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 25, 1994

The Hockey News March 25, 1994

<div class="byline">By Dave Molinari</div>The Pittsburgh Penguins often send five millionaires over the boards when they get a power play and challenge their opponents with some of the most lethal talent in the game.But they can&rsquo;t find anybody who can turn those power plays into goals.&ldquo;Special teams win or lose games for you,&rdquo; said coach Ed Johnston. &ldquo;Right now, our power play hasn&rsquo;t won anything for us.&rdquo;The Penguins broke out of a 2-for-34 power-play slump during the second weekend in March, but nobody accused the power play of overachieving in those games.It was 2-for-6 in a 6-2 win over the New York Rangers March 12 and 1-for-5 in a 3-2 win over the Hartford Whalers the next day.The Penguins had 59 power-play goals on 338 tries through March 14. That&rsquo;s a success rate of 17.5 per cent, hardly the type of production Pittsburgh was expecting before the season.Last fall, the consensus was that Pittsburgh&rsquo;s power play might shortcircuit the Civic Arena scoreboard with players such as Mario Lemieux, Kevin Stevens and Jaromir Jagr and Johnston&rsquo;s gift for power-play strategy.But as the regular season entered its final month, there was no evidence the power play was about to begin meeting expectations.&ldquo;Hopefully, we&rsquo;ll get it going sooner or later,&rdquo; Joe Mullen said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve definitely got the talent. There&rsquo;s no reason we can&rsquo;t get it going.&rdquo;Actually, there was at least one pretty good reason. The Penguins seemed to be consumed with the idea of scoring highlight-type goals, of making a series of tape-to-tape passes that produced a shot into an open net.Sounds fine in theory, but what it produced was a lot of perimeter passing. All that puck movement might have impressed someone, but it didn&rsquo;t concern opposing penalty-killers.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m getting sick and tired of us just passing it around, passing it around,&rdquo; Johnston said. &ldquo;If they don&rsquo;t want to shoot it, I&rsquo;ll put somebody else there to start shooting it from now on.&rdquo;NOT IMPRESSED: The Penguins made it through a three-game stretch against some of the NHL&rsquo;s top teams-Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs and the New York Rangers-with a 2-1-0 record, but weren&rsquo;t overly impressed by their performance.&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to do more than play (well) every second game, that&rsquo;s for sure, to go anywhere in the playoffs,&rdquo; Kjell Samuelsson said.Pittsburgh beat Boston (7-3 March 8), lost to Toronto (4-2 March 10), then knocked off the Rangers. All three games were at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.NOTEBOOK: Dr. Roberto Watkins, a renowned back specialist based in Los Angeles, examined right winger Rick Tocchet and put him on an exercise regimen to treat his disc problem. Tocchet sat out six consecutive games through mid-March.<h2>PITTSBURGH</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>March 7: Chris Tamer, D, recalled from Cleveland (IHL) March 8: Larry DePalma, LW, claimed on waivers from New York Islanders, assigned to Cleveland. March 9: DePalma recalled from Cleveland. Mike Needham, RW, and Markus Naslund, LW, assigned to Cleveland.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Mano Lemieux, Ron Francis, Martin Straka, Shawn McEachern.LW-Kevin Stevens, Doug Brown, Jeff Daniels, Larry DePalma.RW-Jaromir Jagr, Joe Mullen, Tomas Sandstrom.LD-Ulf Samuelsson, Mike Ramsey, Grant Jennings, Chris Tamer.RD-Larry Murphy, Kjell Samuelsson, Peter Taglianetti, Greg Brown.G-Tom Barrasso, Ken Wregget.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Rick Tocchet, RW, back pain, dayto-day Bryan Trottier, C, back spasms, day-to-day &#9632;

IN THIS ISSUE

Power outage continues

<div class="byline">By Tim Campbell</div>It&rsquo;s likely only the tip of the iceberg, but the changes have begun in earnest in Winnipeg.Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; coach-general manager John Paddock played his biggest available trump, sending goalie Bob Essensa, 29, and defenseman Sergei Bautin, 27, to the Detroit Red Wings March 8. In return, the Jets received goalie Tim Cheveldae, 26, and center/left winger Dallas Drake, 25, ending weeks of speculation.Since Mike Smith was fired as GM, Paddock has traded for three players, all westem-Canadian bom.The talks between Paddock and Wings&rsquo; GM Bryan Murray had cooled after an initial attempt, but both agreed it was never dead.&ldquo;I had to have some upside to this trade and Dallas Drake is it,&rdquo; said Paddock, hoping the 25-year-old Drake&rsquo;s robust style will be effective in a first- or second-line role.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what we&rsquo;ve seen of him last year and this-that he plays bigger than he is.&rdquo;Drake said he can&rsquo;t wait to get on with the job and that there was no point in looking back at what might have been in Detroit. He had 10 goals and 33 points in 49 games.&ldquo;You try to be positive,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what Paul Coffey told me, that you have to find a way to make it positive and just do your best. When you feel you&rsquo;re wanted, it gives you a little hope for the future.&rdquo;Paddock also said he had confidence in Cheveldae as his main man in net, despite the team&rsquo;s defense being in shambles.&ldquo;I wish I could do something about our defense sooner, for the team&rsquo;s sake and for his sake,&rdquo; Paddock said. &ldquo;But both these guys are part of the process of making it better.&rdquo;RUDE AWAKENING: It took Tim Cheveldae 75 seconds of action to find out what he was getting into.In his first start March 11 against the Vancouver Canucks, an uncovered Greg Adams put the first shot of the game behind him and despite some quality saves, the Canucks went on to win 8-4. The next night in Toronto, he played well in a 3-1 loss to the Maple Leafs.&ldquo;Coming to Winnipeg, I didn&rsquo;t know what to expect,&rdquo; Cheveldae said. &ldquo;After the Vancouver game, I didn&rsquo;t know whether to laugh or cry. It was a little devastating right after the game.&ldquo;But I&rsquo;m trying to enjoy myself. I haven&rsquo;t had any fun at all playing the game this season. I&rsquo;ve set one goal. I told this already to (backup) Mike O&rsquo;Neill and asked him to ask me after every period if I smiled at least once out there.&rdquo;After two games with the Jets, Cheveldae had a 16-11-1 record and 3.62 goals-against average.NOTEBOOK: Left winger Darrin Shannon dramatically improved his play since the All-Star break. He had 10 goals and 20 points in 20 games through March 12.<h2>WINNIPEG</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>March 8: Bob Essensa, G, and Sergei Bautin, D, traded to Detroit tor Tim Cheveldae, G, and Dallas Drake, C/LW Stephane Beauregard, G, assigned to Moncton (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Alexei Zhamnov, Dallas Drake, Thomas Steen, Mike Eagles.LW-Kelth Tkachuk, Darrin Shannon, Kris King, Russ Romaniuk, Kevin McClelland, John LeBlanc.RW-Nelson Emerson, Luciano Borsato, Paul Ysebaert, Tie Domi.LD-lgor Ulanov, Stephane Quintal, Darryl Shannon.RD-Wayne McBean, Boris Mironov. Dean Kennedy.G-Tim Cheveldae. Mike O&rsquo;Neill.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Randy Gilhen, C, dislocated right shoulder, April 10 Teppo Numminen, D, fractured and dislocated left thumb, out for season Teemu Selanne, RW, severed right Achilles tendon, out for season. &#9632;

Team Paddock taking shape as Chevy, Drake added

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0033-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02541/6679252-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0033-02

INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE

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 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 Petr Nedved by Dan Hamilton. Gary Suter by Bruce Bennett Studios. Peter Forsberg by Bruce Bennett/BBS. &#9632;

The Hockey News

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-06366/6677856-1-eng-US/f0002-062.jpg" title="f0002-06" width="376" height="479"></div>Peter Forsberg will have to be Peter the Grit before he can develop into Peter the Great.It won&rsquo;t be easy in the NHL, where Forsberg will be called on to add new dimensions to his game: the dimensions of the North American ice surface. Forsberg has never played a game on a 200-by-85-foot ice surface. He is accustomed to 18 per-cent more space and 18 per-cent more time to make plays.Don&rsquo;t expect the 6-foot, 190-pound center to be an impact player the moment he touches down with the Quebec Nordiques this spring. Give him some time to adapt. He faces the twin pressures of heightened expectations (commensurate with a huge salary) and hopes the Nordiques can somehow make a late charge to the playoffs.Forsberg, 20, has been followed closely since dominating the 1993 World Junior Championship with a record-breaking scoring performance. Back with MoDo in the Swedish Elite League, Forsberg finished second in scoring with 23 goals and 47 points in 39 games and earned recognition as the world&rsquo;s best player outside the NHL.But things have not gone as smoothly in 1993-94. Forsberg had 18 goals and 43 points in 39 games. That placed him third in league scoring.&ldquo;He has been extremely inconsistent,&rdquo; said Swedish hockey writer Szymon Szemberg. &ldquo;The overall view of his play is that he simply doesn&rsquo;t give 100 per cent every night. It seems sometimes he doesn&rsquo;t care.&rdquo;Forsberg has moved away from the physical, driving game that marked his dramatic improvement last season and has been relying largely on puck skills. His coach and father, Kent Forsberg, acknowledged Peter is not the physical presence he was last season, but insisted his level of play hasn&rsquo;t suffered.&ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s a much better player this year than last year,&rdquo; Kent Forsberg said. &ldquo;More complete.&rdquo; Others think Raimo Helminen has been the Swedish League&rsquo;s best player this season, but Kent said his son is No. 1 again.He acknowledged Peter has suffered from the absence of linemate Markus Naslund, who left this year to join the Pittsburgh Penguins.Naslund has struggled, but MoDo may miss him as much as he misses his old team. The Ornskoldsvik-based club needed a win or tie in its final regular-season game to qualify for the playoffs. Forsberg is scheduled to join the surging Nordiques soon after MoDo&rsquo;s season ends.Quebec is hungry for a hero, but it&rsquo;s difficult to imagine Forsberg achieving higher status than he did after giving Sweden its first Olympic gold medal with a spectacular shootout goal against Corey Hirsch of Canada.&ldquo;That goal, just like Paul Henderson&rsquo;s in 1972, will never disappear,&rdquo; said Anders Hedberg, Swedish superstar-turned-Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; scout.Ulf Nilsson, Hedberg&rsquo;s scoring partner during the 1970s, said Forsberg could become the best hockey player ever produced by Sweden.Who&rsquo;s the best? Former Maple Leaf defensive giant Borje Salming. Second? Mats Sundin, the Quebec center who has led Sweden to a pair of golds at the World Championships.All this is premature speculation. Forsberg has yet to play a single game in North America. The Nordiques eagerly await his arrival.So do thousands of fans in Quebec, who wonder if Forsberg can turn the Eric Lindros trade in the Nordiques&rsquo; favor. Lindros has reached grand expectations in only his second year. Given a proper chance, will Forsberg? &#9632;

f0002-06

Does Forsberg’s father know best?

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011627/6677911-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0003-01

THE PHANTOM SERIES

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden EditorinChiet</div>The &ldquo;Dream Tournament&rdquo; Gary Bettman talks about is closer to reality than he thinks. The wheels have been set in motion, albeit slowly, to hold a Canada Cup tournament in the fall of 1995. Of course, when Bettman talks about a &ldquo;Dream Tournament,&rdquo; he&rsquo;s referring to NHL participation in the 1998 Olympic Games. That may be so for nouveau fans, but for longtime hockey devotees there have been five such events. A 1995 tournament would be the sixth&ndash;and first without Alan Eagleson. The former NHL Players&rsquo; Association executive director is under U.S. indictment, in part, because of activities associated with his administration of the Canada Cup. This tournament will be different not just because current executive director Bob Goodenow has assumed Eagleson&rsquo;s old role as event co-ordinator. More significant is the change in world political order and the unique problems it poses. In the past, it was straightforward to assemble a six-team event, but the splitting of Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union means two hockey superpowers have become three minipowers (Russia, Czech Republic and Slovakia) and other less imposing teams. The Canada Cup&rsquo;s greatest allure is that it features most of the world&rsquo;s best hockey players. Will it be possible to include all the world&rsquo;s finest this time? &ldquo;You have to consider various alternatives either in the format of the tournament,&rdquo; Goodenow said, &ldquo;or going back to possibly having a team like a Commonwealth of Independent States.&rdquo; The CIS represented the former Soviet Union at the &lsquo;92 Games. Such an arrangement would be unthinkable for the Olympics, but hockey coalitions might be workable for the Canada Cup. It isn&rsquo;t burdened with the same cultural and political baggage. &ldquo;Because (the Canada Cup) is a special tournament,&rdquo; Goodenow said, &ldquo;and it is what it is and isn&rsquo;t what it isn&rsquo;t-it&rsquo;s not an Olympics, it isn&rsquo;t a world tournament&ndash;to have a best-on-best (event), maybe there can some compromise. But it&rsquo;s too early to speculate what the final result will be.&rdquo; Still to be consulted are various national federations and the players themselves. Some players may be reluctant to play on teams that represent the way things used to be. The International Ice Hockey Federation has granted Canada the right to hold the tournament. The IIHF refers to it as the World Cup. It wouldn&rsquo;t be a surprise if the tournament name were changed&hellip;Jeremy Roenick puts two eyes with a magic marker on the heel of every stick he uses. Why? &ldquo;So I can see,&rdquo; he said. Roenick&rsquo;s scoring pace picked up after he started doing it in late January&hellip;The Washington Capitals&rsquo; rookie dinner reportedly cost $15,000. It&rsquo;s another example of conspicuous consumption. The players can spend their money as they wish, but that&rsquo;s embarrassing. The next time they feel like bonding, they should be more philanthropic and offer $1 rebates to all Caps&rsquo; fans who surrender hard-earned money to attend games&hellip;If, as many insist, the gold-medal game between Canada and Sweden was among the best in Olympic history, then the tournament has a sorry history indeed. It was a good game punctuated by an oddity. That&rsquo;s all. There was little genuinely exciting about the shootout. It&rsquo;s a skills competition that reduces hockey to a made-for-TV production. Milwaukee Admirals&rsquo; owner Lloyd Pettit hates the concept so much he leaves the building rather than watch his International League team participate&hellip;Part of hockey&rsquo;s charm is it can&rsquo;t be chopped into pieces and assigned numerical values as in baseball, football and basketball. It&rsquo;s true, though, mainstream hockey statistics are woefully inadequate. That&rsquo;s why the work of Tom Finks is so welcome. The Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; public relations&rsquo; assistant has conceived a superb stats package that, hopefully, is the wave of the future for all NHL teams. The Blackhawks provide updates, by period, of such useful information as team breakdowns on: possession off faceoffs; prime scoring chances; odd-man breaks (3-on-2, 2-on-l, l-on-0); and location of penalties. Most intriguing of all is attack zone time. Finks&rsquo; statisticians calculate how much time the puck spends in each team&rsquo;s end. Finks knows his way around a rink; he was a four-year player and captain at Dartmouth College&hellip;Tie Domi is everywhere-including this space two weeks in a row&ndash;and Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; teammates have noticed. They made up Tie&rsquo;s Photo Biography, pasting his head onto pictures and giving him the collection. Domi has a well-developed sense for photo opportunities.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011646/6677963-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="365" height="364"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021445/6677956-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="380" height="547"><figcaption class="caption-body">No. of times Ottawa&rsquo;s Craig Billington has been pulled this season: 8</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031198/6677949-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="1143" height="1724"><figcaption class="caption-body">The eyes of March: Jeremy Roenick custom-eye-zes his sticks.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-04974/6677942-1-eng-US/f0004-042.jpg" title="f0004-04" width="379" height="549"><figcaption class="caption-body">No. of times Rangers&rsquo; Mike Richter has been pulled this season: 10</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0004-01

Canada Cup in the works

What might have been&hellip;If Mike Bossy hadn&rsquo;t suffered a career-ending back injury, he could be challenging Gordie Howe&rsquo;s all-time goal mark alongside Wayne Gretzky.&ldquo;Now that you mention it,&rdquo; Bossy said over his car phone in Montreal, &ldquo;I probably would have been around those numbers if my health had held up.&rdquo;Bossy last played in 1986-87. This would have been his 16th season.Sound silly to make a connection between a man who had 573 career goals and another with 801? Not if you consider Bossy scored 50 goals in nine of his 10 seasons and is considered one of the best pure scorers in NHL history.Hindered by back problems. Bossy-scored 38 goals in 63 games his last year.Bossy is only 37 and there is no reason to believe his game, founded on grace and superior talent, wouldn&rsquo;t have aged well. Certainly, few played as well as the eight-time all-star.Only two players in NHL history have averaged more goals per game. Bossy (.762) stands behind Mario Lemieux (.823) and Brett Hull (.767). Gretzky is fourth (.718).&ldquo;I knew I didn&rsquo;t want to play long enough to beat (Howe&rsquo;s) record of 800 goals.&rdquo; Bossy said, &ldquo;so I think leaving my mark of scoring 50 goals or more every year was important to me. The fact I wasn&rsquo;t able to do it in my 10th year was probably the most disappointing thing in my career.&rdquo;Today, Bossy hosts morning and noon shows on Montreal radio station CKOL<h2>THE CHASE</h2>Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s season goal total, career total and Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; future games are listed in table below.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-05786/6677994-1-eng-US/f0004-052.jpg" title="f0004-05" width="684" height="628"></div> &#9632;

f0004-05

BOSSY NEVER HAD CHANGE

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div>Alan Eagleson will not submit himself to the U.S. justice system until he and his lawyers are afforded a better look at the cards his prosecutors are holding.Lawyers for Eagleson&ndash;the former NHL Players&rsquo; Association executive director and Hockey Canada negotiator-met the media in Toronto March 11. They were responding to a 32-count indictment released by a U.S. grand jury March 3.That indictment charged Eagleson with racketeering, fraud, obstruction of justice, embezzlement and accepting kickbacks. Conviction on one count of racketeering carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in a U.S. federal prison.Had Eagleson appeared in Boston to answer to the charges-as his attorneys insist he wanted to-he could have been immediately arrested.Instead, a string of legal maneuvers could draw out Eagleson&rsquo;s extradition case by months and even years. Eagleson resides in Toronto.Eagleson did not appear at the news conference to explain why he is fighting his extradition. That was left to lawyers J. Edgar Sexton and Brian Greenspan.&ldquo;Mr. Eagleson categorically denies any wrongdoing during the course of his relationship with the National Hockey League Players&rsquo; Association and with Hockey Canada,&rdquo; Sexton said. &ldquo;Whether in the U.S. or in Canada, Mr. Eagleson looks forward to fighting back once he is properly apprised of the specific details of the offenses alleged against him.&rdquo;The lawyers said the grand jury system was skewered against the defendant. The indictment, Greenspan said, gave just the barest bones of the government&rsquo;s case.&ldquo;(Eagleson) is not dodging anything,&rdquo; Greenspan said. &ldquo;You have to at least have the opportunity to have the specific allegations brought before you to know what you&rsquo;re responding to.&rdquo;Greenspan said that by holding back evidence until the trial was at hand, American prosecutors could limit the time Eagleson&rsquo;s lawyers had to compose a fitting defense. By going through the extradition process, the U.S. lawyers will be forced to disclose much of the information in the indictment.&ldquo;We have to live with affidavits, but the Americans have to present the affidavits, which is a lot more than we&rsquo;ve got now,&rdquo; Greenspan said. &ldquo;What they still have in the American system is the potential of trial by ambush. We&rsquo;re not going to let Mr. Eagleson enter a trial by ambush.&rdquo;U.S. Attorney spokesman David Russo said the government is going ahead with extradition proceedings.&ldquo;Upon learning of Mr. Eagleson&rsquo;s decision, the U.S. Attorney office obtained an arrest warrant and will now seek the extradition of Mr. Eagleson,&rdquo; Russo said.The U.S. justice department will then forward the case to the Canadian ministry of justice.A judge in the general division of the Superior Court of Ontario (Toronto) will review the case and must complete his review by June 16.It is then up to the judge to weigh the U.S. case based on two criteria: Is there enough evidence to warrant a trial and would the alleged crimes be illegal in Canada?Eagleson could waive his challenge to his extradition at any time. Should the judge approve extradition, Eagleson will be free to appeal to a higher court or even the Supreme Court of Canada. Any approved extradition would also have to be signed by Canadian federal justice minister, Allan Rock, who has up to 150 days after receiving the Superior Court judgement to accept or reject extradition based on Canadian law.Even if Eagleson reported to Boston immediately, U.S. authorities wouldn&rsquo;t be ready for trial until fall. Appeals to reverse either the Superior Court or a decision by the minister to permit extradition could push the process back another year.According to William Corbett, a senior general counsel in the Canadian department of justice, there is one advantage to asking the Canadian government to surrender Eagleson to U.S. officials instead of him showing up in Boston. No new charges could be tacked on to the 32 already listed in the indictment. U.S. officials say they are continuing their investigation and have left the door open for even more charges against Eagleson.&ldquo;Under the rule of specialty, if that does happen, the Americans can&rsquo;t prosecute on anything else,&rdquo; Corbett said.Greenspan did not rule out a challenge to the American prosecution of the case and invited Canadian law enforcement agencies to charge Eagleson if the evidence warrants. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is conducting an investigation into Eagleson&rsquo;s affairs.&ldquo;Virtually every activity alleged is alleged to have occurred in Canada,&rdquo; Greenspan said. &ldquo;All these matters are best suited to be tried here, therefore one wonders about the jurisdiction of a Boston court to deal effectively fairly and appropriately with these matters.&rdquo; &#9632;

