The Stingers arrived in Cincinnati at 10:00 AM after a an all night flight
from Calgary. But the Stingers outskated and outmuscled the Eastern Division leading
Quebec Nordiques to take a 3-1 win over the Canadian squad. The win evened the series
between the two club with two games a peice. The victory kept the Stingers on solid
footing in the stands as they position themselves for their first post season action.
|
© Courtesy of Cincinnati
Public Library. |
Claude Larose looks for the puck in front of
the Nordiques net. |
Quebec came out flying as they
usually do but came up shy. Bot teams blew scoring opportunities. But Cincinnati managed
to score the period's only game. The goal came from the rookie Jamie Hislop at 14:34 in
the period. Hislop caught the Nordiques Richard Brodeur of guard when he scored on a
screened shot from the right circle. When the Stingers lost Greg Carroll to the penalty
box on a high sticking call, the Stingers "Killer Bees" made short work of the
Nordiques offense. It was the third failed Nordiques power play of the period.
With just over a minute gone in the
middle period the Stingers Claude Larose and Carroll skated into the Nordiques zone with a
two-on-one advantage. Larose passed the puck to Carroll who passed it right back to
Larose. Larose went on to score on an open Nordiques net. when Brodeur went for Carrolls
fake. The goal would be Laroses 50th WHA goal. Quebec came back and scored at 11:43 when
Francois Lacombe picked off the puck when the Stingers failed to clear the zone. Lacombe
took a hard slap shot from outside the right circle that sailed past the Stingers goalie
Jacques Caron.
Shortly after the Nordiques goal Paul
Baxter of Quebec checked Rick Dudley into the boards and Dudley responded by knocking
Baxter to the ice. Dudley then bounced on the Quebec defenseman delivering right handed
blows to Baxters head before he was pulled off. When the fight had concluded a handful of
penalties were dished out. Baxter received two minutes in the penalty box despite not
swinging a punch.
Both clubs battled in the final period
of the game but the Stingers came out on top. Cincinnati nailed (what they thought) the
game winner after the Nordiques sent Jim Dorey to the penalty box for tripping. Dennis
Sobchuk drilled a shot from the point during a power play but the goal was taken away when
the on ice official ruled that a Stinger was in the goal crease. But the true game winner
came later when Rich Leduc skated into the Nordiques zone and blasted a shot from the top
of the left circle and into the Nordiques net. The goal was scored against former Stinger
Serge Aubry who came into the game ealier to replace Brodeur. |
