FEBRUARY 3, 1947
PACKERS TAKE OVER NAHC LEAD
A busy week which saw the Chicago Packers win 3 games and tie a fourth giving them a 9-1-1 record in their last 11 games has boosted the Packers to the top of the NAHC standings. The Packers have 42 points on the season, two more than Boston although the Bees do have a pair of games in hand. The Chicago franchise has been around since the start of the 1925-26 season but has never finished in first place, even during the days of the two division format. The are also the only active NAHC club to have never lifted the Challenge Cup.
Chicago star Tommy Burns is riding a 13 game point scoring streak and threatening to rewrite the league's record book. His 24 goals and 50 points -both league highs- put him on a pace to threaten the modern day single season records in each of those categories. Toronto's Gil Nagle is the loop's only 30 goal scorer since 1940 while Sam Koger's 66 points for Toronto in 1943-44 is considered the modern standard.
Tommy Burns has a 14 point lead on the next highest total, which happens to belong to his brother and left winger Wes Burns (19-17-36). The right winger on the most prolific line in the league is Marty Mahoney (8-25-33) and he presently sits in a tie for 6th place in the NAHC scoring parade.
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NAHC STANINGS
TEAM GP W L T PTS
Chicago Packers 33 18 9 5 42
Boston Bees 31 18 9 4 40
Detroit Motors 32 15 12 5 35
New York Shamrocks 32 14 16 2 30
Montreal Valiants 31 12 16 3 27
Brooklyn Eagles 32 10 16 6 26
Toronto Dukes 33 10 19 4 24
SCORING LEADERS
NAME TEAM GP G A PTS
Tommy Burns CHI 33 24 26 50
Wes Burns CHI 33 19 17 36
Quiton Pollack BKN 32 23 12 35
Orval Cabbell NY 32 18 17 35
Bobbie Sauer TOR 33 16 19 35
Tommy Hart BOS 30 19 14 33
Marty Mahoney CHI 33 8 25 33
Ed Delarue CHI 30 14 17 31
Graham Comeau DET 32 12 19 31
Laurel Albers NY 33 7 24 31
Claude Skinner MON 30 16 13 29
Joe Morey BOS 29 14 14 28
Sam Coates BKN 32 9 19 28
GOALIE LEADERS
NAME TEAM W L T ShO GAA
Norm Hanson CHI 17-9-3 3 2.50
Henri Chasse DET 15-12-5 4 2.63
Pierre Melancon BOS 13-7-4 2 2.69
Tom Brockers BKN 10-14-6 1 2.71
Etienne Tremblay NY 12-14-2 2 3.01
Gordie Broadway TOR 8-17-2 0 3.59
Millard Touhey MON 8-13-3 0 3.59
LAST WEEK'S RECAPS
Tuesday January 28
The top two teams in the league met at Lakeside Auditorium and did not disappoint, as the Boston Bees and Chicago Packers skated to a hard fought 3-3 tie. The big guns for each team -Tommy Burns of the Packers and the Bees Tommy Hart- each had a goal and an assist in the game. Pierre Melancon made 31 saves in the Boston net while Norm Hanson turned aside 25 of the 28 shots he faced for Chicago.
Thursday January 30
The Packers were back at it as they continued a busy week that would see them play four times in a six day span. This one was also at Lakeside Auditorium and Tommy Burns was the hero, netting the game winner with less than 5 minutes remaining to lift Chicago past the Brooklyn Eagles 4-3. Ed Delarue scored twice for the winners while Eagles rookie sensation Quinton Pollack had 3 assists in a losing cause. In Detroit, the Motors concluded a terrible January with a strong 3-game winning streak that culminated in a 5-1 drubbing of Toronto just 5 days after the Motors scored 10 goals in game in Toronto. Dave Bradley scored twice and added an assist to pace the Motors.
Saturday February 1
A quiet Saturday evening with just one game as the Toronto Dukes, licking their wounds after leaving Detroit, headed to Chicago and were beaten for the fourth time in the last five games. falling 3-1 to the Packers thanks to third period goals from Chicago's Tommy Burns and Ian Groening. The Packers outshot the Dukes 50-21 and only an outstanding effort by Gordie Broadway in goal for the Dukes prevented a rout. The Chicago win lifted the Packers into sole possession of first place, two points up on idle Boston.
Sunday February 2
The Chicago Packers have gone 10-2-1 since New Years Eve with the latest victory being a 5-2 triumph over Toronto to complete the home-and-home sweep of the Dukes. Wes Burns had 2 goals and an assist to move into second in the league point race and his brother Tommy scored his NAHC leading 24th goal of the season moving the star center to within 4 goals of his career best mark established last season when he won the McDaniels Trophy as the league's top player. Tommy Burns is also within 8 of Gil Nagle's modern day record for goals in a season with 42 for Toronto in the 1941-42 campaign.
