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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1981-02-04, Page 8Page 8 Times -Advocate, February 4, 1981 Sports Spotlight By ROSS HAUGH Still struggling A few weeks ago we wondered out loud about how long the upswing of the Toronto Maple Leafs would last after newly appointed coach Mike Nykoluk appeared to bring harmony back to the team. After their first few starts when they lost to Detroit and the Islanders, tied Hartford and were blanked 2-0 by the Winnipeg Jets, the Leafs seem to be dragging again. When harmony seemed to be reigning supreme, the management decided to let veteran Ron Ellis go without much communication with coach Mike Nykoluk. Shortly after Nykoluk took over he named Ellis one of the four alternate captains and rumours were strong that the fellow who wore numbers eight and six for some 16 years was in line for an assistant coaching position. The way the Leafs played Saturday night, they could have used the experience of Ellis. He has a habit of controlling the puck and was one of the better penalty killers around. The Leafs don't appear to have much chance to win the Stanley Cup, so it would appear it could have been much better for player morale to keep him around until the end of the season and retire in style. Ron Ellis ends his NHL career with 350 goals and 316 assists for a point total of 666. This figure includes 18 goals and eight assists in playoffs. ;He had nine consecutive seasons with 20 or more goals before retiring in 1975. He came back to the Leafs in 1977, and scored 26 goals. Ellis was dressed for 27 of the Leafs first 49 games this sason and was used sparingly of late. It was different There .was one big difference Sunday afternoon, January 25 when television cameras zoomed into the Oakland Raiders dressing room after that club won the 1981 Super Bowl While there was lots of excitement and con- gratulations, the usual popping of champagne bottles was missing. One of the first things the players did when they got back to their dressing room was have a few moments of silent prayer. This custom is getting to be habit with a number of professional football clubs and is certainly not to be frowned upon. On Super Bowl afternoon the Raiders, the first wild card team to ever wirt the big one had only a hope and a prayer to win according to many people we ran into. but, if their hope was based on prayer it certainly worked. Old timers in action This Saturday night at the South Huron Rec Centre, veteran hockey fans have a chance to have their memories rekindled as the Seaforth Oldtimers will be at the South Huron Rec Centre to take on the Exeter Mohawks in an exhibition game. Two members of the Exeter Mohawks of the mid - 1950's are regulars with the Seaforth Oldtimers. They are goaltender Gar Baker and centre Ken Doig. Doig is still going strong at the age of 53. He keeps in top condition in the summertime on his Seaforth area golf course and continues to be one of the top amateurs in Ontario. Also a member of the Seaforth team this year is Mitchell native Keith Ahrens. who is the assistant postmaster in Exeter. The.hockey game will be followed by a dance spon- sored by the Exeter Minor Hockey Association. A successful stable ' The harness horse partnership of Dave Morrissey of McGillivray township and Peter Oud of Kippen con- tinues to be one of the most successful not only in On- tario. but. in North America. One of the Morrissey-Oud top performers is Fight the Foe who was just named aged horse of the year in New Jersey by the New Jersey harness racing writers. Fight the Foe has won $148.000 for the area pair. mostly at the Meadowlands since being claimed less than a year ago for $25.000. In addition to Fight the Foe. Morrissey and Oud are getting great mileage out of two other horses they own. In less than a week Annies Redstar and Andy's Hideway won feature races a the Meadowlands. Both were for purses of $13.000. With Ailsa Craig native John Campbell in the sul- ky. Andy's }tideway won in a good time of 1.58 1 5. While talking about good racing performances. take a look at (Thief Scram owned by Sanford ,Reid of Ailsa Craig and trained by Art Hodgins of Clandeboye. Chief Scram. a three year-old pacer has won eight straight races at Western Fair Raceway. To make the achievement sound much better. Chief has only eight lifetime starts. That's right. he has been a winner every time out. The record at Western for six consecutive vic- tories is held by Harex. a pacer which is still active at the London track More hockey news The latest issue of Hockey News to reach our desk includes a special hockey school section and 1981 direc- tory. Listed prominently is the Huron Hockey School which operates out of the Stephen township arena at Huron Park. This school manned by topnotch university coaches is growing by leaps and bounds. In addition to the Huron Park camp. they operate a similar resident school at Finlay. Ohio' along