Cincinnati entered the Hartford Civic Center
trailing the Whalers by 2 points in the standings. A Stingers win would put Cincinnati
back in first place, albeit tied with the Whalers. The Whalers were playing their first
game of the season with new Head Coach Don Blackburn who replaced Jack Kelley. Kelley
resigned his dual role of coach-general manager early in the day, to take a head coaching
job at Colby College in Waterville Maine where his coaching career began.
The Whalers came out on the ice on fire from the word
go. Whalers center Larry Pleau bagged his seventh goal of the season on the end of a two
on one break. The goal game thirty five seconds after the first period began. Moments
later the Whalers left winger Ron Climie beat John Kiely to the stick side from close
range and scored the second goal of the game. It was his 15th goal of the season. The
Stingers were now down 2-0 at 1:09 in the first period.
The Stingers got on the board at 4:04 in the first
period, thanks to Pierre Guite. The goal came as a result of a power play after Whalers
center Tommy Earl was sent to the penalty box. Stingers Jacques Locas took the initial
shot from the left faceoff circle, but was rejected by Whalers goalie Christer Abrahamsson.
Guite proceeded to knock the puck in the goal on the rebound. The Whalers right
winger Tom Webster followed up the Guite goal with two of his own. The first one coming at
5:11 when he nabbed the puck and skated around Mike Pelyk. He then flipped the puck over
Kielys shoulder and into the net. His second goal came after the Stingers lost Locas to
the penalty box. Webster tipped the puck past John Kiely after a hard shot from teammate
Alan Hangsleben from the left point. The Whalers had taken 8 shots on goal in the first
ten minutes of the game and skated away with 4 goals.
For the second period, Slater pulled goal tender John
Kiely in favor of former Whalers goaltender Paul Hoganson. Hoganson saw little action on
his end of the rink, only having the Whalers shoot 9 times in the period. The Whalers
downshifted into defense to protect their lead. The only real scare the Stingers had in
the period was when Fred O'Donnel fired a hard shot that was knocked aside at 13:40.
Stingers Claude Larose came close to scoring twice. One of his near missed ricocheted off
of the Whalers goal post at 11:55. He then he just missed from in close range with a wrist
shot that Abrahamsson kicked out of the net at 14:34 in the period.
The third period saw the Stingers try and mount a
comeback but fell a goal short. Pierre Guite scored during a Stingers power play at 11:45
in the period. And it wasn't until 19:04 when the next goal came during a two man
advantage. Plumb netted the goal with help from Locas. The goal came shortly after a fight
broke out between Rick Dudley and Alan Hangsleben. As the clock ticked down in the final
minute, Slater pulled Hoganson for a 6 on 4 advantage. But the Whalers held on to win the
game. |
