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

March 4, 1994

The Hockey News March 4, 1994

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden Editor-In-Chief</div>A two-tiered Olympic hockey event has been proposed for the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan. The first steps toward a &ldquo;dream tournament&rdquo; were taken by the NHL, International Ice Hockey Federation and International Olympic Committee in Lillehammer, Norway. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman met with IIHF president Dr. Gunther Sabetzki and IOC president Juan Antonio Sama-. ranch during the first week of the 1994 Games. The key issue to be resolved for the NHL to participate in four years is scheduling. &ldquo;We can&rsquo;t shut down for three weeks,&rdquo; Bettman said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not going to do that. So if we can get this competition down to seven or eight days, then it may be we&rsquo;re on the right track.&rdquo; Hockey is generally played all 16 days of the Olympics. A suggested means of maintaining a full-time hockey presence is for lower-seeded countries to play the first week and earn two berths in an A pool tournament the second week. Top hockey-playing countries-Canada, United States, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Czech Republic and, perhaps, Slovakia-could be given first-week byes. More than 100 NHLers would likely be part of the tournament. Bettman said the NHL will work with the IIHF over the next few months in anticipation of a June meeting with Samaranch in Lausanne, Switz. As reported earlier in The Hockey News, the NHL would consider kicking off the Olympics with an allstar weekend in Vancouver, the NHL city closest to Japan. Canada and the U.S. could play a pre-Olympic tune-up game and then charter to Japan. Bettman says the 1998 event would not be a gathering of &ldquo;dream teams,&rdquo; but a &ldquo;dream tournament&rdquo;&hellip;Penalty calls remained high after 10 days and 62 games of the league crackdown on interference. Pre- and post-directive penalties per game were: Interference (.902 to 2.06); holding the stick (.403 to .726); goalie interference (.108 to .145); and boarding (.167 to .226)&hellip;If you&rsquo;re going to have three-star selections, force the players to appear. It&rsquo;s a nice and distinctive hockey tradition. Barring extraordinary circumstances, players should be told they must take post-game bows&hellip;Glen Sather thinks all equipment should meet NHL-established standards, not just sticks and goalie equipment. First on his hit list would be gloves. &ldquo;Some players are using little wee gloves that have no protection,&rdquo; says the Edmonton Oil-ers&rsquo; coach-GM. &ldquo;You get a guy such as Mario Lemieux who had his wrist broken because of that.&rdquo; Sather says forcing players to wear NHL-approved gear could cut down on injuries and prolong careers. Sather says it costs the league $10 million a year for injured players&hellip;The Toronto Maple Leafs had more victories by Oct. 28 (10) than the Ottawa Senators had all season (nine)&hellip;A league executive was longing for the days of replacement linesmen. Why? Not because they handled the lines like the striking officials. (They didn&rsquo;t.) But because they dropped the puck without any theatrics&hellip;Broadcast analyst Harry Neale says Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; defenseman Larry Murphy hangs in longer and picks off clearing passes at the blueline as effectively as any defenseman since Hall-of-Fame blueliner Brad Park. Murphy is not really mobile, but makes up for it with cleverness&hellip;Norm Green is remembered fondly in Minneapolis. A headline that appeared in the Feb. I Star-Tribune: &ldquo;Here&rsquo;s wishing nothing but the worst for Old Slimy&rdquo;&hellip;GMs on corporate-controlled teams are learning they don&rsquo;t have the final word. Wonder how Jack Ferreira felt after hearing Mighty Ducks of Anaheim president Tony Taveras&rsquo; incendiary remarks about Wayne Gretzky&hellip;The San Jose Sharks may have the best group of young defensemen in the NHL. Three are with the Sharks: Sandis Ozolinsh, 21, Mike Rathje, 19; and Vlastimil Kroupa, 18. One is with the International League&rsquo;s Kansas City Blades: Michal Sykora, 20&hellip;Pat Burns gave Scotty Bowman a tie and the Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; coach tried to give him one in return. But Wendel Clark scored in overtime to give the Toronto Maple Leafs a 54 victory over the Red Wings Feb. 15. Bowman arrived behind the visitors&rsquo; bench at Maple Leaf Gardens sporting a tie given him by Bums. Suitably, the game threat-ened to end in one when Detroit&rsquo;s Ray Sheppard flicked a wrist shot past Felix Potvin with 7.8 seconds left to play. Clark scored on a power play in overtime. Bums is a big admirer of Bowman and used to buy tickets from scalpers in Montreal to watch him coach.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011555/6249918-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="369" height="371"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021392/6249911-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="387" height="599"><figcaption class="caption-body">GM David Poile: Three coaches in 12 years.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031169/6249904-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="1163" height="1756"><figcaption class="caption-body">Sandis Ozolinsh heads a promising San Jose Sharks&rsquo; foursome.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-04956/6249897-1-eng-US/f0004-042.jpg" title="f0004-04" width="389" height="602"><figcaption class="caption-body">GM Lou Lamoriello: Six coaches in seven years.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

NHL targets 1998 Games

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0036-04" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04311/6251194-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011393/6250410-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="382" height="541"></div>Mark Janssens meant it as a threat. Bill Berg took it as a compliment. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re doing a damn good job tonight Berg because you&rsquo;re p&mdash;ing us all off,&rdquo; said Hartford Whaler Janssens to Berg during one game in which Berg was giving the Whalers fits.There are a number of strong candidates for MHP-most hated player. Ulf Samuelsson, Chris Chelios, Darius Kasparaitis and Vladimir Kon-stantinov come to mind, but Berg holds the title.On a typical night, Berg will jostle with an opponent while waiting for the faceoff, dish out a half dozen solid-but clean-bodychecks, push and shove after the whistle and, occasionally for fun, give an opponent a face rub with his glove. Anything to drive them to distraction.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-02971/6250403-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg" title="f0015-02" width="575" height="894"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bill Berg</figcaption></div>Berg so infuriated the Vancouver Canucks Jan. 8 in a game in Toronto, enforcer Shawn Antoski dropped his gloves after a draw and laid a beating on him. Antoski received five minutes for fighting and was ejected from the game. Berg was not penalized.&ldquo;What makes him the biggest pest in the league is the fact he wouldn&rsquo;t drop his gloves if his life depended on it,&rdquo; said Tie Domi of the Winnipeg Jets. &ldquo;What&rsquo;s even worse is, the fact he&rsquo;s good at his job.&rdquo;&ldquo;If I drop my gloves, it&rsquo;s an easy out for them,&rdquo; Berg said. &ldquo;If I stay out of the penalty box and keep hitting them, I&rsquo;ll get on their nerves. Besides, I&rsquo;m a lousy fighter.&rdquo;And an infrequent one. He had just one fighting major through midFebruary.Berg&rsquo;s secret, like that of most players of his ilk, is to not fall prey to the same tactics he employs. He rarely lets opponents upset him.&ldquo;To be a pest you have to hit guys. Players have to know each time they touch the puck you&rsquo;re going to hit them,&rdquo; Berg said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s going to wear them down. Once it becomes obvious you&rsquo;re getting to them, then you try a few other things like hitting a little harder or giving them a jab with the stick or putting your glove in their face. Whatever it takes.&rdquo;The cost? Constant pain.Sitting in his dressing stall inside Maple Leaf Gardens, Berg&rsquo;s 6-foot-1 and 200-pound body is covered in red welts and purple bruises. A sore back makes it difficult for the 26-year-old to get out of bed in the morning. He worries it will only get worse with time. An ice pack, to be applied wherever necessary, is a constant companion.&ldquo;They say guys who play the line in the NFL hit so hard, it&rsquo;s like they run full speed into a house 200 times a game,&rdquo; Berg said. &ldquo;Some nights it feels like a skate full speed into a house 200 times.&rdquo;Berg&rsquo;s rise from anonymity to most despised has been rapid. The former minor-league defenseman who quit hockey in 1990 only to be convinced to give it one last shot by his wife Wendy, was salvaged from the scrap heap a year ago by the Leafs, who claimed him on waivers from the New York Islanders.A good skater and honest worker with limited offensive potential, Berg signed a termination contract with the Islanders in the summer of 1992 and scored five goals in the team&rsquo;s first seven games. He had six in 22 when the Islanders cut him.Toronto coach Pat Bums&rsquo; reaction to Berg&rsquo;s acquisition: &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t know Bill Berg if I ran over him with my car.&rdquo;&ldquo;Wendy and I drove all night to get to Toronto, we were so excited,&rdquo; Berg said. &ldquo;Wendy grabbed a paper and I asked her to read what it said about me. She said, &lsquo;You don&rsquo;t want to know.&rsquo; It was Pat&rsquo;s way of making it clear I had to prove myself.&rdquo;The Leafs rewarded Berg with a three-year, $1,125 million contract last summer.Now Bums plays Berg as a regular on a checking line, a penalty killer and in the waning moments of close games if Toronto has the lead. His offense, five goals and 13 points in 58 games, is a bonus.&ldquo;Warren Rychel of the (Los Angeles) Kings said I was a backstabber,&rdquo; berg said. &ldquo;I think of myself as a good, clean, hard-nosed player.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Berg holds NHL title as No. 1 Superpest

<div class="byline">By Tim Sassone</div>Troy Murray understands now you really can&rsquo;t go home again.Murray&rsquo;s career with the Chicago Blackhawks ended bitterly Feb. 18 when he reported to the Hawks&rsquo; Indianapolis affiliate in the International League after clearing waivers.Murray, 31, claims he wasn&rsquo;t given a fair chance by coach Darryl Sutter. He appeared in 12 games and had no goals and one assist. He played in four of the first five games of the season before becoming a regular in the press box.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I got a fair shot at all,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;There have been a couple opportunities to give me a chance to play, but whenever they wanted to change the lineup, I wasn&rsquo;t the one who got to play.&rdquo;Sutter said it wasn&rsquo;t the first time he has heard that from a player and it won&rsquo;t be the last.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been coaching seven years and every time an older player gets sent down, that&rsquo;s what they say,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;But that&rsquo;s the game. No one can play forever. It&rsquo;s a depth thing and an age thing. It happens to everyone. It happened to me.&rdquo;Murray spent 10-plus seasons with the Hawks in two stints. He was in Chicago for nine seasons before being dealt to the Winnipeg Jets in 1991. He was traded back last February.Murray wishes he hadn&rsquo;t left Winnipeg.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t really come back,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;You expect it to be like it was when you left, but a lot of things had changed and a lot of guys I played with were gone.&rdquo;Murray came to camp in terrific shape, but that meant little once the season started.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve done a pretty good job of keeping my mouth shut and staying out of everyone&rsquo;s way, Murray said, &ldquo;but the time has come to do something.&ldquo;The best thing for me now is to go to the minors, play some games and get my timing back. Maybe I can get a chance with another team next year.&rdquo;TOUGH ENOUGH?: Darryl Sutter thought the league could have stuck Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; forward Tony Granato with a stiffer suspension than the 15 games he got for clubbing Neil Wilkinson over the head.&ldquo;Ten games would have been a disappointment and 20 games would have been justified,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;The word I hear was that he put up a good defense. That hasn&rsquo;t worked for the Chicago Blackhawks. I thought they&rsquo;d just go by the video.&rdquo;Sutter&rsquo;s words were dripping with sarcasm when he spoke of Granato&rsquo;s defense. Granato claimed he received a concussion when Wilkinson checked him to the ice and didn&rsquo;t remember swinging his stick like Frank Thomas. Wilkinson wasn&rsquo;t seriously injured on the play.&ldquo;If Tony says that&rsquo;s what happened, then I guess that&rsquo;s what happened,&rdquo; Wilkinson said with a smirk. &ldquo;The league did what it thought was appropriate. There&rsquo;s no sense in getting distracted by this. The league makes the rules.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Ed Belfour&rsquo;s 45 penalty minutes broke his own club record of 40. That&rsquo;s still well shy of Ron Hextall&rsquo;s NHL record for goalies of 113, set in 1988-89&hellip;The Hawks were 2-7-2 in their last 11 games in Chicago Stadium, scoring just 24 goals in the process.Right winger Dirk Graham&rsquo;s separated left shoulder sustained Feb. 18 at Winnipeg will sideline him until at least mid-March&hellip;Neil Wilkinson, normally a defenseman, played well in four straight games as a right winger.<h2>CHICAGO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 15: Jeff Shantz, C, and Steve Dubinsky, LW, recalled from Indianapolis (IHL). Feb. 16: Keith Carney, D, assigned to IncSanapolts. Feb. 18: Troy Murray, C, assigned to Indianapolis.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Jeremy Roenick, Christian Ruuttu. Kevin Todd, Jeff Shantz.LW&ndash;Joe Murphy, Michel Goulet, Jocelyn Lemieux. Steve Dubinsky. Patrick Poutin.RW&ndash;Brian Noonan, Stephane Matteau. Rich Sutter. Neil Wilkinson. Darin Kimble.LD&ndash;Eric Weinrich, Steve Smith, Frank Kucera.RD&ndash;Chris Chelios. Greg Smyth, Cam Russell.G&ndash;Ed Betfour, Jeff Hackett.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dirk Graham, RW, separated left shoulder, indefinite. Brent Sutter, C, strained back, day-to-day. &#9632;

Demoted Murray says he didn’t get fair shake

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0002-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011385/6249759-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">&rsquo;Hammer time: The Lillehammer Olympic hockey tournament hits the homestretch. Pages 19, 35</figcaption></div>&ldquo;They&rsquo;re on life support! and (Dr.) Kevorkian is lurking in the background.&rdquo;&ndash;Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; assistant general manager Doug Maclean says trade talks for Winnipeg&rsquo;s Bob Essensa are all but dead. Page 46.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-021128/6249752-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="737" height="1239"><figcaption class="caption-body">Camille Henry is among those who will benefit most by pension decision. Page 8</figcaption></div>NEXT WEEKProfile on Boston Bruins&rsquo; scoring machine Cam Neely &#9632;

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QUOTABLE

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-03819/6249790-1-eng-US/f0002-032.jpg" title="f0002-03" width="388" height="489"></div>Dave Maley has not ruled out legal action after being high-sticked in the face by Florida Panthers&rsquo; goalie Mark Fitzpatrick.It is a surprising and welcome development since he was not seriously injured in the incident and players have traditionally been willing to let NHL law rule supreme.Perhaps not this time.Maley thinks league vice-president Brian Burke was too lenient in assessing a two-game suspension and he is right. A suspension eight to 10 games in length would have been more appropriate. Maley sustained an eight-stitch cut over his left eye in the Feb. 12 incident, but another blow was yet to come: the sentence.&ldquo;If anyone had saw the tape and saw what happened,&rdquo; Maley said, &ldquo;two games is a joke.&rdquo;The bruising left winger&rsquo;s sister, Karen Maley, is a Los Angeles lawyer and he plans to discuss the matter with her after the season ends.&ldquo;Throughout my career, she hasn&rsquo;t liked the fact I&rsquo;ve had to fight,&rdquo; Burke said. &ldquo;She understands that it&rsquo;s part of the game. But she also understands getting high-sticked like that is not part of the game.&ldquo;Who knows, it could be something-if we did go after it&mdash;that would make other players take notice. Maybe that&rsquo;s what it&rsquo;s going to take.&rdquo;It has been argued many times in this space players should not be reluctant to seek legal redress if circumstances warrant. Burke would not comment on the possibility of a lawsuit, but stood behind his disciplinary decision.&ldquo;(Fitzpatrick) doesn&rsquo;t draw back (his stick), he doesn&rsquo;t change his grip, he doesn&rsquo;t club him,&rdquo; Burke said. &ldquo;He has got his stick elevated after he shoots the puck. He gets bumped and he gives (Maley) a little chop in the face.&ldquo;Obviously, there&rsquo;s no injury. I&rsquo;m taking the Islanders&rsquo; word for it there was a facial cut. (Maley) jumps up and he looks pretty healthy to me.&rdquo;Maley had blood streaming down his face when he delivered a left-hand punch to Fitzpatrick, touching off a multi-player melee. Unbelievably, Fitzpatrick got a double minor from referee Andy van Hellemond while Maley received a five-minute major and game misconduct. Burke said Maley deliberately hit Fitzpatrick to provoke the incident.It appeared to be relatively innocent contact from this comer.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t run him over,&rdquo; Maley said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t high-stick him. Nothing. And he lifts a fairly heavy stick, a goalie stick, and smacks me above my shoulders.&rdquo;Maley, who averages more than 100 penalty minutes per season, said he has never run a goalie and doesn&rsquo;t believe the suspension will serve as a deterrent to goalies in the future.&ldquo;He got two games and he&rsquo;s sitting there, going, &lsquo;Big deal, next time I&rsquo;m going to chop him a little lower and I&rsquo;m going to get away with it.&rsquo;&rdquo;The NHL has taken dead aim at goalie interference and Burke said Maley clearly ran Fitzpatrick, who could not be reached for comment.&ldquo;The video tape doesn&rsquo;t lie,&rdquo; Burke said, &ldquo;and Dave Maley, who goes to my church in my hometown in Minnesota and has been a friend of mine for a long, long time, is simply wrong on that point. There was no effort to play the puck. He ran Fitzpatrick hard enough to drive him back two or three feet.&rdquo;Burke said he would invite Maley to go over the tape with him at his New York City office.Maley acknowledged players assume a certain amount of risk when they play the game, but said they must be held accountable for actions that fall outside the rules of the game. &ldquo;There is a fine line and most of the players stay below that line,&rdquo; Maley said.Fitzpatrick crossed that line. &#9632;

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EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

EXECUTIVE Chairman of the Board: Remi Marcoux. President: Alain Guilbert. Publisher: Ed Pearce. Editorin-Chief: Steve Dryden. Controller: Wendy Currie-Mills. Marketing Manager: Esther Sumka.EDITORIAL Senior Editors: Dave Bean, Ken Campbell, Jason Kay. Editorial Staff: Wayne Chow, Brian Costello, Matt Nicholls. Senior Writers: Mike Brophy, Al Morganti, Michael Ulmer. Production Manager: Luis Cardoso. Photographers: Bruce Bennett and Tim Parker. ADVERTISING Manager: Randy Green; David Burgess, Marilyn Patterson. (416) 445-5702 FAX (416) 445-0753 National Sales: TransMedia Marketing, 185 Robinson St., Suite 411, Oakville, Ont. L6J 7P6 (905) 845-4333 FAX: (905) 845-2746. Classified Advertising: David Burgess (416) 445-5702.ADMINISTRATION Editorial and advertising offices are located at 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont. M3B 2R2 (416) 445-5702.FREQUENCY The Hockey News (ISSN 0018-3016) is published by Transcontinental Sports Publications, Inc. weekly September through April (except for last week in December); three times in May; twice in June; and monthly in July and August. Total of 42 issues includes 37 regular issues, the THN Yearbook and four double issues&mdash;Season Preview (September), Future Watch supplement (January), Draft Preview (May) and Awards Review (July). Single-copy price: $2.75.SUBSCRIPTION RATES North America, $49.95 (plus 7% GST in Canada). Canadian requests, send to THN, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont. M3B 2R2 (416 445-5702). U.S. subscription requests and address changes should be mailed to Box 904, Buffalo, N.Y. 14240-9554. United Kingdom and Europe, 134.95&pound; for air mail. (Publisher reserves right to adjust rates on quarterly basis.) Send to Barker&rsquo;s Worldwide Publications, 155 Maybury Rd., Woking, Surrey. GU21 5JR. Phone/Fax 0483 776141. Registered as newspaper at Post Office in United Kingdom. Outside Europe: $262.20 for air mail, $205.20 for surface mail. Send to THN, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont. M3B 2R2. Please allow two to four weeks for all subscription processing.DISTRIBUTION Newsstand: Disticor, 695 Westney Road, Suite 14 Ajax, Ont. LIS 6M9. (416) 619-6565. Canadian Publication Mail Registration No. 1327 paid at Montreal, Que. In United States, second-class postage (No. 0579-540) paid at Buffalo, N.Y. 14240-9544 and at an additional mailing office.THE HOCKEY NEWS Co-founded by Ken McKenzie and W.V. Cote in 1947.COVER PHOTOS Mike Modano by Dan Hamilton; Bill Berg by Bruce Bennett Studios.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-04596/6249821-1-eng-US/f0002-042.jpg" title="f0002-04" width="178" height="139"></div>Audit Bureau of Circulations A Division of GTC Transcontinental Pub. Inc. &#9632;

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The Hockey News

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div>The lone star of the Lone Star State&rsquo;s NHL team feels right at home.Home, home on the range.&ldquo;You wake up in the morning and it&rsquo;s 60-75 degrees out; guys with convertibles drive to the rink with the top down and you can wear shorts to practice.&rdquo; Mike Modano says.&ldquo;Some cities, like Minnesota and Winnipeg, it&rsquo;s so gray&hellip;like Russia. You have to go out early to start your car, then let it warm up for 15 minutes. Here you can golf in the winter.&ldquo;How could you not like living in Dallas?&rdquo;Whether it&rsquo;s the climate or athletic maturity, Modano has flourished in Texas. He has cut his handicap to a career-low six and raised his goal total to a career-high 36.If not for six games lost to a knee injury, Modano would be on pace for a 60-goal season and, maybe, the Professional Golfers&rsquo; Association tour.The center will settle for the NHL for now.Modano is among the game&rsquo;s best skaters, niftiest puck-carriers and most-feared shooters and ever since he was chosen first overall in the 1988 entry draft, much has been expected of the Michigan native.Four NHL seasons later, the star in waiting has stopped waiting and is bearing down on greatness.Playing on a line with left winger Ulf Dahlen and right winger Mike Craig, Modano passed his single-season high of 33 goals in 52 games.Modano was always a Star, but now he is a star.&ldquo;If Dallas beats you, two things probably happened: they got strong goaltending and Mike Modano was one of the three stars,&rdquo; says Calgary Flames&rsquo; pro scout Nick Polano.The knock on Modano was he wouldn&rsquo;t go to the net or take a hit to make a play. The 6-foot-3, 190-pounder played on the perimeter. In order to take the next step, he had to change his game.He knew it and so did his boss.&ldquo;People tended to criticize Mike&rsquo;s defensive game, but that was too much of a cliche, saying offensive players can&rsquo;t play defense,&rdquo; says Dallas coach-general manager Bob Gainey. &ldquo;He plays as well in his end as any 100-plus-point-scoring center in the league.&ldquo;What concerned us was his play in the offensive zone when he didn&rsquo;t have the puck. He had to be available to get the puck and not leave a good offensive position because of impatience. He has learned to let other players work the puck and get it to him.&rdquo;Gainey says Modano has scored at least five goals this season on tip-ins cutting to the net.&ldquo;From watching games on TV and on video.&rdquo; Modano says, &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t believe the number of goals that are scored from in tight. I still take the odd shot from the outside and I still try to use my speed, but I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;m predictable anymore.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011539/6249866-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="464" height="634"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Modano</figcaption></div>Nobody was predicting great things for the Stars this season, but a 16-9-0 record from midDecember through mid-February propelled them into the race for first in the Western Conference.Modano&rsquo;s emergence as a legitimate marquee player is one of the key reasons for Dallas&rsquo; drive to the top. But the Stars are essentially a team of pluggers that gets by on strong work ethic.What else would you expect from a Gainey-coached team? The former superstar checker was one of the most industrious players in league history.Defenseman Mark Tinordi and speedy right winger Russ Courtnall, plus goalies Andy Moog and Darcy Wakaluk, head up a solid supporting cast that has become a popular ice revue in Dallas.The Stars&rsquo; average attendance through 30 home dates was 15,835 or 94 per cent of capacity at Reunion Arena. It&rsquo;s an improvement over 13,947 in Minnesota last season.Controversial team owner Norm Green moved the Stars south after 26 years in Bloomington. Green claimed to be losing money at a record pace and grew tired of competing with high school and college hockey for the fans&rsquo; affections.Some believe Green&rsquo;s principal motivation behind leaving Minnesota was to distance himself from a sexual harassment suit. The owner denies that charge.Closer to the ice, speculation about a potential franchise shift late last season was blamed for the Stars&rsquo; collapse. Minnesota lost 11 of its final 14 regular-season games to drop out of the playoff picture.Modano was in the midst of a career season when his game collapsed. After netting 32 goals in 68 games, he scored once in his final 14 when the team needed him most.&ldquo;It was a lousy way to end the season,&rdquo; Modano says. &ldquo;I had my best year in terms of goals and points, but because of the way things ended, the whole season was a waste.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03826/6249859-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="1516" height="2697"><figcaption class="caption-body">Andy Moog is giving the Stars the goaltending they expected when they acquired him. (Tim Parker)</figcaption></div>Gainey&rsquo;s off-season mission was to make a change in net and add experience on the blueline.He got Moog from the Boston Bruins for goalie Jon Casey and added veteran defensemen Grant Ledyard and Paul Cavallini. Experienced forwards Dean Evason and Paul Broten also joined the team.Gainey has since added tough guys Jim Mc-Kenzie and Gord Donnelly to complement penalty king Shane Churla. The Stars are the NHL&rsquo;s fourth-most penalized team.&ldquo;If your team doesn&rsquo;t have size and strength, teams that do have those things tend to use them against you,&rdquo; Gainey says. &ldquo;Toughness is no longer a concern of ours.&rdquo;Although the Stars made it to the Stanley Cup final three seasons ago with a sub-.500 record, the importance of the regular season is not lost on Gainey.Nor does he think, just because the season has gone well to date, the Stars have it made.&ldquo;You play every game to win,&rdquo; Gainey says, &ldquo;If you blow a tire at the end of the season and something goes wrong, you can leave with your integrity intact. We have to complete this season before we can stand up and beat our chests about anything.&rdquo;Can a team miss the playoffs, move to another city and then win the Stanley Cup the next season?&ldquo;The way we&rsquo;re playing, anything is possible,&rdquo; Modano says.<h2>HOW THE WEST COULD BE WON</h2>A good indicator of how a team might fare in the playoffs is its record against other top contenders. This is how teams in the Western Conference with records of .500 or better did against other Western Conference teams as of Feb. 20. The Toronto Maple Leafs lead the way with 39 of a possible 66 points.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021247/6249852-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="605" height="346"></div> &#9632;

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Stars are deep in hearts of Texans

Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s march towards Gordie Howe&rsquo;s NHL career goal-scoring record continues. The Great One is on pace to pass Mr. Hockey&rsquo;s NHL record of 801 regularseason goals this season.With 28 goals in 58 games (793 career). Gretzky is averaging almost one goal every other game this season and was on pace to break Howe&rsquo;s record at the Great Western Forum in L.A., on April 2 against his old team, the Edmonton Oilers.Below is a list of the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; remaining regular-season games, plus Gretzkv&rsquo;s season and career goal totals.<h2>THE CHASE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-05774/6249949-1-eng-US/f0004-052.jpg" title="f0004-05" width="680" height="1803"></div> &#9632;

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THE GRETZKY GOAL RUSH

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div>Jimmy Boni slept through the first day of the rest of his life.Boni, a 30-year-old Canadian hockey player in Italy, was convicted of accidental manslaughter in the death of an opponent in the Italian B Division two years ago.He had been charged with involuntary manslaughter and if convicted, faced a minimum 10-year prison sentence.The deal between Boni and an Italian prosecutor was struck in the small town of Aosta on Feb. 16, the day his sensational trial was to begin.Boni was fined $1,800 (Cdn.) and will retain a criminal record. The Italian Ice Hockey Federation, which suspended him for the second half of the 1992-93 season, cleared Boni to return to his Courmayeur team.After an evening spent celebrating his freedom with his family, Boni slept until 3 p.m. the next day.&ldquo;I was so exhausted,&rdquo; Boni said. &ldquo;I had no energy left at all.&rdquo;Boni was charged with involuntary manslaughter after the death of Miran Schrott, a player he slashed in an Italian B Division game in January, 1992.Schrott, 19, playing for Gardena, punched Boni in the head while the two were battling for position in front of the net.Boni, a Courmayeur defenseman, retaliated by slapping the heel of his stick against Schrott&rsquo;s chest. Schrott collapsed immediately, never re-gained consciousness and was pronounced dead three hours later.Boni is the latest hockey player to be prosecuted for his actions on the ice. The last NHLer charged was Dino Ciccarelli, who was convicted of assault, fined $1,000 and sentenced to a day in jail in August, 1988.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011468/6249980-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="730" height="1060"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jimmy Boni will retain a criminal record, but will not serve a prison sentence.</figcaption></div>Unwilling to risk prosecution, Boni accepted a plea bargain that dropped his charge from involuntary to accidental manslaughter. &ldquo;After two years,&rdquo; Boni said, &ldquo;I wanted it to be over.&rdquo;&ldquo;What the charge says is that he was negligent while he was playing, that he broke the rules, but that he did not intend to hurt anyone,&rdquo; said Boni&rsquo;s attorney Ennio Festa.The Boni case had become a sensation in Italy and captured headlines in North America. Boni, who has lived in Italy since he was 16, was portrayed as a bloodthirsty Canadian who killed a local boy.Boni reached a $300,000 out-of-court settlement with Schrott&rsquo;s parents and he remains financially insolvent. His legal bills are expected to total into the hundreds of thousands of dollars and the ordeal has cost him his marriage. Boni has put all of his money into paying Schrott&rsquo;s family and the rest of his expenses were picked up by his team.Boni&rsquo;s defense team had assembled a battery of witnesses to explain to the Italian jury that the slash, while illegal in hockey, was not unusual.NHL vice-president Brian Burke, former Italian national coach Dave Chambers and USA Hockey president Walter Bush, were among those ready to testify on Boni&rsquo;s behalf.The defense also would have included assertions that Schrott had a bad heart and should not have been allowed to play.Boni was left to wonder why the case was brought to the brink of a trial by prosecutor Luigi Schiavone.&ldquo;I think the prosecutor wanted the publicity,&rdquo; Boni said. &ldquo;Aosta is a small town and this seemed to be a great way to get in the news.&rdquo;Festa saw the reduced charge as a belated recognition of the truth.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very difficult to understand. I think the prosecutor is someone who has a heart, who has a soul,&rdquo; Festa said. &ldquo;I also think he saw that this could be bad press for Italian judges and it wasn&rsquo;t right to do this.&rdquo;Schiavone was unavailable for comment.There will be no determination on exactly what killed Schrott. While an autopsy showed he died of cardiac arrest, there was no concrete evidence it was caused by Boni&rsquo;s slash.While he is sorry about the incident, Boni can&rsquo;t say for sure that he will never raise his stick again.&ldquo;Sure I regret the slash, but if he was healthy he would never have died. I&rsquo;m not going to say that I&rsquo;ll never react with my stick again. If someone punches you in the head, you never know. That&rsquo;s hockey.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Boni won’t change style despite two-year ordeal

