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.

April 21, 1989

The Hockey News April 21, 1989

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div>The Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; heroes were many, the result expected.A four-game sweep of their Adams Division semi-final series against the Hartford Whalers gave the Canadiens a week off before their next hurdle en route to the Stanley Cup final.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re a little bruised up,&rdquo; said Brent Gilchrist, who enjoyed a fine series for Montreal. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re a little more bruised than you might think with a 4-0 sweep. The two games in Hartford were very physical. We wanted to make sure that we got a good rest.&rdquo;The Canadiens took the opener 6-2 on Forum ice April 5 and won a chippy second encounter 3-2 the following night.Both victories in Hartford came in overtime, 5-4 in game three April 8 on Stephane Richer&rsquo;s goal and 4-3 one night later with Russ Courtnail scoring the series-winner at 15:12 of the extra period.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s always tough in our division,&rdquo; said left winger Mats Naslund. &ldquo;They are always tough games. Winning four straight shows a lot of strength.&rdquo;The Canadiens will go into the division final healthier than they were a year ago although there are some concerns.Team captain Bob Gainey aggravated a knee injury he suffered March 17 in the opening game of the playoffs and is out indefinitely.Mike McPhee, a sound performer since October, went down with a pulled muscle in his rib cage during game three.&ldquo;It was a freak thing,&rdquo; said McPhee. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t remember when I got hurt but it was sometime in the second period. I pulled a muscle in my low rib but I hope to be back next series.&rdquo;There was concern for Guy Carbonneau in game three when he was checked from behind and his neck landed on Ryan Walter&rsquo;s leg.&ldquo;My body went one way and my neck went another,&rdquo; said Carbonneau, who was cross-checked by Hartford&rsquo;s Grant Jennings. &ldquo;I stretched something in my neck and I couldn&rsquo;t feel my fingers. The first few minutes, I was scared. I started to get the feeling back before I left the ice so I figured I was okay.&rdquo;&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t mad because I figured this type of thing happens,&rdquo; said Carbonneau. &ldquo;But what got me upset was when I came back on the ice and there were a few of their guys calling me (Claude) Lemieux. That&rsquo;s when I got mad.&rdquo;Lemieux has been known to exaggerate the effects of a bodycheck.Carbonneau, who was still feeling the after-effects following game four, welcomed the week off as did the rest of the Canadiens who were hardpressed in the last two games by Hartford.It was a clutch-and-grab, physical series with Hartford trying to wear the larger Canadiens down. Hartford seemed to target Norris Trophy candidate Chris Chelios. In the opening period of game one, Chelios was in the penalty box three times in the first period.&ldquo;They played aggressively and played with everything they had,&rdquo; said Chelios. &ldquo;Every game was close except the first game. It was a typical Canadiens-Whalers series.&ldquo;We were fortunate to get great goaltending from Patrick (Roy) and Haysie (Brian Hayward).&rdquo;<h2>MONTREAL</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>C&mdash;Bobby Smith, Russ Courtnail, Guy Carbonneau. Brian Skrudland, Gilles Thibaudeau.RW&mdash;Mike Keane, Stephane Richer, Claude Lemieux, Ryan Walter.LW&mdash;Mats Naslund, Shayne Corson, Brent Gilchrist, Steve Martinson.LD&mdash;Craig Ludwig, Petr Svoboda, Donald DufresneRD&mdash;Chris Chelios. Larry Robinson, Rick Green, Eric Desjardins.G&mdash;Patrick Roy, Brian Hayward.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Bob Gainey, LW, knee, day-to-day.Mike McPhee, LW, ribs, day-to-day. &#9632;

THE NHL

CROSS-CHECK THROWS SCARE INTO CARBONNEAU

Where are the critics now?Year after year, Jari Kurri scored 100 points, quietly proving himself a credit to his profession.I Yet reviewers said his success was due to Wayne Gretzky. Well, Gretzky is now in Los Angeles.And Kurri had another 100-point season. Long live the fabulous Finn.John Cominsky, Mechanicsbure. Pa.<h2>ANTI-DRUG</h2>Bob Probert&rsquo;s lawyer and agent, Patrick Ducharme (THN. March 24), is one of the best arguments for some sort of NHL regulation of player agents.While Probert&rsquo;s personal problems cannot be blamed on anyone but himself. Ducharme is more concerned with the wrongs he perceives have been committed against his client.As far as the NHL&rsquo;s drug policy is concerned, compare it to those of other professional leagues. Not only have there been very few drug cases in the NHL, there have been no repeat offenders. No other sport can make that claim.In sports with rehabilitation policies, players have shown time and again that a slap on the wrist does not work. Thirty-day suspensions and time in drug-abuse clinics are not doing the job agents claim.And what are parents of Ducharme&rsquo;s clients to make of his statement that he has &ldquo;hundreds and hundreds of clients, many of them young kids 14 and 15, who are on drugs?&rdquo; Why isn&rsquo;t he trying to get them off drugs?You don&rsquo;t suppose it might have something to do with the fact that if teams knew about a player&rsquo;s drug habit, they might be less inclined to give that player a big contract, thus reducing his agent&rsquo;s commission, do you? Nah.Alan F. Tignanelli, North Versailles, Pa.<h2>WOE FOR THE &lsquo;I&rsquo;</h2>Just when you thought the International League was beginning to rock and roll with the announcement of Bud Poile&rsquo;s retirement as commissioner, along comes Tom Berry, alias &lsquo;Mr. Marketing&rsquo; (THN. March 24).Berry, with his tenure as IHL commissioner yet to begin, and his selfdescribed marketing brain quickly at work, has come up with the idea of ideas&mdash;banning fights.I wonder if this marketing man&rsquo;s research took him to NHL cities affiliated with IHL teams and canvassed opinions of the NHL parents? Do you think Berry would consider polling IHL fans to see whether his idea would improve the league? I&rsquo;m afraid I the answer would be negative.Perhaps Berry would be wise toconcentrate on strengthening the IHL, given the instability of some franchises (witness the state of limbo of the dormant Toledo franchise) and disgusting competitive imbalance with poor teams in Flint and Indianapolis.Otherwise, look for the new commissioner to drive the &lsquo;I&rsquo; the same place his predecessor did the now-defunct Central League in 1984.David Peterson, Aurora, Colo.<h2>HONOR KELLY</h2>The NHL should institute a Dan Kelly Memorial Trophy, which would be presented to the broadcaster judged to be the best covering the game each season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011543/6270256-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="553" height="1200"><figcaption class="caption-body">A trophy should be awarded in Dan Kelly&rsquo;s name, reader says.</figcaption></div>It&rsquo;s the least that could be done for a great man who brought excitement to hockey for over 20 years.Jeff Warnick,&nbsp;Keewatin, Ont.<h2>RETURN NORRIS</h2>The time has come for the NHL to return the Norris Trophy to its rightful owners&mdash;defensemen who play defense.I shudder each time I read or hear that Pittsburgh Penguin defenseman Paul Coffey is a Norris candidate. Sure, he leads defensemen in scoring, and has already won the award twice. He has great skills. But remember, his skills are offense-oriented. Coffey is weak as a defensive player.The solution is to award the Norris to a true defenseman and award a new trophy to the blueliner who is best offensively.Scott L. Harrington,&nbsp;Washington. Pa.Make your feelings known. Send your comments to:Letters, The Hockey News,&rsquo;85Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont., M3B 2R2. Include home and business phone numbers. THNreserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

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DEPARTMENTS

LONG LIVE KURRI, A FABULOUS FINN

<div class="byline">BY KEITH GAVE</div>Where was Paul MacLean when the Red Wings really needed him? That&rsquo;s what coach Jacques Demers wanted to know.But April 8, when the Wings were absolutely desperate for his help, when they were down by two goals and in danger of falling behind to Chicago in the Norris Division semifinals, the right winger was watching from the press box. The 36-goal scorer had been benched by Demers.The Wings had three chances on the power play in the final 10 minutes, finished with two shots on goal and wound up losing game three of the series 4-2. MacLean rejoined the team for game four the next night, but Chicago goalie Alain Chevrier was brilliant as the Hawks won 4-2 and took a commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.Between games three and four, Demers said he had no regrets about benching MacLean, whose goal-scoring slump and defensive mistakes hurt the Wings down the stretch.Demers was especially peeved after game two April 6, when MacLean failed to catch up with what the coach described as a &ldquo;perfect pass&rdquo; from linemate Steve Yzerman on a 2-on-l break. Worse, MacLean set up a poor line change that led directly to Duane Sutter&rsquo;s gamewinning goal in overtime.&ldquo;If it had been one bad night, I wouldn&rsquo;t have done that,&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;But that stuff has been going on for too long. He&rsquo;s been warned.&rdquo;One Norris Division scout who watched game three, however, suggested Demers may have erred in keeping MacLean out of the lineup.The scout said the Wings could have used MacLean, a power play specialist, on those three power plays in the last 10 minutes. The Wings, whose power play has struggled much of the season, finished the game with one goal in nine chances with the man advantage.&ldquo;He scores a lot of goals,&rdquo; the scout said. &ldquo;A lot of big goals, too.&rdquo;MacLean, who came to Detroit last June from Winnipeg in a deal for Brent Ashton, finished the season with 16 power play goals, five game-winners and two more in the early season that tied games after the Wings pulled their goalie. But he hadn&rsquo;t scored much lately.With 29 goals in his first 53 games, MacLean was on a 48-goal pace. He finished with just seven goals in his last 23 games.In the series opener with Chicago, rookie Randy McKay started the game on Yzerman&rsquo;s right wing. But after two shifts, Demers put MacLean back on the big line. McKay started there again in game three.MacLean&rsquo;s response?&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got nothing to say,&rdquo; he said.After game three in Chicago, Demers blasted his team and criticized several unnamed players for not showing up.&ldquo;I never thought I&rsquo;d say it in the playoffs, but we didn&rsquo;t have everybody going tonight,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Steve Yzerman, Petr Klima, Adam Oates, three of our smallest guys, were outstanding tonight, but they didn&rsquo;t get much help. They weren&rsquo;t intimidated, but our big guys didn&rsquo;t give them much help.&rdquo;<h2>DETROIT</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.ROSTERC&mdash;Shawn Burr, John Chabot, Adam Oates, Steve Yzerman.LW&mdash;Gerard Gallant, Adam Graves, Kris King, Petr Klima, Dale Krentz.RW&mdash;Dave Barr, Tim Higgins, Joe Kocur, Paul MacLean, Jim Nill.LD&mdash;Steve Chiasson, Doug Houda, Lee Norwood, Jett Sharpies.RD&mdash;Gilbert Delorme, Mike O&rsquo;Connell, Rick Zombo.G&mdash;Glen Hanlon, Greg Stefan.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

WINGS COULD HAVEUSED BENCHED WINGER

Six of the first 32 Stanley Cup playoff games this year have been decided in overtime, including the Montreal-Hartford game of April 9, which was ended by Russ Courtnall&rsquo;s goal. The season record for overtime playoff games is 16. set in 1982. There has never been an NHL playoff season without at least one overtime game. The 1966 season featured just one&mdash;but that was the last game of the Stanley Cup finals.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02573/6271131-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="529" height="936"><figcaption class="caption-body">Russ Courtnail with Shayne Corson</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

NUMBERS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011390/6270201-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="541" height="660"><figcaption class="caption-body">Alan Eagleson</figcaption></div>In next week&rsquo;s issue of The Hockey News, we&rsquo;ll continue to follow the road to the 1989 Stanley Cup, with full reports on all series.In addition to that, we&rsquo;ll take a look at the battle shaping up for the leadership of the NHL Players&rsquo; Association. NHLPA executive director Alan Eagleson has come under fire from a pair of player agents&mdash;Ron Salcer of Los Angeles and Rich Winter of Edmonton&mdash;who believe it&rsquo;s time for a change.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-021133/6270194-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="549" height="648"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve Yzerman</figcaption></div>We&rsquo;ll have all the behind-the-scenes maneuvering in what shapes up to be a hard-fought boardroom battle.Plus, we&rsquo;ll preview this year&rsquo;s THN Awards, including the incredibly tight three-way race for NHL Player of the Year between Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Steve Yzerman.All that and more in the April 28 issue of The Hockey News. &#9632;

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NEXT ISSUE

<div class="byline">BOB MCKENZIE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021251/6270294-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="509" height="612"></div>A collection of news, views, queries and observations on the road to the Stanley Cup:You had to see it to believe it: New York Ranger assistant coach Eddie Giacomin, the most popular Blueshirt ever, waving a white towel over his head and exhorting the Madison Square Garden fans to make noise in the waning moments of game four against Pittsburgh. What few fans remained did, but some were booing.You had to see it to believe it, part two: Edmonton Oiler defenseman Steve Smith, the hero of game four, appearing on Hockey Night in Canada&rsquo;s post-game show with his seven-week-old daughter, Alexandria. A nice touch.Smith, incidentally, has established that he&rsquo;s every bit as valuable to the Oilers as Grant Fuhr or Mark Messier.Life goes on: Oiler fans deserve whatever joy their team bestows upon them this spring. They, along with the Oiler players, were the only losers this season in the Wayne Gretzky trade. Peter Pocklington got his money. Gretzky got to go where he wanted. The Los Angeles Kings got their main man. Smythe Division opponents got hope and the United States got a hockey ambassador.It was nice to see Edmonton fans renew their vows with the Oilers, even if it meant booing The Great One.Montreal&rsquo;s Stephane Richer and Edmonton&rsquo;s Grant Fuhr: Two shining examples of why there&rsquo;s no substitute for God-given talent.Question:Who&rsquo;s Phil Esposito going to fire now?Another question: What element is it that the Buffalo Sabres lack?Save to beat all playoff saves: Detroit&rsquo;s Greg Stefan on Chicago&rsquo;s Steve Larmer in game four. Robbery at its best, but it still wasn&rsquo;t enough for the Red Wings.Best playoff prediction: Bob McKenzie on The Hockey News Television Edition with three weeks to go in the regular season: &ldquo;Edmonton will win the Cup.&rdquo;Worst playoff prediction: Bob McKenzie, on the eve of the playoffs, taking the Kings over the Oilers because &ldquo;Edmonton looks as though it has lost its commitment to winning.&rdquo;Best playoff lesson learned: Don&rsquo;t ever count out the champions. Made that mistake last year and vowed never to do it again. But I wavered. I am weak. I am stupid.Strange playoff sight: Mark Lamb wearing No. 7 for the Oilers. The first time it didn&rsquo;t look right. The second time I didn&rsquo;t notice his number; only his burning desire and exciting play.Reassuring playoff sight: Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Paul Coffey doing what he does best.Question: What does Mike Keenan say to those Blackhawks anyway?Another question: Were we really expected to believe Michel Bergeron was going to show up in the blue seats at MSG and lead cheers against Phil Esposito?Say cheese: John Ziegler at the Montreal Forum. John Ziegler at Madison Square Garden. Ziegler here, Ziegler there, Ziegler everywhere. Keep those TV cameras rolling, I think we&rsquo;re setting a playoff record.Great playoff stories: Late arrivals Kevin Stevens of Pittsburgh, from the minors, and L.A.&rsquo;s Chris Kontos, from Switzerland.One reason to hope Vancouver and L.A. get eliminated: You can&rsquo;t get their summaries in the eastern a.m. papers.When you&rsquo;re hot, you&rsquo;re hot: The Kings and Oilers surely set an obscure playoff record&mdash;highest temperature outside the arena. A heat wave in southern California pushed temperatures above 100 degrees Farenheit for games one and two.Wish you were here: To all those U.S. hockey fans who have been shut out by the NHL&rsquo;s new deal with SportsChannel America, you have our deepest sympathies. Here in Canada, between The Sports Network and HNIC, it&rsquo;s been possible to see some extensive action from each of the eight opening-round series. You just can&rsquo;t beat it.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03830/6270287-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="1729" height="884"></div> &#9632;

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YOU HAD TO SEE IT TO BELIEVE IT

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031171/6270325-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="575" height="578"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mario Lemieux</figcaption></div>Official NHL SponsorOfficial Cars and Trucks<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011560/6270339-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="239" height="262"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021395/6270332-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="99" height="97"></div>MONTREAL&mdash;Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; center Mario Lemieux, who recorded 33 points (20-13-33) in 15 games&mdash;including six power-play, three shorthanded and two game-winning goals&mdash;-was named Chrysler Canada Performer of the Month for March/April.Lemieux, the 1988-89 Art Ross Trophy winner with 199 points (85-1 14-199), edged Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; center Wayne Gretzky and two goaltenders&mdash;Patrick Roy of the Montreal Canadiens and Greg Millen of the St. Louis Blues.The Chrysler Canada divisions of Chrysler Motors and Dodge will donate $1000 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 Week and Performer of the Year Awards, for which the latter receives the Chrysler vehicle of his choice. In four years, Chrysler Canada and Dodge have contributed more than $125,000 to youth hockey associations across North America.</div><div style="clear: both;"></div>Lemieux, the league-leader in goals, power-play goals (31), shorthanded goals (13) and first goals of the game (10), recorded nine multiple-point games during the month. He scored two goals in games versus the Boston Bruins (2-8, March 14) and the Philadelphia Flyers (6-5 OT, April 2).Last year&rsquo;s Chrysler Canada Performer of the Year, Lemieux registered consecutive threepoint nights versus the Washington Capitals (4-5, March 22) and the New Jersey Devils (5-4, March 25). The following night he registered two goals and two assists to lead his team to a 6-4 win over the New York Rangers, before recording four goals in a 9-5 loss to the Hartford Whalers (March 30). In a 6-5 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks (March. 12), Lemieux registered a point on each Pittsburgh goal (3-3-6) to highlight his month. &#9632;

f0004-03

NHL PERFORMED OF THE MONTH

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>Former Boston Bruin Rick Middleton, who earned the nickname &lsquo;Nifty&rsquo; for his puckhandling skills, has great admiration for current Bruin Craig Janney. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never seen anybody, especially a centerman, with a style quite-like his,&rdquo; says Middleton. &ldquo;Craig has so much body movement. It&rsquo;s hard to explain, but my style was to try to keep the top half of my body separate from the bottom half. He&rsquo;s different. He gets his whole body going, almost like a basketball player. I was pretty good laterally, but this guy can go in any direction&mdash;circles, back-and-forth, stop, then go the other way. If there was a way to dribble the puck, he&rsquo;d look just like a basketball player. Watching him, all I can think of is a basketball player dribbling himself into position to take a shot.&rdquo;&hellip;New York Daily News writer Frank Brown blasted the Rangers for what he described as the &ldquo;leper-like treatment&rdquo; of Marcel Dionne during the final weeks of the season, after Dionne was recalled from Denver of the International League but received little ice time. Dionne will consult with his agent, Alan Eagleson, after the playoffs to plot his hockey future. An administrative job is not out of the question, possibly with the Quebec Nordiques.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011473/6270370-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="546" height="935"><figcaption class="caption-body">One writer says Marcel Dionne has been treated like a leper.</figcaption></div><h2>FIGHTING HYPE</h2>Dave (Hammer) Schultz says too much is being made of fighting in hockey. &ldquo;Whenever the media talks about violence in hockey, they&rsquo;ll show a picture of someone fighting and say, &lsquo;That&rsquo;s violence. &lsquo;I&rsquo;ve seen it over and over again. The odd fight is no big deal. The stick work is the violence. A TV camera or a viewer at a game will probably never see a spear, but will certainly stand up and see a fight that can last anywhere from seconds to a minute.&rdquo; Schultz, who owns a limousine service in New Jersey believes stickwork has increased as the game has gotten faster. &ldquo;We never played as fast as they do today. That&rsquo;s one of the reasons why the stickwork has increased. Guys are flying everywhere and it&rsquo;s harder to hit someone.&rdquo;&hellip; Former Quebec Nordique Gord Donnelly, now a Winnipeg Jet, says his new division is better than his old one. &ldquo;&lsquo;They play faster, better and more exciting hockey in the Smythe,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Nobody stays at home like in the Adams.&rdquo;.<h2>CRITICS&rsquo; CHOICE</h2>Islander Wayne McBean suggests criticism of King coachRobbie Ftorek is unfair. &ldquo;Give the guy a little credit,&rdquo; the defenseman says. &ldquo;When the Kings win, it&rsquo;s Wayne Gretzky who wins. When the Kings lose, it&rsquo;s Ftorek who loses.&rdquo;&hellip;Chicago coach Mike Keenan feels positive about the Blackhawks&rsquo; future. &ldquo;It is a process which requires patience,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;The players have been receptive to what we&rsquo;re trying to do. They want to change, they simply have not been trained.&rdquo;&hellip;The Canucks&rsquo; uniforms have been called a lot of things over the years and the latest comes from Blackhawk broadcaster Pat Foley, who describes them as &ldquo;The Burger King Team.&rdquo;&hellip;Calgary&rsquo;s Jamie Macoun admits he&rsquo;s still compensating on the ice because of lingering effects from his near-fatal auto accident two summers ago. &ldquo;Before the accident,&rdquo; says Macoun, &ldquo;I always hit with my left side. This year I&rsquo;ve been hitting with my right side to cushion the blow. It&rsquo;s just a mental thing and I have to get back in the habit of using it (the left side) again.&rdquo;<h2>HEY, KAY</h2>Whalers&rsquo; goaltending prospect Kay Whitmore had better get accustomed to needling, if the Boston papers are a barometer. &ldquo;Maybe the name Kay Whitmore sounds more fitting for the Wellesley College field hockey team.&rdquo; wrote Kevin Dupont in the Boston Globe. Added Joe Gordon in the Boston Herald: &ldquo;When your first name is Kay and you want to be a goaltender in the NHL. you better be very good or very quick-.&rdquo;&hellip;Leonard (Red) Kelly, a Norris Trophy-winning defenseman in 1954 with Detroit who later starred at center for the Toronto Maple Leafs, will receive the prestigious Canadian Society of New York Hockey Achievement Award June 1 at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Kelly&rsquo;s 1954 Lady Byng Trophy win, his third of four, represents the last time a defenseman won the trophy&hellip;Islander prospect Kevin Cheveldayoff spent the season recovering from knee surgery. To avoid boredom he helped coach his former junior team, the Brandon Wheat Kings. Chevaldayoff, who played against both Trevor Linden and Mike Modano in the Western League, says the Canucks made the better choice. &ldquo;Trevor&rsquo;s record with Vancouver speaks for itself,&rdquo; says Chevaldayoff. &ldquo;Modano sometimes doesn&rsquo;t show up for the big games.&rdquo; &#9632;

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FORMER BRUIN PRAISES JANNEY

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011649/6270401-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tom Laidlaw, left, had an excellent plus-minus rating of plus-30 this season, but attributes it in part to luck.</figcaption></div>On a team better known for its great offense, Wayne Gretzky glitter and Bruce McNall glitz, defenseman Tom Laidlaw does not stand out.Low-key and understated both on and off the ice, Laidlaw is a stay-at-home defenseman who has made the transition from New York, where he played with the Rangers for almost eight seasons, to Los Angeles near the end of the 1986-87 season without missing a beat.The 31-year-old has been witness to the Kings&rsquo; transition from the Jerry Buss days, when hockey was an afterthought for the owner, to McNall&rsquo;s hands-on approach to hyping the game in Hollywood.THN: Explain the difference in hockey atmosphere between New York and L.A.TL: When we did well with the Rangers, the media and fans loved us. But it worked the other way as well. When we weren&rsquo;t doing well, they were hard on us. And rightfully so. In L.A., they had gotten so used to the team not winning, there was no pressure. If we didn&rsquo;t win, we left the rink and nobody bothered us. There wasn&rsquo;t much written in the newspapers until this year and almost nothing on the TV sports news.There wasn&rsquo;t any pressure, which is good in a way. You can relax and play your game. But sometimes that outside pressure can give you a little extra oomph to get going. We still don&rsquo;t get that much attention in L.A. unless it&rsquo;s a special game or Wayne Gretzky getting another milestone. If we do well in the playoffs, they&rsquo;ll catch on. The problem is erasing a lot of years of losing hockey. But like any town, they&rsquo;ll follow a winner.THN: Bruce McNall is an unusualowner in that he travels with the team so often and takes such an active role.TL: A lot of people say a lot of great things about him and it&rsquo;s all the truth. He really is a great person. He&rsquo;ll do anything to make it easier for us to be winners. He knows he doesn&rsquo;t really know hockey so he doesn&rsquo;t meddle in the X&rsquo;s and O&rsquo;s part of the game.THN: Your coach, Robbie Ftorek, cannot stay out of the news.TL: Every team I&rsquo;ve been on, win or lose, has always had guys who like the coach or don&rsquo;t like the coach. There&rsquo;ll always be decisions everybody likes, and some everybody hates. But somebody has to run the show. You have to have one guy who&rsquo;s the coach and you have to have the guys who are players. We&rsquo;re not getting paid to judge coaches. We&rsquo;re getting paid to go out and play hockey. Stuff that has been written is way out of proportion.THN: What makes a good coach?TL: One of the biggest things a coach can do to make a team a winner is knowing when not to coach. Sometimes, when everyone is playing well and everyone is on a roll, you just have to open the door and let &rsquo;em go. Then, if things get carried away, you have to know when to pull in the reins.THN: You are notorious as a practical joker. When did you establish that reputation?TL: When I played for the Rangers I had a teammate, Nick Fotiu, and he was really something for fooling around with hair dryers and stuff like that. Nicky was good at not letting people know he was the one pulling the practical joke. I really thought it was fun getting caught so the reputation kind of stuck with me. Right now I&rsquo;m not as good as some guys but I still get a kick out of it because it loosens things up a little. I like little tricks like powder in the hair dryer; the quick ones where you sneak in and do something.THN: You&rsquo;ve been around long enough to have seen some good friends leave through trades.TL: Bobby Carpenter and I got to be good friends when he was with the Kings, so it hurt a little when he went to the Bruins. But we got two good ones in Jay Miller and Steve Kasper. Jay is a rah-rah type who gets everyone up. Steve has shown us what he can do defensively and he works hard offensively too.THN: For a non-scorer, your plus-minus record has been particularly good. (Ed. Note: Laidlaw has scored 24 goals in 648 career regular-season games. He was plus-3 on a mediocre Kings team last season and plus-30 this season, tied with Bernie Nicholls for second on the club behind Steve Duchesne&rsquo;s plus-31).TL: I don&rsquo;t place too much stock in that. Lots of seasons I&rsquo;ve had good years and ended up in the minus category. This year I&rsquo;ve played a lot with Tim Watters and things have gone well for us. And sooner or later you&rsquo;re going to be on the ice with Wayne or Luc Robitaille or Bernie Nicholls and they&rsquo;re going to put the puck in the net. And you end up getting a plus. There&rsquo;s also a bit of luck involved. One night I almost never touched the puck but every time I stepped on the ice we&rsquo;d score and I&rsquo;d get a plus. I got a plus-five and I wasn&rsquo;t going to complain about it.THN: How would you describe Gretzky&rsquo;s influence on the Kings?TL: It&rsquo;s like a breath of life here. Before Wayne, guys would come here and figure they&rsquo;d just play out the season and that was that. Now we&rsquo;re serious about becoming a winner. We&rsquo;ve shown we can put the puck in the net. If we can continue to score goals and work on our defense, we can do anything. If we play as well as we&rsquo;re capable of playing, we&rsquo;ve got as good as shot as anyone at the Stanley Cup. &#9632;