Eagleson denies wrongdoing

<div class="byline">By THN statt</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011572/6678049-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brian Wiseman is one of three Wolverines up for the Hobey Baker. (MARK HICKS)</figcaption></div>Former Minnesota North Star and Boston Bruin forward Tom McCarthy faces a minimum 10 years in prison and/or a $4 million fine if convicted on drug-smuggling charges.McCarthy, a 33-year-old Toronto native, was one of 24 members of what U.S. federal agents are calling a major international marijuana and cocaine smuggling network. He was recently charged with conspiring to distribute marijuana and cocaine in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.McCarthy, who played in the NHL from 1979 to 1988, appeared in court March 3 and entered a plea of not guilty. He said he could not afford a lawyer and was appointed a public defender.All of the 24 charged will be tried together. A tentative trial date was set for June 6 in Minneapolis before Judge James Rosenbaum.IN TROUBLE: Oshawa Generals&rsquo; coach Rick Cornacchia, 43, was charged with common assault after a teenage fan was struck during an Ontario League game March 11 in Sudbury.Sudbury regional police said a 15-year-old fan complained someone hit him during the second period intermission of a game between the Generals and Sudbury Wolves. A court date of March 23 has been set.Police also were investigating a complaint by Generals&rsquo; assistant coach Brian Drumm, that he was assaulted by a fan. Police said charges are pending.HOBEY FINALISTS: The Michigan Wolverines not only have a chance to win their eighth national championship, but they could have a Hobey Baker Award winner.Three Wolverines are among the 10 finalists for the award, given annually to the best player in U.S. college hockey. Right winger David Oliver, goalie Steve Shields and center Brian Wiseman-all seniors-are up for the prestigious award.The other nominees are: Clarkson center Craig Conroy, Alaska Fairbanks center Dean Fedorchuk, RPI goalie Neil Little, Minnesota-Duluth left winger Chris Marinucci, Harvard defenseman Sean McCann, Michigan Tech goalie Jamie Ram and UMass-Lowell goalie Dwayne Roloson.The winner will be announced April 1 during the 1994 National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament in St. Paul, Minn.DETROIT WALKS: The Flint Generals won their first Colonial League playoff series in bizarre fashion.The Generals clinched the best-of-five first-round series March 13 after the Detroit Falcons refused to take the ice in Game 4, giving the Generals a 3-1 series win.The Detroit players were protesting the presence of Flint star Kevin Kerr, whom they felt should have been given a game misconduct for his part in a pre-game altercation with the Falcons&rsquo; Darren Miciak.The Falcons said Kerr speared Miciak in the face during the pregame warmup. Kerr was not penalized because the officials were not on the ice and a tape of the incident did not capture the incident. Commissioner Bob Myers spoke with both coaches as well as Kerr during a delay that lasted two hours. Referee Jim Norquay then awarded Flint a forfeit win.Detroit coach Lou Franceschetti was suspended for the first 10 regular-season games next season and the Falcons were fined $25,000 because of the incident.ON THE MOVE: The Newmarket Royals announced March 14 they are moving their OHL team to Samia for next season. The franchise is owned Detroit Red Wing Dino Ciccarelli and several of his brothers.The team will be renamed the Sting and will play out of the 1,910-seat Sarnia Arena pending the construction of a new $13-million 3,500-seat facility. &#9632;

f0005-01

McCarthy faces June trial on drug charges

<div class="byline">By THN staff</div>The chairman of the NHL&rsquo;s board of governors is a former coin smuggler who wonders how much longer he can remain financially solvent.In the April issue of Vanity Fair magazine, Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; owner Bruce McNall, 43, said he routinely smuggled coins through customs of Mediterranean countries as a collector in his late teens and early 20s.&ldquo;I just put &lsquo;em in my pocket and left,&rdquo; McNall said. &ldquo;I committed a crime. But I wasn&rsquo;t thinking then. I was a kid.&rdquo;McNall said he and Robert Hecht, a well-known expatriate American coin dealer, used an army of contacts and shadowy figures to spirit the coins out of their country of origin.McNall&rsquo;s company, Numismatic Fine Arts, has for years broken export laws of Turkey, Italy, Egypt and Algeria and routinely violated American law intended to protect Mediterranean historical sights from thieves and grave robbers, the article said.The NHL had no comment on McNall&rsquo;s statements.McNall has never been charged with breaking the law. When challenged, McNall said he returns coins to their country of origin.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011746/6678080-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="580" height="674"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bruce McNall is the subject of an explosive Vanity Fair report.</figcaption></div>The Vanity Fair story said McNall was liquidating his Athena Funds coin holdings. It also said he is worried about his future.&ldquo;(The coin) business is finished,&rdquo; McNall said. &ldquo;There may come a point when I go under. I can&rsquo;t go on financing negative cash flow. With the coin business and the Kings both negative-it&rsquo;s not going to happen today or tomorrow-but I will go under. If something doesn&rsquo;t change, I&rsquo;m finished.&rdquo;The Canadian Football League&rsquo;s Toronto Argonauts have cost McNall, as well as co-owners Wayne Gretzky and the late John Candy, millions in losses-he is in the process of selling the team&ndash;and McNall said he is locked in a prohibitive lease situation with the Los Angeles Forum.McNall is selling a portion of the Kings, media reports have pegged it as high as a 65 per-cent interest, to Los Angeles investors Jeffrey Sudikoff and Joseph Cohen. McNall describes the sale as a temporary means to raise cash for a $150 million arena to replace the 27-year-old Forum. He pledged to retain control of the team.McNall has been the focus of legal attacks. In October, Republic Bank sued McNall and alleged he defaulted on a $1.58 million loan. McNall said a settlement is pending.Film company 20th Century Fox has obtained a court order attaching a lien on McNall&rsquo;s assets because of $4.5 million the studio says McNall owes for his share of the movie Mannequin II. McNall is suing Fox. &#9632;

f0006-01

McNall started fortune with stolen coins: report

<div class="byline">By Tim Wharnsby</div>TORONTO&ndash;For Trevor Ellerman and his Lethbridge Pronghorn teammates, hoisting the University Cup for the first time was the perfect ending.The Pronghorns, a team that almost folded because of financial restraints at the University of Lethbridge earlier this season, captured the Canadian university championship March 13.The Pronghorns beat the Guelph Gryphons 5-2 to capture the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union title at Maple Leaf Gardens.It was not only the Pronghorns&rsquo; first national title in the 10-year history of the program, but Ellerman&rsquo;s first championship season after several years of suffering hockey woes.&ldquo;There have been times that we played simply for the love of the game,&rdquo; said the tournament&rsquo;s most valuable player. &ldquo;We go along for years, never make the playoffs and then suddenly, we go all the way.&rdquo;It was an experience Ellerman, the Pronghorns&rsquo; all-time leading scorer, thought he would never have.The 24-year-old&rsquo;s story parallels the sad-sack Lethbridge program, which until this season had never experienced a .500 season, let alone a playoff game.Back in 1986-87, Ellerman was cut by the Medicine Hat Tigers in January, the final cut by the eventual Memorial Cup champions.The next year, he was cut again by the Tigers, who made it back-to-back Memorial Cup titles.Then he arrived at Lethbridge and endured four losing seasons. Fortunately for Ellerman, his career ended on a high note.&ldquo;You have to give the bulk of the credit to (first-year coach) Mike Babcock,&rdquo; said Ellerman, also the CIAU&rsquo;s most sportsmanlike player.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know how many times (Babcock) said, &lsquo;Boys, we have a good team here.&rsquo; We didn&rsquo;t believe him at first,&rdquo; Ellerman said. &ldquo;Now the whole country knows.&rdquo;To gain a berth in the final, the Pronghorns upset the defending champion Acadia Axemen 9-6.Guelph earned a berth by defeating the Western Mustangs 6-5 in double overtime. &#9632;

Lethbridge wins University Cup

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011586/6678135-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0007-01

THE EAGLESON ANTHOLOGY

Does the NHL put a limit on how many times a coach can complain in one season?First, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim coach Ron Wilson accused San Jose Sharks&rsquo; goalie Arturs Irbe of using illegal pads. Then he accused Florida Panthers&rsquo; goalie John Vanbiesbrouck of the same crime.Most recently, Wilson said Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; center Wayne Gretzky is getting preferential treatment from referees.The fact is, the Ducks&rsquo; lineup is not exactly stacked with goal scorers. Maybe the goalie pads just look a lot bigger when Bob Corkum is your leading scorer.If Wilson is looking for excuses for his team&rsquo;s losses, maybe he should start by looking at the players on his own bench rather than his opponents.Keith Ferrell, San Jose, Calif.<h2>Access denied</h2>I was catching up on past issues of THN when I noticed something in the Feb. 4 issue that really disappointed me.NHL Players&rsquo; Association executive director Bob Goodenow says it would be nice to have protected access to buses for players after the games.No reason was given for this proposal, other than the fact executives from other sports have expressed concern over player safety.I grew up in southern Ontario and my father used to take me to Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; games. Sure I got to see the players on the ice, but one of the greatest thrills was meeting my idols and shaking hands after the game-even though it was only a few seconds.Guy Lafleur&rsquo;s iron handshake. Ron Hextall&rsquo;s sense of humor. Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s few seconds just to sign an autograph. These are just a few of the memories I cherish.I think it&rsquo;s important for Goodenow and the league&rsquo;s executive to remember the game is there for the fans.I feel barricading players from the fans would be a step backwards. Young kids need to develop role models and friends in the great game of hockey.John Haley, Thunder Bay, Ont.<h2>Job well done</h2>I would like to commend NHL officials for sticking to their guns as far as officiating is concerned.The officials have been ordered by the league to call all the &ldquo;clutch and grab&rdquo; penalties that have resulted in the slowdown of the game.And while a lot of fans seem to think this is an annoyance, the only way the NHL governors can turn hockey into a viable sport in the U.S. is to display the talent, speed and skill of its top players.Now if we could only create a system that would eliminate fighting, then maybe true hockey fans in North America will have their prayers answered.Robert Foley, Hyde Park, N. Y.<h2>Situation critical</h2>How badly must a player be injured before the NHL adopts a touchicing rule?The serious injury to Dallas Stars&rsquo; defenseman Mark Tinordi would have been avoided if such a rule were in place.Big hits are my favorite part of the game, but not on an icing call. Tinordi&rsquo;s injury should never have occurred.Freddy Rapillo, Sherman Oaks, Calif.<h2>Loose goose</h2>Wildgoose is ready for the Mighty Ducks.That would be Lyle Wildgoose, the leading scorer for the Raleigh IceCaps of the East Coast League for the past two seasons.I believe it is time the Ducks seriously tried to sign this guy. After all, the Ducks could certainly use a Wildgoose on the power play.Howard Dapper, Jr.&nbsp;Raleigh, N.C.<h2>No Maracle on Ice</h2>I am writing in response to the letter from Jan. 28 that suggested Canadian national junior team coach Joe Canale erred in selecting easterners Jamie Storr and Emmanuel Fernandez in goal over Norm Maracle of the Saskatoon Blades.But if the team had selected, &ldquo;the best goalie in Canada, Norm Maracle,&rdquo; could the team have done any better than gold at the World Junior Championship?The final sentence in the letter states the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association and Canale should be forced to explain their actions. Well, I&rsquo;m no college graduate, but a gold medal appears to be a good explanation.Rob Kay, Saskatoon, Sask.Make your feelings known. Fax u: your comments at&nbsp;(416) 445-2501&nbsp;o, write to&nbsp;Letters, The Hockey News 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Dor 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.&nbsp;Include home and business phone numbers. THN reserve, the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

Wilson should stop flapping off his bill

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011643/6678190-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0008-01

ELSTON

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021278/6678221-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="572" height="746"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dino Ciccarelli</figcaption></div><h2>Gartner now No. 5 scorer</h2>1. Ranger Mike. Mike Gartner NHL&rsquo;s fifth all-time goal scorer with No. 611, passing Bobby Hull.2. Outhouse to penthouse. Colorado College wins WCHA title after finishing last one year ago.3. Dino does it. Detroit right winger Dino Ciccarelli records 1,000th career point.4. Lindy express. Flyer center Eric Lindros scores three goals, 11 points in four games.5. Player of week. Chicago goalie Ed Belfour 4-0-0 with two shutouts and 1.00 GAA.<h2>Kings&rsquo; owner admits theft</h2>1. No chump change. L.A. Kings&rsquo; owner Bruce McNall admits smuggled coins helped build fortune.2. Free failin&rsquo;. Devils&rsquo; fan falls from front row of upper tier while doing handstand, injures two others.3. International League. IHL washes hands of Chris Tamer checking-from-behind controversy.4. Stick man. Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Ulf Samuelsson breaks stick spearing Winnipeg&rsquo;s Tie Domi in groin.5. Honeymoon over. New coach Jim Schoenfeld&rsquo;s Washington Capitals winless in six games. &#9632;

f0008-02

PLUS MINUS

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div>Craig Janney is the fall guy once again.For the second time in his six-year NHL career Janney has been moved as result of another player forcing his team&rsquo;s hand.Janney-along with a second-round draft choice-was named as compensation to the Vancouver Canucks for free agent Petr Nedved. 23, who signed with the St. Louis Blues March 8. It wasn&rsquo;t known when or if Janney would report to the Canucks. He led the Blues in scoring last season with 24 goals and 104 points.The 26-year-old Hartford. Conn., native is in the first year of a three-year, $5.5 million (U.S.) contract. He was acquired by the Blues from the Boston Bruins Feb. 7, 1992 along with defenseman Stephane Quintal in a trade for center Adam Oates after Oates walked out on the Blues in a contract dispute.Nedved, who scored 38 goals and 71 points last season, signed a four-year, $4 million deal with the Blues. The Blues and Canucks failed to reach an agreement on appropriate compensation. It was decided by league-appointed arbitrator George Nicolau.The Canucks requested 25-year-old left winger Brendan Shanahan, one of the league&rsquo;s premier young power forwards, who was second in Blues&rsquo; scoring with 40 goals and 83 points in 67 games.The Blues countered with the offer Nicolau chose.Vancouver assistant general manager George McPhee said the Canucks are pleased to get Janney and the draft pick, but are concerned about the status of Janney&rsquo;s health. Janney sprained his knee Feb. 20 and had not skated by mid-March. The Canucks hoped to have him examined and if he was not ready for action, they would contact the league to see what recourse they have. Janney&rsquo;s health was not taken into consideration during the arbitration hearings. Nicolau heard arguments from representatives of both teams March 12 in New York.Nicolau, a 69-year-old graduate of the University of Michigan and Columbia Law School, became a fulltime arbitrator in 1980. He is best known for ruling against Major League Baseball owners in Collusion II, the case covering the 1986 class of free agents.In his report, Nicolau noted both Nedved and Janney play center, are considered good playmakers, skilled players and elite centers in the NHL.It is the seventh time an arbitrator has been brought in to complete a deal following a free agent signing and the second time Shanahan has been a central figure. He signed with the Blues in August, 1991 from the New Jersey Devils. New Jersey was awarded defenseman Scott Stevens.Nedved&rsquo;s signing was surrounded by controversy because the Blues used him in three games before compensation was awarded. There is nothing in the expired collective bargaining agreement between the league and NHL Players&rsquo; Association covering that scenario.In his first game Nedved assisted on two goals as the Blues recorded a 3-2 road victory over division rivals the Toronto Maple Leafs. &#9632;

Blues pay for Nedved, Janney pays price

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011562/6678276-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Curtis Joseph St. Louis Blues (TIM PARKER)</figcaption></div>Once bitten but never shy, Ron Caron and the St. Louis Blues continue to piece together one of the most intriguing mosaics in the NHL.The signing of former Vancouver Canuck Petr Nedved to a $4 million contract and 37-year-old center Peter Stastny to a $2.2 million deal shored up the center spot, the Blues&rsquo; most glaring weakness.It also provided another example of the sense of organizational restlessness dictated by chairman Michael Shanahan, shared by president Jack Quinn and executed by general manager Caron.All of their star position players-defensemen Jeff Brown, Phil Housley and Steve Duchesne, forwards Nedved, Brendan Shanahan and Brett Hull-have been imported from other organizations. Caron outbid a handful of teams in 1989 to land goaltender Curtis Joseph, then an unrestricted free agent who was playing at the University of Wisconsin.&ldquo;Things change so quickly in this game, you&rsquo;ve got to be quick to continually try to make yourself better,&rdquo; Caron said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s in our nature.&rdquo;Once one of the NHL&rsquo;s poorest teams, the Blues have become adept at flashing big-market dollars. Brett Hull&rsquo;s services are guaranteed for $2.2 million per year. Duchesne was placated by $1.12 million in annual salary. Nedved&rsquo;s and Stastny&rsquo;s pacts brought disapproving roars from rivals.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s ludicrous, just awful,&rdquo; said Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; GM Bryan Murray. &ldquo;The only thing this does is cost us all money.&rdquo;The Blues apparently have the means. They play to 100 per-cent capacity and will have almost 1,000 more seats and 22 more luxury boxes to sell when the Kiel Center opens next season. Caron, though, is uncomfortable with the notion the Blues are trying to buy the Stanley Cup.&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s not make comparisons between ourselves and the New York Yankees of the 1970s,&rdquo; Caron said. &ldquo;That isn&rsquo;t our intent. Money can&rsquo;t buy championships. We just want to do what we feel will make us better.&rdquo;The Blues kept a player in Nedved who could have shifted the Central Division&rsquo;s balance of power. Caron believed Cliff Fletcher was angling to trade for Nedved, but knew the Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; GM was reluctant to sign him to an offer sheet for fear of losing goalie Felix Potvin as compensation.Caron won&rsquo;t say how much the deal was influenced by need or a desire to stymie the Leafs. But he did say Nedved is part of a new breed of centers; one who applies heavy pressure on the forecheck and creates offense, despite limited passing skills.A second overall draft pick in 1990, Nedved didn&rsquo;t create much offense in his first two seasons, but scored 38 goals without the benefit of substantial power-play time in 199293.The signing, of course, was laced with risk; Caron stood to lose Shanahan to the Canucks as compensation, but arbitrator George Nicolau decided on the Blues&rsquo; package and awarded Craig Janney and a second-round draft pick in 1994to Vancouver (For more, see accompanying story).The Blues were losers of the biggest free-agent arbitration case in NHL history, but were nonetheless willing to risk arbitration. St. Louis forfeited five first-round draft choices to sign defenseman Scott Stevens from the Washington Capitals in 1990.A year later, the Blues signed Shanahan as a free agent from the the New Jersey Devils. Arbitrator Ed Houston awarded Stevens to the Devils as compensation. The Blues had offered Joseph and forward Rod Brind&rsquo; Amour.Caron was initially angry at Houston&rsquo;s decision. Now, with Joseph in tow and another star player under contract, he can afford to be magnanimous.&ldquo;Sure, the ruling went against us, but that doesn&rsquo;t mean you don&rsquo;t go to the well again,&rdquo; Caron said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s life. I have faith in the process.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0009-01

Fearless Caron goes against grain

Conventional wisdom says a team&rsquo;s core should come through the entry draft. No one has ever accused the St. Louis Blues of being conventional.Here&rsquo;s how the Blues have been built and how many goals each group of players has contributed this season:TRADES (10) Murray Baron, Jeff Brown, Denis Chasse, Doug Crossman, Steve Duchesne, Phil Housley, Brett Hull, Basil McRae. Kevin Miller. Rick Zombo. Goals: 113FREE AGENTS (8) Philippe Bozon, Kelly Chase, Tony Hrkac, Dave Mackey, Jim Montgomery, Petr Nedved, Brendan Shanahan, Peter Stastny.&rsquo; Goals: 65DRAFT (7) Denny Felsner, Brett Hedican, Vitali Karamnov, Igor Korolev. Nathan LaFayette, Vitali Prokhorov, Tom Tilley. Goals: 25 &#9632;

Draft dodgers: team built on open market

<div class="byline">By Keith Gave</div>No more excuses.That was the message Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; general manager Bryan Murray had for his team the morning after pulling the trigger on a major, four-player with the Winnipeg Jets.The Wings traded goalie Tim Cheveldae and center/left winger Dallas Drake to the Jets March 8 for goalie Bob Essensa and defenseman Sergei Bautin.So the Wings will go to war in the playoffs with Bob Essensa as their goaltender.&ldquo;We were put in a position to have to make a trade for Timmy&rsquo;s sanity, and to take the excuse away from our players this spring,&rdquo; Murray said.&ldquo;It got so I couldn&rsquo;t play him at home,&rdquo; coach Scotty Bowman said. &ldquo;Timmy got blamed for the loss last year against Toronto in (the playoffs). Usually people heap the blame on one guy, especially if it&rsquo;s the goaltender.&rdquo;So now the 29-year-old Essensa is on the hot seat and the Toronto native knows it.&ldquo;Just making the playoffs is not enough here, like it might have been in Winnipeg,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;This team is expecting to go a long way. I&rsquo;m just hoping to contribute.&rdquo;Just after making the deal for the goalie the Wings have long coveted Murray was warning fans that unreasonable expectations might put too much pressure on Essensa.Murray advised Essensa to stick to his game and do what he does best.&ldquo;Just play,&rdquo; Murray told his new goalie. &ldquo;Just be yourself. Nobody is a miracle worker. Nobody is being asked to do anything he isn&rsquo;t capable of doing.&rdquo;Even before the trade was consummated, Murray began the groundwork on a new contract for Essensa, who was embroiled in disputes the last several years with former Jets&rsquo; GM Mike Smith.Statistics suggested Essensa was having a sub-par season: 56 games, a 19-30-6 record with one shutout, a goals-against average of 3.85 and a save percentage of .883.Statistics lie, Murray said.&ldquo;Bob Essensa didn&rsquo;t have troubles,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The team had troubles. No goaltender could have gone into that situation without giving up a lot of goals.&rdquo;Two days after the trade, Murray reached a contract agreement with Essensa. Terms were not disclosed, but the Wings&rsquo; goalie will make far less than the three-year deal worth an estimated $1.7 million a season he was negotiating with the Jets.SITTING OUT: Sergei Bautin missed his first two starts with Detroit because of poor conditioning.Bautin, 27, was visibly tired and hurting after his first few practices, dropping to one knee to rest after stops-and-starts drills.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s because he comes from Winnipeg,&rdquo; said countryman Vladimir Konstantinov. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re on vacation already. They have 15 games left and nobody cares.&rdquo;Bautin, a defensive specialist, was the player Detroit wanted with its first pick (22nd overall) in the 1992 draft. Winnipeg took him with the 17th pick.NOTEBOOK: Winnipeg goaltending coach Pete Peeters, who used to play for Bryan Murray with the Washington Capitals, took a verbal swipe at his former coach after the swap of goalies. &ldquo;I think Bryan Murray made it impossible for (Cheveldae) to play when he said he can&rsquo;t win,&rdquo; Peeters said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s asinine. It&rsquo;s okay to think it, but you can&rsquo;t say it. He gave the press the green light to railroad him out of town.&rdquo; Said Murray: &ldquo;Pete Peeters is an (expletive), to start with. I never said we can&rsquo;t win with Tim. That&rsquo;s an untrue and unfair statement. I have the utmost respect for Tim Cheveldae, just like I used to have for Pete Peeters.&rdquo;In a rare scoring reversal, Keith Primeau finally got his assist&ndash;the one that prompted his fight with teammate Bob Probert. The NHL announced the change March 9 after reviewing video of the play in a neutral-site game against the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Target Center in Minneapolis Jan. 17. Primeau&rsquo;s fight with Probert took place at practice the morning after the game in Minnesota, when a teammate arranged for a Joe Louis Arena worker to announce a scoring change, giving Primeau the phantom assist. The laughing and teasing that followed prompted a confrontation between Primeau and defenseman Steve Chiasson. Probert intervened and the two exchanged punches.<h2>DETROIT</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>March 8: Tim Cheveldae, 6, and Dallas Drake, C, traded to Winnipeg for Bob Essensa, G, and Sergei Bautin, D, Essensa agreed to terms on new contact.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Sergei Fedorov, Steve Yzerman, Keith Primeau, Kris Draper.LW-Slava Kozlov, Greg Johnson, Shawn Burr, Bob Probert, Micah Aivazoff.RW-Darren McCarty, Ray Sheppard, Dino Ciccarelli, Sheldon Kennedy, Mike SillngerLD-Paul Coffey, Steve Chiasson, Mark Howe, Sergei Bautin, Bob Halkidis, Steve Konroyd.RD-Nick Lidstrom, Vladimir Konstantinov, Terry Carkner.G-Bob Essensa, Chris Osgood.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

Essensa eager to strut stuff

<div class="byline">By Dave Luecking</div>Just days after tapping the free agent market for center Petr Nedved, the St. Louis Blues signed free agent center Peter Stastny.The Blues signed the 37-year-old veteran March 9 and gave him a three-year contract, worth $200,000 this season and $1 million in each of the next two.The $2.2 million deal is a high price to pay for someone who will be 39 by the end of his deal, but the Blues figured the length and terms of the package would scare off any team that wanted to pluck him off the waiver wire.Stastny played four games for Bratislava in the Slovak League as a tuneup for the Winter Olympics. That&rsquo;s why he had to clear NHL waivers before joining the Blues.Stastny signed with St. Louis March 9 and cleared waivers two days later. He made his debut the next night, scored a goal and had two assists in a 5-5 tie with the New York Islanders.&ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t waste any time, did he?&rdquo; Jeff Brown said. &ldquo;He has a lot of experience, and that&rsquo;s going to help.&ldquo;He stepped up and played well. He created scoring chances for Brett Hull. As long as No. 16 gets chances, Peter&rsquo;s doing his job.&rdquo;Stastny is just happy to have a job. &ldquo;It felt great,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m very happy being back in the big leagues.&rdquo;STRANGE NIGHT: The 5-5 tie with the Islanders was played under unusual circumstances.Peter Stastny was playing his first game as a Blue, while Petr Nedved was appearing in his first game before the hometown fans.And many players were still worrying about who was going to Vancouver as compensation for the Nedved signing.&ldquo;You&rsquo;d have been naive not to think it was a distraction,&rdquo; said coach Bob Berry. &ldquo;We asked the players to be professional about it.&rdquo;In the three games between Nedved&rsquo;s signing and the arbitrator&rsquo;s decision March 14, the Blues were 1-1-1, with an impressive 3-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs, a listless 7-2 loss against the Montreal Canadiens and the tie with the Islanders.NOTEBOOK: Denis Chasse, acquired with Steve Duchesne from the Quebec Nordiques Jan. 23, underwent surgery March 9 to remove two ruptured discs from his neck and will miss the rest of the season. The ruptured discs had been pinching a nerve in his neck, causing weakness on his right side. Chasse played only three games with St. Louis.<h2>ST. LOUIS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>March 8: Tony Hrkac, C, assigned to Peoria (IHL). March 9: Peter Stastny, C, signed three-year contract. March 14: Craig Janney, C, and second-round pick in 1994 awarded to Vancouver as compensation for Petr Nedved.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Peter Stastny, Petr Nedved, Jim Montgomery. Nathan LaFayette.LW-Philippe Bozon, Brendan Shanahan, Kevin Miller. Dave Mackey.RW-Brett Hull, Vitali Prokhorov, Igor Korolev, Kelly Chase, Vitali Karamnov.LO-Murray Baron, Doug Crossman,RD-Rick Zombo, Steve Duchesne, Jeff Brown, Tom Tilley.G-Curtis Joseph, Jim Hrivnak.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Denis Chasse, RW, neck surgery, out for season. Denny Felsner, RW, tendinitis in right ankle, indefinite. Phil Housley, D, back surgery, day-to-day. Basil McRae, LW, abdominal surgery, day-to-day. &#9632;