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Michael Ulmer</div>Hockey players who attack each other during a game in Canada roll the dice with the justice system.While the Jimmy Boni trial is a precedent setter in Italy, there have been 15 known criminal prosecutions for actions during a hockey game in Canada. The prosecution gained a conviction or a guilty plea in seven of those cases. Here is a list of successful prosecutions:1992: Former NHL enforcer Randy Holt is sentenced to a day in jail and fined $2.000 for assault causing bodily harm. During a pick-up game in Calgary, Holt knocks out three teeth of an opponent with a crosscheck, then breaks another player&rsquo;s nose moments later.1988: Minnesota North Star Dino Ciccarelli is sentenced to a day in jail and fined $1,000 for assaulting Toronto Maple Leaf Luke Richardson with his stick.1985: Saskatchewan senior league player Blair Hegg is sentenced to 30 days in jail for breaking another player&rsquo;s nose with his stick.1976: Joe Watson and Bob Kelly of the Philadelphia Flyers plead guilty to assault after a brawl in Toronto and are $750 and $250. respectively.1976: Rick Jodzio of the World Hockey Association&rsquo;s Calgary Cowboys pleads guilty to a charge of assault causing bodily harm for attacking Quebec Nordique Marc Tardif during a game in Quebec City. Jodzio is fined $3,000.1912: Montreal Canadien Sprague Cleghorn is found guilty of aggravated assault for hitting an opponent over the head with his stick. He is fined $50.1905: Alf Smith and Charles Spittal of the Eastern Canada League&rsquo;s Ottawa Vics are charged with assaulting two Montreal Wanderers. They are found guilty, fined $20 and ordered to pay $200 in performance bonds. &#9632;

A LITANY OF LITIGATION

<div class="byline">By THN Staff</div>More than four years after Duncan MacPherson disappeared, his family is no closer to finding him than they were when he first went missing in the Austrian Alps.There was a glimmer of hope recently when a German television program specializing in missing persons located a man with amnesia in Austria, who bore some resemblance to MacPherson, the New York Islanders&rsquo; first-round pick in 1984.But after having former teammates Kim Issel and Emanuel Viveiros visit the man and studying a photograph of the man, Lynda MacPherson is convinced it isn&rsquo;t her son.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re 99.9 per cent sure it isn&rsquo;t him,&rdquo; MacPherson said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know how much a person changes when he has amnesia, but the picture is not Duncan as I knew him.&rdquo;It is presumed MacPherson died Aug. 9, 1989 in a snowboarding accident in the Stubei Alps mountain region of Neustift, about 40 kilometers southwest of Innsbruck.MacPherson played in the Islanders&rsquo; minor-league system for three seasons, but never appeared with the NHL team.There are striking similarities between MacPherson and the Austrian man, who has adopted the name Mark Shoeffmann.Shoeffmann emerged dehydrated and amnesia-stricken from a heavily wooded region of the Alps about the same time MacPherson went missing. Both have had surgery on the same knee, have had two teeth replaced and have scars over their right eyes.What bothers Lynda MacPherson most is that she found out about Shoeffmann only recently, despite the fact she was assured by Austrian au-thorities all hospitals and jails had been checked for someone fitting MacPherson&rsquo;s description.The family has travelled to Austria each summer since MacPherson went missing, but will likely remain in Saskatoon this year. They arc checking Shoeffmann&rsquo;s dental records against MacPherson&rsquo;s just to be sure.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll never be happy until I know what happened,&rdquo; MacPherson said. &ldquo;You could put Duncan&rsquo;s body in front of me and at least it would give me a sense of peace. I don&rsquo;t really believe he&rsquo;s alive.&rdquo;WAYNE&rsquo;S WORLD: The NHL is looking into Florida Panthers&rsquo; owner Wayne Huizenga&rsquo;s involvement with the Viacom takeover of Paramount to see determine whether there is a con-flict of interest.Huizenga is chairman of the board of Blockbuster Entertainment, which merged with Viacom to win a successful battle to gain Paramount. The problem is Paramount owns, among other things, the New York Rangers.The NHL prohibits the same person involved in the ownership of two teams.Huizenga declined to comment on the situation.CONNIE UPDATE: The Boston Bruins have named USAir as a co-defendant in the Connie von Hundertmark lawsuit.The 47-year-old former flight attendant is suing the Bruins for $5 million in damages.She says an unnamed Bruin ripped open her blouse and grabbed her breast during a flight May 12, 1991. A USAir employee for 23 years, von Hundertmark said she lost her job because of the incident.Her civil action is at least four months away, but by by naming the airline as a co-defendant, the Bruins are in effect claiming the airline has responsibility for the defense.The Bruins had no comment on the suit.WINGING IT: For the second consecutive season, the Toronto Red Wings of the Metro Toronto Hockey League won the Quebec Peewee Hockey Tournament.The Wings defeated a team from Boston, Mass., 6-3 in the championship game. Toronto&rsquo;s Norman Milley was the tournament&rsquo;s most valuable player, finishing second in scoring with 18 points in six games.The 35th annual event is the largest minor hockey tournament in the world, attracting the best 13-year-old players. This year&rsquo;s event was held Feb. 9-20 at Le Colisee in Quebec City and featured 116 teams from 12 countries.More than 200,000 fans attended the tournament. &#9632;

MacPherson mystery remains unsolved

I was disappointed the NHL did not suspend or fine Los Angeles Kings Jari Kurri and Tomas Sandstrom for running Dallas Star Jim Johnson head-first into the boards Jan. 18.This check could have left Johnson paralyzed. NHL disciplinarian Brian Burke should have sent a message out that hitting from behind has no place in hockey by severely penalizing Kurri and Sandstrom.I am proud the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association has introduced a rule this year that gives players automatic game misconducts for checking from behind.Granted the rule needs fine tuning, but it&rsquo;s a good start.Dale Andrews. Trail, B.C.<h2>Deal for Heals</h2>The Detroit Red Wings have made it known they are looking for a goalie who has had success in the playoffs.They are rumored to be interested in Grant Fuhr and Bill Ranford, but New York Rangers&rsquo; goalie Glenn Healy would be a nice compromise at a cheaper price.Healy showed last season he can perform well in the playoffs. He was a big factor in the New York Islanders&rsquo; win over the Washington Capitals and an even bigger factor in the team&rsquo;s victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins.Unfortunately for Healy, Mike Richter is having a career year. But even though he has seen limited ice time, Healy has very good numbers.The Wings need a gritty, hard-nosed goalie and Healy could be the man.M. Phillips, Tonawanda, N. Y.<h2>Year of the Snore</h2>&ldquo;Remember the Roar&rdquo; is the theme for the final year of Chicago Stadium. Is there a more inappropriate motto for this year&rsquo;s edition of the Chicago Blackhawks?They should call it &ldquo;The Year of the Snore.&rdquo;I have been a Hawks&rsquo; fan for some time, but this year&rsquo;s edition is as bad a team as they have ever had.They have very little heart and are almost void of talent. The ineptitude of Bob Pulford as general manager is unsurpassed in pro sport, but Darryl Sutter is also to blame. His coaching style went out of style in the 1930s.I predict nothing but bad things for this team if it doesn&rsquo;t bring its talent level up to NHL standards.Garth Alien, Calgary, Alta.<h2>The great facade</h2>When are hockey fans going to realize that Chris Chelios is not a gritty, hardworking player, but rather a cheap-shot artist who gets fights started, but never picks one directly?Let&rsquo;s apply the &ldquo;three strikes and you&rsquo;re out&rdquo; rule in the NHL. Three times you show a lack of respect for the safety of another player and your career is over.We owe it to the fans to protect honest players from this goon.Bob Hackel, Raleigh, N.C.<h2>Special case</h2>So Mighty Ducks of Anaheim coach Ron Wilson thinks Wayne Gretzky gets preferential treatment from NHL officials (THN, Feb. 11).Well, the only thing I have to say to Wilson is thank you for speaking up.It&rsquo;s obvious Gretzky gets special treatment. Ordinary hits on the Great One become charging or boarding penalties.Anyone who doubts that need only to look at one piece of video-the 1993 Campbell Conference finals, Game 6 in overtime.The puck rolled into the Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; end and Gretzky and Doug Gilmour raced after it. Gretzky lifted his stick and smashed Gilmour across the face but no penalty was called. Ten seconds later, Gretzky scored the winner.A coincidence?Alan Tignanelli, North Versailles, Pa.<h2>Big change? Not!</h2>Enough already! First, Michael Eisner and company want to use shootouts to decide games. Second, the neutral-zone trap is destroying the game. And now, Stan Fischler wants to overhaul hockey (THN, Jan. 14).It&rsquo;s time to look at the real issues that burden the game-poor marketing. The key to promoting hockey is marketing, not inane rule changes or gimmicks.As a former player and fan for more than 20 years, it scares me when I read about radical changes that are &ldquo;needed for the survival of the game.&rdquo; Perhaps Fischler and other experts should get a grip.And Mr. Eisner should start worrying about his own &ldquo;no-brainer&rdquo; that is going bankrupt-Euro-Disney. Don&rsquo;t fix what is not broken. Fine-tune it.Paul Lloret, San Jose, Calif.Make your feelings known. Fax us your comments at&nbsp;(416) 445-2501&nbsp;or write to&nbsp;Letters, The Hockey News, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont., M3B 2R2&nbsp;in Canada. In the U.S., write to&nbsp;Letters, The Hockey News, P.O. Box 904, Buffalo, N.Y., 14240-9947. Include home and business phone numbers.&nbsp;THN&nbsp;reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

Cheap-shot artists should have paid

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011644/6250083-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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ELSTON

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-021124/6250114-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="578" height="758"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Ricci</figcaption></div><h2>Ricci nets 5 in one game.</h2>1. Mike Ricci. Quebec center reacts to trade rumors with five goals against San Jose Feb. 17.2. Dale Hawerchuk. Sabres&rsquo; center becomes 14th NHLer to register 800 career assists.3. Fly like an Eagle. Unseeded Boston College Eagles win first Beanpot title since 1983.4. Dynamite defense. Finnish squad allows just four goals in first five games at Olympics.5. Player of week. Detroit center Steve Yzerman scores two goals, 10 points in four games.<h2>Fitzpatrick let off easy</h2>1. No deterrent. Two games to Florida&rsquo;s Mark Fitzpatrick-who slashed foe in face-not enough.2. Jets awful. Winnipeg 0-11-2 since GM Mike Smith handed walking papers, O-13-2 in last 15.3. But can he yodel? Vladimir Ruzicka clears waivers, leaves Senators for Swiss club.4. Tory Murray. Veteran center sent to minors after playing just 12 games with Blackhawks.5. Nick Fotiu. ECHL coach receives second five-game suspension this season. &#9632;

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PLUS MINUS

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div>After losing twice in Canadian courts, will the NHL pony up as much as $45 million in pension money for its veteran players or will it seek yet another day in court?That&rsquo;s the question facing the league after a second convincing legal defeat.On Feb. 17, the Ontario Court of Appeal quashed an NHL bid to overturn a 1992 decision by Mr. Justice George Adams. He concluded the league wrongly diverted a pension surplus of $29 million (Cdn.) during the 1980s to offset future pension premiums rather than allocate the money to retired players as originally intended.Former players Andy Bathgate, Carl Brewer, Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull, Allan Stanley, Eddie Shack and Leo Reise filed suit against the NHL in 1991. They claimed every pensionable NHL player prior to June of 1982 was entitled to the surplus.The Court of Appeal&rsquo;s decision upheld Adams&rsquo; judgement the money should be repaid, with interest, to NHL players, coaches, referees and trainers who were league employees between 1947 and 1982.No final figure has been determined, but it is expected to be in the range of $45 million (Cdn.). The pension of some 800 retirees could potentially double as a result of the judgement.NHL pension payments have been shockingly low over the years.As an example, 14-year NHL veteran Camille Henry draws a pension of $7,245 a year. (See column below.) All-time leading goal scorer Howe, a 26-year veteran, receives a $13,000 annual pension. Had Howe played in the National Basketball Association for a like number of years, he would receive a $50,000 yearly pension. A baseball player with a quarter century of experience would get about $35,000.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011559/6250152-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="566" height="815"><figcaption class="caption-body">Carl Brewer</figcaption></div>The NHL has two options: it can begin paying up or launch a third and final legal bid, this one to the Supreme Court of Canada. The league has until April 18 to decide whether to proceed. The highest court in Canada must permit the appeal.Settling would be a financial body blow for the league, but the NHL has experienced a public-relations nightmare by pitting lawyers against hockey legends in court.&ldquo;They won&rsquo;t appeal,&rdquo; Shack said. &ldquo;They have no chance of winning. I mean, how many times can you lose?&rdquo;The league has not commented on its plans, but commissioner Gary Bettman has consistently struck a conciliatory tone in discussing the case.&ldquo;My goal from the beginning has been to make sure the former players are worked back into the NHL family,&rdquo; Bettman said.Brewer laughed when asked whether he expects the league to fight the question in the Supreme Court.&ldquo;Bearing in mind the public relations sense the NHL has,&rdquo; Brewer said, &ldquo;would you not say it&rsquo;s a stupid question? I&rsquo;m not cynical, I&rsquo;m a realist. I expect them to take this to the next level.&rdquo;Brewer may not be finished yet. He has said there could be grounds for a lawsuit charging collusion between NHL management and the NHL Players&rsquo; Association during the era of former executive director Alan Eagleson.Football and baseball players won giant victories in U.S. courts by proving owners conspired to keep salaries down.The league was also ordered to pay the players&rsquo; legal fees, estimated at between $500,000 and $700,000, in the Adams judgement.Both the original judgment and appeal decision emphatically support the players&rsquo; position. The Court of Appeal termed Justice Adams&rsquo; judgement &ldquo;a model of comprehensiveness and of practical, logical organization.&rdquo;Justice Adams pointed to the &ldquo;moral shortcoming,&rdquo; of the Eagleson-led NHLPA.The veterans said they were sold out by the owners and the NHLPA. Eagleson bargained away player representation on the pension board in 1969.There were no player representatives on the pension board when the decision was made to put the $29 million surplus toward future payments of the lump sums.&ldquo;When we started the pension in 1947, we were dealing with honorable men,&rdquo; Reise said. &ldquo;But then there were changes, among the Players&rsquo; Association and the people we worked for. Those people decided to take what was ours.&rdquo;Reise said the current NHLPA regime was no more supportive than its predecessor.&ldquo;They&rsquo;ve done nothing to support us,&rdquo; Reise said. &ldquo;There has been no consideration for the people who carried the load for quite a while.&rdquo;&ldquo;I can understand why he would feel that way,&rdquo; said NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow, &ldquo;but the issues surrounding this are extremely complicated. It&rsquo;s difficult to explain all the considerations taken into account by the Players&rsquo; Association.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021219/6250145-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="568" height="817"><figcaption class="caption-body">Camille Henry</figcaption></div>Even if the league decides to accept the latest decision and settle the case, it could take a year for actuaries to calculate a final total and as long as two years for revamped pensions to take effect.It&rsquo;s possible the more senior NHL teams (21 teams played throughout the 1980s) could be considered liable for higher shares of the judgement.The former players did not name the San Jose Sharks, Ottawa Senators, Tampa Bay Lightning, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim or Florida Panthers in their suit.Original six teams-the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, New York Rangers, Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks-all received more of the surplus than later teams because their players contributed to the plan for a longer period of time.Increased pension payments will be based on years of service in the NHL, not financial need, but some players will benefit more than others.&ldquo;A lot of the players we know have fallen on hard times,&rdquo; Reise said. &ldquo;They had no schooling and when they were past their prime they had nothing to fall back on. Those are the people we did this for.&rdquo;Shack said the victory for the former players was worth the battle.&ldquo;I won four Stanley Cups,&rdquo; Shack said.&ldquo;Now I have five.&rdquo; &#9632;

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PLAYERS WIN AGAIN

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-03919/6250183-1-eng-US/f0008-032.jpg" title="f0008-03" width="388" height="518"></div>The window of his modest apartment in Charlesbourg, Que., overlooks a convenience store and every day and every night Camille Henry watches the people stream out with bottles and cases in their hands.&ldquo;I get so mad at them,&rdquo; Henry says, &ldquo;because I know what alcohol can do.&rdquo;Camille (The Eel) Henry, an NHLer for 14 years and owner of 285 goals, wants to shout through the window and warn the strangers away. He is a 62-year-old recovering alcoholic, rock solid for seven years.Henry came by his alcoholism honestly. His father was an alcoholic who was killed by the bottle. His grandfather was an alcoholic. Now, as if to pay some sort of penance, he watches new generations of drinkers come and go.Henry&rsquo;s two grown daughters have so far been spared and for that, he is grateful. Those two girls, some lasting hockey friends and an annual pension of $7,245 are the only remnants of the prime of his life.Henry has diabetes, epilepsy and a chronic bad back. He lives alone, in an apartment so small he brings up only his very best friends. He has $338.31 in the bank.&ldquo;I want to leave something for my daughters,&rdquo; Henry says, &ldquo;but I won&rsquo;t have much.&rdquo;When an Ontario Court of Appeals judge ruled between 600 and 800 former NHLers should receive $40-50 million owed them in pensions, Henry considered it a gift from God. One more chance.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve heard it could double my pension,&rdquo; says the longtime New York Ranger and NHL rookie of the year in 1954. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d feel like a millionaire.&rdquo;When he was a player, Henry owned three houses: one in New Jersey, one in Montreal and one in Quebec City. He drank heavily throughout his career, but never on game day and while it would wreck his health, Henry doesn&rsquo;t think alcohol hurt his playing career.Clearly, it devastated his life after hockey. He coached in the World Hockey Association for two years, but other than that, the hockey jobs that were supposed to be his financial lifeline never materialized.He goes to one hockey game a year as a guest of the Montreal Canadiens, a team for which he never played. He takes his girls and their boyfriends and for one night, he savors the legacy of the league that he and so many others helped build.Playing also brought on a back injury that would later make physical labor impossible. Mopping one floor as a watchman used to take him all night.Any hope of financial security dissolved with the death of his second marriage 13 years ago. Henry never kept track of his money and after the settlement discovered he was broke.For all this, Henry blames no one but himself. His is a regret bereft of self-pity or bitterness.&ldquo;I did it to myself,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;No one forced me to start drinking. I gave my wife every check, but how can I blame her? I was drunk every day.&rdquo;Henry pays $325 a month for rent and utilities. For the last three years, he has received an extra $5,000 per year from the league&rsquo;s emergency assistance fund to cover his insulin, but isn&rsquo;t eligible yet for a government pension. By comparison. NHLers who played 400 career games and retired after 1986-87 are eligible for a pension of about $250,000 at the age of 55.When the settlement reaches Charlesbourg, he knows just what he will do.&ldquo;I think,&rdquo; Henry says, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll change apartments.&rsquo;&rsquo; &#9632;

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Money will be godsend for Henry

<div class="byline">By Wayne Fish</div>Rookie Mikael Renberg of Sweden began 1993-94 wondering if he would hold up through the grind of an 84-game NHL season.And for a while in January, it looked like the 21-year-old left winger might be running out of gas.But Renberg caught his second wind just when the Philadelphia Flyers needed a breath of fresh air.The Flyers, just 1-8-1 in post-AllStar Game play, headed out to California for a three-game road trip desperately in need of a hero.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011491/6250214-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="577" height="840"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mikael Renberg boldly predicted a third-period eruption.</figcaption></div>Renberg stepped up and did the job, scoring a third-period hat trick in a come-from-behind 6-4 win at San Jose Feb. 15. Then he added a crucial goal in a 4-3 victory at Los Angeles Feb. 18. He also scored a goal in a 63 loss at Anaheim Feb. 16, giving him five goals for the week and 27 for the season, tops among rookies.Renberg is a confident, but not a cocky player. Still, he was bold enough to predict before the third period at San Jose that he would score a pair of goals. He exceeded his prediction by one.&ldquo;Renberg got all fired up,&rdquo; said a grinning Eric Lindros after the game. &ldquo;He made a Babe Ruth call between periods when he said he was going to score two.&rdquo;Renberg said he felt like he had to do something. The Flyers hadn&rsquo;t won a road game since Dec. 31 (0-7-1) and had lost to San Jose at home in overtime the previous week.&ldquo;I felt emotional because this was a big game for us,&rdquo; Renberg said. &ldquo;I said I was going to score two goals just to get the guys going.&rdquo;Coach Terry Simpson was relieved to see Renberg have such a good week. Renberg struggled in a January dry spell when he went nine games without a goal and made a couple crucial errors on defensive coverage.&ldquo;He has started playing well again,&rdquo; Simpson said. &ldquo;With a lot of the young guys it takes a while to adjust. But he&rsquo;s getting his confidence back.&rdquo;Renberg scored his hat trick in six minutes and 36 seconds at San Jose for his first NHL three-goal game.GOALTENDING CHANGE: The Flyers finished their West Coast swing discussing the possibility of sending goaltender Tommy Soderstr&ouml;m to Hershey of the American League to get more playing time.The 24-year-old Swede is just 312-2 with a 4.18 goals-against average in 23 games. Last year, Soderstrom was 20-17-6 with a 3.42 GAA and five shutouts, second in the NHL. He hasn&rsquo;t started a home game since December.Meanwhile, Dominic Roussel has recorded a 24-16-2 record to take the No. 1 spot.If Soderstrom does go to Hershey, the Flyers will probably bring up either Norm Foster or Scott Lagrand from the Bears. Foster is a backup at Hershey and might be better suited to the same role with the Flyers.Soderstrom was sidelined by another bout with an abnormal heartbeat condition (Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome) earlier in the season and hasn&rsquo;t played well enough to win himself a regular spot.NOTEBOOK: Kevin Dineen returned to the lineup for a Feb. 18 game at Los Angeles after missing five games due to a recurrence of his Crohn&rsquo;s disease (intestinal disorder) condition&hellip;The Flyers&rsquo; 4-3 win at Los Angeles raised their all-time record to 34-17-7 at the Forum. The 34 wins are the most in any away building, including teams in their own own division.Coach Terry Simpson experimented with Josef Beranek at center in an attempt to get him out of a lengthy slump. Beranek has played mostly at left wing this season.<h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Eric Lindros. Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour, Pelle Eklund, Dave Tippett.LW&ndash;Mikael Renberg. Josef Beranek, Brent Fedyk. Andre Faust, Claude Boivin.RW&ndash;Mark Recchi. Kevin Dineen, Dave Brown. Al Conroy, Jim Cummins.LD&ndash;Garry Galley. Yves Racine. Rob Zettler, Jeff Finley.RD&ndash;Ryan McGill, Rob Ramage, Bob Wilkie.G&ndash;Dominic Roussel. Tommy Soderstr&ouml;m.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Jason Bowen, D, separated left shoulder, indefinite. Stewart Malgunas, D strained left knee ligament, indefinite. Dimitri Yushkevich, D, strained groin, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0009-01

Rookie Renberg shifts into gear

<div class="byline">By Rich Chere</div>Since the beginning of the season, Mike Peluso has banged in the corners and fought the fights most of his New Jersey Devils&rsquo; teammates were either unwilling or unable to fight.So it was only fitting that on Feb. 14, in an exercise room at the Stouffer Vinoy Resort in St. Petersburg, Fla., Peluso&rsquo;s teammates came to his rescue and may have saved his life.After eating almost nothing for 48 hours in an effort to keep his weight down, Peluso passed out while exercising on a Stairmaster during the Devils&rsquo; two-day team vacation.Peluso then suffered a seizure during which he trashed the workout room and had to be restrained by eight men before being sedated and taken to a local hospital.&ldquo;It was terrible to see,&rdquo; said Ken Daneyko, who was in the exercise room when Peluso passed out. &ldquo;Mike probably works too hard for his own good. He&rsquo;s one of the best team guys I&rsquo;ve played with, but a body can only take so much.&rdquo;Tests conducted during his two-day hospital stay showed the seizure was related to a severe concussion Peluso sustained Dec. 18 against the Quebec Nordiques when his head hit the ice during a fight with Tony Twist.To combat future seizures, the big left winger was placed on medication which he may require for the rest of his career.&ldquo;I just remember doing the Stairmaster, then being held down by a few people,&rdquo; said Peluso, who missed the team&rsquo;s next game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t eat anything for two days and that hurt me.&ldquo;In terms of my career, everything will be just fine. It&rsquo;s a matter of being a little smarter and taking care of myself. They tell me this can be treated with medication.&rdquo;Peluso returned to the lineup Feb. 19 at Meadowlands Arena and played a solid game.But with cuts and rug bums still showing on his face, elbows and knees, Peluso&rsquo;s scare remained fresh in the minds of his teammates.&ldquo;Anytime you see something like that happen to someone, you have to take a step back and check everything out,&rdquo; Bernie Nicholls said. &ldquo;He has to realize how dangerous it is.&rdquo;A MONEY PIT? Where will the Devils choose to spend their dollars over the next few years?Will they attempt to sign free agent center Petr Nedved? Will they succeed in keeping Scott Stevens in New Jersey when the defenseman plays out his option this season and seeks a $2- or $2.5-million annual contract?&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll pursue anything that makes sense, but we would not pursue a free agent where we would get into an arbitration situation,&rdquo; said general manager Lou Lamoriello. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not afraid of fair compensation, but the fair compensation chosen could be in an area that makes us not better.&rdquo;The Devils would have to agree on compensation with the Vancouver Canucks before they sign Nedved.As for the Stevens situation, that looms as a crisis.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to do everything we possible can because we want to keep Scott,&rdquo; Lamoriello said. &ldquo;We recognize his value.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Scott Stevens collected the 500th assist of his career Feb. 13 in a 3-3 tie with the Tampa Bay Lightning.<h2>NEW JERSEY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 18: Ben Hankinson, RW, assigned to Albany (AHL). Feb. 20: Hankinson recalled from Albany.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Corey Millen, Bernie Nicholls. Bobby Carpenter, Alexander Semak.LW&ndash;Valen Zelepukin, Bobby Holik, Tom Chorske, Mike Peluso.RW&ndash;Bill Guerin, John MacLean, Randy McKay. Claude Lemieux. Ben Hankinson.LD&ndash;Scott Stevens. Bruce Driver, Vi-acheslav Fetisov.RD&ndash;Ken Daneyko, Scott Niedermayer. Tommy Albelin, Jason Smith.G&ndash;Martin Brodeur, Chris Terreri.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Stephane Richer, LW, strained back, day-to-day. &#9632;