f0006-01

TOM LAIDLAW

<div class="byline">BY STEVE DRYDEN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011496/6270432-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tim Kerr played just eight games last season due to a shoulder injury which required five surgical procedures. This season, he scored 48 goals.</figcaption></div>Tim Kerr no longer has a screw loose.And that happy circumstance has contributed to one of the most inspirational comebacks in recent years.Last season, the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; right winger underwent five surgical procedures to repair damage done to his left shoulder.One of them was necessary because a previously-inserted screw worked its way free.This year, the only thing that screwed up was Kerr&rsquo;s bid for a fifth 50-goal season. He scored 48 in 69 games&mdash;a remarkable turnaround from three in eight games last year.Kerr, 29, is one of four NHLers honored as The Hockey News&rsquo; comeback players of the year.New York Ranger right winger Guy Lafleur,Vancouver Canuck defenseman Paul Reinhart and Calgary Flame defenseman Jamie Macoun join Kerr. Lafleur returned from more than three years away from the game. Reinhart overcame chronic back problems and Macoun rebounded from an arm injury that sidelined him all of last season.Ironically, in a year filled with exceptional comebacks&mdash;both from injury and scoring difficulties&mdash;not a single goalie stood out. For the first time in the five years THN has been honoring comeback players of the year, a goalie is not among them.Kerr was flattered by the recognition.&ldquo;It means a lot to me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It means that people have recognized that I&rsquo;m back to where I was before this whole mess with my shoulder.&rdquo;There were times when it appeared that all the king&rsquo;s doctors and all the king&rsquo;s men would never put that left shoulder back together again.&ldquo;There was a long period of time when my arm was just hanging, and I was just hanging,&rdquo; Kerr recalled. &ldquo;And there was a period when I was just hoping that I could have a normal life, never mind hockey. I was wondering if I&rsquo;d be able to get the groceries out of the car. You&rsquo;ve got a long way to live when this game is over, and I was worried about that.&rdquo;One other worry was an allergic reaction to aspirin, Motrin and any other pain-killing drug. Overcoming that condition was the final hurdle for Kerr.During the all-star break in early February, he was admitted to hospital and deliberately overdosed with Motrin. The procedure was slow, and it was a miserable couple of days, but he built up an immunity. Now, a daily dosage of the drug has allowed him to play without pain.Now the only pain is that which he inflicts on others&mdash;like the Washington Capitals. With two goals and four assists in four games, he was a major reason the underdog Flyers were tied 2-2 with Washington in the Patrick Division semifinals.There was no fairy tale ending to Guy Lafleur&rsquo;s comeback year with the Rangers: He scored just one goal as New York was eliminated from the playoffs in four straight games by the Pittsburgh Penguins.Yet, the Brothers Grimm themselves would be hard-pressed to come up with a better story than the one that unfolded at the Montreal Forum on Feb. 4. That was night Lafleur scored three goals in his first game in Montreal since Nov. 24, 1984.That single performance certified Lafleur&rsquo;s comeback as an overwhelming success. Never mind he went through a season-ending goalscoring slump that lasted 15 games.There were enough wonderful moments to balance the books in Lafleur&rsquo;s favor. Just ask the thousands of fans around the league who welcomed him with chants, &lsquo;Guy! Guy! Guy!&rsquo;He scored 18 goals&mdash;among them two hat tricks&mdash;and 27 assists for 45 points in 67 games.He was sidelined through most of December with a broken foot.Lafleur, 37, never doubted his ability to once again play in the NHL&mdash;even if many skeptics didn&rsquo;t share his optimism.&ldquo;The reason I knew I could make it back,&rdquo; said Lafleur, &ldquo;was because the mental part is 90 per cent of this game and I&rsquo;m as mentally fit as I ever was.&rdquo;The legendary ex-Montreal Canadien has not decided yet whether he will accept an invitation from Ranger general manager Phil Esposito to return next season. Esposito, whose own future is in doubt now, made it possible for Lafleur to prove the Canadiens made a mistake when they all but forced him into retirement.Lafleur scored his first comeback goal Oct. 16, 1988, against the Vancouver Canucks at Madison Square Garden. His last of the year was scored against the Penguins in game two of their Patrick Division semifinal series.He was named one of the game&rsquo;s stars.It is in that context that all of his fans remember him.There has never been any doubt about Paul Reinhart&rsquo;s ability, just his health.Lingering back problems forced the defenseman to miss the majority of games in three of five seasons entering the 1988-89 season. Last year, he played just 14 games.Continuing uncertainty about his availability played a part in the Flames&rsquo; decision to trade him last September to Vancouver.Four games into the Smythe Division semifinal series between Vancouver and Calgary, the trade had boomeranged on the Flames. It was tied 2-2 and Reinhart had scored goals in both of Vancouver&rsquo;s victories&mdash;including an overtime marker in game one.He appeared in 64 games this season, scoring seven goals and 50 assists to finish third in team scoring with 57 points. Of the games he did miss, the majority were the result of cracked ribs and a bruised spleen. Only a handful were because of his chronically sore back.The 29-year-old&rsquo;s contributions extended beyond mere numbers. He also gave the Canucks a quarterback for the power play; a good puck-handling defenseman; and an on-ice assistant playing coach.&ldquo;They probably didn&rsquo;t expect as much as they got out of me,&rdquo; said Reinhart. &ldquo;On the other hand, they didn&rsquo;t put any undue pressure on me. They just told me to go out and play as much as I could and as often as I could. It just so happened this year I was capable of playing quite a bit.&rdquo;Jamie Macoun is approaching the second anniversary of the most frightening night of his life.On May 11, 1987, his car spun off a Calgary road, flipped over and slid 200 feet on its roof with Macoun pinned inside.One of the first police officers at the scene of the accident peered inside the wreckage and said. &ldquo;He must have a guardian angel watching over him.&rdquo;Two years later, Macoun is one of the Flames&rsquo; guardian angels providing defensive support for the high-powered Calgary attack. The 27-year-old has completed a startling recovery from nerve damage to his left arm and shoulder suffered in the single-car mishap. Some people thought Macoun, who missed all of last season, would never play again.But this year, he appeared in 48 games-and posted a plus-40, second only to teammate Brad McCrimmon on the NHL&rsquo;s second-best defense.Macoun, who has overcome an early-season habit of favoring his left side, isn&rsquo;t sure if he&rsquo;s all the way back, but he&rsquo;s pretty close.&ldquo;Right now, it&rsquo;s hard forme to tell where I&rsquo;m lacking,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If I&rsquo;m not 100 percent, I&rsquo;m close enough that it makes very little difference in my play. My attitude towards play&mdash;to go out.try to hit, use physical contact&mdash;that&rsquo;s the same as it was.&rdquo;Macoun who had four points in four playoff games against Vancouver, was delighted to hear he is one of THN&rsquo;S four comeback players.&ldquo;Do I get a bonus for that?&rdquo; he wondered.No, just some grief from teammates who wondered what he was doing in the company of Lafleur, Kerr and Reinhart.The answer to that is simple: Belonging.&mdash;With files from Eric Duhatschek, Stan Fis-chler and Al Morganti. &#9632;

f0007-01

THEY‘RE BACK!

Last chance to be heard on NHL issues and personalities in The Hockey News &lsquo; Reader Poll &rsquo;89&mdash;our own &rsquo;20 Questions&rsquo;.Choose one of the answers provided, or write in your own response. Then tear out the page, or photocopy it if you prefer, and mail it to:THN Reader Poll &rsquo;89The Hockey News85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100 Don Mills, Ont.M3B 2R2Responses can be sent to us by FAX. Our number is (416) 445-0753.We&rsquo;ll compile the results from all surveys received by April 24 and publish them in the May 19 issue of THN.Don&rsquo;t forget to cast your ballots, on pages 14 and 15 of this issue, for the THN awards.1.Who is the best player in the NHL this season?a) Wayne Gretzkyb) Mario Lemieuxc) Steve Yzermand) Other: _________2.The best goalie?a) Patrick Royb) Mike Vernonc) Other:____________3.The best defenseman?a) Paul Coffeyb) Chris Cheliosc) Other: ________4.Who is your favorite player?a) Wayne Gretzkyb) Mario Lemieuxc) Steve Yzermand) Other: _______5.Your least-favorite player?Name: ___________6.Your favorite team?Name: ___________7.Your least-favorite team?Name: ___________<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011564/6270477-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="697" height="700"><figcaption class="caption-body">Chris Chelios is a candidate for the Norris Trophy as the NHL&rsquo;s best defenseman this season. So is Paul Coffey. But are they fan favorites? Is Cliff Fletcher the best GM in the league? Let us know in our Reader Poll.</figcaption></div>8.If you could be an NHL player for a day, who would it be?Name: __________9.Who is the best coach in the NHL this season?a) Pat Burnsb) Terry Crispc) Bob McCammond) Other:_________10.The best GM?a) Cliff Fletcherb) Serge Savardc) David Poiled) Other:_________11.Should the NHL expand from its current 21-team format?a) Yesb) Noc) Don&rsquo;t know12.If yes, by how many teams?a) Oneb) Twoc) Threed) Four or more<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021224/6270470-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="701" height="696"></div>13.Rank the cities in order they should be accepted.Dallas &mdash;Hamilton &mdash;Milwaukee &mdash;San Francisco/San Jose &mdash;Saskatoon &mdash;Seattle-Tacoma &mdash;Other: __________________14.How would you rate NHL officiating?a) Goodb) Fairc) Poor15.Should NHL referees use instant replays to assist them in making decisions?a) Yesb) Noc) Don&rsquo;t know16.Should fighting be punished with automatic ejection from the game?a) Yesb) Noc) Don&rsquo;t know<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-03921/6270463-1-eng-US/f0008-032.jpg" title="f0008-03" width="701" height="692"></div>17.How do you feel about fighting?a) I am offended by it.b) I enjoy it.c) I have no strong feelings.18.Would you be in favor of:a) More games between NHL and Soviet teams.b) Fewer games between NHL and Soviet teams.c) The same number of games between NHL and Soviet teams.19.Do you welcome the arrival of Soviet players in the NHL?a) Yesb) Noc) Don&rsquo;t know20.Would you be in favor of increasing the standard North American size ice surface (200 by 85 feet) to international proportions (200 by 100)?a) Yesb) NoDon&rsquo;t know &#9632;

f0008-01

CAST YOUR BALLOT FOR YOUR FAVORITES

Guy Lafleur, Tim Kerr and Paul Reinhart are our comeback players of the year.But Eric Duhatschek has earned an even greater honor&mdash;he is our comeback writer of the year.Two years ago, Duhatschek finished dead last when we tallied up how our writers did in predicting the outcome of the 1986-87 regular season.This year, the Calgary writer tied for first with Dave Molinari of Pittsburgh.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t feel any different this time than I did when I finished last,&rdquo; said an elated Duhatschek, who has picked the Flames to win the Stanley Cup.Both journalists credited good, clean living for their success.&ldquo;Plus random dumb luck,&rdquo; added Duhatschek.The co-winners each scored 18, the lowest total among the 22 pundits who made predictions last fall.Correspondents were graded on the basis of how close they came to predicting teams&rsquo; actual places of finish. The lower a score the better. Writers were penalized one point for each placement they were off.For instance, Duhatschek scored a perfect zero in the Adams Division, because he correctly predicted the order of finish, and a two in the Norris Division, because he had a pair of teams (Toronto and Chicago) out of order by one place each.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to get that Troy Murray,&rdquo; vowed Duhatschek.Had Murray, the Blackhawk center, notscored in overtime to beat Toronto on the final night of the regular season, the Maple Leafs may have scored themselves and finished fourth ahead of the Blackhawks.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011494/6270515-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="336" height="617"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Molinari,</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-021062/6270508-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="357" height="611"><figcaption class="caption-body">and Eric Duhatschek tied for top spot in predictions.</figcaption></div>That would have given the victory outright to Duhatschek.Instead, he shared the coveted &lsquo;Seer of the Year&rsquo; title with his Pittsburgh colleague.Molinari was among a group of five writers who correctly predicted the exact final order of finish in the Adams Division&mdash;Montreal, Boston, Buffalo, Hartford and Quebec.Duhatschek and Molinari succeed Mike Perricone of Chicago and Jeff Gordon, our winners in 1987 and 1988, respectively. Perricone was sentenced to an additional two years of watching the Blackhawks after his victory. Gordon was taken off the St. Louis beat.scored in overtime to beat Toronto on the final night of the regular season, the Maple Leafs may have scored themselves and finished fourth ahead of the Blackhawks.That would have given the victory outright to Duhatschek.Instead, he shared the coveted &lsquo;Seer of the Year&rsquo; title with his Pittsburgh colleague.Molinari was among a group of five writers who correctly predicted the exact final order of finish in the Adams Division&mdash;Montreal, Boston, Buffalo, Hartford and Quebec.Duhatschek and Molinari succeed Mike Perricone of Chicago and Jeff Gordon, our winners in 1987 and 1988, respectively. Perricone was sentenced to an additional two years of watching the Blackhawks after his victory. Gordon was taken off the St. Louis beat.Dave Molinari, left, and Eric Duhatschek tied for top spot in predictions.Last in the polls this year was Toronto&rsquo;s Rick Matsumoto, a newcomer to Team THN who struggled during his rookie campaign. He registered a score of 32, the highest mark.He picked two division winners (Calgary and Detroit) but lost his way in the Patrick. Matsumoto had both Pittsburgh and the New York Rangers missing the playoffs.Matsumoto won&rsquo;t be back with THN next year. He has switched beats from hockey to football. He denied there is any connection between the poll results and the move.The division that proved most difficult to forecast was the Patrick, where Washington won its first-ever title. Only three correspondents&mdash;second-place Walter MacPeek of New York, Jim Kelley of Buffalo and Kevin Johnston of Quebec&mdash;picked the Capitals to finish first.Six writers chose New Jersey, the most overrated team in the poll, fortop spot. Molinari was the only scribe to correctly place Pittsburgh second. Twenty-one of 22 predicted the New York Rangers would miss (he playoffs. Apparently, Phil Esposito did not share that pessimistic viewpoint because he fired Michel Bergeron after the coach led them to a playoff berth.Before the season it was unanimous Vancouver would finish last in the Smythe Division. Wrong-o. Rich Chere was the only prognosticator to pick Los Angeles for second.Duhatschek and Dick Chubey of Edmonton had the best records in the Norris. Each predicted the order of finish for three teams.Seventeen writers said regular-season-champion Calgary would finish first overall. The Flames outlasted the Montreal Canadiens by two points in the race for the President&rsquo;s Trophy.<h2>WRITERS&rsquo; GRADES</h2>DAVE MOLINARIPITTSBURGHTOTAL: 18ERIC DUHATSCHEKCALGARYTOTAL: 18WALTER MacPEEKRANGERSTOTAL: 20JIM KELLEYBUFFALOTOTAL: 22DICK CHUBEYEDMONTONTOTAL: 22KEVIN JOHNSTONQUEBECTOTAL: 22TONY GALLAGHERVANCOUVERTOTAL: 22MIKE PERRICONECHICAGOTOTAL: 24DAVE LUECKINGST. LOUISTOTAL: 24JEFF JACOBSHARTFORDTOTAL: 26RICH CHERENEW JERSEYTOTAL: 26BARRY MEISELISLANDERSTOTAL: 26RICK SADOWSKILOS ANGELESTOTAL: 28JERRY ZGODAMINNESOTATOTAL: 28GLENN COLEMONTREALTOTAL: 28grant mcginnisWINNIPEGTOTAL: 28bob mckenzieTHE HOCKEY NEWSTOTAL: 28TOM HENSHAWBOSTONTOTAL: 30KEITH GAVEDETROITTOTAL: 30AL MORGANTIPHILADELPHIATOTAL: 30BOB FACHETWASHINGTONTOTAL: 30RICK MATSUMOTOTORONTOTOTAL: 32<h2>TOM HENSHAW Boston</h2><h3>Smythe</h3>1. Edmonton2. Calgary3. Winnipeg4. Los Angeles5. Vancouver<h3>Norris</h3>1. Detroit2. St. Louis3. Chicago4. Toronto5. Minnesota<h3>Patrick</h3>1. Philadelphia2. New Jersey3. Washington4. Pittsburgh5. NY Islanders6. NY Rangers<h3>Adams</h3>1. Boston2. Buffalo3. Montreal4. Hartford5. QuebecFirst overallEdmonton<h2>BARRY MEISEL NY Islanders</h2><h3>Smythe</h3>1. Calgary2. Edmonton3. Los Angeles4. Winnipeg5. Vancouver<h3>Norris</h3>1. Detroit2. Chicago3. St. Louis4. Minnesota5. Toronto<h3>Patrick</h3>1. Philadelphia2. New Jersey3. NY Rangers4. NY Islanders5. Washington6. Pittsburgh<h3>Adams</h3>1 Montreal2. Boston3. Hartford4. Buffalo5. Quebec<h3>First overall</h3>Calgary<h2>JIM KELLEY Buffalo</h2><h3>Smythe</h3>1. Calgary2. Edmonton3. Los Angeles4 Winnipeg5. Vancouver<h3>Norris</h3>1. Detroit2. Chicago3. St. Louis4. Toronto5. Minnesota<h3>Patrick</h3>1. Washington2. Philadelphia3. New Jersey4. NY Islanders5. Pittsburgh6. NY Rangers<h3>Adams</h3>1. Montreal2. Boston3. Buffalo4. Hartford5. Quebec<h3>First overall</h3>Calgary<h2>WALT MacPEEK NY Rangers</h2><h3>Smythe</h3>1. Calgary2. Edmonton3. Winnipeg4. Los Angeles5. Vancouver<h3>Norris</h3>1. Detroit2. Chicago3. St. Louis4. Minnesota5. Toronto<h3>Patrick</h3>1. Washington2. New Jersey3. Philadelphia4. Pittsburgh5. NY Rangers6. NY Islanders<h3>Adams</h3>1. Montreal2. Buffalo3. Boston4. Hartford5. Quebec<h3>First overall</h3>Calgary<h2>ERIC DUHATSCHEF Calgary</h2><h3>Smythe</h3>1. Calgary2. Edmonton3. Los Angeles4. Winnipeg5. Vancouver<h3>Norris</h3>1. Detroit2. St. Louis3. Minnesota4. Toronto5. Chicago<h3>Patrick</h3>1. Philadelphia2. Washington3. New Jersey4. Pittsburgh5. NY Islanders6. NY Rangers<h3>Adams</h3>1. Montreal2. Boston3. Buffalo4. Hartford5. Quebec<h3>First overall</h3>Calgary<h2>AL MORGANTI Philadelphia</h2><h3>Smythe</h3>1. Calgary2. Edmonton3. Los Angeles4. Winnipeg5. Vancouver<h3>Norris</h3>1. Chicago2. Detroit3. Toronto4. Minnesota5. St. Louis<h3>Patrick</h3>1. New Jersey2. Philadelphia3. Pittsburgh4. Washington5. NY Islanders6. NY Rangers<h3>Adams</h3>1. Boston2. Montreal3. Buffalo4. Hartford5. Quebec<h3>First overall</h3>Calgary<h2>MIKE PERRICONE Chicago</h2><h3>Smythe</h3>1. Calgary2. Edmonton3. Los Angeles4. Winnipeg5. Vancouver<h3>Norris</h3>1. Detroit2. Chicago3. St. Louis4 Minnesota5. Toronto<h3>Patrick</h3>1. New Jersey2. Philadelphia3. Pittsburgh4. NY Islanders5. Washington6. NY Rangers<h3>Adams</h3>1. Montreal2. Boston3. Buffalo4. Hartford5. QuebecFirst overallCalgary<h2>DAVE MOLINARI Pittsburgh</h2><h3>Smythe</h3>1. Calgary2. Edmonton3. Winnipeg4. Los Angeles5. Vancouver<h3>Norris</h3>1. Detroit2. Chicago3. St. Louis4. Minnesota5. Toronto<h3>Patrick</h3>1. Philadelphia2 Pittsburgh3. Washington4. New Jersey5. NY Rangers6. NY Islanders<h3>Adams</h3>1. Montreal2. Boston3. Buffalo4. Hartford5. QuebecFirst overallCalgary<h2>KEITH GAVE Detroit</h2><h3>Smythe</h3>1. Calgary2. Edmonton3. Los Angeles4. Winnipeg5. Vancouver<h3>Norris</h3>1. Chicago2. Detroit3. Toronto4. St. Louis5. Minnesota<h3>Patrick</h3>1. New Jersey2. Philadelphia3. Pittsburgh4 Washington5. NY Islanders6. NY Rangers<h3>Adams</h3>1. Boston2. Montreal3. Buffalo4. Hartford5. QuebecFirst overallCalgary<h2>KEVIN JOHNSTON Quebec</h2><h3>Smythe</h3>1. Calgary2. Edmonton3. Los Angeles4. Winnipeg5. Vancouver<h3>Norris</h3>1. Detroit2. Chicago3. St. Louis4. Toronto5. Minnesota<h3>Patrick</h3>1. Washington2. Philadelphia3. New Jersey4. Pittsburgh5. NY Islanders6. NY Rangers<h3>Adams</h3>1. Montreal2. Boston3. Buffalo4. Quebec5 Hartford First overall Calgary<h2>DICK CHUBEY Edmonton</h2><h3>Smythe</h3>1. Edmonton2. Calgary3. Los Angeles4. Winnipeg5. Vancouver<h3>Norris</h3>1. Detroit2. St. Louis3. Chicago4. Minnesota5. Toronto<h3>Patrick</h3>1. Pittsburgh2. New Jersey3. Washington4. NY Islanders5. Philadelphia6. NY Rangers<h3>Adams</h3>1. Montreal2. Boston3. Hartford4. Quebec5. BuffaloFirst overallEdmonton<h2>DAVE LUECKING St. Louis</h2><h3>Smythe</h3>1. Calgary2. Edmonton3. Los Angeles4. Winnipeg5. Vancouver<h3>Norris</h3>1. Chicago2. St. Louis3. Detroit4. Minnesota5. Toronto<h3>Patrick</h3>1. Philadelphia2. Washington3. NY Islanders4 Pittsburgh5. New Jersey6. NY Rangers<h3>Adams</h3>1. Boston2. Montreal3. Buffalo4 Hartford5. QuebecFirst overallCalgary<h2>JEFF JACOBS Hartford</h2><h3>Smythe</h3>1. Calgary2. Edmonton3. Los Angeles4. Winnipeg5. Vancouver<h3>Norris</h3>1. Detroit2. Chicago3. St. Louis4. Minnesota5. Toronto<h3>Patrick</h3>1. Philadelphia2. New Jersey3. Washington4. NY Islanders5. NY Rangers6. Pittsburgh<h3>Adams</h3>1. Boston2. Montreal3. Buffalo4 Hartford5. QuebecFirst overallCalgary<h2>RICK MATSUMOTO Toronto</h2><h3>Smythe</h3>1. Calgary2. Edmonton3. Los Angeles4. Winnipeg5. Vancouver<h3>Norris</h3>1. Detroit2. Chicago3. Toronto4. Minnesota5. St. Louis<h3>Patrick</h3>1. Philadelphia2. New Jersey3. Washington4. NY Islanders5. Pittsburgh6. NY Rangers<h3>Adams</h3>1. Boston2. Montreal3. Buffalo4 Quebec5. HartfordFirst overallCalgary<h2>RICK SADOWSKI Los Angeles</h2><h3>Smythe</h3>1. Calgary2. Edmonton3. Los Angeles4 Winnipeg5. Vancouver<h3>Norris</h3>1. Chicago2. Detroit3. Toronto4 St. Louis5. Minnesota<h3>Patrick</h3>1. Philadelphia2. Washington3 New Jersey4. Pittsburgh5. NY Rangers6. NY Islanders<h3>Adams</h3>1. Boston2. Montreal3 Buffalo4. Quebec5 HartfordFirst overallCalgary<h2>TONY GALLAGHER Vancouver</h2><h3>Smythe</h3>1. Calgary2. Edmonton3. Los Angeles4. Winnipeg5. Vancouver<h3>Norris</h3>1. Detroit2. Chicago3. Toronto4. Minnesota5. St. Louis<h3>Patrick</h3>1. Pittsburgh2 Washington3. Philadelphia4 New Jersey5. NY Islanders6. NY Rangers<h3>Adams</h3>1. Montreal2 Boston3. Buffalo4. Quebec5. HartfordFirst overallCalgary<h2>JERRY ZGODA Minnesota</h2><h3>Smythe</h3>1. Calgary2. Edmonton3. Los Angeles4. Winnipeg5. Vancouver<h3>Norris</h3>1. Detroit2. Chicago3. Minnesota4. St. Louis5. Toronto<h3>Patrick</h3>1. New Jersey2. Philadelphia3. Pittsburgh4 Washington5. NY Islanders6. NY Rangers<h3>Adams</h3>1. Boston2. Buffalo3. Montreal4. Quebec5 HartfordFirst overallCalgary<h2>BOB FACHET Washington</h2><h3>Smythe</h3>1 Edmonton2 Calgary3. Los Angeles4. Winnipeg5. Vancouver<h3>Norris</h3>1 Chicago2. Detroit3. St. Louis4. Toronto5. Minnesota<h3>Patrick</h3>1 Pittsburgh2 New Jersey3. Washington4 Philadelphia5. NY Islanders6. NY Rangers<h3>Adams</h3>1. Buffalo2. Montreal3. Boston4 Quebec5. HartfordFirst overallEdmonton<h2>RICH CHERE New Jersey</h2><h3>Smythe</h3>1. Edmonton2. Los Angeles3. Calgary4 Winnipeg5. Vancouver Norris1 Detroit2 Minnesota3. Chicago4. St. Louis5. Toronto<h3>Patrick</h3>1 New Jersey2. NY Islanders3. Washington4. Pittsburgh5. NY Rangers6 Philadelphia<h3>Adams</h3>1. Montreal2. Boston3. Buffalo4 Hartford5. QuebecFirst overallMontreal<h2>BOB McKENZIE THN</h2><h3>Smythe</h3>1. Calgary2. Edmonton3. Los Angeles4. Winnipeg5. Vancouver<h3>Norris</h3>1. Detroit2. Chicago3. St. Louis4. Toronto5. Minnesota<h3>Patrick</h3>1. New Jersey2. Washington3. Philadelphia4 Pittsburgh5. NY Islanders6. NY Rangers<h3>Adams</h3>1. Buffalo2. Montreal3. Boston4. Quebec5. HartfordFirst overallCalgary<h2>GLENN COLE Montreal</h2><h3>Smythe</h3>1 Calgary2. Edmonton3. Winnipeg4 Los Angeles5. Vancouver<h3>Norris</h3>1 Detroit2. Chicago3. Toronto4. St. Louis5. Minnesota<h3>Patrick</h3>1. Philadelphia2. New Jersey3 Pittsburgh4. Washington5. NY Rangers6. NY Islanders<h3>Adams</h3>1 Montreal2. Boston3. Buffalo4. Quebec5. HartfordFirst overallCalgary<h2>GRANT McGINNIS Winnipeg</h2><h3>Smythe</h3>1 Calgary2. Edmonton3. Winnipeg4. Los Angeles5. Vancouver<h3>Norris</h3>1. Chicago2. Detroit3. Minnesota4. St. Louis5. Toronto<h3>Patrick</h3>1. NY Islanders2. Washington3. New Jersey4. Pittsburgh5. NY Rangers6. Philadelphia<h3>Adams</h3>1. Montreal2. Boston3. Buffalo4. Quebec5. Hartford.<h3>First overall</h3>Calgary &#9632;

f0009-01

CALGARY, PITTSBURGH WRITERS ARE PICK OF THE CROP

<div class="byline">BY DENIS GIBBONS AND STEVE DRYDEN</div>Czechoslovakia appears poised to reassert itself as a world power in hockey.After disappointing results the past few years, the national team had every reason to be confident heading into the World Championships, April 15May 1, in Stockholm.The Czechoslovaks have already played the best Europe has to offer and fared well.In 13 games this season against the Soviet Union, Sweden and Finland, Czechoslovakia&rsquo;s record stood at 8-32. It was 2-2-0 versus the Soviets, 3-1-1 versus the Swedes and 2-0-1 versus the Finns.In its only game against Canada, the Czechoslovaks won easily 8-3 on April 10 in Pilsen, Czech.Czechoslovakia has traditionally been the most unpredictable of European teams. It can be terrific and it can be terrible. The Czechoslovaks are due for a strong performance.Last year, they finished sixth at the Olympics. In 1987, they won the Calgary Cup but placed third at the World Championships. The previous year, they finished fifth.If the Czechoslovaks are to regain the gold medal they last won in 1985, they will have to get first-rate efforts from captain Vladimir Ruzicka, defensemen Antonin Stavjana and Bedrich Scerban and goalie Dominik Hasek.Hasek finished ahead of Ruzicka in voting for Czechoslovakia&rsquo;s player of the year in 1987-88.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011558/6270553-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="537" height="964"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dusan Pasek&rsquo;s availability to Czechoslovakia was uncertain.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021166/6270546-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="1165" height="1768"><figcaption class="caption-body">John Vanbiesbrouck joined Team USA for the World Championships after the Rangers were knocked out of the playoffs.</figcaption></div>Ruzicka, whose NHL rights are owned by the New York Rangers, is joined by Zdenek Ciger and Vladimir Svitek on the first line.Ciger, 19, was drafted by the New Jersey Devils in the third round of the 1988 entry draft. The left winger was a standout at the 1989 World Jr. Championships in Alaska.The key to Czechoslovakia&rsquo;s success will likely rest in its early results.In 1986, the Czechoslovaks opened the World Championships with losses to Poland and West Germany. At the &rsquo;88 Olympics, they lost to West Germany in their first game:As fate would have it, they open against West Germany April 15 in the first game of the tournament this year.Czechoslovakia is out to prove it can field a top team despite the defection and transfer of many top players to the NHL.It&rsquo;s not known if Dusan Pasek of the Minnesota North Stars or Igor Liba of the Los Angeles will play for their country should their teams be eliminated from the playoffs.What is known, however, is that should Liba be available for duty so would Wayne Gretzky and several other King stars be available to Team Canada.Los Angeles trailed the Edmonton Oilers 3-1 in their Smythe Division semifinal series.Another possible candidate for the team would be Steve Yzerman should the Detroit Red Wings lose in the Norris Division semifinals. Detroit trailed the Chicago Blackhawks 3-1.Four players were added to the Canadian roster after the New York Rangers were eliminated by the Pittsburgh Penguins and Hartford Whalers by the Montreal Canadiens.Hartford right winger Kevin Dineen, defenseman Dave Babych and goalie Peter Sidorkiewicz and New York defenseman James Patrick joined Canada overseas.Sidorkiewicz takes the place of Allan Bester, the Toronto Maple Leaf netminder who was injured in pretournament play. Sean Burke of the New Jersey Devils is expected to be the No. 1 man.Meanwhile, reinforcements for Team USA included Ranger goalie John Vanbiesbrouck, defenseman Brian Leetch and left winger Brian Mullen, plus Hartford right winger/defenseman Scott Young.The defending-world champion Swedes were saving a place for right winger Tomas Sandstrom and fortune smiled upon them when the Rangers were knocked out. &#9632;

f0010-01

TERRIFIC OR TERRIBLE?

