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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1981-01-14, Page 8f Page 8 Times -Advocate, January 14, 1981 Sports Spotlight By ROSS HAUGH For how long? A new broom seems to sweep clean. That old say- ing appears to apply to the Toronto Maple Leafs since - new coach Mike Nykoluk took over Saturday night. With Nykoluk behind the bench the Leafs bounced back to get a tie with the Philadelphia Flyers Saturday night and downed the New York Rangers the next night 5-3. Harold Ballard doesn't seem to be too steady with some of his recent statements and moves. After Wednesday's horrendous loss to the Winnipeg Jets, Ballard gave coach Joe Crozier a vote of confidence. Only 24 hours later Crozier was sacked. It took a little time to announce that Nykoluk would coach Saturday night. In fact, it was only made official two hours before game time. This move sort of brings back memories of almost two years ago when Roger Neilson was fired in mid- week by Ballard and the coach for the Saturday night game. also against the Flyers was in doubt right to the last minute. We were in Maple' Leaf Gardens that night in 1979 and the game was ready to start before a coach came behind the Leafs bench. The crowd let out a tremen- dous roar when it turned out to be Neilson again. At that time it was intervention by the players that made Ballard change his mind. He had wanted Neilson to wear a paper bag over his head as the Unknown Coach. We saw Wednesday's game which was won by Winnipeg. Many veteran observers said it was the worst game a Leaf team had played in 25 years and we certainly agree. Something had to be done, so , we hope Nykoluk is the medicine man the Leafs need. It's hard to imagine that a new coach can make the difference between the Leafs of Wednesday and Saturday. Good games ahead Three top hockey games are on tap in this area in the next couple of weeks. This Saturday night at 7 p.m. the OHA Western Junior "D\' all star game will.be played at the Lucan arena. The best players from Mitchell, Exeter, Lucan, Tavistock and Seaforth will take on the cream of the crop from Belmont, Thamesford, Port Stanley, Bothwell and Mount Brydges. Each player taking part in the game will receive an official village of Lucan pin. The following Friday night, January 23, the South Huron intermediate league all-star game will be played at the Zurich arena. Here again it -will be the north against the South. That means that the star players from Goderich, Zurich. Hensall and Exeter will do battle against the best from Centralia Marauders, Centralia College, Forest and Parkhill. Proceeds from this game go to charity. The last two years all profits have been channelled to the Big Brother organizations in Exeter and Goderich. It's a worthwhile cause and you will see good hockey at the same time. On Saturday, February 7, area fans will have a chance to compare the style of hockey being played to- day with that of some 30 or more years ago. The current edition of the intermediate Exeter Mohawks will take on the Seaforth Oldtimers. While the Oldtimers must be at least 35 years of age a couple of the Seaforth performers have seen more than 50 winters come and go. Probably the oldest player is Ken Doig at about 53 years old. Doig was a member of the old Exeter Mohawks as was goal tender Gar Baker. Joining these two are fellows like Ed Domage and George Coveney from Mitchell, Dick Bedard and Bob Merner from Zurich and Keith Ahrens, formerly of Mitchell who is now the assistant Postmaster here in Exeter other names just popping up are Bob Beutenmiller and .Jack Mcllwain. It should make for an interesting night. The game will be followed by a minor hockey dance. Half right Our predictions that Dallas and Oakland would meet in the 1981 Super Bowl game was only halfway correct as the Philadelphia Eagles proved to be a better cold weather team than our Dallas Cowboys. A quick look at the crystal ball informs that the Oakland Raiders will win the big game on January 25 by a score of 34 to 27. Quick everyone. Out and wger on the Eagles The hest conclusion that anyone watching both games on Sunday could come up with is, "why should game; he played in cold weather like in Philadelphia when plenty of closed • in and warmer stadiums are available .Of course. it wouldn't be fair to the fans say in Philadelphia. Minnesota or Green Bay to take a final gan.e ,iw,iv from them just because the weather is colder than in Miami or Los Angeles or in one of the domed-tadiurns Don't forget the dinner 11 i; now less than three weeks to the annual Exeter Lions club Sportsmen's dinner. Tickets are still available hut. hurry they are going fast. The tickets for the local dinner are still only $25. The London dinner tickets have risen to $40 this year. All proceeds as in former years go