Peluso seizure linked to injury sustained in fight

<div class="byline">By Rick Carpiniello</div>Since Maurice Richard first hit the plateau in 1945, there have been 143 50-goal seasons posted by NHL players.But only one of those has been recorded by a New York Ranger, Vic Hadfield&rsquo;s 50 in 1971-72.There have been close calls: Mike Gartner had 49 in 1990-91; Pierre Larouche 48 in 1983-84. But no Blueshirt has hit the half-century mark since Hadfield.All of which makes what Adam Graves is accomplishing this season even more incredible. The left winger is on pace for 57 goals, with a career-high 39 through the first 57 games of the season.Graves, who would rather not discuss reaching 50, credits Mark Messier for much of his success.&ldquo;Nothing has happened yet,&rdquo; Graves said. &ldquo;The way Mess is playing anyone can put the skates on, play on that line and get a couple of goals.&rdquo;That, of course, is a gross exaggeration. Graves has become the ultimate power forward and a team leader in Messier&rsquo;s mold, though their styles vary.Graves, for instance, had to work hard to improve his skating, while it comes naturally, for Messier.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s probably a better goal-scorer than I ever was,&rdquo; said Messier, whose only 50-goal season came when he was 21. &ldquo;But he&rsquo;s his own individual. You can&rsquo;t compare him to anybody because he does everything in his own style. I don&rsquo;t think anybody ever really has played like him before.&rdquo;Graves, one of the league&rsquo;s best bargains at $400,000 this season, is very close to being rewarded with an updated, long-term, multi-million dollar contract.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very appreciative of the fact he&rsquo;s making my prediction look pretty promising,&rdquo; Rangers&rsquo; coach Mike Keenan said. &ldquo;In the first week of the season, I said something about 50 goals.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011412/6250269-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="575" height="943"><figcaption class="caption-body">Adam Graves may become the second Ranger to score 50.</figcaption></div>Just don&rsquo;t say it to Graves.LEVELLING OFF: Playing to the level of their opponent, or in some cases opponents playing up to their level, has been a problem for the Rangers this season.Whatever the case, they have not been great this season against lesser opponents. Many nights, they have been just good enough to win. Often, they have been just bad enough to lose. Half of their 16 losses and three of their four ties came against teams with losing records.&ldquo;You can make numbers break down exactly any way you want,&rdquo; said Mark Messier. &ldquo;However you want to add it up, how you do the arithmetic, it doesn&rsquo;t really make any difference to us. From our standpoint, the only thing that&rsquo;s important is the fact we&rsquo;re a better team now than we were in September.&rdquo;The Rangers weren&rsquo;t a better team Feb. 19 when they lost 4-2 in the final minute to the Hartford Whalers.&ldquo;It was a very good reminder that you can be beaten in any given game by any given opponent in this league,&rdquo; Mike Keenan said.NOTEBOOK: Esa Tikkanen scored his 200th NHL goal against the Whalers Feb. 19&hellip;A win in Quebec against the Nordiques Feb. 14 was a long and drawn-out affair when referee Kerry Fraser, perhaps overreacting to the league&rsquo;s directive on the calling of restraining fouls, doled out 28 minor penalties. The result was 22 power plays, five 5-on-3s, seven 4-on-4s and much confusion.Joey Kocur remained sidelined with a nerve injury in his shoulder. Mike Keenan said he could have played if this were playoff time&hellip;President Neil Smith went to the Olympics in Norway to scout eight Rangers&rsquo; prospects and, pre-sumably, Petr Nedved. Of the Rangers&rsquo; properties in the games, goalie Corey Hirsch is the one closest to helping them this year. However, Keenan said Hirsch would likely be headed back to Binghamton of the American League. Hirsch starred for the baby Rangers in 1992-93 before joining the Olympic team.<h2>N.Y. RANGERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Mark Messier. Esa Tikkanen. Sergei Nemchinov, Mike Hudson.LW&ndash;Adam Graves, Alexei Kovalev, Nick Kypreos, Greg Gilbert. Phil Bourque, Mike Hartman.RW&ndash;Steve Larmer, Tony Amonte. Mike Gartner. Joey Kocur.LD&ndash;Brian Leetch, Kevin Lowe. Jay Wells. Peter Andersson.RD&ndash;Jeff Beukeboom. Sergei Zubov, Alexander Karpovtsev, Doug Lidster.G&ndash;Mike Richter, Glenn Healy.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Joey Kocur, RW, nerve problem in left shoulder, day-to-day. Ed Olczyk, C, thumb ligament surgery, indefinite. &#9632;

f0011-01

Graves’ chances at mark much better than 50/50

<div class="byline">By Craig Dolch</div>It was three years since Pokey Reddick started his last NHL game, but he was probably wondering afterward if it was worth the wait.Pressed into a starting role because of John Vanbiesbrouck&rsquo;s hand injury and Mark Fitzpatrick&rsquo;s suspension, Reddick was bombed in the Florida Panthers&rsquo; 7-3 loss to the Detroit Red Wings Feb. 16. Reddick surrendered four goals in the first 18 minutes, but settled down to stop 27 of 34 shots.&ldquo;I would rather have faced another team, but when you&rsquo;re a professional you&rsquo;re supposed to do the job no matter what situation you&rsquo;re put in,&rdquo; Reddick said.Reddick, 29, last started an NHL game Feb. 12, 1991 when he was with the Edmonton Oilers. His last NHL victory was four years ago, an 8-6 decision over the St. Louis Blues. His career NHL record is 46-58-16.In fairness to Reddick, he didn&rsquo;t have much of a chance against the Red Wings. Detroit scored four power-play goals and seemed to play most of the game with open players in the slot.&ldquo;What are you going to do?&rdquo; Reddick said. &ldquo;They had two-on-ones, three-on-ones, breakaways. They had guys firing from two feet all night long. We got slam-dunked.&rdquo;None of the Panthers were blaming Reddick for one of the expansion team&rsquo;s most lopsided losses. They were too busy consoling him.&ldquo;I feel bad for Pokey because we left him hung him out to dry,&rdquo; said defenseman Joe Cirella. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s too bad because he didn&rsquo;t get much of an opportunity to show what he can do.&rdquo;Reddick was philosophical about his chance before the game. He knew no matter what happened, he would be heading back to the Cincinnati Cyclones of the International League once Vanbiesbrouck was cleared to return. Reddick&rsquo;s demotion became official Feb. 19.&ldquo;This game is not going to make or break my hockey career,&rdquo; Reddick said. &ldquo;I know even if I play well, I won&rsquo;t be hanging around because there&rsquo;s great goaltenders here.&rdquo;BELANGER SIDELINED: The Panthers lost one of their key offensive players when rookie center Jesse Belanger underwent surgery Feb. 17 for a broken bone in his left hand.The playmaking freshman is expected to be sidelined until midMarch.Belanger was the Panthers&rsquo; second-leading scorer with 14 goals and 44 points and was named the NHL player of the week Feb. 1 after scoring four goals and eight points in four games.&ldquo;Things were going so well, then suddenly this happens,&rdquo; Belanger said. &ldquo;Maybe things were going too well.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Panthers hired former Washington Capitals&rsquo; coach Terry Murray to coach their affiliate in Cincinnati of the International League. Murray is on loan to the Panthers and is expected to return to the Capitals, who have him under contract for two more seasons. The former teammate of Panthers&rsquo; general manager Bob Clarke with the Philadelphia Flyers replaces Dennis Desrosiers, who was fired Feb. 16 because of conflicts with the players.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011515/6250300-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="582" height="920"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pokey Reddick&rsquo;s NHL appearance was a brief, but busy one.</figcaption></div>The Panthers lost three consecutive games (7-3 to Detroit, 4-1 to the Buffalo Sabres and 4-3 to Detroit) Feb. 16-20, matching their season&rsquo;s longest losing streak&hellip;Florida sold out six consecutive games at Miami Arena as of Feb. 20 and 10 of its last 11 games. The arena has 14,500 seats plus several hundred standing-room spots. The Panthers have played to 96 per-cent capacity at home this season.<h2>FLORIDA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 15: Doug Barrault, RW, recalled from Cincinnati (IHL). Feb. 19: Pokey Reddick, G, assigned to Cincinnati.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Brian Skrudland, Rob Niedermayer, Stu Barnes, Tom Fitzgerald.LW&ndash;Mike Hough, Dave Lowry, Andrei Lomakin, Bill Lindsay.RW&ndash;Jody Hull. Scott Melianby, Bob Kudelski, Doug Barrault.LD&ndash;Brian Benning, Geoff Smith, Greg Hawgood. Brent Severyn.RD&ndash;Gord Murphy, Joe Cirella, Paul Laus.G&ndash;John Vanbiesbrouck, Mark Fitzpatrick.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Jesse Belanger, LW, broken left hand. March 20 Keith Brown, D, sore groin, day-to-day. Mike Foligno, RW, bruised hip, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0012-01

Stopgap Reddick gets one chance

<div class="byline">By Jeff Williams</div>The New York Islanders didn&rsquo;t pick up Dave Maley for his offensive skills.When general manager Don Maloney acquired the seven-year veteran from the San Jose Sharks Jan. 24, it was with the hope he would add size and grit up front.Maloney has emphasized the need to make the Islanders bigger and tougher and Maley certainly helps. He is 6-foot-2 and 215 pounds and made a big impact in his first weeks with the team.Maley and right winger Pat Flatley played on the same line together at the University of Wisconsin in the early 1980s and coach Al Arbour put them together on numerous occasions.Maley is expected to be working down low, a blue collar plugger for white collar scorers. But he has shown he can make occasional contributions on offense.He had two assists in a 5-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins Feb. 10, both coming from scrapping for the puck behind the net. On Tom Kurvers&rsquo; go-ahead goal, he made the pass as he was being knocked to the ice.Maley was still looking for his first goal, but had four assists in 13 games after being acquired from the Sharks. He was pointless in 19 games with San Jose.Maley got into an ugly incident Feb. 12 against the Florida Panthers. He was going for the puck behind the net in the Florida zone and got tangled up with Panthers&rsquo; goalie Mark Fitzpatrick.As both scrambled to get to the front of the net, Fitzpatrick swung his stick and hit Maley in the face, opening a gash that took eight stitches to close.Maley punched Fitzpatrick in the mask and a fracas broke out. Maley was ejected from the game and Fitzpatrick was assessed a double minor for highsticking.Fitzpatrick said it was an accident, but Maley thinks otherwise.&ldquo;He was just covering his tracks,&rdquo; Maley said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no way that was an accident.&rdquo;The cut didn&rsquo;t keep Maley out of the lineup and got Fitzpatrick a two-game suspension.Maley is eager to prove that, at age 30, he still belongs in the NHL after tours with the Montreal Canadiens, New Jersey Devils, Edmonton Oiler and the Sharks.&ldquo;I know I have a few good years left,&rdquo; Maley said. &ldquo;Thankfully the Islanders are giving me the chance to play.&rdquo;TURGEON BACK: Pierre Turgeon returned to the lineup Feb. 19.The slick center sustained a broken cheekbone and orbital bone Jan. 26 during warmups in Toronto.Shortly after he sustained the injury, the prognosis was that he would return in 10 days to two weeks. He ended up missing more than three weeks and 12 games. The Islanders went 5-6-1 while Turgeon was sidelined.&ldquo;I go by what the doctors tell me and how he&rsquo;s feeling,&rdquo; Arbour said. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t speed up Mother Nature.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Brian Mullen has been removed from blood thinners and could be practising with the team by late February. Mullen sustained a stroke last August and underwent heart surgery in September&hellip;Rich Pilon, out since Dec. 3 with a separated left shoulder, was cleared to play Feb. 7.<h2>N.Y. ISLANDERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Pierre Turgeon, Ray Ferraro, Travis Green, Keith Acton.LW&ndash;Derek King, David Volek, Benoit Hogue, Marty McInnis, Joe Day, Dave Maley.RW&ndash;Steve Thomas, Pat Flatley, Brad Dalgamo, Mick Vukota. Yan Kaminsky.LD&ndash;Scott Lachance, Darius Kasparai-tls, Dennis Vaske.RD&ndash;Uwe Krupp, Vladimir Malakhov, Tom Kurvers, Dennis Vaske, Dean Chynoweth.G&ndash;Ron Hextafi, Jamie McLennan.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Claude Loiselle, C, left knee surgery, out for season Brian Mullen, RW, re-covering from stroke, indefinite. David Volek, LW, lower back strain, indefinite. &#9632;

Maley making noise

<div class="byline">By Dave Sell</div>Former Washington Capitals&rsquo; coach Terry Murray decided not to stay in the organization.Murray was named coach of the Cincinnati Cyclones, the Florida Panthers&rsquo; affiliate in the International League.&ldquo;(Florida general manager) Bobby Clarke, asked if I would help in coming to work with their development team for the rest of the year,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;Getting back into coaching is where I want to be.&rdquo;Murray was second to Al Arbour of the New York Islanders in continuous service with the same team among NHL coaches when he was replaced by Jim Schoenfeld Jan. 27. Capitals&rsquo; GM David Poile said Murray was offered a job in the organization.Scouting for the Capitals was an alternative, but it&rsquo;s clear Murray wanted to coach again. The Cincinnati job is just for the rest of this season.Clarke, who played with Murray in the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; organization, called Poile to ask permission to speak to Murray, whose contract with the Capitals runs through the 1994-95 season.According to a team spokesman, the Capitals will pay Murray&rsquo;s salary and the Panthers will compensate the Capitals.&ldquo;David was good in working with Bobby on that so I could finish the season with this team,&rdquo; Murray said.Murray replaces Dennis Desrosiers who was fired by the Cyclones Feb. 16.NAGGING VIRUS: Dave Poulin was nagged since the start of January by a virus that would not go away.For a spell, the problem seemed to be a stomach ailment. That went away, but Poulin was still fatigued. After missing five games, he was in-effective in three games and sat out the next five. Eventually, Poulin was diagnosed as having asthma.While asthma requires medication and often the use of an inhaler, it&rsquo;s not uncommon. Todd Krygier and Jason Woolley have asthma.Krygier uses an inhaler the morning of a game. Woolley uses the inhaler during practices and games.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not telling anybody what&rsquo;s in the inhaler,&rdquo; Woolley joked.NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Enrico Ciccone played two games as a right winger and almost got into a scrap with New York Islanders&rsquo; Dean Chy-noweth, who provoked a fight and then backed off. &ldquo;He should have gotten two minutes for looking stupid,&rdquo; Ciccone said&hellip;Goalie Rick Tabaracci strained a right knee ligament Feb. 20 and is sidelined until early March.<h2>WASHINGTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 20: Olaf Kolztg. G. recalled from Portland (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Dale Hunter. Mike Ridley, Michal Pivonka, Steve Konowalchuk.LW&ndash;Dimitri Khristich, Randy Burridge, Kelly Miller, Craig Berube.RW&ndash;Peter Bondra. Pat Peake. Todd Krygier. Enrico Ciccone, Keith Jones. Alan May.LD&ndash;AI latrate, Calle Johansson, John Slaney.RD&ndash;Sylvain Cote. Kevin Hatcher. Shawn Anderson.G&ndash;Don Beaupre, Olaf Kolzig.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Jason Woolley, D, tom abdominal muscle, day-to-day. Dave Poulin, C, asthma, day-to-day. Rick Tabaracci, G, strained right knee ligament, indefinite. &#9632;

Scouting not Murray’s dream; accepts minor coaching post

<div class="byline">By Roy Cummings</div>Denis Savard looked around the Tampa Bay Lightning dressing room following a recent defeat and noticed despair in his teammates&rsquo; eyes.In the year of the Florida Panther, the Lightning&rsquo;s chances of joining its state rivals in the playoff race and altering what could be the greatest expansion story ever told had begun to evaporate.Savard, though, took solace. If this were one of his old Chicago Blackhawk or Montreal Canadien teams, this would indeed be a time for despair.For established teams such as the Hawks and Canadiens, making the playoffs is a requirement. It is the starting point on the barometer of achievement.For the Lightning, however, the playoffs would be nothing short of a bonus round.The Lightning&rsquo;s ultimate goal this season was to improve on its impressive first campaign, and the fact it was still within earshot of the playoff race in mid-February was proof, Savard said, that Tampa Bay is indeed on the right course.&ldquo;The playoffs would be big this year, no doubt about that. But the future is what&rsquo;s really important here,&rdquo; Savard said. &ldquo;This team can&rsquo;t afford to lose sight of that. Down the road is what they have to keep an eye on and I can tell you, the future here looks good.&ldquo;There are teams that have been in this league 50 years that don&rsquo;t have the kind of future this one has ahead of it. I mean, look at some of the kids that are already here. They&rsquo;re going to be great players some day.&rdquo;In mid-February, the Lightning lost to the New York Islanders on the road, but rebounded to defeat Montreal 4-3 at home two nights later.&ldquo;Young players learn from games like that,&rdquo; Savard said. &ldquo;They learn what it takes to win at this time of the year and how the games get tougher now. That&rsquo;s going to be important down the road.&rdquo;SCORING WANTED: The Lightning was in dire need of scoring to keep its playoff hopes alive.Only the Ottawa Senators (149) scored fewer goals than the Lightning (161) this season through games of Feb. 21.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to get some goals,&rdquo; said coach Terry Crisp. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve just got to get somebody going for us, because we&rsquo;re playing everybody even in every other facet of the game.&rdquo;Besides Brian Bradley and Petr Klima, Tampa Bay&rsquo;s top two goal scorers, the Lightning would seem to have three more capable scoring threats in veteran players Denis Savard, Adam Creighton and Pat Elynuik. But those players combined for just 22 goals.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve tried everything,&rdquo; Crisp said. &ldquo;And we&rsquo;ll keep on trying. We&rsquo;ll just keep shuffling things around until we find the combination that works for us.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: General manager Phil Esposito solved the team&rsquo;s goal-tending glut by trading Pat Jablons&ndash;ki to the Toronto Maple Leafs Feb. 21 for future considerations. Jablonski, 26, was behind Daren Puppa and Wendell Young on the team&rsquo;s depth chart. He played 15 games, recording a 3.88 goals-against average and 5-63 record.<h2>TAMPA BAY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 15: Chris LiPuma, D, assigned to Atlanta (IHL). Feb. 21: Pat Jablonski, G, traded to Toronto for future considerations.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Brian Bradley, Chris Gratton, Marc Bureau, Denis Savard.LW&ndash;Adam Creighton, Petr Klima, Mikael Andersson, Gerard Gallant.RW&ndash;John Tucker, Danton Cole, Pat Elynuik, Tim Bergland, Rob DiMaio.LD&ndash;Joe Reekie, Marc Bergevin. Shawn Chambers. Donald Dufresne.RD&ndash;Chris Joseph, Roman Hamrlik, Rudy Poeschek.G&ndash;Daren Puppa. Wendell Young.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

Future success the key

<div class="byline">By Stan Fischiar</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0015-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-03701/6250441-1-eng-US/f0015-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Oleg Petrov (TIM PARKER)</figcaption></div>Sources with the Detroit Red Wings firmly believe the team will make two big deals before the deadline. The no-brainer: Goalie Tim CheveL dae is gone. The blockbuster: So is Steve Yzerman, simply because there&rsquo;s not enough ice time to go around for him and Sergei Fedorov. Of course no exchange for the Wings&rsquo; captain will be made unless a handsome return is obtained, but that&rsquo;s still possible before the March 21 trade deadline&hellip;Don&rsquo;t be surprised if within the next two years small-market teams push for home games consecutively on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Weekday nights have become an increasingly difficult sell-something the minor leagues learned long ago. Current NHL by-laws prohibit teams from playing on more than two consecutive nights.<h2>Women in nets</h2>With apologies to Manon Rheaume, the United States will have the best goaltending in the Women&rsquo;s World Championships in April at Lake Placid, N.Y. Kelly Dyer of the Sunshine League&rsquo;s Daytona Beach Sun Devils and Erin Whitten of the Central League&rsquo;s Dallas Freeze will battle for the No. 1 job. Whitten, who became the first woman to win a professional game, has designs on the NHL. &ldquo;Every hockey player has a dream to make the NHL,&rdquo; Whitten said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d love to be there even for a little while. Is it possible? Yes. Probable? No. I just to have to keep improving. If I&rsquo;m still doing this in 10 years, I&rsquo;ll be happy.&rdquo;&hellip;It was 14 years ago that Jim Craig backstopped the United States to a gold medal in the Winter Olympics. Now playing oldtimers hockey, Craig is a defenseman. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s more fun and a lot safer to not play goalie,&rdquo; he said.<h2>Get real, Chelios</h2>Chris Chelios is converting the jeers of abuse he receives in opposing rinks into a bundle of cash. It all takes place on a commercial for Logo 7 sportswear. Chelios calmly takes the razzing until someone calls him wimp. Instead of swinging back, the Chicago Blackhawk defenseman fixes a mean eye on the camera and snaps, &ldquo;Get real.&rdquo; That&rsquo;s the company&rsquo;s motto&hellip;If you study the NHL&rsquo;s 10-man committee which will study the shootout, there appear to be four dead against-Jimmy Devellano (Detroit), Bill Torrey (Florida Pan-thers), Harry Sinden (Boston Bruins) and Cliff Fletcher (Toronto Maple Leafs) and four in favor-Steve Walsh (New York Islanders), Marcel Aubut (Quebec Nordiques), Michael Eisner (Mighty Ducks of Anaheim) and Howard Baldwin (Pittsburgh Penguins). That leaves Phil Esposito (Tampa Bay Lightning) and Barry Shenkarow (Winnipeg Jets) with swing votes. That could leave them with a deadlock, allowing NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to cast the deciding vote-in favor. The vote will be whether to recommend acceptance or rejection to the league&rsquo;s board of governors.<h2>Cry freedom</h2>The crazy thing about the Petr Nedved saga is that it&rsquo;s conceivable the Vancouver Canucks won&rsquo;t trade him this season. That would mean Nedved will enter the 1994-95 still Canucks&rsquo; property. This is a free agent?&hellip;Asked by Bluelines what solution he would provide in collective bargaining agreement talks if he were in NHL Players&rsquo; Association director Bob Goodenow&rsquo;s shoes, super-agent Don Meehan said: &ldquo;One consideration might be that the league be insistent on entry level salaries for younger players going into the NHL. And the NHLPA would be receptive to that. Such a plan could mitigate against younger players going into the league with salaries that a lot of people feel are simply out line. Another consideration would be revenue-sharing but I don&rsquo;t think Bill Wirtz (Chicago) or Jeremy Jacobs (Boston) would go for that philosophy&rdquo;<h2>That old trap</h2>Although the neutral-zone trap is being touted as a new defensive technique, Ed Westfall told Bluelines it dates back to the 1960s when he and Boston Bruin teammate Derek Sanderson were the league&rsquo;s top penalty killers and defensive forwards. &ldquo;We did the same thing they&rsquo;re doing today,&rdquo; said Westfall, a New York Islanders&rsquo; broadcaster, &ldquo;except we didn&rsquo;t call it a trap.&rdquo;&hellip;For the good of Zarley Zal&ndash; apski-and the Hartford Whalers-he should be traded. The problem; Zalapski is getting a base salary of $800,000 and is in his option year.<h2>THE ROOKIES OF 1993-94</h2>Born: Moscow, Russia.Age: 22Team: Montreal CanadiansHeight: 5-foot-9Weight; 161 poundsPosition: Right wingHow acquired: Montreal&rsquo;s sixth choice (127th overall) in 1991 entry draft. &#9632;

f0015-03

Stevie ‘Y’ would Red Wings trade you away now?

<div class="byline">By Elliott Pap</div>A group calling itself the Syracuse Hockey Ownership Team-that&rsquo;s SHOT for short-has approached the Vancouver Canucks about purchasing their American League franchise in Hamilton and moving it to New York state.The group is headed by businessman Howard Dolgan, a partner in a sports marketing firm based in New York City.Canuck boss Pat Quinn said preliminary talks have been held between Dolgan and Vancouver and assistant general manager George McPhee.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the time of year where we have to make some decisions rather quickly,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;Right now we are preparing to find out just where we are with Hamilton. The talks are not what I would call serious at this point. However, Syracuse is certainly an option.&rdquo;The parent Canucks were forced into buying the Hamilton franchise earlier this season when the local owners ran out of money and walked away from the operation.According to Quinn, the board of directors at Northwest Sports Enterprises, the company that owns the Canucks, has never been in favor of operating a minorleague franchise.&ldquo;We had the opportunity to own the team in Las Vegas four years ago, but we were turned down by the board,&rdquo; Quinn said.The Canucks have always favored having a Canadian-based farm team, although they did operate in Milwaukee for four seasons from 1988-89 to 1991-92.&ldquo;Our preference would be to stay in Canada but we&rsquo;d go back to the States,&rdquo; Quinn said.Syracuse has a 6,200-seat arena and the SHOT group has indicated that. David Gregory, son of NHL executive Jim Gregory, would be its general manager. Syracuse also has a favorable location and is a relatively short bus ride to AHL teams in Binghamton, Rochester and Albany.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011287/6250472-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="577" height="769"><figcaption class="caption-body">Robert Dirk isn&rsquo;t sure the team deserved a Las Vegas vacation.</figcaption></div>VIVA LAS VEGAS: Despite their underachieving season, the Canucks flew their players, coaches, trainers, scouts, wives and significant others to Las Vegas Feb. 18 for three days of rest and relaxation.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure people will pick up the paper and say &lsquo;what are they doing?&rsquo;&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;The fact is we planned this at the start of the year when we saw the schedule. It has been something most teams have been able to enjoy at some point in the 84-game season and we&rsquo;ve never been able to do it before.&rdquo;While the players were appreciative of the gesture, calling it everything from nice to great to unbelievable, defenseman Robert Dirk felt he and his mates had not earned the reward.&ldquo;I definitely think it&rsquo;s undeserved,&rdquo; Dirk said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not saying we should go home and practise every day, but I think maybe we deserved it more the last two years when we finished first.It just shows the class of the organization.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Canucks won their first game in Chicago Stadium in six years when they beat the Blackhawks 4-2 Feb. 17. Trevor Linden was a rookie the last time Vancouver took two road points from the Hawks. &ldquo;Sure I remember that game,&rdquo; Linden said. &ldquo;I had a goal and an assist and Steve Bozek had a couple of goals, including one shorthanded.&rdquo;After a slow start, right winger Pavel Bure is making a belated run at a 50-goal season. The Russian Rocket needed 16 goals in Vancouver&rsquo;s final 25 games to reach the coveted mark. He had 60 goals last season.Defenseman Adrien Plavsic, who has struggled all season, came down with food poisoning the day after playing his finest game of the year Feb. 13 against the Florida Panthers. He missed the team&rsquo;s three-day Las Vegas holiday and was sent back to Vancouver for tests. Plavsic blamed his ailment on seafood salad he ate just before leaving Miami.<h2>VANCOUVER</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 15: John Namestnikov, D, assigned to Hamilton (AHL). Feb. 16: Mike Fountain. G, recalled from Hamilton. Feb. 18: Fountain assigned to Hamilton.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Jimmy Carson, Murray Craven, Cliff Ronning. John McIntyre.LW&ndash;Geoff Courtnail. Martin Gelinas. Greg Adams, Gino Odjick, ShawnRW&ndash;Pavel Bure, Trevor Linden, Sergio Momesso, Tim Hunter.LD&ndash;Dana Murzyn, Robert Dirk, Dave Babych, Brian Glynn.RD&ndash;Jyrki Lumme, Jiri Slegr, GeraldG&ndash;Kirk McLean. Kay Whitmore.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Adrien Plavsic, D, stomach disorder, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0016-01

Syracuse group courts minor piece of the farm

<div class="byline">By Dan Barnes</div>A terrible season for the Edmonton Oilers and Louie DeBrusk got even worse when DeBrusk was charged with public mischief in Edmonton Feb. 14.DeBrusk didn&rsquo;t accompany the Oilers on their 0-2-1 road swing against the Washington Capitals, Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs in mid-February after being charged.DeBrusk allegedly kicked out a plate glass window of a department store, causing $3,500 in damage. He was arrested at the scene after police arrived and talked to an eyewitness. DeBrusk, 22, will appear in an Edmonton court March 9.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s kind of a tough situation. I&rsquo;d rather not talk about anything right now,&rdquo; DeBrusk said.DeBrusk had a previous run-in with the law while a member of the Cape Breton Oilers of the American League. It seems his troubles stem from an alcohol problem. The Oilers sent him to the Betty Ford Center in California two years ago for treatment.DeBrusk and teammate Kelly Buchberger made news last November when they got into a shoving match with each other outside an Edmonton bar after a loss against the Calgary Flames earlier that night. Witnesses said both players had been drinking.DeBrusk&rsquo;s play has slumped this year after he finished last season on a roll, scoring six goals in 13 games in March while playing with Todd Elik and Petr Klima. DeBrusk had three goals and eight points in 40 games and was criticized by Sather for a lack of tough play this season.INJURY WOES: They used to just shoot themselves in the foot, but now the Oilers are targeting other parts of the anatomy.Shayne Corson&rsquo;s left fibula was fractured when he was hit by a Dave Manson slapshot Feb. 18 in Detroit. It has been that kind of season for the Oilers, who were hit hard by injuries and were icing a lineup that would look more at home in Cape Breton.Corson was leading the Oilers with 25 goals and 53 points at the time.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s frustrating and disappointing, but hopefully I won&rsquo;t be out that long,&rdquo; Corson said.Doctors diagnosed it as a non-displaced fracture. He is sidelined indefinitely.NOTEBOOK: The Oilers picked up forward Mike Stapleton off the waiver wire from the Pittsburgh Penguins Feb. 19. &ldquo;Typical morning,&rdquo; Stapleton joked. &ldquo;Got up, took the morning skate (with the Penguins in Montreal). As I was leaving the pre-game meal, (GM Craig Patrick) stopped me and said I&rsquo;d been picked up by Edmonton. I got to Toronto at 5:15, got to the rink at six and played the game.&rdquo; Stapleton, 27, had seven goals and 18 points in 58 games with the Penguins. The son of former NHLer Pat Stapleton will play on the top line in Edmonton&hellip;Vladimir Vujtek&rsquo;s season ended Feb. 18 when he underwent surgery to repair his wonky left shoulder. Vujtek played hurt for much of the season and it hampered his effectiveness. He had only 19 points in 40 games.<h2>EDMONTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 14: Brad Zavisha, LW, recalled from Cape Breton (AHL). Feb. 18: Dean McAmmond, LW, recalled from Cape Breton. Feb. 19: Mike Stapleton, LW, claimed off waivers from Pittsburgh.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Jason Arnott, Doug Weight. Craig MacTavish, Peter WhiteLW&ndash;Mike Stapleton, Brent Grieve, Scott Thornton, Dean McAmmond, Louie DeBrusk, Brad Zavisha.RW&ndash;Zdeno Ciger, Ilya Byakin. Kelly Buchberger. Shjon Podein.LD&ndash;lgor Kravchuk. Fredrik Olausson, Luke Rich-ardsonRD&ndash;Adam Bennett, Bob Beers. Dave Manson.G&ndash;Bill Ranford. Fred Brathwaite.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Shayne Corson, LW, fractured right fibula, indefinite. Kirk Maltby, RW, fractured right ankle, indefinite. Scott Pearson, LW, sprained right knee, indefinite. Steve Rice, RW, broken knuckle on right hand, indefinite. Vladimir Vujtek, C, left shoulder surgery, out for season. &#9632;

Troubles continue

<div class="byline">By Mike Weaver</div>The San Jose Sharks have an excellent chance to make it to the playoffs for the first time in their history.With a 4-3 win over the Los Angeles Kings Feb. 19, the Sharks sent out a message to the rest of the NHL they aren&rsquo;t planning to run out of gas down the stretch.The victory didn&rsquo;t lock up a playoff spot, but it did put the Sharks seven points up on the Kings-and five on the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim-in the race for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.It also provided evidence that the Sharks can withstand the pressure of a tight race.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve come this far and we&rsquo;re going to do whatever we can to make the playoffs,&rdquo; said winger Johan Garpenlov, who scored the game-winning goal against the Kings. &ldquo;This was the biggest game we&rsquo;ve played so far.&rdquo;By winning it, the Sharks earned two points and made another.&ldquo;We had to prove that we deserve to be in the No. 8 spot,&rdquo; said goalie Arturs Irbe. &ldquo;We proved we deserve to be contenders.&rdquo;Considering the Sharks set a league record for losses in a season a year ago (71), their presence in the playoff race is somewhat surprising.&ldquo;A lot of us have never been through this before, so it&rsquo;s exciting,&rdquo; Jeff Odgers said. &ldquo;You get really hyped up, but you&rsquo;ve got to control it.&rdquo;PAYING THE PRICE: Defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh sat out a Feb. 17 game against the Quebec Nordiques for being late to that day&rsquo;s morning skate.Sharks&rsquo; coach Kevin Constantine said making the decision to scratch the team&rsquo;s third-leading scorer during a tight race for a playoff spot was very difficult, but was one he had to make.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re talking about a 21-year-old kid and we wanted to do what would benefit him most in the long run,&rdquo; Constantine said. &ldquo;We had to let him know that being late is not acceptable.&rdquo;The Sharks recalled rookie Vlastimil Kroupa from the Kansas City Blades of the International League to replace Ozolinsh for the game.Quebec center Mike Ricci scored five goals in the game to lead the Nordiques to an 8-2 victory.NOTEBOOK: Russian winger Viktor Koz&ndash;lov, the sixth pick in the 1993 entry draft, arrived in San Jose Feb. 15 to spend a week working out with the Sharks. The brief visit was designed to give Kozlov a chance to get a look at the NHL and a taste of life in North America. Kozlov, who is unsigned, said he hopes to attend the Minnesota hockey camp operated by Sharks&rsquo; director of player personnel Chuck Grillo this summer and plans to be at training camp in September.The Sharks sent a tape of a Feb. 19 incident involving captain Bob Errey and Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; defenseman Marty McSorley to NHL disciplinarian Brian Burke. The Sharks allege McSorley gouged Errey&rsquo;s left eye&hellip;Defenseman Tom Pederson set a franchise record for shots in a game Feb. 15 by taking nine in a 6-4 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. Pederson scored the Sharks&rsquo; second goal of the game.<h2>SAN JOSE</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 17: Vlastimil Kroupa, D, recalled from Kansas City (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;lgor Larionov, Todd Elik. Jamie Baker, Dale Craigwell, Viacheslav Butsayev.LW&ndash;Johan Garpenlov. Gaetan Duchesne. Bob Errey. Ray Whitney.RW&ndash;Sergei Makarov, Pat Falloon, Jeff Odgers. Rob Gaudreau.LD&ndash;Sandis Ozolinsh. Doug Zmolek, Jay More. Mike Lalor.RD&ndash;Jeff Norton, Tom Pederson, Mike Rathje. Vlastimil Kroupa.G&ndash;Arturs litre. Jimmy Waite.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

Can team go from way off to playoffs in one season?

