MONDAY DECEMBER 2, 1940
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
GERBER LEADS WINGS TO WIN
The Detroit Red Wings won the latest battle between the league's top two teams as defenseman Ben Gerber had a 4-point night pacing Detroit to a 5-2 victory over Toronto at Maple Leaf Gardens Saturday night. It was a career night for the 21 year old Gerber, who joined the Wings from Hershey midway through last season and has been a stalwart on their blueline ever since. Gerber scored two even strength goals, both on shots from the point that eluded Leaf goaltender Evan Tilley. He also assisted on a pair of power play goals to improve his season output to 8 goals and 11 assists. Wings center Andy Adell also had a strong game, scoring once and adding a pair of helpers. The victory allowed the Wings to pull 2 points ahead of the Leafs but Toronto does have 2 games in hand.
The Leafs missed an opportunity to capitalize on one of those games the next night as they fell 4-3 to the Canadiens in Montreal. Goaltender Tilly had Leaf fans longing for the return of Marc-Andre Baribeau as he had a terrible night, allowing 4 Montreal goals on 20 shots. Baribeau, the Leafs number one goalie has been out 3 weeks with a neck injury and there is hope he will return to the lineup by next weekend.
One team that is thrilled with it's goaltending is the New York Rangers. 26 year old Bill Horvath (12-10-8, 2.49) leads the NHL in goals against average and shutouts with 4. He was named the league's goaltender of the month for November and has been outstanding of late including a 30 save effort in a 1-1 tie with Detroit last Thursday.
Neil Frank has made the most of his new surroundings. Traded from Boston to the New York Americans on October 22nd, Frank has 17 points in 14 games with the Americans and is now second in NHL scoring. He was also named the player of the month for November after scoring 7 goals and 14 points in 10 games.
Code:
NHL STANDINGS GP W L T PTS
Detroit 30 16 6 8 40
Toronto 29 16 7 6 38
Boston 28 14 9 5 33
NY Rangers 30 12 10 8 32
NY Americans 28 10 15 3 23
Mon Canadiens 31 9 17 5 23
Mon Maroons 28 9 16 3 21
Chicago 26 6 12 8 20
SCORING LEADERS TM GP G A PTS
Darren Vaness TOR 27 11 23 34
Neil Frank NYA 27 16 17 33
Ryan Dirk NYR 30 22 10 32
Anthony Manca DET 30 17 14 31
Matt Jambrosich BOS 28 18 12 30
Chris Bishop TOR 29 18 12 30
Tyler Wing NYA 28 12 16 28
Chris Maxwell TOR 29 8 20 28
Andy Adell DET 29 11 16 27
Ben Gilbart TOR 29 8 18 26
Payton Yuen MON 31 12 13 25
Nicolas Frenette NYR 30 5 20 25
CANADIAN JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE ROUNDUP
The Regina Pats continue to lead the CJHL thanks in a big part to 17 year old Antoine Desmarias, who leads the CJHL in scoring with 51 points. Desmarias has passed former teammate Nathan Pare in the scoring race but the deal that sent Pare to Quebec and brought defenseman Gord Bachman west has benefited both teams as they each lead their respective divsions.
Looking at the scoring leaders you can see the NHL's most successful club has plenty of young scorers in it's system. The Boston Bruins have 3 of the league's top scorers in Curtis McIntyre, Chris Seftel and Brandon Moir. However, if I was betting on one player from the group of league leaders listed below to become an NHL scoring star I would take Edmonton Oil Kings center Eli Gunderson. Not eligible for the NHL draft until June, the youngster from Winnipeg just turned 18 last month. He was selected third overall by the Oil Kings in the 1939 junior draft and led the team in points with 78, earning him an assistant captain letter in the process.
Code:
CJHL STANDINGS
EASTERN CONFERENCE
LOWER CANADA DIV W L T PTS
Quebec 16 9 4 36
Montreal 14 9 4 32
Ottawa 12 11 5 29
Sherbrooke 12 15 2 26
Cornwall 5 19 5 15
UPPER CANADA DIV W L T PTS
Toronto 16 4 10 42
St Catharines 9 10 10 28
Peterborough 10 13 6 26
Oshawa 10 11 6 26
Niagara Falls 8 15 5 21
WESTERN CONFERENCE
ONTARIO DIV W L T PTS
London 17 10 2 36
Sudbury 14 11 4 32
Guelph 11 11 6 28
Sault Ste Marie 11 14 3 25
Windsor 7 19 2 16
PRAIRIE DIV W L T PTS
Regina 22 6 1 45
Edmonton 14 9 5 33
Brandon 11 11 7 29
Medicine Hat 11 13 4 26
Flin Flon 7 17 3 17
SCORING LEADERS TM G A PTS NHL RIGHTS
Antoine Desmarias REG 20 31 51 1941 draft eligible
Nathan Pare QUE 23 26 49 MON
Mykola Melnyk TOR 22 26 48 DET
Eli Gunderson EDM 16 29 45 1941 draft eligible
Curtis McIntyre TOR 13 31 44 BOS
Ryan Barczai BRN 23 20 43 Maroons
Chris Seftel StC 20 22 42 BOS
Guy Richard BRN 16 25 41 1941 draft eligible
Eric Rufenach CORN 13 28 41 1941 draft eligible
Rob Ouellet CORN 23 17 40 1941 draft eligible
Carsen Reimer SUD 22 18 40 NYR
Brandon Moir GUE 12 28 40 BOS
In other sports news from my universe this week.
Cal falls from the ranks of the unbeaten in NCAA football
The intersecting careers of quarterbacks Michael Huff and Corey Ely
plus a look at some key college baseball players to keep an eye on this year.
All of that is posted in my Fictional History of Baseball thread on the main OOTP dynasty board. Link is
here