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div>Amid talk of a rival professional league forming, NHL president John Ziegler announced the league is ready to go ahead with expansion.&ldquo;Yes, Virginia, there will be expansion,&rdquo; Ziegler told the Empire Club of Canada at a luncheon in Toronto April 6. &ldquo;We will be adding new teams.&ldquo;The questions of where, when, how and how many, those are the questions we&rsquo;re working on now.&rdquo;While there is no timetable for expansion, Ziegler said the expansion committee will present its proposals to the league&rsquo;s board of governors in December. The committee will identify the best markets of the 30 that have applied for expansion over the last six years.&ldquo;There is a desire and a demand,&rdquo; said Ziegler. &ldquo;This time we want to be sure that we avoid mistakes of the past and make sure that when we do (expand), it&rsquo;s part of our business plan.&rdquo;Speculation has it the 21-team NHLwill expand by three teams in time for the 1991-92 season.Ziegler also said the NHL would gladly support full participation of its players in the Olympics provided they were made part of the Summer Games.He also warned players they may be in for a rude awakening should they dump NHL Players&rsquo; Association executive director Alan Eagleson in favor of agents Ron Salcer, Rich Winter and former National Football League players&rsquo; union president Ed Garvey. Salcer and Winter have already had meetings with several NHL teams about the possibility of dumping Eagleson.&ldquo;Mr. Garvey, in leading his football association to two strikes cost those players in salaries, which they will never get back, over $100 million,&rdquo; said Ziegler.<h2>PLAYOFF CHANGE</h2>The first round of the NHL playoffs next season will not feature four games in five nights as it has for several years.Instead, teams will get a day&rsquo;s rest between games throughout the series, said NHL director of administration Phil Sheuer.The four first-round series in the Campbell Conference will be played on alternating nights beginning April 4. They could run as late as April 16 if seven games are required.Wales Conference match-ups will begin April 5 and could take until April 17 to complete.The current system, which has teams playing on consecutive nights in one city, getting a day off, and then playing on consecutive nights in the other city, has been roundly criticized.Critics say the quality of games is brought down by player fatigue.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011416/6270584-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="561" height="1276"><figcaption class="caption-body">Buffalo fans wanted Christian Ruuttu interviewed in Finnish.</figcaption></div><h2>APRIL FOOL&rsquo;S</h2>The Buffalo Sabres staged an early April Fool&rsquo;s Day gag, and more than 500 hockey fans fell for it.Calling it the first major league sports event with interactive television, the Niagara Frontier Sports Network established Sabre TalkBack for Buffalo&rsquo;s 4-2 home-ice loss to Montreal March 30. It allowed viewers to vote on crucial coaching decisions before and during the game.Using a series of phone numbers flashed on the screen, viewers were invited to vote on which goalie (Jacques Cloutier or Darcy Wakaluk) they wanted to start, coach Ted Sator&rsquo;s line-changing strategy in the last two periods and the three-star selection. Sabre TalkBack attracted 568 callers.Viewers also voted to have NFSN color commentator Mike Robitaille interview Sabres&rsquo; center Christian Ruuttu in Ruuttu&rsquo;s native Finnish during the second intermission of the telecast.The hoax was the brainchild of NFSN executive producer Paul Wieland. Viewers should have been tipped off the whole thing was a gag during the first-period intermission when Sator was told the fans wanted more line changes. He was playing table hockey in his office with assistant Barry Smith at the time. It was a pre-taped segment.NFSN never let on that Sabre TalkBack was an early April Fool&rsquo;s Day joke but Sabres&rsquo; public relations manBudd Bailey thinks most of the viewers would have caught on.&ldquo;Anyone who can&rsquo;t figure out that you don&rsquo;t wait until a few minutes before the game to name your starting goalie deserves to be fooled,&rdquo; said Bailey.April Fool&rsquo;s Day gags are a tradition with the Sabres.<h2>NORWAY RULES</h2>Norway won the World Championship &lsquo;B&rsquo; title on home ice in the tournament held March 30-April 9 at Lillehammer and Oslo.Norway and Italy finished with 5-1-1 records in the eight-team roundrobin affair but the Norwegians won the championship because they defeated Italy 3-1 on March 31.Switzerland was third with a 5-2-0 mark while France finished fourth at 4-1-2. East Germany (3-4-0), Austria (2-5-0), Japan (2-5-0) and Denmark (0-7-0) also participated.With the championship, Norway will move into the &lsquo;A&rsquo; pool next year. It will replace this year&rsquo;s last-place finisher in Stockholm.<h2>PRAVDA CUP</h2>The Soviet Union&rsquo;s national &lsquo;B&rsquo; team defeated the Soviet Juniors 8-2 to take the Pravda Cup championship April 7 in Moscow. In the bronzemedal game, Canada lost 5-3 to Sweden.The annual tournament features the &lsquo;B&rsquo; teams of countries in the &lsquo;A&rsquo; pool of the World Championships.The Soviet &lsquo;B&rsquo; team finished round-robin play with a 3-0-0 record while Sweden was second with a 2-10 mark. Canada, the Soviet Juniors and Czechoslovakia all finished with 2-1-0 records. Goal differential placed the Soviet Juniors first and Canada second.The United States finished out of the playoffs with a 1-2-0 mark. West Germany and Finland both finished with 0-3-0 records.<h2>DOWN PAT</h2>The Regina Pat Canadians will try to become the first team to win back-to-back national midget championships when the Air Canada Cup opens April 18 in St. John&rsquo;s, Nfld.The Pats, who won the title last year and in 1983, can also become the first three-time winner in the 11-year history of the tournament.Lac St. Louis from Montreal won in 1981 and 1985 and the Notre Dame Hounds of Wilcox, Sask., took the title in 1980 and 1986.The Pats, who will represent the West region, will be joined in the round-robin event by the St. John&rsquo;s Capitals (host entry), St-Foy Gouverneurs (Quebec), Wexford Raiders (Ontario), Antigonish Novas (Atlantic) and Calgary Buffaloes (Pacific).The tournament final will be televised live at 1 p.m. April 22 by CTV in English and TV A in French. &#9632;

f0011-01

ZIEGLER SAYS NHL IS READY, WILLINGAND ABLE TO EXPAND

<div class="byline">BY STEVE DRYDEN</div>Phil Esposito has been deep-sixed, at least temporarily.Only time will tell if the New York Rangers general manager&rsquo;s condition is permanent.The Rangers lost six straight games&mdash;including all four in their Patrick Division semifinal series with the Pittsburgh Penguins&mdash;under the coaching of Esposito this year.Esposito fired Michel Bergeron on the second-last day of the regular season and then coached New York to a pair of losses before taking the slumping club into the playoffs.Pittsburgh, making its first appearance in the playoffs since 1982, made short work of New York.It was 10 years ago that Pittsburgh last won a playoff series, a 2-1 decision over the Buffalo Sabres in the 1979 preliminary round.Esposito&rsquo;s future is clouded. He has said he will coach next season, but his stewardship of the club will surely be examined after the second-half disaster that saw the Rangers lose 19 of their last 28 regular-season games. Including the post-season. New York finished the year on a nine-game losing streak.The Rangers accomplished just one thing of note in the playoffs: They held scoring champion Mario Lemieux to five points.But New York could not stop defenseman Paul Coffey, who scored two goals and seven assists, or solve goalie Tom Barrasso, who stopped 88 of 94 shots (a .936 save percentage) in the final two games.Guy Lafleur of the Rangers scored what might have been the final goal of his career in game two. His status for next year is uncertain.Lafleur&rsquo;s old team, the Montreal Canadiens, swept the Hartford Whalers in the Adams Division semifinals.It was the third time in four years that Hartford has been knocked out by the Habs. who have never lost a playoff series to the Whalers.Three of the four games were decided by one goal&mdash;two of them in overtime.Stephane Richer scored at 5:01 of overtime in game three and Russ Courtnail sent Hartford packing at 15:12 of overtime in game four.Goalie Patrick Roy was spectacular in the clinching victory. He stopped 43 of 46 shots, including several testers during the extra period.Bobby Smith led Montreal in the series with four goals&mdash;one in each game.Montreal limited Kevin Dineen and Ron Francis. Hartford&rsquo;s two top regular-season scorers, to just three points&mdash;total&mdash;in four games. Dineen scored a goal and Francis earned two assists.Meanwhile, six other series remained undecided after week one of the playoffs.There were several surprising developments, none more so than the Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; success against the powerful Calgary Flames. The Canucks, prohibitive underdogs, were tied 2-2 with the regular-season champions in the Smythe Division semifinals.Paul Reinhart&rsquo;s overtime goal in game one got Vancouver off to a good start and Trevor Linden&rsquo;s four-point performance in game four evened matters.Less shocking, but certainly unexpected, were the Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; 3-1 lead over the Detroit Red Wings, and the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; 2-2 tie with the Washington Capitals.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011520/6270615-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="689" height="1196"><figcaption class="caption-body">Phil Esposito coached the Rangers to six straight losses.</figcaption></div>Chicago, which qualified for the playoffs on the final night of the regular season, lost the Norris Division semifinal series opener and then won three straight.Duane Sutter scored at 14:36 of overtime to even the series 1-1. The third-worst defensiveteam in the playoffs surrendered only four goals in its next two games.Adam Creighton and Denis Savard, both coming off disappointing regular seasons, excelled for the Chihawks. Both scored goals in each of the first three games.Philadelphia and Washington won alternating games in their Patrick semifinal series.The Capitals were heavy favorites entering the series, but lost games two and four to the gritty Flyers. Kelly Miller gave Washington a2-1 lead with his overtime goal in game three, but the Flyers bounced back the next night by opening up a 5-0 lead en route to a 5-2 victory.In the other Norris semifinal, the St. Louis Blues led the Minnesota North Stars 3-1. Brett Hull and Rick Meagher were overtime heroes in games one and two as the Blues won twice by 4-3 scores.Hull scored his third and fourth goals in game three, but was held off the scoresheet in game four when Minnesota won 5-4 on rookie Don Barber&rsquo;s goal seven seconds from the end of regulation time.The Boston Bruins rebounded from an embarrassing 6-0 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on opening night to win three consecutive games and take a3-1 lead in their Adams Division semifinal series. Cam Neely scored the winners in games three and four.Boston was winless in eight games (0-5-3) against the Sabres during the regular season.In the other Smythe semifinal, the defending Stanley Cup-champion Edmonton Oilers assumed a 3-1 lead over the Los Angeles Kings.The Kings&rsquo; Wayne Gretzky had six points but close friend Mark Messier of Edmonton had seven and was the series&rsquo; dominant player. &#9632;

f0012-01

ESPOSITO’S COACHING CHANGE FAILS MISERABLY

<div class="byline">JAY GREENBERG</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011430/6270646-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="449" height="632"></div>As I watched the St. Louis Blues go 12-4-2 in their last 18 games, it occurred to me that there are still some things about this game that are awfully difficult to understand.Some of them crawl under your skin and stay there. Sort of like Rob Brown. Among these annoyances are several about the way the NHL conducts itself:&#9632; John Ziegler repeatedly tells us this is a business. I know that. And the fans suspect the same thing. The bills have to be paid. But when the league president answers just about every criticism of everything the league does within the context of it being good business or bad business, then the fan begins to feel like hard currency, not a softie for the sport or for his team.What&rsquo;s good for business is not always good for the game. The 18-year-old draft, for instance, is good for business because it saves legal fees. But nobody is going to argue that drafting kids at 18 is good for the NHL, the junior teams, or the vast majority of kids.Bringing over Soviet teams to play NHL clubs in December and January is good for business because the Soviets work cheaply, the games are profitable, and a lot of money goes into the pension fund. But international play at its best has been so great for the sport, is the NHL risking making contests with the Soviets too routine?That sense of Armageddon that comes out of the Canada Cup. is. I fear, being lost. Now, of course, this point is arguable, but worth raising. It is not foolish or dismissable just because Ziegler can point to a ledger sheet and sellouts in some cities.Here&rsquo;s another example of how the game and the business can conflict. Playing 80 regular-season games in approximately 180 days is not necessarily good for the sport. It&rsquo;s just too many for a player to focus his best-efforts every time the fans come through the turnstiles. Obviously, however, 80 games and four rounds of playoffs is good for business.The league president is not just a CEO carrying out his board members&rsquo; wishes on what they believe will make them the most money. He has responsibilites as a caretaker for the game. There have been times that Ziegler has acted decisively and well in these regards. But his image as a leader might improve if occasionally he would publicly acknowledge the game is sometimes a consideration, too.&#9632; I don&rsquo;t understand why the NHL has a trophy for a best defensive forward and not one for a best defensive defenseman, although I suspect the answer is that nobody has ever pushed for one.&ldquo;There are too many trophies now,&rdquo; is the explanation I&rsquo;ve most often heard. But in recent years, in the rich tradition of corporate sponsorship, the NHL has added four awards, including two that are largely redundant to trophies it has been handing out for years. There is a performer of the year award&mdash;different only by the strictest definition from the Hart&mdash;sponsored by a car company. And a man-of-the-year Award, which honors the kind of person the writers do with their Masterton.If you can sanction Ram Tough awards on contrived statistical mumbo-jumbo, how do you not take time to draw attention to one of the most noble of the sport&rsquo;s creatures? The defenseman who night after night takes care of his own end first.&#9632; It continues to puzzle me how the league can stress divisional play both in the regular season and the playoffs, and then give conference championship trophies, but not divisional ones. The divisional emphasis is the best move the NHL has ever made. It is a big deal now to win two series and get out of your division.A conference championship, however, won over some stranger who you saw only three times over the season, is just a means to the end of getting into the finals. Most clubs, particularly ones that have gone deep into the playoffs for years, won&rsquo;t accept the Wales and Campbell Trophies on the ice because it may be construed that they will be satisfied with second place. The whole thing is awkward. Being declared playoff conference champion stirs the same kind of button-bursting pride as winning the All-Star Game: None. The joy is in getting to the finals.&#9632; I&rsquo;m at a loss as to why the league continued to jam four games into five nights to start the playoffs. That&rsquo;s too many games in too short a time for players to be at their best and not unduly risk injury.Thankfully, the NHL has decided to space the division playoffs out on alternate nights next season. The purpose of the playoffs is to put on a great event, not process eliminations on a tight deadline. The league won&rsquo;t schedule four games in five nights during the regular season and shouldn&rsquo;t have been doing so in the playoffs.&#9632; It boggles my mind why Sergei Priakin is any less a professional than Reijo Ruotsalanien or Kent Nilsson or any European who is no longer allowed to join an NHL team for the playoffs. If the bylaws allow this loophole for Soviets or Czechs then it should be changed before the Flames sign Sergei Makarov or the Canucks sign Igor Larionov next March.&#9632; And last, but not least, I am confounded at the NHL&rsquo;s apparent laxity at the rotund appearance of a few of its referees. The doughnut jokes are not going to die until the NHL understands just how bad this looks.These people have jobs where they have to move quickly. And it&rsquo;s arguable whether they are in top condition to do so.Even if they are, apprearances are important. If they are not disciplined enough to maintain a better appearance, then questions are going to arise about overall dedication to their jobs.I&rsquo;d feel better about the NHL&rsquo;s gag rule on criticism of officials if I didn&rsquo;t see fatso referees waddling around with the apparent blessing of the league&rsquo;s administrators. The argument that evaluations of officials should be handled internally is good in theory, but if the weight problem isn&rsquo;t being dealt with, it makes you wonder about what else isn&rsquo;t. &#9632;

f0013-01

COLUMNISTS

FAT REFS WHO WADDLE ON THE ICE BUG OUR MAN

<h2>BRUINS</h2>Bruins&rsquo; coach Terry O&rsquo;Reilly has one year remaining on his contract and, despite the club&rsquo;s inconsistency, is in no danger of being fired. &ldquo;The job is Terry&rsquo;s if he wants it,&rdquo; said general manager Harry Sinden&hellip;Ex-Bruin Mike Milbury, coach and general manager of the Bruins&rsquo; American League farm team in Maine the past two seasons, has placed his Cape Elizabeth, Me. home on the market and said he may not return to the Mariners next season. Some assumed this meant Milbury would succeed O&rsquo;Reilly, but no such plan is in place&hellip; In the Bruins&rsquo; 6-0 loss to Buffalo in the Adams Division semifinal April 5, the Bruins lost rookie left winger Rob Cimetta and center Craig Janney with high-sticking majors&hellip;Defenseman Gord Kluzak is scheduled to undergo surgery on his damaged left knee April 17, the ninth time the knee has been operated on&hellip;The Bruins, who scored 289 goals this season, failed to score 300 goals for the first time since 1969-70.<h2>WHALERS</h2>After their elimination in the divisional semifinals by Montreal, three Whalers accepted invitations to play for Team Canada at the world championships in Stockholm. Goalie Peter Sidorkiewicz, right winger Kevin Dineen and defenseman Dave Babych will play for Canada while right winger Scott Young accepted an invitation to play for Team USA. Ron Francis (injured hand) will not go and Ray Ferraro was unsure if he&rsquo;d go at press time. Defenseman Ulf Samuelsson, who has had run-ins with the Swedish national team&rsquo;s coaching staff, was not invited to play by the Swedes&hellip;Whalers&rsquo; coach Larry Pleau sat Sylvain Cote out of the second game in Montreal and also considered keeping Sylvain Turgeon out. Pleau criticized his two FrenchCanadian players for not playing well when they visit Montreal and Quebec. &ldquo;I just don&rsquo;t know the reason why, either,&rdquo; said Pleau.<h2>NORDIQUES</h2>Mario Gosselin, Jeff Brown, Robert Picard, Peter and Anton Stastny, Mike Hough, Iiro Jarvi and Marc Fortier will all be eligible to play out their options during the 198990 season unless they sign during the summer&hellip;Simon Nolet will not be return as assistant coach. He&rsquo;ll go back to his old job as pro scout for the team. Nolet became assistant coach when Jean Perron was named head man in December&hellip;Right winger Daniel Dore didn&rsquo;t join the American League&rsquo;s Halifax Citadels for the playoffs as expected. The Nordiques&rsquo; second pick (fifth overall) needs an operation on his index finger, injured during a fight with Claude Boivin during the Canadian national junior team training camp. Boivin, a left winger taken 14th overall by Philadelphia in 1988, was a teammate of Dore&rsquo;s on the Drummondville Voltigeurs. The Voltigeurs were eliminated in the first round of the Quebec League playoff.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-021018/6270677-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg" title="f0013-02" width="549" height="1116"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jeff Brown is eligible to play out his option next year</figcaption></div><h2>SABRES</h2>Jacques Cloutier&rsquo;s 6-0 shutout in the first game of the Adams Division semifinal against Boston April 5 came in his first NHL playoff game. The last Sabre to post a playoff shutout was Bob Sauve, who blanked Montreal in back-to-back playoff games April 7 and 8, 1983&hellip;Buffalo&rsquo;s opening playoff win at Boston was its first road playoff win since April, 14, 1982 at Boston&hellip;Center Pierre Turgeon was the Sabres&rsquo; best offensive producer with a goal and three assists in game one, two goals in game two, and assists in games three and four&hellip;Center Christian Ruttu suffered a separated left shoulder when he was hit by Bobby Carpenter of the Bruins in the first game. His status was listed as indefinite.<h2>CANADIENS</h2>Center Bobby Smith had a goal in each of the four games of the Canadiens&rsquo; 4-0 sweep of Hartford in the Adams Division semifinal&hellip;Veteran defenseman Larry Robinson appeared in his 186th playoff game in game four of the Hartford series, breaking the record of 185 held by Denis Potvin of the New York Islanders&hellip;Held pointless in the first two games in Montreal, Stephane Richer saved his best hockey of the series for Hartford. He scored the overtime winner in game three April 8 and added another as the Canadiens clinched the series with a 4-3 win the next night. &ldquo;This will take a little pressure off me,&rdquo; said Richer. &ldquo;I tried hard in Montreal in the first two games and nothing happened for me.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0013-02

O’REILLY’S JOB SECURE FOR NEXT SEASON

<div class="byline">BY JEFF JACOBS</div>The Montreal Canadiens swept more than the Hartford Whalers.By taking the Adams Division semi-finals in four straight games, the Canadiens also swept away any romantic notion that this year&rsquo;s Whalers would somehow, some way regain the magic of 1986 and &rsquo;87 and return among the elite clubs in the NHL.The Canadiens transformed an unfortunate error by rookie goalie Kay Whitmore into Russ Courtnall&rsquo;s goal at 15:12 of overtime to defeat the Whalers 4-3 in game four of the best-of-seven series, April 9 at the CivicCenter.The Whalers lost the last three games of the series by one goal, the final two in overtime. The endings got progressively more exciting. In the end, however, the Canadiens won every time.&ldquo;God watches over the Montreal Canadiens because they play 80 games a season like the last two,&rdquo; Whaler coach Larry Pleau said. &ldquo;They always find a way to win in the end.&rdquo;&ldquo;You can go on all day about the Whalers needing this or that, but it comes down to the team atmosphere of the Canadiens,&rdquo; said Whaler center Brent Peterson. &ldquo;They win every game at home, 3-2. They know about playing in the clutch. Ryan Walter had 15 goals and he gets as much respect there as any 50-goal scorer. That&rsquo;s a team.&rdquo;The Whalers aren&rsquo;t big enough physically, not strong enough mentally to beat the Canadiens. Kevin Dineen had one goal&mdash;his only point in four games. Ron Francis had two assists and was quiet throughout the series. The power play was l-for-15.That sobering reality should be remembered more than the image of Canadiens&rsquo; goalie Patrick Roy clearing the puck 150 feet off the sideboards as the Whalers made an overtime line change. With Bobby Smith closing fast on him, Whitmore came out of the net 30 feet to field the puck. He is one of the best young goalies in hockey at handling it, but this time he threw it directly to Courtnail.&ldquo;When I saw it go in my net, I couldn&rsquo;t believe it. I thought it was a dream,&rdquo; said Whitmore, a surprise starter in game one April 5. &ldquo;No way the game can end on a crappy goal like that&hellip;Montreal finds ridiculous ways to win.&rdquo;It was the longest overtime game in Whalers&rsquo; history, but it also was the first time they had been swept in a seven-game series. The Whalers, 112 against Montreal dating back to game six of last year&rsquo;s playoffs, are now 2-12 in their last 14 playoff games. Such records certainly do not come down to one play by a rookie goalie with the series already 3-0. Nor does it come down to Stephane Richer&rsquo;s overtime goal in game three.Only in game one, April 5, did the Canadiens break open a game. It was 3-2 in the third period when a shorthanded effort by Mike McPhee set the ball rolling on a 6-2 victory.&ldquo;People talk about the regular season not meaning anything, but you learn to win and lose in the regular season,&rdquo; Dineen said. &ldquo;There were too many nights that we didn&rsquo;t come out with the intensity that we showed in the last three, four games. The Canadiensdidn&rsquo;t rise another level in this series. They played like that all year.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the difference between them and us. We can rise to that level, but we don&rsquo;t do it all the time and they&rsquo;re there every single night.&rdquo;<h2>HARTFORD</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Ray Ferraro, Dean Evason, Ron Francis, Brian Lawton.LW&mdash;Don Maloney, John Anderson, Dave Tippett, Sylvain Turgeon, Tom Martin.RW&mdash;Kevin Dineen, Scott Young, Jody Hull, Paul MacDermid, Jim Thomson.LD&mdash;Jim Pavese, Joel Quenneville, Randy Ladouceur, Grant Jennings. Marc Laforge.RD&mdash;Brad Shaw. Dave Babych, Ulf Samuelsson, Sylvain Cote.G&mdash;Peter Sidorkiewicz, Kay Whitmore, Mike Liut.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Brent Peterson, C, bruised toe. &#9632;

