| All the
mistakes the Stingers made wouldn't have been so bad except, as coach Terry Slater says,
"We made them all right in front of our net." In the manner, the Cincinnatians
abandoned first place in the World Hockey Association's East Division for the first time
in their brief history, losing to the New England Whalers, 8-3, Thursday night. The
Stingers now have 12 points in the standings, the Whalers 13. But
the damage can be both repaired and avenged in a busy weekend at Riverfront Coliseum.
Tonight the Stingers host the San Diego Mariners. Andre Lacroix, Ernie Wakely, et al. Then
Sunday they face a rematch with the Whalers. It's considered bad form for a coach to admit
it, but Slater says, "I have to fight against overlooking San Diego and looking ahead
to that Sunday game. I hated losing to New England and I want to see how we play them this
time when we'll be stronger."
The 8-3 final score was the second worst beating the expansion
Stingers have suffered so far, but Slater waves it off. "We can beat that team".
he swears. "We should have beaten them Thursday. It was close and then bam, they
score four third-period goals. 'We acted like we were half asleep. That five-day layoff we
had before the game was too much, I think. We woke up for a couple minutes there at the
end of the first period and scored three goals. I thought jeez, we're going to kill them
now. Then we went back in our shell again. We started making mistakes".
To demonstrate how things things went, the Stingers actually had
more shots on goal than the winners. "The only way they beat us was in goals,"
Slater declares. "If it hadn't been for all those mistakes....We were giving them
goals right in front of out net. "They score and then we'd get the puck and pass it
around well and get a good shot, but we'd miss. Then they come down and we'd miss. Then
they come down and we'd give them another goal right in front. We were giving three, four,
five shots at a time from straight on. One time Wayne Carelton took three shots himself.
He shot, got the rebound, shot, got the rebound and shot again. He finally scored. No way
we should have given him more than one shot.
"Our goalie (Serge Aubry) was making the first stop and that's
all you can ask him to do. It's up to the defensemen after that. But the rebound was
coming out and we were just leaving it there in front for them. No one waited to clear it.
And face-offs!" he exclaims with sudden emphasis. "I think we won three
face-offs all night. We let them have every on in front of our net. Of their eight goals,
I think they scored five on faceoffs. It was just a bad day for us". Slater
concludes. "But we learned something playing them that might help us Sunday. And
we'll have had some activity, three games in four days. We should be stronger and more
ready to play. I'm anxious to see".
Tonight's game is the first meeting between the Stingers and San
Diego, and it is Andre Lacroix's first appearance in Cincinnati. The 30-year-old center is
the WHA's two-time leading scorer. Last year he used 106 assists to set a league scoring
record of 147 total points, edging Bobby Hull by five. "He's their big guy and he
just knows every trick of the trade," Slater says. "The way he handles the puck
is something. He's like Hull; he's just a magician".
And in the net for the Mariners will be Ernie Wakely, last season's
third most effective goalie. "He's another of the best guys this league has gotten
from the National League," observes Slater. "He's experienced and cool - about
the best there is." A victory in both weekend games would catapult the Stingers right
back into first place with still two going back on the road.
Tonight's game begins at 7:35, Sunday starts at 7:05. |