to help crippled children in this area and throughout the province. In the next two weeks we will write more about the great lineup of speakers. For now we will just mention a few The headline speaker will he former Detroit Pistons basketball coach Dick Vitale. Not far behind in the category of great speaking will he controversial NHL coach Don (sherry. .bran lielliveau will be representing the playing aspect of the NIII, and Terry Puhl of the Houston Astros baseball club will also be there. Get your tickets quickly from any member of the ,Exeter Lions Receipts for income tax purposes will he issuer) Il d Stayner goalie ousts Exeter, Lucan St. George wins annual Hawks Paul Kitchen, a goalie who was the last cut from the Sudbury Wolves of the OHA Junior "A" league, was in- strumental in helping his Stayner Siskins eliminate both Exeter and Lucan from the fourth annual Junior "D" tournament at the rec 7entre this weekend, but he couldn't stop the sharp- shooting St. George Lions. The Lions won the tourna- ment with a 7-4 win over the Siskins. Sunday, to take home the $500 first prize money. It was the first time in the four year history of the Ex- eter Hawks tournament that teams from the Western Junior "D" loop had not battled for the cham- pionship. All four entries were sidelined with Mitchell. Exeter and Thamesford go- ing down to defeat in their first round of play. The Lucan Irish managed to reach the semi-final after bombing Port Dover 8-1 in their preliminary game. Saturday. but they fell to gtayner by a 5-3 count in the semi-final. While the tournament featured some excellent hockey. Hawks coach Ron Bogart indicated that they would be lucky to break even financially this year. Atten- dance was down drastically. primarily because the four area teams were ousted in the early going. About 100 people were on hand for the Sunday night championship game between St. George and Stayner and in the past that game has drawn a good crowd with some of the area teams participating. — A capsule run-down of the games is as follows: St. George 3 - Mitchell 1 The eventual champions had their hands full with the Hawks in this contest, which featured some of the closest checking of the en- tire two-day event. Mitchell managed only 13 shots on Todd Simpson in the Lions net. while St. George had only 23 shots at Mitchell's Dave Fischer. St. George opened the scoring on a powerplay in the first period, and after Mitchell evened the score in the middle frame, the Lions potted a pair in the final stanza to gain the win. The winners' defence was particularly brilliant in the contest and the Hawks appeared to be a little short of steam. due in part to a fast game they had played the night before with Thamesford in league play. Grand Valley 6- Thamesford 5 Grand Valley emerged as winners in the only overtime contest during the tourna- ment. They potted a goal at the 39 mark of the extra session to gain the win. Thamesford carried the play throughout the contest, but just couldn't find the scoring range on many of their good opportunities. They missed on at least four clear-cut breakaways and on two of those the skaters didn't even get a shot away as they skated past the net. After spotting Grand Valley an early powerplay goal. Thamesford took a 3-2 lead in the first and were still ahead by one at the start of the third: Grand Valley evened the count after only eight seconds, and popped another 21 seconds later to take their .first lead. The Trojans sent the game into overtime with a powerplay goal at the 8:16 mark. Both teams missed good opportunities through the balance of the regular time and overtime before Grand Valley netted the winner. The Trojans enjoyed a 38- 28 margin in shots on goal In the contest, which was one of the cleanest of the day as the teams had only three minor penalties. Lucan 8 - Port Dover 1 The Irish dominated play in the final two periods of this contest to win with com- parative ease. They spotted the Sailors an early lead at the 12 second mark of the se- cond. but came roaring back with five of their own in the middle stanza and added three uunanswered tallies in the third. Brian Murray paced the attack with a hat trick, while Jeff Hartman added a pair. Picking up the singles were Keith Hartwick,Bob Hodgins and Jeff Edwards. Paul Medd contributed three assists to lead in that department, while helping out on two goals was Murray. Single assists were recorded by Kevin Hartwick, Ron Glenn, Jeff Marshall. Doug Latta, Kevin Gilmour and Brad Degraw. Kevin Woods had a com- paratively easy time in the nets as he was called on to handle only 17 shots, while his mates were peppering 41 at Brad Wilson in the Port Dover nets. The Irish scored twice on powerplays and added two more while playing short handed. Stayner 4 - Exeter 2 Despite having trouble with the skills of Stayner