HAB SWEEP PROVES WHALER MAGIC IS LONG GONE

<div class="byline">BY STEPHEN HARRIS</div>This year&rsquo;s playoffs couldn&rsquo;t have begun on a more discouraging note than they did for the Boston Bruins.&ldquo;That was a complete no-show by the Boston Bruins,&rdquo; said coach Terry O&rsquo;Reilly after the Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; 6-0 win in Boston April 5 in the first game of the Adams Division semifinal series. It was the Bruins&rsquo; shutout loss at home in the playoffs since 1958.In light of the fact the Bruins hadn&rsquo;t beaten the Sabres all season, compiling an 0-5-3 record, most assumed the Bruins would bow out of the playoffs in a hurry. But after three straight victories, the Bruins found themselves needing only one win to eliminate the Sabres and move on to the divisional finals against Montreal.After dropping behind 3-0 to the Sabres in game two April 6, the Bruins rallied for a 5-3 victory. Bobby Carpenter, getting added ice time since center Ken Linseman suffered a tom knee ligament March 27, capped the comeback with a game-winning goal on the power play.Then, in a pair of highly-physical, defensive struggles in Buffalo April 8 and 9, the Bruins earned 4-2 and 3-2 wins to take control of the series.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s unbelievable, really a total turnaround,&rdquo; said goalie Reggie Lemelin after his win in the fourth game. &ldquo;We got slapped in the face pretty good in the first game. We hit rock-bottom, and when you do that, you can&rsquo;t do anything but go up.&rdquo;The Sabres, who were 0-3 against Boston in previous playoff series, were a frustrated team after losing back-to-back home games, despite playing very well in each.In game three April 8, Bruins&rsquo; goalie Andy Moog recorded 36 saves. The next night, it was veteran defenseman Garry Galley who made the biggest save.With 41 seconds left and the Sabres pressing to tie the score at 3-3, Lemelin was down and out after a save. The net was wide open as Buffalo&rsquo;s Doug Bodger fired a 20-footer from the slot. Galley moved in front of the net and blocked the sure goal with his head, suffering extensive damage to his left ear. But it didn&rsquo;t knock him out of the lineup.&ldquo;The series could be tied 2-2 if the puck doesn&rsquo;t hit him in the head,&rdquo; said Bruins&rsquo; captain Ray Bourque. &ldquo;He really took one for the team, and that&rsquo;s what makes a winner.&rdquo;Another factor was the still-improving chemistry between linemates Cam Neely and Craig Janney, who combined for six goals and four assists in games two, three and four.Neely, who had four goals in the series&rsquo; first four games, shook off the Sabres&rsquo; smothering checking to net game-winning goals in games three and four. Both were set up by Janney.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re playing really tight on me, which I expected,&rdquo; said Neely. &ldquo;If I do get open, it&rsquo;s only for a split second. But Craig is finding the way to get me the puck.&rdquo;Another key factor in the Bruins&rsquo; turnaround was penalty-killing. After allowing four power-play goals in the series-opener, they killed 20 of the next 22 Buffalo power plays.Despite winning three straight, O&rsquo;Reilly earned a new respect for his Adams Division rivals.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re playing a nice brand of hockey,&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Reilly. &ldquo;After not beating them all year, to beat them the last three, well, it wasn&rsquo;t easy.&rdquo;<h2>BOSTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>April 3: Mike Jeffrey, G, recalled from Maine (AHL).<h2>ROSTER</h2>C&mdash;Bobby Carpenter, Craig Janney, Bob Sweeney, Tommy Lehmann.LW&mdash;Andy Brickley, John Carter, Rob Cimetta, Bob Joyce, John Mokosak.RW&mdash;Paul Beraldo, Keith Crowder, Greg Johnston, Cam Neely. Ray Neufeld.LD&mdash;Allen Pedersen, Bruce Shoebottom, Don Sweeney, Glen Wesley.RD&mdash;Ray Bourque, Garry Galley, Greg Hawgood, Stephane Quintal. Michael Thelven.G&mdash;Reggie Lemelin, Andy Moog, Norm Foster, Mike Jeffrey.<h2>INJURIES</h2>Lyndon Byers, RW, right shoulder separation, day-to-day.Gord Kluzak, D, left knee, out for season.Ken Linseman, C, torn left knee ligament, indefinite.Nevin Markwart, LW, abdominal pull, indefinite.Bill O&rsquo;Dwyer, C, left knee inflammation, out for season. &#9632;

BRUINS TURN TABLES AGAINST BUFFALO

<div class="byline">BY JIM KELLEY</div>When it&rsquo;s over&mdash;and with the Boston Bruins leading the Buffalo Sabres three games to one, it appeared over&mdash;the Sabres will likely still be wondering&hellip;&#9632; Why goalie Jacques Cloutier was replaced with Clint Malarchuk after it was Cloutier who shut out the Bruins 6-0 in game one of their Adams Division semifinal series?&#9632; How the Sabres could blow a 3-0 lead in game two, losing 5-3 with Malarchuk in net, after playing so well in game one and almost half of game two?&#9632; What happened to Buffalo&rsquo;s home-ice strength? The Sabres, who had the fourth-best home record in regular-season play, lost 4-2 and 3-2 at home.&#9632; Where did the power play go? The Sabres were 4-for-8 in the first game, 2-for-20 in the next three.&#9632; What happened to the psychological edge Buffalo held after winning five of eight regularseason meetings and tying three others?These and other questions are likely to be pondered through yet another empty spring and summer for the Sabres and their fans.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard for me to say we (aren&rsquo;t doing) any better than the Bruins are doing, other than scoring goals,&rdquo; said coach Ted Sator after Boston won the fourth game 3-2 April 9 at Buffalo&rsquo;s Memorial Auditorium.While that may not be entirely accurate, it does provide insight.Buffalo&rsquo;s offense fell off dramatically after the midpoint of game two. Buffalo had outscored the Bruins 9-0 at that point. It was 12-4 in Boston&rsquo;s favor since then. Much of that was the result of the Sabres letting Boston forwards, particularly Cam Neely, find their way to the net.Goaltending hadn&rsquo;t been a problem. Cloutier played brilliantly in the first game and was strong in games three and four in Buffalo.The decision to replace Cloutier with Malarchuk was a concession to a schedule that called for four games in five nights.Sator said all parties were consulted before the move was made.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011291/6270780-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="701" height="792"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jacques Cloutier shut out the Boston Bruins and then sat out the next game.</figcaption></div>At least seven other coaches weren&rsquo;t concerned about goaltender fatigue being a factor.Mike Vernon of Calgary, Alain Chevrier of Chicago, Grant Fuhr of Edmonton, Ron Hextall of Philadelphia, Tom Barrasso of Pittsburgh, Greg Millen of St. Louis and Pete Peeters of Washington each started the first four of their teams&rsquo; games.<h2>BUFFALO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>April 3: Richie Dunn, D, Darcy Wakaluk, G, Bob Halkidis, D. Mikael Andersson. LW.Ken Priestlay, C, Scott Metcalfe, RW, Mike Donnelly, LW, Joe Reekie. D, recalled from Rochester (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Pierre Turgeon, Ken Priestlay, Benoit Hogue, Jeff Parker.LW&mdash;Scott Arniel, Dave Andreychuk, Mike Hartman, Darrin Shannon.RW&mdash;Mike Foligno, John Tucker, Kevin Maguire, Rick Vaive, Ray Sheppard.LD&mdash;Doug Bodger, Mike Ramsey, Uwe Krupp, Larry Playfair.RD&mdash;Shawn Anderson, Grant Ledyard,, Uwe Krupp, Phil Housley.G&mdash;Jacques Cloutier, Clint Malarchuk.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Daren Puppa, G, broken arm, indefinite.Christian Ruuttu, C, separated shoulder, indefinite. &#9632;

f0016-01

UNANSWERED QUESTIONSSURROUND SABRES

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN JOHNSTON</div>Jean Perron has made a few enemies both in Nordique uniforms and in the media since arriving behind the bench in Quebec City.But Paul Gillis isn&rsquo;t one of them.Gillis, who scored 15 goals and 25 assists with 163 penalty minutes in 79 games, was voted Nordique player of the year by the local media. A defensive specialist, Gillis credits Perron with his fine play.&ldquo;I really didn&rsquo;t expect to receive such an honor, especially after my poor first half (5-9-14 after 39 games),&rdquo; said Gillis. &ldquo;It was very clear that (former coach) Ron Lapointe didn&rsquo;t like the way I played. I was being used very sporadically.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011146/6270818-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="549" height="736"><figcaption class="caption-body">Joe Sakic contended for Nordique player of the year.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;But then Jean came along. He knew what I could do on the ice. He had coached against me. He gave me a fair chance to play. He gave me loads of ice time. That really pumped up my confidence.&rdquo;Gillis finished seventh in team scoring, 45 points behind leader Peter Stastny (35-50-85). But his output represented a fine comeback from 710-17 totals in 80 games last season. He was expected to fill the void left by disturber Dale Hunter, who was traded to Washington before the 1987-88 campaign, yet didn&rsquo;t measure up.This season, he was the Nords&rsquo; most consistent performer.&ldquo;He came to play every night,&rdquo; Perron said. &ldquo;His intensity level wasalways tops, even towards the end of the season when we all knew we wouldn&rsquo;t take part in the playoffs.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02869/6270811-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="541" height="740"><figcaption class="caption-body">Paul Gillis said the Nordiques never gelled this season.</figcaption></div>Gillis, 25, tried to downplay his accomplishments.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve certainly had better seasons,&rdquo; said Gillis, whose best year was 1985-86 when he had 19 goals and 24 assists, along with 203 penalty minutes, in 80 games.&ldquo;This year, a few other players deserved the player of the year award as much as I did,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m talking about guys like Randy Moller. Walt Poddubny or even Joe Sakic.&rdquo;Gillis said the award is a boost to his confidence and will spur him to greater achievements next season.Hopefully, he said, the team will improve along with him.&ldquo;We definitely should have won more often,&rdquo; he said of the club&rsquo;s 27 victories. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know why. but for an unknown reason the players really didn&rsquo;t gel together. We simply didn&rsquo;t play as a team. And we certainly never played with confidence.&rdquo;After a poor season, change is usually in the air. Or at least talked about.&ldquo;It really isn&rsquo;t my job to comment on that,&rdquo; Gillis said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll leave my bosses work out their own problems.&rdquo;This season, at least, Gillis had few of his own. &#9632;

f0017-01

GILLIS PRAISES PERRON AFTER WINNING AWARD

<div class="byline">STAN FISCHLER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011186/6270849-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="481" height="628"></div>May 7 is the first anniversary of John Ziegler&rsquo;s unavailability during Doughnutgate.Where was Ziegler? To this day, we don&rsquo;t have the answer. But we do know the NHL survived the mess and Ziegler weathered a relentless media assault. A year later, the president still deflects the arrows while the NHL cash registers ring up record receipts.Ziegler had every reason to glow as we sat recently in his office overlooking Rockefeller Center.&ldquo;Robust is a good word to describe the state of the league,&rdquo; Ziegler said. &ldquo;Our economics are the best they could have been and our player talent is the best. It&rsquo;s the most competitive year we&rsquo;ve ever had. We&rsquo;re robust in the sense that we&rsquo;re bursting to do other things.&rdquo;One of those things is expansion. The successful ballooning of the National Basketball Association has inspired NHL liberals to prod the conservatives into the expansion mode. Ziegler is listening.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re in the process of looking at the possibility of adding other teams,&rdquo; he explained. &ldquo;I think that will happen in the next few years. The only question&mdash;and that&rsquo;s what our committee is working on&mdash;is how and where we will do it. Those are very difficult questions but that&rsquo;s going on right now. We&rsquo;re doing some very vital things and ready to burst out and do more.&rdquo;Ziegler&rsquo;s critics batter him in two areas&mdash;NHL violence and his apparent insensitivity to fans, as underlined by a statement he made in January on New York radio station WFAN that has had an awful backlash. Ziegler said &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always had the feeling that the game belongs to the players and the owners first and then to the fans.&rdquo;&ldquo;That was the correct quote,&rdquo; Ziegler said, &ldquo;but the context was in talking about rule changes; whether we&rsquo;re going to change this or that. It has always been my judgement that the responsibility for deciding how the product should be presented comes from the owners and the players who are participating in it.&ldquo;The suggestion that the fan is least important is absolutely incorrect. The fan is most important. He&rsquo;s our customer. We&rsquo;re presenting an entertainment. I&rsquo;m saying that the responsibility for presenting that entertainment&mdash;and, in effect, the game itself&mdash;is with the owners and players. They have to make the decisions as to how to present it.&rdquo;And the fan?&ldquo;He says &lsquo;I like it&rsquo; or I don&rsquo;t like it,&rsquo;&rdquo; said Ziegler. &ldquo;And he says that by either buying or not buying tickets.&rdquo;As for fighting, Ziegler agrees with critics who zap the goon side of the game.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re absolutely right. As (cartoonist) Walt Kelly used to say, &lsquo;We has found the enemy and they is us.&rsquo; We seem to be our own worst enemy. As a matter of fact we&rsquo;ve been doing some studies about who are the guys (goons) and what the percentages are. Those are the guys I&rsquo;d like to see not out of the game, but at least have their activity eliminated.&rdquo;Yet even with fighting, the NHL product has received a solid reception in 1988-89 if the numbers are to be believed.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to do about $350 million gross and I expect that somewhere about 10 to 12 per cent will come out as profit (estimated $40 million),&rdquo; Ziegler said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s not a great profit (margin), but compared to years past and compared to other professional sports, we&rsquo;re among the leaders. Our attendance is up again another two-and-a-half percent. That&rsquo;s been a steady increase for the 10th consecutive year and our average attendance is now over 14,000 a game. By the time the playoffs are over there&rsquo; II be over 13 million people who watched a game.&rdquo;Ziegler gets minimal credit for the good works. That&rsquo;s the nature of the business. Nobody says, &lsquo;Thank you very much,&rsquo; for slogging through hour after hour with the Soviets so that a Soviet player can wind up in a Calgary Flames&rsquo; uniform. What the New Jersey Devils and Vancouver Canucks would like to know is how many more Soviet aces will be given NHL citizenship.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think very many,&rdquo; Ziegler said. &ldquo;Over the next few years we might see two, three, four in the NHL. Remember that hockey is still a very prominent sport in the Soviet Union, not just an entertainment. It is part of a social and state policy. As such, the Russians take great pride in having an elite team that wins the World Championships. That team is very talented.&rdquo;A series between the Soviet champ and the Stanley Cup winner would seem to be the natural outgrowth of the ties between the NHL and Soviet Union.&ldquo;That item has always been on our agenda but the difficulties with arranging it are such that we have not been able to find or even see a solution. Timing is significant and the economics have to make sense. The Soviets want to play in the World Championships which take place in April or May and we have our playoffs which are significant for our operation. It is an idea that will continue to be discussed.&rdquo;Ziegler often is chided for borrowing Henry Ford&rsquo;s bromide&mdash;&rdquo;If it ain&rsquo;t broke, don&rsquo;t fix it&rdquo;&mdash;when it comes to the NHL&rsquo;s hesistancy to make drastic changes. But in fact, the league is constantly looking to the future.&ldquo;We continue to look at ways of improving player development,&rdquo; Ziegler said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re interested in some very long-range thinking on that, both from player and fan development. How can we get more people to play the game?&ldquo;We&rsquo;re looking into plans for assisting communities and private industries to get involved with building rinks and providing facilities. Another high priority is improving broadcasting, particularly outside of North America. With that will come marketing and creating events that will, hopefully, drive our product throughout the rest of the world.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0018-01

THE STATE OF THE GAME, ACCORDING TO ZIEGLER

<h2>DEVILS</h2>The Devils may attempt to acquire right winger Tony Tanti from the Vancouver Canucks. Tanti, who had averaged 41 goals per season for the previous five campaigns, slumped to 24 this year. New Jersey general manager Lou Lamoriello, who acquired Patrik Sundstrom from the Canucks in 1987 for Greg G. Adams and goalie Kirk McLean, may put together a package for Tanti. Rumor is Pat Verbeek. Craig Wolanin and Claude Loiselle would go to Vancouver&hellip;Coach Jim Schoenfeld knocked his players for reporting to training camp in poor physical condition last September. &ldquo;There were some guys who worked hard in the off-season,&rdquo; said Schoenfeld. &ldquo;Guys like John MacLean, Brendan Shanahan and Jim Korn, and they had outstanding years. But, as a team, we did not have the hunger or the commitment in training camp.&rdquo;&hellip;Goalie Bob Sauve&rsquo;s back problems may force his retirement during the offseason.<h2>PENGUINS</h2>Pittsburgh signed University of Maine right winger Dave Capuano to a multi-year contract hours before game one of their first-round playoff series against the New York Rangers. Capuano, a two-time all-American and finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, practised and travelled with the team, but did not get into the lineup.during their four games against the Rangers&hellip;Superb checking by New York limited Mario Lemieux to three goals and two assists in four games, but the Penguins responded with a balanced attack. Ten players had one or more goals against the Rangers.<h2>ISLANDERS</h2>Right winger Alan Kerr and defenseman Marc Bergevin have played out their options, but both will be offered new contracts. Bergevin, the team&rsquo;s best defenseman the second half of the year, will re-sign. But Kerr, who scored four goals in first 27 games and still finished with 20, may test the free-agent marketplace&hellip;Islanders&rsquo; trainer Mark Aldridge accepted an invitation to work for Team USA at World Championships. He&rsquo;ll join Pat LaFontaine, Tom Fitzgerald, Jeff Norton and Randy Wood.<h2>FLYERS</h2>Although the philisophical beliefs of the Flyers&rsquo; ownership will not allow the club to engage in competition with the Soviets, the team might be taking Soviet players in this year&rsquo;s draft. &ldquo;The reason for that is twofold,&rdquo; said Flyers&rsquo; president Jay Snider. &ldquo;First, the Soviets might change some of their human rights policies. And, secondly, if we draft a player and he defects, we would use him.&rdquo; Because of his objection the Soviets, Snider refuses to pay theSoviet hockey federation for use of its players&hellip;Left winger Murray Craven suffered a bruised right wrist during the first game of the series, a 3-2 loss to the Capitals April 5. Craven, who had recently broken the same wrist, missed the second, third and fourth games, but was expected to be back later in the series&hellip;Flyers&rsquo; captain Dave Poulin suffered a broken ring finger on his right hand during the third game, a 4-3 overtime loss April 8, but came back to score a goal in the Flyers&rsquo; 5-2 win the next night.<h2>CAPITALS</h2>Left winger Geoff Courtnail, who was blanked in 19 playoff games with Edmonton last season and nine with Boston before that, scored goals in each of the first two games against Philadelphia&hellip;Kelly Miller&rsquo;s overtime goal that beat the Flyers in the third game of the divisional semifinal April 8 was a virtual repeat of one he scored to defeat Philadelphia 1-0 in overtime on Jan. 31, 1988. &ldquo;This one went off (Kjell) Samuelsson&rsquo;s stick and the last time it went off his skate,&rdquo; Miller said. &ldquo;I guess I owe him something.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02874/6270880-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="537" height="800"><figcaption class="caption-body">Geoff Courtnail ended a 28-game playoff scoring drought.</figcaption></div><h2>RANGERS</h2>Ranger general manager Phil Esposito began the month with his April Fool&rsquo;s Day coaching change and ended his team&rsquo;s season with an April 9 gamble, putting Mike Richter in goal for his first NHL game. Richter, who was 23-23-1 with a 4.41 goals-against average with Denver of the International League this year, stopped 26 shots as the Rangers were defeated 4-3 and swept in the series. &ldquo;We decided to shake things up,&rdquo; said Esposito. &ldquo;And sometimes a team responds to it.&rdquo;&hellip;Goalie John Vanbiesbrouck said the Rangers&rsquo; slide had nothing to do with the changes and everything to do with what they did on the ice. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think the coaching change or goaltending, for that matter, had much to do with what happened to us,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;As a team, we just got in a bad stretch and couldn&rsquo;t get out of it.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0018-02

DEVILS MAY GO AFTER CANUCK SNIPER TANTI

<div class="byline">BY BOB FACHET</div>The Washington Capitals&rsquo; playoff history is littered with weird events that have prevented the team from escaping the Patrick Division to play in May.There was Bob Carpenter&rsquo;s cut-out glove, which resulted in the penalty that changed the momentum of a series against the New York Islanders in 1984. Then there was Carpenter&rsquo;s failed penalty shot, which helped the Islanders rally from a two-game deficit for a 3-2 series victory in 1985.In 1986, the Capitals, unbeaten over more than two years in overtime play, dropped two extra-period decisions in losing to the New York Rangers. The Islanders won that unforgettable four-overtime seventh game in 1987, after goalie Bob Mason&rsquo;s skate lost a rivet as he fell trying to stop the tying goal.Last year it was a third-period deflection by John MacLean that gave New Jersey a seventh-game victory. So, despite a big turnover in personnel, the Capitals faced a mental block as they turned their attention to Philadelphia following their first regularseason title in the Patrick Division.What happened in the first four games hardly helped-After squeezing out a 3-2 victory in the opener April 5 on a deflected goal by Lou Franceschetti, the Capitals held a 2-0 advantage with 13 minutes remaining in he second game the next night.Flyer Brian Propp then celebrated his 100th playoff game by deflecting the last two goals past Pete Peeters. The winner came off Propp&rsquo;s skate as he fell, giving Philadelphia a 3-2 comeback decision at Capital Centre.When the series shifted to the Spectrum, the Capitals took back the home-ice advantage by defeating the Flyers 4-3 on an overtime goal by Kelly Miller April 8.Washington figured to have a lot of momentum the next night, but played very poorly and was victimized by three weird goals as the Flyers again evened the series.Tim Kerr opened the scoring after Mark Howe&rsquo;s dump into the rightwing comer caromed at a 45-degree angle into the slot. Defenseman Neil Sheehy swiped at the puck and missed while Peeters, who had gone behind the net to play it, dove in vain to prevent Kerr from scoring.It became 2-0 when Dave Poulin, playing despite a broken finger, lined a shot off the crossbar, the puck struck Peeters in the back and it trickled over the line before the goalie could sweep it out.Gord Murphy put things out of reach at 3-0 with a shot from the rightwing boards that hit defenseman Kevin Hatcher in the leg and was redirected past Peeters.Coach Bryan Murray has often rejected the idea that a dark cloud appears over the franchise at playoff time. But he was having a tough time explaining his team&rsquo;s inability to play better hockey, after he rested several players following an eight-game winning streak that clinched first place late in March.&ldquo;We certainly haven&rsquo;t been playing to our potential,&rdquo; Murray said.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had a harder time than we should have to get back to a high level. Guys who have made a major contribution are having a harder time making it happen and they&rsquo;re getting frustrated. In fact, except for Pete Peeters, I can&rsquo;t pick out anybody who&rsquo;s playing up to his ability.&rdquo;<h2>WASHINGTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Bengt Gustafsson, Mike Ridley, Dale Hunter, Doug Wickenheiser, Peter Sundstrom.LW&mdash;Dave Christian, Michal Pivonka, Geoff Courtnall, Lou Franceschetti, John Druce, Yvon Corriveau.RW&mdash;Dino Ciccarelli, Kelly Miller, Bob Gould, Steve Leach, Mike Millar.LD&mdash;Scott Stevens, Rod Langway, Calle Johansson, Scot Kleinendorst, Bill Houlder.RD&mdash;Kevin Hatcher, Neil Sheehy, Bob Rouse, Chris Felix.G&mdash;Pete Peeters, Don Beaupre, Alain Raymond.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

PLAYOFF ODDITIES CONTINUE FOR CAPS

<div class="byline">BY AL MORGANTI</div>It took four games, but the Philadelphia Flyers finally got the bounces and breaks they hoped would launch them to a victory over the Washington Capitals in their Patrick Division semifinal series.In game four at the Spectrum April 9, it looked as if Flyers&rsquo; coach Paul Holmgren was using some kind of remote-control device to guide the puck into the Washington net. The result was a resounding 5-2 victory which tied the series 2-2.It was the first time a game had been decided by more than one goal. The Capitals won the first 3-2 at home, the Flyers took the second in Washington by the same margin, and the Caps won game three 4-3 in overtime at the Spectrum.The Flyers were facing what goalie Ron Hextall called &ldquo;as close to a must game as you can get.&rdquo;Everything went right for the Flyers, as they scored three flukegoals on Cap goalie Pete Peeters during a four-goal second period. &ldquo;We certainly got some breaks,&rdquo; said Holmgren, &ldquo;and we took advantage of them. I think we took the three breaks and let them sort of propel us. &ldquo;The Flyers went up 1-0 when a dump-in shot by Mark Howe bounced straight off the boards and into the slot, where Tim Kerr swatted it past Peeters. The next goal was even more bizarre&mdash;captain Dave Poulin clanged a shot off the crossbar, the puck hit Paeters&rsquo; back and flopped over the goal line.Before the period was over, rookie defenseman Gord Murphy fired a slap shot which defelected off Kevin Hatcher&rsquo;s stick and past Peeters.Both Flyer victories resulted from unusual goals. In the second game, Kerr knocked in a shot off Brian Propp&rsquo;s skate with about a minute remaining for the victory.The Flyers won that game when Dale Hunter was in the penalty box serving a badly-timed penalty for slashing Hextall. Obviously, the Caps couldn&rsquo;t wait to return the favor&mdash;right winger Scott Mellanby was serving a bad penalty when the Capitals scored the tying goal in game three.With the Flyers leading 3-2 and Mellanby off for cross-checking Lou Franceschetti midway through the third period, the Capitals tied the game on a power-play goal by Bengt Gustafsson.That goal set up the overtime which the Capitals won after 51 seconds. Kelly Miller scored on a backhand that hit Kjell Samuelsson&rsquo;s stick.In the 5-2 win it was the Flyers&rsquo; turn to get the breaks. But more than that, they took 18 shots at Peeters during the second period&mdash;their first significant pressure in the series.&ldquo;That was the key thing,&rdquo; said Holmgren. &ldquo;We had to get some shots on net. If you don&rsquo;t get the shots at him, you don&rsquo;t give him a chance to goof up. I&rsquo;m sure they&rsquo;re thinking the same thing about our goalie.&rdquo;Washington scored the final two goals, but the Flyers scoffed at the idea of the Capitals building momentum for game five.&ldquo;Ijustcan&rsquo;tbelieve that anything is going to carry over,&rdquo; said Kerr. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just everynight is a new night. We can actually look at this series and say we should be up three games to one. And I&rsquo;m sure those guys in the other locker room are looking at the series and saying they should be up three games to one. It&rsquo;s just so even, we&rsquo;ll see who gets the breaks from now on&hellip;well, we&rsquo;ll see who makes the breaks. That&rsquo;s how you&rsquo;ll win this series. You&rsquo;ve got to create the chances to get a break, and then take advantage.&rdquo;<h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>April 9: Chris Jensen, RW, recalled from Hershey (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Ron Sutter. Dave Poulin, Mike Bullard, Keith Acton.LW&mdash;Brian Propp, Pelle Eklund. Derrick Smith. Craig Berube, Al Secord.RW&mdash;Tim Kerr. Rick Tocchet, Scott Mellanby, Chris Jensen.LD&mdash;Mark Howe. Jay Wells, Terry Carkner, Moe Mantha.RD&mdash;Kjell Samuelsson, Jeff Chychrun, Gord Murphy, Kerry Huffman.G&mdash;Ron Hextall, Ken Wregget.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Murray Craven, LW-C, bruised right wrist, day-to-day.IIkka Sinisalo, RW, multiple fracture of left wrist, indefinite. &#9632;

FLUKE GOALS KEEP PHILADELPHIA FLYING

<div class="byline">BY DAVE MOLINARI</div>Tom Barrasso came to the Pittsburgh Penguins last November with a reputation for cracking under the pressure of big games.It took precisely four games to blast that rap into oblivion.Barrasso, who had a 3-8 playoff record with the Buffalo Sabres, played brilliantly as the Penguins swept the New York Rangers in four games in their Patrick Division semifinal. It was their first playoff series victory since 1979.Barrasso had a save percentage of .930, while the Ranger troika of John Vanbiesbrouck, BobFroese and Mike Richter combined .860.Barrasso was named the first star of both games at Madison Square Garden, where he stopped 89 of 95 shots in games three and four.&ldquo;In playoff hockey, to go far and win a lot of games, you need a strong goaltender,&rdquo; Pittsburgh center John Cullen said. &ldquo;And Tommy&rsquo;s playing up to his potential. He&rsquo;s just playing great.&rdquo;Better than that, really.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s proving he can do anything,&rdquo; coach Gene Ubriaco said.But Barrasso, the 24-year-old native of Boston, insisted he wasn&rsquo;t trying to prove anything to anybody.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not just me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t just me in Buffalo and it&rsquo;s not just me here. I just hope I&rsquo;m doing my part. I just do what they ask of me. I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;m doing anything special.&rdquo;That is a minority opinion. Any questions about Barrasso&rsquo;s ability to play under pressure were answered early in game three at Madison Square Garden, when he withstood an early barrage by the Rangers en route to a 43-save performance and 5-3 victory.Twenty-five seconds into the game, he stopped a point-blank shot from Ranger right winger Tomas Sandstrom. By the time 4!4 minutes had elapsed, New York had a 7-1 advantage in shots. But the scoreboard did not reflect that superiority. The Penguins survived New York&rsquo;s surge with no significant damage.&ldquo;We knew the first 10 minutes of the first period (of game three) would be big for us,&rdquo; Cullen said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s when Tommy came up big for us.&rdquo;While Barrasso downplayed the importance of his performance, his teammates had no reservations about pointing out the value of his consistently superior play.&ldquo;Every part of your game becomes a lot better when you know you&rsquo;ve got goaltending,&rdquo; center Dan Quinn said. &ldquo;He makes us play with a lot more confidence in front of him, because he&rsquo;s playing outstanding.&rdquo;So the Penguins, who clinched their spot in the quarterfinals a full week before they began, waited to see whether they would face Philadelphia or Washington in the second round. They were 4-3 against both teams during the regular season.<h2>PITTSBURGH</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>April 3: Frank Pietrangelo, G, assigned to Muskegon (IHL).April 5: Dave Capuano. RW, signed multi-year contract.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mario Lemieux, Dan Quinn, John Cullen, Dave McLIwain, Dave Hannan.LW&mdash;Bob Errey, Kevin Stevens, Randy Cunneyworth. Phil Bourque.RW&mdash;Rob Brown, Jock Callander, Troy Loney, Jay Caufield.LD&mdash;Paul Coffey, Zarley Zalapski, Chris Dahlquist. Steve Dykstra.RD&mdash;Randy Hillier, Jim Johnson, Rod Buskas, Gord Dineen.G&mdash;Tom Barrasso. Wendell Young.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

