FEBRUARY 9, 1948
ROUGH WEEK FOR VALIANTS
The Montreal Valiants were thumped 7-1 by Chicago on Thursday night before recovering to tie Detroit Saturday but the bigger loss for the Vals came on the injury front with two top-tier defensemen and a centerman all suffering injuries. The largest blow was the news that Shel Herron will miss at least a month with a shoulder injury while Bryant Williams, who came over from Detroit with Herron in a December trade, will also miss a few days with a shin injury. To make matters worse the short-staffed Valiants were forced to play without 31-point scorer Max Ducharme on Saturday against Detroit and winger Rey Sclisizzi will also miss a couple of weeks with an elbow issue. Then there is Bert Lanceleve, who has 37 points in 42 games but missed both of last week's outings due to a suspension from an incident in Boston last week and still has one more game to serve.
The week also saw Montreal drop to third, a point behind the Boston Bees, who also enjoy a game in hand on the Valiants. The Bees picked up 3 of a possible 4 points over the course of the week but are 14 points back of first place Chicago after the Packers won all three of their games last week and are 5-0-2 over their last seven contests.
Code:
NAHC Standings
TEAM GP W L T PTS GF GA
Chicago 45 27 13 5 59 170 112
Boston 43 19 17 7 45 135 119
Montreal 44 19 19 6 44 138 148
Toronto 44 19 21 4 42 126 142
Detroit 46 17 24 5 39 120 160
New York 44 17 24 3 37 137 145
SCORING LEADERS
NAME GP G A PTS
T Burns, Chi 39 34 20 54
Mahoney, Chi 37 16 34 50
W Burns, Chi 43 12 33 45
Cabbell, NY 43 30 14 44
Albers, NY 44 16 27 43
Chandler, Bos 38 19 21 40
Pollack, Tor 40 18 20 38
Skinner, Mon 44 17 21 38
McGlynn, Chi 45 20 17 37
Galbraith, Tor 44 16 21 37
Sauer, Tor 40 14 23 37
Lanceleve, Mon 42 13 24 37
Hart, Bos 42 18 18 36
Gregg, NY 39 16 19 35
MacLean, Chi 41 12 23 35
GOALIE LEADERS
NAME GP W L T ShO GAA
Hanson, Chi 38 20 13 5 2 2.59
Brockers, Bos 27 12 10 5 1 2.71
James, Bos 16 7 7 2 1 2.82
Tremblay, NY 33 14 15 2 3 3.02
Broadway, Tor 37 15 18 3 1 3.08
Touhey, Mon 35 17 15 2 1 3.39
Chasse, Det 38 15 18 4 2 3.44
LAST WEEK'S RESULTS
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 3
Detroit 1 at 4 Chicago : Chicago is unbeaten in five games after a 4-1 victory in a rare Tuesday NAHC contest. Tommy Burns scored his 30th and 31st goals of the season to equal and surpass his league leading total of a year ago.
WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 4
Toronto 1 at 4 Boston: The Dukes have just 1 win in their last five games after falling 4-1 in Boston. Tommy Hart had the hot hand for the winners as he was involved in all 4 Bees goals, scoring twice while assisting on markers from Wilbur Chandler and Craig Simpson.
New York 7 at 3 Detroit : Detroit lost for the second time in as many nights as the Motors, who had a late train ride in from Chicago overnight, led 2-0 after twenty minutes before running out of gas and falling 7-3. Orval Cabbell paced the Shamrocks attack with 3 goals and an assist while Jim Macek and Sam Coates each enjoyed 3 point evenings. The victory snaps a 6-game winless streak for New York.
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 5
Chicago 7 at 1 Montreal : A dominant victory on the road for the high flying Packers who were led once more by Tommy Burns with 2 goals. Jeremy MacLean also scored twice for the Packers, who are now unbeaten in their last six games, while Jarrett McGlynn had a goal and two helpers. Montreal netminder Mahlon Touhey did not survive the first period, being pulled after allowing 4 Chicago goals on just 12 shots.
