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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1981-12-30, Page 8Page 8 Times -Advocate, December 30, 1981 10 44 Sports Spotlight By Ross Haugh Don't forget the annual Exeter Hawks junior in- vitational hockey tournament which will be held January 9 and 10 at the South Huron Rec Centre. Eight of the top junior "D" clubs in the province will be participating and are sure to produce an ex- citing two days of hockey action. No Comparison Often so called hockey experts get around to talking about today's brand of hockey as compared to the style played 25 or more years ago. One fellow that has seen every facet of professional and amateur hockey over more than the past 50 years and says the old six team NHL was much superior is Foster Hewitt. We caught Foster on an open line radio show for an hour Monday night and he had plenty to say about the game of hockey. Hewitt did his first hockey broadcast in 1923 from the Mutual street arena in Toronto when he was a 19 year-old reporter for the Toronto Star. The game was between Kitchener and Toronto Parkdale. Over his career which spanned more than 50 years Hewitt said he did more than 5,000 hockey games and covered every sport on a play-by-play basis except cricket. He recalled one game in the early days when he got very excited and his voice went away high so he said over the air, "I probably blew a fuse." In the next week he received 90 fuses in the mail from concerned listeners. Asked about his first boadcast Hewitt said, "I didn't know enought to be afraid. The boss said about two hours before the game, "I have another assign- ment for you." Hewitt was the youngest staffer at the Star at that time and automatically got the job and that was the start of a very famous and illustrious career. Before the invention of television, millions of Canadian radio set were tuned in at 9 p.m. Saturday nights waiting axiously to hear, "Hellow, hockey fans in Canada, the United States and Newfoundland," and "he shoots, he scores." Hewitt is probably reponsible for the high calibre of Canadian hockey announcers as many whether they know it or not have copied his style. On the subject of hockey announcers, Hewitt com- mented. "Most are very good, especially here in Canada. but, I shudder when I hear some from the States. We remember back quite a few years to fellows like Bob Elson in Chicago and Frank Ryan in Boston who were great on baseball, football and basketball broadcasts, but, had problems with hockey coverage using such terms as, "The shot is off the backboard or no good", typical basketball terms. Ryan from Boston was one of several American announcers who would not risk their lives climbing to the gondola high in Maple Leaf Gardens. He did his broadcast of Boston games from Toronto from the penalty box. On the subject of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Hewitt said their best club over the years was the 1941-42 team that won four straight in the Stanley Cup finals after losing the first three games to the Detroit Red Wings. The Leafs won the fourth game 4-3 on a late goal by Syl Apps and that was the start of the greatest com- eback in hockey history. Hewitt's all-time Leaf all star team includes goalie Terry Sawchuck, defencemen Hop Day and Tim Horton. centre Syl Appls and wingers Charlie Conacher and Andy Bathgate. He said Apps nad everything, nobody was more hard working and conscientious than Day and Tim Horton was a real workhorse. Getting back to the calibre of hockey today. Hewitt said. "There is no comparison. I'm a strong believer in a six or eight team league. No way arethere enough good players to stock 21 teams. Hockey is very much watered down and not consistent enough. He added. "Too many goals are being scored tnese days. Everybody wants to score and forget about the defensive aspect of the game." Hewitt is not in favour of NHL teams grabbing players out of junior hockey saying, "It takes two to three years for a junior to develop regardless of where he plays. He said Conn Smythe was the key man for the Leafs and Dick Irvin was a top notcher. He suggested the league as it stands today has turned too much com- mercial. thinking more of dollars. Hewitt suggested that the Winnipeg Monarchs were the hest