<div class="byline">By Rick Sadowski</div>Marty McSorley didn&rsquo;t take long to make an impression with his new-old team, the Los Angeles Kings. He scored a goal on his first shift after being acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins and in just his second game with the Kings, he was suspended by the league.McSorley, who was acquired along with defenseman Jim Paek from the Pittsburgh Penguins for right winger Tomas Sandstrom and center Shawn McEachern, sat out the Kings&rsquo; Feb. 21 game against the Toronto Maple Leafs and had a hearing scheduled with NHL vicepresident Brian Burke for the next day.McSorley allegedly gouged the eye of San Jose Sharks&rsquo; captain Bob Errey at the final buzzer of a 4-3 loss to the Sharks Feb. 20.Desperate to climb back into the playoff race and shore up their defense, the Kings reversed the off-season deal that sent the 235-pound McSorley to Pittsburgh for McEachern.&ldquo;It goes without saying the team is not playing well,&rdquo; said owner Bruce McNall. &ldquo;To say the reason is (McSorley) was gone is open to speculation, I guess. A lot of people felt we were missing a certain element.&rdquo;McSorley provided leadership and was a bat-tleship a year ago when the Kings advanced to the Stanley Cup finals. But McNall balked at shelling out nearly $ 10 million over five years to McSorley, a GroupIII free agent.The defenseman wound up in Pittsburgh for McEachern, who never found his niche in Los Angeles. When the Kings became convinced they would not be able to re-sign Sandstrom, the stage was set to make the deal.&ldquo;It was a tough situation when Marty left,&rdquo; said coach Barry Melrose. &ldquo;The good thing is we sat down, realized we needed him back and got him. And Paek is a proven defenseman.&rdquo;Wayne Gretzky said McSorley&rsquo;s presence on and off the ice would be beneficial.&ldquo;Marty gives us toughness and size we needed,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The dimension Marty gives us is he&rsquo;s goofy. He can be crazy out there.&rdquo;GRANATO SUSPENDED: Tony Granato said he was &ldquo;disgusted&rdquo; while watching a replay of himself swinging a stick at the head of Chicago Blackhawk Neil Wilkinson.The Feb. 9 incident that resulted in a 15-game suspension and $500 fine.The suspension, announced Feb. 16 by Brian Burke, will cost Granato more than $200,000 in salary. He won&rsquo;t be eligible to play until March 15.&ldquo;I was embarrassed and disgusted,&rdquo; Granato said of the incident. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think I could be responsible for something like that. I felt sick to my stomach.&rdquo;Granato said he sustained a concussion when Wilkinson knocked him down with a clean, but hard check moments before Granato used a two-handed chop to Wilkinson&rsquo;s helmet.Wilkinson went down in a heap, but was not seriously hurt on the play.<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 14: Brian McReynolds, C, Keith Redmond, LW, and Dave Thomlinson, RW, recalled from Phoenix (IHL). Feb. 15: Shawn McEachern, C, and Tomas Sandstrom, RW, traded to Pittsburgh for Marty McSorley, D, and Jim Paek, D, Feb. 16: Tony Granato. RW, suspended 15 games by NHL for Feb. 9 high-sticking incident. Feb. 18: Brent Thompson, D, assigned to Phoenix. Feb. 21: McSorley suspended indefinitely by NHL.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Wayne Gretzky, Robert Lang, Pat Conacher, Brian McReynolds.LW&ndash;Mike Donnelly, Luc Robitaille, Warren Rychel, Keith Redmond.RW&ndash;Jan Kurri, Dixon Ward, John Druce, Phil Crowe.LD&ndash;Alex Zhitnik, Darryl Sydor, Jim Paek, Tim Watters,RD&ndash;Rob Blake, Charlie Huddy, Doug Houda.G&ndash;Kelly Hrudey, Robb Stauber.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Gary Shuchuk, C, tom left knee ligament, day-today. Dave Taylor, RW, concussion, indefinite. Dave Thomlinson, RW, broken left hand, out for season. &#9632;

McSorley makes presence felt with good, bad

<div class="byline">By George Johnson</div>Gary Suter is straining at the bit. Dave King is pulling the reins.&ldquo;Maybe to increase my ice time, I&rsquo;ll jump over the boards on any line change and say &lsquo;Oops, I thought you tapped me,&rsquo;&rdquo; Sutter joked.That&rsquo;s acceptable. The Calgary Flames&rsquo; defenseman has 44 games of non-activity pent up inside of him. Coach King figures Suter is too valuable a commodity to rush.&ldquo;After the last red flag,&rdquo; King said, &ldquo;we&rsquo;re not going to push it.&rdquo;The red flag King referred to was waved Jan. 24 at Phoenix when Suter made his first appearance since injuring a knee Nov. 4 in Boston. He lasted about seven minutes before straining a muscle above the injured knee in a collision with Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; defenseman Charlie Huddy.Suter played a cautious 12 minutes against the Dallas Stars and Winnipeg Jets Feb. 18 and 20. He&rsquo;s accustomed to double that workload.&ldquo;The knee feels good,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I thought being out 44 games there would be a much bigger adjustment getting back into game situations.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t thought about the knee at all. It hasn&rsquo;t been a concern. In the back of my mind, I&rsquo;ll probably question its strength until I get through one real good hit.&rdquo;King doesn&rsquo;t want to make the same mistake twice.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll use seven defensemen and take this gradually,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not going to jump in and play every shift. He should be back at full throttle in a couple weeks.&rdquo;Suter&rsquo;s return to the power play will help the Flames nail down first place in the Pacific Division. Calgary held an 11-point cushion on the Vancouver Canucks with 23 games remaining.SIT ON IT: The relationship between Dave King and right winger Theo Fleury is straining as the season passes.King has benched Fleury on two recent occasions, even when it appeared the team could have used his offensive prowess.&ldquo;There are some things as important to a team as points,&rdquo; King said. &ldquo;Work ethic. Commitment. There are things as a coach you know will hurt your tearfl in the short term, but some problems must be addressed.&ldquo;We need a commitment from Theo every night.&rdquo;Fleury scored twice in his second game back, a 5-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets Feb. 20.NOTEBOOK: Al Maclnnis recorded his 800th career point Feb. 12 against the Jets&hellip;Goalie Andrei Trefilov had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee Feb. 7 and is expected to return the second week of March.<h2>CALGARY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 16: Kevin Dahl, D, assigned to Saint John (AHL). Feb. 21: Dahl recalled from Saint John.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Joe Nieuwendyk. Robert Reichel. Kelly Kisio, Wes Walz. Joel Otto.LW&ndash;Gary Roberts. Paul Ranheim, Paul Kruse.RW&ndash;Theo Fleury, Ron Stem, Sandy McCarthy, Guy Larose.LD&ndash;Frank Musil, Trent Yawney, Dan Keczmer. Gary Suter.RD&ndash;AI Maclnnis, Chris Dahlquist, Lee Norwood, Michel Petit, Kevin Dahl.G&ndash;Mike Vernon, Trevor Kidd.<h3>INJURIES</h3>German Titov, LW, sprained hand, day-to-day. Andrei Trefilov, G, right knee surgery. March 7. Mike Sullivan, LW, pulled groin, indefinite. &#9632;

Suter pushing for more play, but King waves caution flag

<div class="byline">By Robyn Norwood</div>In a season of firsts, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim have the distinction of being last in at least one category: They were the last team in the NHL to make a trade this season.Goalie Ron Tugnutt was sent to the Montreal Canadiens Feb. 20 for center Stephan Lebeau. Lebeau had 80 points last season, but has been slowed by an ankle injury this season and had nine goals and 16 points in 34 games.General manager Jack Ferreira acquired much-needed scoring and power-play help for a goalie who recently had gone from sharing the job with Guy Hebert to a backup.Goaltending was the Ducks&rsquo; deepest asset and once Ferreira became convinced Hebert and Mikhail Shtal-enkov could carry the load, he sent Tugnutt to Montreal John Tanner was then acquired from the Quebec Nordiques organization to replace Shtalenkov in San Diego of the Inter-national League.&ldquo;Right from the start, the first day after the draft, we knew we had three guys,&rdquo; Ferreira said. &ldquo;It was a question of sorting out who was No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3. It was only in the last month that Guy has taken over.&rdquo;In 27-year-old Lebeau, the Ducks get a player who has averaged almost a point per game over his career.&ldquo;Stephan Lebeau is a very gifted player, he has great hands and on special teams he&rsquo;s phenomenal,&rdquo; said Todd Ewen, who played alongside Lebeau in Montreal. &ldquo;I think he&rsquo;ll really improve our power play and he has got a good work ethic.&rdquo;LOACH RECALLED: After spending all season in the minors, former Los Angeles King Lonnie Loach was recalled from the San Diego Gulls of the International League Feb. 14.Loach scored 10 goals in 50 games with the Kings last season and was taken by the Ducks late in the expansion draft. He was expected to provide scoring punch.Instead, he failed to make the team in training camp and was sent down.Burned by his own words in the past, Loach decided to let his on-ice play to the talking. He was the fourth-leading goal-scorer in the IHL with 32 goals and led the Gulls with 68 points.NOTEBOOK: The Walt Disney Co., and the Mighty Ducks have committed $500,000 to launch a pilot youth hockey program for underprivileged children in two high-crime areas of Anaheim. The program, a pet project of Disney chairman Michael Eisner, is modeled after a New York&rsquo;s Hockey in Harlem.Fourteen Duck players have already set career-highs for points in a season-Bob Corkum. Garry Valk, Bill Houlder. Tim Sweeney, Peter Douris. Shaun Van Allen, Joe Sacco, Sean Hill. Bobby Dollas. Patrik Carnback, Don McSween. Stu Grimson, Mark Ferner and Jarrod Skalde.<h2>ANAHEIM</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 14: Lonnie Loach. LW, recalled from San Diego (IHL). Feb. 16: Robin Bawa, RW, assigned to San Diego. Feb. 20: Ron Tugnutt. G, traded to Montreal for Stephan Lebeau, C, Mikhail Shtalenkov. G. recalled from San Diego Feb. 21: John Tanner. G. acquired from Quebec for a fourth-round pick in 1995 entry draft. Tanner assigned to San Diego.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Bob Corkum. Stephan Lebeau. Anatoli Semenov. Shaun Van Allen, Lonnie Loach, Patrik Carnback.LW&ndash;Tim Sweeney. Garry Valk. Troy Loney. Stu Grimson.RW&ndash;Terry Yake, Joe Sacco. Peter Douris. Todd Ewen.LD&ndash;Randy Ladouceur, Bobby Dollas. Don McSween. Bill Houlder, Mark Ferner.RD&ndash;David Williams, Alexei Kasatonov, Sean Hill. David Williams.G&ndash;Guy Hebert. Mikhail Shtalenkov.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Steven King, RW, reconstructive surgery on left elbow, out for season. Jim Thomson, RW, reconstructive surgery on left shoulder, out for season. &#9632;

Tugnutt tugged away

<div class="byline">By Kevin Dupont</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011101/6250630-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="383" height="539"></div>Oh captain, my captain. It&rsquo;s that Tim Taylor look, professorial and studious, the hair silver-gray and a frozen facial expression that ranges between sincere and severe, analytical and quizzical.As hockey coaches go, he looks a whole lot more like Mr. Chips, hockey&rsquo;s Mr. Ice Chips.&ldquo;I always thought I&rsquo;d be a teacher, a coach, from a point in my young life,&rdquo; says Taylor, now 51 years old and coaching Team USA through the Olympics at Lillehammer, Norway. &ldquo;I just thought it would be a fun existence. And what can I say? I&rsquo;ve made it my life.&rdquo;There was a time when his family thought Taylor, who grew up playing hockey on ponds in his hometown of Natick, Mass., would get serious and graduate from hockey to journalism. It was back in the early 1960s, when he was working his way through Harvard, and the Taylor family was molding the Boston Globe into one of America&rsquo;s top 10 newspapers. During summer breaks, he wrote a few stories, enjoyed the work, but wasn&rsquo;t so enticed that he seriously ever considered trading red lines for deadlines.&ldquo;My dad (the late John I. Taylor, a former Globe president) thought I had a good flair for the business,&rdquo; recalls Tim. &ldquo;It was never to the point that he gave me a sales pitch or really tried to push me into it, but he believed strongly in family-owned, family-run newspapers.&ldquo;As it played out, though, there were enough Taylors to go around.&rdquo;Only late last year, the Taylor family relinquished principal ownership of the Globe, selling the paper to the New York Times for $1.1 billion, a combination of cash and stock that made it the the costliest newspaper purchase in history.From the start, though, Taylor&rsquo;s aspirations were more rink, less ink. Captain of the 1963 Harvard team, which won the Ivy League and Eastern College Athletic Conference championships, he also played for the 1963 and 1965 U.S. national squads. The night after John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Taylor was cut from the U.S. team for the 1964 Winter Games at Innsbruck, Austria.Following a brief tour in Waterloo, Iowa, playing amateur hockey in the United States Hockey League, Taylor returned as an assistant coach at Harvard and went on to coach the Crimson freshmen for six seasons. In short order, he moved south to New Haven, Conn., and has been Yale University&rsquo;s head coach for 17 years.After the Olympics, he plans to return to his Yale job, but is open to job offers.Toward the end of his first week at Lillehammer, Taylor was looking at the prospect of a name change. In their first three games, his Yanks tied France, Slovakia and Canada. The Americans were still on track for the quarterfinals, but their coach was in peril of having his American passport read &ldquo;Tim Tielor&rdquo; for the flight home.America&rsquo;s gold-medal success at Lake Placid in 1980 permanently boosted the expectations that surround USA hockey. They were the loveable ragamuffins who beat the Big Red Machine in 1980, playfully rushing to the medal stand like a herd of Dennis the Menaces when beckoned by their captain, Mike Eruzione. They had Herb Brooks telling them they were born to be hockey players, meant to have their moment in time, place in history.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02795/6250623-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="578" height="894"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tim Taylor</figcaption></div>Fourteen years later, they have a country more interested in the exploits of Nancy Kerrigan and Tanya Harding, their figure skating countrywomen. And they have a coach whose approach is vastly different than the Brooks style of salesmanship and inspiration. Taylor is more the governing parent, pensive, with a concentrated calm.&ldquo;Like this, this is Tim,&rdquo; says his longtime friend and rival, Boston University coach Jack Parker. To mimic his friend. Parker erased a smile and adopted the Taylor look, as if wondering how to fit the Pythagorean theorem neatly between the faceoff circles. &ldquo;Sometimes, you just want to say, &lsquo;Timmy, stop being so serious&hellip;it&rsquo;s only hockey.&rsquo;&rdquo; &#9632;

f0019-01

Taylor gave up deadlines for red line

<div class="byline">By Kevin Allen</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0019-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-03524/6250661-1-eng-US/f0019-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Saku Koivu Team Finland (BRUCE BENNETT/BBS)</figcaption></div>LILLEHAMMER, Norway-Saku Koivu will soon be joining the army. He should be well prepared, since he already has experience in starting wars.In Finland&rsquo;s first-round Olympic game against Austria, Koivu was decked from behind by Ken Strong a few seconds after he netted Finland&rsquo;s fifth goal in a 6-2 romp.&ldquo;Maybe he didn&rsquo;t like me knocking the puck out of the goaltender&rsquo;s pads,&rdquo; Koivu said.Or maybe he doesn&rsquo;t like the way the 5-foot-11, 155-pound Koivu roars to the net with reckless abandon. Or maybe he doesn&rsquo;t like the way Koivu shoves back when he&rsquo;s pushed by an opponent.All the reasons why rivals hate Koivu are the same reasons why the Montreal Canadiens love him. Though his ticket to the NHL will be paid for with his creativity, quickness and flash, he&rsquo;s more than just another pretty scorer.&ldquo;He&rsquo;ll throw some checks,&rdquo; said Andre Boudrias, Montreal&rsquo;s director of player development. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s very aggressive. He wants the puck. He doesn&rsquo;t wait for it to come to him.&rdquo;While big-name prospects such as Peter Forsberg and Paul Kariya were considered disappointments in the round-robin games of the tournament, Koivu-the Canadiens&rsquo; first-round pick in 1993-demonstrated the combination of spunk and speed that has prompted some to call him the Finnish version of Doug Gilmour.Koivu had a goal and two assists as Finland went 5-0-0 to finish first in Group A through the round-robin. The 19-year-old center is tied for the scoring lead in the Finnish Elite League with 18 goals and 42 points in 37 games for first-place TPS Turku.&ldquo;I know about him,&rdquo; Koivu said of the comparisons to Gilmour. &ldquo;I think I might be like him because we both like to play both sides of the ice.&rdquo;Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; general manager Bryan Murray buys into the Gilmour comparison.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s really creative, imaginative with the puck,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;And he&rsquo;s really aggressive.&rdquo;Koivu, the smallest player at the Olympics, is actually bigger and stronger than Gilmour was at his age.Paul Henry, Team Canada&rsquo;s director of player development, projects Koivu as perhaps more offensive and less defensive than Gilmour. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s already electrifying,&rdquo; Henry said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s above the crowd.&rdquo;Koivu has also been compared to former Canadien Mats Naslund, the Swedish star who was about Koivu&rsquo;s size when he arrived in the NHL in 1982-83. Naslund was less aggressive than Koivu.&ldquo;He can take care of himself in the European way-not fighting, but by playing physical,&rdquo; Naslund said. &ldquo;He has very good skill.&rdquo;At the Olympics, Koivu has played with Ville Peltonen and Jere Lehtinen, who were also his line-mates at the World Junior Championship.&ldquo;I call them my dream line,&rdquo; said Finnish coach Curt Lindstrom. &ldquo;When they play well, it&rsquo;s like ice dancing.&rdquo;Lindstrom says Koivu can play better than he did in the first four games of the Olympics. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s impossible to touch him, when he&rsquo;s playing well,&rdquo; Lindstrom said.Regardless of when Koivu is ready for the NHL, the Canadiens will have to wait because he will begin eight months of military service after his season is finished TPS Turku.Koivu said he couldn&rsquo;t obtain his team&rsquo;s permission to attend Montreal&rsquo;s camp last fall, though he is hopeful of doing so next September. He doesn&rsquo;t plan to play in the NHL until 1995-96.In Turku, Koivu is under the tutelage of former Dynamo Moscow coach Vladimir Yuzinov. He often keeps Koivu after practice for additional instruction.&ldquo;Saku is already talented and fast and reads the plays extremely well,&rdquo; says Finnish teammate Mikko Makela. &ldquo;And Yuzinov is a great coach who has made great players better. He must have 40 guys in the NHL.&rdquo;Naslund doesn&rsquo;t believe Koivu will have difficulty adjusting to the NHL. He believes the NHL has become a hybrid of European skating and North American physical playing styles.Meanwhile, the European leagues are becoming more like the NHL as players prepare to make the jump.&ldquo;Players like Koivu have been playing against North American players since they were 15,&rdquo; Naslund says. &ldquo;It won&rsquo;t be tough for him to (adapt).&rdquo; &#9632;

f0019-03

The next ‘Killer’?

<div class="byline">By Herb Zurkowsky</div>More than three years and four players later, the Montreal Canadiens still haven&rsquo;t solved their backup goaltender dilemma.So will Ron Tugnutt be the answer? The Canadiens hope so, since acquiring him cost them one of their promising young centers.The Canadiens acquired Tugnutt from the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim Feb. 20 for 26-year-old center Stephan Lebeau.&ldquo;Tugnutt is one guy we know very well,&rdquo; said general manager Serge Savard of the former Quebec Nordique. &ldquo;He can help. At the same time, Lebeau had become the third or fourth center. That isn&rsquo;t fair to him. He can&rsquo;t be a good player under those circumstances. He has to play on the first or second line and play on the power play.&rdquo;The Canadiens have been seeking a competent backup to Patrick Roy since November, 1990, when Brian Hayward was traded to the Minnesota North Stars for defenseman Jayson More.Hayward had been the perfect sidekick to Roy, but eventually grew disenchanted of playing a supporting role. He walked out on the team and demanded a trade.The Canadiens have auditioned numerous others for the role since then, including Jean-Claude Bergeron, Frederic Chabot and Andre Racicot, but none proved suitable.Even last season, while winning 17 games, Racicot was constantly questioned. He got off to a poor start this season and was eventually demoted Jan. 31 to Montreal&rsquo;s American League affiliate in Fredericton.His replacement, Les Kuntar, a second-year pro, appeared to be the answer initially, winning his first two starts over the Calgary Flames and Ottawa Senators.But he then lost to the Buffalo Sabres and Tampa Bay Lightning. Kuntar allowed three first-period goals to Tampa Bay and shortly after that, Savard began his search for a backup in earnest.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re confident Kuntar can be an NHL goalie,&rdquo; Savard said, &ldquo;but at this time I feel safer with Tugnutt. The staff was losing faith and was afraid to put (Kuntar) back. To put Les back in net, I think the coach was nervous.&rdquo;Kuntar was demoted to Fredericton the day Tugnutt arrived. The Canadiens are Tugnutt&rsquo;s fourth NHL team after backup roles with Quebec, the Edmonton Oilers and Anaheim.He split time with Guy Hebert in Anaheim this season and had a 10-151 record in 28 games with a 3.00 goals-against average.Tugnutt will earn $525,000 (U.S.) this season and will enter his option year in 1994-95.NOTEBOOK: When the Canadiens played Tampa Bay Feb. 17, it marked the first time in months the team was healthy. Left winger Benoit Brunet returned to the lineup against the Lightning after missing six games with a slight concussion. Through their first 60 games, the Canadiens had lost 176 man-games to injuries. Last season, the total was 206.<h2>MONTREAL</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 20: Stephan Lebeau. C, traded to Anaheim for Ron Tugnutt, G. Les Kuntar, G, assigned to Fredericton (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Kirk Muller, Paul DiPietro. Guy Car-bonneau. Ron Wilson.LW&ndash;John LeClair, Vincent Damp-housse, Benoit Brunet, Pierre Sevigny. Mario Roberge.RW&ndash;Mike Keane. Brian Bellows. Ed Ronan. Gilbert Dionne, Oleg Petrov.LD&ndash;Kevin Haller, Mathieu Schneider. Jean-Jacques Daignsault, Peter Popovic.RD&ndash;Eric Desjardins. Lyle Odelein. Patrice Brisebois.G&ndash;Patrick Roy. Ron Tugnutt.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

Team hoping Tugnutt can solve backup crisis

<div class="byline">By Jeff Jacobs</div>Hartford Whalers&rsquo; coach Pierre McGuire says Randy Cunneyworth lives close to the edge.The Whalers&rsquo; left winger isn&rsquo;t wild or crazy. He doesn&rsquo;t fight every two minutes. And he doesn&rsquo;t drive 100 mph to the rink.No, Cunneyworth lives close to the edge because he&rsquo;s constantly on the verge of falling out of the lineup. He has been there for an incredible four seasons. But this season, Cunneyworth is being used more than at any time since 1989-90.The Whalers offered Cunneyworth a termination contract last summer worth $300,000. He looked around the NHL, but came to the realization this was his best offer.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m realistic about it,&rdquo; Cunneyworth said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m realistic in acknowledging I don&rsquo;t know what I&rsquo;ll do if it&rsquo;s my last year. I have a lot of interests and ideas. But it&rsquo;s a real world out there.&rdquo;It looks like the real world is going to have to wait. The Whalers are working on signing Cunneyworth, 32, to a deal before he becomes a free agent this summer.Not bad for a guy who played an average of 37 games the previous three seasons.&ldquo;Last year we were given a mandate to play the younger players,&rdquo; McGuire said. &ldquo;The older guys didn&rsquo;t have as much of an opportunity.&rdquo;The mandate is different this year. After the Whalers&rsquo; biggest victory of the season, a 4-2 win over the New York Rangers before a sellout crowd of 15,635 Feb. 19, the Whalers still sat 12 points out of the last playoff berth. But McGuire refuses to throw in the towel. This means more ice time for the veterans.&ldquo;Offensively, I haven&rsquo;t put the numbers up,&rdquo; said Cunneyworth, who had nine goals and 16 points in 55 games. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;m in a different role. They&rsquo;re looking for defensive play, with some banging.&rdquo;Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; Steve Rice found out how tough Cunneyworth is in a Feb. 12 fight. Rice ended up breaking a knuckle on Cunneyworth&rsquo;s skull, while the Whaler was unharmed.NOT IMPRESSED: Goalie Sean Burke wasn&rsquo;t impressed with U.S. Olympic speedskater Dan Jansen&rsquo;.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think he displayed a professional attitude at all,&rdquo; said Burke after the Olympian stumbled in a race. &ldquo;(He) said: &lsquo;Everybody knows I&rsquo;m the best.&rsquo; Well, you&rsquo;re not the best. You didn&rsquo;t win. You didn&rsquo;t come through with the gold meal on the line. I thought he could have shown a lot more dignity.&rdquo;Jansen won the gold medal in the 1,000 meters a couple days after Burke&rsquo;s remarks.NOTEBOOK: The sellout in the game against the Rangers was the Whalers&rsquo; second of the season&hellip;Defenseman Bryan March-ment sprained his left ankle against the Rangers. He is expected to be out of action until mid-March.American Ted Crowley will join the Whalers after the Olympics.<h2>HARTFORD</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Andrew Cassels, Michael Nylander, Mark Janssens, Todd Harkins.LW&ndash;Jim Storm, Geoff Sanderson, Brian Propp, Marc Potvin.RW&ndash;Robert Kron Pat Verbeek. Randy Cunneyworth, Igor Chibirev.LD&ndash;James Patrick. Adam Burt, Alexander GodynyukRD&ndash;Chris Pronger. Zarley Zalapski, Brad McCrimmon.G&ndash;Sean Burke. Jeff Reese.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Mario Gosselin, G, knee surgery, out for season Bryan Marchment, D, sprained ankle, indefinite. Jim Sandlak, RW, bruised foot. indefinite. Kevin Smyth, RW, bruised spleen, indefinite. Darren Turcotte, C, knee surgery, indefinite. &#9632;

