The first place Cincinnati Stingers of the Eastern Division entered the
Quebec Coliseum to take on the first place Quebec Nordiques of the Canadian Division. It
was the first franchise game between the Stingers and the Nordiques and was witnessed
before a whopping crowd of 12,078 rabid French Canadians. Quebec was the first team to
strike in the first period at 5:19 with a goal by left wing Marc Tardiff.
The Nordiques followed up in the second
period with a goal by Real Cloutier, making it 2-0. Before Cincinnati could get on the
board fighting broke out involving Quebec's left winger Steve Sutherland and center Gord
Gallant, with the Stingers John Hughes and Rick Dudley. Gallant and Hughes squared off and
begin exchanging fists and wrestled each other down to the ice at center ice. Rick Dudley
began whaling on Steve Sutherland who suffered a cut and was sent to the locker room for
medical attention. All four scrappers served a five minute penalty. After all of the
on ice mayhem, the Stingers finally got on the board when Plumb scored an unassisted goal
at 10:52.. But the Nordiques responded shortly there after with two more goals by Cloutier
and Tardif again before the close of the second period.
While this game is the first meeting in
the regular season between the two clubs, they did face each other during the exhibition
season. The exhibition game between the two clubs was ruined because of excessive
fighting. One incident in particular involved Stingers Bernie MacNeil swinging his stick
at Nordiques players. His actions required MacNeil to post a $1,500 peace bond.
In the third period of the current
game, Quebec netted another goal 6:58 making the score 5-1. But Cincinnati finally came to
life after the 20 year old rookie Dave Inkpen put one in the net at 9:17. Stingers Dale
Smedsmo followed with his first goal of the season at 9:36 and Stingers Gene Sobchuk
scored again at 14:45 to put the Stingers within one goal. Shortly before the end of the
third period, Stingers goal tender Normand LaPointe was removed in favor of another
forward, but it was to no prevail. The Nordiques Serge Bernier flipped one into the empty
Stingers net to seal the deal for Quebec. The victory kept the Nordiques at the top of
their respective division, while Cincinnati still surpassingly remained atop their
division.
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