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 7
Detroit 3 at 3 Montreal : Detroit ended a 3-game losing streak while Montreal rallied for a 3-3 tie two nights after being embarrassed on home ice by Chicago. The Vals needed two third period goals including Adam Sandford's 7th of the season with less than 5 minutes remaining to salvage a point out of the game.
New York 6 at 2 Toronto : The Shamrocks won for the second game in a row while the Dukes lost for the 5th time in their last six games. Six different Shamrocks found the back of the net including Orval Cabbell, who scored his 30th of the season.
SUNDAY FEBRUARY 8
New York 3 at 6 Chicago : The Packers improved to 4-0 in February by doubling the visiting New York Shamrocks 6-3. Tommy Burns and Marty Mahoney each had a goal and two assists as the home side exploded for four answered goals in the final 15 minutes of the game to pull out the victory.
Boston 2 at 2 Detroit : Spencer Larocque's fifth goal of the season early in the third period allowed to Detroit to claim a tie for the second night in a row. Adam Vanderbilt had given the Motors an early lead but Joe Morey scored twice for Boston in a game that the Motors outshot the Bees 31-14.
UPCOMING REGULAR SEASON GAMES
WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 11
Chicago at Boston
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 14
New York at Boston
Montreal at Toronto
SUNDAY FEBRUARY 15
Detroit at Boston
Montreal at Chicago
Toronto at New York
AROUND THE LEAGUE
- Rumours are circulating that Detroit Motors coach Mark Moore is on thin ice with speculation rampant that the 53-year-old will be fired this week. The club denies the rumours but it was hardly a resounding vote of confidence as when asked about the status of his coach Motors owner Jack Connelly Jr. would only say that he does not "like firing coaches in mid-season." When pressed to confirm that meant Moore's job was safe Connelly's two word response was "for now." Moore, who led the Motors to a third place finish last season, is in his third year behind the bench in Detroit.
Toronto shows how fragile their system is giving up 10 goals in 2 games this week with 3 D-men out due to injury. Both games the Dukes got behind early, as Coach Jack Barrell has said over and over this season the team has to win with defense. They do not have the firepower to run and gun with other teams in NAHC. At Denny Arena mid-week the after a scoreless first frame, Tommy Hart put the Bees ahead at 6:52 into the second. The Dukes then created a major miscue giving up two goals in 8 seconds at the with less than two and half minutes left in the period. Barrell said "Our message is always to play really tight defense the first and last 5 minutes of each period so the opponent gets no momentum at the start of a period or going into the dressing room between periods. Quinton's goal late in the second gave us hope but those two quick ones really took the wind out our sails, cannot give teams a 3 goal lead." The Bees netted an empty netter to win 4-1.
More telling was the loss at home on Saturday night to the Shamrocks. Hoping to put further doubt in minds of the New York squad chasing a playoff berth, the Dukes instead were again victimized with 2 goals in last 5 minutes in both the first and second periods. An unflattering 6-2 loss had Barrell close the dressing room to reporters but the assembled scribes could hear, but not make out all the words, in the post game tirade by the staff.
Netminder Gordie Broadway had two substandard games allowing 10 goals on 53 shots. Going into 6 days off before hosting Montreal at home on Saturday the team will probably be put through their paces in tough daily practices in preparation for what seems to be a critical game. On the injury front it appears that Gunner will be back although Martel and Lumsen remain, at best, questionable. At the moment the Toronto Dukes continue to hang on to the last playoff spot but must shake themselves out of their February funk.
OTHER HEADLINES THIS WEEK
- Each of the two pro basketball loops played their all-star game over the weekend, as the cage seasons reach their traditional midway mark.
- The Senate put the Republican tax cutting bill on ice, and it may stay unresolved for two months or more.
- A Senate subcommittee voted against authorizing the Government to prepare for meat rationing.
- British Prime Minister Attlee has proposed voluntary freeze on pay, profits and items like rent for the sake of combating inflation and rebuilding the struggling British economy.
Full national sports coverage is available in this week's edition of
THIS WEEK IN FIGMENT BASEBALL.