Cincinnati opened the first period on fire. The
Stingers came out in the first eight minutes of the first period and outshot the Crusaders
14-2. But the Crusaders goal tender Jacques Caron blocked almost everything that came his
way. Caron who is a stop-gap goalie was called up from Syracuse Blazers of the North
American Hockey League after Bob Whidden was out with an injury and Gerry Cheevers
left the Crusaders to returned to the Boston Bruins. Dennis Sobchuk managed to slip one by
Caron on the 14th shot to put the Stingers on the board first. But the rest of the period
went completely down hill. The Stingers failed to get another shot on goal until the
second period and the Crusaders tied the game up with a minute and a half left in the
first period.
|
© Courtesy of Cincinnati Library. |
| Ron Plumb and Gary McGregor fight for
dominance of the puck. |
The second period saw the Crusaders take
the lead at 4:31 in the game with a goal by defenseman Ron Ward. The Stingers managed to
tie the game back up with a goal by Gene Sobchuk with a little help by his younger brother
Dennis at 15:14 in the period. However, the Crusaders right winger Gerry Pinder answered
shortly after with another Cleveland goal.
The Crusaders opened up the third period by adding to
their lead with a goal by right wing Russ Walker. Rich Leduc and Danny Gruen added two
more to the total for a 6-2 lead. Cincinnati managed to make the score respectable with
two meaningless goals by Jacques Locas and Dennis Sobchuk in the last minute of the game.
Head coach Terry Slater was so angry that he locked
himself in the dressing room and wouldn't talk to anyone. A police officer outside
the locker room said to the media "The locker room is closed tonight.The rest you can
guess". It would be the Stingers second low scoring loss in a row. The club lost to
the Nordiques by a high total followed by a Crusaders high scoring affair. The accolades
for the Cleveland win belongs to Jaqcues Caron. The 36 year old veteren played the game
with no contract and is free to sign with any club that was interested.
Rick Dudley played in the game and was still waiting
for word of his pending suspension from an incident during the Whalers game played on
January 24th. |