with day schools in Cornwall. Arnprior. London, Montreal. Cleveland. Ohio and East Lansing, Michigan. This year the Huron Hockey School at Huron Park will operate from ,July 19 to September 4. f Irish have good shot at first place Hawks get two victories in junior While they'll be unable to better their fourth place standing in the Junior "D" northern division, the Exeter Hawks gave strong in- dications this week they'll be contenders when the loop playoffs get underway. After losing four of their last five, the Hawks got their act together to post two decisive victories. They clobbered Seaforth 11-4 on Tuesday in a make-up game and then bombed the Mit- chell Hawks 10-2 at the rec centre, Friday. That was one of the widest margins recorded in the long rivalry between the two namesakes in recent years. Exeter will complete their schedule this week when they travel to Lucan for a Wednesday (tonight) contest and then host Thamesford at the rec centre, Friday. A postponed game with Mt. Brydges won't be played because it can't help either team in the standings. It won't be until the weekend that the Hawks find out who they face in the first round of playoffs. Mitchell, Tavistock and Lucan are within one point of each other at the top of the heap. MItchell and Tavistock share top spot with 42 points, while the Irish have 41. The Lucan crew held the top spot for one day after beating Tavistock on Friday, but both the Braves and Mitchell won on Sunday to move back into first place. Mitchell travels to Tavistock for one game this week and that ends the season for the Braves. Mitchell has one other contest. In addition to the game with Exeter, the Irish have a postponed game with Seaforth to make up and could still end up in first' place. In fact, a three-way tie for top spot is not im- possible. Exeter coach Ron Bogart said his team would prefer to meet Mitchell in the first round as they have enjoyed more success against them than the other two squads. He said his team's im- KINSMEN WIN TOURNEY TROPHY — The Exeter Kinsmen won the consolation trophy in a recent hockey tournament in Monkton. Bock, left, Dennis Brock, Bruce Hodge, Ron Pickering, Joe Regier, Harry Geerlink, John Schwindt and Joe Regier. Front, John Smithers, Wayne Edwards, Bill Armstrong, Steve Lane, Keith Davey and Larry Lichty. T -A photo Senior Gagers lose first of season The senior boys basketball team at South Huron District High School lost their first game of the season on their home floor Friday afternoon. After six straight wins, the senior Panthers lost 50-48 in overtime to the Goderich Vikings. The Panthers led 26-18 at half-time. but. due to a number of missed shots were not able to hold on as Goderich tied the score at 44-44 in regulation time. Doug Hoffman was the top scorer for South Huron with 17 points. Dave Bell was close behind with 16 points and Matt McClure added seven points. The junior game was also very close with Goderich 'nipping South Huron 39-38. The Panthers bounced back from a deficit of 22-10 at half-time, but, fell one point short. John Mol was the top junior marksman with 14 points. Derek Hippern and George Tomes each added six The South Huron junior UP THEY GO — Matt McClure (24) goes up for the ball at the start of the second half of Friday's Huron -Perth senior basketball game against Goderich. The Vikings won 50-48 in overtime. T -A photo record now stands at three wins and four losses. The midgets were the only South Huron representatives to win over Goderich by a score of 28-15. Their record is now five wins and a pair of defeats. , Today, Wednesday, the three Panther teams will be at home to Stratford Central and Monday'February 9 they play host to North Lambton of Forest. Marauders lose In their only start of the week in the South Huron intermediate hockey league, the Centralia Marauders were on the short end of a 9-3 score to the Forest Boyds. In a very close first period, the Boyds took a 2-1 lead on a goal in the last minute of play. The Forest club out- scored the Marauders four goals to two in the middle frame and notched three unanswered goals in the final 20 minutes of play. The only Centralia score in the first period came from the stick of captain Pete Glover on a pass from Randy Somerville while Bill Forbes of Forest was off for hooking. Scoring for the Boyds in the first period were Dave Ulrich and Larry Hutton. In the second session, Rich Lather registered for the Marauders on a three-way combination with Dick Lord and Tony Underhill and Blair Hearn converted a pass from Randy Somerville with only 17 seconds left on another power play effort. Chris McGregor scored three times for Forest in the last two periods, Larry Hutton fired two successful shots and single goals were shot by Henry Veens and Rob Sullivan. - The Boyds took eight of the 14 penalties assessed by referees Don Appleby and Tom Miller. provement this week followed a session when he met with each member of the squad to