FEBRUARY 16, 1948
PLAYOFF RACE SUDDENLY HEATS UP
Motors, Shamrocks Closing In
The Detroit Motors and New York Shamrocks are both climbing back into the playoff race as each has taken advantage of slumps by the NAHC's two Canadian clubs. The Motors, who started the season with 8 losses in their first 10 games, have moved to within 3 points of both Montreal and Toronto in a fight for third and fourth in the standings. Detroit has had a huge turnaround since seemingly throwing in the towel on the season by dealing veteran defenseman Shel Herron and Bryant Williams to Montreal in late December and over the last dozen games the Motors have posted a 7-3-2 record.
At the same time both Toronto and Montreal have fallen on hard times with the Valiants especially hard hit. The Vals are just 3-12-3 since January 3rd including a 0-4-1 mark in February. When Montreal made the big deadline trade they were just 3 points back of the front-running Chicago Packers. Now the Vals are 19 points off the pace and fearing for their playoff lives. Toronto has also struggled as Jack Barrell's crew has dropped 6 of its last 8 games.
It is not just Detroit which is threatening to crash the playoff party after a dreadful start. The New York Shamrocks have 3 wins and a tie in their last 5 games and are just 4 points back of the Dukes and Vals. With 14 games remaining in the season (13 for Detroit) time is becoming a factor but both the Motors and Shamrocks are suddenly very much in the playoff mix.
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NAHC Standings
TEAM GP W L T PTS GF GA
Chicago 47 29 13 5 63 182 117
Boston 46 19 19 8 46 146 133
Toronto 46 20 22 4 44 132 147
Montreal 46 19 21 6 44 139 158
Detroit 47 18 24 5 41 124 162
New York 46 18 24 4 40 145 151
SCORING LEADERS
NAME GP G A PTS
T Burns, Chi 41 39 21 60
Mahoney, Chi 38 16 34 50
W Burns, Chi 45 12 37 49
Cabbell, NY 45 34 14 48
Chandler, Bos 41 21 23 44
Albers, NY 46 16 27 43
Hart, Bos 45 21 19 40
Galbraith, Tor 46 16 24 40
Pollack, Tor 42 19 20 39
Skinner, Mon 46 18 21 39
Sauer, Tor 42 15 24 39
McGlynn, Chi 47 20 18 38
MacLean, Chi 43 12 26 38
Gregg, NY 42 16 21 37
Lanceleve, Mon 43 13 24 37
GOALIE LEADERS
NAME GP W L T ShO GAA
Hanson, Chi 40 22 13 5 3 2.58
Brockers, Bos 29 12 11 6 1 2.87
James, Bos 17 7 8 2 1 2.89
Tremblay, NY 35 15 15 3 3 3.02
Broadway, Tor 38 16 18 3 1 3.03
Chasse, Det 39 16 18 4 2 3.40
Touhey, Mon 37 17 17 2 1 3.47
LAST WEEK'S RESULTS
WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 11
Chicago 6 at 5 Boston :The visiting Packers improved to 5-0-0 in February and extended their unbeaten streak to 8 games by coming back from a 5-2 deficit to nip Boston 6-5. Tommy Burns had 2 goals and an assist with Mark Brooks scoring twice to lead Chicago to victory. Garrett Kauffeldt's 9th goal of the season put the Bees up 5-2 just before the midway mark of the game but the Packers closed the gap on second period goals from Brooks and Ed Delarue and then added two more in the third to complete the comeback. Chicago outshot Boston 52-37 in the game. There was bad news for the Packers as Marty Mahoney left with a back injury and will be sidelined for a couple of weeks. Mahoney, with 50 points in 38 games, sits second behind Tommy Burns in the league scoring race.
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 14
New York 4 at 4 Boston :Following a 5 day break the Shamrocks were back in action and skated to a 4-4 draw with the Bees at Denny Arena. Orval Cabbell's second of the game -with 1:25 remaining in the third period- allowed the Greenshirts to leave Boston with a point. Tommy Hart had 2 goals and an assist to pace the Bees.
Montreal 1 at 4 Toronto :A week off to work on Coach Jack Barrell's gameplan paid off for the Dukes, who skated to a 4-1 victory at the Dominion Gardens. After a scoreless 20 minutes, Bobbie Sauer scored the only goal of the second period before the teams combined for 4 goals in the final 13 minutes of the game. The slumping Vals are 3-11-3 since January 3.
SUNDAY FEBRUARY 15
Detroit 4 at 2 Boston :Boston is winless in 4 games after falling 4-2 on home ice to Detroit while the Motors have a win and two ties in their last three outings and are now just 3 points back of both Montreal and Toronto in the battle for third place. Vince Arsenault had a goal and an assist to lead the Motors while Hank Walsh added two helpers.
