NOVEMBER 17, 1947
TOUGH WEEK FOR CHAMPS. BEES ON 3 GAME SLIDE
The two-time defending champion Boston Bees had their worst week of the season and quite possibly worst in several years after the Bees went 0-3 for the week. The problems started with a dismal showing at Bigsby Garden on Wednesday evening when the New York Shamrocks beat Tom Brockers 4 times in the first period and cruised to a 5-0 shutout victory. The weekend did not go much better for Danny McLachlan's club as Montral notched three third-period markers to pull out a 4-2 victory and even the comfortable surroundings of the Denny Arena on Sunday did nothing to turn the Bees fortunes around. Rookie Ben Witt scored 3 times to lead the Detroit Motors, a team that started the season with 8 losses in their first 10 games, to a 5-3 win over Boston.
The Bees slump leaves the two Canadian clubs -Montreal and Toronto- in first and second place a year after each failed to make the playoffs. The loop still remains tight with only four points separating the top four clubs and fifth place Chicago -which has had a slow start- may finally be showing signs of life as Tommy Burns brothers, with a goal in each of his two weekend games, looking like he is starting to heat up.
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NAHC Standings
TEAM GP W L T PTS GF GA
Montreal 12 8 4 0 16 38 33
Toronto 13 7 6 0 14 36 38
Boston 11 6 5 0 12 31 31
New York 12 6 6 0 12 40 31
Chicago 12 5 7 0 10 36 36
Detroit 12 4 8 0 8 29 41
SCORING LEADERS
NAME GP G A PTS
Albers, NY 12 2 13 15
Mahoney, Chi 11 4 9 13
Cabbell, NY 11 9 3 12
T Burns, Chi 12 7 5 12
W Burns, Chi 12 5 7 12
Carlson, Tor 13 4 8 12
Seguin, Chi 12 3 9 12
Lanceleve, Mon 12 8 3 11
Sauer, Tor 13 5 6 11
Lynch, Mon 10 3 8 11
Gregg,, NY 7 6 4 10
Skinner, Mon 12 5 5 10
Doyle, Mon 12 4 6 10
Pollack, Tor 13 4 6 10
Chandler, Bos 11 2 8 10
GOALIE LEADERS
NAME GP W L T ShO GAA
Tremblay, NY 9 5 3 0 1 2.05
Brockers, Bos 11 6 5 0 0 2.73
Touhey, Mon 11 7 4 0 0 2.92
Hanson, Chi 10 3 7 0 0 3.13
Broadway, Tor 11 5 6 0 0 3.22
Chasse, Det 9 3 6 0 0 3.46
LAST WEEK'S RESULTS
WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 12
Boston 0 at 5 New York: Possibly the most unexpected result of the week as the Shamrocks scored 4 times in the first period on Tom Brockers and rout the Bees 5-0. Laruel Albers, who is currently the leading scorer in the entire NAHC, had 3 assists as did Sam Coates while Greenshirt defenseman Paul Tetreault had a goal and two helpers. Etienne Tremblay became the second Shamrock netminder to record a shut out this season. The win snapped a 3-game Shamrocks losing skid.
Chicago 3 at 4 Toronto: The visiting Packers outshot the Dukes but came up on the short end of a 4-3 result. Wes Burns scored twice early in the first period to stake Chicago to the lead, but Quinton Pollack and Frank Featherstone evened the count before the opening stanza ended. Les Carlson's second period marker and Al Coates early in the third gave the Dukes a 4-2 lead. Derek Gubb, with the first of his career, allowed the Packers to get within one with 7 minutes to play but they could not notch the equalizer.
THURSDAY NOVEMBER 13
Chicago 2 at 1 Montreal: A second straight game with two early goals paid off this time for Packers as Jesse Santuro and Jarrett McGlynn scored just over 2 minutes apart in the first period and it held up as only Isaac Finnson could beat Chicago netminder Norm Hanson, who backstopped his club to a 2-1 victory.
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 15
Boston 2 at 4 Montreal: Rey Sclisizzi scored once and added two assists as a busy NAHC weekend began with a 4-2 Montreal win over Boston. It was the second loss in a row for the Bees.
Chicago 2 at 4 New York: The Shamrocks win for the second time this week as Chris Broeke scored twice in a 30 second span early in the third period to snap a tie and lift the New Yorkers to a 4-2 victory.
Detroit 5 at 1 Toronto : After losing their first 3 meetings with former coach Jack Barrell, the Detroit Motors finally had a solid game -winning for just third time this season and first against Toronto by beating the Dukes soundly 5-1. Rookie Nick Tardif led the Detroit attack with a goal and two assists while fellow newcomer Ben Witt -the Maroons first round draft pick- scored his first NAHC goal.