Free-agent spending spree nets costly veteran Stastny

<div class="byline">By Damien Cox</div>When Pat Burns speaks out against a player, you don&rsquo;t have to worry about claims he was misquoted.No, the Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; coach usually has intent on his mind when he singles out a player. That was the case in mid-March when he suggested it was time for defenseman Todd Gill to get back to work.Gill missed 26 games with groin problems earlier this season and then was sidelined again in late February with back spasms.When Gill complained the demands of the NHL&rsquo;s 84-game schedule were partly to blame, Bums had heard enough.&ldquo;Is (the schedule) too tough for Doug Gilmour? Is it too tough for Dave Andreychuk?,&rdquo; Bums asked. &ldquo;The guy has played in only 36 games this year.&ldquo;You&rsquo;re getting paid $700,000 to use your body. If it&rsquo;s too tough for you, become a postman.&rdquo;Gill, naturally, was less than pleased with his coach&rsquo;s comments.&ldquo;If they think I&rsquo;m slacking off, well, I don&rsquo;t even want to comment on that,&rdquo; Gill said. &ldquo;Obviously, they don&rsquo;t know me. I spent seven years in this organization when we were in last place and people think I don&rsquo;t want to play now? That&rsquo;s ludicrous.&rdquo;Gill said his groin problems are still not completely healed and his back pain is flare-up of an old ailment.&ldquo;As anxious as I am to come back, I have to be intelligent about it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When I feel comfortable of going out there and playing at a competitive level, I&rsquo;ll be back.&rdquo;CLUB MILL: At this time last year, two Maple Leafs earned $1 million or more per season.In early March, that number was bumped to six when defenseman Dave Ellett signed a new contract.The three-year deal will kick in next fall, and will pay the 29-year-old blueliner $3.2 million over the life of the contract.He joins Doug Gilmour, Wendel Clark, Felix Potvin, Dave Andreychuk and Glenn Anderson in the Leafs&rsquo; seven-figure bracket.Ellett signed his option papers last fall and was scheduled to be a Group III free agent this summer, which would have left the Leafs with the right to match any offers, but no claim to compensation.Negotiations resumed in December and the two sides agreed to terms in mid-February. The deal would have been signed earlier, but general manager Cliff Fletcher went to Lillehammer for the Winter Olympics.Ellett&rsquo;s signing leaves the Leafs with four players-rearguard Bob Rouse, winger Rob Pearson, Mark Osborne and center Mike Eastwood-playing out their options.NOTEBOOK: Dave Andreychuk broke Frank Mahovlich&rsquo;s 33-year-old team record of goals by a left winger when he collected his 49th of the season March 12th against the Winnipeg Jets. Andreychuk had 54 goals last season, but 29 came with the Buffalo Sabres.Damien Cox is a hockey writer for The Toronto Star.<h2>TORONTO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>March 8: David Hariock, D, recalled from St. John&rsquo;s (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Doug Gilmour, David Sacco, Peter Zezel, Mike Eastwood. Mike Krushelnyski. Alexei Kudashov.LW-Wendel Clark, Glenn Anderson, Bill Berg, Kent Manderville.RW-Dave Andreychuk, Rob Pearson. Mark Osborne, Mark GreigLD-Jamie Macoun, Dave Ellett, Matt Martin, David Hariock.RD-Sylvain Lefebvre. Bob Rouse, Drake Berehowsky, Dmitn Mironov.G-Felix Potvin, Damian Rhodes.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Ken Baumgartner, LW, broken right wrist, indefinite Nikolai Borschevsky, RW, separated right shoulder, indefinite, John Cullen, C, sprained right ankle, day-to-day. Todd Gill, D, back spasms, day-to-day. &#9632;

Gill no thrill for Burns

<div class="byline">By Tim Sassone</div>For years, Gary Suter&rsquo;s name was prominent in trade rumors involving the Calgary Flames.&ldquo;But they always blew over,&rdquo; Suter said.Then in two days, Suter was traded twice. He wound up with the Chicago Blackhawks in a March 11 deal with the Hartford Whalers that also netted left winger Randy Cunneyworth and an undisclosed draft pick for Jocelyn Lemieux and Frank Kucera.Suter had been traded by the Flames to the Whalers in a March 10 six-player swap, but never made it to Hartford. He found out he was Chicago-bound when he changed planes in Chicago on his way from Calgary to Connecticut.&ldquo;I was just getting used to the fact I was traded and that maybe a fresh start would be good when I heard I was going to Chicago,&rdquo; Suter said. &ldquo;This is like a dream come true for me because I always wanted to be a Blackhawk.&rdquo;The Hawks were just as thrilled to get Suter to help breathe life into their inconsistent offense, particularly on the power play.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a heck of a trade,&rdquo; said coach Darryl Sutter. &ldquo;We get a star player in his prime and another player in the Dirk Graham mold. No question we got the best player in the deal. Our team is 15 per cent better with him.&rdquo;Two of the reasons Suter is so thrilled to become a Hawk is that Chicago is close to his hometown of Madison, Wisc., and he finally gets to play regularly with long-time friend Chelios.&ldquo;We spend a lot of time together over the summer and we talk on the phone at least once a week during the season,&rdquo; Suter said.Cunneyworth&rsquo;s addition was overshadowed by Suter&rsquo;s arrival, but the Hawks think the 32-year-old veteran forward will fit right in.&ldquo;We tried to get Cunneyworth two years ago, but he was injured,&rdquo; Sutter said.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a guy who comes to play,&rdquo; said Blackhawks&rsquo; general manager Bob Pulford. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not a star, but he&rsquo;s a character guy.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: When Gary Suter arrived in Chicago, it was mentioned all he needed was another&rsquo;t&rsquo; to his name and he would fit right in. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s funny, when we landed at the airport one person asked me if I was another Sutter who played hockey,&rdquo; Suter said. &ldquo;When I first came into the league, everyone thought I was another Sutter brother from Viking, Alta.&rdquo;&hellip;The Hawks considered signing holdout Petr Nedved to an offer sheet, but decided going to arbitration was too risky. &ldquo;What if we had gone to arbitration and Vancouver was given Jeremy Roenick?&rdquo; Darryl Sutter said.<h2>CHICAGO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>March 6: Ivan Droppa, D, recalled from Indianapolis (IHL). March 11: Jocelyn Lemieux, LW, and Frank Kucera, D, traded to Hartford for Gary Suter, D, Randy Cunneyworth, LW, and an undisclosed draft pick. Troy Murray, C, traded to Ottawa for future considerations.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Jeremy Roenick, Christian Ruuttu. Brent Sutter. Jeff Shantz, Kevin Todd.LW-Michel Goulet, Randy Cunneyworth. Stephane Matteau, Steve Dubinsky, Patrick Poulin.RW-Joe Murphy. Rich Sutter. Brian Noonan. Darin Kimble, Sergei Krivokrasov.LO-Keith Carney. Gary Suter, Greg Smyth.RD-Chris Chelios, Cam Russell. Neil Wilkinson. Ivan Droppa.G-Ed EBelfour, Jeft Hackett<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dirk Graham, RW, separated left shoulder, indefinite. Steve Smith, D, broken left leg, out for season. Eric Weinrich, D, broken jaw, indefinite &#9632;

New team suits Suter just fine

<div class="byline">By Steve Huber</div>It was minutes after his team had lost 4-0 to the surging New Jersey Devils and Dallas Stars&rsquo; coach Bob Gainey was typically blunt.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s pretty hard to win when you don&rsquo;t score any goals,&rdquo; Gainey said glumly.No kidding. The Stars offense was going south just as the season was getting interesting. The team was averaging fewer than two goals a game in their past nine games, going 2-4-3 in that span.More troubling to Gainey and his team is the fact it was unable to create chances. Shots were long-range bombs, with few players-except Shane Churla-willing to pay the price in front of the net.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know how to explain it,&rdquo; Dave Gagner said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s too muddled in my mind. It seems like we play well for 180 feet but the last 20 feet we don&rsquo;t get it finished.&rdquo;The Stars are relying almost exclusively on center Mike Modano for offense. And Modano, who added to his career high in goals with his 40th March 12 in a 2-2 tie against the Hartford Whalers, has not been able to carry the team alone.While he is attracting attention from every team, Modano is lacking the confidence he had before he was knocked unconscious Feb. 26 by a check from New York Ranger Mark Messier.Modano admits he is frustrated.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough to get in a groove like I was with 20 goals in 24 games,&rdquo; Modano said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m pressing. The more I force it the less things are happening. We need to try and use other players more. It seems like the ice surface is kind of shrinking on us now.&rdquo;Modano&rsquo;s linemates, Ulf Dahlen and Mike Craig, have not been much help. Craig hadn&rsquo;t scored since Feb. 12 and Dahlen had one goal in 12 games.LOOKING FOR 300: Andy Moog was stuck on career win No. 299, going 0-3-1 in early March.But Moog, who would be the 10th goalie in NHL history to record 300 wins said he does not give it much thought.&ldquo;To be honest, I don&rsquo;t (think about No. 300),&rdquo; Moog said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;ll be important in a couple of years, but the only thing that matters now is wins and the standings.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Stars had a couple of days off in Hartford so they went to a nearby casino on their day off. The losers lost a total of $3,800, the winners a total of $640&hellip;Neal Broten scored twice in the 4-3 victory against the Philadelphia Flyers March 8. The Stars were 11-1-1 when Broten scored.<h2>DALLAS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Neal Broten, Mike Modano, Dean Evason, Dave Gagner, Dave Barr.LW-Mike McPhee, Ulf Dahlen, Brent Gilchrist, Jim McKenzie.RW-Russ Courtnail, Mike Craig, Paul Broten, Shane Churla.LD-Derian Hatcher, Craig Ludwig, Richard Matvichuk.RD-Grant Ledyard, Jim Johnson, Paul Cavallini, Gord Donnelly.G-Andy Moog, Darcy Wakaluk.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Mark Tinordi, D, broken left femur, out for season. &#9632;

Gainey reveals revelation: Can’t win without scoring

<div class="byline">By Stan Fischler</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0014-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011570/6678475-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(JIM LEARY/BBS)</figcaption></div>A struggle is looming among the NHL hierarchy. Some among the league&rsquo;s ownership believe commissioner Gary Bettman should more aggressively pursue European development and, ultimately, an NHL overseas division. But the New York office prefers to plant two more North American franchises-Atlanta and Phoenix are current favorites-making the NHL to a 28-team unit. A major battle looms over this issue&hellip;Glenn Healy of the New York Rangers hasn&rsquo;t played much this season, but at least he has maintained a sense of humor. &ldquo;When I signed my contract,&rdquo; said the backup goalie, &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think I was going to be a Rangers&rsquo; season ticketholder. I have the best seat in Madison Square Garden most nights.&rdquo;&hellip;Has there ever been a deal more even than Andy Moog from the Boston Bruins to Dallas Stars for Jon Casey?<h2>Put cap on it</h2>If talks for a new collective bargaining agreement are to go anywhere, the players insist the owners drop the words &ldquo;salary cap.&rdquo; &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t like those words,&rdquo; said New York Islanders&rsquo; player rep Tom Kurvers. One union specialist predicts the Petr Nedved-to-St. Louis Blues&rsquo; transaction and compensation will become a major arguing point in the current talks. NHL Players&rsquo; Association is conspicuously unhappy with the current compensation procedures and will demand significant changes&hellip;When asked how much responsibility coach Barry Melrose should take for the demise of the Los Angeles Kings this season, Kings&rsquo; owner Bruce McNall replied, &ldquo;A lot.&rdquo;&hellip;All three female professional goal tenders-Manon Rheaume, Erin Whitten and Kelly Dyer-will be playing with Roller Hockey International teams this summer.<h2>Good work, Slimy</h2>Norm Green must have done something right in moving the Minnesota North Stars to Dallas. Even his most strident critic, Minneapolis Star-Tribune columnist Patrick Reusse, is making a concession to the Stars&rsquo; owner. &ldquo;When it comes to business,&rdquo; Reusse wrote, &ldquo;Old Slimy made a good decision.&rdquo;&hellip;The embarrassing coolness between Gordie Howe and Wayne Gretzky which has kept Mr. Hockey from following Gretzky&rsquo;s chase for 802 career goals, may be warmed over when the NHL has its &ldquo;Official Celebration&rdquo; of the record-breaking. Howe will be invited to the Great Western Forum for the fete and is expected to show. All fences should then be mended&hellip;Despite his landmark goals, Mike Gartner has been shopped by the Rangers and still could go by the March 21 trade deadline. General manager Neil Smith realizes that, at age 34, the right winger is in the twilight of his career and he&rsquo;s traditionally a poor playoff performer. Part of the hidden agenda is the fact Gartner is the outspoken president of the NHLPA and no friend of management.<h2>That&rsquo;s Ducts</h2>Newport Beach, Calif., heating and plumbing contractor Joseph Lesko is no longer surprised to receive phone calls for NHL tickets. His business, near Anaheim, is called The Mighty Ducts&hellip;One of the more unlikely locations for a Florida Panthers&rsquo; fan club is Edmonton, and its unlikely founding father is Panthers&rsquo; defenseman Geoff Smith. Smith&rsquo;s family lives in the Edmonton area. &ldquo;My family and friends will have to become Florida fans,&rdquo; said Smith who hauled a load of Panther merchandise to Edmonton on the team&rsquo;s last road trip. &ldquo;These shirts are enough to get them started.&rdquo;&hellip;Shootouts to break ties will be in place no later than the 1995-96 with some experimentation likely next September. Before implementation, expect a voluminous white paper detailing the value of shootouts in a plus-minus fashion.<h2>Money for nothing</h2>Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; GM Bryan Murray is lucky owner Mike Hitch has deep pockets. Steve Konroyd, who makes $700,000 a year, hadn&rsquo;t dressed in a dozen games and played only 19 of 63. If Konroyd plays every game the rest of the way, the Wings will have paid almost $367,000 to have this quite competent defenseman sit in the press box&hellip;The Winnipeg Jets won the Bob Essensa-for-Tim Cheveldae deal both ways. Chevy will thrive with the Jets and Dallas Drake is a better catch than Sergei Bautin. Essensa has yet to demonstrate he can deliver in the playoffs. Score one for Jets&rsquo; GM John Paddock.<h2>THE ROOKIES OF 1993-94</h2>Greg JohnsonBorn: Thunder Bay, Ont.Age: 23Team: Detroit Red WingsHeight: 5-foot-10Weight: 173 poundsPosition: CenterHow acquired: Traded by Philadelphia, June 20, 1993. &#9632;

f0014-01

Sides at odds over timing of European expansion

<div class="byline">By Jett Williams</div>A smile came to Steve Thomas&rsquo; face as he described his contribution to the New York Islanders&rsquo; 5-5 tie against the St. Louis Blues March 12.He had already talked, sheepishly, about the two goals he scored. Both were products of his speed and desire, the first a muscle job past defenseman Rick Zombo to shove the puck by Curtis Joseph, the second a breakaway burst that was the final and critical goal of the game, the one that gained the tie.The goals weren&rsquo;t the impetus for the smiles, however. The hits were. Big, clean hits by a small man on big players.One put Igor Korolev out of the game with a pelvic bone bruise. Others welcomed Petr Nedved back to the NHL and reminded him he was no longer in the Olympics. Thomas nailed Nedved at least four times.&ldquo;I got him pretty good, didn&rsquo;t I?&rdquo; said Thomas with a smile.While there is something to be said of the physical force Thomas generates from his 5-foot-8, 180 pound body, there is something even more to be said about his force of will.In the Islanders&rsquo; desperate drive to a playoff spot, Thomas, 30, is playing with visible desperation. He tries to be everywhere on the ice, sometimes to his own detriment.He has not been happy all year with his plus-minus rating (minus-10 through March 14), because it has been on the minus side for most of the season. Thomas&rsquo; mark is the worst on the team.He did, however, lead the team with 35 goals in 63 games and was second in points with 63.As the trade deadline approached, Thomas could take solace in the fact that he is as close as you can get to an untouchable on the Islanders.NO INTEREST: Islanders&rsquo; general manager Don Maloney was among many who was interested in claiming center Peter Stastny off the waiver wire until he found out how much Stastny had signed for with St. Louis.Stastny will receive $200,000 this season and $1 million each of the next two. Maloney said he had little interest in paying that kind of money to almost any player, not to mention a 37-year-old center.Stastny had to be waived through the league because he played four games in his native Slovakia earlier this season.NOTEBOOK: Pierre Turgeon had an 11-game point streak through March 14&hellip;The Islanders completed their last major road trip of the season with a 5-5 tie against St. Louis March 12. In four games during their early-March swing, they defeated the Winnipeg Jets and lost to the Vancouver Canucks and San Jose Sharks. They led in every game.<h2>N.Y. ISLANDERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Pierre Turgeon, Ray Ferraro, Travis Green, Keith Acton.LW-Derek King, Benoit Hogue, Marty McInnis, Dave Maley.RW-Steve Thomas, Pat Flatley, Brad Dalgamo, Mick Vukota, Yan Kaminsky.LD-Scott Lachance, Dennis Vaske.RD-Vladimir Malakhov, Tom Kurvers, Dennis Vaske, Dean Chynoweth.G-Ron Hextall, Jamie McLennan.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Darius Kasparaitis, D, sprained left wrist, day-to-day. Uwe Krupp, D, sprained right hand, day-to-day. Claude Loiselle, C, knee surgery, out for season David Votek, LW, lower back strain, out for season. &#9632;

Rugged Thomas forces issue as post-season drive heats up

<div class="byline">By Rick Carplniello</div>Every once in a while the New York Rangers come up with a game like their 2-2 tie with the Boston Bruins in Boston Garden March 10.It is one built more on effort than style, a scratching, clawing, whatever-it-takes type of game.But more often than not in early March, the Rangers had trouble playing that style of game. Their record was still tops in the league, but they often looked tired and lethargic.To help his team stay fresh down the stretch, coach Mike Keenan juggled his lineup.Captain Mark Messier and defenseman Brian Leetch didn&rsquo;t play as much and the third and fourth lines got more ice time.Keenan also gave No. 1 goaltender Mike Richter a break and started backup Glenn Healy three straight games for the first time this season.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s better to play every other night now than in April,&rdquo; Greg Gilbert said.Keenan says he is still very concerned his team is too small, making it hard to compete with some of the other top teams in the league. A 6-3 loss to the Detroit Red Wings March 7 strengthened his view.&lsquo;They are far bigger and far more physical than we are,&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;If you&rsquo;re asking me, I don&rsquo;t know that we can compete with them in a seven-game series.&rdquo;Even more to the point was Keenan&rsquo;s prediction of doom if the Rangers continue to stray from a defensive-minded system.&ldquo;We have to play to our strength,&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;Unless this team learns that, they can anticipate the same kind of demise they&rsquo;ve had in the past.&ldquo;Size and strength has something to do with it. We&rsquo;re too small in certain situations.&rdquo;When asked if something must be done to upgrade the team&rsquo;s size, Keenan said that was general manager Neil Smith&rsquo;s responsibility.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just coaching the hockey club and the players who are here,&rdquo; Keenan said.MILESTONE MAN: Veteran right winger Mike Gartner moved into the top five on the NHL&rsquo;s alltime goal-scoring list March 9 when he scored his 611th goal in a 7-5 win over the Washington Capitals.Gartner jumped ahead of Bobby Hull, and now trails only Gordie Howe, Wayne Gretzky, Marcel Dionne and Phil Esposito.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m surprised I even lasted this long,&rdquo; said Gartner, who is in his 15th season. &ldquo;I remember saying to my wife a couple of years ago that if I have as many goals as Bobby Hull, it&rsquo;ll be a great career. Now I want more.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Pending a hearing with NHL vice-president Brian Burke March 15, left winger Mike Hudson was suspended indefinitely for high-sticking Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; defenseman Kjell Samuelsson March 12&hellip;Adam Graves sustained a bad cut on his mouth fooling around with Joey Kocur in a &ldquo;play fight&rdquo; at practice March 8 before a neutral site game in Halifax and had to go to hospital to have the gash closed.<h2>N.Y. RANGERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>March 11: Mattias Norstrom, D, recalled from Binghamton (AHL). March 13: Mike Hudson, LW, suspended indefinitely for high-sticking incident.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Mark Messier, Alexei Kovalev, Sergei Nemchinov.LW-Adam Graves, Nick Kypreos, Esa Tikkanen, Greg Gilbert, Phil Bourque, Mike Hartman.RW-Steve Larmer, Tony Amonte, Mike Gartner, Joey Kocur.LD-Bnan leetch, Jay Wells, Peter Mattias Norstrom.RD-Jeff Beukeboom, Sergei Zubov, Alexander Karpovtsev, Doug Lidster.G-Mike Richter, Glenn Healy, Corey<h3>INJURIES</h3>Kevin Lowe, D, back spasms, dayto-day Ed Olczyk, C, right thumb surgery, indefinite. &#9632;

Guarding against fatigue

<div class="byline">By Craig Dolch</div>The Florida Panthers have proven to be a strong Canadian club this season.They&rsquo;ve rarely left Canada dry.The expansion club was 8-2-0 in Canada through March 13, including a streak of eight consecutive wins that was snapped March 11 with a 42 loss to the Calgary Flames.Call the Panthers&rsquo; success customs-made. Just don&rsquo;t call the Panthers to find out the secret of their success.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what the explanation is,&rdquo; said center Brian Skrudland. &ldquo;Some people say it&rsquo;s the air, others say it&rsquo;s the food.&ldquo;We just say it&rsquo;s the idea of us being on the road and having some fun. When you get on the road you tend to leave some of the things at home and think hockey 100 per cent.&rdquo;The Panthers&rsquo; first game in Canada Nov. 3 was a forgettable night. Having lost 4-3 in Miami the previous night, the Panthers didn&rsquo;t get to their Toronto hotel until 4 a.m. and played like a tired team during a 6-3 loss to the Maple Leafs.But the Panthers finished that early-season road trip with three consecutive wins over the Quebec Nordiques, Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators and they haven&rsquo;t stopped winning.Florida had two games remaining in Canada: a neutral-site game against Toronto in Hamilton March 23 and at Quebec April 5.The Panthers&rsquo; road success hasn&rsquo;t been limited to Canada. Florida set a first-year record with 40 points on the road.The Panthers were 17-15-6 after 38 road games.NET CONTROVERSY?: For the first time this season, Roger Neilson started goalie Mark Fitzpatrick in consecutive games despite No. 1 goalie and all-star John Vanbiesbrouck being healthy.Fitzpatrick won both starts-2-1 against the Vancouver Canucks March 9 and 5-3 against the Edmonton Oilers March 11&ndash;to improve his record to 10-2-1 in his past 13 starts.Vanbiesbrouck struggled after missing seven games with a cut right hand. He was 1-6-0 in his past seven starts through March 13, dropping his season record below .500 (17-20-8) for the first time since mid-season.Vanbiesbrouck hasn&rsquo;t played poorly since the injury-his goals-against average was 3.47-but he lost five consecutive one-goal games.NOTEBOOK: The Panthers had four players who as of March 13 had hit career highs in goals-Bob Kudelski (38), Andrei Lomakin (15), Stu Barnes (15) and Tom Fitzgerald (14). Scott Mellanby had matched his career high of 25 goals.<h2>FLORIDA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Brian Skrudland, Rob Niedermayer, Stu Barnes, Tom Fitzgerald.LW-Mike Hough, Dave Lowry, Andrei Lomakin, Bin Lindsay.RW-Jody Hull, Scott Mellanby, Bob Kudelski, Mike Foligno.LD-Brian Benning, Geoff Smith, Greg Hawgood, Brent Severyn.RD-Gord Murphy, Joe CireHa, Paul Laus.G-John Vanbiesbrouck, Mark Fitzpatrick<h3>INJURIES</h3>Jesse Belanger, C, broken left hand, day-to-day Keith Brown, D, groin, dayto-day. &#9632;