Cunneyworth team’s comeback player of year

<div class="byline">By Mike Loftus</div>Joe Juneau is mad as hell. He&rsquo;s sick of taking it and worse, sees no end to it.Juneau, whose jaw was fractured by a legal Chris LiPuma check in a game against the Tampa Bay Lightning Nov. 6, reinjured his jaw on what he thought was an illegal check by Dallas Stars&rsquo; defenseman Mark Tinordi. The hit came late in a 3-0 Bruins&rsquo; victory at Reunion Arena Feb. 16.The second-year forward left for Boston the next day, missing games at St. Louis and Tampa Bay. He was expected back, with headgear, against the New York Rangers Feb. 23.&ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t sleep and not just because of the pain,&rdquo; Juneau said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the fact they let people run at people and hit them in the head and there are no penalties.&rdquo;Juneau feels he takes shots to the head because opponents know he has problems with his jaw. He was especially angry after the Tinordi incident, because earlier in the game teammate Glen Wesley had been tagged head-high by Craig Ludwig.On that play, Wesley was dazed after having his head driven into the glass by Ludwig&rsquo;s elbow. Referee Ron Hoggarth didn&rsquo;t call a penalty. Wesley recovered and played the rest of the game.&ldquo;They already had that one they didn&rsquo;t call anything on,&rdquo; Juneau said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s two hits on people&rsquo;s heads they totally closed their eyes on.&ldquo;They suspend people slashing, but there weren&rsquo;t even penalties on plays like that. If there were suspensions for those plays, it would keep people from doing those things.&rdquo;Juneau hoped the Bruins would send a tape of the incident to the league for review.Assistant general manager Mike Milbury expressed sympathy for Juneau&rsquo;s plight, but recommended Juneau find a way to better care for himself on the ice.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s having a recurring problem,&rdquo; Milbury said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to get that straightened out.&rdquo;But did Tinordi go after Juneau&rsquo;s glass jaw?&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t buy it,&rdquo; Milbury said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d be willing to say half the league doesn&rsquo;t know he had a broken jaw. Joey skates low to the ice and uses a short stick. He&rsquo;s going to get hit.&rdquo;SOLID CASE: Goalie Jon Casey extended his best streak of the year by shutting out his former teammates from Dallas 3-0 Feb. 16.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d never experienced it,&rdquo; Casey said, &ldquo;but I understand why when you play against a team that traded you, you want to prove something.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01870/6250740-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="585" height="858"><figcaption class="caption-body">Joe Juneau believes some opponents are going for his jaw.</figcaption></div>Casey&rsquo;s shutout was his third in a 7-0-2 unbeaten streak, during which his goals-against average was 1.42. He hadn&rsquo;t allowed more than three goals during the streak.&ldquo;I might have had longer streaks without a loss,&rdquo; said Casey, who had a 7-0-3 stretch with Minnesota in 1990-91, &ldquo;but never one where things went so well.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Bruins sustained a rash of injuries during a seven-game road swing. Glen Featherstone missed the first three games with a knee problem (he returned Feb. 20 at Tampa), and Steve Heinze banged up a knee Feb. 18 at St. Louis. Brent Hughes (sore knee and shoulder) and Glen Murray (sore ankle) played through injuries.Cam Neely&rsquo;s fragile knee passed a grueling test-four games in seven days-with flying colors. Neely had six goals and two assists.<h2>BOSTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 13: Cam Stewart, LW, assigned to Providence (AHL). Dmitri Kvartalnov. LW, recalled from Providence. Feb. 17: Grigori Panteleev, LW, recalled from Providence. Feb. 19: Sergei Zholtok, C, recalled from Providence.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Adam Oates, Bryan Smolinski, Sergei Zholtok. Andrew McKim.LW&ndash;Ted Donato, Brent Hughes, Dave Reid, Grigori Panteleev,RW&ndash;Cam Neely. Jozef Stumpel, Glen Murray. Dmitri Kvartalnov, Jamie Huscroft.LD&ndash;Don Sweeney, Glen Wesley, Gord Roberts.RD&ndash;Raymond Bourque, Paul Stanton. Glen Featherstone.G&ndash;Jon Casey, Vincent Riendeau.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Steve Heinze, LW, hyperextended knee, day-to-day. Joe Juneau, LW, re-fractured jaw, day-to-day. Steve Leach, RW, sprained knee, indefinite. Daniel Marois, RW, shoulder surgery, indefinite. David Shaw, D, tom knee ligament, indefinite. &#9632;

f0022-01

Juneau peeved at headhunters

<div class="byline">By Chris Stevenson</div>A long and difficult season for Ottawa Senators&rsquo; coach Rick Bowness hit rock bottom when his father, Bob, lost his battle with cancer.Bowness attended the funeral in Halifax Feb. 18. Assistant coach E.J. McGuire was bench the bench for games against the New York Rangers and New York Islanders.&ldquo;I told (Rick) to take as much time as he needs,&rdquo; said general manger Randy Sexton.Bob Bowness, 65, had been fighting skin cancer for a year before his death Feb. 16.The native of Montreal was a hockey legend in the Maritimes, arriving in 1949-50 to play for the Sydney Millionaires, a senior club.He won the scoring title the next year, scoring six points in the final game of the season to edge out his competition by a point.Bob Bowness was know for his kindness and competitiveness, two traits he passed on to Rick. The last game Bob attended was Oct. 25 at the Civic Centre, a 4-1 win over the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very special,&rdquo; said Bowness after that game which saw him stride off the ice, waving up to his dad in the stands.Bob Bowness is survived by his wife Thelma, sons Rick and Laurie and daughters Shirley and Laureen and seven grandchildren.McGuire&rsquo;s first chance at NHL head coaching was against Mike Keenan for whom McGuire had worked for seven years as an assistant in Philadelphia and Chicago.&ldquo;You have to put things in perspective,&rdquo; McGuire said. &ldquo;I feel for (Bowness&rsquo;) situation.&rdquo;The Senators were shut out in the two games, 3-0 by the Rangers and 4-0 by the Islanders.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m solely responsible for the offense and we got no goals in six periods,&rdquo; McGuire said. &ldquo;Of course, we&rsquo;re downtrodden&hellip;downtrodden because we haven&rsquo;t had success shooting.&rdquo;ROSIE&rsquo;S GONE: The Senators closed the book on the failed Vladimir Ruzicka experiment Feb. 17 as the big forward cleared waivers and left for a club team in Switzerland.The free-agent signee scored just five goals and was bitter after feuding with Bowness.Bowness was one of the big reasons he came to Ottawa. Rosie scored 39 goals playing for the Bruins two years ago with Bowness as coach.&ldquo;I just want to play,&rdquo; said Ruzicka after clearing out his locker. &ldquo;It has been frustrating for me to come here, work hard in practice and then get five minutes a game.&ldquo;(Bowness) is different. He&rsquo;s not the same as he was in Boston. I don&rsquo;t know why he has made the change. I&rsquo;m happy (to be outta here).&rdquo;&ldquo;It didn&rsquo;t work out,&rdquo; Bowness said. &ldquo;There would have been a difference in his confidence if he had gotten on a roll early. He just didn&rsquo;t put anything on the board. He had lots of ice time early, but lately, he hasn&rsquo;t deserved it.&rdquo;Eissportverein Zug will pay a fee to the Senators for Ruzicka&rsquo;s services which will just about offset the rest of his $425,000 salary.NOTEBOOK: Evgeny Davydov, a gold-medal winner with the CIS team at the 1992 Olympics, cheered Russian figure skaters Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov in the pairs event. Davydov used to practice at the same Red Army rink as the gold medalists. The 26-year-old winger hopes his days of representing his country are not over. He hopes to play in this year&rsquo;s world championships. &ldquo;But maybe the coach will say, &lsquo;Gene, you no score, you no go.&rsquo;&rdquo; Davydov has four goals in 37 games with the Florida Panthers and Senators.<h2>OTTAWA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 17: Vladimir Ruzicka. LW, cleared waivers and signed by Zug of Swiss elite league.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Alexandre Daigle, Alexei Yashin. Mark LambLW&ndash;Sylvain Turgeon. Dave McLIwain, Troy Maltese, Brad Lauer, Bill Huard.RW&ndash;Andrew McBain. Evgeny Davydov, Scott Levins. Herb Raglan.LD&ndash;Dennis Vial, Kerry Huffman, Norm Maciver.RD&ndash;Brad Shaw. Gord Dineen, Darren Rumble.G&ndash;Craig Billington. Damn Madeley.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dave Archibald, RW, strained groin, March 13. &#9632;

Tough year for coach Bowness

<div class="byline">By Kevin Johnston</div>Searching for any way to get his team back on track, Pierre Page added another assistant coach to the Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; organization.Ex-NHLer Lucien DeBlois will be lending a helping hand to Andre Savard, Don Jackson, Clement Jodoin and Daniel Bouchard, not to mention coach-general manager Page.&ldquo;Lucien knows our players well,&rdquo; Page said. &ldquo;He has played with the Nordiques, won a Stanley Cup (1986) and his experience will be profitable to our young players. He a guy with loads of character, a real leader.&rdquo;DeBlois, 36, came to Quebec in the summer of 1989 and played 84 games in two seasons before going to the Toronto Maple Leafs. He returned to Quebec last summer as a scout.The Nordiques may be struggling, but they lead the league in the coaching category.&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t tell me we have too many coaches,&rdquo; Page said. &ldquo;Football teams have 13 coaches. You try and get the best out of your players.&rdquo;Page said he noticed his assistants were getting more emotional and letting little things bother them. So in stepped DeBlois, who stays on an even keel. For the time being, his major task is to instill some life in the struggling team.DeBlois is excited by the new challenge.&ldquo;I know it&rsquo;s not easy for the other coaches to see me jumping in here at this stage of the season,&rdquo; DeBlois said. &ldquo;But I know them all well and I know we&rsquo;ll get along fine.&ldquo;This is my first experience coaching. I know I can help. When I was named scout at the beginning of the season, I thought about an assistant coach&rsquo;s job. It&rsquo;s fun to be getting back so close to the game.&rdquo;TANNER TRADED: Controversial goalie John Tanner finally got his wish and was traded to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.Tanner, 22, was disgruntled about a lack of opportunity to prove himself within the organization. He was also prone to verbal outbursts.Pegged for the backup role in training camp. Tanner reported out of shape and was assigned to the Cornwall Aces of the American League and has played there all season. Jocelyn Thibault, Stephane Fiset and Jacques Cloutier are in Quebec and U.S. Olympian Garth Snow is on his way after the Games.The Nordiques receive a fourth-round draft pick in 1995 for Tanner.NOTEBOOK: Mike Ricci had the night of his life against the San Jose Sharks Feb. 17 when he scored five goals in an 8-2 win. He had never scored more than two goals in a game before in the NHL. &ldquo;I remember scoring as many at the Quebec peewee tournament a few years back,&rdquo; Ricci said. Ironically, three days before Ricci&rsquo;s big night, Pierre Page declared the 22-year-old center an untouchable on the trade front. Centers Joe Sakic and Mats Sundin also are not available. &ldquo;We won&rsquo;t touch the core of our team,&rdquo; Page said. &ldquo;At least not as long as I&rsquo;m here.&rdquo;Newcomer Tommy Sjodin was doing a decent job at the point on the power play. The 28-year-old defenseman had one assist in three games with Quebec after his acquisition from the Dallas Stars Feb. 13.<h2>QUEBEC</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Joe Sakic. Mats Sundin, Mike Ricci, Ron Sutter.LW&ndash;lain Fraser, Valeri Kamensky, Chris Simon, Martin Rucinsky, Tony Twist.RW&ndash;Bob Bassen. Scott Young. Paul MacDermid.LD&ndash;Steven Finn, Curtis Leschyshyn, Alexei Gusarov, Mike McKee.RD&ndash;Craig Wolanin, Garth Butcher, Tommy Sjodin.G&ndash;Stephane Fiset, Jocelyn Thibault, Jacques Cloutier.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Adam Foote, D, pulled groin, indefinite. David Karpa, D, broken right wrist, indefinite. Andrei Kovalenko, RW, sore right shoulder, indefinite. Claude Lapointe, C, back sprain, indefinite. Chris Lindberg, LW, pulled hip muscle, indefinite. Owen Nofan, RW, Ieft shoulder surgery, indefinite. Reginald Savage, RW, broken left wrist, out for season. &#9632;

Assistant coach No. 5 expected to inject life

<div class="byline">By Dave Molinari</div>To hear Shawn McEachern and Tomas Sandstrom tell it, neither had much of a present-nor a future-in Los Angeles.Both, however, quickly moved into prominent and important roles in Pittsburgh after being acquired from the Kings for Marty McSorley and Jim Paek Feb. 17.McEachern and Sandstrom drew frequent penalty-killing duty to go along with regular shifts. In their first game, a 6-4 victory against the Hartford Whalers Feb. 17, both forwards had two points and were plus-3.Observers were surprised when the Penguins sent McSorley back to Los Angeles less than six months after obtaining him, but general manager Craig Patrick insisted his team needed forwards.&ldquo;With the injuries we&rsquo;ve had up front&hellip;we were using some of our front-line players more than we should have,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think that cost us in the past. This gives us some depth.&rdquo;&ldquo;This is going to establish us with three pretty good lines,&rdquo; said coach Ed Johnston. But losing McSorley and Paek opened a couple of holes.Pittsburgh had relied on McSorley for toughness and realized finding another enforcer was a priority. The Penguins also surrendered their surplus of defensemen, so the consensus was they figured to add at least one body on the blueline before the March 19 trading deadline.The Penguins are impressed by Sandstrom&rsquo;s history of strong play in the playoffs and he also offers a reputation for nastiness.&ldquo;If you guys think I&rsquo;m bad,&rdquo; said defenseman Ulf Samuelsson, Sandstrom&rsquo;s childhood friend, &ldquo;wait &lsquo;til you see this kid.&rdquo;But Kings&rsquo; management apparently decided it had seen enough of Sandstrom. That he is playing out his option obviously did nothing to enhance his standing in southern California.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re always looking for someone to blame,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what happened.&rdquo;McEachern fell out of disfavor, too, and had been a healthy scratch several times in LA. &ldquo;I feel like I didn&rsquo;t get a real chance,&rdquo; he said.MARIO&rsquo;S BACK: Mario Lemieux returned to the lineup in Montreal Feb. 19. He received his second cortisone shot in eight days Feb. 15 and sat out games that night and Feb. 17 before coming back.Lemieux said when he received one injection of cortisone, an anti-inflammatory agent, several years ago, it kept his back from bothering him for several months. This time, the effect of one shot wore off after a week, which some took as an ominous sign for his future.NOTEBOOK: The Penguins lost checking-line center Mike Stapleton to Edmonton on waivers Feb. 19. That reduced their glut of forwards, but cost Pittsburgh a capable defensive forward&hellip;Peter Taglianetti was scheduled to serve a one-game suspension when the Penguins visited Madison Square Garden Feb. 21. He picked up his second stick-related major of the season Feb. 19 when he high-sticked Gilbert Dionne of the Montreal Canadiens.<h2>PITTSBURGH</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 15: Marty McSorley. D, and Jim Paek. D, traded to Los Angeles tor Tomas Sandstrom, RW, and Shawn McEachern, C, Feb. 16: Greg Brown. D, recalled from San Diego (IHL). Feb. 17: Mike Needham, RW, and Ed Patterson. D, assigned to Cleveland (IHL). Feb. 19: Mike Stapleton, C, claimed on waivers by Edmonton.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Mario Lemieux. Ron Francis. Martin Straka, Shawn McEachern.LW&ndash;Kevin Stevens, Doug Brown, Markus Naslund, Jeff Daniels.RW&ndash;Jaromir Jagr. Rick Tocchet, Joe Mullen. Tomas SandstromLD&ndash;Ulf Samuelsson, Mike Ramsey, Grant Jennings.RD&ndash;Larry Murphy, Kjell Samuelsson. Peter Taglianetti, Greg Brown.G&ndash;Tom Barrasso, Ken Wregget.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Bryan Trottier, C, back spasms, day-to-day. &#9632;

Sandstrom, McEachern boost powerful attack

<div class="byline">By Jim Kelley</div>The Buffalo Sabres will be without their top goalscorer down the stretch.Right winger Alexander Mogilny, bothered by right ankle problems dating back to last spring&rsquo;s playoffs, is sidelined indefinitely with inflamed tendons.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re afraid of further injury,&rdquo; said coach-general manager John Muckier. &ldquo;The tendons are inflamed and he doesn&rsquo;t have full flexibility in the ankle and if you don&rsquo;t have full flexibility, there&rsquo;s the possibility he could tear something.&rdquo;Mogilny&rsquo;s ankle problems date to last season, when he fractured his right fibula and damaged ligaments in a second-round playoff series with the Montreal Canadiens.After a controversial rehabilitation period when Mogilny reportedly missed several rehab sessions, it was determined he was not ready to start training camp or the season.He missed the first nine games, then sat out four games in February after jamming the ankle into the boards in the closing seconds of a game Feb. 2 at New Jersey.Mogilny has played 44 games this season. He had 24 goals and 55 points.The Sabres have played well despite the fact some of their big stars have gone down with injury. Center Pat LaFontaine is out for the season with a knee injury, while Mogilny, Craig Simpson and Grant Fuhr have missed time.Muckier did not attempt to minimize Mogilny&rsquo;s loss.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a big blow to this team,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to have to overachieve.&rdquo;STILL GOING: Center Dale Hawerchuk has bounced back this season after scoring just 16 goals a year ago.Hawerchuk scored his 25th and 26th goals of the season in a 3-3 tie with the Washington Capitals Feb. 20. His 26 goals were his second-best total ever with the Sabres. He scored 31 in 1990-91, his first season with Buffalo since coming over from the Winnipeg Jets.&ldquo;The big thing is playing on the power play up front (rather than the point),&rdquo; Hawerchuk said. &ldquo;But I think last year and the playoffs had some-thing to do with it, too. I had a good playoff and it was a turning point in my career.&rdquo;Hawerchuk praised John Muckier for helping him turn his game around.&ldquo;He helped,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;He got me going in a different direction again. I&rsquo;m not saying other coaches held me back, but he has given me a different role. He got me thinking of the things I used to do (with the Winnipeg Jets) and I feel like I have more to offer.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Dominik Hasek was continuing his quest to become the first goalie since Bernie Parent to finish with a goals-against average below 2.00. Hasek was in the net for the 4-1 win against the Panthers and lowered his GAA to 1.97. Hasek had played in 34 of the Sabres&rsquo; past 39 games through Feb. 21 and had given up only 62 goals. He had a 19-11-4 record in those games.<h2>BUFFALO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 15: Jason Dawe, RW, recalled from Rochester (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Dale Hawerchuk, Derek Plante, Bob Sweeney, Dave Hannan.LW&ndash;Yuri Khmylev, Randy Wood, Brad May, Matthew Barnaby.RW&ndash;Jason Dawe, Donald Audette, Wayne Presley, Rob Ray.LD&ndash;Doug Booger, Petr Svoboda, Ken Sutton.RD&ndash;Ken Sutton, Craig Muni, Richard Smehlik, Denis Tsygurov.G&ndash;Dominik Hasek, Grant Fuhr.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Pat LaFontaine, C, torn anterior cruciate ligament in right knee, out for season. Alexander Mogilny, RW, inflamed tendons in night ankle, indefinite. Craig Simpson, LW, sore back, day-to-day. &#9632;

Ankle problems sidelined Mogilny once again

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01823/6250888-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Sergei Zubov surged past Paul Coffey, Garry Galley and Brian Leetch to sit third in defensemen scoring.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01773/6250881-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="3124" height="3678"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01805/6250874-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="3114" height="3683"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01701/6250867-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="3117" height="1407"></div> &#9632;

f0026-01

LOUISVILLE HOCKEY CONGRATULATES DALE HAWERCHUK FOR HIS SOOTH CAREER ASSIST.

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0029-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02457/6250919-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg"></div><h2>KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS</h2>Statistics provided by National Hockey League; Rk&ndash;overall rank; No.&ndash;uniform number; GP&ndash;games played; Min-minutes played; GAA&ndash;goals-against average; W&ndash;wins; L&ndash;losses; T&ndash;ties; ENG&ndash;empty-net goals; SO&ndash;shutouts; GA-goals against; SA&ndash;shots against; SV%&ndash;save percentage. Players indicated by an asterisk (*) are eligible for the Calder Trophy. Overall rank is based on goals-against average with ties broken using the following criteria: minutes played, save percentage and wins (minimum 1020 minutes played). &#9632;

f0029-02

NHL GOALTENDING STATISTICS

<h2>NOTE</h2>Unofficial game summaries provided by National Hockey League; (shots on goal/plus-minus); SA-shots against; GA-goals against; ENG-empty net goals; Dec-decision, charged to goaltenders of record when deciding goal is scored.<h2>MONDAY, FEB. 14</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01800/6251090-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="611" height="3093"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02538/6251083-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="591" height="671"></div><h2>TUESDAY, FEB. 15</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03367/6251076-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="612" height="2753"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-04257/6251069-1-eng-US/f0030-042.jpg" title="f0030-04" width="629" height="3514"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-05184/6251062-1-eng-US/f0030-052.jpg" title="f0030-05" width="595" height="1029"></div><h2>WEDNESDAY, FEB. 16</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-06147/6251055-1-eng-US/f0030-062.jpg" title="f0030-06" width="615" height="2402"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-07123/6251048-1-eng-US/f0030-072.jpg" title="f0030-07" width="606" height="2583"></div><h2>THURSDAY, FEB. 17</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-08113/6251041-1-eng-US/f0030-082.jpg" title="f0030-08" width="593" height="847"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01739/6251034-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="617" height="3500"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02484/6251027-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="601" height="2147"></div><h2>FRIDAY, FEB. 18</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-03348/6251020-1-eng-US/f0031-032.jpg" title="f0031-03" width="593" height="1264"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-04262/6251013-1-eng-US/f0031-042.jpg" title="f0031-04" width="613" height="3496"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-05212/6251006-1-eng-US/f0031-052.jpg" title="f0031-05" width="618" height="3511"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-06175/6250999-1-eng-US/f0031-062.jpg" title="f0031-06" width="606" height="2942"></div><h2>SATURDAY, FEB. 19</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-07151/6250992-1-eng-US/f0031-072.jpg" title="f0031-07" width="585" height="472"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01787/6250985-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="627" height="3517"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02541/6250978-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="622" height="3274"></div><h2>SUNDAY, FEB. 20</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-03371/6250971-1-eng-US/f0032-032.jpg" title="f0032-03" width="586" height="143"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-04247/6250964-1-eng-US/f0032-042.jpg" title="f0032-04" width="629" height="3507"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-05176/6250957-1-eng-US/f0032-052.jpg" title="f0032-05" width="622" height="3513"></div><h2>NHL SCHEDULE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-06144/6250950-1-eng-US/f0032-062.jpg" title="f0032-06" width="439" height="1955"></div><h2>NHL PLAYOFFS</h2>(All series best-of-seven)<h3>Conference Quarterfinals Eastern Conference</h3>Sunday, April 17; Tuesday, April 19; Thursday, April 21; Saturday, April 23; Monday, April 25 (if necessary); Wednesday, April 27 (if necessary); Friday, April 29 (if necessary).<h3>Western Conference</h3>Monday, April 18; Wednesday, April 20; Friday, April 22; Sunday, April 24; Tuesday, April 26 (if necessary); Thursday, April 28 (if necessary); Saturday, April 30 (if necessary).<h3>Conference Semifinals Eastern Conference</h3>Sunday, May 1; Tuesday. May 3; Thursday, May 5; Saturday, May 7; Monday, May 9 (if necessary); Wednesday, May 11 (if necessary); Friday, May 13 (if necessary).<h3>Western Conference</h3>Monday, May 2; Wednesday, May 4; Friday, May 6; Sunday, May 8; Tuesday, May 10 (if necessary); Thursday, May 12 (if necessary); Saturday, May 14 (if necessary).<h3>Conference Finals Eastern Conference</h3>Sunday, May 15; Tuesday, May 17; Tuesday, May 19; Saturday, May 21; Monday, May 23 (if necessary); Wednesday, May 25 (if necessary); Friday, May 27 (if necessary).<h3>Western Conference</h3>Monday, May 16; Wednesday, May 18; Friday, May 20; Sunday, May 22; Tuesday, May 24 (if necessary); Thursday, May 26 (if necessary); Saturday, May 28 (if necessary).<h3>Stanley Cup Championship</h3>Tuesday, May 31; Thursday, June 2; Saturday, June 4; Tuesday, June 7; Thursday, June 9 (if necessary); Saturday, June 11 (if necessary); Tuesday, June 14 (if necessary).Dates for the final series are tentative, the series may begin sooner. &#9632;