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 16
Detroit 5 at 3 Boston : Forget the New York 5-0 win over Boston early in the week, this was the biggest surprise as the Motors -after averaging less than 2 goals a game in their first 10 outings, exploded for 5 for the second night in a row and handed the slumping Bees their third straight loss. Detroit rookie Ben Witt had a memorable night as a day after getting his first NAHC goal he scored a hat trick.
Toronto 1 at 6 Chicago: Injuries have contributed to a slow start for last year's Cup finalists, but the Chicago Packers offense was firing on this night in a 6-1 pasting of Toronto, which made for a rough weekend for the Dukes -outscored 11-2 by the bottom two clubs in the standings. Moose Vezina had 4 assists in the game but also received some bad news when he left late in the contest with a shoulder sprain that will sideline him for a week and a half. Marty Mahoney had a 3 point night and Tommy Burns and his brother Wes each scored for the victors.
Montreal 2 at 1 New York: Glen Whitley's first of the season just over 6 minutes into the third period snapped a 1-1 tie and lifted the Valiants to victory in New York. The win gives Montreal sole possession of first place, two points up on Toronto. Nick Haines had staked the Vals to a first period lead but Orval Cabbell -with his league leading 9th goal of the season- evened things in the second stanza.
UPCOMING REGULAR SEASON GAMES
WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 19
Toronto at Boston
Montreal at Chicago
New York at Detroit
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 22
Chicago at Detroit
New York at Montreal
Boston at Toronto
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 23
Montreal at Boston
Detroit at Chicago
AROUND THE LEAGUE
- Surpringsly the league has not yet seen a game end in a tie and we are already 20% through the new expanded 60 game slate.
- Is there a more impressive start than that of Montreal forward Brett Lanceleve? He scored just 8 goals all of last season but has already equalled that total this year and is big reason why the Vals are in first place.
- Jack Barrell has done a nice job restoring the Toronto Dukes to their rightful place near the top of the league. The Dukes had a very uncharacteristic season a year ago but seem to have righted the ship. Although given the job ex-Dukes boss Norb Hickey is doing in Montreal now it is hard to blame the coach.
- Speaking of coach there were rumours out of Detroit that Mark Moore was on his way out after the Motors stalled out of the gate and started 2-10. There were a lot of problems in the dressing room and a lot of big names underachieving, with none more so than veteran defenseman Bryant Williams. The 28-year-old may have turned it around over the weekend with 4 points and a +5 rating in the two wins as the Motors beat both Toronto and Boston.
- Injuries shoulder much of the blame for the slow start in Chicago but the offense was also struggling although perhaps a 6-1 win over Toronto yesterday will get the Packers going. Only the Flying Frenchmen in Montreal can boast of 4 players with double-digit point totals this side of Chicago. Marty Mahoney leads the club with 13 while the Burns brothers each have 12 points as does 25-year-old rookie Leon Seguin, who seems to be fitting right in with the Packers high octane offense.
- When he is healthy second year Shamrock winger Jocko Gregg has been very productive, with 6 goals and 10 points in 7 games. The problem is Gregg has already missed 5 games after a couple of nagging injuries. The Shamrocks have also been forced to deal with injuries that have kept defensemen Ryan Kennedy and Robert Sharpley out for 6 games each.
OTHER HEADLINES THIS WEEK
- It is looking like Woody Stone, the 31-year-old all-star catcher released by the Philadelphia Sailors, is poised to become the highest paid player in baseball after the Dallas Centurions and San Francisco Hawks are both said to be offering Stone even more than the $75,000 Triple Crown winner and new single season homer king Bobby Barrell will collect next season.
- The Detroit City College Knights clinched their second straight East-West Classic bid and the Great Lakes Alliance title with a crushing 41-7 victory over Wisconsin State while Travis College secured its place in the Cajun Clasic after the Bucks wrapped up the Southwestern Alliance section title with a 31-0 win over Amarillo Methodist.
- Testimony has resumed in the Senate War Investigating Subcommittee with Howard Hughes dislosing that an Air Forces deputy procurement chief, now retired, tried to borrow $200,000 from him while a photo reconnaissance plane contract was under negotiation with the Hughes company.
- Secretary of State Marshall urged Congress, when it resumes today, to rush through an emergency relief fund of $597 million to carry France, Italy and Austria through the winter without waiting to work out a long-range recovery program for Europe.
Full national sports coverage is available in this week's edition of
THIS WEEK IN FIGMENT BASEBALL.