FEBRUARY 2, 1948PACKERS RUNNING AWAY FROM PACK
The Chicago Packers extended their unbeaten streak to 4-games with a 2-0-1 week and have increased their lead on second place Montreal atop the North American Hockey Confederation standings to a full 10 points. The Packers are simply dominant in all facets of the game. Their 153 goals scored are 19 more than any other NAHC club and their big line of the Burns brothers, Tommy and Wes, along with Marty Mahoney is 1-2-3 in the league scoring parade. The Packers have alloweed just 107 goals against this season -fewest in the NAHC and their goal differential of +46 is 33 better than any other club in the league. There are still 18 games remaining in the season but it certainly appears like the Packers will have home ice advantage throughout the playoffs and seem well positioned to claim the first Challenge Cup in franchise history.
Toronto finally slowed down the Detroit Motors, snapping the Motors winning streak at 6 games with a lobsided 7-2 victory at Thompson Palladium yesterday. That slows the Motos momentum as they were desperately trying to claw in to the playoff picture, which is very crowded with just 1 point separating 2nd place Montreal from both Toronto and Boston. The Motors are 5 points behid the Dukes and Bees.
Code:
NAHC Standings
TEAM GP W L T PTS GF GA
Chicago 42 24 13 5 53 153 107
Montreal 42 19 18 5 43 134 138
Toronto 42 19 19 4 42 123 132
Boston 41 18 17 6 42 129 116
Detroit 42 17 22 5 37 111 144
New York 41 15 23 3 33 121 134
SCORING LEADERS
NAME GP G A PTS
T Burns, Chi 36 29 18 47
Mahoney, Chi 34 14 31 45
W Burns, Chi 40 12 30 42
Albers, NY 41 15 25 40
Cabbell, NY 40 26 12 38
Chandler, Bos 36 18 20 38
Skinner, Mon 42 17 21 38
Pollack, Tor 38 17 20 37
Lanceleve, Mon 42 13 24 37
Galbraith, Tor 42 16 20 36
Sauer, Tor 38 14 22 36
McGlynn, Chi 42 19 15 34
MacLean, Chi 38 10 23 33
Hart, Bos 40 16 16 32
Gregg, NY 36 15 17 32
Lynch, Mon 36 12 19 31
GOALIE LEADERS
NAME GP W L T ShO GAA
Hanson, Chi 36 18 13 5 2 2.62
Brockers, Bos 25 11 10 4 1 2.80
James, Bos 16 7 7 2 1 2.82
Tremblay, NY 30 12 14 2 3 2.95
Broadway, Tor 35 15 16 3 1 3.00
Touhey, Mon 33 17 14 1 1 3.31
Chasse, Det 36 15 17 3 2 3.46
Sorrell, NY 14 3 9 1 2 3.83
LAST WEEK'S RESULTS
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 28
Detroit 5 at 3 Boston: The suddenly red-hot Detroit Motors won their fifth straight game, topping Boston 5-3 thanks to a two goal, one assist effort from Dave Bradley while defenseman Alex Leveille chipped in with three assists.
New York 3 at 3 Chicago: The visiting New York Shamrocks snapped a 3-game losing skid by earning a point from their visit to Chicago's Lakeside Auditorium. Chris Broeke and Laurel Albers gave the visitors a 2-0 first period lead but Jarrett McGlynn replied with two for the Packers in the second period to tie the game. Albers, with his second of the game, and Packers defenseman Jesse Santoro traded third period tallies.
Montreal 3 at 1 Toronto: The visiting Valiants snapped an 8-game winless streak as Claude LeClerc's goal and assist helped Montreal to a 3-1 win over the Dukes. Clarence Skinner and Glen Whitley also scored for Montreal while Bobbie Sauer's third period marker accounted for all of the Toronto offense.
SATURDAY JANUARY 31
Chicago 2 at 2 Boston: Another tight game between the two Challenge Cup finalists from last year. Boston is 3-2-3 in meetings between the two as this one ended in a draw after the hosts rallied for two goals in the final six minutes of the contest. Mo Masters and Moose Vezina had staked the Packers to a 2-0 first period lead but Wilbur Chandler cut the deficit in half with a goal at 14:35 of the third period and just under two minutes late Aelx Gagnon netted the equalizer for the Bees, who were outshot 32-24 in the game.
