January 17th 1976 - Cincinnati Stingers vs Indianapolis Racers

CINCINNATI ENQUIRER

Friday, January 17th 1976

By David Fuselier

Stingers Stand Pat As Their Division Foes Loot Civics

If it were poker, one would say that Indianapolis has just filled an inside straight, and with the addition of Ralph Backstrom, New England now has a full house. The Cleveland Crusaders have drawn an ace and are looking awfully satisfied. The Cincinnati Stingers are standing pat, and they are worrying a lot. "All these teams are improving themselves and we aren't doing anything," coach Terry Slater blurts. "I'm scared to death. How are we going to compete? Indianapolis has like 28 players now. We have 18."

There is currently a World Hockey Association flesh market, you see, occasioned by the pending collapse of the Ottawa franchise, and everyone is stocking up. Everyone but the Stingers. 'no", says vice president Bill DeWitt, "By and large we want to go with the ingredients we have. We'll go with our youth. It will take us a year or two to develop, but we didn't expect to win the championship the first year anyway. It's possible, I suppose that someone would come along we might take, but I don't foresee it right now. We'll ride this thing out and hope the other teams in the division don't get way too strong for us."

What's happening is that owner Ivan Mullinex, who juts recently moved his team from Denver to Ottawa, is now auctioning off all his best talent, a sinister process engineered first in the American Basketball Association. This avoids handing over your bankrupt franchise to the league for an orderly and just dispersal of players.. You sell your people to the highest bidder and run with the cash, simply abandoning your team. Mullinex is skillful in matters like this. The move to Ottawa is another example of his devious genius. His team owed thousands of dollars in back taxes in Denver. By turning it into a Canadian corporation for two weeks, he will avoid paying most of it for years.

The big losers, of course, are the people of Ottawa who turned out 9,000 strong for the two weeks they had a team. The second biggest losers are the Stingers, who are now surrounded with super powers. Of the six players that Ottawa has turned loose, all six have come into the East Division. Indianapolis has acquired defenseman Daryl Maggs and Bryon Baltimore and wingers Francois Rochon and Mark Lomenda, two members of one of the league's best lines last season, the "Kid Line." All are expected to be on hand for tonight's game in Indy against the Stingers.

Cleveland, meanwhile, has added Gary MacGregor, the runner-up for rookie-of-the-year last season. All he did was score 44 goals and 78 points. And New England has signed Ralph Backstrom, a 19 year veteran who spent 15 years with the Montreal Canadiens. He's as well rounded a player as there is the WHA and his acquisition just about assures the Whalers first place. They already have an eight-point lead over second place Cincinnati.

In Toronto, WHA public relation director Mike Armstrong was quoted to the effect that only the Backstrom trade had been ratified by the league and that the fate of the rest of the Civics players would be decided at an emergency meeting today in Toronto. But Bud Polle, WHA vice president, said earlier in the day the six had been traded, and DeWitt seems to accept the deals as accomplished.

"I was in Cleveland for the All Star meeting and I knew what Mullinex was doing" DeWitt says. "It was plain. But we didn't have plans for any additions. It's just a shame that all these players had to come into our division. There are a lot of other teams around. Indianapolis is going to be a good team and MacGregor will really help Cleveland. It isn't a very equitable way to do business and I think the league will look at the matter in the next meeting, but I doubt anything can be done. This sort of thing has happened before. The players all should have been put in a pool and then drafted. I imagine that's what will be done with the rest of them after the team officially folds." But DeWitt isn't terribly upset. "We plan to pick up a couple good players after this season through high draft choices," says. "That's the way we want to build."

But the coach isn't taking it so well, and doesn't appreciate being the first to test the Racers new found power. "With these new guys, they'll be flying," Slater says. "They already had about 200% improved team and now this. They'll be tough to beat. And then we've got Cleveland Wednesday, and they're really looking mean. They've got the talent and they're starting to bring it around now. It's a crazy league." he goes on "These things shouldn't be able to buy a winner overnight. I don't know where the money is coming from to get all these people, but now that they've got a team, they're going to win some games. For us right now, it's really scary."

