave Hunter. Paul Fenton.LD&mdash;Dave Ellett, Randy Carlyle, Jim Kyte.RD&mdash;Fredrik Olausson, Peter Taglianetti, Teppo Numminen.G&mdash;Alain Chevrier, Pokey Reddick.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Doug Smail, LW, lacerated left calf, Jan. 1.Randy Gilhen, C, separated shoulder, day-to-day. &#9632;

PENALTY-KILLERS COME UP SHORTHANDED

<h2>MERCHANDISE</h2><h3>HOCKEY FANS HOCKEY NOVELTIES</h3>This year, show your team colours! NHL pins, pucks, mini-sticks, caps, key chains, crests, buttons, pennants. For free catalogue write to: FACE-OFF HOCKEY NOVELTIES, 4001 Steeles Ave. W., Ste. 401, Downsview, Ont., M3N 2T8. (4161 665-9436.BASEBALL AND HOCKEY CARDS 1989 OPC Hockey Set - $10.95 + $2.00 shipping. The new ESSO set with book - $10.95 + $2.00 shipping. Contact: Collector&rsquo;s Corner, 444 Main St. E., North Bay, ON., P1B1B5. 472-8586 (705).&lsquo;OLE TIME SPECIAL&mdash; Home Jersey Sale. Kansas City Scouts, Colorado Rockies, California Golden Seals, Minnesota Fighting Saints, Phoenix Roadrunners and all WHA defunct teams jerseys. Each at $145.95. NHL hockey jerseys &mdash; finest quality and authentic style. Crested in Pro-style tackle twill. $69.95 + $8.00 postage per item. Your choice of home or away. Colors: 1 or 2-color numbers, and numbers on jersey. Sizes: Mens & Boys, S-XXL. Extras: Shoulder patches, $8.00; personalized name, $1,50/letter (1-color), and $2.50/letter (2-color). For all orders send cheque, money order, or VISA + expiry date. For further information, write or call, Silvestri Sports, 289 Lincoln St., Welland, ON., L3B 4N5. (416) 788-3722.*Not responsible for duty fees on U.S. orders.OPC HOCKEY SETS. 78-79 - $45.00. &rsquo;80-81 - $60.00. &rsquo;81-82 - $42.00. &rsquo;82-83 - $29.00. 83-84 - $26.00. &rsquo;84-85 - $24.00. &rsquo;85-86 $45.00. &rsquo;86-87 - $16.00. &rsquo;87-88 - $16.00. 78-79 Wax Box (48 pkgs.) - $39.00. All post paid. Money order or Visa. Buying all 195168 hockey cards. Contact: Bob&rsquo;s Comics, 1435 Main St., Penticton, BC., V2A 5G4. (604) 492-4258.<h2>MERCHANDISE</h2><h3>NEW LOOK HERSHEY BEARS 1988-89</h3>CCM AIR-KNIT (Home & Away) PRO JERSEYSEXCLUSIVE HERSHEY BEARS50th ANNIVERSERY JERSEYS WHILE THEY LAST<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01231/5481817-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="271" height="222"></div>(Personalized Also &mdash; Jackets &#9679; Scarves &#9679; Warm-ups &#9679; T-Shirts &#9679; Sweats &#9679; Novelties &#9679; NHL Pro ReplicaPRICE LISTS &mdash; Hockey Equipment. Roller Blades. Figure Skates.Call&mdash;(717) 653-5051 &mdash; UPS ServiceTHE SHARP EDGE, 20 E. Main St., Mount Joy, PA. 17552.FANS, COLLECTORS: Authentic game-worn jerseys from NHL, AHL, NFL, MLBB, and NBA, and other game-used equipment available. Also have game-used sticks. Call or write to: Milton Byron, 705 David Lane, Scullville, N.J., (609) 653-6172.<h3>HOCKEY CARDS</h3>BUY - SELL - TRADE Attention Collectors!We stock thousands of OPC, Topps, and Parkhurst cards from the 50&rsquo;s, 60&rsquo;s, 70&rsquo;s and 80&rsquo;s&hellip;Star Cards, Complete Sets and Wax Packs&hellip;For a free extensive price list, write to: RYCARD, 2911 W. 35th Ave., Vancouver, BC., V6N 2M5. Or call, (604) 261-9738 (Mon.-Sat., 9-5 pst). Inquiries welcome! We also have Baseball cards.1988-89 OPC HOCKEY CARDS (264), (Gretzky in L.A. uniform, Nieuwendyk Rookie). Only $10.95 + $2.50 p&h. Send to: The Sports Shop, 6 Devonport St., Hamilton, ON., L8R 3C6. (416) 528-7250.FOR SALE: OFFICIAL ISLANDERS JERSEY - autographed by Bossey, Trottier, Tonelli, and Lorimar. Contact: Susanne, (212) 744-6915.<h2>PUBLICATIONS</h2>MIDWEST HOCKEY FANS - Follow the action with an introductory subscription to Midlands Hockey Review. Pro, College, Junior, High School and Senior coverage. 3 monthly newsletters and &rsquo;88 Yearbook. Only $5.99 (Cdn. orders - U.S. funds please). Offer expires Mar. 1/89. Contact: Midlands Hockey Review, P.O. Box 34334, Omaha, NE, 68134. (402) 455-3156.STATS COLLECTORS &mdash; Complete WHA rosters, summaries, 269 pgs. &mdash; $23.00. Minor Pro since 1940. 7 leagues, 221 pgs. &mdash; $19.00. ADD $4 postage. Various leagues and years available. Send $1 for list. Contact: T. Picard, Seven Sister Falls, Man. ROE 1Y0.<h2>VIDEO</h2>COMPLETE GAMES: 79 Challenge Cup, 80 Olympics, Canada Cups, Playoffs! Act Now! Send 50e in stamps for a new 19-page list to: PRO TAPES, 5 Berkshire Court, Westampton, NJ., 08060. Or call, (609) 2675001<h2>SHOWS</h2><h3>CCS PROMOTIONS</h3>Is Proud to Present Its Superstar Line Up OfSPORT COLLECTIBLE & COMIC BOOK SHOWS 10-a.m. to 4 p.m.Jan. 7/89 Hall of Fame KingstonJan. 22/89 C.A.W. Hall OshawaFeb. 5/89 Radisson Hotel OttawaFeb. 11/89 Sheraton Hotel HamiltonFeb. 12/89 Triumph Hotel TorontoFeaturing - Special Guests, Gum Cards, Jerseys, Autographs, etc.Tel. (416) 243-5739*Bring this ad and receive FREE gift.<h2>VIDEO</h2>PITTSBURGH PENGUIN HOCKEY G.V.P. Proudly Presents The Pittsburgh Penguins on weekly home videos. Now you can watch the excitement of Penguin hockey in the privacy of your home all season long! We are the &ldquo;licensed&rdquo; home video company of the Penguins and can supply you with a season full of excitement. On VHS or Super Beta tapes. Superior quality from our satellite receiving station allows you to have the tapes delivered within days to your home. All games commercial free, in the entirety. Call or write us now.Genesis Video ProductionsRd. #2, Box 203ANew Brighton, PA., 15066(412) 847-3091 (or) (412) 847-2122165 HOURS OF GOOD QUALITY hockey fights which includes 12 hrs. from &rsquo;87/&rsquo;88. VHS or BETA. Write: Phil Davis, P.O. Box 640, Bellmore, N.Y. 11710. (516) 221-5779.BRAND NEW PART 4 Hockey&rsquo;s Bloodiest Fights & Knockouts. VHS or Beta. Write: M. Brudy, 413 Hawkins Ave., Pittsburgh, PA., 15214.<h2>TOURNAMENTS</h2>11th Annual Niagara Falls Blackhawks Hockey Tournament March 2,3,4,5,1989$5,000.00 cash, prizes, awards.Louisville award, Player of the Game awards.Intermediate - A & B Division.Oldtimers Division - 35+.Recreational Division (just for fun).Contact: Sam Quaranta5554 Lewis Ave. Niagara Falls, ON. (416) 374-8509<h2>VIDEO</h2>GREATEST Hockey Fights I, II, & III. Every fight is toe-to-toe. Also Bench Clearing Brawls. All fights range from 1977-78. For info, write: Andy Boemer, P.O. Box 40069, St. Paul, MN., 55104. Tel. # (612) 699-1907.IT&rsquo;S HERE! Fights, fights, & more fights. Part 2. Excellent quality on VHS. Write: M. Partridge, P.O. Box 431, Richmond Hill, ON., L4C 4Y8. &#9632;

