JANUARY 12, 1948
QUICK JANUARY START EXTENDS PACKERS LEAD
The Chicago packers have opened up a 6-point lead on the second place Montreal Valiants atop the North American Hockey Confederation standings. The Packers have not lost in 1948 after wins over Toronto and Boston on the weekend improved their record to 4-0 since the calendar flipped. News on the injury front was mixed for the Packers, who are eyeing a playoff bid for their first-ever Challenge Cup win. Tommy Burns, the McDaniels Trophy winner as league most valuable player each of the past two years, returned to the lineup after a 6-game absence and quickly regained the loop's goal scoring lead with a goal in a 3-2 win over Toronto Saturday and two more in last night's 4-1 victory over Boston. On the season Burns has 24 goals in 27 games -just 6 shy of the 30 he potted in 48 games a year ago.
The bad news is the big line of the Burns brothers along with Marty Mahoney managed to last less than a full game together but Mahoney was forced out of the Toronto game with a foot injury. The hope is Mahoney will be able to return to the lineup next weekend, perhaps in time for the showdown with the Valiants in Montreal Saturday night.
The New York Shamrocks are making a charge at fourth place after Etienne Tremblay had a pair of shutouts last week and the Shamrocks earned 5 of a possible six points. Just 2 points separate third place Boston from the fifth place Shamrocks with the Toronto Dukes wedged in between the two rivals.
Code:
NAHC Standings
TEAM GP W L T PTS GF GA
Chicago 33 21 10 2 44 120 77
Montreal 33 17 12 4 38 111 107
Boston 33 14 15 4 32 102 94
Toronto 33 14 16 3 31 96 111
New York 34 14 18 2 30 101 102
Detroit 34 11 20 3 25 85 124
SCORING LEADERS
NAME GP G A PTS
Mahoney, Chi 31 14 26 40
T Burns, Chi 27 24 15 39
W Burns, Chi 31 10 26 36
Cabbell, NY 33 23 10 33
Albers, NY 34 10 21 31
Chandler, Bos 29 14 16 30
Pollack, Tor 31 13 16 29
Sauer, Tor 29 12 17 29
Lanceleve, Mon 33 12 17 29
Skinner, Mon 33 12 17 29
Haines, Mon 29 9 19 28
Gregg, NY 29 13 14 27
Galbraith, Tor 33 11 16 27
Lynch, Mon 28 9 18 27
GOALIE LEADERS
NAME GP W L T ShO GAA
Hanson, Chi 27 15 10 2 2 2.42
Tremblay, NY 23 11 10 1 3 2.65
James, Bos 12 5 6 1 1 2.67
Brockers, Bos 21 9 9 3 0 2.91
Touhey, Mon 27 15 10 1 1 3.23
Broadway, Tor 26 10 13 2 1 3.24
Carter, Det 11 1 5 0 0 3.40
Sorrell, NY 13 3 8 1 2 3.52
Chasse, Det 29 10 15 3 2 3.66
LAST WEEK'S RESULTS
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 7
New York 2 at 0 Detroit: Etienne Tremblay stopped all 29 shots he faced to lead the New York Shamrocks to a 2-0 victory in Detroit, snapping the Greenshirts three game losing streak. Tommy Brescia opened the scoring in the second period and Sam Coates add an insurance marker early in the third for New York.
THURSDAY JANUARY 8
Detroit 4 at 8 Montreal: A busy week for the Motors continues to go badly with an 8-4 loss in Montreal that saw backup Detroit netminder Brad Carter have a rough night. The Valiants also were forced to use their backup with rookie Sam Desjardins filling in for Millard Touhey, who is sidelined with a viral infection. Ian Doyle and John McDonald each scored twice for the Vals with one of the few bright spots for Detroit was second overall draft pick Franics McKenzie scoring his first NAHC goal.
SATURDAY JANUARY 10
Boston 3 at 3 Detroit: Tommy Hart's 13th goal of the season, midway through the third period, allowed the Boston Bees to salvage a point in a 3-3 tie at Thompson Palladium despite being outshot 36-26. Adam Vanderbilt had two assists for the Motors while Wilbur Chandler had 2 points to pace the Boston offense.