Saturday. January 17th

Standings

Defeated Indianapolis Racers

Market Square Arena

2nd

Cincinnati came into Indianapolis and played in front of a record crowd at Market Square. More the 14,000 Racers fans witnessed the Stingers shutout their club by a final score of 4-0. Prior to the game Cincinnati compiled 134 minutes of penalties in their three previous games against their Midwest rival.

The first period saw no score between the two clubs. But the period was filled with players bashing and checking each other into the board with a lot of sneering and challenging. The Racers came on strong in the opening two minutes taking hard shots on Paul Hoganson. Hoganson blocked all of them. Stopping one shot by catching the puck between his legs. The Stingers managed to waste two power plays despite heavy pressure on the Racers goal tender.

The first goal of the game came in the first minute and a half of the second period when Pierre Guite skated in on the left wing and shot from the circle. The puck was placed perfectly in the top right hand corner. Claude Larose netted the second goal at 6:55. The goal was his 23rd of the season. Laroses shot came from the outside after a break away. Dion caught the shot in his glove, but the goal judge decided his glove was inside the cage. Shortly before the second period ended, the Stingers scored their third goal of the game. The goal came from Bryan Campbell after gathering a rebound from a shot by Murray Myers. Campbell then flipped the puck over a sprawled Dion.

The Stingers entered the third period ahead by three goals to the Racers zero. However Cincinnati almost lost the shut out on several occasions. Ron Plumb had fallen and lost the puck just short of Indianapolis's net. Racers Renald Leclerc, who was acquired from Ottawa, had a wide open breakaway in the first minute of the period. Lucky for the Stingers, he lost control of the puck and failed to score. Leclerc had another shot later, but Hoganson blocked the shot with his leg pad.

The final threat by the Racers came with only four minutes remaining in the period. The official timer neglected to start the clock for almost a minute of play. The Stingers bench erupted in protest and began throwing hockey equipment onto the ice.The mistake was fixed but the Stingers were given a two minute penalty for littering. But the Stingers managed to kill the penalty time and maintain the victory and the shutout. The shutout was Paul Hogansons 11th in his career. Hoganson regrettably was not awarded a bonus from the Stingers for the shutout. He would go on record and say disappointedly "It's the only contract I've ever had that didn't have a bonus clause for a shutout".

Cincinnati	-	0	3	1	-	4
Indianapolis	-	0	0	0	-	0

FIRST PERIOD

GOALS - None

PENALTIES - IND: Fitchner (slashing) 4:29. IND: Block (interference) 8:04. CIN: Smedsmo (hooking) 17:09.

SECOND PERIOD

GOALS - CIN:Guite (Larose) 1:31. CIN: Larose (unassisted) 6:55. CIN: Campbell (Myers, Dudley) 19:30.

PENALTIES - IND: Woytowich (holding) 9:14.

THIRD PERIOD

GOALS - CIN: Myers (Campbell, D. Sobchuk) 10:39.

PENALTIES - IND: Scarf (tripping) :47. CIN: Guite (roughing) 2:57. IND: Scharf (roughing) 2:57. CIN: G. Sobchuk (tripping) 3:24. IND: Block (hooking) 10:13. CIN: Bench penalty (littering ice) 14:04.

SHOTS ON GOAL

Cincinnati	-	11	12	09	-	32
Indianapolis	-	14	13	13	-	40

GOALTENDERS - CIN: Hoganson. IND: Dion.

ATTENDANCE - 14,123

REFEREE - Kolari

1975-76 WHA Finals Standings

WHA East
	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA
-
New England Whalers	21	19	3	45	137	127
Cincinnati Stingers	19	23	1	39	161	191
Cleveland Crusaders	18	23	2	38	146	153
Indianapolis Racers	16	25	2	34	114	134
-
-
WHA Canadian
-
Winnipeg Jets	30	17	0	60	191	134
Quebec Nordiques	27	16	2	56	196	177
Calgary Cowboys	24	16	2	50	169	136
Edmonton Oilers	18	27	2	38	159	193
Toronto Toros	14	25	3	31	173	204
-
WHA West
-
Houston Aeros	27	15	0	54	172	145
San Diego Mariners	20	19	4	44	167	155
Minnesota Fighting Saints	20	17	3	43	134	139
Phoenix Roadrunners	19	19	3	41	150	143
Ottawa Civics >+	14	26	1	29	134	172
-
-
> Formerly the Denver Spurs
+ Folded