BARRASSO PROVES HIS WORTH IN SWEEP

<div class="byline">BY WALT MacPEEK</div>The New York Rangers&rsquo; collapse is complete.A 4-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins April 9 brought to a close the nightmare that enveloped the Rangers at season&rsquo;s end.Pittsburgh swept the Patrick Division semifinal series 4-0.Including the playoffs, New York lost its last nine games and 16 of its final 19.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s like a bad dream,&rdquo; said Ranger captain Kelly Kisio, &ldquo;but, unfortunately, it is real and it gives you a sinking, empty feeling.&ldquo;Last year (missing the playoffs on the final day) was a shock but this is worse. It happened so fast; it didn&rsquo;t seem like we had time to stop what was happening to us.&ldquo;You try not to think about it, but this is going to mean some changes in people&rsquo;s lives&hellip;not pleasant ones, probably.&rdquo;Among those people who will be living with more than the usual amount of uncertainty is Ranger general manager Phil Esposito, who so boldly fired Michel Bergeron before the team&rsquo;s 79th game of the regular season.One of the complaints Esposito had when he took over was that Bergeron created a &ldquo;negative&rdquo; atmosphere. Defenseman Ron Greschner suggested the former coach may have, inadvertently, contributed to the Rangers&rsquo; playoff woes.&ldquo;We were too emotional. We wanted to go out and prove that we weren&rsquo;t a bunch of bleeping chickens,&rdquo; Greschner said, apparently referring to Bergeron&rsquo;s March 29 assertion that his players were &ldquo;scared.&rdquo;If the Rangers did, indeed, overreact to Bergeron&rsquo;s biting criticism, they under-reacted to almost everything else.&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t get any spark from the change of coaches,&rdquo; Brian Leetch said with apparent disgust, &ldquo;and we didn&rsquo;t get any spark from ourselves. You can&rsquo;t blame Phil. Competing in the playoffs should have given us a lift, no matter what else was going on.&rdquo;The Penguins&rsquo; domination was more one-sided than their 19-11 overall scoring margin suggested and Esposito hinted he might revise his game plan for next season, the final year on his contract.&ldquo;Do I want to?&rdquo; Espo said when asked if he would coach next season, as he had previously announced.&ldquo;Ask me that in June, at the draft,&rdquo; theGM-coach requested. &ldquo;By then, I will have had time to reflect and to see what is on the horizon for us.&rdquo;Esposito did not sound like a man who thought a part-time GM could handle the rebuilding job that he now feels is necessary.&ldquo;Make no bones about it; since the all-star break, we have not been a good team&hellip;not a good hockey team at all. And there are a lot of factors involved. I&rsquo;ve got to figure out the real ones.&rdquo;Even though the Rangers have won only two playoff games in the three years Esposito has ruled as GM, he said that he expects to return next season.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not afraid of being fired,&rdquo; he insisted. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve done what I had to do and I have nothing to be ashamed about.&rdquo;<h2>N.Y. RANGERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Carey Wilson, Kelly Kisio, Lucien DeBlois. Darren Turcotte, Jason Lafreniere.LW&mdash;Ulf Dahlen, Tony Granato, John Ogrodnick, Lindy Ruff. Mark Janssens. Marcel Dionne.RW&mdash;Tomas Sandstrom. Brian Mullen, Guy Lafleur. Chris Nilan, Marcel Dionne.LD&mdash;Brian Leetch, Ron Greschner, Mark Hardy, Miloslav Horava.RD&mdash;James Patrick, Michel Petit, David Shaw. Rudy Poeschek.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Paul Cyr, LW-C, surgery right knee.Normand Rochefort, D. surgery right knee. &#9632;

NEW YORK NIGHTMARE COMES TO ENDAS RANGERS OUSTED

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div>Despite finishing third on the team in scoring and missing a total of 15 games because of injuries, Patrik Sundstrom was so vital to the New Jersey Devils this season that his teammates selected him most valuable player.But Sundstrom, 28-41-69 in 65 games, wasn&rsquo;t the only European to enjoy success for the Devils in an otherwise disappointing season. Fellow Swedes Anders Carlsson and Tommy Albelin overcame adversity and played well enough to figure prominently in the team&rsquo;s plans for next season.Albelin, acquired from the Quebec Nordiques Dec. 12 for a 1989 fifthround draft choice in general managerLou Lamoriello&rsquo;s only trade of the season, had the best plus-minus rating, plus-18 in 46 games, of all New Jersey defensemen. He scored seven goals and 24 assists as a Devil. Overall, he went 9-28-37 in 60 games with a plus-12 rating.&ldquo;When things didn&rsquo;t work out for Tommy in Quebec and we had the opportunity, we thought it would be worthwhile getting him,&rdquo; explained Lamoriello. &ldquo;With Sundstrom and Carlsson here we thought the environment might help him. He was considered one of he elite players on the Swedish national team.&ldquo;No question Tommy was a pleasant surprise. On what he did, we have to look for him in the future. He&rsquo;s given us every indication he&rsquo;s capable of contributing. His skill factor is his biggest asset.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01874/6271007-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="549" height="684"><figcaption class="caption-body">Anders Carlsson says he doesn&rsquo;t shoot enough.</figcaption></div>Albelin, 24, will be in the option year of his contract when the 1989-90 season begins, unless he signs a new deal. He had not entered negotiations as of the second week of April.&ldquo;The trade has been a very good thing for me,&rdquo; said Albelin. &ldquo;I got to play, I got some points and this is a good bunch of guys. But when you don&rsquo;t make the playoffs, there can be a lot of changes. I&rsquo;m not calling the shots. Lou is. I&rsquo;d like to be here next year.&rdquo;Carlsson.a 28-year-old center, just completed his third season. His NHL career has been hindered by assorted injuries and shuffling between New Jersey and Utica, the Devils&rsquo; American League farm team.Not until late this season, when injuries claimed Mark Johnson and several other forwards, was he given the ice time necessary to make an impression on coach Jim Schoenfeld.&ldquo;When you&rsquo;re in the minors, you wonder if you&rsquo;ll ever get the chance,&rdquo; said Carlsson, who went 4-8-12 in 47 games with New Jersey and 2-4-6 in seven games with Utica.On the final night of the season, Carlsson beat Washington&rsquo;s Don Beaupre for a picture-perfect breakaway goal in a 7-4 victory. In order to stick with the Devils next season he must score more.&ldquo;There are a lot of good players in the league that can check,&rdquo; said Schoenfeld. &ldquo;Iwould like to see more offensive production.&rdquo;Carlsson says he has difficulty hitting the target.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got more confidence now but I still can&rsquo;t hit the net,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If I work on it, it&rsquo;ll come. My problem is, I don&rsquo;t shoot enough. I don&rsquo;t trust my shot as much as I should. People tell me to shoot more.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0022-01

EXPECTATIONS HIGH FOR ALBELIN AND CARLSSON

<div class="byline">BY BARRY MEISEL</div>The nose Pat LaFontaine stuck into the fray game in and game out throughout the Islanders&rsquo; disappointing season has been broken since October.And that&rsquo;s why the speedy center waited until the NHL playoffs began to announce he would join Team USA for the World Championships April 15-May 1 in Stockholm, Sweden.&ldquo;I met with Bill Torrey after the season and had the opportunity to talk with our team doctor. Dr. George Gilbert,&rdquo; LaFontaine said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going in to get the nose fixed on May 3, when I get back.&rdquo;LaFontaine broke his nose in a collision with Edmonton Oiler defenseman Steve Smith Oct. 7 during the Isles&rsquo; second game of the season. But he declined to go public with it because &ldquo;other guys have played hurt. &ldquo;Broken nose and all, the 24-year-old was the Islanders&rsquo; best player. He led the team in scoring with 45 goals and 43 assists. He provided the spice to a desultory regular season that ended with the Islanders missing the playoffs for the first time since 197374, their second season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01777/6271038-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="543" height="1037"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pat LaFontaine senses that adversity helped the Isles.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;We thought about getting the nose fixed at the all-star break, but decided to wait &ldquo;said LaFontaine, the only Islander to play in the classic.LaFontaine&rsquo;s broken nose compounded his long-standing nasal problems. He has chronic sinusitis and takes three injection each week to combat his many allergies. The broken nose made it tougher for him to breathe after some games. A bonespur on his left wrist which the doctors think will heal by itself over the summer, affected his feathery hands too.&ldquo;The doctors think I &lsquo;ll be able to breathe better next year,&rdquo; said LaFontaine. &ldquo;And the wrist will be fine&rdquo;.LaFontaine was a member of the 1984 U.S. Olympic team and represented sented his country in the 1987 Canada Cup. He&rsquo;s anxious to play at the World Championships.The four-year veteran is also anxious for 1989-90 to begin. The Isles went 7-7-1 in their final 15 games. That finish gave New York a 28-47-5 record and 20th overall. The Islanders tied Quebec in points (61) but had one more victory than the 27-46-7 Nordiques. They lost the opportunity to pick first in the June 17 draft, but LaFontaine senses a new team feeling.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very optimistic about next year because at the end, with such a young team, we pulled together, he said. &ldquo;We formed a team, a bond. I think it could be something really special.&ldquo;Let&rsquo;sface it, we used to take a lot, we went through a lot of adversity. At times we got knocked around, whether it was physically or things being said. Now we&rsquo;ve molded together. A lot of that credit goes to (coach) Al Arbour. To be a truly successful team, that togetherness has to be genuine. You have to want to stick up for one another. You have to want to support one another.&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s started.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0023-01

LAFONTAINE HAS A NOSE FOR TEAM USA

<div class="byline">BARRY MEISEL</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01851/6271069-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="473" height="640"></div>Writers get as weary of watching the same players for 80 games as those players get sick of hearing the same questions from the same writers for six months. So it was with great pleasure that I accepted my latest New York Daily News assignment: Covering the Pittsburgh Penguins in their first playoff series since 1982, versus the New York Rangers.What angles! Mario Lemieux&rsquo;s maiden Stanley Cup journey.Paul Coffey&rsquo;s first post-Oiler playoff fling. Rookie GM Tony Esposito against older brother Phil, who added to the pre-series hype by firing his coach the day before the end of the regular season.It wasn&rsquo;t that I disliked following the Islanders for the fourth straight season. It just wasn&rsquo;t much fun having to conjure hundreds of new ways to write about last place. By the middle of March;-I longed to cover a game that mattered.I admit, I got tired of praying for Rich Pilon and Wayne McBean to score their first NHL goals. Alan Kerr&rsquo;s dramatic quest for 20 goals just didn&rsquo;t cut it with my readers, who, once the Isles dropped out of the Patrick Division picture, got more stories about Dwight Gooden&rsquo;s offseason than Mikko Makela&rsquo;s season off.Kerr got his 20, by the way. We&rsquo;re still looking for Makela.The Penguins figured to be an exciting challenge. When you see a team only seven times a season and hear only what the grapevine&rsquo;s been saying, you tend to draw inaccurate conclusions. It&rsquo;s one of a pro athlete&rsquo;s biggest criticisms about the media, and probably the most valid.I had heard that Pittsburgh&rsquo;s dressing room wasn&rsquo;t very good for a journalist to work, that it was filled with colorless, unquotable characters.Wrong. This is one wonderful team to work. First you&rsquo;ve got the coach, Gene Ubriaco.Here&rsquo;s a guy who knows how to take his job seriously and still carry a large dose of perspective while dealing with people. On the mornings of games one and two, he was more than happy to accommodate a half-dozen reporters who wanted to squeeze into his office for the word on that night&rsquo;s game.The best of Ubie: On coaching, &ldquo;You get backstabbed so much it starts to feel like a massage.&rdquo; On Jay Caufield, &ldquo;He gets a penalty just for being big.&rdquo;Mario? He appears so reticent in front of the media horde, his French accent and soft voice making him virtually impossible to hear unless you&rsquo;re standing as close to him as Jan (Shadow) Erixon has all series.But away from a postgame press conference, Mario&rsquo;s terrific. Insightful, honest, great sense of humor Grows a brutal playoff beard, though.I had heard about Tom Barrasso&rsquo;s problems with people, his rudeness to female reporters, his disdain for interviews after losses. That was old news. I found a cooperative, friendly, erudite guy who allowed me a glimpse into how he feels he has changed since he broke into the NHL as an 18-year-old. It made for an interesting story.Rob Brown&rsquo;s a gas. Sure, he&rsquo;s a hot dog. Sure, he&rsquo;s going to either separate his shoulder or go into orbit one day flailing his arms doing the &ldquo;Pump&rdquo; after he scores. But he&rsquo;s one of what this game needs more of, colorful dudes willing to publicly display their joy at making big money to play games.Local fans and the regular beat writers are often the only people who get to know a team&rsquo;s lesser lights. Had I not loitered each day in the Pens&rsquo; dressing room, I would never have known that Troy Loney, Bob Errey and Dave Hannan were such talkative and perceptive fellows.You&rsquo;ve got to love a team whose refurbished dressing room includes a touch-tone pay telephone. What foresight by the Penguins&rsquo; interior decorator, knowing how desperately we deadline-runners need phones.I couldn&rsquo;t believe how I found it. I had just finished one interview after game one and was waiting to talk to Barrasso, who was still in the shower. I had a spare moment to call my office and dictate a quote for an early edition, but the moment I thought to look for a pay phone near a refreshment stand, I spotted a reporter from The New York Times with the receiver clutched to his face.&ldquo;Is that your wife?&rdquo; I asked him.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s my office,&rdquo; he said.&ldquo;Will you be long?&rdquo;The Times made its deadline. I made my call, found Barrasso, ran back to the press box and wrote my late edition story.The Penguins whomped the Rangers in four straight games in their Patrick semi-final, though I had hoped the series would go the full seven.I was having too much fun. &#9632;

f0024-01

PENGUINS ARE ONE FUN BUNCH OF GUYS

<h2>RED WINGS</h2>Gerard Gallant went before NHL executive vice president Bryan O&rsquo;Neill April 10 for a review of his match penalty for swinging his stick at Chicago&rsquo;s Dave Manson in game three of the Norris Division semifinal series. But the Red Wings were armed with plenty of evidence in defense of their second-leading scorer, who led the club in penalty minutes (230) this season. First, said coach Jacques Demers, Gallant missed Manson with a retaliatory swipe of his stick after Manson speared Gallant in the groin. Manson was slapped with a spearing major and also ejected from the game. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t want to hit him,&rdquo; Gallant said. &ldquo;Being that close, I could have hit him. I just wanted to let him know he wasn&rsquo;t going to get away with spearing me. &ldquo;&hellip; Steve Yzerman was shut out in games one and three against the Blackawks, but scored his first playoff hat trick in game two, and his fourth goal of the series in game four&hellip;The Wings averaged 19,586 in their first two playoff games, 72 fewer than their regular season average of 19,638. Joe Louis Arena&rsquo;s capacity is 19,275, but city fire officials allow 600 standing-room customers, and the club reported numerous crowds of 19,875 throughout the season.<h2>BLUES</h2>General manager Ron Caron got in his sprint work during game four of the Norris Division semifinals. After referee Paul Stewart gave Greg Paslawski a penalty for tripping Neal Broten with 10:49 to play, he sprinted down an aisle in the press box to supervisor Jim Christison. &ldquo;I get my exercise one way or the other,&rdquo; Caron quipped later..Vincent Riendeau removed his goaltending gear and skated with the Blues&rsquo; extra players during a morning skate before game four. He skated around the ice with a regular stick, firing slap shots. &ldquo;Me and Brett Hull,&rdquo; he quipped&hellip; Recently-signed No. I draft pick Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour hadn&rsquo;t made his NHL debut by game four. When asked when the fans would see Brind&rsquo;Amour, Blues&rsquo; coach Brian Sutter said: &ldquo;Watch the warmups, you&rsquo;ll see him.&rdquo;<h2>NORTH STARS</h2>North Stars&rsquo; defenseman Shawn Chambers missed game four because of a calf injury suffered when he was pulled down on a shorthanded breakaway in the third period of game three. Center Neal Broten took the first penalty shot by the Stars in their playoff history because Chambers was injured; He scored against Blues&rsquo; goalie Greg Millen. Chambers was out on a day-to-day basis&hellip; No. 1 draft pick Mike Modano made his NHL debut in game two and played in game three before sitting out the fourth game. He had no points in two games&hellip;NHL executive vice-president Brian O&rsquo;Neill told Stars&rsquo; GM Jack Ferreira the NHL will notsuspend Brett Hull for high-sticking Stewart Gavin in game one. The Stars sent a tape of the incident to the NHL. Hull received a minor penalty for high-sticking Gavin across the top of the shoulders and side of the helmet, but the Stars wanted a major penalty and the automatic game misconduct that accompanies it. Hull later scored the winning goal in overtime.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-03370/6271100-1-eng-US/f0024-032.jpg" title="f0024-03" width="683" height="410"><figcaption class="caption-body">Shawn Chambers missed game four of the St. Louis series.</figcaption></div><h2>BLACKHAWKS</h2>Troy Murray received a game misconduct for high-sticking in game two&hellip; Defenseman-tumed-right winger Keith Brown suffered a groin pull in game one and missed the next three games. Brown was shifted to right wing in the last game of the season, and opened the playoffs on a line with center Murray, matching up against Detroit&rsquo;s Steve Yzerman&hellip;A crowd of 16,785 for game four at Chicago Stadium was the smallest of the series and first non-sellout&hellip;None of the Hawks&rsquo; home games will be seen on TV in Chicago. But games one and two were carried on free TV in Detroit, and the Wings drew more than 19,000 for each game.<h2>MAPLE LEAFS</h2>Right winger Daniel Marois suffered ligament damage to his right knee in the final game of the season and underwent corrective surgery. He was expected to be inactive for five to six weeks. The injury kept him from accepting an invitation to play for Team Canada at the World Championships in Stockholm&hellip;Defenseman Rick Lanz played out his option and his future with the Leafs is uncertain&hellip;Center Peter Ihnacak, 32, played well after being recalled from Newmarket near the end of the season. He finished with two goals and 16 assists in 26 games. If he doesn&rsquo;t fit into Toronto&rsquo;s plans for next season, Ihnacak would like to be released from his contract and finish his career in Europe. &#9632;

f0024-03

STICK INCIDENTREVIEWED BY LEAGUE

<div class="byline">BY MIKE PERRICONE</div>Alain Chevrier&rsquo;s lack of playoff experience was a major question for the Chicago Blackhawks. But the ex-New Jersey Devil, ex-Winnipeg Jet goaltender came up with all the right answers.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m getting a lot of experience now,&rdquo; said Chevrier, who quickly became a major factor in his first NHL playoff series.Chevrier&rsquo;s goaltending in the first four games put the fourth-place Hawks on the verge of knocking off the first-place Detroit Red Wings in the Norris Divison semifinal.&ldquo;Chevrier&rsquo;s been just great,&rdquo; said Hawk center Denis Savard.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s just standing on his head,&rdquo; said Wing coach Jacques Demers. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s playing like he&rsquo;s in the finals of the Stanley Cup.&rdquo;After game four, Chevrier had a 2.60 goals-against average and .913 save percentage.With Chevrier&rsquo;s outstanding goaltending and some goal-scoring from unlikely sources, the Hawks took a 3-1 lead into game five April 11 in Detroit. But they didn&rsquo;t take veteran defenseman Doug Wilson with them.Wilson suffered a serious groin pull April 9, in the second period of game four in Chicago Stadium on a play in front of the net. He was doubtful for the rest of the series.&ldquo;It&rsquo;ll be tough without Doug,&rdquo; said Duane Sutter, who scored the winning goals in games two and four. &ldquo;But all year we&rsquo;ve picked up the slack. There&rsquo;s no reason we can&rsquo;t do it again.&rdquo;The Hawks picked up the slack after losing the opener in Detroit April 5, when the Wings&rsquo; Dave Barr had two goals in a 3-2 victory. Then, the next night, they ran off three straight victories, for only the second time this season. Sutter scored at 14:36 of overtime for a 5-4 victory in game two, racing in after a dump-in by Dirk Graham and beating Wing goaltender Greg Stefan.&ldquo;He had a step on his guy, then I looked and he had four steps on him,&rdquo; said Graham. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never seen him skate so fast.&rdquo;Sutter harkened back to his days with the New York Islanders, remembering Bob Nystrom&rsquo;s Stanley Cup-winning goal in overtime against Philadelphia.&ldquo;Bobby Nystrom scored at 7:11 and that was just etched in the back of my head,&rdquo; Sutter said.The April 6 victory marked the end of a ninegame playoff road losing streak for the Hawks. The last time they had won on the road was April 30, 1985, beating Minnesota 6-5 in the sixth game of the Norris Divison final on a goal by Sutter&rsquo;s brother Darryl, in the second overtime.&ldquo;I remembered all the big goals Darryl had scored for the team in his career,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;I had always idolized Bobby Nystrom and former Islander John Tonelli. So between them and Darryl, it was an honor scoring that goal.&rdquo;The Hawks held the Wings to just 16 shots on goal in game three at Chicago Stadium April 8, pulling away to win 4-2 when Denis Savard and Troy Murray scored 2:11 apart in the third period.And Chevrier, obtained by the Hawks from Winnipeg last January, kept stopping the Wings.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m feeling great. I&rsquo;m having a lot of fun. My confidence is high,&rdquo; said Chevrier. &ldquo;The main thing is, everybody here is having fun. We&rsquo;re playing aggressively and we&rsquo;re winning. We&rsquo;re having a great time now.&rdquo;<h2>CHICAGO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Troy Murray, Adam Creighton, Denis Savard, Bob BassenLW&mdash;Greg Gilbert, Dan Vincelette, Mike Hudson, Everett Sanipass. Wayne Van Dorp.RW&mdash;Steve Larmer, Dirk Graham, Wayne Presley. Duane Sutter, Brian Noonan.LD&mdash;Steve Konroyd, Trent Yawney.RD&mdash;Dave Manson. Keith Brown, Bob McGill, Bob Murray.G&mdash;Darren Pang, Alain Chevrier.INJURIESKeith Brown, D. groin pull, day-to-dayMike Eagles, C, broken hand, indefinite.Steve Thomas, LW, shoulder surgery, indefinite.Jimmy Waite, G, broken collarbone, indefinite.Doug Wilson, D, groin pull, indefinite. &#9632;

HAWKS HAVE FUN BEATING THE RED WINGS

<div class="byline">BY DAVE LUECKING</div>Veteran defenseman Gordie Roberts found himself in a strange place after four games of the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs&mdash;among the league&rsquo;s scoring leaders.Roberts, 31, was tied for seventh overall with six other players at six points (one goal and five assists). He was second among defensemen to Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Paul Coffey, who led all scorers with nine points (2-7).Why the scoring spree?&ldquo;Different things happen in the playoffs,&rdquo; Blues&rsquo; coach Brian Sutter said. Indeed they do. Half of Roberts&rsquo; points came in a losing effort&mdash;three assists in game four of the Norris Division semifinals, a 5-4 victory by Minnesota.The Blues remained on top in the best-of-seven series 3-1, however, with a chance to.clinch at home April 10.Roberts&rsquo; scoring points aren&rsquo;t coming from daring chances as much as veteran savvy. Two of his assists came on long lead passes that found their way out of the Blues&rsquo; zone. On the first, he cleared the puck on a North Star power play; Doug Evans chased it down and gave it to Peter Zezel for a shorthanded goal.On the Blues&rsquo; third goal, he sent Bernie Federko in on a breakaway with a pass from behind the Blues&rsquo; net.On the Blues&rsquo; fourth goal, which looked like the game-winner before Minnesota came back, he passed up a backhand shot from point-blank range, skated away with two defenders, and backhanded a pass to Herb Raglan at the side of the crease. Raglan scored easily.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been watching the Wayne Gretzky highlight film,&rdquo; Roberts quipped.Roberts was the No. 2 star in that game and the No. 3 star in game three&mdash;a 5-3 Blues&rsquo; victory.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01760/6271210-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="541" height="656"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gordie Roberts, a Star discard, shone against his ex-mates.</figcaption></div>In game one, he had a goal and an assist on Brett Hull&rsquo;s game-winner in the Blues&rsquo; 4-3 victory in overtime.In game two, another 4-3 overtime victory, Roberts assisted on the game-tying goal by Paul Cavallini with 1:44 left.The series had special meaning for Roberts because it is against the North Stars, with whom he played for eight years&mdash;from 1980-81 until last season.Roberts was phased out under ex-coach Herb Brooks in Minnesota last season, and was traded to Philadelphia for future considerations Feb. 8. He spent only one month before being dispatched to St. Louis for a conditional fifth-round draft choice at the trading deadline.The trade gave him new life, but he was not a lock to make the Blues. Roberts made the team out of training camp and emerged as of the team&rsquo;s steadiest defenders this season.A puck-carrying defenseman by nature, Roberts changed to a stay-at-home style this year&mdash;but still managed two goals and 24 assists in T1 games.Obviously, he still knows how to eather those long lead passes.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s played well all year,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;The way he&rsquo;s been playing, I expect him to play like that every night because he&rsquo;s been playing that way all year. Gordie&rsquo;s the kind of guy who needs to play. He plays better when he plays more.&rdquo;<h2>ST. LOUIS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>April 3: Dominic Lavoie, D, assigned to Peoria (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Bernie Federko, Peter Zezel, Rick Meagher, Cliff Ronning, Tony Hrkac, RodBrindAmour.LW&mdash;Dave Lowry, Sergio Momesso, Gino Cavallini, Doug Evans, Craig Coxe.RW&mdash;Greg Paslawski, Brett Hull, Herb Raglan. Steve Tuttle, Todd Ewen.LD&mdash;Mike Lalor, Gordie Roberts, Brian Benning, Glen Featherstone.RD&mdash;Paul Cavallini. Tom Tilley. Gaston Gingras, Glen Featherstone, Dave Richter, Tim Bothwell.G&mdash;Greg Millen, Vincent Riendeau.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

f0025-01

ROBERTS’ VETERAN PRESENCE A FACTOR ON ATTACK

<div class="byline">BY JERRY ZGODA</div>If the Minnesota North Stars take nothing more out of this season than an improved record and a few playoff games, they will do so knowing at least one thing: How to play well when things are at their worst.That much was proved April 9 in their last-minute 5-4 comeback victory over St. Louis, when they were faced with elimination from the best-of-seven Norris Division semi-final.Down 3-0 in the series and 4-3 on the scoreboard with less than eight minutes left in the game, the Stars delayed their summer tee times after Marc Habscheid scored the tying goal at 16:45. Don Barber supplied the winner on a breakaway goal with just seven seconds left.&ldquo;When people count us out, that&rsquo;s when we play our best,&rdquo; coach Pierre Page said.The Stars started the series shorthanded, losing leading scorer Dave Gagner for the season five days before the playoffs began. He was hit by a shot from Detroit defenseman Steve Chiasson March 30 and suffered abroken kneecap. He underwent surgery April 4 and will not be available until training camp starts in September.Without Gagner, the Stars sent the series back to St. Louis and game five by breaking the Blues&rsquo; seven-game winning streak&mdash;which included 4-3 overtime victories in St. Louis April 5-6, and a 5-3 victory at Met Center April 8.In game four, the Stars overcame a 15-3 deficit in shots in the first period. They struggled back to outshoot the Blues 16-5 and outscore them 4-2 in the final period.&ldquo;People ask if there was a letdown when they scored (Herb Raglan&rsquo;s goal at 12:02 of the third put the Blues up 4-3), but we&rsquo;ve got to be optimistic,&rdquo; defenseman Curt Giles said. &ldquo;You look at the odds of coming back in this series and people say, &lsquo;No way.&rsquo; We have to do our best to say, &lsquo;I know it can happen. I know it can happen. I know it can happen.&rsquo; &ldquo;Habscheid and Barber came through with the goals just when there were few believers left among the second-smallest home playoff crowd in history, 8,103 (the Stars drew 6,797 for a game against Los Angeles April 9, 1968). Habscheid tied the game when he picked up a loose puck behind the St. Louis net and stuffed it between the legs of goalie Greg Millen at the right post. Then, with overtime seemingingly unavoidable for the third time in four games.Barber took a Habscheid pass, broke in free and lifted a shot over Millen, who came diving out of net.&ldquo;I thought I was pretty lucky,&rdquo; Barber said. &ldquo;That definitely was the biggest goal I&rsquo;ve ever scored.&rdquo;Barber, 24, has experienced both the highs and the lows of a pro career in less than one month. Recalled from Kalamazoo in February, he scored all of his previous seven NHL goals in a five-game stretch from March 7 to 16. His first NHL hat trick, March 16 in a 6-1 victory over Chicago, also was the last time he had scored. He went the final nine games of the regular season without a goal and didn&rsquo;t score in the first two games of the playoffs. He was sent to the press box for game three.&ldquo;It was tough sitting out, but you learn a lot sitting in the stands,&rdquo; Barber said. &ldquo;I started off like firecrackers here and I realized it wasn&rsquo;t going to stay like that. I wasn&rsquo;t putting any added pressure on myself. I still was working as hard as I could.&rdquo;<h2>MINNESOTA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Neal Broten, Perry Berezan, Bob Brooke. Steve Gotaas, Dusan Pasek, Mike Modano.LW&mdash;Stewart Gavin, Basil McRae, Don Barber. Warren Babe, Larry DePalma.RW&mdash;Mike Gartner, Brian Bellows. Dave Archibald. Marc Habscheid.LD&mdash;Frantisek Musil, Mark Tinordi, Ville Siren.RD&mdash;Curt Giles. Larry Murphy, Reed Larson.G&mdash;Jon Casey, Kari Takko.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Shawn Chambers, D, calf contusion, day-to-day.Shane Churla, RW, wrist, indefinite.Curt Fraser, LW. recovering from wrist surgery, indefinite.Dave Gagner, C, surgery to repair broken kneecap, out for season. &#9632;