junior hockey club he had ever seen. That was at the time of the heydays of fellows like Pete Langelle and Alfie Pike who went on to stardom with the Leafs and Rangers. respectively. The first hockey Night in Canada broadcast hit the air waves in 1931 over a three station network. That was extended the following year. but. the broadcasts didn't reach British Columbia for another four years because of a lack of lines over the mountains. The first few games from the Mutual street arena were done with an ordinary telephone set and Hewitt said it was normal for an operator to come on several times a game with. "Number please." Ile also reminisced Monday about the Hot Stove league which was a very important part of the radio broadcast intermissions. Fellows that made inter- missions interesting and popular were Wes McKnight, Court Benson. .Jack Dennett. Baldy Cotton, Fergy Ferguson and Ace Bailey. Hewitt said the biggest thrill of his 50 years career came in 1972 when he was behind the mike for the Canada -Soviet Union series. Nothing has been said during the current hockey season until recently about Bill Hewitt's absence as a play-by-play announcer. Apparently he has been suffering from a very serious blood infection and had lost 30 pounds. Foster said Bill is well on the way to recovery and should be back doing a few games in January or February at the latest. 1 1 Parkhill takes 'C' title in novice tournament Parkhill, Byron and Huron t of London won the championships in Eas three 1'Nhf�NILL the annual weekend novice hockey tournament s on - by the Exeter Minor sored Hockey Association. Parkhill took the championship for 11C" the third straight year by defeating Seaforth 4-2 in the final. It was the second win by PARKHILL WINS C TITLE — The "C" championship at the weekend novice hockey tournament in Exeter was won by Parkhill. Back, left, manager Merlon Bender, coach Jim Muir and trainer Tony Bax. Centre, Shawn Glavin, Brad MacDonald, Pete Blaauber, Shane Robinson, Derek Turner, Benny Willemse and Mike Bax. Front, Crain Wiseman, Paul Merritt, Greg Muir, Bobby Mallard, Jerry Waters and Steven Bax. T -A photo Hawks regain first place lead The Exeter Hawks regain- ed the lead in' the northern division lof the Junior "D" loop this week, but it's a precarious lead as the se- cond place Tavistock Braves now have two games in hand and are only a single point behind the Hawks. Exeter took over the loop leadership with a 3-2 win over Mitchell on the latter's ice. Tuesday. but they were dumped 9-6 in Thedford, Sun- day. to lose valuable ground in the loss column. The locals have a busy week as they play in Lucan tonight (Wednesday) then host Seaforth for a 2:00 p.m. game on New Year's day and travel to Tavistock for a contest with the Braves on Sunday. They wind up with a Tuesday night game in Mitchell. Dearing is hot Midget goalie Peter Dear- ing was the difference as the Hawks skated to a one -goal MVP'S IN TOURNEY — Simon VanDam and Pete McFalls of the Exeter Minor Hockey Association presented awards to Brent Vandenakker of Seaforth and Parkhill's Greg Muir as the most valuable players in the "C" final. T -A photo Atoms in thick of Silver Stick The Exeter atoms will be fighting for the Silver Stick consolation championship when they travel to Forest on Saturday to meet Listowel. The locals were dropped to the consolation round when they were drubbed 16-1 by Dresden in their tournament opener on Saturday. but they rebounded for a 6-3 margin over Windsor Minor in the second game to gain the bid for the consolation title. Rob McLelland scored Ex- eter's lone goal in the thum- ping from Dresden. Against Windsor. the locals scored three times in the second period and went on to their victory. Doug Clark had three goals to pace the attack in that one. with singles com- ing from the sticks of David Josephson. David Dalrymple and Rob McLelland. Jeff Rowe, Jeff Chipchase and David O'Connor earned assists in the win. This week's game against Listowel will be at 11:30 a.m. Pee wees thumped The St. Marys pee wees scored almost at will as they bombed Exeter 10-2 in a Shamrock league game at the rec centre. Wednesday. The visitors took a 5-0 lead before Exeter hit the sheet. Bryan Quinn and Paul Mellecke scored for Exeter with Quinn and Jeff Hannah