f0042-01

CLASSIFIED

JOFA TITANTrevor Karasiewicz is a six-year-old center for the Hansford Insurance team in Thunder Bay, Ont.Trevor, a grade 1 student at Crawford Elementary School, is in his second season of minor hockey.Last season, Trevor led his team to the league championship, scoring 56 goals and 12 assists. He was top scorer and also was named most valuable player.Coached by Brent Williams and Joe Kempor, the 3-foot-10, 49-pounder is a fan of the Edmonton Oilers.Though Wayne Gretzky is now a Los Angeles King, Trevor remains an Oiler fan. Gretzky and Oiler center Mark Messier are his favorite players.Trevor enjoys baseball, swimming and speaking French. He spends his summers fishing. And he&rsquo;s good at it. Last summer, he won an outboard motor and trailer in the Lake Superior Trout Hunt.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01229/5481848-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg" title="f0043-01" width="559" height="1112"><figcaption class="caption-body">Trevor Karasiewicz</figcaption></div>You or someone you know can be part of the JOFA-TITAN Minor Hockey Showcase. Just send a photograph, along with biographical information (age, height, weight, team, coach&rsquo;s name, school and grade, as well as favorite NHL team and player) to JOFA-TITAN SHOWCASE, c/o The Hockey News, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont. All entries submitted will be eligible for selection as THN/JOFA-TITAN Minor Hockey Player of the Year. &#9632;

f0043-01

PLAYER OF WEEK

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0043-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-02170/5481879-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Montreal Canadien Jean Beliveau (left) circles the Toronto net looking for an open man during a 1966-67 game. Leaf captain George Armstrong and goalie Terry Sawchuk watch the slot while Tim Horton shadows Beliveau. Toronto&rsquo;s Larry Hillman and Montreal&rsquo;s Bobby Rousseau look on.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0043-02

