Five days prior, the Stingers took a long flight to
Edmonton and landed a few hours before game time. The club had little time to prepare for
the game and it showed on the ice. Slater was quoted as saying "We were on a plane
all day and we arrived just in time to throw our things in the hotel room and go right to
the game". The game resulted in a 5-2 loss which was the clubs fourth in a row. Now
it was Edmonton's turn to play under those circumstances. The Oilers arrived in Cincinnati
from Phoenix shortly before game time. The Oilers went from sunny weather to snowy weather
in just a few hours.
 |
© Courtesy of Cincinnati Public Library. |
| Jacques Locas and Pierre Guite try to take
the puck from Al Hamilton of the Oilers. |
To motivate his players, Terry Slater
said that each player that was on the ice if the Oilers scored would be fined 20 bucks. He
then said that he would give 10 bucks to the Stingers players that were on the ice when
Cincinnati scored. Well at games end, he owned his team 350 dollars and the players owed
Slater nothing.
During the first period neither team scored a goal. But
the Oilers only had four shots in the entire period. Hardly a challenge to goal tender
Paul Hoganson.
During the second period, the Stingers started to earn
some extra money. Claude Larose scored at 3:22 in the period for his 25th of the year.
Dave Inkpen scored the second goal deeper in the period at 14:47 after he skated straight
at the Oilers goaltender Chris Worthy. Inkpen then cut at a right angle across the month
of the net and hit it in. Dennis Sobchuk followed two minutes later and Locas scored the
fourth Stingers goal after Hughes took a shot from the point and was deflected in by the
French Canadian.
In the third period the Stingers kept up the attack.
Locas, Guite and MacNeil all scored in the final period. Edmonton had a pathetic 6 shots
on goals, but almost managed to break up Hogansons shutout during the last minute of the
game. The Oilers left winger Peter Morris broke away, charging at Hoganson who was all
alone at his end. But Morris lost control of the puck briefly which allowed John Hughes to
come from behind and break up the attempt. The game was over and Hoganson pitched his
second shut out of the season.
When the game had concluded, the Stingers had 41 shots
to the Oilers lowly 14. The end result was a Stingers victory and an empty wallet for
Terry Slater. This of course was a good problem. |