picking up assists. margin over their namesakes in Mitchell. Exeter took a 3-0 lead ear- ly in the second period and then Dearing started his heroics to stop Mitchell's come -back attempt in the final half of the game. He stopped 14 shots in the mid- dle frame and another 10 in the third. Bill Glover, Preston Dear- ing and Rick Lindenfield scored for Exeter, the latter two on power plays. Tony Underhill and Larry Dawson had a pair of assists each to lead in that department with singles being contributed by Lindenfield and Ed Willis. Exeter served 13 of the 25 penalties called in the chip- py affair with Preston Dear- ing and Darryl Dietz being banished in the second period with fighting majors. Browns bog win The Thedford Browns scored their first win over the Hawks as they rattled in four tallies in the final frame to break open a close scoring contest. The Browns scored five power play goals and Exeter countered with four as Thedford sat out 10 of the 19 penalties called in the tilt. The home crew tock a 2-0 lead in the first, only to have Exeter pull to within one at the end of the second with the score at 5-4. John Kernick paced the at- tack for Exeter with a pair of tallies and adding singles were Ed Willis, Preston Dearing. Brain Mercer and Brian Baker. Dave Atthill had four assists to his credit to top that list, while Tony Underhill contributed a pair. Helping out on one goal each were Steve Prout, Dearing and Brian Mercer. Peter Parsons worked between the pipes and took the loss although he stopped 38 shots in addition to the nine which eluded him as the Browns dominated play throughout the contest. Irish beat Thedford, meet Hawks tonight The Lucan Irish downed the Thedford Browns 8-5 Wednesday night in their only OHA Western junior "D" action over the Christ- mas holidays. The Irish resume play tonight, Wednesday at the Lucan arena when they play host to the Exeter Hawks. Lucan overcame a 2-0 first period deficit against Thed- ford with five goals in the middle frame an4 three more in the final 20' Minutes of play. The Browns jumped ahead in the first period on goals from captain Ken Vanos who played with Centralia College last year and Perry Mason The Lucan club shifted into scoring gear at 2.37 of the second period as Doug Latta hit on a three-way ef- fort with Steve Glenn and Jeff Shipley. Less than two minutes later. Steve Thompson knotted the score on a play started by Geoff Edwards and Keith Hartwick. Before the middle period ended, Keith Hartwick fired two successful shots on passes from Geoff Edwards, Paul Wraith and Jamie Shipley and Wraith hit the Thedford goal on passes from Hartwick and Edwards. Ken Vanos and Paul Walker counted for Thedford in the second session as the Irish moved ahead 5-4. Lucan scored three goals in the first 10 minutes of the third period to salt away the victory. Alistair Craig converted a pass from Geoff Edwards at 2.15. Doug Latta hit on a power play from Jamie Shipley and Steve Thompson at 8.35 and 27 seconds later Keith Hartwick completed his hat trick performance on passes from Steve Thomp- son and Doug Latta. The final Thedford goal in the third period came from the stick of Perry Mason. Thedford took 12 of the 23 minor penalites handed out by referee Rick Singleton. Lucan scored four power play goals while Thedford took advantage of one similar situation. WAXERS READY TO GO — The Exeter Waxers failed to win any games in the weekend novice tournament held at the South Huron Rec Centre, but, they showed plenty of enthusiasm. Shown above listening impatiently to coach Keith Ahrens are Mark Russell, Jamie Cornish, Allan McFaIIs and Fred Godbolt. T -A photo Parkhill over Seaforth by the same score. They met in the tourney opener. Byron won the "B" title with a final 6-3 win over Stoneybrook after beating Goderich 8-0. Listowel won the "B" consolation by edg- ing Goderich 3-2. Goderich defeated the Exeter Waxers by the same 3-2 score to reach the final. Huron East trounced Strathroy 10-2 and then beat Tillsonburg in two straight games by scores of 4-3 and 3- 1 to take the "A" cham- pionship. The first game of the tourney was one of the most exciting as Parkhill, the eventual "C" winners beat Seaforth 4-2 in a five player shootout after the two clubs battled to a 1-1 tie in regula- tion