Success in great white north helps team set road standard

<div class="byline">By Roy Cummings</div>Chris Gratton&rsquo;s intentions were good. But he quickly found out that his 18-year-old shoulders aren&rsquo;t strong enough to carry the Tampa Bay Lightning.After losing linemate Petr Klima&ndash;and the Lightning&rsquo;s leading scorer&ndash;to injury, Gratton changed his approach to the game.Instead of doing what comes naturally to him-setting up plays and driving to the net for rebounds-Gratton was trying to fill the scoring void left by the absence of Klima, who has been nursing a separated right shoulder.Gratton&rsquo;s approach has been a noble one and his desire to carry the team through a difficult time is an example of the kind of character that could one day make him the Lightning&rsquo;s leader on and off the ice. At this stage in his career, though, the task has proved to be a bit overwhelming for the 18-year-old center and the results have been disappointing. Gratton had gone five games through mid-March without a point.The most frustrating thing for Gratton was that his tactics were completely backfiring. The more he tried to do, the less he accomplished.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s because he hasn&rsquo;t been relaxed on the ice and when you&rsquo;re not relaxed you make mistakes,&rdquo; said Lightning assistant coach Danny Gare. &ldquo;Chris should be worried about having fun and learning and he&rsquo;s not. He&rsquo;s trying to carry the team and we don&rsquo;t need him to do that right now. His time will come, but right now that&rsquo;s what the veterans are for.&rdquo;Denis Savard is one of those veterans and he explained that lesson to Gratton after a 4-1 loss to the Hartford Whalers March 9 in which Gratton often looked lost on the ice.&ldquo;I told him exactly what the veterans on the team told me when I was 18,&rdquo; Savard said. &ldquo;I told him, &lsquo;You&rsquo;re not being fair to yourself when you put that kind of pressure on.&rsquo; I told him he should just go out and have fun, that this is a time for him to learn, not to do all the work and score all the goals. No rookie is going to do that.&rdquo;Gratton, who had 11 goals and 38 points in 70 games, promised to heed that advice.&ldquo;I guess Denis is right,&rdquo; Gratton said. &ldquo;I was just putting too much pressure on myself. I wanted to do it all, you know, make up for what we were missing with Petr out of the lineup.&rdquo;TOUGHING IT OUT: It wasn&rsquo;t until John Tucker was off the injured list for two months that the pain in his troublesome right knee began to subside.&ldquo;It still hurt for quite a while after I came back, but it&rsquo;s feeling fine now,&rdquo; said Tucker, who sprained his knee 22 games into the season and missed more than a month. &ldquo;In fact, it feels as good as it ever has and I think I&rsquo;m starting to play a little better.&rdquo;Tucker was on a roll. In a four-game stretch, he registered a goal and five points.NOTEBOOK: Daren Puppa, who has been sharp in the nets all season, recently surrendered seven goals on nine shots over three periods&hellip;Brian Bradley had his first four-point game of the season March 13 in a 5-5 tie with the Philadelphia Flyers.<h2>TAMPA BAY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Brian Bradley. Chris Gratton, Denis Savard. Marc BureauLW-Rob DiMaio, Adam Creighton, Gerard Gallant, Mikael Andersson.RW-John Tucker, Danton Cole. Pat Elynuik, Tim Bergland.LD-Joe Reekie, Marc Bergevin, Shawn Chambers.RD-Chris Joseph. Donald Dufresne, Rudy Poeschek.G-Daren Puppa, Wendell Young.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Roman Hamrlik, D, bruised left shoulder, day-to-day. Petr Klima, LW, separated right shoulder, day-to-day. &#9632;

Gratton trying too hard

<div class="byline">By Wayne Fish</div>Eric Lindros eventually will be captain of the Philadelphia Flyers. A four-game stretch in early March showed why.With captain Kevin Dineen and alternate captain Garry Galley sidelined with shoulder injuries, the Flyers had to look to Lindros for more leadership.Lindros came through, scoring 11 points in four games during the second week of March, including a key goal to give the Flyers a 2-1-1 mark.Lindros, who turned 21 Feb. 28, has taken a more prominent role in the dressing room. An alternate captain himself, Lindros has been more vocal in his second season in the NHL.Lindros&rsquo; best game was a one-goal, five-assist effort in an 8-2 rout of the Ottawa Senators March 10.He also scored the tying goal with 38 seconds to play in a 5-5 tie against the Tampa Bay Lightning March 13 and had three assists in a 44 tie with the Montreal Canadiens March 12.The five-assist effort against the Senators tied a team record set by Bobby Clarke back in 1976.&ldquo;This was the most dominating one individual has been against us all year,&rdquo; said Ottawa coach Rick Bowness.Added Ottawa defenseman Darren Rumble: &ldquo;He has everything. He&rsquo;s 245 pounds, he&rsquo;s fast and he&rsquo;s one of the best skilled players in the league. Whatever type of game it is he can adjust.&rdquo;The line of Lindros, Mark Recchi and Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour combined for 13 points against the Senators, one shy of the team record.Lindros had 39 goals and 84 points in 55 games. He had 75 points in 61 games last year during his rookie season.HLUSHKO A HIT: Former Canadian Olympian Todd Hlushko scored his first NHL goal in his second game with the Flyers.It came at an opportune time, giving the Flyers a 4-3 lead in the third period of a March 13 game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The game ended in a 5-5 tie.Asked if he wanted the game to be decided by a shootout, Hlushko just grinned and said, &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t even mention that word around me.&rdquo;Hlushko, 24, signed as a free agent shortly after Canada took the silver medal at Lillehammer, Norway.As for his performance, Hlushko said, &ldquo;It felt good to get that first goal off my back. I came here to pitch in any way I could.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Mikael Renberg became the sixth rookie in team history to reach the 30-goal mark when he scored in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Dallas Stars March 8. Renberg picked up a goal and an assist in the 5-5 tie with Tampa Bay, giving him 65 points for the NHL rookie lead&hellip;Tommy Soderstrom was recalled from the Hershey Bears of the American League March 14 after a conditioning stint. Soderstrom was 3-4-1 with the Bears.Tim Kerr was inducted into the Flyers&rsquo; Hall of Fame in pre-game ceremonies March 8&hellip;The Flyers announced they have created a new Pelle Lindbergh Award, which will be given annually to the team&rsquo;s most improved player.<h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>March 11: Dan Kordic, D/LW, assigned to Hershey (AHL). Claude Vilgrain, RW, recalled from Hershey. March 13: Vilgrain assigned to Hershey. March 14: Tommy Soderstrom, G, recalled from Hershey. Frederic Chabot, G, assigned to Hershey.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Eric Lindros, Mark Recchi, Mark Lamb, Dave Tippett.LW-Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour, Josef Beranek, Andre Faust, Todd HlushkoRW-Mikael Renberg, Brent Fedyk, Dave Brown, Al Conroy.LD-Garry Galley, Jason Bowen, Yves Racine, Rob Zettler, Jeff Finley,RD-Ryan McGill, Dimitri Yushkevich, Stewart Malgunas, Rob Ramage.G-Dommlc Roussel, Tommy Soderstrom.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Kevin Dineen, RW, separated right shoulder, indefinite, Pelle Eklund, LW, hernia operation, indefinite. &#9632;

Lindros ready for captaincy

<div class="byline">By Dave Sell</div>With the trade deadline nearing and his team mired in its first slump with him as coach, Jim Schoenfeld suggested some Washington Capitals are getting a free ride.&ldquo;We have a group of passengers,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Either we get them off the train or we make them start pulling their weight.&rdquo;The Caps were 11-3-2 under Schoenfeld before an 0-4-2 winless streak in March.&ldquo;Most of them play their hearts out,&rdquo; Schoenfeld said. &ldquo;A couple play their hearts out and just play badly. Some don&rsquo;t give what they have to give. The only people I&rsquo;m upset with are the guys who don&rsquo;t give a damn. I&rsquo;ll always accept the guy that gives everything he has and comes up short. That happens in life.&rdquo;Schoenfeld declined to say which players are not putting it on the line.Dimitri Khristich-who led the team in goals with 26, but had just three in the last 20 games-said, &ldquo;He&rsquo;s probably right. But nobody puts themselves in the last group. I try hard.&rdquo;When asked when it would be time to trade the &ldquo;passengers,&rdquo; general manager David Poile said, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know who (Schoenfeld) means.&rdquo;Schoenfeld said he&rsquo;s trying to stay out of trade consultations with Poile.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s David&rsquo;s job,&rdquo; Schoenfeld said. &ldquo;The ones he&rsquo;s not been able to make or weren&rsquo;t great were financial decisions and not necessarily player evaluations. But by and large I&rsquo;m happy with our team. I would rather see a change in personality than a change in personnel.&rdquo;GOALIE SHUFFLE: Goalie Rick Tabaracci, who has been out since Feb. 20 with a strained ligament in his right knee, learned he&rsquo;ll probably be out until late March.Tabaracci had resumed skating, but after a hard workout his knee did not respond well.&ldquo;I could play, but there&rsquo;s no point in it if two weeks down the line, I&rsquo;ve got to take another two weeks off,&rdquo; Tabaracci said.Olaf Kolzig, who was recalled from the Portland Pirates of the American League when Tabaracci was injured, did not fare well in two games and was replaced by Byron Dafoe.Kolzig was pulled after allowing three early goals in a 6-3 loss to the Boston Bruins March 7. Two nights later, he went the distance and allowed six goals in a 7-5 loss to the New York Rangers in Halifax.&ldquo;He deserved another chance and I wanted to see how the team responded,&rdquo; Schoenfeld said. &ldquo;I was a little disappointed on both levels.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Defenseman John Slaney sprained his right ankle against the Rangers March 9 and is sidelined until the end of March&hellip;X-rays revealed a previously undetected crack in a rib that right winger Pat Peake originally injured Feb. 15. He&rsquo;s also sidelined until the end of March.Dave Poulin returned March 7 in Boston after missing 17 of 20 games while adjusting to asthma medication&hellip;Alan May did not ask for a trade, but was frustrated at sitting out three consecutive games. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m way past frustration,&rdquo; he said. May&rsquo;s car sustained extensive damage in a collision with another motorist while exiting the parking lot at US Air Arena March 12. May had a sore back the next day.<h2>WASHINGTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>March 10: Olaf Kolzig, G, assigned to Portland (AHL). Byron Dafoe, G, recalled from Portland.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Dale Hunter, Mike Ridley, Michal Pivonka, Dave Poulin, Alan May.LW-Dimitri Khristich, Randy Bumdge, Kelly Milter, Craig Berube,RW-Peter Bondra, Steve Konowalchuk, Todd Krygier, Keith JonesLD-AI lafrate, Calle Johansson, Enrico Ciccone.RD-Sylvam Cote, Kevin Hatcher, Shawn Anderson.G-Don Beaupre, Byron Dafoe.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Pat Peake, RW, cracked nb, indefinite Rick Tabaracci, G, strained right knee, indefinite. John Slaney, D, sprained right ankle, indefinite. &#9632;

Coach tries to get derailed passenger train untracked

<div class="byline">By Rich Chere</div>Almost from the beginning of his fifth season with the New Jersey Devils, Chris Terreri was faced with never-ending trade rumors and the team&rsquo;s plan to develop rookie Martin Brodeur as its playoff goaltender.Although he holds the Devils&rsquo; record in virtually every goaltending category, Terreri sometimes felt he was being sacrificed because of the coaching staff&rsquo;s effort to see Brodeur succeed.If there was bitterness, it never surfaced. All Terreri did was post a nine-game unbeaten streak (7-0-2) dating back to late January to keep himself very much in coach Jacques Lemaire&rsquo;s plans.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to make any decision right now,&rdquo; Lemaire said of his two goalies. &ldquo;I thought at a certain time of the year you would see who would be ahead of the other guy. But they&rsquo;ve both played well.&rdquo;Between Dec. 23 and March 7, Brodeur started 19 of 32 games, including four of five Feb. 28-March 7. He had a 20-9-6 record and 2.47 goals-against average. Terreri was 19-8-4 with a 2.65 GAA.The veteran kept his unbeaten streak alive with a 4-0 shutout over the Hartford Whalers March 10 and a 2-1 triumph over the Boston Bruins two days later. That moved him within one victory of 100 for his career.&ldquo;Maybe I&rsquo;ve always had to prove myself,&rdquo; Terreri said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s almost a challenge to go out there every night and stay focused.&rdquo;As the NHL trading deadline approached, rumors involving Terreri subsided.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s kind of funny. If something happens, it happens. It&rsquo;s out of my control,&rdquo; Terreri said. &ldquo;But certainly you&rsquo;re aware of it. You&rsquo;d have to be out of it for it not to occur to you.&rdquo;ON HOLD: A triumphant performance in Norway would have put U.S. Olympians Brian Rolston and Mike Dunham immediately into the Devils&rsquo; picture.But an eighth-place finish, the worst ever by a U.S. hockey team, and a shaky showing in goal by Dunham left both rookies with their futures on hold. Assigned to the American League&rsquo;s Albany River Rats, Dunham tried to get his game back together while Rolston was to be examined by a specialist because of a possible hernia.&ldquo;It was a long, frustrating Olympic Games,&rdquo; Dunham said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy we&rsquo;re getting on with our pro careers.&rdquo;Rolston, who played well in Norway, waited for word about his condition.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have any expectations,&rdquo; Rolston said. &ldquo;I think I&rsquo;m a better player than I was in camp with the Devils. Of course, they&rsquo;re playing great. There&rsquo;s no reason for them to make changes right now.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: A March 13 victory over the Dallas Stars gave the Devils the longest unbeaten streak in franchise history (7-0-2) while establishing a new record for points in a season (88)&hellip;Officials are investigating a New Jersey man who fell from the Meadowlands Arena balcony March 12 and landed on two other spectators more than 20 feet below. Randy Mergel, 31, was allegedly doing a handstand in the front row of the upper tier during a game when he fell to the level below. The three were taken from the arena on stretchers, treated at hospital and released.<h2>NEW JERSEY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>March 7: Scott Pellenn, LW, recalled from Albany (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Corey Millen, Bemie Nicholls, Bobby Carpenter, Alexander Semak.LW-Vateri Zelepukin, Bobby Holik, Randy McKay, Tim Chorske, Mike Peluso, Scott Pellerin.RW-Bill Guerin, Stephane Richer, Claude Lemieux, John MacLeanLD-Scott Stevens, Bruce Driver, Tommy Albelin, Viacheslav Fetisov.RO-Ken Daneyko, Scott Niedermayer, Jason Smith.G-Martin Brodeur, Chris Terreri.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

Despite trade rumors, Terreri won’t go away

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011247/6678681-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="379" height="536"></div>They shoot goalies, don&rsquo;t they?Worse, sometimes they trade them to the Winnipeg Jets.Truth is, the Jets-mired in problems of their own-could be just the team to help Tim Cheveldae restore his sanity, not to mention his shattered confidence. Cheveldae knows it won&rsquo;t be easy, but at least he&rsquo;s not going toe-to-toe with the world by himself. He now has allies.Playing hockey is supposed to be fun. Or so Cheveldae thought. It had become a living hell for him as a member of the Detroit Red Wings.The 26-year-old Melville, Sask., native feels he was made to be the scapegoat for the Red Wings&rsquo; misfortunes, which included a first-round elimination from last season&rsquo;s playoffs and poor start this season.The Red Wings were beaten in seven games, the final contest decided in overtime, by the Toronto Maple Leafs. Of his four playoff losses, three were by one goal and the other by two.Heaven help Bob Essensa, Chevel-dae&rsquo;s replacement, or rookie holdover Chris Osgood if Detroit bombs in this year&rsquo;s playoffs.Detroit, frustrated by its inability to translate talent on paper to victories on ice, made Cheveldae the whipping boy. He was booed mercilessly at Joe Louis Arena when he allowed a goal and given the Bronx cheer when he made saves. There was no pleasing the fans and he knew early on this season the only answer was a trade.He never requested to be moved, but didn&rsquo;t put up a fuss when the rumors of his impending trade surfaced. It was inevitable.&ldquo;The way the fans treated me at games, it didn&rsquo;t make playing the game fun,&rdquo; Cheveldae said. &ldquo;If I had a good game, it was a huge relief. I could relax for a couple of days before the next game. Every game was like a life and death situation for me. The funny thing is, fans I met on the street all seemed very supportive. Those are the fans I&rsquo;ll really miss.&rdquo;Cheveldae is paid handsomely for stopping pucks. He has three years remaining on a five-year, $5.4 million contract. But it wasn&rsquo;t money that helped him through the dog days in Detroit. It was his family-wife Leona, daughter Tia, 4, and son Isaac, 14 months.&ldquo;Leona was terrific,&rdquo; Cheveldae said. &ldquo;She knew exactly when and when not to talk about hockey. If I had a bad game, she would talk about other things to take my mind off it. I would hate to be a single guy and go through what I did in Detroit. Without my family there for support, I&rsquo;m sure I would have been committed to the looney bin.&rdquo;Cheveldae deserved better treatment in Detroit.He is, after all, a goalie who recorded 102 wins-including a league-high 38 in 1991-92&mdash;the past three seasons, played in the 1992 AllStar Game and led all goalies in minutes played that season with 4,326.Cheveldae knows wins won&rsquo;t come easily with the Jets, a team already looking to next season.&ldquo;I probably won&rsquo;t win as many games as I did with Detroit and my goals-against average will likely be higher, but if I can look in the mirror and know I&rsquo;m playing my best I&rsquo;ll be satisfied,&rdquo; Cheveldae said.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02920/6678674-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="572" height="930"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tim Cheveldae</figcaption></div>That was the case March 12 when the Jets faced the Maple Leafs in Toronto. The Leafs won the game 31, but Cheveldae was the game&rsquo;s third star making a half-dozen highlight film saves. It helped erase the memory of his Winnipeg debut the night before, an 8-4 thrashing by the Vancouver Canucks.Cheveldae insists he is not vindictive, but is disappointed with some things that were said after the trade. Detroit general manager Bryan Murray said Toronto goalie Felix Potvin&rsquo;s superb play in last year&rsquo;s playoffs led to Detroit&rsquo;s undoing.&ldquo;Last season&rsquo;s playoffs are history; I wish he could just let it go,&rdquo; Cheveldae said. &ldquo;By saying Potvin won the series for Toronto, is he suggesting I lost it for Detroit? Considering all the grief Bryan has taken for his playoff record, I would have thought he would know better.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0018-01

Chevy deserved better in Detroit

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0018-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-03635/6678712-1-eng-US/f0018-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Nobody has been as dangerous as Steve Yzerman since Christmas. (Tim Parker)</figcaption></div>Steve Yzerman will not be moved.Neither emotionally, if you take him at his word, nor physically, if you believe his general manager.Despite persistent rumors of a possible trade, Yzerman is unaffected. His only concern is leading the Detroit Red Wings to the Stanley Cup.Things have never been better for the Red Wings&rsquo; captain, now in his 11th NHL season. Yzerman, a center, is playing the best hockey of his career, the Red Wings are a legitimate Stanley Cup threat and he recently celebrated the birth of his first child, a daughter.So if you think trade talk gets him down, think again.&ldquo;If it (a trade) were to happen, there&rsquo;s nothing I can do about it,&rdquo; Yzerman said. &ldquo;I love living in Detroit and playing for the Red Wings.&ldquo;Management has never indicated to me that I would be traded, so I don&rsquo;t give it a second thought. If I heard it from somebody who might have a say in whether or not I could be moved, then I&rsquo;d be concerned.&rdquo;Since returning from a herniated disc in his back Dec. 27, an injury that kept him out of the lineup for 26 games, Yzerman has been the league&rsquo;s most productive player. He had 52 points in xx games, which tied him with Wayne Gretzky of the Los Angeles Kings. Teammate Sergei Fedorov was third with 48 points.Even in a season shortened by injury, Yzerman is on pace for about 30 goals and 90 points in xx games.Of course, outstanding offensive production is nothing new for Yzerman. He has been the Red Wings&rsquo; main man since he joined the team as a teenage sensation in 1983. A favorite with the Detroit fans, he has led the Red Wings in scoring eight of the past 11 years. He is the Red Wings&rsquo; second all-time leading goalscorer and third in points.So why would a team possibly entertain the notion of trading a 28-year-old in the prime of his career? Well, there is the emergence of Fedorov-also a center&ndash;and the fact Yzerman has not been able to lead the Red Wings to post-season success.Bryan Murray, the Red Wings&rsquo; GM, doesn&rsquo;t understand how having two great centers could be perceived as a negative. And he doesn&rsquo;t hold Yzerman responsible for playoff failures.&ldquo;Steve Yzerman is not going to be traded unless something really crazy happens.&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;Our roster has rounded out very nicely with Steve playing as well as he ever has, Sergei having raised his game to a higher level and Keith Primeau improving to the point where he offers the team something a little different because of his size.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not sure why the rumor persists. I&rsquo;m disappointed that it has and I&rsquo;m sure Steve is, too.&rdquo;Yzerman believes great teams need more than one threat.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s silly when you think about it,&rdquo; Yzerman said. &ldquo;For years, people wrote we were a one-center team and all teams had to do was stop our one center to beat us. Now we have two productive centers and they write we should trade one.&rdquo;If Yzerman were traded, his new team would be acquiring the fourth-highest paid player in the NHL. Only Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Eric Lindros are earning more than the $3,125 million Yzerman is getting this season as part of a four-year, $13,715 million contract he signed last July.The Red Wings also re-wrote Fedorov&rsquo;s contract recently signing him to a four-year, $12 million pact. Both are under contract through 1996-97 and their Detroit teanjmates feel there&rsquo;s plenty of room in Motown for the two of them.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re happy to have both of them,&rdquo; said Wings&rsquo; defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom. &ldquo;People want to play them off against each other-like they are competing-but they complement each other. They are a great threat.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0018-03

The new Yze Age

<div class="byline">By Mike Loftus</div>It was just another busy week in Cam Neely&rsquo;s amazing season.Boston&rsquo;s bruising right winger completed the third-fastest 50-goal season in NHL history against the Washington Capitals March 7, scoring two goals in his 44th game.But since he missed 22 of the Bruins&rsquo; games to care for his damaged left knee, the league isn&rsquo;t expected to include Neely&rsquo;s achievement when it ranks the quickest 50-goal seasons.Neely, who considered retiring in October because of more problems with his knee, isn&rsquo;t too concerned about what the NHL considers a record.&ldquo;At the beginning of the season, I wasn&rsquo;t even sure about 50 shifts, let alone 50 goals,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;This is a great feeling, because it&rsquo;s a lot more than I expected. I would have been happy with 30 goals, because I knew I couldn&rsquo;t play every game.&rdquo;Neely wasn&rsquo;t feeling as great after a 2-1 loss March 13 at New Jersey, which he left briefly after a first-period slash tore a piece off the top of his right pinky.Several stitches made the finger whole again and Neely returned to the game, but damage of another kind had already been done.Neely, who had 20 power-play goals entering the game, missed all four of Boston&rsquo;s manpower advantages.&ldquo;Our power play has been great all year,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It has been a big part of my success. Unfortunately, this time I was in the dressing room during the power plays.&rdquo;ON LINE: The Bruins were still waiting for a newly formed line of Ted Donato, Joe Juneau and Bryan Smolinski to produce, but they had a second scoring line playing well nonetheless.The unlikely trio of Brent Hughes, Jozef Stumpel and Glen Murray-which had combined totals of 18 goals and 35 points in 158 games before this season-scored 10 goals and 21 points in an eight-game stretch. The Bruins went 6-1-1 during their scoring spree.&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;re three pretty determined players,&rdquo; said Hughes, who had 10 goals and 17 points in 62 games. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve all spent our time together in the minors in the last year or so, and we want to prove we can contribute here.&rdquo;Hughes brings the line its speed, Stumpel has the most skill and Murray, Boston&rsquo;s first pick in the 1991 entry draft, gives it size (6-foot-2,211 pounds).NOTEBOOK: Boston&rsquo;s 6-0-1 unbeaten streak ended March 8 in a 73 loss at Pittsburgh. The Bruins have a 0-4-0 record against the Penguins this season and are 0-7-0 against them dating back to last season.<h2>BOSTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>March 11: Andrew McKim, C, assigned to Providence (AHL). Daniel Marois, LW, recalled from Providence<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Adam Oates, Joe Juneau, Jozef Stumpel, Dave Reid.LW-Dmitri Kvartalnov, Ted Donato, Brent Hughes, Daniel Marois.RW-Cam Neely, Bryan Smolinski, Glen Murray, Steve HeinzeLD-Don Sweeney, Glen Wesley, Gord Roberts, Glen Featherstone.RD-Ray Bourque, Paul Stanton, David Shaw, Jamie Huscroft.G-Jon Casey, Vincent Riendeau.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Steve Leach, RW, sprained left knee ligament, indefinite &#9632;

Neely nets 50 goals in 44 games but will league recognize mark?

