FEBRUARY 23, 1948
BURNS ON RECRD PACE FOR PACKERS
Tommy Burns continues to race towards the NAHC single season goal scoring record. The Chicago Packers 28-year-old center has 42 goals in 43 games this season and is now within 5 goals of tying Bert Gordier's 1929-30 record of 47. Only Gordier and his Boston teammate that season George Tremaine had ever reached the 40-goal mark until Burns raced by the milestone last Wednesday with his 40th against Boston.
Sure purists will point to the fact teams only played 44 games that season, compared to the 60 the Packers will eventually compete in this year, but Gordier and Tremaine also were the beneficiaries of an offensive explosion as teams scrambled to adjust to a rule change that opened up game and resulted in a record setting number of goals. Things quickly adjust the following year and no one had scored more than 34 goals in a season since. Until this year when Burns, following up on a league leading 30 goal season (tied with Boston's Tommy Hart and Quinton Pollack, then of Brooklyn), has exploded.
Despite missing his long-time winger Marty Mahoney for the past 3 games, Burns has scored 6 goals in that span and has an 8-game goal scoring streak on the go, during which time he amassed 15 goals and 19 points. As a whole the Packers offense has been dominant and averaged 3.8 goals per game. Chicago has 186 goals in 49 games with the last place Shamrocks second in that category but with 33 less than the Packers.
There are 11 games remaining in the season and the Packers, 15 points up on second place Boston, seem a lock to finish in first place for the first time in franchise history. Tommy Burns also seems to be a lock to win his third straight McDaniels Trophy as the NAHC's most valuable player and may just have a record-setting season.
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NAHC Standings
TEAM GP W L T PTS GF GA
Chicago 49 29 14 6 64 186 122
Boston 49 20 20 9 49 149 137
Toronto 49 22 23 4 48 141 154
Montreal 49 20 23 6 46 141 162
Detroit 50 19 25 6 44 132 170
New York 48 19 24 5 43 153 157
SCORING LEADERS
NAME GP G A PTS
T Burns, Chi 43 42 21 63
W Burns, Chi 47 12 39 51
Cabbell, NY 47 35 15 50
Mahoney, Chi 38 16 34 50
Albers, NY 48 16 31 47
Chandler, Bos 44 21 23 44
Pollack, Tor 42 19 20 39
Galbraith, Tor 49 17 25 42
Hart, Bos 48 22 19 41
Sauer, Tor 45 16 25 41
Skinner, Mon 49 18 21 39
Gregg, NY 42 17 22 39
McGlynn, Chi 49 20 18 38
Lanceleve, Mon 46 13 25 38
MacLean, Chi 45 12 26 38
GOALIE LEADERS
NAME GP W L T ShO GAA
Hanson, Chi 42 22 14 6 3 2.58
Brockers, Bos 32 13 12 7 2 2.72
James, Bos 17 7 8 2 1 2.89
Broadway, Tor 41 18 19 3 1 2.98
Tremblay, NY 37 16 15 4 3 3.02
Cartr, Det 15 2 7 1 0 3.18
Touhey, Mon 40 18 19 2 2 3.28
Chasse, Det 41 17 18 5 2 3.40
LAST WEEK'S RESULTS
WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 18
Boston 1 at 1 Chicago : The Packers extend their unbeaten streak to 10 games but fail to win for the first time this month after skating to a 1-1 draw against Boston. Tommy Burns, with his league leading 40th, and Tommy Hart traded second period goals in a game that saw the host Packers outshoot the visitors 33-21.
Detroit 5 at 5 New York : The two clubs trying desperately to get into playoff position had to settle for a 5-5 tie at Bigsby Garden. The visiting Motors scored three times in the third period, including a pair from Nick Tardif, to erase a 4-2 deficit byt a late goal from Paul Tetreault salvaged the tie for the Shamrocks.
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 19
Toronto 3 at 1 Montreal : Montreal's struggles continue after the Valiants fell 3-1 on home ice to the Toronto Dukes. Bobbie Sauer, Herb Burdette and rookie Lou Galbraith with a late empty-netter provided the Toronto score while Leo Bernard was the lone Montrel marksmaen. The Vals are winless in their last 6 games. To make matters worse, Bernard left the game with a shoulder injury and will be sidelined at least a month.
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 21
Boston 1 at 0 Montreal: Tom Brockers turned aside 22 Montreal shots for his second shutout of the season, making Craig Simpson's first period goal stand up in a 1-0 road win for the Bees at the Montreal Arena. The Vals are 0-6-1 in February and just 2-12-3 since the second week of January.
Detroit 3 at 2 Toronto : Dave Bradley's powerplay goal with 2:03 remaining in the game lifted the Motors to a 3-2 victory and pulled Detroit even with Montreal for the fourth and final playoff spot in the NAHC. The Motors are 2-0-3 in their last five games.
SUNDAY FEBRUARY 22
Toronto 4 at 3 Chicago :The Packers 10-game unbeaten streak came to an end with a 4-3 loss to Toronto. It was the first loss for the Packers since January 24 when they also were beaten by the Dukes. Quinton Pollack had 2 goals and an assist to pace the Toronto attack. Tommy Burns scored twice for the Packers and now has scored at least one goal in 8 consecutive games. It was Chicago's 3rd straight game without Marty Mahoney as the winger continues to recover from a back injury.