YOUNG STARS COME THROUGH UNDER PRESSURE

<div class="byline">BY STEVE DRYDEN</div>Ten players received good grades from general manager Gord Stellick for their efforts during the 1988-89 season.Heading the list were forwards Ed Olczyk and Gary Leeman, who finished one-two in team scoring, and goaltender Allan Bester.Others were defensemen Luke Richardson, Brad Marsh and Borje Salming, plus forwards Vincent Damphousse, Wendel Clark, Peter Ihnacak and Daniel Marois.&ldquo;These are the guys who I&rsquo;m satisfied with the years they had,&rdquo; said Stellick. &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t mean they can&rsquo;t do better.&rdquo;Two other players were given honorable mentions.Neither Mark Osborne (16-30-46 in 75 games), nor Tom Fergus (22-45-67 in 80) produced as well as expected but Stellick named them among his favorites.Osborne battled back from mononucleosis and Fergus showed improvement towards the end of the season.Most notable by his absence is the enigmatic Al Iafrate, who has yet to realize his enormous potential.<blockquote class="pullQuote">TORONTO HAS FOUR HIGH PICKS.</blockquote>The defenseman has the physical assets to rival the very best rearguards in the league, but his temperament has held him back.Iafrate&rsquo;s delicate psyche was dealt a severe blow this year when his marriage broke up.In 65 games, Iafrate scored 13 goals and 20 assists. He was plus-five on a minus team.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s got to grab the brass ring next year,&rdquo; said Stellick, who is anxiously awaiting the answers to two pressing questions about Iafrate&rsquo;s future.&ldquo;Is Al going to have a long career in Toronto?&rdquo; asked the GM. &ldquo;Is Al going to be a great defenseman?&rdquo;The first-year GM declined the opportunity to assess his own performance, saying that is best left up to others.But Stellick did say he was satisfied with his efforts during a stormy first year at the helm.The most significant events were:a) His trading of Russ Courtnall to the Montreal Canadiens for John Kordic;b) His firing of John Brophy as coach; and c) His trading of goalie Ken Wregget to the Philadelphia Flyers for two first-round draft choices.He was a clear loser in the Courtnall trade. Good drafting could make him a clear winner in the Wregget deal.As for Brophy, he had to be fired. The white-haired coach, who was not widely-respected by the players, hadbecome a scapegoat for their poor play.The fifth-place Leafs had a record of 11-20-2 (.364) when Brophy was fired. They were 17-26-4 (.404) the rest of the way with new head coach George Armstrong and assistant Garry Lariviere, who assumed the responsibilities of a co-coach.Next year&rsquo;s coaching situation has yet to be worked out&mdash;and won&rsquo;t be without Harold Ballard&rsquo;s interference. The owner favors Armstrong&rsquo;s return.Stellick will face his greatest challenge on June 17. That&rsquo;s when the 1989 entry draft is being held at the Met Centre in Minneapolis, Minn.Toronto has four of the top 24 selections.The Leafs choose third overall with their own first pick, 12th and 21st with Flyer picks and 24th with their own second-rounder.The consensus top five&mdash;in no particular order&mdash;are Kamloops Blazer left winger Dave Chyzowski, North Dakota defenseman Jason Herter, Springfield Olympic center Bill Guerin, Belleville Bull center Scott Thornton and center/left winger Mats Sundin of Nacka in Sweden. &#9632;

STELLICK’S TOP 10 INCLUDES TOP TWO SCORERS

<div class="byline">BY BOB WAGNER AND KARLO BERKOVICH</div>Paul Ranheim in a runaway?Probably. The speedy Salt Lake Golden Eagle left winger could win three individual International League awards.Ranheim is a contender for most valuable player, outstanding rookie and outstanding U.S.-born rookie.The following is a look at the leading candidates for each award. All but the Commissioner&rsquo;s Trophy, which goes to the IHL coach of the year and is chosen by the league&rsquo;s board of governors, are voted on by league coaches.The James Norris Memorial Trophy goes to the goaltender(s) who have played a minimum 25 games for the team allowing the fewest goals during regular-season play. This season, it will go to Rick Knickle of the Fort Wayne Komets.<h2>GATSCHENE TROPHY</h2>Ranheim, who set a league rookie record with 68 goals, tops the list of contenders for most valuable player.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s about the best goal-scorer I&rsquo;ve seen in the league,&rdquo; says Saginaw general manager Dennis Desrosiers. &ldquo;He can snipe.&rdquo;Ranheim, who fell short of the league goal-scoring record of 75, set by Milwaukee&rsquo;s Daniel Lecours in 1982-83, added 29 assists in 75 games. Challenging him is perennial 100-point producer Dave Michayluk of Muskegon. The 26-year-old left winger wop the IHL scoring title with 50 goals and 72 assists in 80 games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01810/6271296-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="701" height="820"><figcaption class="caption-body">Paul Ranheim set an IHL rookie scoring record with 68 goals.</figcaption></div>Others who enjoyed MVP-calibre seasons arc Denver center Simon Wheeldon (50-56-106 in 74), Milwaukee center Jeff Rohlicek (47-63110 in 78), Saginaw center Mike Rucinski (3572-107 in 81) and Muskegon right winger Mark Recchi (50-49-99 in 63).<h2>LONGMAN TROPHY</h2>Ranheim is considered a lock for the outstanding rookie award.Muskegon&rsquo;s Recchi will probably finish second in voting.Others worthy of consideration are goaltender Bruce Racine of Muskegon, who had the most wins (36-11-2) of any netminder in the league. Salt Lake&rsquo;s Peter Lappin, the IHL playoff MVP last season after coming to the Eagles from St. Lawrence University, went 48-42-90 in 81 games but was overshadowed on his own team by Ranheim.<h2>KEN MCKENZIE TROPHY</h2>The award for outstanding U.S.bom rookie will go to Ranheim. Lappin and Mike Richter of Denver deserve consideration but won&rsquo;t derail the Ranheim express. Richter was 23-26-3 with a 4.30 GAA and .884 save percentage.&ldquo;Richter responds well under pressure,&rdquo; says Salt Lake coach Paul Baxter of the 1988 U.S. Olympian.<h2>GOVERNORS&rsquo; TROPHY</h2>Milwaukee&rsquo;s Randy Boyd will receive strong consideration for the top defenseman award because he piles up points (24-55-79 in 73 games). Salt Lake&rsquo;s Dave Reierson (7-46-53 in 76), Rick Lessard (10-42-52 in 76) and Ken Sabourin (218-20 in 74), Muskegon&rsquo;s Todd Charlesworth (10-53-63 in 74), Saginaw&rsquo;s Bruce Cassidy (1664-80 in 72) and Fort Wayne player-coach Al Sims (7-30-37 in 61) are other contenders.Sabourin, a 6-foot-3, 205-pounder, splits the vote with teammate Lessard among many IHL experts as the league&rsquo;s best pure defenseman. &ldquo;He moves the puck well, he&rsquo;s tenacious and he&rsquo;s physical,&rdquo; says one coach of Sabourin.<h2>NORRIS TROPHY</h2>Knickle (22-16-5. 3.11, .887) wins it outright, since the other Fort Wayne goalies&mdash;Stephane Beauregard and Bob Essensa&mdash;did not play enough games to qualify.There has been talk among league executives about instituting an award for best goaltender along the lines of the NHL&rsquo;s Vezina Trophy.If one were awarded this season. Fort Wayne&rsquo;s Knickle would have a battle with Richter, Salt Lake&rsquo;s Steve Guenette, Milwaukee&rsquo;s Troy Gamble, Muskegon&rsquo;s Bruce Racine and Ed Belfour of Saginaw.&ldquo;This is just a great league for goalies,&rdquo; says Milwaukee coach Rick Ley, who personally favors his own man, Gamble, and Belfour.<h2>COMMISSIONERS</h2>Salt Lake&rsquo;s Baxter could win his second Turner Cup in as many seasons as coach.Not that it matters for the purposes of league awards which are based on regular-season performance. Even so, Baxter&rsquo;s numbers are impressive. A league-record 15-game winning streak carried the Eagles to a 56-22-3 record and West Division regular-season title.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02543/6271289-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="1433" height="2728"><figcaption class="caption-body">Fort Wayne&rsquo;s Rick Knickle, who led the Komets to the IHL&rsquo;s best defensive record, is the winner of the James Norris Trophy.</figcaption></div>Baxter has the advantage of superior players according to at least one league executive.&ldquo;He has the best talent in the league,&rdquo; says a general manager, who requested anonymity. &ldquo;I could win with that bunch.&rdquo;Coaches who didn&rsquo;t have as much talent to work with are Robbie Laird of Fort Wayne and Darryl Sutter of Saginaw. Without benefit of an NHL affiliation agreement. Laird guided the Komets to a 46-30-6 record, third in the East Division. Sutter, who had trouble setting a roster due to constant shuffling brought on by parent Chicago, still finished 46-26-10 in his first season as a head coach.Rick Ley, who left Muskegon last summer, guided Milwaukee to second place in the West. The Admirals finished last a year ago. Ley, however, did benefit from a full affiliation with Vancouver. Last season, Milwaukee was an independent.Blair MacDonald, meanwhile, replaced Ley in Muskegon and barely missed a beat. Ley guided the Lumberjacks to a 58-14-10 mark in 1987-88. MacDonald brought them home at 5318-7, good for a fifth straight East Division crown. &#9632;

f0028-01

FLY LIKE AN EAGLE

<div class="byline">BY BOB WAGNER</div>The Denver Rangers filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court April 4, leaving the International Laegue team&rsquo;s future in question.Richard Gerry, one of four team owners and the team&rsquo;s director of operations and general partner, insisted the move does not necessarily mean the demise of the Rangers.&ldquo;What it essentially does is gives us some breathing room to get through the rest of the season and the playoffs,&rdquo; said Gerry. &ldquo;My partners were kind enough to invest to keep hockey in Denver and they&rsquo;ve given me 100-per-cent authority from day one to manage the team&mdash;and, although I&rsquo;ve kept them informed, it was my decision to file Chapter 11. And given the circumstances, they&rsquo;re continuing to support my decision.&rdquo;Sidney Schlenker, owner of the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association, and Gene Schneider, chairman of the board of United Cable, are among the other partners. The fourth prefers to remain anonymous.The club&rsquo;s average attendance this season was only 2,086, lowest in the league. Gerry figured the team, the top affiliate of the NHL&rsquo;s New York Rangers, needs an average of 4,000 to break even.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re still trying to work out our problems with the City of Denver, with whom we still have a very good relationship,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not pointing the finger at anybody. Because of circumstances beyond our control we didn&rsquo;t have any other alternative (but to file under Chapter 11).&rdquo;IHL commissioner Bud Poile remained optimistic.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re confident this will give them (the Rangers) the time they need to reorganize,&rdquo; Poile said,&rdquo;and come back as a viable franchise next season.&rdquo;Meanwhile, the dormant Toledo Goaldiggers are continuing to pursue NHL affiliates, according to the team&rsquo;s alternate governor, Gary Wyse. If an affiliation agreement is secured, Wyse said, the team will operate in the IHL next pending league approval at the annual meetings June 15-16 in Minneapolis.The Toledo franchise has been dormant since the beginning of the 1986-87 season, though owner Virgil Gladieux, a Toledo businessman, has continued to pay franchise fees. The IHL constitution states a team may remain dormant for five seasons.<h2>MUSKEGON ON TOP</h2>The Muskegon Lumberjacks repeated as Huber Trophy champions in style&mdash;they closed the regular schedule with five consecutive wins.In capturing the IHL regular-season pennant, the East Division-leading &lsquo;Jacks collected 121 points in 82 games, six more than West Division titlist Salt Lake. They broke their own IHLgoals record with 433, 18 more than they scored a year ago, and nailed down their division crown for the fifth season in a row.Muskegon, upset in the first round of last season&rsquo;s playoffs by the Flint Spirits, starts against Peoria this year. The &lsquo;Jacks beat the Rivermen seven times in eight games during the regular schedule, and outscored them 48-20. Peoria finished eighth in the overall standings.Leading Muskegon will be veteran left winger Dave Michayluk, who topped 100 points for the fourth straight season and claimed the league scoring championship for the first time with 122 points (50-72).Salt Lake, chasing its third consecutive Turner Cup but its first as a division champion, meets Denver, seventh overall with 73 points. Salt Lake had a 10-2-2 record against Denver during the regular season.In other first-round matchups, Milwaukee (113 points) faces Kalamazoo (85), and Saginaw (102) meets Fort Wayne (98).<h2>HIGH SPIRITS</h2>Flint was one of only two IHL teams not to make the playoffs (Indianapolis was the other) but Spirit general manager-coach Don Waddell faces 1989-90 with confidence.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve actually got a two-year contract,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I just sold my Porta-John business. I don&rsquo;t have time for it.&rdquo;Flint, an independent team, finished last in the five-team East with 50 points, 35 fewer than fourth-place Kalamazoo.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been a tough year,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had 27 players recalled on us by either the American League or the National League. We&rsquo;ve had 77 bodies through the year.&rdquo; &#9632;

RANGERS FILEFOR BANKRUPTCY

<div class="byline">BY PAUL ABRAMOWITZ</div>Mike Milbury has most likely coached his final game for the Maine Mariners.Milbury, whose two-year contract expired when the regular season ended with the Mariners missing the playoffs in the North Division, said April 4 the chances are &ldquo;extremely remote&rdquo; he&rsquo;ll return.He guided Maine to a 32-40-8 fifth-place finish this season.&ldquo;I feel a couple of years in the minor leagues as a coach and being an assistant coach in the NHL (with Boston) qualifies me, hopefully, for an opportunity some place in the NHL,&rdquo; Milbury said. &ldquo;If it&rsquo;s not as a coach, maybe someone will be willing to take a chance on me as a GM. That&rsquo;s what I&rsquo;m looking for.&rdquo;Milbury was interviewed for the Minnesota general manager&rsquo;s job last season which was eventually filled by Jack Ferreira. Milbury was also mentioned earlier this season as a candidate for the Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; coaching job next season.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m certainly in the business to move up,&rdquo; said Milbury, whose team suffered through a season of instability just a year after winning the division with a 44-29-7 record. Milbury was named The Hockey News minor pro coach of the year last season.This year, the Mariners went through 55 players. Seventeen of those split time between Maine and the parent Boston Bruins. Continuous shuffling between the injury-plagued Bruins and Mariners disrupted Maine&rsquo;s planning.&ldquo;I think in some senses we&rsquo;ve done what we&rsquo;re supposed to, fill gaps in Boston,&rdquo; Milbury said of the work he and co-coach Gordie Clark have done. &ldquo;I think we justified our existence and I think we&rsquo;ve done the job we were hired to do. So that shouldn&rsquo;t hurt me.&rdquo;When news that Milbury had put his Maine house up for sale reached Boston, the Boston media speculated Milbury would be coaching the Bruins next season. Terry O&rsquo;Reilly, however, still has a year left on his contract.The day after the story appeared, Bruin GM Harry Sinden squelched the rumors.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01706/6271351-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="693" height="608"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Milbury believes he is qualified for an NHL job.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;This is Terry O&rsquo;Reilly&rsquo;s job next year if he wants it,&rdquo; Sinden said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the way I see it. That&rsquo;s the way it&rsquo;s been. We all know his personal situation.&rdquo;O&rsquo;Reilly&rsquo;s five-year-old son Evan has biliary atresra, a dysfunction of the kidneys.&ldquo;At the end of the season, he reviews his situation and makes up his mind,&rdquo; Sinden said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what we did with him last year and that&rsquo;s what we&rsquo;re going to do again this year.&rdquo;O&rsquo;Reilly, who has said coaching will not be a lifetime pursuit, refused comment on his status in Boston until after the NHL playoffs.<h2>FAMILY AFFAIR</h2>Baltimore coach Terry Murray&rsquo;s season is over but he&rsquo;s moved up. He&rsquo;s working as an assistant coach for head coach and brotherBryan Murray of the Washington Capitals during the NHL playoffs.&ldquo;During the games I sit in the press box and evaluate what the opposition is doing,&rdquo; said Murray. &ldquo;I go down between periods and tell Bryan what I&rsquo;ve seen.&ldquo;During practices I work with the players, particularly on defense and special teams. I would have been going to the games anyway or watching them on TV. This is a good opportunity for me to get some new ideas for next year and to work with the NHL-level guys.&rdquo;Murray&rsquo;s first season as a head coach ended in disappointment. The Skipjacks floundered in the final 20 games of the season (4-14-2) and finished sixth in the Southern Division at 30-454.&ldquo;We wanted to be competitive until the end,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;But I don&rsquo;t feel that happened. It didn&rsquo;t come together as a team and we&rsquo;re going to spend a lot of time this summer to pinpoint the reasons for that failure.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0029-01

MILBURY PLANNING TO LEAVE MAINE

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div>Seems like old times: The Hershey Bears unbeaten in the Calder Cup playoffs.The Bears won the first two games of their best-of-seven quarterfinal series with Utica to extend their Calder Cup winning streak to 14 games. In 1988, the Bears swept three opponents to win the American League playoff title with a 12-0 record.In the opener at Hershey April 6, goaltender Mark Laforest stopped 37 of the 38 shots he faced in a 6-1 victory. The only puck that eluded Laforest was kicked in by Bear defenseman John Stevens. Utica&rsquo;s George McPhee was credited with the goal.The Bears&rsquo; goals were scored by Stevens, Jeff Harding, Mark Lofthouse, Don Biggs, Brian Dobbin and Mitch Lamoureux.The Bears&rsquo; special teams were impressive in another 6-1 victory in the second game, April 8 at Hershey. The power play converted on five of eight tries and the penalty-killers turned aside all nine of Utica&rsquo;s chances.<h2>SAINTS-WINGS</h2>Newmarket recovered from a 7-3 loss in the opener April 6 to knock off the Adirondack Red Wings 6-2 two days later and gain a split of the first two games of their quarterfinal series at Glens Falls, N.Y.The turning point in the first game came in the second period when the Wings successfully protected a 3-2 lead by killing a 5-on-3 power play of l: 19. J. F. Sauve&rsquo;s goal 1:04 after the power play ended stood up as the winner.In the second game, the Saints gained control, 4-1 in the second period, with goals 28 seconds apart by Ken Yaremchuk and Daryl Evans.The surprise hero for the Saints was goaltender Jim Ralph, who made 35 saves. Ralph, 27, spent much of the past two seasons as a seldom-used backup to Jeff Reese and Tim Bernhardt. He received some playing time in early March when Reese was promoted to Toronto after the trade of Ken Wregget to Philadelphia. Bernhardt broke the thumb on his left hand against Binghamton, which resulted in Ralph startingthe final five games of the regular season.<h2>DEVILS-HABS</h2>In what has so far been a homer series, the Canadiens won in Sherbrooke&mdash;6-4 April 4 and 7-4 April 7, and the Nighthawks posted a 5-3 victory in New Haven April 9.New Haven managed to hold the Canadiens&rsquo; top guns, Stephan Lebeau and Benoit Brunet, in check. Lebeau, the league scoring leader with 70 goals and 134 points, had two assists in three games. Brunet, a 117-point scorer in the regular season, had two goals.Mark Pederson stepped in as Sherbrooke&rsquo;s star and led the league with five goals and nine points in three games. Pederson had an outstanding rookie season with 43 goals and 81 points, but was overshadowed by Lebeau and Brunet.Pederson scored the winner in the first game on a power play. In game two. Pederson scored four goals, including the winner.Alan May scored two goals in the third periodof the third game to break a 5-3 tie. May led the Nighthawks&rsquo; goal-scoring leader with five.<h2>HAWKS-CITADELS</h2>The Hawks struggled late in the season and nearly dropped into fourth place. But with the return of Brent Hughes and Matt Hervey from Winnipeg, the arrival of right winger Tony Joseph from Oshawa, and the decision by Moe Lemay to end his 18-day self-imposed exile at home in Ottawa, they swept the two games played at Halifax.Goaltender Tom Draper was the difference April 6 in the first game with 40 saves in a 5-2 victory.The Hawks, who led the league in penaltykilling efficiency at 84.2 per cent, stopped five Halifax power plays and ended a seven-game losing streak to the Citadels.Lemay set up Mark Kumpel for the winner with 3:44 remaining in a 5-4 victory April 8.Ken Quinney had a pair of goals for the Citadels, including one on a penalty shot at 1:20 of the first period. &#9632;

BEARS EXTEND WINNING STREAK TO 14

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div>Kamloops Blazers&rsquo; coach Ken Hiteh-cock felt like a proud father after watching his team defeat the Victoria Cougars in the West Division semifinals.With six 16-year-olds and seven 17-year-olds, Hitchcock has one of the most inexperienced teams in the Western League. But Kamloops still managed to knock off Victoria 5-3 in the best-of-nine series.&ldquo;We grew up quite a bit in that series,&rdquo; said Hitchcock. &ldquo;We really came of age as a team.&rdquo;<h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>Down 4-1 after two periods in the opening game March 24 at Victoria, the Blazers came back to win 6-5 and won all four of their games on home ice. They did so without the services of defenseman Geoff Smith, who broke his jaw in the first game and missed the rest of the series.&ldquo;We went into the playoffs and we said, &lsquo;We&rsquo;re here, let&rsquo;s see how far we can take this thing,&rsquo;&rdquo; said Hitchcock. &ldquo;And then we won the first one and said, &lsquo;Holy smokes, we&rsquo;re not too bad.&rsquo; I think that gave us a lot of confidence the rest of the way.&rdquo;Cougars&rsquo; coach Wayne Naka agreed the key to the series was the first game at Victoria.&ldquo;We knew we had to win at home because Kamloops was going to be tough in their building,&rdquo; said Naka. &ldquo;Kamloops played some outstanding hockey down the stretch. The series went exactly as we thought it would except for that first game.&rdquo;Despite missing the sixth game of the series with a knee injury, defenseman Pat MacLeod led all Kamloops scorers with four goals and 11 assists in seven games while left winger Phil Huber had 10 goals and five assists for 15 points in eight games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01804/6271413-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="701" height="968"><figcaption class="caption-body">Victoria&rsquo;s Joel Savage missed three of eight games against Kamloops.</figcaption></div>For the Cougars, center Len Barrie missed the second game with a broken finger, right winger Joel Savagesat out games four, five and six with a Charley horse and defenseman Andrew Wolf separated his shoulder in game five.Led by WHL player of the year Dennis Holland, the Portland Winter Hawks defeated the Tri-City Americans 5-2 in the other best-of-nine West Division semifinal. Holland had five goals and seven assists while linemate Troy Mick was 8-3-11.In the West Division finals, the Winter Hawks defeated Kamloops 7-3 on home ice in the first game of their best-of-nine series April 8. In the East Division, Saskatoon and Swift Current combined for 32 goals in their first two games but Swift Current was ahead 2-0. The Broncos took the first game 10-7 on home ice April 7 and beat the Blades 8-7 at Saskatchewan Place April 9.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02540/6271406-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="693" height="964"><figcaption class="caption-body">Joel Blain scored in overtime to give Hull a victory over Victoriaville.</figcaption></div><h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE</h2>Former Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; superstar Gilbert Perreault suffered his first playoff coaching defeat when the Hull Olympiques defeated his Victoriaville Tigres 5-4 in overtime April 9.The defeat left the best-of-seven semifinal tied 1-1 after the Tigres took the opening game with a 6-5 win in Hull April 7. The Tigres, like the other three teams in the semifinals, won their preliminary round in four straight games.Trailing 4-3 late in the third period, the Olympiques tied the score on a goal by left winger Stephane Matteau with three minutes left. Center Joel Blain netted the winner at 5:22 of overtime.In the other semifinal, right winger Patrick Lemay scored at 3:10 of overtime to give the Laval Titan a 6-5 win over the Shawinigan Cataractes and 1-0 lead in their best-of-seven series.ONTARIO LEAGUEAfter establishing themselves as the second-best offensive team in the Ontario League this season, the Cornwall Royals defeated the Ottawa 67&rsquo;s 4-2 in their Leyden Division semifinal with disciplined, defensive hockey.Cornwall shut Ottawa out 7-0 to open the series March 30 and gave up 17 goals in the remaining five games.&ldquo;In the last quarter of the season, I found we really improved our play in our own end,&rdquo; said Royals&rsquo; coach Brent Loney. &ldquo;We always knew that we would get the chances offensively but we felt we had to work harder defensively.&rdquo;Cornwall scored 350 goals during the regular season, second only to the Niagara Falls Thunder.The fourth-place Royals advanced to the Leyden Division final against the first-place Peterborough Petes, who earned a bye into the final after defeating Belleville in the opening round.Loney said the Royals will continue to concentrate on defense, which he admits may make for some dull hockey in the final against the defensive-minded Petes.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been sending two men in and keeping one back and the system is really beginning to work,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll just dump it in and chase it and chip it out of our end when we&rsquo;re in trouble. It may not be that exciting but it wins games.&rdquo;Center Jason Cirone paced the Royals with a hat trick in the clinching game, a 5-3 win at Ottawa April 7.In the Emms Division semifinal, the surprising North Bay Centennials extended their best-of-seven series with the London Knights to seven games with a 6-2 home-ice win over the Knights April 9.The Centennials, who grabbed the sixth and final playoff spot by one point and defeated first-place Kitchener in the first round, continued to get some fine play out of overage right winger John Purves. Purves, who had four goals and six assists in five games against the Rangers, had eight goals and eight assists against the Knights.The series was due to wrap up in London April 10. Both teams had won all three of their home-ice games. The winner takes on Niagara Falls, who earned a bye to the Leyden final by defeating Windsor in the opening round. &#9632;