<div class="byline">By Chris Stevenson</div>Ottawa Senators&rsquo; coach Rick Bowness has narrowed down what&rsquo;s wrong with his club.When asked what the biggest problem was after a 5-1 loss to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim March 13, he said: &ldquo;We&rsquo;re the lowest-scoring team in the league and we&rsquo;re the most scored upon. Take your pick.&rdquo;The loss was the Senators&rsquo; eighth in a row and ran their winless string on the road to 20 games.The trading of Bob Kudelski in January and the failure of Sylvain Turgeon to score consistently has put the offensive load on the shoulders of rookies Alexei Yashin and Alexandre Daigle and the two players are clearly not ready for that kind of responsibility.Yashin had 39 points in his first 33 games, but just 24 in the next 35. Daigle had 31 points in his first 34 games, but just 11 in the next 35.&ldquo;This team is supposed to be carried by two rookies and if they struggle the team struggles,&rdquo; Bowness said. &ldquo;We have to suffer with them. We&rsquo;re going to do it.&rdquo;At the other end of the spectrum, team defense has been an on-again, off-again proposition.Rookie goalie Darrin Madeley was sent to the minors after the team felt he had lost his focus. Craig Billington was pulled for the fourth time in six starts against the Ducks.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t enjoy letting people down,&rdquo; Billington said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m trying too hard and getting uptight. I&rsquo;m not as fluid and relaxed as I should be.&rdquo;VETERAN HELP: The Senators acquired veteran center Troy Murray from the Chicago Blackhawks for future considerations March 11.&ldquo;My role is to help some of the younger guys, to be a steadying influence in the dressing room,&rdquo; said Murray, who had been playing for the Indianapolis Ice of the International League.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s not enough NHL experience on this team to get it over certain rough spots.&rdquo;Rick Bowness said Murray, 31, can contribute in a variety of situations.&ldquo;When a team scores on you, you need to throw out some guys who can settle it down,&rdquo; Bowness said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll kill some penalties and take a lot of key faceoffs.&rdquo;Murray, the winner of the 1985-86 Selke Trophy as the league&rsquo;s best defensive forward, is going into the option year of his contract, but he hopes that doesn&rsquo;t represent the end of his playing career.&ldquo;Next year, I&rsquo;ll start fresh (with the Senators),&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think I have the health and the capability to play a few more years.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Senators signed free-agent defenseman Derek Mayxser from Canada&rsquo;s Olympic team and he stepped right into the lineup and onto the point of the power play with veteran Norm Maciver out with an injury.<h2>OTTAWA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>March 7: Derek Mayer, D, signed from Canadian Olympic team. March 8: Kevin MacDonald, D, assigned to P.E.I. (AHL). March 11: Troy Murray, C, acquired from Chicago for future considerations. March 12: Robert Burakovsky, RW, assigned to P.E.I.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Alexandre Daigle, Alexei Yashin, Troy Murray.LW-Dave McUwain, Sylvain Turgeon, Troy Mallette, Brad Lauer.RW-Andrew McBain, Gene Davydov, Scott Levins, Herb Raglan.LD-Darren Rumble, Dennis Vial, Kerry Huffman, Francois Leroux.RD-Gord Dineen, Kent Paynter, Derek Mayer.G-Craig Billington, Mark LaForest.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dave Archibald, RW, strained groin, indefinite. Bill Huard, LW, back strain, dayto-day. Darcy Loewen, LW, jammed index finger, day-to-day Norm Maciver, D, right ankle bruise, day-to-day. Brad Shaw, D, sore back, indefinite. &#9632;

What isn’t wrong?

<div class="byline">By Viv Bernstein</div>The Hartford Whalers completed two major trades in two days, involving nine players and a draft pick, that they say will make the team faster, grittier and will add character.It will also make them lighter. The Whalers dumped more than $1 million in salary through the deals.In a 24-hour period. Hartford traded defensemen Zarley Zalapski and James Patrick along with center Michael Nylander to the Calgary Flames March 10 for defenseman Gary Suter, left winger Paul Ranheim and center Ted Drury. A day later, the Whalers acquired defenseman Frantisek Kucera and right winger Jocelyn Lemieux from the Chicago Blackhawks for Suter, left winger Randy Cunneyworth and a 1995 third-round draft pick.&ldquo;I think we have the pieces to be a very competitive team for a number of years,&rdquo; said general manager Paul Holmgren. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s still my plan to challenge for the Stanley Cup in 1996.&rdquo;One of the keys to the deals is Drury. The 22-year-old Trumbull, Conn., native is the first local player to play for the Whalers. He won the Gordie Howe Scholarship from the Whalers in 1989 as the outstanding area high school player.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know how good he&rsquo;s going to be point-wise,&rdquo; Holmgren said. &ldquo;But he has tremendous character, captain material.&rdquo;Coach Pierre McGuire said he will &ldquo;turn Ranheim loose offensively.&rdquo; Ranheim had been used in a defensive role with the Flames.Lemieux said he had asked for a trade from the Blackhawks. With the Whalers, he will play 17-20 minutes per game.By trading Patrick. Zalapski and then Suter, the Whalers are putting more pressure on defenseman Chris Pronger, their No. 1 pick in 1993.&ldquo;Obviously, we&rsquo;re putting a lot on Chris Pronger&rsquo;s lap,&rdquo; Holmgren said. &ldquo;But we&rsquo;re also putting a lot in his pocket ($7 million over four years).&rdquo;Holmgren said he&rsquo;ll use the savings from the deals to try to sign left winger Andrei Nikolishin, their second-round pick in 1992, and perhaps pursue a free agent over the summer.NOTEBOOK: Pierre McGuire wasn&rsquo;t too concerned with a report that he is disliked by many in the organization. &ldquo;Not every decision you make is going to be popular with everybody,&rdquo; McGuire said&hellip;Center Andrew Cassels was hit in the left eye by a deflected puck in the Whalers&rsquo; 3-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins March 13. The puck glanced off his eye and into the net. Cassels had some bleeding and blurry vision and was hospitalized for two days as a precautionary measure.<h2>HARTFORD</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>March 10: Zarley Zalapski, D, James Patrick, D, and Michael Nylander, C, traded to Calgary for Gary Suter, D, Paul Ranheim, LW, and Ted Drury, C, Mike Tomlak, C, and Frank Pietrangelo, G, recalled from Springfield (AHL). March 11: Suter, Randy Cunneyworth, LW, and 1995 third-round pick traded to Chicago for Frantisek Kucera, D, and Jocelyn Lemieux, RW, Tomiak and Igor Chibirev, C, assigned to Springfield. March 12: Pietrangelo assigned to Springfield<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Ted Drury, Robert Petrovicky, Mark Janssens.LW-Paul Ranheim, Kevin Smyth, Jim Storm, Geoff Sanderson, Brian ProppRW-Jocelyn Lemieux, Robert Kron, Todd Harkins, Pat VerbeekLD-Chris Pronger, Ted Crowley, Frantisek Kucera.RD-Brad McCnmmon, Alexander Godynyuk, Bob McGill.G-Sean Burke, Jeff Reese.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Adam Burt, D, sprained left shoulder, indefinite. Andrew Cassels, C, left eye injury, day-to-day. Mario Gosselin, G, left knee surgery, out for season. Bryan Marchment, D, sprained left ankle, indefinite. Marc Potvin, RW, headaches, day-to-day. Jim Sandlak, RW, cracked bone in right foot, indefinite. Darren Turcotte, C, left knee surgery, indefinite. &#9632;

Blockbuster trades bring speed, grit, financial relief

<div class="byline">By Jim Kelley</div>When the letter came, Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; defenseman Randy Moller was neither surprised nor shocked. Just a little hurt.&ldquo;You can understand it,&rdquo; he said remembering the off-season and a letter from the Sabres that strongly suggested he retire. &ldquo;They thought I was done. I knew it was part of the business and all that, but I&rsquo;d be lying if I said I wasn&rsquo;t disappointed&hellip;back problems can get people thinking like that.&rdquo;Moller had serious back problems last season-he had a bulging disc pressing against his spine-causing him to miss 45 games.He also turned 30 on Aug. 23 and the Sabres weren&rsquo;t certain they could count on him. They told him so.But Moller didn&rsquo;t agree and after an eight-week program at the Back Institute of Niagara Falls, Ont., and a summer-long rehabilitation, he knew he could still play.&ldquo;Six days a week, three hours a day,&rdquo; Moller said. &ldquo;I never missed a day (of therapy) and when I graduated from that I went home and worked. I picked up from there with rollerblading and swimming, plus my therapy which was four hours a day.&rdquo;Moller has played virtually pain-free this season. He missed a couple of games with a groin injury and two more with a scratched cornea, but his back has been fine.ROAD TO RECOVERY: Pat LaFontaine skated March 14 for the first time since his season-ending knee surgery to repair a tom ligament in his right knee. But don&rsquo;t look for him in the lineup anytime soon.&ldquo;This was more for peace of mind than anything,&rdquo; LaFontaine said of the 20-minute glide around the Sabreland training facility. &ldquo;I was just gliding, no cutting or turning or anything like that. This is just part of my therapy&rdquo;LaFontaine dispelled rumors he might attempt to return in time for the playoffs. He said he has been told it takes six to nine months to return from his type of knee surgery. He has been out four months.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m skating as therapy and it&rsquo;s nice to feel good about myself and my rehabilitation going into the summer,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That talk about the playoffs, that&rsquo;s the dreamer in me.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Center Bob Sweeney sustained stretched ligaments in his right knee and isn&rsquo;t expected to return until the playoffs. The injury occurred during a March 9 game against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. Surgery won&rsquo;t be required&hellip;Alexander Mogilny had four goals in three games and appeared to be shaking a slump that saw him go scoreless in 11.<h2>BUFFALO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>March 10: Todd Simon, C, recalled from Rochester (AHL). Matthew Barnaby, RW, and Deras Tsygurov, D, assigned to Rochester.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Dale Hawerchuk, Todd Simon, Dave Hannan.LW-Yuri Khmylev, Brad May, Rob Ray, Randy Wood, Craig Simpson.RW-Alexander Mogilny, Donald Audette, Wayne Presley, Jason Dawe.LD-Doug Bodger, Philippe Boucher, Randy Moller, Ken Sutton.RD-Craig Muni, Peter Svoboda, Richard Smehlik.G-Dominik Hasek, Grant Fuhr.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Pat LaFontaine, C, right knee surgery, indefinite. Bob Sweeney, C, stretched ligaments in right knee, indefinite. &#9632;

Good old-fashioned hard work helps steady Moller come back

<div class="byline">By Kevin Johnston</div>Tommy Sjodin has answered the call for the Quebec Nordiques. The power-play specialist has boosted a sagging attack.After his acquisition from the Dallas Stars Feb. 13, Sjodin had a goal and eight points in 13 games while quarterbacking what had been the worst power play in the league.The 28-year-old Swede is in the option year of his $300,000 per season contract and wants to remain in North America. The way his career was going with the Stars-he spent most of the season in the International League with the Kalamazoo Wings-Sjodin would have returned to Sweden next season if the NHL wasn&rsquo;t in the cards.He was a power-play specialist in Minnesota last season, but couldn&rsquo;t crack their lineup this season.&ldquo;It was a question of numbers with the Stars,&rdquo; Sjodin said. &ldquo;I guess they didn&rsquo;t have any room for a player they only wanted to play on the power play. It&rsquo;s not that I was unhappy in Kalamazoo. Things went very well for me over there. But I came to America to play in the NHL, not the minors.&rdquo;Sjodin has been used both on the power play and in even-strength situations for the Nordiques.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m like every other player,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The more I play, the more I get into the flow of the game.&rdquo;KEEPING COOL: There&rsquo;s a very thin line Chris Simon has to make sure he doesn&rsquo;t cross.The Nordiques need Simon&rsquo;s toughness to provide a comfort zone for the team&rsquo;s more skilled players. But they don&rsquo;t need the bone-headed penalties he occasionally gets.Coach-general manager Pierre Page wasn&rsquo;t happy with two penalties Simon took in a 4-4 tie against the Montreal Canadiens March 10.&ldquo;We need Chris very much,&rdquo; Page said. &ldquo;But he has to learn to control himself. On the day of the game, he kept telling the other players he would be careful. But as soon as the puck was dropped, there he went.&rdquo;Simon said his penalties were due to retaliation and referee Don Koharski didn&rsquo;t see liberties taken upon him.&ldquo;I met with Pierre and before he could say a word, I told him my conduct was unacceptable,&rdquo; Simon said. &ldquo;I have to learn to keep my emotions under control.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Curtis Leschyshyn is friends with former Nordiques&rsquo; defenseman Bryan Fogarty and is hoping he makes good at his latest chance in the NHL. Fogarty has been battling alcohol problems in the past and is now playing with the Canadiens. &ldquo;(Montreal coach) Jacques Demers will be very good for Bryan,&rdquo; Leschyshyn said. &ldquo;Bryan is a courageous guy. His is a very special case. I hope he makes it.&rdquo;Owen Nolan is expected to return to the lineup March 26. He has missed virtually all season with a rotator cuff injury in his left shoulder.<h2>QUEBEC</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>March 8: Garth Snow, G, assigned to Cornwall (AHL). March 9: David Karpa, D, Chris Lindberg, RW, and Mike McKee, D, assigned to Cornwall. March 10: Jon Klemm, D, recalled from Cornwall. March 11: Karpa recalled from Cornwall.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Joe Sakic, Mats Sundin, Mike Ricci, Ron Sutter.LW-Chris Simon, Valeri Kamensky, Claude Lapointe, Martin Rucinsky, Tony Twist, lain Fraser.RW-Andrei Kovalenko, Bob Bassen, Dwayne Norris, Paul MacDermid, Scott Young.LD-Steven Finn, Curtis Leschyshyn, Alexei Gusarov, Jon Klemm.RD-Garth Butcher, Craig Wdanin, Tommy Sjodin, David Karpa.G-Jacques Cloutier, Stephane Fiset, Jocelyn Thibault.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Adam Foote, D, herniated disc in back, indefinite. Owen Nolan, RW, left shoulder surgery, March 26. Reggie Savage, RW, fractured left wrist, out for season. &#9632;

Specialist Sjodin brings just what doctor ordered

<div class="byline">By Herb Zurkowsky</div>Paul DiPietro scored twice in the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; Stanley Cupclinching victory against the Los Angeles Kings.It was part of a glorious 1993 playoff in which he had eight goals and 13 points in 17 games.But it has been all downhill since for the diminutive center, who might be on his way out of town before the March 21 trade deadline.A report out of New York suggested the Edmonton Oilers are interested in acquiring DiPietro for rugged left winger Kelly Buchberger.That is speculation, but there is no denying coach Jacques Demers is disturbed over the level to which the 5-foot-9, 181 pounder&rsquo;s play and attitude has plummeted.Demers has scratched DiPietro from the lineup periodically, hoping it would inspire him. And it worked once; he scored twice in a Dec. 18 win over the Detroit Red Wings after sitting out a game. But Demers&rsquo; pleas have mostly fallen on deaf ears.&ldquo;It looks like Paul DiPietro hasn&rsquo;t accepted not playing too often,&rdquo; Demers said.DiPietro has been relegated to duty on the third and fourth lines as his play has dipped. He had eight goals and 25 points in 56 games.And the less DiPietro plays, the more he pouts. And that&rsquo;s what has Demers steamed.DiPietro had his chances earlier this season. Injuries to centers Kirk Muller and Stephan Lebeau meant DiPietro was playing on the first line frequently, but even that didn&rsquo;t appear to inspire the 23-year-old.Indeed, when he struggled, the Canadiens had no alternative but to move John LeClair, a 6-foot-2 left winger, to center.SHAPE UP, OR&hellip;: There is no correlation between Patrice Brisebois&rsquo; injuries and off-ice activities, but Jacques Demers said it&rsquo;s time for the defenseman to shape up.Brisebois returned to the lineup March 12 against the Philadelphia Flyers after missing seven games with a sprained ankle.Brisebois had missed 31 games this season-tops on the team&ndash;to injuries and played in only 38 games. He had two goals and 19 points. He had 10 goals and 31 points in 70 games last season.There is concern among Canadiens management the 23-year-old is undisciplined off the ice and is too giving of his time to charities, which requires television and radio appearances as well as photo shoots.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not saying his behavior is bad off the ice,&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;His roommate on the road is J.J. Daigneault; you can&rsquo;t ask for a better role model.&rdquo;Brisebois said he understands and will change. &ldquo;I understand and agree perfectly with Jacques,&rdquo; he said.NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Lyle Odelein scored three goals March 9 against the St. Louis Blues to become the first Montreal defenseman since Larry Robinson to score three goals in a game. Robinson scored a hat trick in a 1985 game. Earlier this season Odelien tied a team record, established by Doug Harvey in 1955, with five assists in a game. He had 10 goals and 34 points in 65 games.<h2>MONTREAL</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Kirk Muller, John LeClair, Guy Carbonneau, Paul DiPietro, Ron Wilson.LW-Vincent Damphousse, Gilbert Dionne, Benoit Brunet, Pierre Sevigny, Mario Roberge.RW-Bnan Bellows, Mike Keane, Oleg Petrov, Ed Ronan.LD-Mathieu Schneider, Kevin Haller, Bryan Fogarty, Peter Popovic.RD-Lyle Odelein, Eric Desjardins, J.J, Daigneault, Patrice Brisebois.G-Patrick Roy, Ron Tugnutt.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None &#9632;

Demers losing patience with slumping DiPietro

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02611/6678939-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="496" height="463"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01912/6678932-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="3085" height="2988"><figcaption class="caption-body">Scott Niedermayer is among the league leaders in plus-minus. The New Jersey defenseman is a plus-32.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01815/6678925-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="3077" height="3516"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01892/6678918-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="3070" height="3522"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01847/6678911-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="3089" height="1348"></div> &#9632;

f0024-02

HOCKEY THE WAY YOU WANT TO PLAY IT.