New York 5 at 0 Montreal: A second straight shutout for Etienne Tremblay as the Shamrocks goaltender was only called on to make 16 saves in a lobsided win for the visitors. The Valiants, playing with backup Sam Desjardins in net, were outshot 35-16. Orval Cabbell led the New York offense with a hat trick,giving him 23 goals on the season -tops in the league.
Chicago 3 at 2 Toronto: Tommy Burns returned to the Packers lineup after missing two weeks with an injury and scored his 22nd goal of the year in helping the Packers win their third straight game. Goals by Les Carlson and Dick Zimmerman gave the Dukes a 2-0 lead but Burns got Chicago on the board midway through the second period and the Packers completed the comeback with third period markers from Jesse Santoro and Moose Vezina.
SUNDAY JANUARY 11
Boston 1 at 4 Chicago: A fourth straight win for the Packers following a 4-1 triumph over Boston. Tommy Burns scored two more goals to regain the NAHC lead in that department. David Scarpone broke Norm Hanson's shutout bid with less than 3 minutes remaining in the contest. The Packers played the game without leading scorer Marty Mahoney as the 26-year-old right winger suffered a foot injury against Toronto the night before.
Toronto 7 at 3 Detroit: The Dukes win a laugher in Detroit, as the struggling Motors have just 1 win in 6 January outings. The Motors seemed to be well on the way to a strong game when a pair of Doug Yeadon goals helped the Motors take a 3-1 lead early in the second period but the Dukes took over from there with 5 unanswered goals including two each off the sticks of Kurt Walz and Al Cote to rally for a 7-3 win. Detroit outshot Toronto 12-7 in the opening period but over the final two the Dukes dominated the possession and outshot the Motors 30-15 as perhaps the busy stretch of 4 games in 5 nights caught up to the Motors.
Montreal 3 at 3 New York: With Millard Touhey still sidelined the Valiants elected to give third string goaltender Pat Beliveau, recently promoted from Syracuse, his first NAHC start. The 23-year-old made 24 saves as Montreal ended the Shamrocks two-game winning streak with a 3-3 tie. Max Ducharme ended Shamrocks netminder Etienne Tremblay's bid for a third straight shutout early by notching his 10th of the season late in the first period. The game was knotted at 2 after 40 minutes and Jim Macek gave New York an early lead in the third period but Montreal defenseman Leo Bernard tied the game with less than 4 minutes remaining.
UPCOMING REGULAR SEASON GAMES
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 14
Detroit at Boston
Chicago at New York
THURSDAY JANUARY 15
Toronto at Montreal
SATURDAY JANUARY 17
Chicago at Montreal
Boston at Toronto
SUNDAY JANUARY 18
Montreal at Boston
Chicago at Detroit
Toronto at New York
OTHER HEADLINES THIS WEEK
- Hector Sawyer successfully defended his world heavyweight title before the largest crowd ever to witness a pro boxing match. Well over 90,000 packed Santa Ana Stadium to see Sawyer score an 8th round TKO win over Dan Miller.
- Despite not playing in a New Year's Classic game, St Blane held on to the number one ranking in college football, making the Fighting Saints national champion for the second consecutive year.
- The last of the unbeatens in college basketball fell this week when defending champion Whitney College was upset 49-47 by Holland University
- In his message to start the new session of Congress, Prsident Truman called for an immediate $40 "cost-of-living" income tax cut for every taxpayer and dependent, and an offsetting levy of $3.2 billion on corporations to pay for it. Republican leaders say there is no change it would be passed.
- Talks of heavily reducing the amount of aid given to Europe prompted Secretary of State Marshall to warn that an inadequate program would only waste American resources. "Either undertake to meet the requirements of the problem or don't undertake it at all," Marshall told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Full national sports coverage is available in this week's edition of
THIS WEEK IN FIGMENT BASEBALL.