f0030-01

NHL SUMMARIES

<h2>CENTRAL SCOUTING BUREAU</h2>The complete mid-term rankings of 1994 draft-eligible players by the NHL Central Scouting Bureau follows. The player&rsquo;s position, current team and league, height and weight are given.<h3>First Round</h3>1. Radek Bonk, C, Las Vegas (IHL), 6-3, 215; 2. Jeff O&rsquo;Neill, C, Guelph (OHL), 6-1, 176; 3. Ed Jovanovski, D, Windsor (OHL), 6-2, 205; 4. Jeff Friesen, LW/C, Regina (WHL), 6-0, 183; 5. Ryan Smyth, LW, Moose Jaw (WHL), 6-1, 183; 6. Deron Quint, D, Seattle (WHL), 6-1, 182; 7. Jason Bonsignore, C, Niagara Falls (OHL), 6-4, 208; 8. Ethan Moreau, LW, Niagara Falls (OHL), 6-2, 205; 9. Jason Wiemer, C, Portland (WHL), 61, 215; 10. Richard Park, C, Belleville (OHL), 6-0, 176; 11. Brett Lindros, RW, Canadian Olympic Team, 6-4, 215; 12. Brad Brown, D, North Bay (OHL), 6-4, 218; 13. Wayne Primeau, C, Owen Sound (OHL), 6-3, 193; 14. Jason Podollan, RW/C, Spokane (WHL), 6-1, 181; 15. Greg Crozier, LW, Lawrence Acad. (USHS), 6-4, 200; 16. Jason Botterill, LW, Michigan (CCHA), 6-3, 205; 17. Chris Dingman, LW, Brandon (WHL), 64, 231; 18. Wade Belak, D, Saskatoon (WHL), 65, 213; 19. Colin Cloutier, C, Brandon (WHL), 6-3, 224; 20. Rhett Warrener, D, Saskatoon (WHL), 6-1, 209; 21. Sean Gillam, D, Spokane (WHL), 6-2, 187; 22. Chris Wells, C, Seattle (WHL). 6-6, 215; 23. Adam Magarrell, D, Brandon (WHL), 6-3, 178; 24. Corey Neilson, D, North Bay (OHL), 6-5, 207; 25. Brad Symes, D, Portland (WHL), 6-2, 210; 26. Scott Cherrey, LW, North Bay (OHL), 6-1, 199.<h3>Second Round</h3>27. Vitali Yachmenev, RW, North Bay (OHL), 59, 180; 28. Sean Haggerty, LW, Detroit (OHL), 60, 186; 29. Mike Dubinsky, RW, Brandon (WHL), 6-2, 181; 30. Nolan Baumgartner, D, Kamloops (WHL), 6-1, 187; 31. Byron Briske, D, Red Deer (WHL), 6-3, 194; 32. Matthew Herr, C, Hotchkiss (USHS), 6-1, 180; 33. Lee Jinman, C, North Bay (OHL), 5-10, 155; 34. Mike Watt, LW/C, Stratford (Ont.) (Jr. B), 6-2, 210; 35. Thomas O&rsquo;Connor, D, Springfield Olympic (NAJHL), 6-2, 190; 36. Jim Ensom, C, North Bay (OHL), 6-3, 191; 37. Rob Gordon, C, Powell River (BCJHL), 5-11, 170; 38. Jon Gaskins, D, Dubuque (USJHL), 6-3, 205; 39. Chad Allan, D, Saskatoon (WHL), 6-1, 192; 40. Ryan Risidore, D, Guelph (OHL), 6-4, 192; 41. Ryan Johnson, C, Thunder Bay (USJHL), 6-2, 180; 42. Jeffrey Kealty, D, Catholic Memorial (USHS), 6-2, 170; 43. Sven Butenschon, D, Brandon (WHL), 6-5, 201; 44. Tony Tuzzolino, RW, Michigan State (CCHA), 6-2, 180; 45. Daniel Goneau, LW, Laval (QMJHL), 6-1, 196; 46. Steve Cheredaryk, D, Medicine Hat (WHL), 6-3, 197; 47. B.J. Johnston, C, Oshawa (OHL), 6-3, 177; 48. Sebastien Bety, D, Drummondville (QMJHL), 6-2, 201; 49. David Nemirovsky, RW, Ottawa (OHL), 6-2, 176; 50. Craig Mills, RW, Belleville (OHL), 6-0, 174; 51. Mathieu Dande-nault, RW, Sherbrooke (QMJHL), 6-0, 174; 52. Chris Clark, RW, Springfield Olympic (NAJHL), 6-0, 180.<h3>Third Round</h3>53. John Tuohy, D, Kent (CCHA), 6-2, 180; 54. Mike Gaffney, D, St. John&rsquo;s H.S. (USHS), 6-1, 195; 55. Curtis Brown, C/LW, Moose Jaw (WHL), 6-0, 182; 56. Jimmy Drolet, D, St-Hyacinthe (QMJHL), 6-0, 168; 57. Adam Smith, D, Tacoma (WHL), 6-0, 190; 58. Drew Plamer, D, Seattle (WHL), 6-4, 209; 59. Adam Copeland, RW, Burlington (OHA), 6-1, 185; 60. Jean-Yves Leroux, LW, Beauport (QMJHL), 5-11, 198; 61. Jon Battaglia, LW, Caledon (MTJHL), 6-2, 185; 62. Sebastien Vallee, LW, Victoriaville (QMJHL), 64, 180; 63. Darren Wright, D, Prince Albert (WHL), 6-1, 182; 64. Cal Benazic, D, Medicine Hat (WHL), 6-3, 187; 65. Sheldon Souray, D, TriCity (WHL), 6-3, 210; 66. Martin Belanger, D, Granby (QMJHL), 6-0, 206; 67. Doug Battaglia, LW, Brookville (EOHL), 6-1, 185; 68. Doug Sproule, LW, Hotchkiss (USHS), 6-2, 180; 69. Brian Secord, C, Belleville (OHL), 6-0, 170; 70. David Brosseau, C, Shawinigan (QMJHL), 6-2, 189; 71. Brian Swanson, C, Omaha (USJHL), 510, 180; 72. Ross Parsons, D, Regina (WHL), 63, 187:73. Shane Hnidy, D, Prince Albert (WHL), 6-1, 200; 74. Bryce Salvador, D, Lethbridge (WHL), 6-2, 194; 75. Jason Godbout, D, Hill Murray (USHS), 5-11, 185; 76. Jasson Boudrais, C, Laval (QMJHL), 6-0, 201; 77. Joel Irving, C, Regina AAA (SJHL), 6-3, 190; 78. Martin Ethier, D, Beauport (QMJHL), 6-1, 178.<h3>Fourth Round</h3>79. Matt Johnson, LW, Peterborough (OHL), 6-5, 223; 80. Stephane Roy, C, Val d&rsquo;Or (QMJHL), 510, 173; 81. Jonathan Murphy, D, Peterborough (OHL), 6-2, 215; 82. Chris Schmidt, LW, Seattle (WHL), 6-3, 193; 83. Mark (Rocky) Welsing, D, Wisconsin (WCHA), 6-3, 196:84. Andy Birrenkott, D, St. Paul (USHS), 6-2, 208; 85. Daniel Juden, RW, Gov. Dummer (USHS), 6-3, 190; 86. Alexei Lojkin, LW, Chicoutimi (QMJHL), 5-9, 158; 87. Dorian Anneck. C, Victoria (WHL), 6-1, 183; 88. Randy Perry, D, Lethbridge (WHL), 6-0, 190; 89. Marty Fliehet, RW, Tacoma (WHL), 5-11, 168; 90. Jeremy Meehan, C/RW, Detroit (OHL), 6-1, 185; 91. Steve Noble, C, Stratford (Ont.) (Jr. B), 6-1. 185; 92. Chris Fox, D, Detroit Freeze (NAJHL), 6-0, 178; 93. Dave Geris, D, Windsor (OHL), 6-5, 221; 94. Serge Aubin, C, Granby (QMJHL). 6-1, 176; 95. Nicholas Windsor, D, Cornwall (COJHL), 6-1, 165; 96. Carl Paradis, LW, Shawinigan (QMJHL), 6-0, 176; 97. Jason Holland, D, Kamloops (WHL), 6-3, 190; 98. Roman Murmilo, LW, Tyngsboro (U.S. Jr. B), 60, 185; 99. Ivan Salon, LW, Saskatoon (WHL), 61, 185; 100. Lars Bruggeman, D, Hull (QMJHL), 6-2, 200; 101. Yannick Jean, D, Chicoutimi (QMJHL), 6-1, 198; 102. Ryan Lindsay. C, Oshawa (OHL), 5-10, 169; 103. Sergei Klimentiev, D, Medicine Hat (WHL), 5-11, 200; 104. Terry Marchant, LW, Niagara Scenics (NAJHL), 6-2, 205.<h3>Fifth Round</h3>105. Yanick Dube, C/RW. Laval (QMJHL), 5-8, 162; 106. Chris Petersen, RW, Victoria (WHL), 63, 190; 107. Jeremy Schaefer, LW, Medicine Hat (WHL), 6-4, 185; 108. Rumon Ndur, D, Guelph (OHL), 6-2, 200; 109. Jan Snopek, D, Oshawa (OHL), 6-3, 204; 110. Matt O&rsquo;Dette, D/RW, Kitchener (OHL), 6-4, 205; 111. Ryan Middleton, D, Detroit (OHL), 6-2, 174; 112. Vernon Beardy, D, Regina (WHL), 6-3, 234; 113. Gord Walsh, LW, Kingston (OHL), 6-1, 186; 114. Mike Piersol, D, Tacoma (WHL), 6-0, 190; 115. Mark Polak, C, Medicine Hat (WHL), 6-0, 178; 116. Albie O&rsquo;Connell, LW, St. Sebastian&rsquo;s (USHS), 6-0, 188:117. Brian Stacey, D, London (OHL), 6-2, 180; 118. Jason Reid, D, St. Andrew&rsquo;s Coll. (Cdn. HS), 6-3, 200; 119. Colin Forbes, LW, Sherwood Park (AJHL), 6-2, 190; 120. Eric Landry, RW, Guelph (OHL), 5-11, 186; 121. Derek Diener, D, Lethbridge (WHL), 6-4, 182:122. Chris Pittman, LW, Kitchener (OHL), 6-3, 170; 123. Yianni Ioannou, D, Niagara Falls (OHL), 6-1, 208; 124. Ryan Pawluk, LW, Kitchener (OHL), 6-0, 192:125. Marc Stephan, C, Tri-City (WHL), 6-3, 205; 126. Yannick Hubert, RW, St-Hyacinthe (QMJHL), 60, 187; 127. Dan Reja, C, London (OHL), 6-2, 180, 128. Francois Archambault, LW, St-Jean (QMJHL), 6-0, 175; 129. Rob Lave, D, North Bay (OHL), 6-0, 193; 130. Andrew Dale, C, Sudbury (OHL). 6-2, 196.<h3>Sixth Round</h3>131. Jason Campeau, C, North Bay (OHL), 6-0, 187; 132. Rhett Gordon, RW, Regina (WHL), 511, 174; 133. Marc Dupuis, D, Belleville (OHL), 5-11, 161; 134. Craig Millar, D, Swift Current (WHL), 6-2, 198; 135. Rob Guinn, D, Newmarket (OHL), 6-2, 210; 136. Sean Berens, C, Dubuque (USJHL), 5-7, 155; 137. Joe Pankratz, C, St. Paul (USHS), 5-11, 175; 138. Evgeny Serko, C, Oklahoma City (Cent), 6-6, 220; 139. Terry Lindgren, D, Red Deer (WHL), 6-0, 181; 140. Ken Boone, LW, Kingston (OHL). 6-3, 180; 141. Chris Drury, C, Fairfield Prep. (USHS), 5-9, 175; 142. Jeff Williams, C, Guelph (OHL), 6-0, 175; 143. Clint Johnson, LW, Duluth East (USHS), 6-2, 191:144. Steve Nimigon, LW, Niagara Falls (OHL), 6-1, 185; 145. Tyson Nash, LW, Kamloops (WHL), 6-0, 180; 146. Jeff Mikesch, C, Michigan Tech (WCHA), 6-0, 175; 147. Jason Vitorino, C, St. Sebastian&rsquo;s (USHS), 6-2, 180; 148. Henrik Eppers, D, Peterborough (OHL), 6-2, 190; 149. Mike Sylvia, RW, Catholic Memorial (USHS), 5-10, 160; 150. Eric Nickulas, C, Cushing (USHS), 6-1, 195; 151. Chris Maillet, D, Red Deer (WHL), 6-5, 188; 152. Bob Westerby, LW, Kamloops (WHL), 6-1, 195; 153. Mike Bent, C, Nobles (USHS), 5-11, 165; 154. Maxime Blouin, C, Granby (QMJHL), 6-3, 190; 155. Jamie Wright, C/LW, Guelph (OHL), 6-0, 172; 156. Richard Lacasse, LW, St-Hyacinthe (QMJHL), 63, 185.<h3>Seventh Round</h3>157. Ryan Smart, C, Meadville (USHS), 6-0, 170; 158. Christian Gosselin, D, St-Hyacinthe (QMJHL), 6-4, 206; 159. Hnat Domenichelli, C, Kamloops (WHL), 6-0, 173; 160. Casey Hankinson, C, Edina (USHS), 5-11, 153; 161. Jeff Johnstone, C, Niagara Falls (OHL), 6-0, 183; 162. Kevin Young, RW, Culver Mil. Acad. (USHS), 6-0, 163; 163. Marc Sigouin, LW, St-Hyacinthe (QMJHL), 6-3, 196; 164. Andrei Krivokrason, C, Tyngsboro (U.S. Jr. B), 5-10, 165; 165. Steve MacKinnon, D, Cushing (USHS), 6-4. 200; 166. Justin Lyle, RW, Omaha (USJHL), 6-3, 200; 167. Jeremiah Keefe, C, Cushing (USHS), 5-11, 180; 168. Eric Cloutier, C, Hull (QMJHL), 6-0, 175; 169. Justin Keams, RW, Culver Mil. Acad. (USHS), 6-1, 185; 170. Bobby Brown, C, Brandon (WHL), 6-0, 197; 171. Oleg Kovalenko, D, Brockville (EOHL), 5-10, 191; 172. Jeff Blossom, D, Hill Murray (USHS), 6-0, 185; 173. Eric Kaminski, RW, Cleveland (USHS), 6-3, 205; 174. Martin Lamarche, LW, Sherbrooke (QMJHL), 6-1, 206; 175. Jeff Glew, D, Nobles (USHS), 6-1, 175; 176. Bobby Graham, D, Moose Jaw (WHL), 6-2, 182; 177. Michael Coveny, D, Ottawa (Ont.) (Tier II), 63, 190; 178. Tom Buckley, C, St. Joseph (USHS), 6-1, 185; 179. Shawn Collins, D, Portland (WHL), 6-1, 185; 180. Adam Tramonte, LW, Tyngsboro (U.S. Jr. B), 6-2, 175; 181. Scott Laluk, D, Brandon (WHL), 6-2, 185; 182. Eric Sylvestre, D, Val d&rsquo;Or (QMJHL), 6-1, 175.<h3>Eighth Round</h3>183. Corey Bricknell, D, Niagara Falls (OHL), 62, 175; 184. Luke Gruden, D, Hastings (USHS), 5-11, 180; 185. Ilia Borisychev, D, Oklahoma City (Cent), 5-11, 180; 186. John Dwyer, RW, Choate (USHS), 6-3, 220; 187. Bill Muckalt, C, Merritt (BCJHL), 5-11, 175; 188. Danny Dupont, D, Laval (QMJHL), 6-4, 221; 189. Steve Duke, D, Niagara Scenics (NAJHL), 6-0, 185; 190. Jan Dlouhy, D, Olds (AJHL), 6-2, 190; 191. Ian Peterson, RW, Bloomington-Jefferson (USHS), 5-11, 180; 192. Andre Roy, LW, Chicoutimi (QMJHL), 6-3, 178; 193. Ryan Kraft. C, Moorhead (USHS), 5-8, 160; 194. Dimitri Markovsky, LW, Portland (WHL), 5-11, 180; 195. Mike Minichiello, D, Dubuque (USJHL). 6-3, 190; 196. Stu Bodtker, C, Penticton (BCJHL), 6-0, 170; 197. Dave Scatchard, C, Portland (WHL), 6-2, 185; 198. Jason Stewart, RW, Simley (USHS), 60, 188; 199. Steve Webb, RW, Peterborough (OHL), 5-11, 205; 200. Sergei Stas, D, Brockville (EOHL), 6-0, 181; 201. Dimitri Goubar, RW, Beauport (QMJHL), 6-2, 185; 202. Jay Prentice, RW, Union (ECAC). 6-2, 180; 203. Cadrin Smart. D, Victoria (WHL), 6-2, 190; 204. David Reynolds, C, Listowel (U.S. Jr. B), 6-0, 180; 205. Mike Josephson, LW, Kamloops (WHL), 6-0, 195; 206. Lewis Kinvig, C, Merritt (BCJHL), 6-2, 160; 207. Christian Caron, RW, Chicoutimi (QMJHL), 6-1, 174; 208. Sergei Shilov, RW, Brockville (EOHL), 6-0, 175.<h3>Ninth Round</h3>209. Jeff Glowa, C, Vernon (BCJHL), 5-11, 180; 210. Cory Miller, C, Kennedy (USHS), 5-10, 150; 211. Travis Stevenson, D, Seattle (WHL), 6-2, 195; 212. Jimmy Roy, C, Thunder Bay (USJHL), 5-11, 170; 213. Jason Dekker, D, Maine (HE), 62, 185; 214. Jody Shelley, LW, Yarmouth (USHS), 6-3, 190; 215. Robert Longpre, C, Medicine Hat (WHL), 6-2, 175; 216. D.J. Harding, D, Kimball Union (USHS), 6-1, 180; 217. Doug Nolan, LW, Catholic Memorial (USHS), 61, 180; 218. Eric Perrin, C, Vermont (ECAC), 59, 160; 219. Craig Anderson, D, Park Center (USHS), 6-2, 175; 220. Mark Allegrezza, LW, Alaska AAA (Midget), 6-3, 200; 221. Chris Patrick, LW, Kent (CCHA), 6-5, 200; 222. Jure Kovacevic, LW, Ottawa (OHL), 6-1, 194; 223. Caleb Ward, LW, Saginaw (NAJHL), 6-3, 179; 224. John (J.C.) Ruid, LW, Vermont (ECAC), 64, 210; 225. Blair Manning, C, Massachusetts (ECAC), 5-10, 165; 226. Christian Graham, D, Hill Murray (USHS), 6-0, 190; 227. Steve McLaren, D, North Bay (OHL), 6-0, 194; 228. Brian Addesa, D, Exeter Acad. (USHS), 6-2, 188; 229. Ryan Tobler. LW, Calgary Royals (AJHL), 6-2, 185; 230. Mike Mader, D, Loomis (USHS), 6-2, 183; 231. Ryan (R.J.) Schriefer, C, St. Thomas (MOJHL), 5-11, 183; 232. Jonathan Shockey, D, Tri-City (WHL), 6-2, 190; 233. Chris Fawcett, RW, Gloucester (Jr. B), 6-0, 177; 234. Kerry Hafele, LW, Dubuque (USJHL), 6-1, N/A.<h3>Tenth Round</h3>235. Mike Peluso, C, Omaha (USJHL), 6-1, 205; 236. Geordie Hyland, D, Wexford (MTJHL), 6-3, 200; 237. Shannon Basaraba, LW, Rochester (USJHL), 5-10, 180; 238. Mike Ware, D, Richmond Hill (MTJHL), 6-2, 185; 239. Brian McDonald, LW, Hermantown (USHS), 5-10. 180; 240. Brent Ozarowski, C, Canterbury (USHS), 6-0, 175; 241. Calvin Elfring, D, Powell River (BCJHL), 6-0, 150; 242. Tim Lewis, RW, Avon Old Farms (USHS), 5-11, 170; 243. Joe Rybar, LW, Kelowna (BCJHL), 5-10, 174; 244. Brian Bolf, C, Hibbing (USHS), 5-9, 150; 245. Brad Englehart, LW, Kimball Union (USHS), 5-11, 180; 246. Alex Morriseau, D, Alaska AAA (Midget), 6-2, 200; 247. George Awada, RW, St. Paul (USHS), 6-3, 200; 248. Brian Saletta, RW, Nobles (USHS), 6-1, 185:249. Emmanuel Labranche, D, Drummondville (QMJHL), 6-3, 186; 250. Tyler Harlton, D, Vernon (BCJHL), 6-3, 201; 251. Mark Smith, C, Hill Murray (USHS), 511, 187; 252. Zach Ham, C, Dubuque (USJHL), 6-1, 185; 253. Wil Tormey, D, Catholic Memorial (USHS), 6-1, 185; 254. Kam White, D, Newmarket (OHL), 6-3, 195; 255. Nikolai Bobrov, C, Belmont Hill (USHS), 5-11, 175; 256. Jon Sturgis, C, Blake (USHS), 6-0, 180; 257. Jan Pouzar, LW, Olds (AJHL), 6-1, 184; 258. Brian White, D, Arlington Catholic (USHS), 6-1, 180; 259. Brian Ross, D, Rhode Island (U.S. Jr. B), 6-4, 205; 260. Matt Cumming, C/LW, St. Michael&rsquo;s (MTJHL), 6-2, 180.<h3>Goaltenders</h3>1. Jamie Storr, Owen Sound (OHL), 6-2, 192; 2. Eric Fichaud, Chicoutimi (QMJHL), 5-11, 160; 3. Dan Cloutier, Sault Ste. Marie (OHL), 6-1, 182; 4. Jose Theodore, St-Jean (QMJHL), 5-10, 176; 5. Steve Plouffe, Granby (QMJHL), 5-11, 167; 6. Stephane Routhier, Drummondville (QMJHL), 59, 180; 7. Mark McArthur, Guelph (OHL), 5-11, 179; 8. Bryan Masotta, Hotchkiss (USHS), 6-2, 195; 9. Ian Gordon, Swift Current (WHL), 5-9, 161; 10. Steve Vezina, Beauport (QMJHL), 5-10, 172; 11. Byron Penstock, Brandon (WHL), 5-9, 176; 12. Brian Regan, Westminster (USHS), 6-0, 170; 13. Mike Walker, Regina (WHL), 5-9, 172; 14. Jeff Melnechuk, Sudbury (OHL), 6-0, 179; 15. Mike Correia, Avon Old Farms (USHS), 5-9, 174; 16. Travis Scott, Windsor (OHL), 6-1, 161; 17. Brad Cicala, Jr. Bruins (NEJHL), 6-0, 170; 18. Brian Leitza, Sioux City (USJHL), 6-2, 185; 19. Neil Savary, Hull (QMJHL), 6-0, 169; 20. Scott Rideout, Portland (WHL), 6-1, 190; 21. Marty Turco, Cambridge (USHS), 5-11, 175; 22. Cade Ledingham, Duluth East (USHS), 5-11, 165; 23. Matt Eisler, Canterbury (USHS), 6-2, 175; 24. Andrei Mezin, Brockville (EOHL), 5-11, 169; 25. Darren Thomas, Rhode Island (U.S. Jr. B), 5-8, 170; 26. Tony Palmer, Winthrop (USHS). 5-10, 175.<h3>Europeans</h3>1. Oleg Tverdovsky, D, Soviet Wings-Moscow (Rus), 6-0, 183; 2. Alexander Kharlamov, LW, CSKA-Moscow (Rus), 5-10, 180; 3. Mattias Ohlund, D, Pitea (Swe Div. 1), 6-2, 207; 4. Josef Marha, C, Dukla Jihlava (Cze), 6-0, 172; 5. Johan Davidsson, C/W, HV 71-Jonkoping (Swe), 5-11, 170; 6. Vadim Sharifjanov, RW, Salavat Yulayev-Ufa (Rus), 5-11, 180; 7. Vaclav Varada, W, Vitkovice (Cze). 6-0, 198; 8. Yan Golubovsky. D, Dynamo-Moscow (Rus), 6-3, 185; 9. Tommi Miettinen, C/W, JyP HT-Jyvaskla (Fin), 510, 165; 10. Dick Tarnstrom, D, AIK-Stockholm (Swe Div. 1), 6-0, 180; 11. Vadim Yepanchintsev, C, Spartak-Moscow (Rus), 5-11, 180; 12. Nisse Ekman, W, Hammarby-Stockholm (Swe Div. 2), 5-11, 161; 13. Jan Nemecek, D, Motor-Ceske Budejovice (Cze), 6-1, 196; 14. Tommi Rajamaki, D, Assat-Pori (Fin), 6-2, 180; 15. Patrik Elias, W, Kladno (Cze), 6-0, 176; 16. Timo Salonen, W/C, Assat-Pori (Fin), 5-10, 165; 17. Roman Vopat, C, Chemopetrol-Litvinov (Cze), 6-3, 216; 18. Jan Lipiansky, LW, Slovan-Bratislava (Slo), 6-1, 183; 19. Yuri Litvinov, C, Soviet Wings-Moscow (Rus), 5-10, 174; 20. Jussi Tarvainen, C/W, KalPa-Kuo-pio (Fin), 6-2, 185.<h3>Goaltenders</h3>1. Peter Olsson, Mora (Swe Div. 1), 5-11, 172; 2. Yevgeni Ryabchikov, Molot-Perm (Rus). 6-1, 184.<h2>AHL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01708/6251163-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="625" height="3414"></div><h2>IHL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02485/6251156-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="616" height="3412"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01798/6251149-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="3129" height="3693"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01758/6251142-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="3083" height="3639"><figcaption class="caption-body">Future Isle Zigmund Palffy helped Slovakia finish undefeated atop Group B.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01715/6251135-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="595" height="922"></div><h2>THURSDAY, FEB. 17</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02504/6251128-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="596" height="778"></div><h2>SATURDAY, FEB. 19</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03408/6251121-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="603" height="1639"></div> &#9632;

f0033-01

SCOREBOARD

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0037-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01637/6251225-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0037-01

AMERICAN LEAGUE

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01713/6251256-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="388" height="543"></div>KINGSTON, Ont.-Phil Dawe figures he&rsquo;ll probably be stationed in Bosnia by this time next year.That&rsquo;s not important. Right now, he&rsquo;s standing outside his dressing room coming to grips with the fact he&rsquo;ll graduate from Royal Military College without beating the United States Military Academy. The U.S. took no prisoners on this night, clobbering RMC to the tune of 6-0.&ldquo;I guess Bosnia puts things into perspective,&rdquo; Dawe says, &ldquo;but it also diminishes how seriously we take this game.&rdquo;Canada and the United States have not done battle since the War of 1812, when Laura Secord was better known for espionage than chocolate. But the military universities from the two countries annually wage ice cold war in a game that is billed as the oldest continuous rivalry in sports.You won&rsquo;t find a single pro prospect in the RMC-Army game. There are no scouts in the stands and the level of play is no better than what you would find in Jr. B. But in this game, they play their purple hearts out. The winner gets the Chal-lenge Trophy, a cup that was first won by RMC in 1923.&ldquo;This is war,&rdquo; says RMC coach Jacques Tremblay. &ldquo;This is our Stanley Cup, our Super Bowl, our World Series. This is the closest we ever get to larger than life.&rdquo;RMC usually plays to low doubledigit crowds, but on Feb. 12 the 3,000-seat Kingston Memorial Centre is jammed to capacity. A sea of red represents the 600-strong student body of RMC. Mixed in are the grey uniforms of the American student warriors who made the trek to Kingston from the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y.For the students, the game provides a rare chance to meet the other side and gives them a respite from a regimented life. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just like any other weekend at West Point,&rdquo; said one of the American Tans, &ldquo;except we had alcohol, women and fun.&rdquo;Military bands duel at each end of the rink, the fans are delirious and the play is intense. Before the game, Tremblay demands two things of his players: Shifts of no more than 450 strides and at least 15 takeouts in the first two minutes. Bodies are flying on both sides during the first shift and before the period is 10-minutes old, a fairly tame line brawl breaks out as players on the ice pair off and shove each other with gloves on. These are fighting men, after all.The West Point radio men, not accustomed to this kind of behavior, inform the listeners back home the game is being, &ldquo;marred by violence.&rdquo; Steve Molaski, the greatest player ever to perform at RMC and the team&rsquo;s assistant coach, leans over and whispers, &ldquo;Bunch of wusses. C&rsquo;mon, it&rsquo;s North American hockey.&rdquo;We&rsquo;re left to assume that Molaski wouldn&rsquo;t exactly choose these guys first as his colleagues in a fox hole.&ldquo;We play games that are just as physical, but there are a lot more cheap shots in this game,&rdquo; says West Point captain Mike Landers. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a built-in hatred in this game. Once you play your first game, it gives you a real understanding of what it means to beat these guys. People here think hockey is their sport so it&rsquo;s great to come up here and show them who&rsquo;s better.&rdquo;Meanwhile, while his brother Brian and the New York Rangers are down the road beating the Ottawa Senators, Eric Leetch takes advantage of a brutal giveaway and puts West Point up 1-0 in the first period. Army adds three more in the second and two in the third to give Brian Bolio his first career shutout.The game has been an exercise in frustration for RMC in recent history. Army leads the overall series 31-27 with five ties, but the Canadians haven&rsquo;t won the game since 1987. What makes it worse is that RMC takes the game much more seriously than Army, who play as a Division I independent and whose big outing of the season is a two-game series against the Naval Academy. &ldquo;The Buffalo Bills have nothing on these (RMC) guys,&rdquo; Molaski says.RMC is nicknamed the Redmen, but make no mistake, this is no Red Army. Fresh off a 16-1 loss to a nationally ranked team the weekend before, the Redmen have won only two games this season and have lost their alumni game the last five years.The reason for their futility is simple. The school recruits soldiers first, hockey players second. Only recently has it pursued players. Many of the players are from military families. Others are smart enough to realize that a free education, $500 per month and a guaranteed job after university is a pretty good deal.As the game draws to a close, Molaski realizes his team will suffer the dual humiliation of losing and being shut out. He lets out a sigh of resignation. &ldquo;We just don&rsquo;t have any snipers,&rdquo; he says.That&rsquo;s all right, officers rarely go to the front line anyway. &#9632;

f0038-01

RMC-Army wage war on ice each year

<div class="byline">By THN staff</div>The Maine Black Bears must wake from hibernation if they hope to repeat as U.S. college champions.The Bears were fifth in Hockey East in mid-February and perilously close to falling out of the race for a berth in the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament.The top 12 teams from the four college leagues will compete for the national championship beginning March 25. The final four will be held at the St. Paul Civic Center in Minnesota March 31-April 2.Here&rsquo;s a look at the contenders:<h2>CCHA</h2>The Michigan Wolverines are the class of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association and U.S. college hockey.Coach Red Berenson&rsquo;s team lost just twice in its first 30 games. The nation&rsquo;s best offense is led by David Oliver, Brian Wiseman and Mike Knuble. Steve Shields recently became the winningest goalie in U.S. college history.The Michigan State Spartans are back in the NCAA picture thanks to solid defensive play and the goaltending of Mike Buzak.While MSU isn&rsquo;t explosive, the Spartans have a steady offense and capable blueline corps.The Lake Superior State Lakers are always tough at tournament time.The NCAA finalists last year and champions in 1992 lack a gamebreaker on offense, but always find a way to win tight games.<h2>WCHA</h2>The Minnesota Golden Gophers got off to an 0-5-1 start in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, but rebounded in the second half.They allowed the fewest goals in league play through Feb. 12 and have excelled in close games (13-4-4 record in games decided by two or fewer goals).The Colorado College Tigers should post their first winning season in 14 years. They finished 8-28-0 in 1992-93. Inexperience in key games, however, could derail the Tigers hopes for their first WCHA and NCAA titles.The Wisconsin Badgers always seem to be in contention at tournament time and this year is no exception. The Badgers have one of the best offenses in the league led by the two top scorers in the WCHA, Andrew Shier and Kelly Fairchild.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02531/6251287-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="578" height="841"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rich Brennan helps anchor a strong Terrier defense corps.</figcaption></div><h2>ECAC</h2>Defense is the strength of the Harvard Crimson, who last won the national championship in 1989. Coach Ronn Tomassoni&rsquo;s team was surrendering an average of just three goals per game.A late-season charge will give Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute a chance to earn a tournament berth.The Engineers have a solid Hobey Baker candidate in senior goalie Neil Little, but the rest of the defense has been erratic.The Brown Bears appear ready to return to the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive year.Brown has used a great home record (7-2-1) and the goaltending of senior Geoff Finch to stay in contention.<h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2>The Boston University Terriers have supplanted Maine as the top team in Hockey East.Their strength is a stingy defense led by junior blueliners Kaj Linna and Rich Brennan. They also have one of the best goaltending tandems in the country in Derek Herlofsky and J.P. McKersie.A lack of scoring punch and lapses in discipline-the Terriers are the most penalized team in Hockey East-could haunt them.If the NCAA tournament comes down to goaltending and special teams, the UMass-Lowell Chiefs have an outside shot.Dwayne Roloson is one of the best goalies in the country and the Chiefs are among the national leaders in power-play and penalty-killing percentage.It has been a very trying year for defending national champion Maine, but it could turn around in a big way if it gets Paul Kariya back after the Olympics.Coach Shawn Walsh was suspended five games for using an ineligible player and they forfeited three wins to Providence.But the Bears will be a force when Peter and Chris Ferraro return from the U.S. Olympic team. If Kariya doesn&rsquo;t join the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, Maine becomes an instant contender.&ndash;With files from Andy Baggot, Tom Boggie, Matt Carlson and Larry Mahoney. &#9632;

f0038-02

Down to the wire

<h2>CCHA</h2>1. MichiganKey players: David Oliver, Brian Wiseman, Steve Shields.2. Michigan StateKey players: Steve Guolla, Rem Murray, Anson Carter.3. LakeSuperiorKey players: Sean Tallaire, Clayton Beddoes, Steven Barnes.<h2>WCHA</h2>1. MinnesotaKey players: Jeff Nielsen, Jeff Moen, Chris McAlpine.2. Colorado CollegeKey players: Ryan Bach, Kent Fearns, Jay McNeill.3. WisconsinKey players: Jim Carey, Andrew Shier, Kelly Fairchild.<h2>ECAC</h2>1. HarvardKey players: Aaron Israel, Sean McCann, Brian Farrell.2. RPIKey players: Neil Little, Bryan Richardson, Ron Pasco.3. BrownKey players: Geoff Finch, Ryan Mulhern, Chris Kaban.<h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2>1. Boston UniversityKey players: Mike Pomichter, Rich Brennan, J.P. McKersie.2. UMass-LowellKey players: Dwayne Roloson, Greg Bullock, Shane Henry.3. MaineKey players: Peter Ferraro, Chris Ferraro, Mike Latendresse. &#9632;