In other Sunday action the Boston Bees kept pace with the Packers by doubling the Brooklyn Eagles 4-2 at Prescott Arena. Benton Walston led the way for the Bees with 2 goals and an assist. Finally in Montreal, the Valiants and the visiting New York Shamrocks each played their only game of the week. The New Yorkers, led by assists on both goals from Tom Brescia, trimmed the Valiants 2-1 to move 3 points ahead of Montreal in the race for the fourth and final playoff berth.
THE WEEK AHEAD
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 4
Boston at Montreal
Brooklyn at New York
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 6
Montreal at Detroit
New York at Chicago
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 8
Montreal at Brooklyn
Toronto at Boston
SUNDAY FEBRUARY 9
Chicago at New York
Detroit at Boston
Brooklyn at Montreal
AROUND THE LEAGUE
- Burns 13-Game Point Streak Propels Packers to First - While part of the reason the Chicago Packers have overtaken the Boston Bees for first in the NAHC is because they've played two extra games, but a lot can be credited to Tommy Burns. The star center has recorded a point in 13 consecutive games, including a goal and an assist in a 4-3 Packers win over the Eagles on his 27th birthday. In that 13 game stretch, he's recorded 23 points and the Packers have gone 12-2-1 in that stretch. More recently, Wes Burns has been even hotter, with three goals and assists in his last three games. The brothers ranks #1 and #2 in points, with Tommy's 50 14 points higher then Wes'. The brother duo has been crucial for the Packers, leading them to a +42 goal differential, the only differential in the league above 15. - Archie Irwin/Chicago Daily News.
- Motors Garage is a Mess -Despite success on the ice, rumours out of Detroit are the dressing room is a mess with plenty of in-fighting. A number of different cliques have sprung up and the room is very fractured with talk that the biggest cause for concern is in what one source termed an "intense dislike" for each other between first line center Garrett Ferrar and brash rookie Bobo Davis. Davis -the club's first round selection in July- has loads of talent but seems determined to make sure everyone else knows just how good he is. So far the team has been winning -except for a terrible first half of January- so coach Mark Moore has not seemed overly concerned. However, a bad stretch to finish the season resulting in another narrow playoff miss may see some major off-season moves for the club. - Dan Urbanski/Detroit Times.
- Speaking of locker room harmony. The Toronto Dukes are now getting along just fine after the trade of Laurel Albers to the New York Shamrocks. Albers is not said to be overly popular in the New York room either but the Shamrocks are winning games and he is producing. Toronto had a lot of in-fighting but that cleared up as soon as Albers left for the Big Apple. The problem is the Dukes may be getting along with each other, but they are still awful this season and on a course to finish last after owning the league's best record a year ago.
- The Greenshirts are glad they have Albers offense, but the club is just hanging on now with number one center Orval Cabbell dealing with a series of nagging injuries. New York is trying to end a playoff drought that has reached 4 years and is 3 points up on Montreal for the final post-season berth but the health of the veteran Cabbell may be the difference whether the Shamrocks make the playoffs or not. The 29 year old leads the team with 35 points - a total that already matches his output from the entire season a year ago- but he has been hobbled by two different leg injuries over the past 10 days.
- The Montreal Star has been calling this a 'lost season' for the Valiants. They are close to where they finished last season when they ended up fourth by only a single point and then knocked off Toronto in the semi-finals before succumbing to Boston in six games for the Challenge Cup. With that post-season success came enhanced expectations for this year and in that regard the campaign has certainly been a disappointment.
- Rumours are coming out of Brooklyn that the Eagles may fold at the end of the season. The club has significantly improved its product on the ice and is only 4 points out of a playoff spot after winning just 2 games all of last season. However, the club is averaging just 7,551 fans per game -far and away the lowest in the league- and owner Edward Faberge claims he is operating at a substantial loss again this year.
OTHER HEADLINES THIS WEEK
- Baseball's Cuban Winter League experiment is deemed a success as the prospect loop prepares for its season ending championship game between Havana and Manzanillo today.
- Rising welterweight Danny Rutledge ran his record to 8-0 with a fourth round knockout of Memphis John Bolton.
- Les Lightbody, cager cousin of the famous Lightbody clan out of Louisiana, has announced he will attend and play basketball at Alabama Baptist next season. Lightbody is considered one of the top recruits for next season.
- The United States broke off efforts for establishing peace in China with the news that most of the American forces and Marines in that country will be withdrawn. They had been there to help enforce ceasefires between the Chinese government and rebel Communist forces.
Full national sports coverage is available in this week's edition of
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