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0027-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02528/6678970-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0027-02

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, MARCH 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01887/6679176-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="590" height="3081"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02587/6679169-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="589" height="3490"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-03418/6679162-1-eng-US/f0028-032.jpg" title="f0028-03" width="585" height="728"></div><h2>TUESDAY, MARCH 8</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-04296/6679155-1-eng-US/f0028-042.jpg" title="f0028-04" width="584" height="2657"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-05231/6679148-1-eng-US/f0028-052.jpg" title="f0028-05" width="583" height="3489"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-06199/6679141-1-eng-US/f0028-062.jpg" title="f0028-06" width="592" height="374"></div><h2>WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-07179/6679134-1-eng-US/f0028-072.jpg" title="f0028-07" width="587" height="3031"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01779/6679127-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="588" height="3501"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02504/6679120-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="583" height="3493"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-03324/6679113-1-eng-US/f0029-032.jpg" title="f0029-03" width="586" height="775"></div><h2>THURSDAY, MARCH 10</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-04230/6679106-1-eng-US/f0029-042.jpg" title="f0029-04" width="584" height="2622"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-05202/6679099-1-eng-US/f0029-052.jpg" title="f0029-05" width="584" height="3498"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-06165/6679092-1-eng-US/f0029-062.jpg" title="f0029-06" width="592" height="1451"></div><h2>FRIDAY, MARCH 11</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-07139/6679085-1-eng-US/f0029-072.jpg" title="f0029-07" width="584" height="1953"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01881/6679078-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="600" height="2838"></div><h2>SATURDAY, MARCH 12</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02590/6679071-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="596" height="580"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03406/6679064-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="594" height="3508"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-04290/6679057-1-eng-US/f0030-042.jpg" title="f0030-04" width="594" height="910"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-06174/6679050-1-eng-US/f0030-062.jpg" title="f0030-06" width="590" height="438"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-07147/6679043-1-eng-US/f0030-072.jpg" title="f0030-07" width="592" height="914"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-08133/6679036-1-eng-US/f0030-082.jpg" title="f0030-08" width="588" height="468"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-09117/6679029-1-eng-US/f0030-092.jpg" title="f0030-09" width="600" height="3508"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01815/6679022-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="595" height="865"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-05213/6679015-1-eng-US/f0030-052.jpg" title="f0030-05" width="1194" height="2066"><figcaption class="caption-body">Eric Lindros of the Flyers has been on a tear since the all-star break.</figcaption></div><h2>SUNDAY, MARCH 13</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02533/6679008-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="590" height="2545"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-03387/6679001-1-eng-US/f0031-032.jpg" title="f0031-03" width="590" height="3511"></div> &#9632;

f0028-01

NHL SUMMARIES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0031-04" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-04292/6679221-1-eng-US/f0031-042.jpg"></div>THROUGH SUNDAY. MARCH 13. NHL affiliations in parentheses: independent teams are indicated by (ind).<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01874/6679214-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="3071" height="3536"><figcaption class="caption-body">Emmanuel Fernandez</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01792/6679207-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="629" height="3532"></div> &#9632;

f0031-04

SCOREBOARD

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0034-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02621/6679290-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01881/6679283-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="3066" height="3010"></div> &#9632;

f0034-02

AMERICAN LEAGUE

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01841/6679328-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="380" height="535"></div>Tom Renney has a unique philosophy about hockey players. &ldquo;In this business,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;sometimes your guts are your brains.&rdquo;Hmm. Well, whatever it takes. Anyway, who are we to argue with the man who came within one penalty shot of guiding Canada to its first hockey gold medal in 42 years?In September of 1992, Renney looked over his roster for the Canadian national team and one player had his guts in a knot. This guy had been cut by Dave King the year before, but Renney had a good feeling about him.That player was Todd Hlushko.Before the Olympics, Hlushko was just another obscure journeyman toiling in hockey&rsquo;s scrapyard. By the time the Games in Lillehammer were over, he was a national hero.Paul Kariya, Petr Nedved and Chris Kontos provided talent and finesse, but Hlushko gave the Canadian team its heart and soul. He scored huge goals. He almost put Kenny Jonsson through the boards. He drove Saku Koivu crazy. The Canadian team was able to mine a silver medal because players such as Hlushko were working the drill.&ldquo;Quite simply,&rdquo; Renney says, &ldquo;you win with guys like Todd Hlushko. He could play for my team anytime.&rdquo;Unfortunately, Hlushko (pronounced Huh-LOOSH-koe) is unavailable. After the Olympics, the 24-year-old left winger signed a termination contract with the Philadelphia Flyers for the rest of the season. If he proves he can play in the NHL, he&rsquo;ll give the Flyers first crack at signing him to a long-term deal next season. If not, he&rsquo;ll probably go to the International League where he can make some decent money.All Hlushko ever wanted was a chance. He never got that with the Washington Capitals, who chose him 240th overall in 1990.&ldquo;I feel lucky, but I also feel it&rsquo;s well deserved,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Now it&rsquo;s up to me to make a statement.&rdquo;The odds are hardly stacked in Hlushko&rsquo;s favor, but that has never bothered him. Against the advice of his agent who didn&rsquo;t think anyone would select him, Hlushko travelled to Vancouver at his own expense for the draft. Before the Olympics, many thought he and the Canadian team had about as good a chance of winning a gold medal as the Jamaican bobsled team. (And if the hockey gods ever forgive me, I promise never to slag a Canadian team again.)Those connected with the Canadian Olympic team described Hlushko as a man on a mission. The intensity has always been there, whether he&rsquo;s fighting for a puck in the comer or turning a double into a triple in Ontario&rsquo;s elite senior amateur baseball league. But Hlushko got all the focus he needed when his father and best friend, Peter, died of cancer last summer at the age of 59.Even as his health deteriorated, Peter would pull up his car to the special spot near the outfield fence to watch his son patrol Centerfield for the Guelph Royals. Todd was once a promising pitcher and was scouted by Major League teams, but he pitched like he played hockey: full speed, taking no prisoners. That approach usually only works for guys named Ryan or Roger.Hlushko was a .435 hitter and rookie of the year two seasons ago, but baseball continues to be something to do between hockey seasons.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02615/6679321-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="573" height="756"><figcaption class="caption-body">Todd Hlushko</figcaption></div>The day Peter was laid to rest, the Royals had a crucial game against nearby Kitchener. The players skipped batting practice and paid their last respects in uniform.Todd was so moved by the gesture that after the funeral, he stopped by the ballpark in his suit After seeing his team was down 10-0, he made a quick change and took a place on the bench. He got into the lineup for the seventh inning and cashed in two runs on a bases-loaded single. Then in the bottom of the ninth with two on, two out and the Royals down by three, Hlushko belted the ball out of the park.There wasn&rsquo;t a dry eye in the stadium. &ldquo;Their third baseman even had tears going down his face,&rdquo; recalls Royals&rsquo; coach Dino Roumel.Hlushko&rsquo;s heroics made the pages of Sports Illustrated as one of the 93 things that went right in 1993.If the first three months of 1994 are any indication, Hlushko is on a roll. &#9632;

f0035-01

Canada’s Hlushko man on mission

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div>Unlike many of his countrymen who come to North America and inexplicably take a liking to heavy metal music, Vitali Yachmenev is a disco lover.That might explain why the 19-year-old Yachmenev, known as Rocket Man to his teammates and fans, has been able to dance around opposing defenders with such ease in his first Ontario League season.The left-shooting right winger led all OHL rookies with 60 goals and 111 points in 65 games. He also led the league in goals and game-winning goals and has been a big reason why the Centennials, seventh in the Leyden Division and third-worst in the league last season, are the topranked team in the Canadian Hockey League this season and a solid contender for their first Memorial Cup.The division-leading Centennials have been a huge force this season. In fact, they had a bigger margin between themselves and the second place team in their division than any other team in the CHL.Yachmenev has been as hot as his team. In terms of productivity, he is the best European import to play in the OHL since the European draft was instituted last season. The 5-foot-9, 180-pound native of Chelyabinsk was recently rated by the NHL&rsquo;s Central Scouting Bureau as the 27th-best North American prospect.&ldquo;If this kid doesn&rsquo;t win rookie of the year,&rdquo; said Ottawa 67&rsquo;s coach Brian Kilrea, &ldquo;something is wrong. He&rsquo;s the most valuable player in the league.&rdquo;Yachmenev was the sixth player selected in the CHL&rsquo;s 1993 import player draft. Teams from the Ontario, Western and Quebec Leagues can draft one European per year, but cannot have more than two on their roster in one season.He has a limited understanding of English, but still has difficulty putting sentences together. He came to Canada in July and was placed with a family that spoke English and Russian, but is shy and not a man of many words.Asked about the transition to the OHL, Yachmenev said: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not easy, but not hard, either.&rdquo;The latter is abundantly clear to anyone who has seen him play.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03499/6679359-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="571" height="973"><figcaption class="caption-body">Vitali Yachmenev is rated as a second-round pick in 1994.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;He has come over and demonstrated a willingness to go into the comers and fight for the puck,&rdquo; said Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; scout Dan Marr. &ldquo;He comes out of the comer with the puck, drives to the net and buries his chances. He&rsquo;s a dangerous player from the faceoff circle in.&rdquo;Communication on the ice hasn&rsquo;t been a problem because North Bay coach-general manager Bert Templeton wouldn&rsquo;t let it become one. Templeton has never tutored a player with such limited understanding of English, but said Yachmenev has been an A student.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never had to explain a drill to him,&rdquo; Templeton said. &ldquo;We never have his line ran through a drill first so he pays attention to what the player at his position on the first line does. I wish the other players paid as close attention as he does.&rdquo;Templeton recognized early last season the Centennials were headed nowhere. What bothered him even more was the fact he didn&rsquo;t like the talent or character he had returning for this season. So he spent a lot of time scouting, often skipping his team&rsquo;s games, in an effort to upgrade.The Centennials&rsquo; management worked overtime grading potential European draft picks and although Yachmenev didn&rsquo;t rate as high as some others on their list, there were other things working in his favor.&ldquo;We liked the idea he had played at a higher level than many of the others,&rdquo; Templeton said. &ldquo;And we needed scoring from the right side. We felt he had the potential to step in and make an immediate impact.&rdquo;Yachmenev, whose favorite player is Pavel Bure of the Vancouver Canucks and favorite NHL team is the Maple Leafs, played for Mechen Traktor in the Russian First Division last season, scoring 24 goals and 44 points in 50 games. The season before, he played for the Jr. Traktors scoring a whopping 82 goals and 149 points in 75 games.His impact has not only been felt on the ice, but in the community. He is a fan favorite and the club has cashed in on his popularity by marketing photographs, hockey cards, T-shirts and sweatshirts featuring his image.Templeton claims Yachmenev is his team&rsquo;s best defensive forward. He led the Centennials&rsquo; in shorthanded goals with four.&ldquo;He doesn&rsquo;t score every game, but even when he doesn&rsquo;t, he sets the tone of the game,&rdquo; said Centennials&rsquo; goalie Scott Roche. &#9632;

f0035-03

Russian Rocket II

When it looked like the NHL might not be able to hold its annual entry draft in Hartford due to a conflict with a golf tournament, the league should have considered moving it to North Bay.After all, a lot of the top draft picks will already be there.The Ontario League&rsquo;s North Bay Centennials have six of the top 36 ranked prospects on the NHL&rsquo;s Central Scouting Bureau list.The only team close to the Centennials in the race for best prospects is the Western League&rsquo;s Brandon Wheat Kings. They have five players rated between 17-43.Among the &lsquo;Cents who figure to cash in early in the draft are right winger Vitali Yachmenev (rated 27th), defensemen Brad Brown (12th) and Corey Neilson (24th), centers Lee Jinman (23rd) and Jim Ensom (36th) and left winger Scott Cherry (26th).Brown, a rugged 6-foot-4, 218-pound blueliner was rated 12th, but will likely go higher. Through 63 games, Brown scored eight goals and 31 points and had collected a team-high 183 penalty minutes.Brown recently lost a celebrated fight to fellow first-round prospect Brett Lindros of the Kingston Frontenacs, but scouts are not questioning physical capabilities.&ldquo;He could go in the top six,&rdquo; said one NHL scout. &ldquo;People love his toughness.&rdquo; &#9632;

Look north for best pro prospects

<div class="byline">By Rob Vanstone</div>Tacoma Rockets&rsquo; goalie Jeff Calvert set a Western League record, but he isn&rsquo;t ecstatic about it.By starting in goal March 6 against the Seattle Thunderbirds, Calvert made his 225th career appearance-a record for goalies.Thunderbirds&rsquo; graduate Danny Lorenz set the previous mark of 224 games between 1986 and 1990. Seattle spoiled the occasion for Calvert by recording a 7-5 victory.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t feel that good about myself,&rdquo; Calvert said after the game. &ldquo;I guess the record might mean more to me over the next day or two.&rdquo;Calvert, 21, is in his fifth WHL season. He began his career with the Moose Jaw Warriors. The Moose Jaw native was traded to Tacoma in 1991 after two seasons.&ldquo;(The record) isn&rsquo;t really a highly publicized thing,&rdquo; said Calvert, who has not been drafted. &ldquo;In my mind, I&rsquo;ve obviously been here too long for me to get this record.&ldquo;If this is as far as I go, I can look back and think I did pretty much all I could to get there.&rdquo;Calvert, who was named the West Division&rsquo;s most valuable player last season, hopes to land a pro tryout in the fall. Failing that, the Canadian university ranks are a possibility.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a good thing there&rsquo;s an age limit in the league,&rdquo; Calvert said with a chuckle, &ldquo;or I&rsquo;d probably be here forever.&rdquo;GIRARD&rsquo;S DEAL: Swift Current Broncos&rsquo; center Rick Girard agreed to NHL contract terms with the Vancouver Canucks March 1.The deal, which includes the current season, calls for three years plus an option. Vancouver picked the crafty Edmonton native in the second round (46th overall) of the 1993 entry draft.&ldquo;The contract is great,&rdquo; Girard said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been talking with Vancouver for a while and maybe it had an effect on my play.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to get it out of the way. Now I can concentrate on playing my best every night and trying to help the Broncos win another title.&rdquo;Girard, 19, had 34 goals and 74 points in 48 games this season. He&rsquo;s coming off a 71-goal, 147-point season.TOUGH TIMING: Mike Maneluk unwittingly made the mistake of marvelling at his own good fortune. Shortly thereafter, the Brandon Wheat Kings&rsquo; left winger sustained the first injury of his WHL career.Maneluk is sidelined until late March with a strained right shoulder sustained March 1 in a 42 loss to the Saskatoon Blades. Maneluk and linemate Marty Murray discussed injuries, of all things, before that fateful contest.&ldquo;We were talking about how fortunate we&rsquo;ve been to be free of injuries&hellip;until right now,&rdquo; said Maneluk, who had 50 goals and 95 points in 58 games. &ldquo;I had just played my 200th WHL game. I had missed five games in my whole career&ndash;and none of them were due to injury.&ldquo;I usually touch wood before every game. I touched wood that night, too, but it didn&rsquo;t work.&rdquo;Maneluk, 20, is not exactly enjoying life as a fan.&ldquo;This is so frustrating,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s especially tough when we win, because I want to be a part of it.&rdquo;BLAZERS BLAZING: The Kamloops Blazers set a WHL record March 8 by winning their 27th consecutive home game of the season. Kamloops established the mark by defeating the Spokane Chiefs 8-4.Another impressive streak continued that night. Kamloops&rsquo; center Darcy Tucker saw his point-scoring skein reach 35 games, the longest in the WHL this season.DRAFT SET: The WHL&rsquo;s annual bantam draft will be held April 28 in Calgary.The league is also the major sponsor of a primary showcase tournament for bantam-aged players-those bom in 1978 or 1979.General managers from across the league will descend on Kamloops for the Western Canada bantam championship, which runs April 7-10. &#9632;

Resilient Calvert establishes record for durability

<div class="byline">By Jim Cressman</div>He has bowled them over for three seasons in the Ontario League, yet Bill Bowler remains humble.The diminutive center with the Windsor Spitfires is among the smallest players in the OHL at 5-foot-8 and 170 pounds, but he plays with one of the biggest hearts.He has won over the hearts of the Windsor fans while becoming the Spitfires&rsquo; career points leader, surpassing the 296 points Blair Barnes compiled from 1977 through 1980.Bowler, 19, had 113 goals and 328 points in 185 games. Barnes had 127 goals and 296 points in 198 games, but also spent 456 minutes in the penalty box.Bowler was the rookie scoring champion in 1991-92 with 25 goals and 88 points and was fourth in league scoring this season with 42 goals and 117 points in 61 games.He was a free-agent invitee to the New Jersey Devils&rsquo; training camp last fall, but has yet to sign a contract.&ldquo;I hope he can make it as a pro,&rdquo; said Spitfires&rsquo; rookie coach Shane Parker, who said his team would be nowhere without Bowler. &ldquo;Where would London be without (OHL scoring leader) Jason Allison? Where would Detroit be without Kevin Brown? Bill is our premier player.&rdquo;Parker said Bowler&rsquo;s presence at the Devils&rsquo; camp showed him what he has to do to play pro.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s immensely creative offensively, but I like the strides he has made in an attempt to become a two-way player,&rdquo; Parker said. &ldquo;He has also made great strides off the ice with his physical fitness. Being invited to New Jersey&rsquo;s camp helped open his eyes.&rdquo;Bowler said he never gave any thought to the Spitfires&rsquo; points record until this season, when someone brought it to his attention.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a great feeling being in the record book for at least this year,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;ll get broken sooner or later, but to have your name in there is something to be proud of.&rdquo;WORST TO FIRST: The Detroit Jr. Red Wings clinched first place in the Emms Division in only their fourth season.They finished eighth their first year (199091) with an 11-50-5 record. The next season they improved to seventh at 23-42-1. Last season, they finished in a first-place tie with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, 37-22-7, but the Greyhounds got the nod based on their head-to-head record.JOIN THE CLUB: Guelph Storm right winger Mike Prokopec became the fifth OHL player to score 50 goals this season with a three-goal effort against the London Knights March 8.The Storm won 13-4 as Prokopec reached a team-record 51 goals, breaking the old team mark of 48 set by Jeff Bes last season.The bad news is the Storm lost defenseman Kayle Short for the rest of the season and playoffs with tom knee ligaments after colliding with Detroit&rsquo;s Kevin Brown.NATIONAL KUDOS: Sudbury Wolves&rsquo; defenseman Jamie Rivers was named the Canadian Hockey League&rsquo;s player of the month for February.The St. Louis Blues&rsquo; third-round pick in the 1993 draft had 11 goals and 37 points in 13 games during the month. He was running away with the defenseman scoring title with 112 points in 61 games.FUTILITY MARK: The Peterborough Petes, who lost in the Memorial Cup final last season, have lost more games this season (41) than any other season in their 38-year history. They were also in the midst of a 16-game winless streak, which tied the franchise record.Peterborough&rsquo;s Jamie Langenbrunner was the OHL&rsquo;s rookie of the month for February, the third time he has won the award. Langenbrunner, a second-round pick of the Dallas Stars in 1993, has set the Petes&rsquo; rookie records for points (89) and assists (57).BAD BOYS: The Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds indefinitely suspended their overage players, Wade Gibson and Sean Gagnon, after they broke a number of team rules, including repeated curfew violations. &#9632;

Bowler bumps off record

<div class="byline">By Stuart Cowan</div>The Laval Titan is headed to the Memorial Cup for the fourth time in six years, and this time it&rsquo;ll have the advantage of being the host team.The Titan clinched the Quebec League regular-season title and the right to host the Cup when the Chicoutimi Sagueneens lost 6-1 to the Drummondville Voltigeurs March 6. It&rsquo;s the third time a Laval team has won the regular-season title and the first time since 1983-84, when Mario Lemieux led the Voisins. The Voisins also won the regular-season title in 1982-83.Last year, the Titan advanced to the Memorial Cup as league playoff champions. If the Titan wins the playoff title again this season, the other QMJHL finalist will join it at the Memorial Cup, May 14-22.No Quebec-based team has won the Memorial Cup since Guy Lafleur led the Quebec Remparts to the title in 1971.The Memorial Cup tournament will be played at the Centre Sportif Laval, which has the standard 200-by-85-foot ice surface. It seats 3,069 and can hold 3,600 with standing room.The Titan has 12 returning players from last year&rsquo;s team which lost 3-1 to the Ontario League&rsquo;s Peterborough Petes in the Memorial Cup semifinal game. Defenseman Michael Gaul, who was a first team all-star at last year&rsquo;s tournament, said that experience will help the Titan this time around.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to play our own game,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Last year we tried to play their game (the rough style of the OHL and Western League). We tried to play too physical instead of our offensive style. We&rsquo;ve got Yanick Dube, who&rsquo;s the leading scorer in the CHL, so you can&rsquo;t expect him to be running at guys.&ldquo;In general, I think the Ontario and Western teams are bigger and stronger than us, but I think we have more talent. We just have to use it.&rdquo;Laval rookie coach Michel Therrien has shown the ability to make use of that talent.When he took over the Titan after Jacques Laporte resigned Oct. 6, the team had a mediocre 6-5-0 record. But the Titan won its first 13 games under Therrien.Therrien became the fifth rookie coach in league history to lead his team to a berth in the Memorial Cup. The others were Orval Tessier (Cornwall Royals, 1971-72), Marc Picard (Quebec Remparts, 1973-74), Bob Kilger (Cornwall, 1980-81), and Paulin Bordeleau (Laval, 1988-89).Gaul said having home-ice advantage for the tournament will push those emotions sky-high.&ldquo;We have a saying in the dressing room at home that goes: after two, the Titan never lose, which means if we&rsquo;re leading after two periods, we never lose,&rdquo; he said.The Titan had a 25-9-1 record at the Centre Sportif this season.WEEK TO REMEMBER: Shawinigan Cataractes&rsquo; goalie Patrick Lalime picked up his first career shutout in his 92nd QMJHL game March 1 in a 6-0 victory over Chicoutimi.Lalime was later named the league&rsquo;s defensive player of the week for the period ending March 6 after posting a 2-0-0 record while giving up only four goals on 58 shots.The Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; sixth-round pick at last year&rsquo;s NHL entry draft had a 20-17-2 record and 4.07 goals-against average in 39 games this season.Beauport Harfangs&rsquo; right winger Patrick Deraspe was named the offensive player of the week after scoring three goals and eight points in three games. Deraspe had 44 goals and 94 points in 65 games this season.HOT ROOKIE: Sherbrooke Faucons&rsquo; center Christian Dube was named the Canadian Hockey League rookie of the month for February.The 16-year-old had seven goals and 15 points in 10 games to give him 30 goals and 69 points for the season, second best on his team behind left winger Hugo Turcotte.The 5-foot-10, 171 pound Dube was Sherbrooke&rsquo;s third-round pick (39th overall) at last year&rsquo;s midget draft. &#9632;

Laval clinches as host of May’s Memorial Cup

<div class="byline">By Kevin Oklobzija</div>During his six-year professional career, Jerome Dupont was a hard-nosed defensive defenseman.Now, back in hockey in an administrative role, Dupont is playing goalie. It&rsquo;s his job to save the American League in Hamilton and he claims it can be done.Dupont, who last played in the NHL with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1986-87, was recently hired by the Vancouver Canucks to run the marketing affairs of their AHL affiliate, the Hamilton Canucks.Keeping Rick Vaive or Dino Ciccarelli from setting up near the net was tough for Dupont as a player, but this task is even more challenging.First of all, Vancouver doesn&rsquo;t really want to be in the minor-league ownership business. In order to ensure its prospects had a place to play, Vancouver was forced to buy the AHL franchise in November after the former ownership group dissolved the original debt-ridden franchise.The Canucks now are being courted by an ownership group from Syracuse, N.Y., headed by New York marketing executive Howard Dolgan and whose partners include heavyweight boxer Riddick Bowe and the exchamp&rsquo;s manager Ross Newman.But Dupont is going forward with the remainder of this season&ndash;and he has a hot team to market as Hamilton had gone unbeaten in 10 games (9-0-1).&ldquo;As far as we know, we&rsquo;re going to be here next year,&rdquo; said Dupont, a first-round pick of the Chicago Blackhawks in 1980 who played 214 NHL games. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been told to prepare season-ticket packages for next year. We&rsquo;ve already booked dates (in Copps Coliseum).&rdquo;Hamilton was averaging 3,102 fans this season, and crowds were slowly inching upward. The corporate community is sticking with the team as well.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve retained 95 per cent of our corporate sponsors and Molson is a new sponsor,&rdquo; Dupont said. &ldquo;There was a lack of confidence in the previous ownership group, but I think we&rsquo;ve overcome that.&rdquo;Critics say Hamilton doesn&rsquo;t want minor-league hockey, that the city won&rsquo;t be satisfied until it has an NHL team for Copps.&ldquo;I think you have to walk before you can run,&rdquo; Dupont said. &ldquo;You have to show support at this level before you can make the move to the next level. I think this is a stepping stone to the ultimate dream of an NHL team.&rdquo;REVERSAL OF FORTUNES: Daniel Berthiaume went from the AHL&rsquo;s worst team&ndash;the P.E.I. Senators&ndash;to the best when he joined the Adirondack Red Wings on loan March 5.Berthiaume, an eight-year veteran, played one game for the NHL&rsquo;s Ottawa Senators this season. He had a 8-16-3 record with a 4.76 goals-against average in P.E.I.With the recently demoted Darrin Madeley expected to play most of the games the rest of the season, Ottawa sent a fax to all teams saying Berthiaume was available.Berthiaume was more than happy to move.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s definitely a big contrast and it&rsquo;s a lot of fun,&rdquo; Berthiaume said. &ldquo;Everybody&rsquo;s so optimistic and happy.&rdquo;BLACK AND BLUE: John Blue has always been rambunctious in his goal crease and he had an eventful game March 6 against the Cornwall Aces.Blue assisted on the Providence Bruins&rsquo; first goal of the game then received four minor penalties: a pair for slashing, one for interference and one for delay of game. Two led to powerplay goals for the Aces, who won 6-4.Since being reassigned to Providence by the Boston Bruins in early February, Blue (5-6-3, 3.44 GAA) had 37 penalty minutes in 14 games. &#9632;