New York 2 at 4 Montreal: The Valiants win their second in a row, doubling the Shamrocks 4-2 thanks to a pair of first period goals from Glen Whitley. Doug Lynch and Max Ducharme also scored for the Vals, with Jocke Gregg and Chris Broeke replying for the Shamrocks, who are winless in 5.
Detroit 4 at 1 Toronto: The Motors continue to roll with their 6th straight victory while Toronto falls for the third consecutive game. Joe Todd and Miles Barfield gave the visitors a 2-0 first period lead with Dave Bradley and Adam Vanderbilt rounding out the scoring for the visitors. One of the few bright spots for the Dukes was Quinton Pollack scored the Toronto goal in his return to the line-up after a week's absence.
SUNDAY FEBRUARY 1
Montreal 4 at 6 Boston: Wilbur Chandler had 2 goals and 2 assists to pace Boston to a 6-4 victory at Denny Arena, ending Montreal's modest two game winning streak. The victory moves the Bees back to within a point of the second place Vals. Monrtreal will be without forward Brett Lanceleve for 3 games after he was suspended following a second period incident.
Toronto 7 at 2 Detroit: The clock struck midnight on the Motors as their six-game winning streak came crashing down as Toronto clubbed the Detroiters 7-2 behind a hat trick from rookie Lou Galbraith. Les Carlson had 3 assists for the winners who are tied with Boston for third place, just 1 point back of second place Montreal.
Chicago 9 at 4 New York: The league's best team faced the league's worst club and the result was to be expected, a 9-4 win for the visiting Packers. The big line had been quiet the past couple of days but exploded for 10 points in this one including 4 assists for Marty Mahoney. Tommy Burns scored twice and added a helper to retain his lead over Mahoney in the scoring race while Wes Burns had a goal and 2 assists. Chicago made it a rout early with a 5-goal outburst in the opening period to chase Alex Sorrell from the Greenshirts cage.
UPCOMING REGULAR SEASON GAMES
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 3
Detroit at Chicago
WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 4
Toronto at Boston
New York at Detroit
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 5
Chicago at Montreal
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 7
Detroit at Montreal
New York at Toronto
SUNDAY FEBRUARY 8
New York at Chicago
Boston at Detroit
AROUND THE LEAGUE
- Detroit owner Jack Connelly Jr. gave his staff a vote of confidence after the club's recent six game winning streak, but did caution management that the fans are still not convinced and a prolonged losing streak may not be good for head coach Mark Moore's future. Despite Connelly's comments, the club General Manager reinforced his confidence in his coaching staff, noting Moore has done a fantastic job turning the club around after a dreadful start.
- The Motors are the only NAHC averaging less than 10,000 fans a game as barely 9,200 are showing up to see the club at Thompson Palladium. Conversely both Montreal and Chicago are averaging over 16,000 fans per game and the Valiants have sold out 25 straight games going back to last season.
- Toronto's Lou Galbraith continues to impress. The 20-year-old was the first overall pick in the amateur draft and made the Dukes roster out of camp. He had his first career hat trick against Detroit yesterday and leads all rookies in scoring with 16 goals and 36 points.
- Finn LeBec of the Boston Globe reports some good news for the Bees in that Mickey Bedard will not face any supplemental discipline for an illegal check to the head of Montreal's Doug Lynch on Sunday night. The same cannot be said for the Vals Brett Lancelove, who was ejected for a vicious second period hit and will be suspended for 3 games. Lancelove is second on the Valiants in scoring with 37 points thru 42 games.
The Toronto Dukes closed out January with two home losses 3-1 to Montreal then particularly galling a 4-1 shellacking by the Motors. Barrell's bunch somewhat redeem themselves in the second half of the Detroit back to back pummeling the opposition 7-2 at Thompson Palladium led by Galbraith's hat trick.
The week ahead sees the team heading to Boston for a Wednesday encounter with the Bees before hosting the Shamrocks on Saturday night. Bees are currently tied in the standings with Toronto while New York is beginning to feel a sense of desperation currently 9 points out of the a playoff spot with 19 to play. After the Saturday contest the Dukes have a week to prepare for Montreal in what is becoming a Saturday night tradition matching up the two Canadian teams.
Injuries are become an issue in Toronto as it appears that 3 guys on the back end Martel, Gunner, Lumsen will miss the 2 games this week due to minor, nagging, injuries. Second round pick from this past summer's draft, Tom Atchinson, has been summoned from Cleveland to shore up the blue line.