Montreal 0 at 6 Chicago :Montreal's woes continued as the Packers Norm Hanson made 22 saves in a 6-0 shutout victory keyed by a Tommy Burns hat trick. Burns now has 39 goals on the season and moved past Harvey McLeod into sole possession third place for the highst single season goal total. The record is 47 set by Boston's Bert Gordier in 1929-30. Burns, with 60 points and 13 games remaining on the Packers schedule, may also have a chance of catching Gordier's points mark of 80 set in the same season as his goal total.
Toronto 2 at 4 New York :The Shamrocks doubled the Dukes 4-2 and with 7 points in their last 5 games are suddenly very much alive in the playoff race as New York's 40 points is just 4 back of both Montreal and Toronto and 6 behind second place Boston. New York netminder Etienne Tremblay had a big game, stopping 38 of the 40 shots he faced with Orval Cabbell scored his 33rd and 34th goals of the season to lead the Shamrocks.
UPCOMING REGULAR SEASON GAMES
WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 18
Boston at Chicago
Detroit at New York
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 19
Toronto at Montreal
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 21
Boston at Montreal
Detroit at Toronto
SUNDAY FEBRUARY 22
Toronto at Chicago
Montreal at Detroit
Boston at New York
NAHCleaguenewsHeader
AROUND THE LEAGUE
- Archie Irwin, Chicago Daily News --The Packers continue to pull away, nearly twenty points ahead of the defending champion Bees. Tommy Burns' six game goal streak has helped the Packers win each of their February games, and they haven't lost since dropping their January 24th contest 5-2 to the Dukes. A hat-trick against the Valiants on Sunday pushed his goal and points total to a league leading 39 and 60. Packers litter the top 5 for goals, assists, and points, with Burns' backup Jarred McGlynn 5th with 20 goals, Marty Mahoney (50) and Wes Burns (49) second and third in points, and three other Packers (Mahoney, 2nd/34; Jeremy MacLean, 4th/26, Moose Veniza, 5th/25) trailing Wes Burns and his league leading 37 assists.
- Spencer Larocque has had an huge impact on the Detroit blueline since coming over in the deadline deal with Montreal. The 21-year-old has more than filled in as the replacement for Shel Herron with 17 points in 24 games with the Motors since the deal while posting a +5 on a team with only 4 players showing a positive plus/minus. Meanwhile 35-year-old center Doug Yeadon has Motors brass rethinking their original plan to offer him a contract extension. The Motors assistant captain provides plenty of leadership and has even chipped in offensively with 2 goals and 5 points in his last 6 games.
The Dukes partially turn the corner after a week of hard practices which Jack Barrell termed "Back to basics, we have gotten into some bad habits that have to be eliminated." In a fast paced game Saturday evening in Toronto the Valiants, Dukes played a thoroughly entertained game. After the teams failed to score during the first period Sauer opening the scoring with less than 4 minutes left in the second stanza on a nice setup from Zimmerman and Burdette. Toronto upped the lead to 3-0 before Skinner spoiled Broadway's shutout bid at 13:03 of the third, Lavalliere potted his 5th into an empty cage to salt away a 4-1 Dukes victory. The game featured some top level goaltending by both Touhey, Broadway who both repeated robbed opposing shooters.
An overnight train trip into the Big Apple where Barrell's bunch had another chance to put a dagger into the Shamrocks. Dukes came out flat giving up 2 before the game was 6 minutes old on goals by Cabbell, Corbeil. Toronto rallied to tie the game before the first intermission on markers from Painchaud, Carlson. After a scoreless, quick paced, penalty free second the Dukes penchant for giving up goals early in periods came back to haunt them, yet again, when Cabbell, Broeke beat Broadway before the third period was 4 minutes old. The Dukes mounted sustained pressure but could not solve Tremblay in the Shamrocks cage. Tremblay made 38 stops during the game to secure the NY victory. Barrell was heard muttering "Defense, defense, defense, tough when we cannot score more than 2 on 40 shots."
The good news is that both Martel, Lumsen will return this week for 3 games, in Montreal mid-week, at home to the Motors Saturday, before heading into Lakeside Auditorium Sunday afternoon to face the high scoring , high flying Packers. All games are taking on a playoff atmosphere as only 6 points separate second from sixth with teams having either 13 or 14 games left on their schedule.
OTHER HEADLINES THIS WEEK
- FABL's Hall of Fame has opened balloting for its 1948 class to be inducted in the baseball museum at Boone County, Il.
- Number one ranked Western Iowa was upended 60-55 by St. Ignatius in Great Lakes Alliance conference action on the weekend.
- Commodities prices tumbled as the week began, pulling the stock market down with it as price breaks on many food products were implemented. A study indicated prices of 48 cost of living food items had shown an average drop of more than 8 per cent in the past month.
- 37 British trae unions defied the Labor government's wage-freezing policy and voted to demand higher pay for their 3 million members.
- Senator Taft said the $5.3 million outlay which the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved for the first 12 months of the European Recovery Program is "too large."
Full national sports coverage is available in this week's edition of
THIS WEEK IN FIGMENT BASEBALL.