Dupont’s huge challenge to save Hamilton hockey

<div class="byline">By Dave Eminian</div>The International League had to deal with an image crisis in late February and early March when one of its star players was seriously injured.Peoria Rivermen center Michel Mongeau, who in October signed an unprecedented minorleague deal of five-years for $625,000, sustained seven facial fractures after being driven into a support beam of the goal by Cleveland Lumberjack defenseman Chris Tamer Feb. 27.Mongeau&rsquo;s upper jaw, left cheek, eye socket, nose and other related facial bones were broken. It took five hours of surgery to repair the damage. Three metal plates were implanted in his head and his jaw will be wired shut until midApril. He is out for the season and will require six months to heal.Tamer, who says he was going after the puck and had no intention of hurting Mongeau, was assessed a five-minute major penalty for checking from behind and was ejected from the game.But after serving a one-game suspension, Tamer returned to action and then was recalled by the parent Pittsburgh Penguins while IHL commissioner Tom Berry reviewed videotape of the incident.The Rivermen then reported March 8 that Berry had notified them to say Tamer&rsquo;s recall put him out of IHL jurisdiction and the Lumberjack defenseman would receive no further punishment. Berry did not return a call requesting an interview to explain his decision.&ldquo;Tom Berry has no guts,&rdquo; an upset Mongeau said. &ldquo;Tamer should be suspended for as long as I am out. If I can&rsquo;t play, why should he be allowed to play?&rdquo;The Rivermen drew support from player, coaching and ownership circles around the league in their dismay that Tamer wasn&rsquo;t given a lengthy suspension.Peoria owner Bruce Saurs contacted every owner in the league to discuss the case and faxed each of them copies of a Peoria newspaper story that included a photo of Mongeau&rsquo;s horribly disfigured face.&ldquo;We owe it to Michel Mongeau and his family to take this to the absolute limit, and we will,&rdquo; said Saurs, who plans to seek legal action in the hopes of winning an appeal hearing with an independent arbitrator. &ldquo;What happened to Mongeau was a travesty, the sick side of sports. But this decision is a travesty, too. I think Tom Berry has made a terrible mistake for the IHL and the sport.&rdquo;Added Peoria coach Paul MacLean: &ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to play back what Tom Berry said at the press conference in Peoria when Mongeau was signed, about his dedication to the game, his honor, his star value. And now this is how the league treats one of its stars?&ldquo;If I were Rob Brown, I would be afraid. If I were Len Barrie or Radek Bonk, I&rsquo;d be afraid. Because as far as I&rsquo;m concerned, it&rsquo;s open season on every great player in the IHL. It&rsquo;s a terrible, damn scary precedent Tom Berry has set.&rdquo;Mongeau, meanwhile, is considering a lawsuit against the IHL, Cleveland Lumbeijacks, Pittsburgh Penguins and Tamer.EAGLES TAKE FLIGHT: The Salt Lake Golden Eagles were sold March 10 to Arena Associates who will move the team to Detroit next season.The name of the team will be the Vipers and it will play out of The Palace of Auburn Hills, the home of the National Basketball Association&rsquo;s Detroit Pistons.The price of the team was not disclosed, but Golden Eagles&rsquo; owner Larry H. Miller acknowleged it was in the $4-6 million range.I-OPENERS: Kalamazoo Wing Rob Brown set team records for most assists and points in a game March 5 in an 8-4 win at Cleveland. He scored once and added six assists&hellip;San Diego signed U.S. Olympian Peter Laviolette March 3. &#9632;

Tamer’s questionable hit ends Mongeau’s season

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Brendan Savage</div>This Colonial League season will be remembered as the year of the scorer and nobody was more proficient than the Brantford Smoke&rsquo;s Paul Polillo.Polillo smashed the CHL record by ringing up 141 points and was one of 10 players to crack the 100-point barrier.He was named to the first all-star team along with Flint Generals&rsquo; right winger Kevin Kerr, Chatham Wheels&rsquo; center John Vecchiarelli. Thunder Bay Senators&rsquo; goalie J.F. Labbe, and defensemen Barry McKinlay of Thunder Bay and Lorne Knauft of Flint.Kerr, Flint&rsquo;s player-assistant coach, was also named the league&rsquo;s MVP after finishing fourth in the scoring race with 112 points.Other winners were McKinlay, top defenseman; Labbe, top rookie; Polillo, most sportsmanlike; Brantford&rsquo;s Jamey Hicks, top defensive forward; Chatham&rsquo;s Tom Barrett, top coach; and Muskegon Fury&rsquo;s Tony Lisman, top executive.Regular-season champion Thunder Bay set CHL records with 45 wins and 94 points. The Utica Bulldogs were the only club to miss postseason play. &#9632;

Polillo tops scoring chart

<div class="byline">By Nick Gates</div>Kulka-Mania has swept the Hampton Roads Admirals off their feet.Glenn Kulka, a former Canadian Football League all-pro nose guard for the Ottawa Rough Riders, became one of the largest players in league history when suited up against the Columbus Chill at The Scope in Norfolk, Va., Feb. 28.The Admirals took a chance and signed the 6-foot-3,250-pound Kulka and the fans welcomed the 28-year-old with open arms.Hampton Roads coach John Brophy and Kulka, who contacted other East Coast League teams, first met in Toronto when Kulka was with the CFL&rsquo;s Toronto Argonauts and Brophy was coaching the Toronto Maple Leafs.Thirteen seconds into his first shift, Kulka skated through the slot, took a pass from Ron Pascucci and backhanded a shot that Columbus Chill goalie Serge Tkachenko barely stopped. Brendan Curley tipped in the loose puck, giving Kulka his first assist.&ldquo;If I didn&rsquo;t have stone for hands, I might have scored,&rdquo; Kulka said.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s like the ninth wonder of the world,&rdquo; said Hampton Roads&rsquo; forward Kelly Sorensen. &ldquo;Look at the size of that helmet. Look at the size of that head!&rdquo;Said Curley; &ldquo;He scares people.&rdquo;The Admirals&rsquo; giant intimidated referee Matt Dunne as well as the Chill. When Kulka bumped into Chill forward Mike Ross, he drew a penalty for slashing.Brophy fears Kulka already has been branded a tough guy and the reputation will result in unwarranted penalties.&ldquo;What did Kulka do?&rdquo; Brophy said referring to the first infraction. &ldquo;They wouldn&rsquo;t even let him prove he could play.&rdquo;Kulka is pursuing his first love after a 10-year layoff. He wore No. 68, the same as his football jersey.LAST LAUGH: Goalie Manon Rheaume, assigned by the Atlanta Knights of the International League from the Knoxville Cherokees to the Nashville Knights, beat the Cherokees 6-5 in overtime March 1 in her first start for the Knights.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m so happy,&rdquo; said Rheaume, who had 39 saves to boost her record to 3-0-1. &ldquo;This is a very happy moment for me.&rdquo;Nashville coach Nick Fotiu was impressed with the female goalie. &ldquo;She proved herself against the first-place team,&rdquo; he said.COLD AS ICE: Roanoke Express center Reggae Brezeault is one of five black players in the league this season.He has a theory as to why there are so few blacks playing pro hockey.&ldquo;I think all the Africans and Jamaicans don&rsquo;t like to be freezing,&rdquo; he quipped. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s why they play basketball.&rdquo; &#9632;

Hulking Kulka chooses Admirals over gridiron

<div class="byline">By Matt Carlson</div>The Michigan Wolverines were the top team in U.S. college hockey for most of the 1993-94 season, but after entering March like a lamb, their powerhouse status came into question.The Wolverines finished first in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association with a 24-5-1 record, but lost four of their final five games.Michigan clinched first place in the CCHA Feb. 11-12 and was able to coast to the league title. Needlessly to say, Wolverines&rsquo; coach Red Berenson is concerned entering post-season action.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s anything that the players or coaching staff have consciously done,&rdquo; Berenson said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been putting the best lineup on the ice. But did clinching first place too soon hurt us? Probably.&rdquo;The slide cost the Wolverines a team objective of being the best defensive club in the CCHA.Michigan had led the league in goals-against average for most of the season. The Wolverines, (80 goals allowed) finished second to the Lake Superior State Lakers (69 goals allowed).FAB FROSH: Michigan and the Bowling Green Falcons accounted for six of the seven skaters named to the CCHA&rsquo;s 1993-94 AllRookie Team.Wolverine center Brendan Morrison, who had 18 goals and 39 points in 33 games, was a unanimous selection by CCHA coaches.Teammates Jason Botterill (left wing) and defensemen Blake Sloan and Harold Schock also were honored.Falcons&rsquo; goaltender Bob Petrie was the unanimous selection at his position. He finished the season with a 3.31 goals-against average and .875 save percentage.Falcon Curtis Fry also made the team at center.A third defenseman, Ferris State&rsquo;s Andy Roach, was included on the team. He was tied with Schock in the voting.Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own players.FAIR DECISION: Miami Redskins&rsquo; coach George Gwozdecky was clear on his reasoning for choosing to play the Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks instead of Ferris State in the first round of the CCHA playoffs.&ldquo;I have respect for both Ferris State and Alaska-Fairbanks,&rdquo; Gwozdecky said. &ldquo;Alaska-Fairbanks has an outstanding first line and power play (33.3 per cent efficiency), but Ferris State might be a little deeper.&rdquo;Under the CCHA&rsquo;s post-season system, the Nanooks, an affiliate member, are seeded on a &ldquo;first right of refusal&rdquo; basis.Starting with the first-place regular-season finisher, the top five teams were asked whether they would like to meet Alaska-Fairbanks, who went 7-5-0 against CCHA competition, or a weaker league opponent in the first round.Michigan, Lake Superior State, Michigan State and Western Michigan all declined to play UAF, so fifth-place Miami could have played seventh place Ferris State or Alaska. &#9632;

Are mighty Wolverines burning out?

<div class="byline">By Larry Mahoney</div>The Maine Black Bears got a chance to defend their Hockey East championship after all.The league&rsquo;s athletic directors voted March 4 to ban the Bears from competing in the Hockey East tournament March 10-13.But Maine officials took the matter to court in hopes of obtaining an injunction that would allow them to play in the tournament. Their request for a temporary restraining order was granted by Justice Robert L. Browne March 7.As a result, the Bears were seeded eighth in the tournament and met the Hockey East regular-season champion Boston University Terriers in the first round.A preliminary injunction hearing March 24 in Bangor, Me., will be held to further investigate the matter.&ldquo;The primary purpose of a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction is the maintenance of the status quo pending a final determination of the parties&rsquo; rights,&rdquo; Browne wrote. &ldquo;That can best be achieved by allowing Maine to compete. If it is later determined the penalty imposed by Hockey East in this case was appropriate, Maine can then be sanctioned.&rdquo;Hockey East interim commissioner Bob DeGregorio declined to comment on what those sanctions would be, but he believes Maine&rsquo;s expulsion from the tournament was justified because of the league&rsquo;s general code of adhering to NCAA rules.But Browne disagreed. He said Maine stood more to lose from its expulsion than the league did from Maine&rsquo;s inclusion in the tourney.The NCAA earlier ruled Maine can compete in its tournament if it wins the Hockey East crown and picks up an automatic berth.Maine used ineligible players three times this season. Two of the violations were directly attributed to administrative mistakes in the school&rsquo;s compliance department. The other was made by coach Shawn Walsh for failing to inform the school of the eligibility status of freshman defenseman Jeff Tory.KARIYA GONE: The Bears entered their quarterfinal series at BU without 1992-93 Hobey Baker Award winner and Canadian Olympian Paul Kariya.Kariya announced he was going to pursue his pro career and wouldn&rsquo;t be returning to Maine.&ldquo;I am very appreciative of the college experience and what it has done for my overall development as a player and as a person,&rdquo; Kariya said. &ldquo;I will always be indebted to the University of Maine coaching staff, players and faculty for their ongoing support.&rdquo;Kariya had 25 goals and 100 points in 39 games overall a year ago to become the first freshman to ever win the prestigious award. He had eight goals and 16 points in 12 games this season before leaving to join the Canadian Olympic team. The 19-year-old was the fourth overall pick in the 1993 draft by the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. &#9632;

Injunction keeps Maine in post-season picture

<div class="byline">By Tom Boggie</div>Clarkson Golden Knights&rsquo; coach Mark Morris has a simple explanation for the second half surge that carried his team to a second place finish in the Eastern College Athletic Conference.&ldquo;Good goaltending makes a difference,&rdquo; he said.After struggling for the first half, Clarkson goalie Jason Currie got hot. He carried the Knights into the ECAC playoffs and put himself in position to contend for player-of-the-year honors.The numbers tell the story. The Knights allowed 60 goals in the first 15 games and struggled to a .500 record (6-6-3). But they allowed just 38 goals in the final 15 games and put together an 11-2-2 stretch run.&ldquo;Jason really turned it around,&rdquo; Morris said. &ldquo;Solid goaltending gave us some breathing room in the second half of the year.&rdquo;After splitting playing time with Chris Rogles for three seasons, Currie was a workhorse for the Golden Knights. He played 1,637 minutes in 29 games, compiling a 2.89 goals-against average and a .912 save percentage.In league play, the Brampton, Ont., native finished second in GAA (2.92) and led the league in save percentage (.915).&ldquo;In the first half of the year, I don&rsquo;t think Jason was playing anywhere near the way he&rsquo;s playing now,&rdquo; Morris said. &ldquo;As our goaltending situation righted itself, everything else fell into place.&rdquo;Currie, 21, was the 10th pick of the Hartford Whalers in the 1991 entry draft.TOP DOGS: The Harvard Crimson swept both the ECAC scoring and goaltending championships.Junior center Steve Martins won the scoring title, ending the regular season with 17 goals and 41 points. He had a three-point cushion over Clarkson senior Craig Conroy (15-23-38).Crimson sophomore Aaron Israel became the third consecutive Harvard netminder to earn the goaltending championship. He finished the year with a 2.22 GAA in 12 league games, following in the footsteps of 1992 champion Allain Roy and classmate Tripp Tracy, who won the title last year.Harvard also had the league&rsquo;s top goalscorer, as senior Brian Farrell pumped in 23 goals in 22 league games.SCORING DROUGHT: Cornell junior Christian Felli is giving new meaning to the term defensive defensemen.Heading into the ECAC quarterfinals, Felli, a native of Ste-Foy. Que., hadn&rsquo;t scored a goal in 78 consecutive games, the longest goalscoring drought in Cornell history. Felli has six assists in his career.NICE TIMING: Clarkson freshman defenseman Phil Lecavalier picked a perfect time to score his first collegiate goal. His first goal was the winner in the Knights&rsquo; 4-2 win over Brown March 5. The win gave Clarkson second-place in the standings. &#9632;

Sizzling Currie Golden

<div class="byline">By Andy Baggot</div>Talk about a fitting coincidence.When Colorado College claimed its first Western Collegiate Hockey Association title March 5, several hundred alumni representing more than 50 years of the sport at CC were on hand to see it happen.What had been billed simply as the end of an era instead became a celebration of unrivaled proportions.&ldquo;It was like a fairy-tale ending,&rdquo; said first-year coach Don Lucia.Last fall, invitations were sent out to former players and associates in anticipation of March 5 being the last game ever to be played at the Broadmoor World Arena.The ancient facility, which once hosted 10 straight National Collegiate Athletic Association championship games, is scheduled to be razed at the end of the season.But the project will have to wait because the Tigers, to the surprise of almost everyone, emerged from the rubble of a last-place finish a year ago to claim possession of the MacNaughton Cup for the first time in the history of the program.A 5-5 tie with archrival Denver before a standing-room-only crowd of 4,108 lifted the Tigers one point ahead of the Minnesota Golden Gophers on the final weekend.Included in the audience were players who competed for the Tigers from 1940 to 1993. Prior to the game, a get-together was held in which former players took turns reminiscing about their lives and careers while on the Colorado Springs campus.After the game, Lucia said he was struck by the meaning of what his players had achieved in the presence of their mostly frustrated forebearers.Until this season, the Tigers had never finished higher than third in the WCHA and had but three winning campaigns.&ldquo;We talked about leaving footprints where there weren&rsquo;t any before,&rdquo; Lucia said. &ldquo;This team left footprints for others to follow. And I couldn&rsquo;t be happier for the players.&rdquo;TOP HONORS: Minnesota-Duluth forward Chris Marinucci won the scoring title with 27 goals and 53 points.Jim Carey of Wisconsin was statistically the top goaltender for the second straight year, going 17-10-1 with a 3.09 goals-against average and .900 save percentage.ATTENDANCE MILESTONE: Thanks to the addition of Alaska-Anchorage as a full-time entry, the WCHA became the first league to top 1 million in cumulative attendance for one season.Seven of the 10 teams averaged 90-per-cent capacity at their facilities, including Anchorage, which averaged crowds of 6,406 at 6.209-seat Sullivan Arena. &#9632;

Tigers capture crown for first time in history

<div class="byline">By Jay Greenberg</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01368/6679678-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="379" height="535"></div>He&rsquo;s only human when he hurts. When he does, the pain shoots down the legs of the entire sport.No one, not even Mario Lemieux, is absolutely irreplaceable, particularly at a time when The Greatest is in the act of passing Mr. Hockey, where Fedorov is so much fun, where Lindros, Bure, Selanne, and Roenick promise to carry the next generation in capable hands.But the NHL can&rsquo;t expand its number of stars as easily as it expands the number of teams. And as the multitudes of mediocrity increase, the game&rsquo;s true treasures become that much more valuable. So it is one of the sad ironies of what is happening to Lemieux that while sightings of him become less frequent, they become even more unbelievable.&ldquo;He misses 10 games in a row and you can&rsquo;t tell,&rdquo; Rick Tocchet said, &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t miss two without it catching up to me.&rdquo;Or anybody. Remember, please, how long Wayne Gretzky, the best player in the game&rsquo;s history, struggled after missing half of last season. In almost the same situation this year, Lemieux was immediately productive, an indication of not his conditioning, but the wondrous vastness of his ability.He is the most incredible talent that has ever played the game, but now circumstances have us mourning that fact instead of celebrating it. Sadly, Lemieux won&rsquo;t play long enough to challenge all of Gretzky&rsquo;s accomplishments. It&rsquo;s impossible to tell how much he has left-maybe a year, maybe three, maybe more than we figure. Nevertheless, it&rsquo;s still not as much as he deserves. Or we want.&ldquo;The Penguins, need him sure,&rdquo; said coach Eddie Johnston after Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Feb. 28 game in Miami, &ldquo;but the game does, too. We go into Jersey two weeks ago and they have 19,000 tickets sold, probably a difference of 6000 from what they normally get. Our league doesn&rsquo;t have enough players like that.&rdquo;Lemieux had just played for only the seventh game in the Penguins&rsquo; last 12. He had scored a goal and two assists. The Panthers had huffed, puffed and outskated and outplayed the Penguins, but talent had won the battle and now Johnston had to check the progress in the larger war, the one going on inside Lemieux&rsquo;s body.&ldquo;How do you feel?&rdquo; Johnston asked Lemieux in the doorway of the dressing room.&ldquo;Okay,&rdquo; Lemieux said, &ldquo;But&hellip;&rdquo; He pointed to the back of his leg. Three days later, he played in Buffalo, but two nights after that in Winnipeg, Lemieux had to sit out again.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s hardest for him playing back-to-back games,&rdquo; Johnston said. &ldquo;But the playoffs are every second night, so we hope he can do it.&rdquo;Come April, if Lemieux can straighten up, he&rsquo;ll play. And even if he can&rsquo;t bend over to lace his skates, he may play anyway. He has done that enough that the Penguins don&rsquo;t question his decision. They know it has to be bad, and like Mario, they can only hope it will be better the next time.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve played a lot without him by now and done alright,&rdquo; Kevin Stevens said. &ldquo;But having him is such a bonus.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s ridiculous what he can do. It makes all us humans look sick. It&rsquo;s so far above what everybody else does, I can&rsquo;t really understand it. He amazes me every time he&rsquo;s on the ice.&ldquo;Without him, there are eight teams that could win the Stanley Cup. But with him, anybody has to come through us.&rdquo;As Lemieux&rsquo;s availability shrinks, so has the time he has allotted for the public, which has frustrated some members of the media and angered others. They should try to remember themselves with their last bad cold or flu, when they wanted nothing more than to get through the day and feel better the next one. We all have varying degrees of tolerance, of course, but generally, humans are not sociable animals when they are ill.Lemieux&rsquo;s career is in jeopardy. The ordeal has to be taking its toll. He has been through not only two back operations, but the shock, fear and drain that comes with cancer diagnosis and treatment. Despite doctor&rsquo;s reassurance, Lemieux is not getting the relief he expected at this point. Imagine the frustration of that, let alone the pain, and let he who has never lived with a debilitating chronic condition cast the first stone.&ldquo;He was crying one night to me,&rdquo; Tocchet said. &ldquo;He was so upset. He really thought he would have to quit soon.&rdquo;The cortisone helps. Sometimes, so does rest, leaving Lemieux wondering from warmup to warmup, and the hockey world melancholy from game to game.This isn&rsquo;t intended to be an obituary of his career, more an appreciation. Even, a warning. We had better look harder than ever at Lemieux whenever we get a chance because we will not see his like again. &#9632;

f0041-01

Take a good, long look at Mario now

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div>Can Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; netminder Dominik Hasek become the first goaltender since Bernie Parent to finish the season with a goals-against average under 2.00?Why not, said Parent.Nope, said Hasek.After 49 games, Hasek had a GAA of 1.93.&ldquo;I really don&rsquo;t believe I can make it,&rdquo; Hasek said. &ldquo;If it happens, I won&rsquo;t believe it until the last minute of the last game.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s not that the 29-year-old Czech lacks confidence, but he has been down this road before. In 1990, his average was under 2.00 entering his final two games with Dukla Jihlava of the Czech league.&ldquo;For me, it was important,&rdquo; Hasek said, &ldquo;but I gave up five goals in the last two games and didn&rsquo;t make it.&rdquo;Hasek, wildly flamboyant in style, has been a model of consistency in results. He had six shutouts and hadn&rsquo;t given up more than four goals in a game this year.His GAA topped out at 3.14 after five games in October and bottomed out at 1.67 at Christmas. Since the New Year, his average crested over 2.00 twice.Hasek&rsquo;s is probably the most eyecatching story in what has become the Year of the Goaltender. Through March 13, nine teams had allowed fewer than three goals a game. Last year, only two teams, the Chicago Blackhawks and Toronto Maple Leafs, turned the trick.New York Rangers&rsquo; netminder Mike Richter, Florida Panthers&rsquo; John Vanbiesbrouck and Tampa Bay Lightning&rsquo;s Daren Puppa are enjoying career season while fledgling NHLers such as New Jersey Devils&rsquo; Martin Brodeur, Toronto&rsquo;s Felix Potvin and the San Jose Sharks&rsquo; Arturs Irbe have established themselves as dominant talents.But only Hasek has challenged the two-goals-per-game plateau. Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; goalie Patrick Roy is a distant second at 2.34 and the 2.00 standard has been untouchable since Parent posted a 1.89 GAA in 197374. Only five starting goalies have gone under 2.00 since expansion in 1967. And each of those cases, league scoring was lower than the 6.50 goals-per-game level it&rsquo;s at now.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-02226/6679709-1-eng-US/f0041-022.jpg" title="f0041-02" width="574" height="886"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dominik Hasek is one of the most exciting players in the NHL.</figcaption></div>Parent believed the lowering of the draft age to 18 in 1980 and the addition of 10 teams over 20 years had diluted the calibre of defensive play. In his eyes, that made the sub-2.00 goaltender a thing of the past.Now he isn&rsquo;t so sure.&ldquo;It was much easier to do in 1974, much easier,&rdquo; said Parent, the Flyers&rsquo; goalie coach. &ldquo;If he does it this year, it&rsquo;ll be a hell of an accomplishment.&rdquo;Former Hall of Famer Glenn Hall, who never broke 2.00 in 16 NHL seasons, says Hasek&rsquo;s teammates deserve credit as well.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t even get close to what Dominik has done without an excellent defensive team around you,&rdquo; said Hall, a goaltending coach with the Calgary Flames. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a tribute to him and to his teammates.&rdquo;The Sabres have been retooled into the type of defense-first club that warms a goalie&rsquo;s heart. Coach John Muckier junked an offensive scheme in favor of the neutral-zone trap when Pat Lafontaine was felled by a knee injury in December. Craig Muni&rsquo;s acquisition and return to form as one of the game&rsquo;s best defensive rearguards and shot-blockers has solidified the defense.The 1994 Sabres and 1974 Flyers might have shared a commitment to defense, but the contrast couldn&rsquo;t be more striking between Parent-one of the most technically sound goalies ever to play in the NHL&ndash;and Hasek.A night spent watching Dominik Hasek is an evening at the improv. He may be the most entertaining player in the NHL.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s his feet,&rdquo; said Greg Millen, a longtime NHL goalie turned broadcaster for the Ottawa Senators. &ldquo;He has the quickest feet in the NHL. He has to with the style he plays.&rdquo;&ldquo;Dominik doesn&rsquo;t have what you would call a basic style,&rdquo; Parent said, &ldquo;but his anticipation is tremendous. If he lacked that, he wouldn&rsquo;t do well.&rdquo;Parent, for one, is pulling for Hasek to break 2.00.&ldquo;I hope he does if&rdquo; Parent said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s great to see someone focus so hard and that something like this is possible again. It&rsquo;s good for the game.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0041-02

How low can he go?