Montreal 1 at 0 Detroit : The Valiants regained sole possession of the final playoff spot and halted a 7-game winless streak with a 1-0 vicotry at Thompson Palladium. Adam Sandford scored the game's only goal, shorthanded, midway through the opening period despite the fact the Valiants, clearly an inspired bunch, fired 50 shots on Detroit goaltender Brad Carter. Millard Touhey only had to contend with 26 shots in the Montreal net, and he stopped them all for his second shutout of the season and 7th of his career.
Boston 1 at 3 New York : The Shamrocks remain within 3 points of fourth place with a 3-1 win at home over Boston to extend their unbeaten streak to 4 games. Laurel Albers had 2 assists while Orval Cabbell scored his 35th goal of the season to pace the Shamrocks.
UPCOMING REGULAR SEASON GAMES
WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 25
Chicago at New York
Boston at Toronto
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 28
Detroit at Montreal
Chicago at Toronto
SUNDAY FEBRUARY 29
Boston at Chicago
Montreal at New York
AROUND THE LEAGUE
- Courtesy of Finn LeBec, Boston Globe : "In the old 48-game schedule, we'd be done already. Bees fans would have been happy with a second place regular season finish considering the wolves at the door. But, the final 20 or so games will determine the last three spots among five teams. The league definitely did the right thing by extending the schedule."
- Archie Irwin of the Chicago Daily News notes it was a rare winless week at home for the Packers with a tie against the Bees and a loss to the Dukes. Chicago also lost three more players to minor injuries, with star forward Marty Mahoney, veteran defender Mo Masters, and backup goalie Michael Cleghorn all expected to miss the week.
- The Detroit Motors missed a big opportunity in falling 1-0 to Montreal yesterday. A win would have put us alone in 4th place but instead we are 2 points back of the Vals and they have a game in hand.
It was a good week for the Dukes with 2 wins in 3 games. Things got started on a positive note Thursday evening in Montreal where the team put together what coach Barrell termed "One of, if not our best, overall games of the season at both ends of the ice."
Finally the Dukes were the predators not the prey early in a period when Bobbie Sauer potted his 16th before the game was 5 minutes old from Herb Burdette and Philippe Dubois. Burdette also scored on the power play in the last 5 minutes of the period putting Toronto up two at intermission. Despite being outshot 16-7 in the second Leo Bernard put the Vals back in the game with his 5th tally of the season. The third again had the home team badly outshot, but Montreal netminder Millard Touhey held the fort. Rookie Lou Galbraith's 17th into an empty cage with 2 seconds remaining secured a 3-1 win.
A huge crowd, 15,688, packed Dominion Gardens for a Saturday night encounter with the Motors who of late are making a determined playoff push. J.C. Martel put the home side up notching his 5th before Ben Witt tied the score before the end of the first period. With Arnold Singleton for the Motors and the Dukes Quinton Pollock, with his 20th, exchanging goals the second period ended knotted at 2 despite the Dukes holding a 25-18 advantage in shots on goal. The home squad continued to press for the winner in the third but Motors netminder Henri Chasse continued to shut the door. The game remained deadlocked until Dick Zimmerman took a questionable slashing call in the last 3 minutes. After a relatively lengthy delay to clean the ice debris rained down from the stands after the penalty call the Motors setup their powerplay that allowed Dave Bradley to convert on a tic-tack-toe passing play from Doug Yeadon and Witt at 17:57 causing the another delay to clear the ice of refuse. The 3-2 win by Detroit had many fans irate with the referee with the common refrain being "He called that slash late after letting it go all game? Stupid!"
After that heart breaking loss the team was faced with the daunting task of facing the league leading Packers in Chicago on a quick turnaround. The Dukes came out flying with Leo Carlson opening the scoring just 24 seconds into the game when his shot eluded Norm Hanson in the Chicago cage. The fast start had the visitors leading 3-0 at the end of one thanks to goals by Pollock and Alex Lavalliere before the game was 15 minutes old. Toronto laid siege to the Packers net firing 26 shot at Hanson.
The Packers score twice in the second on markers by Tommy Burns and David Rankin but Pollock's second of the game allowed the Dukes to maintain a 2 goal lead. Burns, his 42nd, at 11:13 of the third setup for a wild finish in which the Dukes hung on for the 4-3 victory. Coach Barrell: "We will take that victory any day, the first period was exceptional, as we caught the Packers flat footed. We cannot get into a shootout with teams like that, we tightened up enough in the third period to hang on when the players went back to our defensive system. The third was winning playoff type hockey, we have to make that style a habit as the season winds down."
Toronto has a tough upcoming week with two home dates, Bees on Wednesday, Packers Saturday, the two teams ahead of them in the standings. The Dukes are in third only 2 points ahead of the Vals, 4 up on the Motors, 5 ahead of the Shamrocks. It will be a wild finish to the season.
OTHER HEADLINES THIS WEEK
- Gus Goulding shocked the baseball world when the 34-year-old told the Chicago Chiefs yesterday he is walking away from the game.
- Harold Stephens, the World Welterweight champ will be back in the ring in April as his camp has confirmed the champ will take on undefeated Mac Erickson in Boston on April 24.
- The Federal Basketball League leading Chicago Panthers lost back to back games for the first time this season while in the ABC the Washington Statesmen saw their 15-game winning streak come to an end in Richmond.
- A high ranking American official says a Russian puppet government has been established in North Korea, adding it has an army, a flag and a constitution -in open defiance of international agreements.
- President Truman notified Congress that he intends to ask for more money for military aid for Greece and Turkey. Truman also plans to request $570 million to finance a Chinese aid program until June 30, 1949.
Full national sports coverage is available in this week's edition of
THIS WEEK IN FIGMENT BASEBALL.