U.S. college contenders at a glance

<div class="byline">By Larry Mahoney</div>The nightmare continued for the New Hampshire Wildcats as the Hockey East season headed into the stretch run.The Wildcats finished 13-3-1 a year ago, but were 3-8-0 this season. They have been hit hard by injuries and the inconsistent play of junior goaltender Mike Heinze.Junior right winger Nick Poole (sprained knee) and junior left winger Eric Royal (strained shoulder, charleyhorse) were out indefinitely, while freshman left winger Tom Nolan sustained ligament damage in his knee Feb. 5 and could be out for the season.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t lose three key guys without having it affect you,&rdquo; said coach Dick Umile. &ldquo;Those three guys also played on our power play and they killed penalties for us.&ldquo;And we haven&rsquo;t been putting the puck in the net and our goaltending has become inconsistent.&rdquo;UNH&rsquo;s goal production dipped from 4.6 per per game in 1993 to 3.6 this season. Defensively, the Wildcats have allowed more than a goal-per game more this season (4.3 last season to 3.1 in 1993-94).&ldquo;(Mike) has been fighting the pucks and giving up soft goals,&rdquo; Umile said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll make some great saves, but give up some easy ones.&rdquo;Umile started Trent Cavicchi Feb. 12 and he lost 4-2 to the Merrimack Warriors. So is Umile going to use the sophomore netminder even more down the stretch?&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a roll of the dice,&rdquo; Umile said.END OF THE LINE: Several streaks came to an end in mid-February.The Merrimack Warriors finally beat New Hampshire at Snively Arena. The Warriors&rsquo; 4-2 win Feb. 12 was their first in 12 games. Merrimack had not beaten UNH on the road since Feb. 17, 1961.The UMass-Lowell Chiefs and Maine Black Bears battled to a pair of 4-4 ties in Billerica, Mass., Feb. 12-13. It marked the first time in Maine&rsquo;s 17-year hockey history that it had played in back-to-back ties. It was also the first time Maine and UMass-Lowell had played to a tie in 41 games.BIG WIN: The Boston College Eagles won their first Beanpot Tournament championship since 1983.The Eagles beat the top team in the Eastern College Athletic Conference, the Harvard Crimson, 2-1 in overtime Feb. 14.Sophomore defenseman Tom Ashe, a defensive specialist who rarely scores, banged in the winner.The Eagles were last in Hockey East at the time and were the only team in the tournament not nationally ranked.TOP HONORS: Providence College junior center Chad Quenneville was named Hockey East player of the month for January.Quenneville had 13 goals and 17 points in nine games. Northeastern freshman left winger David Penny, meanwhile, was the top rookie in January. He had three goals and eight points in eight games. &#9632;

“Roubles continue for Wildcats

<div class="byline">By Matt Carlson</div>The Western Michigan Broncos are bucking up in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association standings and, perhaps, for an National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament bid.The Broncos improved to 18-9-2 overall and 15-8-1 in league play with a six-game winning streak through Feb. 16. They were one point behind second-place Michigan State.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been playing solid defensively and that has been the key,&rdquo; said coach Bill Wilkinson. &ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t been giving up goals in the third period, just one in our last six games. When we get a lead, we hold on to it.&rdquo;Senior goaltender Craig Brown backstopped the Broncos through the hot streak with a 1.66 goals-against average and .942 save percentage.&ldquo;Craig&rsquo;s play has been solid and the team has played well in front of him,&rdquo; Wilkinson said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve lessened our mistakes and penalty minutes, especially late in games.&rdquo;The Broncos&rsquo; line of sophomore center Jamal Mayers, junior right winger Ryan D&rsquo;Arcy and senior left winger Colin Ward has become one of the league&rsquo;s best. The Broncos have also benefitted from the return of left winger Chris Brooks, who missed six games with a knee injury.So can the Broncos make it to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1985-86 and only the second time in their history?&ldquo;This team is quite capable,&rdquo; Wilkinson said.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a lot less star-oriented than that (1985-86) team. We have a strong work ethic and everyone fits into a role.&rdquo;SUPPLEMENTAL SPARTAN: Michigan State junior left winger Steve Guolla figures to pique the interest of an NHL club in the 1994 supplemental draft.The 20-year-old from Scarborough, Ont., has had a strong year for the Spartans, scoring 15 goals and 44 points in 25 games. He was five points behind leader David Oliver of the Michigan Wolverines.&ldquo;The reasons I&rsquo;ve heard why he wasn&rsquo;t drafted are he was too small and he didn&rsquo;t skate well enough,&rdquo; said coach Ron Mason. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s 6-feet and 185 pounds and has worked on his strength. I know he can skate well enough.&rdquo;Guolla has been skating on a line with sopho-more center Anson Carter and senior right winger Kelly Harper.Prior to coming to the Spartans, all three played for the Jr. A Wexford Raiders of the Metro Toronto Junior League.ETERNAL FLAME: The Illinois-Chicago Flames snapped the Miami Redskins&rsquo; 10-game winning streak Feb. 11 with a 4-3 win at Oxford, Ohio. The Redskins bounced back the next night with a 3-1 home win over the Ferris State Bulldogs, moving them to within three points of Michigan State&hellip;Kent State&rsquo;s winless skid (0-11-1) reached 12 games after the Golden Flashes lost a pair of games to the Bowling Green Falcons. &#9632;

Broncos bucking trend by staying competitive

<div class="byline">By Andy Baggot</div>One of the most intimidating buildings in all of college hockey was uncharacteristically quiet in mid-February.The Northern Michigan Wildcats are in the thick of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association title chase and were a few days away from playing a pivotal series with the Wisconsin Badgers.But Lakeview Arena in Marquette, Mich., was not bustling with activity. No formal practice. No skating drills. No tactical preparations. Due to a glut of injuries, coach Rick Comley decided to eliminate practise sessions.Four of the team&rsquo;s top defensemen and one high-profile forward were nursing injuries heading into the Badger series.The showdown came with three weeks left in the regular season. The teams were tied for third place, just three points behind the league-leading Minnesota Golden Gophers and one point behind the second-place Colorado College Tigers.The Wildcats are not at full strength, a reality that makes title contention seem more like wishful thinking.&ldquo;What frustrates me is we can&rsquo;t effectively compete,&rdquo; Comley said.Garett MacDonald (concussion), Shayne Tomlinson (bruised thigh), Darcy Dallas (pulled stomach muscle) and Steve Carpenter (pulled groin) were out day-to-day.Center Greg Hadden (deep thigh bruise) and winger Justin George (sprained knee) were sidelined indefinitely.Since the aforementioned personnel are involved in special teams work-making technical preparations very difficult-Comley backed off on workouts.This was supposed to be the stretch where the Wildcats asserted themselves in the race. They took a 17-game home unbeaten streak into a six-game homestand against St. Cloud State, Alaska and Wisconsin. However, both St. Cloud and Anchorage managed a series split.BAD BREAK: The Minnesota Golden Gophers were dealt a serious blow when winger Joe Dziedzic went down with an injury.Dziedzic is out for the season after refracturing his left forearm against the North Dakota Fighting Sioux Feb. 12. Dziedzic originally broke the arm in October.His impact can be gauged by the fact Minnesota was 5-6-3 without him and 12-3-1 with him in the lineup.INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR: Two WCHA cities have joined the hunt to host the 1996 World Junior Championship.Milwaukee and Minneapolis-St. Paul have joined Detroit, Boston and Seattle in seeking to stage the event that showcases the top under-20 players in the world.The selection committee will visit each city this spring and a location will be chosen in June, said Art Berglund of USA Hockey. &#9632;

Injuries complicate title drive

<div class="byline">By Tom Boggie</div>Although he&rsquo;s definitely a Ford, Union College freshman Chris Ford is turning out to be one of the Cadillacs of a very talented crop of Eastern College Athletic Conference rookies.The native of Rochester, N.Y., is one of the big reasons why the Dutchmen are contending for a playoff spot for the first time since moving to Division I three years ago.Ford scored a team-high 16 goals in 21 games overall and was on a pace to become the school&rsquo;s first 20-goal scorer since the 1989-90 season when Union was still playing Division III hockey.Guy Logan scored 22 goals for the Dutchmen that season.&ldquo;I knew he had the potential, but I didn&rsquo;t think he&rsquo;d step off the bus and do the things he has so far,&rdquo; said coach Bruce Delventhal.Ford and Colgate&rsquo;s Mike Harder were second in the league among rookie goal scorers. Vermont Catamount freshman Eric Perrin was first with 18.Ford, who is undrafted, has been playing on the right wing with two other rookies, center Troy Stevens and left winger Russell Monteith.There was never any question about Ford&rsquo;s scoring potential. In his final year at Des Moines of the United States Junior League, he had 28 goals and 59 points, helping the Bucs win the U.S. Jr. A championship.The only real question was of his ability to take his game to a higher level.&ldquo;He really needed the time in the USHL,&rdquo; Delventhal said. &ldquo;The Des Moines program was very good for him.&rdquo;BROTHER ACT: The O&rsquo;Brien brothers, Sean and Keith, made their mark in Princeton record books Feb. 11 when they both scored in a 4-2 win over St. Lawrence.The O&rsquo;Briens became the first siblings to score goals in the same game for the Tigers since Bill and Craig Tresham accomplished the feat against Middlebury in 1978.It also marked the first time the O&rsquo;Brien brothers scored in the same game during their careers.Sean, a senior defenseman and the Princeton captain, is three years older than Keith, a freshman winger. Until this year, the Belmont, Mass., natives had never played on the same team.CLOSE CALL: Clarkson senior goalie Jason Currie nearly made history Feb. 12 when he was credited with a shorthanded goal against Princeton.Currie was originally credited with the goal, which would have been the first ever scored by an ECAC goaltender, after the Tigers inadvertently put the puck into their own net. But further review of game tapes showed sophomore forward Kevin Murphy, who forced the turnover that resulted in the fluke goal, was the last Clarkson player to touch the puck. &#9632;

Fab Ford driving toward freshman-of-year honors

<div class="byline">By Dave Eminian</div>Dennis Desrosiers&rsquo; stormy run through the International League ended Feb. 16 when the Cincinnati Cyclones fired him as their coach and director of hockey operations.The move came at a time when the Cyclones had lost seven of eight games and were without recalled all-star goalie Pokey Reddick and a few injured regulars.Despite that slump, the second-year coach had guided his team to 30-16-5 record. Cincinnati had occupied the Central Division lead for much of the season and Desrosiers earned the right to coach the Eastern Conference squad at the All-Star Game in January.&ldquo;This is a very difficult decision,&rdquo; said Cyclones&rsquo; owner Doug Kirchhofer. &ldquo;We felt the progress of the team at this juncture of the season was not where we would like it. We believe a change in the chemistry was necessary.&rdquo;That chemistry, according to sources with other IHL teams, involved Desrosiers&rsquo; relationship with his players, which was on thin ice where communication lines were concerned.The colorful, sometimes-combative coach had a history of confrontations with media and coaches during his IHL tenure.Last season, Desrosiers raised eyebrows around the hockey world when he said whoever drafted Cyclones&rsquo; goalie Chad Erickson should be dead.The Cyclones retained Desrosiers as their coach when they struck an NHL affiliation deal with the Florida Panthers last summer.Kirchhofer said Florida general manager Bob Clarke will be involved in the hiring of the Cyclones&rsquo; next coach. In the interim, assistant coach Rick Kromm will fill in.&ldquo;We have already begun the process of identifying a successor,&rdquo; said Kirchhofer, who added he will talk to Desrosiers after the season about remaining in the organization. &ldquo;(Panthers&rsquo; general manager) Bob Clarke has been advised&hellip;and will be involved.&rdquo;&ldquo;We have agreed to discuss (with Desrosiers) a continuing position within the organization at the conclusion of this season. I believe he currently has plans to spend some time with his family.&rdquo;PHOENIX&rsquo;S HARDY BOY: The Phoenix Roadrunners made former NHL defenseman Mark Hardy a player-assistant coach Feb. 9, hoping to take advantage of his 15-year pro career experience that includes 915 NHL games.&ldquo;I think this is a great opportunity for me,&rdquo; said Hardy, who will assist new coach Rick Dudley with a team that rattled off six straight wins in early February.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been interested in the possibility of getting into full-time coaching once my playing days are over. To be able to get the chance to learn from an outstanding veteran coach with the knowledge and experience of Dudley is something that can only benefit me.&rdquo;I-OPENERS: Phoenix drilled the Russian Penguins 10-1 Feb. 15 to drop the former Red Army team&rsquo;s record on this IHL tour to 1-4-1&hellip;San Diego Gulls&rsquo; winger Lonnie Loach scored four goals against Red Army in a 5-2 win Feb. 12.The Las Vegas Thunder traded defenseman Bryan Fogarty to the Kansas City Blades for future considerations Feb. 11&hellip;The Thunder signed U.S. Olympic team defenseman Brett Hauer to a contract for the rest of the season. The NCAA All-America from Minnesota-Duluth signed with Las Vegas amid a negotiating impasse with the Vancouver Canucks.Milwaukee Admirals&rsquo; winger Gino Cavallini was named player of the week for the period ending Feb. 13. He had six goals and 10 points in four games&hellip;Cleveland Lumberjacks&rsquo; center Jock Callander was 13 points away from the 1,000-point plateau through Feb. 14. &#9632;

Controversial Desrosiers swept away by Cyclones

<div class="byline">By Kevin Oklobzija</div>A year ago, he was representing the Ottawa Senators in the NHL All-Star Game. Today, Peter Sidorkiewicz is in Albany, N.Y., trying to prove he can still play in the NHL.Traded to the New Jersey Devils in June, Sid-orkiewicz&rsquo;s troubles began with off-season shoulder surgery.The recovery process-projected to be eight to 12 weeks-took longer than expected. Weeks turned into months. Because of Sidorkiewicz&rsquo;s condition, the NHL ruled Ottawa is responsible to pay two-thirds of the goalie&rsquo;s $450,000 salary this season and give the Devils a fifthround draft pick in 1994.Instead of being at full strength and pain free by training camp, Sidorkiewicz didn&rsquo;t feel completely comfortable until January.By then, Martin Brodeur had established himself as the Devils&rsquo; No. 1 goalie and Chris Terreri remained the strong backup. That left Sidorkiewicz as the practice goalie.So on Feb. 11 he asked the Devils to send him to the Albany River Rats of the American League on his second conditioning stint of the season. To that point, he had made only three relief appearances for New Jersey, posting an 0-3-0 record, 2.77 average and .891 save percentage.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t just keep practising all year,&rdquo; said Sidorkiewicz, who in five NHL seasons with the Hartford Whalers and Ottawa had a 79-125-27 record and 3.60 goals-against average.&ldquo;If it goes on all year where all I do is practise and no one ever sees me in games, people will think I fell off the face of the earth. They&rsquo;ll be wondering, &lsquo;Can he still play?&rsquo;&rdquo;Sidorkiewicz, 30, hopes to sharpen his game and attract interest from other teams.&ldquo;I would like something to happen, if not with New Jersey than with someone else,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I still think I&rsquo;m young enough and I&rsquo;d like to think I can still play in the NHL.&ldquo;After the Olympics, New Jersey has Mike Dunham coming in, too. So where do we all fit in when that happens?&rdquo;Sidorkiewicz&rsquo;s first game in Albany was Feb. 12, a 3-0 loss to the Hershey Bears in which he made 26 saves. That was his first action since Jan. 15, when he played 48 minutes in relief of Terreri and allowed one goal to the Los Angeles Kings.CHECK, PLEASE: Toni Porkka has found a unique way to supplement his income: He&rsquo;s getting money from opposing AHL teams.The Hershey Bears&rsquo; defenseman is one of three partners in Toni Porkka&rsquo;s Slap Shot Grill, a sandwich and burger shop in Hershey, Pa., that is the restaurant of choice for the post-game meals of visiting teams.Teams place their order before the game and while they&rsquo;re packing the bus afterward, the shop&rsquo;s delivery person shows up with the $150 to $200 order, after a slight discount.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had a pretty good response, but the one thing players are saying is they&rsquo;d like some pasta on the menu,&rdquo; Porkka said.During the season he isn&rsquo;t too involved in the business. &ldquo;I walk in and walk out, once or twice a week, grab a burger and ask how it&rsquo;s going.&rdquo;NEW WING: The Adirondack Red Wings found scoring help in the East Coast League by signing Russian winger Lev Berdichevsky.Berdichevsky, 28, was the Roanoke Express&rsquo; leading scorer with 39 goals and 57 points in 43 games. He continued his potent scoring in the AHL with goals in his first four games.The parent Detroit Red Wings needed reports from only four games before deciding to sign him to an AHL contract.OH-FOR-150: Albany established a dubious club record by being shut out for a streak of 150:44. That included 3-0 losses to the Cornwall Aces and John Tanner (34 saves) Feb. 11 and to Hershey and Frederic Chabot (39 saves) Feb. 12. &#9632;

Fallen star Sidorkiewicz looks for revival in Albany

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Richard Pollack</div>Refer to it as the Brule Rule.Eric Brule&rsquo;s defection from the Fort Worth Fire of the Central League to the South Carolina Stingrays of the East Coast League prompted an agreement whereby each league will honor the other&rsquo;s contracted player list.Players must now clear waivers before joining another league.The deal wasn&rsquo;t signed soon enough to save Brule. Fort Worth coach Steve Harrison reluctantly put him on the team&rsquo;s suspended list.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m really disappointed Eric left,&rdquo; Harrison left. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re in a rush for the final playoff spot.&rdquo;BIG HELP: Bob Berg&rsquo;s career season with the Wichita Thunder almost never got started. The brother of Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; winger Bill Berg almost quit the team early in the season because he wasn&rsquo;t getting quality ice time.Bill encouraged Bob to be patient. Bob has responded with 35 goals and 82 points in 53 games to climb into sixth place in CHL scoring.IRONMEN: Jason Taylor of the Dallas Freeze and Guy Girouard of the Oklahoma City Blazers are the only CHL players to have appeared in all their team&rsquo;s games in the two-year history of the CHL. &#9632;

Leagues agree to truce

<div class="byline">By Nick Gates</div>Last-minute player moves could have a profound effect on the outcome of the jumbled Eastern Division race in the East Coast League.The Hampton Admirals and Roanoke Express took direct hits which cost each their leading scorer for the rest of the season.Roanoke, involved in a three-way dogfight with the Charlotte Checkers and South Carolina Stingrays to hold off the Richmond Renegades&rsquo; belated playoff run, loaned Lev Berdichevsky Feb. 5 to the American League&rsquo;s Adirondack Red Wings and wound up losing the 39-goal scorer permanently.Hampton Roads will be without Shawn Wheeler, who was signed by the AHL&rsquo;s Hershey Bears Feb. 10. The Admirals&rsquo; veteran, who served as a player/assistant coach, had 31 goals and 74 points in 47 games.Berdichevsky had at least one point (four goals, two assists) in his first five games with the Red Wings and was plus-8. He played so well, he won a spot for the rest of the season.&ldquo;The joke is on me,&rdquo; said Roanoke coach Frank Anzalone. &ldquo;I should have known better. I loaned two players to unaffiliated teams when I was in Nashville and never got them back. At this point in the season, there is no way we can replace a player like Lev.&rdquo;Anzalone doesn&rsquo;t want to hold players back, but he would like some compensation.&ldquo;We loaned Lev for a weekend. Now he&rsquo;s gone and we get nothing in return.&rdquo; he said.Wheeler told the Bears he was not interested in a 25-game tryout contract. The Wisconsin-Steven Point product, who helped his team win two National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III championships, came to the Admirals to apprentice under coach John Brophy with hopes of landing a college coaching job next season.&ldquo;But I still love the game and I have the fire,&rdquo; Wheeler said. &ldquo;It would be stupid for me to turn down an offer like that.&rdquo;FIVE FOR FOTIU: Nashville Knights&rsquo; coach Nick Fotiu was suspended for five games by commissioner Pat Kelly for his conduct during the Knights&rsquo; 4-3 loss to Charlotte Feb. 11. During the game, an irate Fotiu entered the box where supervisor of officials Bob Sloan was sitting and gave him a tongue-lashing.Assistant coach George Kozak took over for Fotiu, who was suspended for five games earlier in the season.OHIO BLITZKRIEG: The Knoxville Cherokees strengthened their grip on the overall points lead by winning one-goal games on consecutive nights in Ohio.The Cherokees beat the Toledo Storm 6-5 in a shootout Feb. 10 as Jeff Reid scored two goals, including the game-winner. Reid got two more as Knoxville edged the Columbus 5-4 Chill Feb. 12 before the Chill&rsquo;s 66th consecutive sellout. &#9632;

Roster changes may profoundly alter Eastern race

<div class="byline">By Rob Vanstone</div>The Western League has received an application for an expansion franchise from Prince George. But don&rsquo;t look for major-junior hockey in the British Columbia city any time soon.A 5,300-seat arena isn&rsquo;t scheduled for completion until the spring of 1996. Construction of the facility was approved in November.The bid is backed by the Prince George Spruce Kings, a community-owned franchise in the Rocky Mountain Jr. A League. The Spruce Kings plan to remain in the 10-team circuit.The Spruce Kings applied, in part, to head off any rival WHL bids from Prince George.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got a fairly successful franchise now,&rdquo; said Spruce King&rsquo;s general manager Len McNamara. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not sure if it would be in the community&rsquo;s best interest to have two competing clubs. The way we&rsquo;re looking at it, it may be run better by our organization.&rdquo;The city of 70,000 people is 500 kilometres north of Kamloops, the nearest WHL center. Prince George was to update the WHL&rsquo;s board of governors at a Feb. 28 meeting.The WHL has 16 teams-nine in the East Division and seven in the West Division. Prince George would join the West Division if the governors determine expansion is appropriate.Prince George submitted a two-page letter of application and a $50,000 refundable deposit. The league&rsquo;s expansion fee has been established at $500,000, which is payable upon acceptance.&ldquo;Some teams like the money that comes from an expansion franchise,&rdquo; said WHL president Ed Chynoweth. &ldquo;Others aren&rsquo;t sure if there are enough players to go around. With the possibility of some existing teams struggling, is the time right? The governors have to decide.&rdquo;THAT EMPTY FEELING: Concerns continue to mount regarding the future of the Moose Jaw Warriors.The community-owned team held a public meeting Feb. 10 to outline its predicament.The Warriors entered this season with a deficit of $75,000. The team budgeted for a 1993-94 profit of $55,000, based on a projected average attendance of 2,000 at the 2,969-seat Civic Centre. Attendance, however, has hovered at about 1,700. At that rate&hellip;&ldquo;We would be in debt for this year between $40,000 and $80,000, in addition to the (accumulated) $75,000,&rdquo; said Moose Jaw president Larry Booth. &ldquo;We can&rsquo;t let that happen. We&rsquo;ve got to get the fans in.&rdquo;The Warriors have received several inquiries about the possibility of selling the franchise. A sale would likely land the Warriors elsewhere. Potential destinations include Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver and Kelowna, B.C.&ldquo;The Warriors have the final say,&rdquo; Ed Chyno-weth said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not going to push anybody out the door as long as they pay the bills. The problem is, if they run out of money halfway through the season, what good does that do anybody?&rdquo;The Warriors are in their 10th WHL season in Moose Jaw after moving from Winnipeg.HOLT HOT: Swift Current Broncos&rsquo; right winger Todd Holt is moving up the WHL&rsquo;s alltime goal-scoring list.Holt&rsquo;s 204th career goal tied him with former Portland Winter Hawk and Regina Pat sharp-shooter Troy Mick for eighth place on the alltime list.Former Brandon Wheat Kings&rsquo; star Brian Propp is seventh with 219 goals. Seattle Thunderbirds&rsquo; graduate Glen Goodall heads the list with 262.Holt, 21, recently moved past ex-Moose Jaw standout Theoren Fleury, who is 10th with 201 goals. Holt and Fleury are first cousins. Holt is 5-foot-7, one inch taller than Fleury.&ldquo;He has influenced me so much,&rdquo; Holt said. &ldquo;For me to surpass his total, it makes it that much better. A player like Theoren Fleury is one of the elite players in the NHL. I&rsquo;m proud to have my name up with guys like that.&rdquo; &#9632;

Prince Georae outs in bid to be part of monarchy

<div class="byline">By Jim Cressman</div>A change in scenery for Ontario League veteran goalie Matt Mullin has helped paint a better playoff picture for the Sudbury Wolves.The Canadian Hockey League&rsquo;s goalie of the month for January sparked the Wolves&rsquo; climb to the upper echelons of the Leyden Division.Mullin, 19, was traded to Sudbury by the Windsor Spitfires Dec. 9. The Spitfires had made the decision to give the bulk of the work to rookie Travis Scott in preparation for next season. It meant bench time for Mullin.He couldn&rsquo;t be happier in Sudbury, playing in 23 of 24 games, and the Wolves couldn&rsquo;t be happier with him and his 14-6-3 record. He won nine straight home games before a 4-3 loss to the Oshawa Generals Feb. 8.&ldquo;I came in here with a positive attitude because I want to move on in the game,&rdquo; said the undrafted Mullin. &ldquo;I have to continue to play well and impress people. I&rsquo;m in a position where I have to play a lot to prove myself.&rdquo;Mullin figures his size, 5-foot-8 and 145 pounds, is his biggest knock, but said others such as Grant Fuhr and John Vanbiesbrouck have proved small goalies can play in the NHL.&ldquo;I look at them and use it to motivate myself,&rdquo; Mullin said. &ldquo;All that matters should be keeping the puck out of the net and winning. It&rsquo;s a matter of proving them wrong.&rdquo;Mullin was second in the OHL with a 3.33 goals-against average.BLIND JUSTICE: London Knights&rsquo; coachgeneral manager and governor Gary Agnew said the OHL needs to pay attention to the NHL and its edict to referees regarding tighter rule enforcement.Agnew was crying foul following a 4-2 loss to Windsor Feb. 11. He claimed his scoring star, center Jason Allison, is a target and the referees aren&rsquo;t protecting him.Agnew took a bench penalty in the third period for verbally abusing referee Bill Prisniak, then continued his assault afterward.&ldquo;It is sickening,&rdquo; he said &ldquo;Jason Allison is being mauled, mugged. The cops wanted to lay charges and the ref wouldn&rsquo;t call a penalty.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re supposed to let the skilled players play, but it&rsquo;s coming down to one common denominator: If you can tackle and hold the top performers, you can play in the OHL. As a governor of the league, it&rsquo;s embarrassing.&ldquo;People are coming out to see Jason Allison, a World Junior hero, and he&rsquo;s being brought down to the most common denominator. You can&rsquo;t play by the rules of the book, so you have to start playing by the rules of the jungle. It&rsquo;s going to be a great game of hockey.&rdquo;Allison was second in league scoring with 44 goals and 61 points in 44 games.RECORD SAFE: Sherry Bassin&rsquo;s record for fewest wins by an OHL coach in one season is safe for another year.The Newmarket Royals went on a three-game winning streak, giving coach-GM Don Boyd eight wins against 36 losses and eight ties.Bassin won only five games with the Oshawa Generals in 1976-77. He lost 57 and tied four in his only year behind the bench.Bassin, who was GM with the Generals and then the Memorial Cup-champion Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, joined the Quebec Nordiques this season as an assistant GM.RUSSIAN ROCKET: North Bay Centennials&rsquo; rookie right winger Vitali Yachmenev is the first OHL player to reach the 50-goal plateau this season and is the first Centennial rookie to score 50.The 19-year-old was fifth in OHL scoring with 51 goals and 95 points, tops for any rookie. He led the league with 10 game-winning goals.WEEKLY HONOR: Ottawa 67&rsquo;s goalie C.J. Denomme was player of the week for the period ending Feb. 13 after three straight wins over Leyden Division rivals.Denomme came on in the third period to blank North Bay, then allowed one goal in each game as the 67&rsquo;s beat Oshawa and the Belleville Bulls.The 19-year-old had the fifth-best goals-average (3.38) in the OHL. He was 14-6-4 with the 67&rsquo;s. &#9632;