f0030-01

BLAZERS BURN COUGARS

<div class="byline">BY ED WILLES</div>No moves is good news for the Western League.Every year since the end of the 1981-82 season, the WHL has gone through at least one franchise transfer. This year, all 14 teams made commitments by the April 1 deadline to return for the 1988-89 season.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s always nice when there are no sales or transfers,&rdquo; said league presidentEd Chynoweth. &ldquo;There are no brush fires to put out.&rdquo;In Red Deer, Alta., where former New York Islanders&rsquo; coach Terry Simpson is pursuing an expansion franchise, the situation isn&rsquo;t as certain.A Red Deer team would join the East Division and play in the 2,200-seat Red Deer Arena while a new 5,000-seat facility is being built. Construction of a new rink is scheduled to begin in September.&ldquo;I think the success of the thing depends on the city of Red Deer making an attractive enough offer,&rdquo; said Chynoweth. &ldquo;Without their co-operation and help, I don&rsquo;t think it will fly.&rdquo;No decision on expansion will be made before the league&rsquo;s summer meetings in June.<h2>BAD BREAK</h2>In his last shift of junior hockey, Spokane Chief centerDarcy Loewen broke his collarbone. The 20-year-old center was injured in a collision with Seattle defenseman Jay Stark during the last minute of Spokane&rsquo;s 5-2 loss to Seattle March 18.It was a bad break for Loewen in more ways than one. The 1988 third-round choice of the Buffalo Sabres was scheduled to fly to Buffalo March 27 to sign with the team, then report to Rochester of the American League. The injury prevented him from making the trip.Loewen, who went 31-27-58 with 194 penalty minutes in 60 games, is expected to sign with the Sabres during the summer.As it turned out, Loewen did not miss a thing. Rochester failed to make the playoffs.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01744/6271444-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="701" height="908"><figcaption class="caption-body">Troy Kennedy was busy this season, playing 77 games for two teams.</figcaption></div><h2>BIG WINNER</h2>Swift Current goalie Trevor Kruger went 47-8-0 this season. The 47 wins are the third-highest total by a goaltender in league history. Glen Hanlon of Brandon had 49 in 1976-77 and Victoria&rsquo;s Grant Fuhr 48 in 1980-81&hellip;The Broncos&rsquo; 33-2-1 home-ice record broke the previous mark for home victories (32) set by New Westminster in 1975-76 and tied by Brandon in 1978-79, Portland in 1985-86 and Kamloops in 1986-87. Swift Current was 55-16-1 overall this season&hellip;Tri-City Americans&rsquo; right winger Troy Kennedy played 77 games this season, though his team played just 72. Kennedy played 42 games with Brandon before being dealt to the Americans for the last 35 games of their schedule. The WHL record for games played by one player in a season was set by Scott Kolewaski, who played 80 with Regina and Seattle in 1977-78. Sean Harder played 78 games with Seattle and Portland in 1983-84. WHL teams had 72-game schedules both seasons. &#9632;

f0031-01

NO FRANCHISE SHIFTSFOR FIRST TIMEIN EIGHT SEASONS

<div class="byline">BY RANDY RUSSON</div>Although the Oshawa Generals were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs for the fourth time in six years, general manager Sherry Bassin says coachPaul Theriault&rsquo;s job as coach is safe.&ldquo;That (firing Theriault) is something that (owner) John Humphreys and I haven&rsquo;t discussed,&rdquo; said Bassin. &ldquo;The guy (Theriault) has taken us to the Memorial Cup twice in the past six years. I think that&rsquo;s a pretty good record.&rdquo;The Generals lost the Memorial Cup final to Western League representative Portland in 1983 arid Medicine Hat in 1987.Oshawa was 36-24-6 this season, good for second in the Leyden Division to Peterborough. But the Generals lost 4-2 to the fifth-place Ottawa 67&rsquo;s in a best-of-seven first-round series. Last season, the fifth-place Generals led second-place Ottawa 3-0 in the first round before the 67&rsquo;s roared back for a 4-3 series win, the first such comeback in Ontario League history.Theriault, hospitalized in Oshawa for treatment of a back ailment, was unavailable for comment on his future.<h2>RISKY PICK</h2>Last season, Rick Corriveau was being touted as a certain first-round 1989 NHL draft pick.A year later, selecting Corriveau will be a calculated risk. The 1987-88 Ontario League rookie of the year has not played since Nov. 6 when he tore ligaments in his left knee in a game at Kitchener.Corriveau, a 5-foot-ll, 205-pound defenseman who led all rookie scorers last season (1947-66 in 63 games), had four goals and 10 assists in 12 games before the injury.As an 18-year-old, Corriveau must be drafted in the first three rounds but the injury makes selecting him a gamble. In fact, Corriveau wasn&rsquo;t even rated in the Central ScoutingBureau&rsquo;s January listing of draft-eligible players.Corriveau has been skating with the Knights since late March but coach-general manager Wayne Maxner said his star blueliner will not play again this season.&ldquo;No way,&rdquo; said Maxner. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s close to 100 per cent but I&rsquo;m not taking any chances with his career. He&rsquo;s got two years left with us and I&rsquo;m not risking the future for now.&rdquo;Corriveau was dressed for the deciding game in the London-Guelph opening-round series, but strictly as a motivational tool. He did not play a shift.The Knights won the game and advanced to the Emms Division semifinals versus the North Bay Centennials.Maxner said he&rsquo;s received calls from teams interested in taking Corriveau despite the injury.&ldquo;If he gets drafted he&rsquo;ll be the steal of the proceedings,&rdquo; Maxner said.One team that probably won&rsquo;t select Corriveau is the Detroit Red Wings.&ldquo;Despite what some people may think, this is a very deep draft,&rdquo; said Wings&rsquo; general manager Jimmy Devellano. &ldquo;It would be an awful risk taking the boy as high as the third round.&rdquo;Corriveau, whose brother Yvon plays for the Washington Capitals, remains unconcerned.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t expect to go,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Ifldo that&rsquo;s great but if not I expect to be back strong next season and be a high pick in 1990. A few teams like the Islanders and Washington have called me but you never know what&rsquo;s going to happen.&rdquo;<h2>RANGER-BOUND?</h2>Windsor Spitfires&rsquo; coach Tom Webster may resurface in New York next year as an assistant to head coach and general manager Phil Esposito.Webster, who coached the Rangers briefly during the 1986-87 season, had to step down because an inner-ear problem made flying impossible. The ailment has since been cured.Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds&rsquo; governor Angelo Bumbacco, a special consultant to Esposito, said there&rsquo;s a &ldquo;good possibility&rdquo; Webster will return to the Big Apple.Esposito, part-owner of the Greyhounds, took over as Ranger coach after firing Michel Bergeron with two games left in the regular season. He is expected to continue behind the New York bench next season. &#9632;

THERIAULT RECEIVES VOTE OF CONFIDENCE

<div class="byline">BY HERB ZURKOWSKY</div>Guy Chouinard expected to be fired by the Verdun Jr. Canadiens.He was right. The axe fell April 4 on Chouinard, whose team went 1256-2 and lost its last 13 games.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not surprised,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;This was something I was waiting for. I thought it would happen so it doesn&rsquo;t come as a shock.&rdquo;Verdun general manager Jacques Lemaire stated the obvious when he said Chouinard didn&rsquo;t win enough. Paradoxically, Lemaire admitted injuries and player defections crippled the team this year and would have made it difficult for any coach. Still, he held Chouinard accountable.&ldquo;I know we had lots of injuries and I know that the team wasn&rsquo;t strong and that he didn&rsquo;t have the breaks,&rdquo; shrugged Lemaire. &ldquo;But that is what coaching is all about. You have to win and be able to inspire the players to get better.&rdquo;Lemaire said he doesn&rsquo;t expect to name a new coach until the Quebec League draft May 27 at the Maurice Richard Arena in Montreal. The new man will be Verdun&rsquo;s fifth coach since the 1985-86 season. Carol Vadnais, Richard Liboiron, JeanMaurice Cool and Chouinard have all had cracks at the job.Chouinard played 10 NHL seasons for the Atlanta and Calgary Flames and St. Louis Blues. He began his QMJHL coaching career in Longueuil midway through the 1985-86 season, replacing Guy Lapointe when Lapointe became GM. The next season, he guided Longueuil to the QMJHL title.The franchise shifted to Victoriaville last season, becoming the Tigres. Under Chouinard, they finished third in the Dilio Division with a 33-31-6 record and lost to Drummondville in the quarterfinals. Chouinard left the Tigres to join the Jr. Habs.The 32-year-old will be paid until his one-year, $35,000 contract with Verdun expires June 30. He said he was unsure of his future plans.<h2>THERIEN LEAVES</h2>Claude Therien informed the St-Jean Castors March 29 he will not return next season as coach.Therien, a letter carrier for Canada Post, said he was getting worn down by the 60-mile journey from his home in Montreal to St-Jean. He&rsquo;s been commuting since mid-December, when he replaced the fired Mario Bazinet.Under Therien, the Castors went 21-13-2 to finish 33-34-3, sixth overall. They were swept 4-0 by Hull in a best-of-seven quarterfinal.This isn&rsquo;t the first time Therien&rsquo;s day job has forced him to quit coaching a QMJHL team. He walked away from the Laval Titan early last season for the same reason.Castors&rsquo; GM Yves Vaillancourt, who worked under Guy Chouinard in Longueuil as the team&rsquo;s chief scout, said Chouinard would &ldquo;obviously be considered a good candidate (for the St-Jean job) because he has experience in the league.&rdquo;<h2>SECURE JOBS</h2>Two other coaches whose teams were swept out of the quarterfinals in four games&mdash;Trois-Rivieres&rsquo; Dany Dube and Drummondville&rsquo;s Gervais Rioux&mdash;appear secure in their jobs.Rookie coach Dube, who was on a one-year contract, had that pact extended two years during the first week of March while the Draveurs were in the process of winning the regular-season championship.Trois-Rivieres general manager Michel Boucher had no regrets about signing Dube to the extension despite being swept by eighth-place Shawinigan.&ldquo;Not at all,&rdquo; said Boucher. &ldquo;I think he deserves to be coach of the year. He took a last-place team to first place.&rdquo;Trois-Rivieres finished last in the Dilio Division last season.Voltigeurs&rsquo; president and governor Normand Brousseau expects to offer a contract to interim coach Rioux despite Drummondville&rsquo;s playoff loss to Victoriaville.The Volts went 14-3-1 under Rioux, who replaced Jean Begin Feb. 8 after Begin was charged with sexual aggression and incitement over incidents which allegedly occurred between November, 1988, and December, 1989.Begin appeared in Drummondville Municipal Court for a preliminary hearing on all charges. A publication ban has been issued. &#9632;

CHOUINARD NOT SURPRISED AT FIRING BY VERDUN

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0032-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01790/6271712-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg"></div><h2>LEADING SCORERS</h2><h2>INDIVIDUAL LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02543/6271705-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="1012" height="756"></div><h2>LEADING ROOKIES</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-03373/6271698-1-eng-US/f0032-032.jpg" title="f0032-03" width="1001" height="233"></div><h2>LEADING DEFENSEMEN</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-04249/6271691-1-eng-US/f0032-042.jpg" title="f0032-04" width="996" height="217"></div><h2>TEAM POWER PLAY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-05178/6271684-1-eng-US/f0032-052.jpg" title="f0032-05" width="997" height="514"></div><h2>TEAM PENALTIES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-06146/6271677-1-eng-US/f0032-062.jpg" title="f0032-06" width="469" height="263"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-07121/6271670-1-eng-US/f0032-072.jpg" title="f0032-07" width="485" height="301"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-08107/6271663-1-eng-US/f0032-082.jpg" title="f0032-08" width="954" height="1248"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pierre Turgeon had eight points in four games but Buffalo trailed Boston in the Adams Division.</figcaption></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/f0032-0991/6271656-1-eng-US/f0032-092.jpg" title="f0032-09" width="998" height="617"></div><h3>BUFFALO SABRES</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1084/6271649-1-eng-US/f0032-102.jpg" title="f0032-10" width="997" height="665"></div><h3>CALGARY FLAMES</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1173/6271642-1-eng-US/f0032-112.jpg" title="f0032-11" width="991" height="65"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1268/6271635-1-eng-US/f0032-122.jpg" title="f0032-12" width="976" height="623"></div><h3>CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1363/6271628-1-eng-US/f0032-132.jpg" title="f0032-13" width="968" height="596"></div><h3>DETROIT RED WINGS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1458/6271621-1-eng-US/f0032-142.jpg" title="f0032-14" width="975" height="640"></div><h3>EDMONTON OILERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1552/6271614-1-eng-US/f0032-152.jpg" title="f0032-15" width="982" height="530"></div><h3>HARTFORD WHALERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1649/6271607-1-eng-US/f0032-162.jpg" title="f0032-16" width="979" height="350"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01713/6271600-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="983" height="356"></div><h3>LOS ANGELES KINGS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02487/6271593-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="987" height="636"></div><h3>MINNESOTA NORTH STARS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-03357/6271586-1-eng-US/f0033-032.jpg" title="f0033-03" width="995" height="656"></div><h3>MONTREAL CANADIENS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-04282/6271579-1-eng-US/f0033-042.jpg" title="f0033-04" width="989" height="620"></div><h3>NEW YORK RANGERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-05232/6271572-1-eng-US/f0033-052.jpg" title="f0033-05" width="991" height="638"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-06199/6271565-1-eng-US/f0033-062.jpg" title="f0033-06" width="961" height="1108"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bernie Federko led the Blues with seven points in the first four games of their series against Minnesota.</figcaption></div><h3>PHILADELPHIA FLYERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-07181/6271558-1-eng-US/f0033-072.jpg" title="f0033-07" width="1021" height="572"></div><h3>PITTSBURGH PENGUINS</h3><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-08149/6271551-1-eng-US/f0033-082.jpg" title="f0033-08" width="1009" height="584"></div><h3>ST. LOUIS BLUES</h3><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-09131/6271544-1-eng-US/f0033-092.jpg" title="f0033-09" width="1019" height="590"></div><h3>VANCOUVER CANUCKS</h3><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-10116/6271537-1-eng-US/f0033-102.jpg" title="f0033-10" width="1003" height="588"></div><h3>WASHINGTON CAPITALS</h3><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-11110/6271530-1-eng-US/f0033-112.jpg" title="f0033-11" width="1001" height="580"></div><h3>GOALTENDING</h3>ALL GOALS AGAINST A TEAM IN ANY GAME ARE CHARGED TO THE GOALTENDER OF THAT GAME FOR PURPOSES OF AWARDING THE BILL JENNINGS TROPHY.WON-LOST-TIED RECORD IS BASED UPON WHICH GOALTENDER WAS PLAYING WHEN THE WINNING OR TYING GOAL WAS SCORED.EMPTY-NET GOALS ARE NOT COUNTED IN PERSONAL AVERAGES BUT ARE INCLUDED IN THE TEAM TOTAL AND THE SHOT(S) 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 (SA) SHOTS AGAINST (PCT) SAVE PERCENTAGE.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-12105/6271523-1-eng-US/f0033-122.jpg" title="f0033-12" width="989" height="1578"></div> &#9632;

f0032-01

NHL PLAYOFF STATISTICS

ALL PLAYOFF RESULTS AS OF MON., APR. 10<h2>NHL PLAYOFFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01802/6271862-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="585" height="2621"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02570/6271855-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="600" height="1547"></div><h2>INTERNATIONAL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03443/6271848-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="543" height="1151"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04338/6271841-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="600" height="2786"></div><h2>TEAM CANADA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-05268/6271834-1-eng-US/f0034-052.jpg" title="f0034-05" width="606" height="1709"></div><h2>AHL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-06235/6271827-1-eng-US/f0034-062.jpg" title="f0034-06" width="603" height="893"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-07216/6271820-1-eng-US/f0034-072.jpg" title="f0034-07" width="603" height="1187"></div><h2>IHL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-08201/6271813-1-eng-US/f0034-082.jpg" title="f0034-08" width="594" height="1517"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01762/6271806-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="609" height="1181"></div><h2>WHL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02563/6271799-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="594" height="2294"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03456/6271792-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="612" height="1538"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04365/6271785-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="1158" height="1010"><figcaption class="caption-body">Calgary farmhand Rich Chernomaz had 101 points in 81 games to finish sixth in the International League scoring race.</figcaption></div><h2>OHL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-05305/6271778-1-eng-US/f0035-052.jpg" title="f0035-05" width="597" height="818"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-06277/6271771-1-eng-US/f0035-062.jpg" title="f0035-06" width="609" height="2423"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-07255/6271764-1-eng-US/f0035-072.jpg" title="f0035-07" width="624" height="992"></div><h2>QMJHL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-08229/6271757-1-eng-US/f0035-082.jpg" title="f0035-08" width="639" height="2480"></div><h2>USHL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-09211/6271750-1-eng-US/f0035-092.jpg" title="f0035-09" width="597" height="1619"></div><h2>ECHL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-10184/6271743-1-eng-US/f0035-102.jpg" title="f0035-10" width="588" height="1769"></div> &#9632;

f0034-01

SCOREBOARD

<h2>Wed., Apr. 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01719/6272173-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="606" height="650"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02506/6272166-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="604" height="913"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03410/6272159-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="609" height="823"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04313/6272152-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="593" height="883"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-05258/6272145-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="589" height="211"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-06226/6272138-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg" title="f0036-06" width="593" height="741"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-07207/6272131-1-eng-US/f0036-072.jpg" title="f0036-07" width="589" height="913"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-08192/6272124-1-eng-US/f0036-082.jpg" title="f0036-08" width="591" height="797"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-09180/6272117-1-eng-US/f0036-092.jpg" title="f0036-09" width="603" height="883"></div><h2>Thur., Apr. 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-10174/6272110-1-eng-US/f0036-102.jpg" title="f0036-10" width="608" height="144"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-11168/6272103-1-eng-US/f0036-112.jpg" title="f0036-11" width="604" height="800"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-12159/6272096-1-eng-US/f0036-122.jpg" title="f0036-12" width="616" height="915"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-13152/6272089-1-eng-US/f0036-132.jpg" title="f0036-13" width="606" height="1028"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-14144/6272082-1-eng-US/f0036-142.jpg" title="f0036-14" width="591" height="740"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-15141/6272075-1-eng-US/f0036-152.jpg" title="f0036-15" width="590" height="213"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-16138/6272068-1-eng-US/f0036-162.jpg" title="f0036-16" width="605" height="845"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-17131/6272061-1-eng-US/f0036-172.jpg" title="f0036-17" width="608" height="1083"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-18123/6272054-1-eng-US/f0036-182.jpg" title="f0036-18" width="602" height="811"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-19119/6272047-1-eng-US/f0036-192.jpg" title="f0036-19" width="602" height="564"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-20114/6272040-1-eng-US/f0036-202.jpg" title="f0036-20" width="588" height="657"></div><h2>Sat., Apr. 8</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-21103/6272033-1-eng-US/f0036-212.jpg" title="f0036-21" width="592" height="940"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2299/6272026-1-eng-US/f0036-222.jpg" title="f0036-22" width="591" height="883"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2392/6272019-1-eng-US/f0036-232.jpg" title="f0036-23" width="593" height="820"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2483/6272012-1-eng-US/f0036-242.jpg" title="f0036-24" width="579" height="178"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01641/6272005-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="609" height="794"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02453/6271998-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="581" height="966"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03350/6271991-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="603" height="824"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-04289/6271984-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="603" height="422"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-05257/6271977-1-eng-US/f0037-052.jpg" title="f0037-05" width="599" height="628"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-06224/6271970-1-eng-US/f0037-062.jpg" title="f0037-06" width="595" height="1010"></div><h2>Sun., Apr. 9</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-07199/6271963-1-eng-US/f0037-072.jpg" title="f0037-07" width="605" height="776"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-08165/6271956-1-eng-US/f0037-082.jpg" title="f0037-08" width="603" height="496"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-09141/6271949-1-eng-US/f0037-092.jpg" title="f0037-09" width="613" height="352"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-10129/6271942-1-eng-US/f0037-102.jpg" title="f0037-10" width="1159" height="1454"><figcaption class="caption-body">Phil Bourque scored twice to help Pittsburgh beat the New York Rangers 4-3 and sweep their Patrick Division series.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-11109/6271935-1-eng-US/f0037-112.jpg" title="f0037-11" width="601" height="1052"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1298/6271928-1-eng-US/f0037-122.jpg" title="f0037-12" width="591" height="772"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1390/6271921-1-eng-US/f0037-132.jpg" title="f0037-13" width="607" height="644"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1483/6271914-1-eng-US/f0037-142.jpg" title="f0037-14" width="597" height="312"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1574/6271907-1-eng-US/f0037-152.jpg" title="f0037-15" width="589" height="888"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1665/6271900-1-eng-US/f0037-162.jpg" title="f0037-16" width="593" height="914"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1759/6271893-1-eng-US/f0037-172.jpg" title="f0037-17" width="593" height="882"></div> &#9632;

f0036-01

NHL SUMMARIES

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02532/6272204-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="549" height="1456"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ron Ellis</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01715/6272211-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="189" height="170"></div>Ron Ellis put up excellent numbers during his 16-year NHL career.But a number he wore on his back gives him the most satisfaction.&ldquo;Wearing No. 6 was my greatest honor ever as a Maple Leaf,&rdquo; says Ellis, who scored 332 goals and 308 assists in 1,034 NHL games with Toronto from 1963-64 to 1980-81.The number remains a source of pride to Ellis because of the circumstances under which he received it.The digit originally belonged to former Leaf great Irwin (Ace) Bailey, who played for Toronto from 1926-27 until 13 games into the 1933-34 season when a check by Boston Bruin defenseman Eddie Shore ended his career. Bailey hit his head on the ice at Maple Leaf Gardens and fractured his skull.Bailey&rsquo;s number was retired. But during the 1968-69 season, Bailey, who was the penalty-box timekeeper at Maple Leaf Gardens, came to Ellis and requested he wear No. 6.Ellis wore 11 when he made the Leafs for good in 1964-65 after a one-game trial theprevious season. He took 8, his junior number with the Toronto Marlboros, when it became available in 1965-66.&ldquo;Ace Bailey personally asked me if I would consider wearing his number,&rdquo; recalls Ellis, a durable, up-and-down right winger. &ldquo;He had followed me for a few years and considered our styles of play comparable.&rdquo;There was one proviso, however. Bailey told Ellis that once he (Ellis) retired, the number would go back into retirement. Which happened.Twice.Ellis retired following the 1974-75 season after scoring 32 goals and 29 assists in 79 games.It seemed a strange decision, since his production represented the best season of his career. But underneath Ellis&rsquo; calm exterior lurked a burning intensity which took its toll.&ldquo;I had just finished 11 full seasons and I retired for the good of my family,&rdquo; Ellis says. &ldquo;I took the game home with me too much. It was just part of my personality. But when I retired, I always left the door open to return.&rdquo;He came back after two seasons off and never missed a beat. He had 26 goals and 24 assists in 80 games and was part of the last great victory in Leaf history&mdash;the seven-game upset of the powerful New York Islanders in the 1977-78 quarterfinals.&ldquo;After being away for two seasons I felt I was prepared to come back,&rdquo; Ellis says. &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t that old. I retired the first time at 30 and I always kept in good shape.&rdquo;Ellis says he watched with great interest as another player came out of retirement this season.&ldquo;I really felt for Guy Lafleur,&rdquo; says Ellis of the former Montreal Canadien great who made a successful comeback with the New York Rangers after four seasons off. &ldquo;I was pleased to see him come back, play well and contribute.&rdquo;Ellis, 44, lives in Brampton, Ont., with wife Jan, daughter Kitty, 18, and son R.J. (Ron), 14. The family operates a sporting-goods store. &#9632;

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JERSEY NUMBER A SOURCEOF SATISFACTION FOR ELLIS

Almost anyone who has ever played hockey has wondered what it would feel like to score the Stanley Cup-winning goal for his or her favorite team.NHL superstars like Jean Beliveau, Bobby Orr, Mike Bossy and Jari Kurri have experienced the heroic feeling of being the one player that decided the most important hockey game of the year.Oh, we forgot the legendary Bubba Hale who emerged from obscurity to pot the winner. Breadwinner by day, Stanley Cup winner by night.With the help of You&rsquo;re the Star Sports Fantasy Tapes, anyone can be a Beliveau, Orr, Bossy or Kurri. The Toronto firm, which opened in November, 1988, produces seven-minute customized audio cassette tapes of an overtime period of the final Stanley Cup game featuring anyone the customer chooses.Founder Tim Tevlin, a 30-year-old Toronto copywriter, says he&rsquo;s sold 900 tapes in every Canadian province and several states since he started the business.&ldquo;Most of them have been gifts,&rdquo; said Tevlin. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s popular because, for a sports fan, there&rsquo;s nothing more magical than hearing your name as the star of a sportscast.&rdquo;Anchored by play-by-play announcer Benny Vanigalligan and color commentator Bob Doldrum (a take-off on former Hockey Night in Canada announcers Danny Gallivan and Bob Goldham), the broadcast features its fair share of light moments.For example:Benny: So I hazard a guess he&rsquo;s (the customer) got a pretty good shot at winning the Conn Smythe Trophy, then Bob.Bob: Hey, does Fred Flinstone do his own stunts? Does Bambi make noise in the forest?Actually, the play-by-play is done by Toronto broadcaster Erik Tomas. Sprinkled throughout are personal details concerning the subject (height, weight, occupation, children&rsquo;s names) which are gathered by a questionnaire.<blockquote class="pullQuote">ANYONE CAN BE AN ORR.</blockquote>Tevlin, who also does major league baseball and the Masters golf tournament, said he&rsquo;s received the official license of both the NHL and Major League Baseball to sell the product.&ldquo;That was probably the most difficult part,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But we wanted to make sure that people know it&rsquo;s a quality production.&rdquo;Tapes can be purchased for $26.95 (Cdn.) plus tax and are also available in the United States. They can be ordered by calling (416) 398-0754 or by writing to: You&rsquo;re the Star Sports Fantasy Tapes, 3768 Bathurst St. East, Suite 202, Downsview, Ont., M3H 3M7. &#9632;

EVEN NON-STARS CAN PLAY THIS GAME

<div class="byline">DAVE MOLINARI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01681/6272273-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="459" height="644"></div>Covering the NHL in Pittsburgh, as I have for most of this decade, is a job with a few built-in annoyances. You see an awful lot of Penguins&rsquo; games for one thing.But at least there was always a comfortable routine associated with the job. A game the first Sunday in April, the ceremonial storing of equipment the next day, a firing or two shortly thereafter. You could set your calendar by it.Writers in other cities had to deal with the day-to-day pressures of monitoring their teams in the playoffs. All I had to do was make a lot of travel arrangements and worry about whether my story from some playoff city would be printed below the girls&rsquo; high school golf roundup.But as Bruce Hornsby told me so many times during intimate conversations over the radio: &ldquo;That&rsquo;s just the way it is, some things will never change.&rdquo;And it never did, at least until this year, when we made the startling discovery that there is no league bylaw, or even a local ordinance, banning post-season hockey at the Civic Arena.On that note, some other postseason news, views and abuse:&#9632; Interesting move by the folks who run the Kings&rsquo; building. It used to be the Fabulous Forum, until the fabulous part (always something of a misnomer) was replaced by the name of a financial institution. Now it&rsquo;s the Great Western Forum. Imagine the possibilities if, say, a restaurant chain had come up with the idea first. The Kings might be playing in an arena called The Pizza Hut. &#9632; You haven&rsquo;t lived until you&rsquo;ve experienced an Islanders-Rangers game in Madison Square Garden. Of course, there are decent odds you won&rsquo;t survive the experience, but that just means you can think of it as the chance of a lifetime. &#9632; I&rsquo;m pretty slow, so let me try to grasp this one more time. Mario Lemieux set an NHL record for shorthanded goals, led the league in goals, assists (a first-place tie, actually) and power-play goals, ran up the fifth-highest point total in history, was a plus-41 on the second-worst defensive team in hockey, had a better plus-minus rating than Wayne Gretzky and Steve Yzerman combined, led his team to its best finish in 10 years and might finish a distant third in the MVP balloting. Now I get it: This is hockey, and logicplays a very small part in almost everything. Doubters are advised to take their questions to Michel Bergeron. &#9632; He probably won&rsquo;t get another Norris Trophy to prove it, but Raymond Bourque remains unchallenged as the best all-around defenseman in the game. &#9632; Don&rsquo;t you wish you would have listened last fall when I told you Peter Sidorkiewicz, not Sean Burke, would be the top rookie goalie in the league this season? What do you mean, you don&rsquo;t remember? &#9632; Everyone has heard about the great hockey atmosphere in the Montreal Forum, Boston Garden and places like that, but few outside Southern California are aware of what it&rsquo;s like at the Forum in Inglewood. Trust me, you can&rsquo;t help but get chills during the national anthem when you look up at the flag. The one from Mexico, I mean. Now that&rsquo;s hockey. &#9632; Wasn&rsquo;t it great to watch the fight between Chicago and Toronto for the last playoff spot in the Norris Division go down to the final weekend of the season? And wasn&rsquo;t it a shame one of them had to win it? &#9632; Los Angeles owner Bruce McNall, who set a new standard for gutsy moves during the past eight months or so, would be a worthy recipient of the Executive of the Year award. But that should not obscure the job being done by Minnesota GM Jack Ferreira, whose deft maneuvering is breathing life back into a moribund franchise.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02467/6272266-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="693" height="716"><figcaption class="caption-body">Raymond Bourque remains the game&rsquo;s best defenseman, columnist says.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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PLAYOFFS IN PITTSBURGH: WHAT A CONCEPT