WAY WE WERE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0043-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-03144/5481917-1-eng-US/f0043-032.jpg"></div><h2>ACROSS:</h2>1. This Northern Ontario town is the birthplace of Canuck coach Bob McCammon.4. Assistant.9. Rick Vaive succeeded him as Leaf captain.10. Former defenseman nicknamed &lsquo;King Kong&rsquo;.11. Charlie Huddy was the first &mdash; Edge winner.12. Birthplace of the Flyers&rsquo; Tim Kerr.13. Veteran blueliner &mdash; Marsh.15. Curved.18. The Kings acquired Craig Laughlin in exchange for this defenseman in 1987-88.21. Teach.23. This goalie has had several short stints with the Rangers, Ron -----.21. Nickname of the Cincinnati team that captured five consecutive Turner Cups.25. Finish.26. Exercises done in practice.<h2>DOWN:</h2>1. He succeeded Bob Gainey as Selke winner in 1982.2. Dave Poulin&rsquo;s college team, &mdash; Dame.3. Passed.5. He has played 13 games with Calgary and Detroit since 1981-82, Bruce &mdash;.6. An Islander player from 1977-78 to 1985-86.7. Full first name of the Flyers&rsquo; general manager.8. Faceoff.14. This former Canadian Olympian was the Kings&rsquo; first choice in the 1984 NHL draft.15. He led the Canucks with 285 penalty minutes last season.16. He played goal for both Quebec-based NHL teams, Michel ------.17. Holds.19. This Oiler began the 1987-88 season with Minnesota.20. Send the puck into the opponent&rsquo;s end.22. Canuck coach Roger Neilson was fined for waving one during the 1982 playoffs.<h2>CROSSWORD SOLUTION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021135/5481910-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="570" height="565"></div> &#9632;

f0043-03

CROSSWORD

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f00c4-01252/5481955-1-eng-US/f00c4-012.jpg" title="f00C4-01" width="283" height="290"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f00c4-02215/5481948-1-eng-US/f00c4-022.jpg" title="f00C4-02" width="411" height="369"></div><h2>OILER KURRI HOT</h2>Jari Kurri keeps proving there is life after Wayne Gretzky.Not only did Kurri lead the Oilers in scoring, he also led the team&rsquo;s Molson Cup standings with 55 points after the third segment. Kurri, who flanked Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s right side until Gretzky was traded to the Los Angeles Kings, picked up 15 points in the third segment, which ended Dec. 12.Leading the way for the Montreal Canadiens was left winger Mats Naslund, who picked up 10 points in the third segment to put him at 50 points. Right winger Petri Skriko led the Vancouver Canucks with 45 points overall, goalie Ken Wregget topped all Toronto Maple Leafs with 35 points, goalie Eldon (Pokey) Reddick led the way for Winnipeg with 30 points and right winger Joey Mullen was tops on the Calgary Flames with 55 points.<h2>MONTREAL</h2>Mats Naslund&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;50Stephane Richer&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;45Guy Carbonneau&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;45Patrick Roy&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;45Claude Lemieux&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;40<h2>TORONTO</h2>Ken Wregget&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;35Ed Olczyk&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;30Gary Leeman&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;25Vincent Damphousse&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;20Tom Fergus&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;15<h2>WINNIPEG</h2>Eldon (Pokey) Reddick&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;30Alain Chevrier&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;25Dave Ellett&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;25Pat Elynuik&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;20lain Duncan&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;20<h2>CALGARY</h2>Joe Mullen&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;55Doug Gilmour&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;35Jiri Hrdina&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;30Mike Vernon&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;25Joel Otto&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;20<h2>EDMONTON</h2>Jari Kurri&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;55Jimmy Carson&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;45Esa Tikkanen&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;40Mark Messier&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;35Grant Fuhr&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;25<h2>VANCOUVER</h2>Petri Skriko&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;45Steve Weeks&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;40Paul Reinhart&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;35Harold Snepsts&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;25Trevor Linden&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;20 &#9632;

Search for your favorite player or team

January 6, 1989

The Lighter Look In Goalie Pads

RUGGED RIGHT WINGER NOW REGULAR ON ROSTER

BRILLIANT BARRASSO HAS PENS ATOP PATRICK

NUMBERS