review individual and team play after a practice last Sunday. Blast Hawks Friday night, the local Hawks came up with one of their best performances of the season as they com- pletely dominated Mitchell for a 10-2 triumph. Exeter scored six unan- swered goals in the first period and then coasted to their triumph. Exeter scored three times on the power play and gave up one short-handed goal as they displayed some nifty passing and accurate shooting. Dan Bell paced the attack with a hat trick while Preston Dearing and Bryan Baker chipped in with a pair each. Adding singles were Brad Taylor, John Kernick and Doug Brooks. Brooks added three assists to lead in that department and Rick Lindenfield, Kernick, Dave Couse and Ed Willis contributed two each. Helping out on one goal were Bell, Pete Tuckey, Taylor, Brian Mercer, Larry Dawson and Dearing. Rich Fletcher guarded the nets for Exeter and recorded 18 saves, while Mitchell's goalies faced 27 shots in addition to the 10 which eluded them. Exeter served 14 of the 25 penalties called. Bomb Seaforth In Tuesday's game at Seaforth, the Hawks went hot and cold through the first two periods to take a 5-3 lead, but came out flying for the third stanza and outscored their hosts by a 6-1 count. Their first three goals in the third were on power - plays, while they gave up one powerplay tally and two short-handed goals to Seaforth in the contest. Doug Brooks spearheaded the attack with a hat trick performance and Pete Tuckey contributed a pair. Singles were fired by Jim Lovie, Preston Dearing, Dan Bell, Rick Lindenfield, Brian Mercer and Brad Taylor. Mercer added four assists for a five -point night, while Dearing and Bryan Baker contributed three assists each and Dave Cause had a pair. Adding single assists were Brooks, Dave Atthill, Bill Glover, Ed Willis and Tuckey. Rich Fletcher made 27 stops for the Hawks who Hawks in Lucan, tonight `D' fired 50 at Dan McClure. The Lucan Irish kept their hopes for a first place finish in the OHA Western Junior "D" grouping alive with two victories this week. Wednesday, the Irish scored a 5-1 win over the Thamesford Trojans and Friday night they edged the league leading Tavistock Braves 3-2. At the moment Tavistock and Mitchell are tied for first place with 42 points and the Irish have 41 points and two games to play. The Lucan club will be at home tonight Wednesday to the Exeter Hawks and their final game is the makeup of a postponed game with Seaforth and Lucan manager Bob Taylor said Sunday night he hopes it can be played Monday night. Mitchell travels to Tavistock for a very im- portant contest Friday night. A goal by Keith Hartwick at 17:42 of the third period gave the Irish their 3-2 Friday win over Tavistock. Doug Latta and Jeff Hart- man assisted. Rob Fraser counted both goals for Tavistock. The first game to open the scoring at 2:34 of the first period and his second successful shot Junior `D' HOCKEY Fri., Feb. 6 SOUTH HURON REC CENTRE EXETER 8:30 p.m. Tha mesford vs Exeter Hawks pkiy was triggered at 15:45 of the final frame. Kevin Hartwick notched tthe first Lucan score 'at 15:06 of the first period on an unassisted effort and Brian Murray converted a pass from Paul Medd at 14:15 of the third period. Only three penalties were handed out to each team by referee Jack Harris in one of the best played games of the season. In Wednesday's win over Thamesford, the Irish took a 2-1 first period lead and were never headed. Kevin Hartwick started the Lucan scoring at 7:38 of the opening session as he hit the Thamesford net on a pass from Jeff Edwards. Four minutes later, Paul Medd made it 2-0 on a three- way combination with Doug Latta and Keith Hartwick. Jay Dresser notched the only Thamesford score in the first period. In the second period, Kevin Hartwick produced his second goal of the game with assists going to Keith Hartwick and Jeff Marshall. Bob Hodgins hit the Thamesford net on an unassisted dash and Keith Hartwick converted a pass from Paul Medd. See the UMW play against GODERICH at the SOUTH HURON REC CENTRE THURSDAY at 8:30 p.m. Doug Cornish was the winner of January 50-30 draw. Sponsored by Laidlaw Transport Ltd. SMALL ENGINE Sales & Service MILT ROBBINS & SON LTD. 263 MAIN ST. N., EXETER 235-2940 Live demonstration by F`NTK DecoratIYe 114.:414% • Finish or refinish a wall, ceiling or an entire room beautifully and economically. Only your imagination limits the beautiful designs you can make ... with ordinary around - the -house utensils. Come to the demonstration and see how easy it is with Flintkote. DEMO SPECIAL $989 44 Ib (20 Mg) BAG $ 339 21/2 GAL. (11.2 y PAIL DEMONSTRATION TIMES Saturday, Feb. 7/81 10:00 a.m to 2:00 p.m. DICO1OlIYr Saveway Building Supplies Exeter 235-1582 A GOOD SHOT -- Dave Bell (4) swings under the basket after scoring two points in o Huron -Perth senior basketball game, Friday. The other Panther in the dark uniform is Matt McClure. Goderich won the game 50.48 in bvertime. T -A photo 1 PPM