Ontario Community Newspapers

Terrace Bay News, 16 May 1973, p. 5

The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

MAY I6, I973 TERRACE BAY NEWS PAGE 5 SPORTS SLANTS - By Ray Shank And here I thought this was going to be my last hockey column for a couple of months. Yes folks, I, and most hockey fans in North America figured it would be game over for Chi- cago Black Hawks last Tuesday night and by Wednesday morning the names of the I972-73 Montreal Canadiens would be inscribed on the Stanley Cup. : Matter of fact, rumour is that a Cup trust- ee left Lord Stanley's lovely piece of silver- ware at a Montreal jeweller last Tuesday after noon to start the engraving. That's how sure everyone was that the Cana- diens would wrap it up in the Forum. What happened? Don't ask me! Even Scotty Bowman and Billy Reay couldn't explain the I5-goal barrage (a new series record) that got by Ken Dryden and Tony Esposito. Dryden is supposed to be the best netminder in the league and Esposito is rated a close second. Now if you happen to be from Kentucky or Arkansas, where they don't play hockey, and you watched that 8-7 Chicago victory last Tuesday, you'd have a hard time being convin- ced that Dryden and Espo are the best in the business. Most NHL sportswriters will tell you that game was probably the worst ever played in a Stanley Cup series. Defensively, it was! But offensively, it was fabulous! Two records were broken and one equalled in the contest - most goals in one game (I5) and most goals in one period (8). And Yvan Courn- oyer's tied Frank Mahovlich's individual scor- ing mark of I4 goals in a complete series. He's (Cournoyer) likely to wind up with the new record. Only one of the previous four games between the Hawks and Canadiens had beén worthwhile watching, really. That was the game the prev- ious Thursday, in Chicago, where the Hawks surged to a 5-0 lead, then saw their lead dwindle to 5-4 in the dying minutes of the third period. And if Frank Mahovlich could have found the handle of what appeared to be a sure goal in the last minute of play, that would have been a tie game and would have made for an exciting period of overtime hockey. Last Tuesday's game was so full of action that you didn't risk going to the kitchen to pour yourself a shot of 'milk' for fear you'd miss a goal ... or maybe two. Although it was the highest scoring game ever in modern day Cup playoffs, I sort of en- joyed it. And guys like Dave Kryskow and Len Frig, two unknowns who joined the Hawks for the finals after their Central League Dallas Hawks were eliminated, probably were tickled pink with the result. After all, they each scored a goal and if it hadn't been for their goals, the score would have been 7-6 for Canadiens and the ser- ies would have been all over. It was probably also an exciting brand of hockey for non-hockey fans, who happened to switch to an NBC channel in the U.S. Let's face it, everybody likes to see a lot of runs in baseball, a lot of touchdowns in football and plenty of field goals in basketball. Why not a lot of goals in hockey? The people who wouldn't appreciate an 8-7 game are Tony Esposito and Ken Dryden, most die-hard Hab fans, Sammy Pollock, Scotty Bow- man and the majority of the NHL writers. Me? I love it, even though I had to delay collecting all those bets. NOT 1 CE COMING SOON ! The Fort William Male Choir sponsored by the Schreiber Parks and reat conti Friday, May 25th - Schreibér Campus - 8:30 p.m / FOR ADVA CE TICKETS CALL: Flora Bryson - 824-2066 Shirley Brown - 824-2541 Lorraine Huard =- 824-2757 THE MUSIC CIRCLE WILL BE AEACHING PIANO - DRUMS ACCORDION - GUITAR ME LOAN INSTRUMENTS FOR APPOINTMENT PHONE 825-3747

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