There’s no Mullin over this trade

<div class="byline">By Stuart Cowan</div>Jason Doig&rsquo;s rookie season in the Quebec League has had its ups and downs, but the St-Jean Lynx defenseman has no regrets about choosing the junior ranks over U.S. college.The 6-foot-2, 220-pounder was the top-rated player heading into last year&rsquo;s midget draft, but warned teams he would try the college route because he said education is important to him.The Lynx took a gamble, selected Doig seventh overall and eventually managed to convince him to play junior hockey while continuing his education.&ldquo;I have no regrets,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to a good private school and it&rsquo;s going well. I do miss some classes because of hockey, so I have a lot of catching up to do, but I have the time.&rdquo;Doig, 17, had seven goals and 21 points in 49 games. He missed eight games in December with a serious mouth injury. During a game against the Shawinigan Cataractes, Doig was hit in the mouth with a shot which knocked out his two front teeth on top, cracked two bottom teeth and also cracked a bone in the top of his mouth.&ldquo;I was wearing a mouth guard, but it didn&rsquo;t do much good,&rdquo; Doig said.Luckily for Doig, St-Jean trainer Antoine Atallah picked the rookie&rsquo;s two front teeth out of a pool of blood and put them in a bag of ice. A dentist was later able to put them back in, while putting caps on the two bottom teeth.As for his performance, Doig is adjusting after a slow start.&ldquo;At the beginning of the year I was lacking a little experience on defense and the team wasn&rsquo;t doing very well,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;ve worked on that and it has started to pick up.&ldquo;My offense has been a little below what I expected. Coming out of (midget) I was used to pinching in too much, which is natural for an offensive defenseman. I was getting caught too much so I had to adjust. Now I&rsquo;m trying to con-centrate on my defensive game.&rdquo;Doig is being used on St-Jean&rsquo;s power play, but has a goal of also making it to the penaltykilling team. His next personal goal is the 1995 NHL entry draft. He&rsquo;s not eligible this year.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard not to think about it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s why we&rsquo;re playing junior hockey. I&rsquo;m just trying to improve all the facets of my game and keep my hopes up.&rdquo;One person who is convinced Doig has a future in the NHL is John Paris, who resigned as St-Jean&rsquo;s coach Feb. 4 to accept a coaching job in Roller Hockey International.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s NHL all the way,&rdquo; Paris said. &ldquo;This kid will be a good one. He has to work on his execution, balance and mobility, but he knows that. And he&rsquo;s only 17.&rdquo;&ldquo;He can be the best defenseman to come out of the Quebec League since Ray Bourque, maybe better. It&rsquo;s all up to him.&rdquo;FERNANDEZ A STAR: The Quebec Nordiques traded the NHL rights of Laval Titan goalie Manny Fernandez to the Dallas Stars Feb. 13 for defenseman Tommy Sjodin and a third-round draft pick in 1994 or 1995.A member of Canada&rsquo;s gold-medal team at the World Junior Championship, Fernandez was Quebec&rsquo;s third-round pick (52nd overall) at the 1992 entry draft. He had a 24-12-1 record, two shutouts and a 3.22 goals-against average.Fernandez&rsquo;s status with the Nordiques was clouded when 18-year-old Jocelyn Thibault made the Quebec roster this season.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had a pretty good year,&rdquo; Fernandez said. &ldquo;I was surprised they&rsquo;d let me go that easily. I think this shows Quebec wasn&rsquo;t ready to give me my chance, but I think this is better for everyone involved, including Thibault.&rdquo;Fernandez learned of the trade in a telephone call from Nordiques&rsquo; coach-general manager Pierre Page.&ldquo;I was surprised it was Dallas,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I had heard rumors I was going to Detroit or L.A., but never Dallas. I was really surprised.&ldquo;But I&rsquo;m happy. I&rsquo;m going to the States, which is good because of the money. This is a new way for me to motivate myself for the rest of the year. It&rsquo;s good for me because there are fewer goalies in Dallas.&rdquo; &#9632;

Lynx rookie Doig happy he didn’t dodge St-Jean

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0042-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01338/6251606-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0042-01

CLASSIFIED

<div class="byline">By Al Morganti</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01350/6251644-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg" title="f0043-01" width="389" height="546"></div>If I was a fan of the New York Rangers, I would have been doing hand stands when the Pittsburgh Penguins traded Marty McSorley back to the Los Angeles Kings.The Eastern Conference road to the Stanley Cup sure looked tough when McSorley was in the Penguins&rsquo; lineup.In the meantime, fans of the Los Angeles Kings must have thought the hockey gods were smiling down upon them when they found out that McSorley is coming back. The Kings had been taking heat since they decided McSorley wasn&rsquo;t worth $1.8 million per year and traded him to the Penguins before the season.Now the boomerang trade, which sent McSorley and Jim Paek to the Kings for Shawn McEachern and Tomas Sandstrom, has righted the Kings&rsquo; wrong.Presumably, the Penguins are now entering the trade-deadline shopping frenzy in search of a McSorley-type defenseman who does not make $1.8 million per season. Until they finally pull the trigger, there will be talk of the Jeff Browns and Dave Mansons, or whoever can make their fortunes brighter as they head into the playoffs.Granted, McSorley was not an overwhelming addition to the Penguins&rsquo; lineup during his brief stay. He was hardly the rock of a defense which already features Larry Murphy and Ulf Samuelsson and he wasn&rsquo;t the most popular player in a dressing room which had forged its own personality during two Stanley Cup championships.Ulf Samuelsson jokingly suggested that &ldquo;maybe (Marty) missed the sun&rdquo; of Los Angeles. Perhaps, but the weather wasn&rsquo;t real warm in Edmonton all those years.Instead, maybe he just needed the bell to ring for the playoffs. Maybe he was waiting for crunch time to really crunch people. Maybe McSorley is still the kind of player who steps up his game and makes a whole team braver when the games get bigger.When the Penguins acquired McSorley, there were just as many fans who wondered why the Kings would let him go as there were fans who wondered why the Penguins would pry open the war chest to pay such a huge salary. The answers were easy: The Kings were putting the payroll ahead of the win column, while the Penguins were reacting like a team which looked at the spring of 1993 as an interruption of their Stanley Cup-reign, rather than the end of an era.The Penguins were going to make sure they were back on top in 1994 and if it cost them a few bucks, so be it. When you added McSorley into the mix, the Penguins would not get pushed around.It sure looked like a good plan, but we will never get to see the result. The Penguins gave up on McSorley way too early. And the biggest indication they made a mistake should be the very eagerness the Kings showed at getting McSorley back.To get a true indication of a player&rsquo;s worth, ask around a dressing room after he leaves. From the owner&rsquo;s box to the training room, everybody missed McSorley in Los Angeles.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-02250/6251637-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg" title="f0043-02" width="582" height="895"><figcaption class="caption-body">Marty McSorley</figcaption></div>The real loser in the initial deal was probably McEachern, who might as well have worn the name &ldquo;I&rsquo;m Not-Marty&rdquo; across his back. Perhaps this will turn into a good deal all around. The Kings should rediscover their grit, while Sandstrom provides short-term help in Pittsburgh where McEachern is required to fill the gaps left by Mario Lemieux&rsquo;s absence.The risk in Pittsburgh is that the other shoe doesn&rsquo;t drop quite right in a follow-up deal for a defenseman and if the Penguins get run out of the playoffs by the Rangers&ndash;or anybody else-Penguins&rsquo; fans will wonder why McSorley isn&rsquo;t around.In the meantime, McSorley continues an amazing career in which he has been traded three times, but has never played on a team without either Wayne Gretzky or Lemieux.Somebody up there likes him-almost as much as the fans in Los Angeles. &#9632;

f0043-01

Who won McSorley deal? The Rangers

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div>In defense pairings, as in marriage, there are three unbreakable rules.1. Allow your partner to do what he does best.In some pairings, one partner stays at home while the other rushes far afield. New York Rangers&rsquo; rearguard Jeff Beukeboom has proven a perfect foil for the gifted Brian Leetch. Boston Bruin plugger Don Sweeney and offensive kingpin Ray Bourque fit hand-in-glove.In others, the players bring similar skills. Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; No. 1 tandem of Doug Bodger and Craig Muni are defense-oriented players who accomplish the same things differently. Bodger moves the puck better while Muni is adept at blocking shots. In tandem they can be a suffocating force for an opposing offense.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been really lucky,&rdquo; said Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; defenseman Paul Coffey. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve played with guys my whole career, Charlie Huddy in Edmonton, Nicklas Lidstrom here, whose games really complement mine.&rdquo;The Lidstrom-Coffey combination challenges the notion that opposites attract. Lidstrom, like Coffey, is an excellent skater whose greatest assets are offensive skills, but he is solid enough defensively to cover Coffey&rsquo;s forays.The important thing, Coffey said, isn&rsquo;t to be alike. It&rsquo;s to be compatible.&ldquo;We both move the puck, we&rsquo;re both good with the puck and we&rsquo;re good with each other,&rdquo; Coffey said. &ldquo;We think the same way. The last weapon in our playbook is to bank the puck off the boards.&rdquo;Coffey&rsquo;s game was revitalized when he was reunited with Lidstrom a month into the season in much the same way Eric Weinrich&rsquo;s game flourished when he was traded from the Hartford Whalers to the Chicago Blackhawks and paired with Chris Chelios. Weinrich, a talented player who lacked grit, plays bigger with the incendiary Chelios, who is spared some puckhandling responsibility.2. Don&rsquo;t let anyone hit on your partner.The fastest way of coming face-to-face with tough Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; defenseman Lyle Odelein is to rough up partner Mathieu Schneider.Watch any effective defense pair and you will see a symphony of little things done to protect the other. Good pairs work on positioning themselves for an outlet pass, thus sparing a partner the necessity of eating the puck. Never should a pass lead a player into a forechecker where he must absorb a hit to save a turnover.&ldquo;When one defenseman goes back for the puck, the other guy takes the lead forechecker,&rdquo; said Mighty Ducks of Anaheim assistant coach Al Sims, a one-time sidekick to Bobby Orr.&ldquo;You protect each other&rsquo;s back, run picks for one another and any time your partner gets a cheap-shot, you make sure you can give it back to that guy later.&rdquo;There is no recipe for putting players together. They don&rsquo;t even have to like each other. The great Soviet tandem of Viach-eslav Fetisov and Alexei Kasatonov felt a mutual loathing, but still formed a dynamic duo.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the style of play, not the personalities, that has to fit,&rdquo; said Sabres&rsquo; director of player personnel Don Luce.3. Keep talking through good times and bad.Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; defenseman Dave Ellett, who along with Todd Gill has formed the team&rsquo;s best recent pairing, said communication is paramount.&ldquo;You have to learn what the other player&rsquo;s tendencies are and the only way to do that is to communicate. It&rsquo;s the most important factor. That&rsquo;s what allows you to make a play without looking and know your partner is there.&rdquo;Sims said Orr told him the most important thing to remember in their first scrimmage together.&ldquo;I was just dazzled, he did three spins and put the puck right on my stick,&rdquo; Sims said. &ldquo;It knocked the stick out of my hand and the other team scored. On the bench, Bobby said, &lsquo;The first thing you&rsquo;d better learn is to quit watching me and do what you do best.&rsquo;&rdquo;<h2>DYNAMIC DUOS ON DEFENSE</h2>A poll of several NHL coaches, scouts and players found that the Boston Bruins&rsquo; defense tandem of Ray Bourque and Don Sweeney is considered to be the league&rsquo;s best. Listed below, alphabetically by team, are the NHL&rsquo;s top pairings and which way each player shoots (left or right).<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-03210/6251675-1-eng-US/f0043-032.jpg" title="f0043-03" width="980" height="2703"><figcaption class="caption-body">Scott Stevens New Jersey Devils</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0043-03

NHL’s perfect couples

<div class="byline">By Tim Campbell</div>&ldquo;I told you so,&rdquo; is not one of John Paddock&rsquo;s favorite phrases.But pressed on several issues about his wallowing Winnipeg Jets, the coach-general manager said there were signs long ago that his team was way off course, even as early as four weeks into the season.Paddock made a blanket criticism of his club, which was winless 15 games (0-13-2) through Feb. 20, saying things would have come around long ago if there was more responsibility in the dressing room.&ldquo;Some players have such a lack of account-ability,&rdquo; Paddock said. &ldquo;It started back even when we were playing decent. So many guys think it&rsquo;s somebody else&rsquo;s fault and they&rsquo;re completely irresponsible.&ldquo;Early in the season, somebody was upset we were making comments&hellip;about being 6-3-1 and that we were not playing that good. They didn&rsquo;t understand why we were upset. If they were more responsible or had reacted to that, they&rsquo;d have done something about it long ago.&rdquo;The club had played seven of 10 on the road, and several players had objected when Paddock and then-GM Mike Smith were unimpressed by the 6-3-1 mark.Struggles through November brought about an early-December crisis, where a coach-to-team lecture of major proportions took place in Toronto Dec. 8. That night, the Jets beat the Leafs, but when they returned home, they lost to the Florida Panthers Dec. 10 and didn&rsquo;t win again for two weeks.&ldquo;You guys thought I did flip-out in Toronto, that we were going to turn it around,&rdquo; Paddock reminded reporters. &ldquo;We did for one game. It&rsquo;s like we can&rsquo;t stand any sustained success. We embarrassed them once and it lasted for three days. That should have been a turnaround.&rdquo;BAD COMPARISON: Center Randy Gilhen, who was raised in Winnipeg and makes his permanent home there, has heard enough from the critics and politicians.&ldquo;Now I read we&rsquo;re like Minnesota was last year, that we have no stability and that&rsquo;s why we&rsquo;re losing,&rdquo; Gilhen said. &ldquo;Well, we&rsquo;re not anything like Minnesota or Dallas. And we&rsquo;re not like Edmonton. Our owner, Barry Shenkarow, has said he wants to keep the team here. That&rsquo;s different than those other places.&rdquo;Gilhen is aware of the deal that has the city of Winnipeg and the province of Manitoba partici-pating in a plan aimed at keeping the Jets in Winnipeg; that both levels of government are supporting the club by absorbing losses.NOTEBOOK: John Paddock quashed trade rumors that had goalie Bob Essensa going to the Detroit Red Wings. He and Detroit GM Bryan Murray had talked almost every day for three weeks, but Paddock was unwilling to accept any of Murray&rsquo;s offers. &ldquo;We are not trading Bob Essensa,&rdquo; Paddock said. &ldquo;As GMs, we talk about a lot of names.&rdquo;Winger Tie Domi was upset after his team lost 7-2 at home to the Chicago Blackhawks Feb. 18. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sick and tired of people blaming Bobby,&rdquo; he said in reaction to jeers directed at Bob Essensa. &ldquo;If you&rsquo;re going to blame somebody, blame me, not him. You&rsquo;d think our fans had won 10 Stanley Cups the way they treat the team. And if anybody&rsquo;s got something to say to me, come and say it to my face.&rdquo;<h2>WINNIPEG</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 19: Russ Romaniuk, I_W, and John LeBlanc, LW, recalled from Moncton (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Alexei Zhamnov. Thomas Steen, Randy Gilhen, Mike Eagles, Dave Tomlinson.LW&ndash;Keith Tkachuk. Darrin Shannon. Kris King, Russ Romaniuk. Kevin McClelland. John LeBlanc.RW&ndash;Paul Ysebaert, Nelson Emerson, Luciano Borsato, Tie Domi. Bryan Erickson.LD&ndash;Sergei Bautin. Igor Ulanov, Darryl Shannon.RD&ndash;Stephane Quintal. Wayne McBean, Boris Mironov, Dean Kennedy.G&ndash;Bob Essensa. Mike O&rsquo;Neill.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Teppo Numminen, D, dislocated left thumb. March 2. Teemu Selanne, RW, severed right Achilles tendon, April 10. &#9632;

Problems started long ago

<div class="byline">By Keith Gave</div>If rookie Chris Osgood had his way, the Detroit Red Wings would take a closer look at the quality of their goaltending and re-evaluate their need for a No. 1 stopper to lead them through the Stanley Cup playoffs.But at the very least, Osgood believes he and partner Tim Cheveldae deserve better than the widespread perception Detroit&rsquo;s goaltending is poor.&ldquo;Me and Tim just want a little credit. That&rsquo;s the bottom line,&rdquo; Osgood said.Instead of credit, they get a steady diet of trade rumors, most involving Cheveldae leaving for a goalie allegedly better-suited to lead the Wings to a Cup.&ldquo;Throughout this whole thing, Tim has played well,&rdquo; Osgood said. &ldquo;He goes out and plays as hard as he can every night. Our combined record is excellent. It&rsquo;s just nice to get a little credit now and then.&rdquo;Cheveldae had a 15-8-1 record in 28 games with a 3.36 goals-against average and .877 save percentage. He plays mostly road games because Red Wings&rsquo; fans heckle him on home ice.Osgood was staking his claim to a berth on the NHL&rsquo;s all-rookie team with a 17-5-4 record in 29 games. He had a 3.01 GAA and .893 save percentage and was the main man on home ice.The 21-year-old Osgood was Detroit&rsquo;s third choice in the 1991 entry draft. He doesn&rsquo;t say much to the media, but was outspoken when asked about the treatment he and Cheveldae have received.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been thrown into the same boat as Timmy.&rdquo; Osgood said, &ldquo;and I&rsquo;m not having a bad year. I&rsquo;m having one of the best years of my hockey career.&rdquo;DEAL DASHED: Trade talks between the Wings and Winnipeg Jets went sour after Detroit refused to meet the Jets&rsquo; asking price for goalie Bob Essensa.Winnipeg wanted Tim Cheveldae and two forwards, including rookie Martin Lapointe, for Essensa and a defenseman. Wings&rsquo; assistant general manager Doug MacLean said the talks were nearly dead.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re on life support,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and (Dr.) Kevorkian is lurking in the background.&rdquo;Dr. Jack Kevorkian is a Detroit-area physician notorious for assisting suicides.The day after MacLean made his remark, he was in Winnipeg scouting Essensa in a 7-2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks Feb. 18.He only laughed when asked if he had run into Kevorkian lurking around Manitoba.NOTEBOOK: Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; coach-general manager Glen Sather said Feb. 18 that Oilers&rsquo; goalie Bill Ranford is available for the right price. The Wings would love to obtain Ranford, but the compensation may be too high. Wings&rsquo; GM Bryan Murray was in Norway scouting the Olympics and was unavailable for comment. He has said frequently the cost would be prohibitive. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to have to rebuild our team after I trade for a goalie,&rdquo; Murray said in early February.<h2>DETROIT</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 17: Gord Kruppke. D, assigned to Adirondack (AHL). Jason York. D, and Bob Halkidis. D, recalled from Adirondack, Feb. 18: York assigned to Adirondack, Feb. 20: Steve Maltais. LW, assigned to Adirondack.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Sergei Fedorov, Steve Yzerman, Dallas Drake, Kris Draper,LW&ndash;Slava Kozlov, Keith Primeau. Shawn Burr. Micah Aivazoff.RW&ndash;Bob Probert, Ray Sheppard, Darren McCarty, Mike Sillinger. Sheldon Kennedy.LD&ndash;Paul Coffey, Steve Chiasson. Bob Halkidis, Steve Konroyd.RD&ndash;Nick Lidstrom, Vladimir Konstantinov. Terry Carkner.G&ndash;Tim Cheveldae, Chris Osgood.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dino Ciccarelli, RW, broken loot, day-to-day. Mark Howe, D, strained back, day-to-day. &#9632;

Osgood seeking credit for solid performance

<div class="byline">By Dave Luecking</div>Although the St. Louis Blues finished their marathon nine-game homestand on a high note with three straight wins, something happened in the last game that might throw them off-key.Playmaking center Craig Janney missed the final period of the 4-1 victory over the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim Feb. 20 with what the club called a &ldquo;sore knee.&rdquo;He was listed as day-to-day, but Blues&rsquo; ortho-pedic surgeon Dr. Jerome Gilden said Janney would be sidelined at least seven days.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a knee strain-a grade I strain,&rdquo; Gilden said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s usually a week. I think it&rsquo;s minor.&rdquo;Janney was injured near the end of the second period when a Ducks&rsquo; player hit him low as he skated through the neutral zone. He said the injury was &ldquo;nothing big.&rdquo;The Blues could ill-afford to lose Janney, the team-leader and one of the league leaders with 55 assists. Only two players have more assists than Janney in the last two years-Doug Gilmour of the Toronto Maple Leafs had 154 assists in two seasons and Adam Oates of the Boston Bruins had 150. Janney had 137.Next to goalie Curtis Joseph, Janney might be the most indispensible Blue. If wingers Brett Hull or Brendan Shanahan would fall victim to injury, the other would still be there. Same with defensemen Jeff Brown and Steve Duchesne.After Janney, rookie Jim Montgomery is the next best center.&ldquo;C.J.&rsquo;s indispensible,&rdquo; Shanahan said.McSURLY ABOUT MARTY: Before the Pittsburgh Penguins sent defenseman Marty McSorley back to the Los Angeles Kings Feb. 15, the big defenseman was rumored to be headed to the Blues for Brown and Kelly Chase.But there was one major problem. According to the collective bargaining agreement that expired Sept. 15, a team that signs a player to a free-agent offer sheet is prohibited from acquiring that player for one year if his original team matches the offer.The Kings locked out the Blues for a year when they matched the free-agent offer sheet of five years and $10 million that McSorley had signed with the Blues last summer.The retrade, which also included Tomas Sandstrom going to Pittsburgh for Jim Paek, prompted team president Jack Quinn to call the NHL office. Officials assured him there was nothing untoward.&ldquo;It appeared somewhat coincidental the same two players would be going back to their respective teams,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;It bothered me, but the league looked into every aspect of the trade.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: After going 2-3-1 in the first six games of their nine-game homestand, the Blues recovered with three wins-3-2 over the Vancouver Canucks, 3-1 over the Boston Bruins and 4-1 over Anaheim&hellip;Steve Duchesne had four goals and 13 points in 13 games since arriving from the Quebec Nordiques Jan. 23.The Blues toured the site of their new downtown arena-the Kiel Center-Feb. 16. The building should be completed by mid-October, in time for the Blues to open their home schedule next season. The Blues start next season on the road.<h2>ST. LOUIS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 17: Dan Laperriere, D, assigned to Peoria (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Jim Montgomery, Brendan Shanahan, Igor Korolev.LW&ndash;Kevin Miller, Philippe Bozon, Vitali Prokhorov, Dave Mackey.RW&ndash;Brett Hull, Denny Felsner, Nathan LaFayette, Kelly Chase.LD&ndash;Murray Baron, Jeff Brown, Bret Hedican.RD&ndash;Steve Duchesne, Rick Zombo, Tom Tilley, Doug Crossman.G&ndash;Curtis Joseph. Jim Hrivnak.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Denis Chasse, RW, pinched nerve in neck, indefinite. Phil Housley, D, back surgery, indefinite. Craig Janney, C, strained knee, day-to-day. Vitali Karamnov, RW, sprained left ankle, day-to-day. Basil McRae, LW, abdominal surgery, indefinite. &#9632;

Janney’s minor knee injury a temporary setback

<div class="byline">By Steve Huber</div>Learn from the stars. Dallas Stars&rsquo; goalie Darcy Wakaluk did.The 27-year-old Wakaluk, who has reached a career high in wins at 13, was a student of team-mate Andy Moog&rsquo;s at a hockey school in Penticton, B.C., more than a decade ago.Wakaluk, now in his third year with the Stars, was far ahead of his counterparts at the school said 34-year-old Moog.&ldquo;Very fundamentally sound,&rdquo; Moog said. &ldquo;Head and shoulders above the others. He was serious about goaltending while the other kids were thinking about getting off the ice and going to the beach.&rdquo;Moog said he was also a dry-land instructor for Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; goalie Kelly Hrudey many years ago. But Moog takes no credit for Wakaluk making it to the NHL.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m probably responsible for it taking so long for him getting there,&rdquo; Moog quipped.One thing Moog did not teach Wakaluk is the unusual habit that gets his teammates going. Wakaluk closes his eyes when there is a stoppage in play during the game.&ldquo;He blocks everything out,&rdquo; said defenseman Craig Ludwig. &ldquo;He doesn&rsquo;t talk to anyone. He&rsquo;s in his own world. You can joke with Andy. But you go to Darcy and he&rsquo;s got his eyes shut tighter than a drum.&rdquo;Teammate Dave Gagner backed Ludwig up.&ldquo;No joking,&rdquo; Gagner said. &ldquo;He has his eyes closed. I think it&rsquo;s kind of peculiar-a goalie playing with his eyes closed.&rdquo;Wakaluk smiles and shrugs off the barbs.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a bum rap,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I close my eyes between stoppages of play. Guys have gotten all over me. I try not to let my mind wander. I think about the saves I&rsquo;m going to make and how I&rsquo;m going to handle a certain situation. It&rsquo;s not like I&rsquo;m having a nap.&rdquo;Wakaluk was particularly strong in a 4-2 win over the Calgary Flames Feb. 18 at Reunion Arena. It was his third win over the Flames this season as the Stars won the season series against the Pacific Division leaders 3-01.Flames&rsquo; goalie Mike Vernon was penalized twice for shooting the puck into the stands. The second penalty-with the scored tied 2-2 in the second period-put the Flames two men down. The Stars scored twice on the ensuing power plays and that was the game.&ldquo;That was a tough play,&rdquo; Wakaluk said. &ldquo;The puck looked like it was coming up. It&rsquo;s a big stick and tough to control&rdquo;MOOG FOILED: It was a showdown Andy Moog has been awaiting the whole season-a meeting with his former teammates, the Boston Bruins.But Boston, led by former Stars&rsquo; goalie Jon Casey, shut out the Stars 3-0 at Reunion Arena Feb. 16. Moog played well, stopping 39 of 42 shots.Both goalies were facing their old teams for the first time. Moog said he was anxious and nervous about the meeting.&ldquo;I was moving about 70 mph and the pucks were moving about 50 mph,&rdquo; Moog said.NOTEBOOK: The Stars took a league-high six-game road winning streak into a game with the San Jose Sharks Feb. 21&hellip;Through Feb. 20, the the Stars were perfect (16-0-0) in games they scored five goals or more.Left winger Ulf Dahlen had a six-game point scoring streak snapped by the Bruins Feb. 16. Dahlen had four goals and 13 points in the six games.<h2>DALLAS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 13: Tommy Sjodin, D, and a conditional draft pick traded to Quebec tor Emmanuel Fernandez, G.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Neal Broten, Dean Evason, Dave Gagner. Dave Barr.LW&ndash;Mike McPhee. Ulf Dahlen, Brent Gilchnst, Jim McKenzie.RW&ndash;Russ Courtnail, Mike Craig, Paul Broten.LD&ndash;Mark Tinordi, Derian Hatcher, Craig Ludwig, Richard Matvichuk.RD&ndash;Grant Ledyard, Paul Cavallini, Gord DonnellyG&ndash;Andy Moog. Darcy Wakaluk.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Jim Johnson, D, fractured vertebra, day-to-day. &#9632;

Wakaluk’s play an eye-opener

<div class="byline">By Damien Cox</div>Once the Toronto Maple Leafs established themselves as one of the NHL&rsquo;s top teams, a funny thing began to happen.As the season has worn on, the Leafs have found themselves hardpressed to play well against teams lower down in the standings.Toronto started the season 5-0-2 against sub-.500 clubs, but then managed only six wins in their next 16 games against weaker opposition.Of 17 losses, two were to the Tampa Bay Lightning, one to the Winnipeg Jets and one to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. Of 11 ties, six came against the San Jose Sharks (two), Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg, Anaheim and Hartford Whalers.&ldquo;A lot of it is the opposition,&rdquo; defenseman Todd Gill said. &ldquo;If they don&rsquo;t come out jumping, it seems we don&rsquo;t. But that&rsquo;s no excuse.&rdquo;Last season, the Leafs gathered more than 25 per cent of their team-record 99 points by posting a 14-2-0 mark against the Ottawa Senators, San Jose and Tampa Bay.The Sharks and first-year Ducks have posed particular problems for the Leafs this season, losing only one of five games to Toronto.Through 60 games, the Leafs were 10-6-6 against sub.-500 teams, and a much better 2111-5 against the rest of the league.DOWN TO ROCK: Yanic Perreault will have to hope three times is a charm. Or perhaps he&rsquo;ll find himself with another team next fall.Perreault, a prolific minor-league scorer, was assigned to St. John&rsquo;s of the American League for the third time this season Feb. 18 after showing little evidence he&rsquo;s ready to become a consistent NHL point producer.&ldquo;Yanic is still a prospect,&rdquo; said coach Pat Burns. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a lack of quickness, a lack of reacting quicker. Those little moves that work in the AHL against slow-footed defensemen don&rsquo;t work here.&rdquo;While Bums tried to sound optimistic about Perreault&rsquo;s future, the 22-year-old pivot will be a Group I free agent this summer and will likely catch on elsewhere unless he&rsquo;s able to resurface this season and make an impact.While Group I free agents require compensation or equalization, general manager Cliff Fletcher demonstrated last summer with defenseman Darryl Shannon he&rsquo;s willing to release such players if they don&rsquo;t fit into the club&rsquo;s plans.Perreault had three goals and six points in 13 games, but has played poorly defensively.NOTEBOOK: The Leafs increased their depth in goal when they acquired goalie Pat Jablonski from the Tampa Bay Lightning Feb. 21 for future considerations. Jablonski, 26, was backing up Lightning starter Daren Puppa and had appeared in 15 games. He had a 5-6-3 record and 3.88 goals-against average&hellip;Pat Burns picked up his 250th coaching win Feb. 19 in a 3-2 win over Edmonton.Todd Gill recorded his 200th career point with a goal against Edmonton and Ken Baumgartner played in his 400th game.Damien Cox is a hockey writer for The Toronto Star.<h2>TORONTO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 18: Yanic Perreault. C, assigned to St. John&rsquo;s (AHL). Feb. 21: Pat Jablonski, G, acquired from Tampa Bay for future considerations.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Doug Gilmour, Mike Eastwood, Mike Krushelnyski.LW&ndash;Dave Andreychuk, Wendel Clark, Ken Baumgartner, Bill Berg.RW&ndash;Nikolai Borschevsky, Rob Pearson, Glenn Anderson, Mark Osborne, Kent Manderville, Mark Greig.LD&ndash;Jamie Macoun, Dave Ellett, Todd Gill.RD&ndash;Sylvain Lefebvre, Dmitri Mironov, Drake Berehowsky.G&ndash;Felix Potvin, Damian Rhodes, Pat Jablonski.<h3>INJURIES</h3>John Cullen, C, sprained right ankle, day-to-day. Bob Rouse, D, right knee surgery, March 6. Peter Zezel, C, pulled rib muscle, day-to-day. &#9632;

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March 4, 1994

NHL targets 1998 Games

INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE

Berg holds NHL title as No. 1 Superpest

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