Dominik Hasek&rsquo;s attempt to crack the 2.00 goals-against-average barrier conjures memories of past great goaltending performances. Here are 10 of the most notable seasons or playoffs-in chronological order-enjoyed by goalies in the modem era.Terry Sawchuk, Detroit Red Wings, 1951-52. Surrendered five goals in eight games and collected four shutouts in playoff sweep to Stanley Cup.Al Rollins, Chicago Blackhawks, 1953-54. Won Hart Trophy despite leading league in losses and giving up most goals. Blackhawks won 12 games.Jacques Plante, Montreal Canadiens, 1955-56. Played 64 of 70 games. Canadiens tied record for fewest goals allowed in season while leading NHL in scoring.Tony Esposito, Chicago, 1969-70. Set modem record with 15 shutouts in rookie season.Jacques Plante, Toronto Maple Leafs, 1970-71. At 41, posted 1.88 GAA with mediocre team.Ken Dryden, Montreal, 1970-1971. Won Conn Smythe in leading Canadiens to Stanley Cup; won Calder next year.Bernie Parent, Philadelphia Flyers, 1973-74. Set league record for wins with 47 and was last goalie with sub-2.00 GAA.Ron Hextall, Philadelphia, 1986-87. Win Conn Smythe on losing Cup team. Rookie also won Vezina and named to first all-star team.Patrick Roy, Montreal, 199293. Led Canadiens to 10 straight overtime wins and Cup.Curtis Joseph. 1992-93, St. Louis Blues. Faced more than 2, (MX) shots in regular season. Carried Blues to division final with .938 post-season save percentage. &#9632;

A Perfect 10 goalie performances

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div>James Patrick spent the first 10 seasons of his NHL career with the New York Rangers. The fact that he is now with his third team in one season is&hellip;well, a little unsettling.&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t want to be traded too many times,&rdquo; said Patrick, &ldquo;but I don&rsquo;t mind this one.&rdquo;Patrick was reunited with former Canadian Olympic team coach Dave King March 10 following a six-player trade with the Hartford Whalers.Two former Olympic defensemen, Patrick and Zarley Zalapski, moved to Calgary along with center Michael Nylander. Defenseman Gary Suter, the Flames&rsquo; second all-time leading scorer, center Ted Drury and left winger Paul Ranheim, were traded to Hartford.Patrick and Zalapski made their Flames&rsquo; debut March 11 in a 4-2 win over the Florida Panthers. King utilized them as a defense pair.The deal didn&rsquo;t catch Patrick by surprise. His name had come up in connection with Hartford&rsquo;s offer for Petr Nedved.In Hartford, the Whalers are out of the playoff chase. In Calgary, Patrick joined a team in the midst of its longest winless streak of the season-five games-but they were in first place in the Pacific Division.To say the Flames are a Stanley Cup contender may be overstating matters, but they&rsquo;re a team with a chance to win a playoff round or two.&ldquo;Obviously, teams get hot and cold, but I think they&rsquo;ve got a very good chance,&rdquo; Patrick said.Patrick should be comfortable in Calgary. He lived here while playing for King&rsquo;s Olympians in 1983-84 and his wife is from the city.The 30-year-old missed much of last season with a back injury, but except for a minor flare-up earlier in the year, he is healthy.He had eight goals and 31 points in 55 games with the New York Rangers and Hartford this season.BAPTISM BY FIRE: Until he made his debut with the Flames, Michael Nylander had never played a game in Calgary.He missed last year&rsquo;s only visit because of a broken jaw. When Hartford passed through town in February, he was down in Springfield, playing for the Whalers&rsquo; American League affiliate.The Whalers demoted him for his perceived defensive weaknesses. Nylander originally balked at reporting, but eventually turned up.In Nylander, the Flames fill a void for a playmaking forward. He was originally put into his normal position-center-but could shift to the wing upon Joe Nieuwendyk&rsquo;s return.Nylander, 21, had 11 goals and 34 points in 60 games.NOTEBOOK: Joe Nieuwendyk&rsquo;s right knee injury is actually a second-degree tear of the medial collateral ligament. The good news is he could be back in the lineup for the last five to seven games of the season.<h2>CALGARY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>March 7: Mike Sullivan, LW, and Guy Larose, RW, assigned to Saint John (AHL). March 8: Lee Norwood, D, released March 10: Gary Suter, D, Paul Ranheim, LW, and Ted Drury, C, traded to Hartford for James Patrick, D, Zarley Zalapski, D, and Michael Nylander, C, March 11: Brad Schlegel, D, assigned to Saint John.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Robert Reichel, Michael Nylander, Kelly Kisio, Joel Otto.LW-Gary Roberts, German Titov, Paul KruseRW-Theo Fleury, Wes Walz, Ron Stem, Sandy McCarthy.LD-Frank Musil, James Patrick, Trent Yawney, Dan Keczmer.RD-AI Maclnnis, Zarley Zalapski, Chris Dahlquist, Michel Petit, Kevin DahlG-Mike Vernon, Trevor Kidd.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Joe Nieuwendyk, C, strained right knee ligament, indefinite. Andrei Trefilov, G, strained knee ligaments, day-to-day. &#9632;

Patrick thrilled with deal

<div class="byline">By Rick Sadowski</div>The Los Angeles Kings are &ldquo;fat cats&rdquo; and &ldquo;easy&rdquo; to play against, according to a man who should know.Coach Barry Melrose accused the Kings of both during another of their patented slides, this one a humiliating 1-9-4 nosedive that put them on the brink of playoff elimination.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re a team of fat cats right now who won&rsquo;t pay a price,&rdquo; Melrose said. &ldquo;We talk about making the playoffs and we haven&rsquo;t got one player that wants to make the playoffs. I&rsquo;m peeved at the effort. We don&rsquo;t have any grit, guts, courage or discipline.&rdquo;Melrose was especially miffed about a listless 4-0 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks March 9 that came on the heels of a successful three-game road trip in which the Kings went 1-1-1.Melrose was so angry that, after the Blackhawks game, he lit into the team for about 35 minutes after ordering the dressing-room doors shut at 11 p.m.&ldquo;He wasn&rsquo;t asking for opinions,&rdquo; Luc Robitaille said.Among other things. Melrose questioned the character and work ethic of a Kings&rsquo; team that won four of 25 games (4-15-6) since Jan. 16 and was threatening to become the first team since the 1970 Montreal Canadiens to miss the playoffs one year after participating in the Stanley Cup finals.&ldquo;Playing hard and physical was something we took a lot of pride in last year,&rdquo; Melrose said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s very apparent that we&rsquo;ve lost it, and we had better find a way to get it back. It&rsquo;s not an x&rsquo;s and o&rsquo;s thing, it&rsquo;s a winning thing.&rdquo;&ldquo;Maybe his comments should have been made four months ago,&rdquo; Wayne Gretzky said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re living on past history. This club has given a very disappointing effort after such tremendous success (last year).TAYLOR FINISHED?: Right winger Dave Taylor, 38, is seriously considering retiring because of persistent headaches and dizzy spells stemming from a concussion he sustained Jan. 4.Taylor hasn&rsquo;t played since being injured in a collision with teammate Warren Rychel and hasn&rsquo;t skated since Jan. 29 or ridden an exercise bike since Feb. 27.&ldquo;I just haven&rsquo;t been making any progress, and we&rsquo;re running out of time,&rdquo; Taylor said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just so disappointing and frustrating because I&rsquo;m still having quite a few problems. I&rsquo;ve had a lot of headaches and I&rsquo;m not really doing anything.&rdquo;Taylor believes his problems can be traced to the bruised brain stem that forced him out of 34 games last season, even though results of a battery of tests, including an MRI, have been normal.NOTEBOOK: Winger Tony Granato completed his 15-game suspension for clubbing Chicago&rsquo;s Neil Wilkinson on the head with his stick Feb. 9 and was due to return to the lineup March 15 against the Ottawa Senators. The Kings went 2-9-4 without him&hellip;Defenseman Doug Houda was expected to be sidelined until mid-April when he was diagnosed as having a separated right shoulder Feb. 28. But the injury turned out to be a relatively minor sprain and he was back after missing only three games.<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurri, Robert Lang, Brian McReynolds.LW-Pat Conacher, Mike Donnelly, Luc Robitaille, Warren Rychel.RW-Gary Shuchuk, Dixon Ward, John Druce, Tony Granato, Phil Crowe.LD-Alex Zhitnik, Darryl Sydor, Jim Paek, Doug Houda.RD-Rob Blake, Charlie Huddy, Marty McSorley, Tim Watters.G-Kelly Hrudey, Robb Stauber.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dave Taylor, RW, concussion, indefinite. Dave Thomlinson, RW, broken left hand, out for season. &#9632;

Melrose losing patience with squad of ‘Fat Cats’

<div class="byline">By Elliott Pap</div>When the Montreal Canadiens unloaded Jyrki Lumme to the Vancouver Canucks for a second-round draft pick four years ago, they did so because he was regarded as a &ldquo;high-risk&rdquo; defenseman.He was the kind of player that did not fit into former coach Pat Bums&rsquo; disciplined system.Lumme proved to be just that in his early years with the Canucks. His skills were clearly top drawer, but his decision-making often resulted in disaster.But finally, the package has come together and the flashy Finn is now one sleek unit with mind and body working in perfect harmony. Since mid-December, the native of Tampere has been one of the NHL&rsquo;s better blueliners.He has starred night after night, scoring big goals, assisting on big goals and making big defensive plays.In a 39-game stretch from Dec. 14 to March 13, Lumme had 12 goals and 37 points to move within range of the league&rsquo;s elite offensive defensemen. His totals at the 68-game mark were 13 goals and 52 points.The modest 27-year-old had no heavy analytical reasons for his impressive play.&ldquo;I feel good overall,&rdquo; Lumme said. &ldquo;The biggest thing I&rsquo;ve learned is don&rsquo;t let the mistakes bother you. I used to try too hard and try to create something from nothing.&rdquo;Lumme smashed his career high of 44 points-set two seasons ago and matched again last year-after just 60 games.With his totals this season, he is within reach of Doug Lidster&rsquo;s team record for points by a defenseman (63) set in 1986-87.Lumme&rsquo;s increased points total accurately reflects his improved play, but it doesn&rsquo;t tell the entire story. He has become a master penalty killer and demon on loose pucks. His ability to win the little battles and clear the zone is unmatched on the Vancouver roster.Lumme is playing out the option year of his $650,000 (U.S.) contract. He will become a Group II free agent this summer and will command a million-dollar salary on his next contract.ROCKET FUEL: When Pavel Bure hit the 60-goal mark last season, he scored 40 times in his first 44 games before &ldquo;slowing down&rdquo; to just 20 in the last 40.This season, he is doing it in reverse. Hampered by an October-November groin injury. Bure was a shadow of his dashing self in the first half. He had just 14 goals at the 38-game mark and everybody in Vancouver was perplexed by his lack of production.But Bure exploded for 30 goals and 49 points in his next 30 games to improve his totals to 44 goals and 85 points. That put him into the league&rsquo;s top 10 in both goals and points.NOTEBOOK: Greg Adams broke a 22-game goal drought against the Winnipeg Jets March 11. Including time missed because of hand surgery, Adams hadn&rsquo;t scored since Dec. 6&hellip;After beating the Chicago Blackhawks three times, Vancouver finally lost the season finale March 13. The 5-2 loss was the Canucks&rsquo; last-ever visit to the Stadium barring playoffs. Vancouver won its only Campbell (now Western) Conference championship on Stadium ice in 1982.<h2>VANCOUVER</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>March 14: Craig Janney, C, and second-round draft pick In 1994 awarded from St. Louis as compensation for Petr Nedved<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Jimmy Carson, Murray Craven, Cliff Ronning, John McIntyre.LW-Geoff Courtnail, Greg Adams, Gino Odjick, Shawn Antoski.RW-Pavel Bure, Trevor Linden, Sergio Momesso, Martin Gelinas, Jose Charbonneau.LD-Dana Murzyn, Robert Dirk, Brian Glynn, Adrien Plavsic.RD-Jyrki Lumme, Dave Babych, Jiri Slegr, Gerald Diduck.G-Kirk McLean, Kay Whitmore.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Tim Hunter, RW, back spasms, day-to-day, Craig Janney, C, strained knee, day-to-day. &#9632;

‘High-risk’ Lumme proves chance was worth it

<div class="byline">By Mike Weaver</div>Missing five games because of a sprained left ankle in early March turned out to be a blessing in disguise for San Jose Sharks&rsquo; defenseman Jeff Norton.After the layoff, a rejuvenated Norton came back to score eight points in his next four games. Before the all-star break, he had only 17 points in 45 games.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t want to take time off,&rdquo; Norton said. &ldquo;But I guess it was a good idea because I&rsquo;ve come back and played the best hockey I&rsquo;ve played all year.&rdquo;Norton originally sustained the injury Dec. 11 against the Detroit Red Wings. He missed 14 of the next 15 games, then played in 13 games before aggravating the problem Feb. 19 against the Los Angeles Kings.The Sharks were 0-4-1 during Norton&rsquo;s most recent layoff, but were 3-0-1 in their first four games after he returned. He has helped spark the team&rsquo;s most offensively productive five-man unit and shared the lead in scoring over those four games with defense partner Sandis Ozolinsh.Center Igor Larionov picked up seven points in the four games, and wingers Sergei Makarov and Johan Garpenlov each collected six points.&ldquo;That group really likes to play together,&rdquo; said coach Kevin Constantine. &ldquo;Jeff provides speed, puck control and good passing when he&rsquo;s in there. Plus, he adds a degree of experience.&rdquo;That experience is particularly valuable to Ozolinsh, who is in his second NHL season.&ldquo;He helps me a lot,&rdquo; Ozolinsh said. &ldquo;He helps me make good decisions and I&rsquo;m confident when I know he is there.&rdquo;Norton, 28, played with the New York Islanders for six seasons before being obtained by the Sharks in June. He knows first-hand how important it can be for a young player to have veteran leadership.&ldquo;When I came into the league, I played with Denis Potvin and Kenny Morrow, and they took the time to help me and teach me some things,&rdquo; Norton said. &ldquo;It really helps to have somebody who can do that.&rdquo;STRONG SEASON: Sergei Makarov has been the Sharks&rsquo; leading scorer for the entire season, but he hasn&rsquo;t exactly received a lot of press.Makarov had 23 goals and 55 points in 69 games, but has been overshadowed by the play of goaltender Arturs Irbe and Sandis Ozolinsh.&ldquo;He has been our most overlooked player by far,&rdquo; Kevin Constantine said. &ldquo;But he&rsquo;s our leading scorer, so maybe he&rsquo;s the most important. He has been involved in a higher percentage of our goals than any other player.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: When the Sharks beat the New York Islanders March 10, it gave them 63 points, as many as they earned in their first two NHL seasons combined. The Sharks had 39 points in 1991-92 and 24 last season&hellip;Defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh was tied with Al Maclnnis of the Calgary Flames for the NHL lead in goals among defensemen (22) through March 14.<h2>SAN JOSE</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-lgor Larionov, Todd Elik, Jamie Baker, Dale Craigwell, Viacheslav Butsayev.LW-Johan Garpenlov, Gaetan Duchesne, Bob Errey, Ray Whitney.RW-Sergei Makarov, Pat Falloon, Jeff Odgers, Rob Gaudreau.LD-Jeff Norton, Doug Zmoiek, Jay More, Mike Lalor.RD-Sandis Ozolinsh, Tom Pederson, Vlastimil Kroupa, Mike Rathje, Shawn Cronin.G-Arturs Irbe, Wade Flaherty.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Jimmy Waite, G, tom cartilage in right knee, March 25. &#9632;

Hey Norton; You’ve been playing really well lately

<div class="byline">By Robyn Norwood</div>The statisticians were scrambling, but nobody could figure out the last time an NHL team was shut out four games in a row.Fortunately for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, they didn&rsquo;t become the first team in recent memory to accomplish that feat.They were shut out three times in a row before Bob Corkum snapped their scoreless streak at 200 minutes and 26 seconds with a first-period goal against the Chicago Blackhawks March 11.&ldquo;It was kind of a sigh of relief,&rdquo; Corkum said.Until the Ducks&rsquo; streak, the last team to be blanked three times in a row was the Minnesota North Stars in 1988. The NHL record is eight, set by the Blackhawks in 1928-29.Granted, the Ducks were goose-egged by three of the league&rsquo;s best goalies-San Jose Shark Arturs Irbe, Buffalo Sabre Dominik Hasek and Chicago&rsquo;s Ed Belfour.And Anaheim was missing center Anatoli Semenov again after he decided to rest his sore left elbow for a couple of weeks because he was not playing effectively.Nevertheless, it was a brutal stretch for a team trying to contend for the final Western Conference playoff spot. The Ducks trailed eighth-place San Jose by three points at the beginning of the shutout streak and were behind by eight by the time it ended.&ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t been as sharp as we should be around the net,&rdquo; said coach Ron Wilson. &ldquo;We were sharper a month ago&hellip;There&rsquo;s not a lot of confidence in the room right now, but we have to work with what we have.&rdquo;The Ducks got a needed respite March 13, when they beat the hapless Ottawa Senators 5-1.KARIYA UNCERTAIN: Scoring help from the stick of Paul Kariya doesn&rsquo;t look like it&rsquo;s going to come anytime soon.Anaheim&rsquo;s first-round pick in the 1993 draft hasn&rsquo;t yet decided when he&rsquo;ll join the Ducks. And with the Ducks down to 13 games, it is essentially a moot issue for this season.Though Kariya formally gave up his eligibility at the University of Maine so that he could negotiate openly, general manager Jack Ferreira and agent Don Baizley remain millions apart in their negotiations on a multi-year deal.NOTEBOOK: Center Stephan Lebeau has not made much of an impact since his acquisition from the Montreal Canadiens for goalie Ron Tugnutt. In 11 games with the Ducks, Lebeau had just one goal and three points. &ldquo;It takes time. I have to be patient,&rdquo; he said.Center John Lilley, who played on the U.S. Olympic hockey team, was assigned to the San Diego Gulls of the International League after signing with the Ducks. Lilley, 21, had three goals and four points in eight games at the Olympics, and 27 goals and 50 points in 56 games during the pre-Olympic tour. He previously played at Boston University before going on to the Seattle Thunderbirds of the Western League.The Ducks&rsquo; power play continued to be powerless. It ranked 25th in the NHL with a 14.3 per-cent success rate. It scored in only three of its last 61 opportunities and had an 0-for-19 streak.<h2>ANAHEIM</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>March 9: Jarrod Skalde, C, and Scott Chartier, D, recalled from San Diego (IHL). John Lilley, C, assigned to San Diego from U.S Olympic team. March 10: Skalde and Chartier assigned to San Diego.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Bob Corkum, Shaun Van Allen, Stephan Lebeau, Patrik Camback.LW-Tim Sweeney, Troy Loney, Garry Valk, Stu Grimson.RW-Joe Sacco, Terry Yake, Peter Douris, Todd Ewen.LD-Randy Ladouceur, Mark Ferner, Bill Houlder.RD-David Williams, Sean Hill, Bobby Dollas.G-Guy Hebert, Mikhail Shtalenkov.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Alexei Kasatonov, D, broken right foot, day-today. Steven King, RW, left elbow surgery, out for season. Don McSween, D, chicken pox, day-today Anatoli Semenov, C, sore left elbow, day-today. Jim Thomson, RW, left shoulder surgery, out for season. &#9632;

Drought ends after 200 minutes

<div class="byline">By Dan Barnes</div>They would gladly trade records with almost any other team in the NHL, but the 24th-place Edmonton Oilers aren&rsquo;t eager to trade players.&ldquo;I sure as hell won&rsquo;t make a trade just to make a trade,&rdquo; said coach-general manager Glen Sather, who has become frustrated with a team bound to miss the playoffs for the second straight season.But if the Oilers move defenseman Dave Manson at the March 21 trade deadline, Quebec is still one of the most likely destinations.Two NHL sources have confirmed that the Oilers will pitch&ndash;or have already pitched Manson and his $1.1 million U.S. salary&ndash;to the Nordiques and have asked for Todd Warriner and a first-round draft pick in return.Warriner, the Nordiques&rsquo; No. 1 pick in the 1992 entry draft, played for the silver-medal winning Canadian Olympic Team in Lillehammer, Norway.Sather has difficulty dealing with Quebec GM Pierre Page so this particular trade might be tough to consummate.With Shayne Corson injured and goalie Bill Ranford virtually untouchable, Manson is the Oilers&rsquo; hottest property, though not necessarily the most likely to be dealt by the deadline.Ranford, meanwhile, was on the Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; wish list, but Edmonton&rsquo;s shopping list kept him in Oiler colors.In early February, Detroit GM Bryan Murray had one brief conversation with Sather pertaining to Ranford&rsquo;s availability as the Wings went on the great goalie hunt. Murray didn&rsquo;t want to say much about his conversation with Sather.&ldquo;It never got anywhere,&rdquo; he said.But on the day before Murray sent goalie Tim Cheveldae and center Dallas Drake to the Winnipeg Jets for goalie Bob Essensa and defenseman Sergei Bautin, Murray told a Detroit reporter a little bit about the chat.According to Murray, Sather said he really couldn&rsquo;t afford to trade Ranford, but if he was going to do it, he&rsquo;d need four players and draft picks. And then Murray said Sather added: &ldquo;Of course, we&rsquo;d need a lot of money.&rdquo;The conversation was too rich for Murray, who went looking elsewhere.MORE BAD NEWS: Left winger Shayne Corson suffered a setback in his attempt to return from a fractured left fibula while the team was on the road to ruin in California in early March.&ldquo;It was my own fault. I wanted to get back for two games (in San Jose and Anaheim), they were important, and I skated too hard,&rdquo; Corson said. &ldquo;It made it worse. It was all inflamed, swollen and sore.&rdquo;Corson sustained the injury Feb. 18 in Detroit when he was hit by a Dave Manson slapshot. Doctors have told Corson he can return as soon as he can deal with the pain.NOTEBOOK: Glen Sather said he tried to sign Canadian Olympian Fabian Joseph, whose NHL rights are still held by the Oilers, but Joseph wanted a one-way deal and Sather sees him as a part-time player. Joseph signed with the International League&rsquo;s Milwaukee Admirals instead.<h2>EDMONTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Jason Arnott, Doug Weight, Craig MacTavish, Dean McAmmond.LW-Mike Stapleton, Brent Grieve, Scott Thornton, Scott Pearson, Louie DeBrusk.RW-Zdeno Ciger, Ilya Byakin, Kelly Buchberger, Kirk Maltby, Shjon Podein.LD-Luke Richardson, Igor Kravchuk, Fredrik Olausson.RD-Dave Manson, Adam Bennett, Bob Beers, Brad Werenka.G-Bill Ranford, Fred Brathwaite.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Shayne Corson, LW, fractured left fibula, indefinite. Steve Rice, RW, broken knuckle on right hand, indefinite, Vladimir Vujtek, C, left shoulder surgery, out for season. &#9632;

Sather likely to sit pat as deadline approaches

<div class="image-hero"><img title="C0004-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0004-01241/6679908-1-eng-US/c0004-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

Search for your favorite player or team

March 25, 1994

Power outage continues

Team Paddock taking shape as Chevy, Drake added

INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE

The Hockey News