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7 NORSHORE SENTINEL Thursday, January 12, 1961 A Chat with Chuck By Chuck McOuat Marathon Mercuries are in trouble.. They are in last place in this North Shore Hockey league and now face Terrace Bay Superiors in a three-game stand that could break the league wide open. The Merks just aren’t the Merks of the past. They have i the same horses but the horses aren’t the same. They’re j not as proud, not as confident, not as interested, terribly out of shape and a little older. "We’re still champs until! the playoffs,’’ says one player. "We always were a play-off club,’’ says another. But there is not that same ring of confidence in their voices. It’s a cry of desperation. They’re in trouble and they know it. Fortunately, the setup in the north shore league allows a team to lose heartily throughout the year and still qualify for a playoff position. But the question in many fans’ minds is, if the Merks continue to lose, will they be able to rebound? Will the older players, accustomed to the fruits of victory, sip on the dregs of defeat without contemplating the easy way out. ..retirement? Before going any deeper into the Merks problem, your agent must admit a slight prejudice if writers are allowed such human frailties. Up until their trouble this season, there has been no club we would rather watch, no talent that we respected more than the Mercuries. It was always a treat to watch those three almost perfectly-balanced lines of fine skaters, a hard hitting and experienced defence in front of a badly under-rated goaltender in Billy Deluca...and most important of all that mark of a champion that just oozed from the team. They were the class of the league, win or lose. They still can be just that but it will take a major changeover from their present position and attitude. We feel they can do it. We feel they can prove real champions by bouncing up from the floor, something they haven’t had to prove yet. We feel there are too many players with unquenchable pride that just won’t go on losing. Who said 'suspension?’ Marshall Borsk deserves an apology from the Sentinel sports columns for their quick suggestion last week that he would be suspended by the league as the coach of the team, the Flyers, who didn't show up for their boxing Day game in Red Rock. The League governors met on the case Saturday and the only thing that was suspended were the jaws of the Royal reps when the full sentence had been meted out to the Flyers. Despite the fact that the point is quite clear in the CAHA rule book, the league overlooked the action by not suspending Marshall or as the ruling states, 'the person responsible.’ The Flyers also received another chance for the two points when the governors ruled that the game will be replayed before Jan. 19. The fine, set at $50 by the league rules, was not increased either. The league did, however, make the new ruling so rough that teams will think twice before forfeiting again. Flyers should consider themselves most fortunate. The forfeit was a foolish incident which inconvenienced fans and did the reputation of the league no good. League governors were too easy on the Nipigon club. We are not suggesting that it was coach Marshall Borsk’s fault because it wasn’t. But someone should have been suspended and the fine should have been increased. The fact that Flyers gave up their New Year's Day gate helped their cause considerably but completely overlooked was the principal of the thing. ...a team just deciding they weren’t going to play and then not showing up. CHUCKALUGS: Flyer forward Ray Maki was the centre and the goat,of a controversy over the management of the Nipigon arena Friday. A meeting of the 12â€"member arena board decided that Ray wasn’t quite the man for the position of manager so they demoted him to assistant-manager... the same thing as an outright dismissal as they knew very well. Ray is presently out of a job and the club may lose their second or third top scorer. You’ll pardon this agent for showing an upset stomach over the whole deal because, in truth, it was nothing more than petty politics and, outright foolishness as will be shown before the end of the season. Ray is a personable hard-working fella, who can be a credit to this town. He was the goat because of an assistant that couldn’t work under him and an arena board that has too many members with an axe to grind. HOT FLYERS TOP MARATHON TWICE Goal-scorers all! From l^ft to right, Dean Jones who scored the tying goal Sunday and another Saturday for two games. Flyers won two games from Marathon to vacate the NSHL basement. Nipigon Flyers; Alex Legacy, two goals Saturday and Ray Maki, six points in the Nipigon coach Jack Staples beams happily with three players who had a lot to say about their weekend sweep of the defending NSHL champs, Marathon. That’s George Ruth in front, back row, left to right is George Swan, who had the winner Sunday and Herman Mannila who scored eight points in the two games. Nipigon Flyers had big George Swan back in harness j over the weekend and if you ; want one good reason why they defeated Marathon Mercuries in two games, then there it is. Swanie was all over the ice, checking, crashing and in general wreaking havoc upon the poorly-conditioned Merks as the Flyers won 8-5 Saturday and then followed up with a thrilling 8-7 win Sunday. Swan wrote a dramatic finish to Sunday’s game, breaking down the middle to blast a slap shot past Billy DeLuca with just 17 seconds left on the clock. Herman Mannila had just missed a chance for heroics when he flubbed a penalty shot at the 19:16 mark while Flyer fans went mad. Herman more than made up for his miss however, scoring eight points in the two games on one goal and seven assists. Second big point man was Ray Maki with four points Saturday and two more Sunday. He had two goals. The Flyers thus left the basement of the North Shore Hockey league and set their sights on the higher lofts. First step comes this weekend when they meet their bitter rivals, Red Rock Royals Sunday in Red Rock. There is also a possibility that the game 'postponed' from Boxing Day may be played Saturday night in Nipigon. George Ruth was outstanding Saturday night as the Merks had their chances but couldn’t go ahead. Flyers had most of the play but had bad lapses after every goal with the Merks taking advantage to stay close. Sunday the Merks went ahead 3-0 and then 4-1 in the first period before the Flyers started to find the range. Three unanswered goals in the second period tied things up and it was see-saw after that until Swan blasted home Herman Mannila's rebound. Vic Dahl, Maki, Clyde Mannila, Dean Jones, Swan and Donnie Oja had the goals Sunday for the Flyers. Bobby Ferguson with three goals was the main threat for the Merks while Al Lanteigne, Ken Nutbrown, Johnny Charyna and Bunny LeBlanc scored singles. Saturday Alex Legacy had two goals while Maki, Johnny Zechner, Oja, Clyde Mannila, Dahl and Dean Jones had the others. GOAL DUST: Poor ice hampered players Saturday night with pools of water all around. The players then found no hot water in the dressing rooms for showers. The Merks are still laughing about the person who came out on the ice with a mop to clean up the water. Steeves suffered a bad cut to the top and bottom of his eye when he stopped a shot by teammate Danny Moon. Merks short-handed especially after that. Ed Bolan reportedly will be back in action against Terrace Bay and it could make a big difference. Ted Brady seems to have slowed down and the Merk defence left a great deal to be desired on the weekend.. Carlisle improving every outing. Atwill getting worse. You can’t play haphazard hockey. He apparently has no interest in covering his position.. .only in carrying the puck. Still waiting for Vic Dahl to get untracked. He’s going to break loose one of these nights. No one works harder in practice... Ferguson up to 207 but he’s even more effective than before1