<h2>CANUCKS</h2>Canucks general manager Pat Quinn won&rsquo;t be sending Harvey the Hound a Christmas card this year. Quinn was livid when the Flames&rsquo; mascot took to running over a Canucks&rsquo; sweater with a toy zamboni during the second-period intermission of the second game of the Canucks-Flames series April 6. So upset was Quinn, he went down to ice level from the press box and asked the sweater be removed from the ice. It wasn&rsquo;t-&hellip;When the Canucks allowed 15 shots in their 4-0 loss to the Flames in game three, they established a record for fewest shots against in a playoff game. The previous record of 16 was set April 19, 1982 against the Los Angeles Kings&hellip;Defenseman Larry Melnyk left game four April 9 with an undisclosed injury and while he wasn&rsquo;t placed on the injury list, the team wouldn&rsquo;t say what the prospects of him playing in game five were.<h2>FLAMES</h2>Goalie Mike Vernon finally picked up his first shutout of the season in the third game of the Smythe Division semifinals April 8. He stopped 21 shots in a 4-0 win over Vancouver. &ldquo;I was joking after the season that I&rsquo;ll save them for playoff time,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It just worked out that way.&rdquo; The question of Vernon&rsquo;s playoff record (18-16, 3.29 goals-against average) came up game after game in the first week of post-season play. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what to say to that,&rdquo; replied Vernon. &ldquo;The year I came in (1986), I took them all the way to the Stanley Cup finals. No one really expected that. I&rsquo;m in a tough position, but we all are. We&rsquo;ve been noted for our great seasons, but for dying off at playoff time. As a group, we have to put all those rumors aside and just play our style.&rdquo;&hellip;Sergei Priakin became the first Soviet-bom player to compete in an NHL playoff game when he replaced a flu-striken Joey Mullen on a line with Doug Gilmour and Colin Patterson for the fourth game of the Canucks&rsquo; series. He was held without a point.<h2>OILERS</h2>A surprise starter for the Oilers in the opening round was defenseman Steve Smith, who hadn&rsquo;t played since Jan. 2 and underwent major shoulder surgery Jan. 23. He missed 45 regular-season games. The 25-year-old wasn&rsquo;t supposed to play until mid-April, but was sprung for the April 5 opener. &ldquo;For a guy who&rsquo;s had an operation like he had tells you something about the kind of character he has,&rdquo; said Oilers&rsquo; coach-general manager Glen Sather of Smith. &ldquo;He hasn&rsquo;t missed a shift since he came back.&rdquo; Smith scored the winner with 26 seconds left to beat Los Angeles 4-3 in game four April 9&hellip; Jari Kurri&rsquo;s two goals in the third game against the Kings, a4-0 win April 8, gave him 81 career playoff goals in 120 games. That put him behind Wayne Gretzky (82 in 124 games), Maurice (Rocket) Richard (82 in 133 games) and Mike Bossy (85 in 129 games) for the overall lead. Can Kurri beat Gretzky? &ldquo;It would be nice, no question of that,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll keep going after it and if it happens, it happens. But, I&rsquo;m not worrying about it. The only thing is winning.&rdquo;&hellip;With a goal and six assists in the first four games, Mark Messier extended his playoff totals to 67 goals and 97 assists for 164 points in 123 games, allowing him to surpass Gordie Howe, Mike Bossy and Denis Potvin for fifth place on the alltime playoff scoring list.<h2>KINGS</h2>Wayne Gretzky on being booed in Edmonton during games three and four of the Smythe Division semifinal against the Oilers: &ldquo;Life goes on. In a way, it was really kind of nice. Now, maybe, people won&rsquo;t be talking about the trade any more. I&rsquo;m not an Oiler, I&rsquo;m a King. That&rsquo;s the way it goes. &ldquo;&hellip; With both Glenn Healy and Kelly Hrudey suffering from the flu at the same time (Healy went four days between meals at one point), general manager Rogie Vachon checked into the availability of King property Robb Stauber, 1987-88&rsquo;sHobey Baker trophy winner as top collegian. But it was too late. The goaltender had already committed himself to playing for Team USA at the world championships. Stauber left the door open for next season, however, though he could return to the University of Minnesota as a senior.<h2>JETS</h2>Winnipeg general manager Mike Smith said April 4 was his first real day on the job, although he&rsquo;s been in charge of the club&rsquo;s fortunes since John Ferguson was fired Nov. 1. &ldquo;I think anytime somebody is made general manager during the course of the season, there&rsquo;s not a lot he can do in terms of implementation of how he wants an organization to run and the kinds of personnel that will be involved in that organization,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m certainly not trying to sidestep any responsibility for this season. I guess now we&rsquo;ll actually be a little more aggressive. &ldquo;&hellip;Winnipeg finished the season with a total regular-season attendance of 510,357, up 3,117 from last winter. Per-game average was 12,759. The increase can be attributed almost entirely to Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s trade from Edmonton to Los Angeles. The Kings drew an average of 15,123 in four Winnipeg visits this winter, up 3,968 per game from a year ago. The Oilers, meanwhile, averaged only 11,727 in Winnipeg this year, down 3,032 per game from last year&hellip;Tests were being done to determine the exact nature of defenseman Peter Taglianetti&rsquo;s injuries which kept him out of Winnipeg&rsquo;s final five games of the season. He was originally diagnosed as having a groin problem and was then suspected of suffering from a hernia. &#9632;

HARVEY DOGS QUINN WITH JERSEY ANTICS

&hellip;Montreal Canadiens defenseman Larry Robinson is the only active NHLer to be on six Stanley Cup-winning teams. Robinson, who won Cups with Montreal in 1973, &rsquo;76, &rsquo;77, &rsquo;78, &rsquo;79 and &rsquo;86, is the all-time leader in playoff games played, with 186. He passed Denis Potvin (185) April 9.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-03355/6272328-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="960" height="506"><figcaption class="caption-body">Larry Robinson</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0039-03

DID YOUKNOW…

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div>In his previous career as a player agent, one of Brian Burke&rsquo;s least marketable clients was a hulking center from a Division 11 college in Minnesota.Joel Otto of Bemidji State.Ultimately, Burke was able to interest only one man, Calgary Flame general manager Cliff Fletcher, in the rights to Otto. Fletcher offered a modest two-way deal to the 6-foot-4 center-&hellip;and has been rewarded for his gamble ever since.Otto led all the Flames&rsquo; playoff scorers following the first four games of the Smythe Division semifinals, with two goals and three assists. He was also named a star in three of the first four games.&ldquo;I regret placing him there,&rdquo; said Burke, now a Canucks&rsquo; vice-president and director of hockey operations, following game three. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s killing us. Of all the free agents I placed, he&rsquo;s had the most impact.&rdquo;Defensively, Otto was one of the main reasons the Flames held the Canucks&rsquo; power play to only one goal in their first 22 advantages. In the fourth game, however, the Flames&rsquo; habit of taking bad penalties cost them four powerplay goals as the Canucks finally broke loose with the man advantage.On offense, the 27-year-old&rsquo;s new-found touch around the goal did not appear to be a fluke. Apart from three games he missed as the result of a suspension, Otto scored at least one point in his final 12 games of the regular season. The Canucks only held him off the scoresheet once in the first four games.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not a great goal-scorer by any means or gifted around the net,&rdquo; said Otto, &ldquo;but if you keep banging the puck at the net, maybe it&rsquo;ll go in once in awhile.&rdquo;Otto&rsquo;s major contributions usually involve faceoff duty, penalty-killing and setting the tone physically. He had been one of the few Flames&rsquo; players able to play his game while staying out of the penalty box.That the Flames and Canucks were locked in a 2-2 tie could be ascribed largely to Calgary&rsquo;s inability to stay out of the penalty box.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to quit taking penalties, that&rsquo;s No. 1,&rdquo; said coach Terry Crisp. &ldquo;We have to stop taking the dumb ones that do nothing for you and you gain nothing by. Some are retaliation. On some, you&rsquo;re just not thinking out there.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01391/6272359-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg" title="f0040-01" width="681" height="728"><figcaption class="caption-body">Joel Otto had five points in the first four games against Vancouver.</figcaption></div>Defenseman Gary Suter was asked if the Flames were taking bad penalties or getting bad calls. Canucks&rsquo; coach Bob McCammon was doing a masterful job of turning the series into a good guys-bad guys scenario, with his black-helmeted Canucks cast in the victim&rsquo;s role.&ldquo;You can argue it either way,&rdquo; said Suter. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s probably a mixture. They&rsquo;ve got a talented power play. When you get that many opportunities, they&rsquo;re going to capitalize.&rdquo;<h2>CALGARY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash; Joe Nieuwendyk, Doug Gilmour, Theoren Fleury, Joel Otto, Jiri Hrdina.LW&mdash; Gary Roberts, Colin Patterson, Jim Peplinski, Brian MacLellan, Sergei Priakin.RW&mdash; Hakan Loob, Joey Mullen, Mark Hunter, Tim Hunter. Lanny McDonaldLD&mdash; Gary Suter, Jamie Macoun, Dana MurzynRD&mdash;Brad McCrimmon, Al Maclnnis, Rob Ramage, Ric Nattress.G&mdash; Mike Vernon, Rick Wamsley.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

f0040-01

FLAMES FUELED BY OTTOIN BATTLE WITH CANUCKS

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div>If the Vancouver Canucks were looking for respect, they found it in the first four games of their Smythe Division semifinal against Calgary.And if the Calgary Flames were looking for the surprise of their lives, they found it in the same place.After three games of dismal play with the man advantage, the Canucks scored four power-play goals in 10 opportunities to beat the Flames 5-3 in the fourth game of their Smythe Division semifinal April 9.In doing so, they not only tied the best-of-seven series 2-2, they put all the pressure on the Flames, who finished first overall in the regular season. But the funny thing was, the Canucks weren&rsquo;t talking like a team that has nothing left to prove.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re happy to be 2-2 but to be honest we feel we could be 3-1,&rdquo; said rookie center Trevor Linden, who scored a goal and added three assists in the fourth game. &ldquo;I can understand them not being all that thrilled though. They&rsquo;re the best team in the league and we weren&rsquo;t supposed to win a game. We&rsquo;re getting to them.&rdquo;Going into the fourth game, the Canucks&rsquo; power-play unit was working at a success rate of 4.17 per cent with one goal in 24 opportunities. In the second game April 6&mdash;a 5-2 loss at the Saddledome&mdash;the Canucks had four chances in the first period and couldn&rsquo;t score.&ldquo;It was nice to get the power play going,&rdquo; said Canuck coach Bob McCammon. &ldquo;The games are going just how we&rsquo;d hoped in that regard. We wanted both teams to spend some time in the penalty box.&rdquo;McCammon pulled a surprise move in game four when he started goalie Steve Weeks over Kirk McLean, who was brilliant the first two games but struggled in game three. Weeks stopped 27 shots en route to his first playoff victory since 1986 and his third career playoff win.Much of the inspiration for the Canucks in the series-tying game went to captain Stan Smyl, who played despite being sick with the flu just prior to game time.&ldquo;He came to the rink and I didn&rsquo;t think he could play,&rdquo; said McCammon. &ldquo;He played and he was very effective. That go he had with Gary Roberts (Smyl fought Roberts early in the second period) really got us going. It was the turning point of the game.&rdquo;&ldquo;Not a lot of people gave us a chance to do anything at training camp,&rdquo; said Smyl, who was cut in the fracas with Roberts but returned to finish the game. &ldquo;But we turned it around and used it to our advantage. It&rsquo;s been much the same in these playoffs. And I think our confidence is building. We&rsquo;re happy to be tied but in my opinion we&rsquo;re getting better all the time.&rdquo;McLean allowed the Canucks to get into the series with a superb first game which was topped off by Paul Reinhart&rsquo;s goal three minutes into overtime. The Canucks then lost to the Flames 5-2 in the second game April 6 and were shoutout 4-0 at home in the third game April 8.When the Canucks lost the third game, many assumed the Flames would take control of the series. But the Canucks refused to let any pressure get to them and responded with the tying victory.&ldquo;I thought we were a little more relaxed tonight,&rdquo; said McCammon after tying the series. &ldquo;You do what you can to take the pressure off. These are grown men playing a kids&rsquo; game and when it isn&rsquo;t fun, they don&rsquo;t fare as well.&rdquo;<h2>VANCOUVER</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash; Steve Bozek, Trevor Linden, Greg Adams, Brian Bradley.LW&mdash; Greg C. Adams, Petri Skriko. Daryl Stanley, Rich Sutter, Ken Berry, Mel Bridgman.RW&mdash; Tony Tanti, Jim Sandlak, Ron Stern, Stan Smyl.LD&mdash; Larry Melnyk, Jim Benning, Paul Reinhart, Harold Snepsts.RD&mdash; Doug Lidster, Garth Butcher, Kevan Guy, Robert Nordmark.G&mdash; Steve Weeks, Kirk McLean.<h3>INJURIES</h3>David Bruce, RW, finger surgery, out for season.Barry Pederson, C, broken collarbone, out for season. &#9632;

UNDERDOG CANUCKS LIKE THEIR CHANCES

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div>When Wayne Gretzky said the Los Angeles Kings had the most difficult first-round opponent in this year&rsquo;s playoffs, there were some who didn&rsquo;t believe him.After all, the Edmonton Oilers didn&rsquo;t have him anymore.But after a 4-3 loss April 9 in Edmonton that was decided by a Steve Smith goal with only 26 seconds remaining, it was nearly impossible to find anyone who would disagree with No. 99.The loss dropped the Kings into a 3-1 hole, one from which few folks figured they would be able to come back.&ldquo;Everybody talked about Calgary and Montreal going into the playoffs, but the team to beat is still Edmonton,&rdquo; Gretzky said before the Kings headed home for game five. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re still the Stanley Cup champions. They know how to win and it becomes contagious.&rdquo;Gretzky, the Kings&rsquo; top pointproducer with a goal and five assists, looked depressed.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not fun. It&rsquo;s not enjoyable,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But we&rsquo;ve battled back a lot this year. Now we have to do it again.&rdquo;Goaltender Kelly Hrudey, who missed the series-opening 4-3 loss April 5 due to the flu, refused to concede defeat.&ldquo;This is the only place where we can generate confidence&mdash;in the room&mdash;because no one else is giving us a chance,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We are all grown men. If we can&rsquo;t find the confidence we need, then we don&rsquo;t deserve to win. If we&rsquo;re going to get out of this mess, everybody has to do the job.&rdquo;The series began on a sour note when Hrudey&rsquo;s illness prevented him from starting the first game. Glenn Healy, who was recovering from the same ailment himself, played well in Hrudey&rsquo;s absence, but it wasn&rsquo;t enough.The Oilers scored two goals in the final four minutes to overcome a 3-2 deficit in a sweltering Forum warmed by 100-degree temperatures outside.Hrudey, who was too ill to sit on the bench, remained in the dressing room during the game. Afterwards, the dehydrated Healy was hospitalized overnight in order to have fluids pumped into him.Hrudey made a quick recovery and stopped 20 shots in game two for a 5-2 win April 6. But he wasn&rsquo;t as hot as the thermometer, which read a Los Angeles-record 106 degrees that day.Chris Kontos, who spent the winter playing for Kloten in Switzerland and signed a contract minutes before the March 7 deadline, collected the first hat trick of his career.Then it was Hrudey&rsquo;s turn to spend the evening in the hospital.When the series moved to Edmonton for game three April 8, the Kings failed to get a shot on goal on three breakaways and Grant Fuhr stopped 26 shots in a 4-0 loss. Hrudey, too dehydrated to continue after two periods, was replaced by Healy.Left winger John Tonelli, a 31-goal scorer in the regular season, missed the first four games with what the team described as a severe case of the flu. And while Tonelli later vehemently denied it, the Los Angeles Times reported his illness was actually pneumonia.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01330/6272414-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="555" height="1235"><figcaption class="caption-body">The flu kept John Tonelli out of the first four playoff games.</figcaption></div>In an attempt to prevent the bug from spreading, water bottles were not being used on the bench. Instead, players were drinking from individual paper cups.The Kings hoped to have Tonelli in the lineup for the fifth game April 11.&ldquo;It is depressing,&rdquo; Tom Laidlaw said. &ldquo;We felt the series would be tied or we&rsquo;d be ahead after four games. We felt we could take it to them.&ldquo;I really believe if we had played for the full 60 minutes in the first game, we would have won. I feel the same way about the fourth one. We could be up 3-1.&rdquo;<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Wayne Gretzky. Bernie Nicholls, Steve Kasper.LW&mdash;Mike Krushelnyski, Igor Liba, Chris Kontos, Jay Miller. Phil Sykes.RW&mdash;Dave Taylor, Luc Robitaille, Marty McSorley, Ron Duguay, Mike Allison.LD&mdash;Steve Duchesne, Tim Watters, Jim Wiemer, Ken Baumgartner, Doug Crossman.RD&mdash;Tom Laidlaw, Dean Kennedy, Dale DeGray.G&mdash;Kelly Hrudey, Glenn Healy.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Jim Fox, RW, knee surgery, rest of season.John Tonelli, LW, flu, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0041-01

FLU-RIDDEN KINGS LOOK FOR MIRACLE

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div>The bond that linked Wayne Gretzky to his former teammates among the Edmonton Oilers&mdash;not to overlook those 17,000-odd eye-witnesses who regularly congregate at the Northlands Coliseum&mdash;has been severed.The official ceremony came just past the midway mark of the opening period of game three of the Smythe Division semifinal serie:.. The Oilers won 4-0 and the following night topped the Los Angeles Kings 4-3 for a commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.Mark Messier, the godfather of Gretzky&rsquo;s daughter Paulina, lined up No. 99 and lowered the boom, sending out a message to the Kings that past friendships mean little in the Stanley Cup playoffs.&ldquo;The hardest thing I&rsquo;ve ever had to do,&rdquo; Messier said. &ldquo;Wayne probably didn&rsquo;t mind, he understands, but I think Janet (Jones-Gretzky) will kill me next time she sees me.&rdquo;Just prior to the Messier hit, Glenn Anderson took a glove-hand swipe at Gretzky and Craig Simpson rubbed him out in the corner.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not like we made a point of saying, &lsquo;Let&rsquo;s hit Gretz more than (Bernie) Nicholls or (Luc) Robitaille or(Steve) Duchesne,&rsquo;&rdquo; said defenseman Kevin Lowe. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to take the body against any offensive player. I was on the ice and didn&rsquo;t see who hit him, but I heard the crowd roar and knew Mess was in the vicinity.&rdquo;Messier shrugged off the hit. &ldquo;Nothing really went through my mind. He was in a position and we&rsquo;ve got to hit all their offensive threats.&rdquo;The Messier hit not only lifted the Oilers&rsquo; bench, but also led the partisan crowd to turn on their old favorite. Gretzky was roundly booed each time he touched the puck.&ldquo;Everyone knows how close they&rsquo;ve been over the years,&rdquo; manager-coach Glen Sather said of Messier, who, along with Lowe was a member of Gretzky&rsquo;s wedding party last summer. &ldquo;But Mark&rsquo;s a team player and he came to this building to win. He&rsquo;s played smart, strong, disciplined and intelligent hockey.&rdquo;The pre-series scuttlebutt was that the Oilers had to bump Gretzky if they were to be successful, but there was an clement of doubt that they were to carry through.Lowe admitted the elusive Gretzky is not often the easiest player to come into contact with on the ice. &ldquo;He knows he&rsquo;s a small guy and never gets himself in a position to get hit. But come playoff time when the game&rsquo;s alittle tighter, then you have to muck it up and you get yourself in those positions. No, I wouldn&rsquo;t hesitate for a second to hit him.&rdquo;&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to have to put friendships aside,&rdquo; Messier agreed. &ldquo;But, when the smoke&rsquo;s cleared, I&rsquo;m sure we&rsquo;ll still be friends.&rdquo;<h2>EDMONTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>April 5: Shaun Van Allen, C, Kim Issel, RW, Dan Currie, LW, Mike Ware, D, Mario Barbe, D. Warren Skorodenski, G, recalled from Cape Breton (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mark Messier, Jimmy Carson, Craig MacTavish, Mark Lamb, Shaun Van Allen.LW&mdash;Craig Simpson. Dave Hunter, Esa Tikkanen, Normand Lacombe, John LeBlanc, Dan Currie.RW&mdash;Jari Kurri, Glenn Anderson. DaveBrown, Kevin McClelland, Kim Issel.LD&mdash;Kevin Lowe. Charlie Huddy, Steve Smith, Doug Halward, Mike Ware.RD&mdash;Craig Muni. Randy Gregg. Jeff Beukeboom, Tomas Jonsson. Selmar Odelein, Chris Joseph, Mario Barbe.G&mdash;Grant Fuhr, Bill Ranford, Warren Skorodenski<h3>INJURIES</h3>Kelly Buchberger, LW, fractured right ankle, out for season.Miroslav Frycer, LW, bruised tailbone, indefinite. &#9632;

EDMONTON AFFIRMS FAITH: OILERS OVER GRETZKY

<h2>PLAYERS OF THE WEEK</h2>For the period April 3-9Dan LambertIHL: Michel Mongeau, Flint. Three goals, six assists in five games.QMJHL: JeanFrancois Quintin, Shawinigan. One goal, three assists in one game.OHL: John Purves, North Bay. Five goals, seven assists in four games.WHL: Dan Lambert, Swift Current. One goal, eight assists in three games.Major junior players are eligible for the THN-Micron-Mega Junior Player of the Year award. U.S. college players are eligible for the THN-Bauer U.S. College Player of the Year award. Canadian university players are eligible for the THN-Bauer Canadian University Player of the Year award.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01353/6272469-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg" title="f0043-01" width="693" height="779"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dan Lambert</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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The Hockey News

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0043-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-02253/6272500-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Minnesota North Star teammates Tim Young, left, and Al MacAdam appear to be practising some new dance steps but they&rsquo;re actually in the midst of a game against the Stanley Cup champion New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum during the 1981-82 season.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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WAY WE WERE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0043-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-03212/6272538-1-eng-US/f0043-032.jpg"></div><h2>ACROSS:</h2>1.The NHL&rsquo;s second president, he served three years.4.The ledge at the top of the boards.9.Clutched.10.Trips.11.More skilled.12.He holds the Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; record for points by a rookie.13.Color worn by four of the five Adams Division teams.15. Hall of Famer Smythe.18. Flyer named to the NHL&rsquo;s second all-star team in 1986-87 (3,4).21. First name of the Kings&rsquo; general manager.23.Not dirty.24.Capital player named to the all-rookie team in 1982-83.25.The Blues&rsquo; career penalty-minute leader.26.The Blues&rsquo; third captain, he followed his predecessors and later coached the team.<h2>DOWN:</h2>1.Doogie&rsquo; of Los Angeles.2.This B.C. town captured the world hockey championship in 1961.3.Leaf nicknamed &lsquo;Ozzie.&rsquo;5.A former first-round choice of Montreal, now a member of the Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; organization, &mdash; Turcotte.6.This much-travelled defenseman played 22 years in the NHL and WHA.7.Dislike.8.Former Flame and Blue, &mdash;-Beers.14.He had 32-goal seasons(with the Canadiens in 1974-75 and 1975-76.15.Home of college hockey&rsquo;s Big Red.16.Implements used to play the puck.17.Goalie with the Blackhawks, Whalers and Jets between 197374 and 1983-84.19.Former goalie, &mdash; Wakely.20.The Courtnall brother who plays for Montreal.22. This Oiler played two seasons for the Kikudo Bunnies in Japan.Crossword solution in Classified Section on page 42.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01341/6272531-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="558" height="623"></div> &#9632;

f0043-03

CROSSWORD

<div class="byline">BY GRANT McGINNIS</div>Nobody is blaming Rick Bowness for the demise of the Winnipeg Jets. Their destiny, most agree, was sealed long before he took over as coach Feb. 7.But by the time training camp opens Sept. 8, Bowness may no longer be in charge behind the bench. His future is currently open for discussion.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be meeting with Rick in the next couple of weeks to discuss that,&rdquo; said Winnipeg general manager Mike Smith during the second week of April. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not definite that he&rsquo;ll be back next year.&rdquo;Bowness, who couldn&rsquo;t alter the Jets&rsquo; fate of missing the playoffs for the first time in eight years, doesn&rsquo;t seem too concerned.&ldquo;Until I decide or someone else decides, I&rsquo;ll be back,&rdquo; Bowness said.&ldquo;Obviously, things haven&rsquo;t gone like we would have projected they would and it&rsquo;s something we&rsquo;ll have to sit down and address.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve talked about it briefly. It&rsquo;s not top priority. What&rsquo;s top priority is what&rsquo;s best for the organization. I&rsquo;m not that concerned about it. to be honest.&rdquo;Bowness took over as head coach in Winnipeg when Dan Maloney was fired at the all-star break. The Jets were 18-25-9 (.433) and last in the Smythe Division at the time. They went 8-17-3 (.339) under Bowness, who came to the Jets from their American League farm team in Moncton. But his main contribution may have been to bring a sense of calm to the dressing room after the air of tension that existed under the more intense Maloney.The primary stumbling block in Bowness&rsquo; future is reported to be Ted Green.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01260/6272569-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg" title="f0044-01" width="555" height="630"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ted Green may replace Rick Bowness as Jets&rsquo; coach.</figcaption></div>Green, an assistant coach with the Edmonton Oilers, appears to be the leading candidate for the Winnipeg head coaching job. At the time of Bowness&rsquo; hiring, Smith sought permission from Oilers&rsquo; general manager Glen Sather to talk to Green. He was turned down.Green has made no secret of his ambition to be a head coach in the NHL, nor his displeasure at learning of Sather&rsquo;s decision.&ldquo;I think Rick has done a good job,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think that when Rick came here he understood what he was getting into. I think he understands now.&ldquo;Certainly, we all would have liked to have won a few more games and stayed in the playoff hunt for longer than we did. I think the circumstances that he came into pretty well dictated how difficult that was going to be to achieve.&rdquo;Smith won&rsquo;t say which way he is leaning. He won&rsquo;t say if Green is his choice. He won&rsquo;t say who else he&rsquo;s interested in. All he&rsquo;ll say is that Bowness may or may not be back.Smith said that Alpo Suhonen, the former Finnish national team coach who took over for Bowness in the AHL, will not be rehired. Suhonen has had a difficult adjustment period in Moncton and is not liked or respected by the players. He went 8-144 after replacing Bowness.If Bowness loses the Winnipeg job, he&rsquo;s been guaranteed the Moncton post again.&ldquo;I would like to be back because I don&rsquo;t feel I&rsquo;ve done the job that I was asked to do because we didn&rsquo;t get in the playoffs,&rdquo; Bowness said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a tremendous challenge here and I would enjoy that challenge.&rdquo; &#9632;

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April 21, 1989

CROSS-CHECK THROWS SCARE INTO CARBONNEAU

LONG LIVE KURRI, A FABULOUS FINN

WINGS COULD HAVEUSED BENCHED WINGER

NUMBERS