netminder Kitchen, the Hawks held a 2.0 lead until midway through the third period and then watched the Siskins score four times in the last 10 minutes to end their tournament chances. Doug Brooks gave Exeter a 1-0 lead in the first on a play with Preston Dearing $5 reit fl ;toTr11C` GET SPECIAL AWARDS — Convener Ron Bogart presents most valuable player awards to Exeter Hawk Preston Dearing and Paul Kitchen of Stayner. The top two players in each game in the Exeter Hawks weekend tournament received plaques. T -A photo Fa Evil Eyes in dart lead Friday's y s schedule is: 8 p.m. Winkers vs Jaams Out of Space vs Scotties Sassenachs vs Shiphunters Outlaws vs Last Chance 9:30 p.m. Evil Eyes vs Rowdy Ones DR's vs Doublers Itchy Niters vs CB'ers Canscotts vs Family Affair The Evil Eyes continue to hold down first place in the Exeter Legion mixed dart league with 56 points. The Doublers are second with 52 points and the Winkers and Last Chance are deadlocked for third place with 51 points apiece. Next comes Family Affair at 49 points followed by the Itchy Niters at 45, Outlaws 43, Sassenachs and Jaams 42 and Scotties 40. This week's scores were: Last Chance 5 Canscotts 0 Doublers 3 Out of Space 2 Winkers 3 Rowdy Ones 2 CB'ers 3 Sassenachs 2 Scotties 3 DR's 2 Outlaws 3 Family Affair 2 Shiphunters 3 Itchy Niters 2 e traps N1+th eslr he SIoPP NNW A �e ar s+y ALL CROSS COUNTRY AND DOWNHILL Ski Suits, Vests and Mitts REDUCED 25% to 50% Save On This Cross Country Ski Package SKIS, POLES, BOOTS, BINDINGS INSTALLATION Plus FREE Fanny Pack This Weekend Only JERRY MacLEAN & SON AUTO & SPORTS Ltd. x6995 OUR STORE IS BIG ENOUGH TO SERVE YOUR NEEDS... BUT SMALL ENOUGH TO BE FRIENDLY Exeter 238-0800 and Ron Bilcke and they up- ped the margin to two goals in the second when John Kernick scored on a powerplay at the 7:11 mark with Ed Willis and Dave Atthill drawing the assists. Hawks netminder Rich Fletcher had only 10 shots to stop in the first two periods, but the Siskins came on big in the filial frame to fire 18. The Hawks came out fly- ing in the third period and in the first seven minutes had a number of great scoring chances and only the superb goal tending of Paul Kitchen kept the Stayner club in the game. ' They scored at the 9:50 mark towhittlethe lead to one goal and picked up the equalizer less than three minutes later. Their final two goals came with just over a minute remaining and were 22 seconds apart. Kitchen stopped 36 shots in the best goaltending display of the tournament, and the Hawks appeared to run out of steam through their frustration in the final period. St. George13- Grand Valley° The first of Sunday's semi- final battles produced the most one-sided display of the event. as the Lions scored at liberty against the Grand Valley contingent. The Lions scored two on power plays and another pair while playing short- handed. Captain Robert Parkhill had a hat tick and four others scored a pair. They were Bill Vansickle, Mark Stager, Gary Woods and Randy Brown. •John Nagtzaam, who is an imposing sight at 6'8" in his skates. had only 14 shots to record the only shutout of the tournament for the Lions. Stayner 5 - Lucan 3 The Irish led 1-0 after the first. but.couldn't keep pace with the Siskins in the final two periods as they were ousted from the tournament in the second semi-final. The winning tally was scored when the Siskinswere 90ai Minor Hockey Association would like to ex- tend a special thank you to everyone who helped make our 1980 Novice Tournament a success. To all the people and businesses who donated hockey sticks,to the novice and atom Mom's and Dads and to any one who was so kind to help out the arena. Thanks To all Exeter Minor Hockey tournament a man short id the first minute of the third and they added an insurance tally at the 18:31 mark after the Irish had stormed all over them but couldn't get the puck past Kitchen. Paul Medd, Ron Glenn and Doug Latta scored for the Irish with Brian Murray helping out on a pair. Single assists went to Latta, Bob Hodgins and Jeff Marshall. Kitchen turned aside 32 shots for Stayner, while Dan Sceli stopped 27 for the Irish. St. George 7 - Stayner 4 The Lions blew an early two -goal lead in the final, but came storming back in the last half of the game to score five times and take home the prize money. The Siskins appeared to run out of steam against the bigger Lions and even goaltender Kichen couldn't keep them at bay. Chris Wilson scored a pair to lead the tournament champs in the final, while singles were fired by Randy Brown, Steve Kopp, Bill Vansickle. Mark Stager and Scott Simpson. Kitchen ended up with 25 saves, while Todd Simpson had 17 for the Lions. Seethe play against C. C. A. T. at the SOUTH HURON REC CENTRE THURSDAY at 8:30 p.m. Sponsored by Laidlaw Transport Ltd. 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