time and one overtime period. Scoring for Parkhill in the shootout were Greg Muir, Benny Willemse and Derek Turner while Muir scored the regular game goal. Kevin Mcilwatn and Brad Schroeder were the Seaforth marksmen, the latter's score coming in the shootout. In their second game Saturday, Parkhill edged Tavistock 3-2 on two goals by Greg Muir and one from the stick of Benny Willemse. In the championship game, Mike Bax led the Parkhill scoring attack with a two goal effort while singles were notched by Shayne Robinson and Jerry Waters. Brent VandenAkker fired both goals for Seaforth. Jason Miller, Mike Campbell and George Carnegie scored for Listowel in the "B" consolation win over Goderich. Mark Armstrong fired both Goderich goals. Exciting action in Stephen rec play Eight teams took part in the Stephen township rec hockey tournament held over the past week and a half at the Stephen Arena in Huron Park. Monday night's 'B' final proved to be a very exciting match -up with the Ailsa Craig Aces and JMR Elec- tric both of the Stephen rec league. palying to a 3 all tie. No decision was reached after 10 minutes of sudden death overtime so the tie breaker came down to penal- ty shots. JMR goalie Ken Govers, later named MVP in the "B" division. came up with two big saves on penalty shots and Jim Ferguson put in the winner for the JMR team. JMR dropped to the "B" division after losing to Zurich 5-2 and reached the final by defeating Shogun by a 4-3 score. Ailsa Craig lost to Pfaff Electric of Exeter 4- 2 putting them into the B and later defeated the Vander Vloet entry of Parkhill 7-1. The "A" championship was a fast -paced, exciting contest between strong en- tries from Mt. Forest and Lucan. Lucan led 3-2 after two periods of play but Mt. Forest came back with two quick goals in the third to jump into a 4-3 lead. With two minutes remain- ing in the game, Dave Smith of Lucan tied it up to set up another exciting finish. The score remained tied after 10 minutes of sudden death so the championship rested once again on penalty shots. Brad Rundle of Mt. Forest fired the winner past Lucan netminder Steve Nosking on his teams 2nd shot to cap- ture the "A" title. MVP for the "A" division went to Tim Andrews of Mt. Forest. Mt. Forest reached the final by defeating Shogun 10- 5 and Pfaff Electric 8-3. Brad's Bombers of ;Lucan downed the VanderVloet team 7-2 and Zurich 5-2 to make the "A" final. Greg Depresf scored two goals and John German add- ed a single to lead Huron East to the "A" cham- pionship 3-1 victory over Tillsonburg. In an earner game, Huron East won over the same team 4-3. Jeff Spencer's two goal ef- fort led Byron to the "B" championship's 6-3 win over Stoneybrook. The Exeter Waxers lost their first • tourney game Saturday noon 4-1 to Stoneybrook and dropped a 3-2 decision to Goderich in the consolation semi-final. David Schwindt converted a pass from Jason Hern for the only Exeter score in the loss to Stoneybrook. In the loss to Goderich, Jason Hern who was the Waxers must valuable player scored on an un- assisted effort and David Schwindt counted on a pass from Jamie Cornish. eJunuunuuuuuuunuuuuuuunu Hockey At Its Best! OHA JUNIOR 'DI Seaforth vs Exeter Hawks SOUTH HURON REC. CENTRE Fri., Jan. 1 2:00 p.m. Ad Sponsored By E. Hawks Booster Club ununuununufuuuuuununumr.= GOLF MEMBERSHIP Prices In Effect Until Jan. 20, 1982 Junior - 18 & under $80.00 Ladies - $80.00 Man - $160.00 Man & Junior $235.00 Husband & Wife $235.00 Family & children up and including 18 $275.00 IRONWOOD located a mile East of Exeter off Highway 83. PHONE 235-0707 Auto -Ruud Exeter 235-1100 on Rabbits. Known for running 41 mNes. (On one gallon of fuel.)' Known for fast starts. (0t080 km In 8.6 seconds.) Known for grace In action. (Independent suspension -front and rear.) Known for stabNity In stopping. (Negative steering roll radius.) Known for Its ttilck coat. (Meets 6-Vear Anti -Corrosion Code) Often misunderstood on price. (Actually, around eight thousand.)" Often seen on display. (At your VW dealer.) '69l/U*m ,o*r+g is bored on Transport Canada approved fell methods. Your bel consumption will very TIM • •Based on manJacsrees suggested maximum reed p ice for Robbs l 2 -door web 4•speed mom,ol eonvnhNon Dealer may seA for rep Auto -Ruud I*...r 235.1100