*** A TALK WITH JACK BARRELL ***
Brett arranged a sit-down interview with Dukes headman Jack Barrell after his trip to Cuba to take in games with Wolves prospects in the Cuban Winter League. It was a long, wide ranging interview with the coach some of which is now ready for the Dukes faithful.
Mail & Empire: With the NAHC season almost 2/3 complete the Dukes are in a playoff position. What are your initial impressions of the your return to Toronto after a few years away?
Barrell: My return to the Dukes organization has been everything I thought it would be and more, Toronto is a hockey hotbed, the fans are extremely passionate, knowledgeable. They deserve a team in the thick of the NAHC race every year. I cannot begin to count the times I have been stopped on the street with questions, comments, suggestions about the Dukes. I listen intently to the comments because of the depth of the knowledge in the fan base. After these chance meetings I often find myself thinking "Should I try that...?" In Toronto you know every game, every in-game move will be endlessly debated with both positive, negative comments. There is no hiding in this market, the winter is dominated by the Dukes fortunes although I constantly hear talk about the Wolves, Titans. Fans live and die with their team in Toronto.
Mail & Empire: After a 1946-47 season of disappointment at Dominion Gardens you seem to quickly turned the fortunes of the Dukes. At the end of January you have already amassed 5 more points in 39 games than the team tallied last season.
Barrell: The credit for the turnaround all goes to the players. The staff has given the players a system, it is the player's job to follow the system that the staff believes will lead to wins. From the day I took over the position of head coach I saw that for the Dukes to be successful we would have be sound in our own zone. From Day One in our Northern Ontario training camp the stress has been on keeping the puck out of our net. We have the perfect man between the pipes in Broadway to make that a winning strategy. The players are probably sick of our stressing defense, tight checking first but there will be no change in the message in the near future.
Mail & Empire: The system seems to be working.
Barrell: Yes and No, I still believe we are giving far too many goals. At 123 the Dukes have given up the third most goals in the league. Granted some of those goals were given up early in the season when there were breakdowns, if we get caught looking down at the puck, running around in our zone the result is generally the red light going on behind our net. We constantly stress to the players to just do their own job in coverage no more, no less, defensive play is hard work with very little glory, everyone has to buy into the system. Fans generally do not notice a stellar defensive play, it is usually very subtle but it gives the Dukes puck possession. Be assured the coaches notice the play then give the player or unit kudos for the effort. The first thing discussed after a shift or between periods is the play in our end. We have been getting better but there is still a long way to go, if we make the playoffs the team will have to be better in preventing goals to advance, checking is much tighter in the post season.
Mail & Empire: Any other comments?
Barrell: Yes, I would like to tell the fans that this just the first step in a multi season progression. It will continue to be built around defensive soundness. I do not see the Dukes becoming an offensive juggernaut in the short term. We cannot match the Packers at their game. One mistake against them the faceoff is at center after the ref pulls the puck out of the net. I ask the fans to recognize our team for what it is, pay attention to work the players are putting in to keep the puck out of our net along with celebrating the goals. With 21 games left we can improve in all areas of the game then enter the playoffs on a hot streak. The Dukes will continue to celebrate team victories not individual accomplishments. The longer season has led to more injuries, there are two guys who have been out all season, Roy, Beam, hopefully we will healthy when the 60-game concludes towards the end of March.
OTHER HEADLINES THIS WEEK
- Detroit Maroons and Mustangs owner Rollie Barrell is under fire from both the Continental Football Conference and American Basketball Conference for comments he made in a Life Magazine feature.
- The Chicago Wildcats, at 20-5 are running away with the Federal Basketball League West Division lead while the Philadelphia Phantoms are posting similar gains in the East Division.
- Ward Messer of Liberty College and Charles Cleary of Central Kentucky continue to battle it out for the college cage scoring lead. Cleary led the nation last year as a junior. Messer, who is the younger brother of New York Gothams outfielder Walt Messer, is also in the running for the rebound lead in the entire AIAA.
- After shortages and delays in getting fuel to most of the northeast, the House Interstate Commerce Committee has recommended a ban on the export of all petroleum products.
- Declaring that the present grain shortage "jeopardizes the national security," President Truman asked Congress to extend for 10 months the Government authority to limit the use of grain for making whisky and other alcohol products.
Full national sports coverage is available in this week's edition of
THIS WEEK IN FIGMENT BASEBALL.