Prior to the game, the Stingers sent goaltender John Kiely back to the
Oklahoma City Blazers of the Central Hockey League. Kiely was called up on January 11th
but never saw any ice time. The Stingers also were working it out to send Gene Sobchuk to
the Blazers also. Sobchuk spent two weeks with the Springfield Indians but only played in
two games, skating on only two shifts. The lack of playing time was not good for Sobchuk
who needed to get back in shape after a long layoff. Sobchuk was injuried during a game
against the Nordiques during preseason. A game that the Stingers lost.
The current game against the Nordiques
would be a first for Stingers defenseman Pierre Roy. The city of Quebec was quite familiar
to Roy. He played for the Quebec Remparts of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League from
1969 to 1972. Roy then was for the Quebec Nordiques for three seasons after that. He was
traded to Cincinnati for Pierre Guite. Roy and Guite would be playing against their former
team in this matchup.
In the first period, both teams had
good opportunities to score but each time seemed to come up shy. Quebec lost Curt
Brackenbury to the penalty box after only twelve seconds of play, giving Cincinnati an
early opportunity. An opportunity that they squandered. Jacques Locas had a great shot
from close range, but hit the goal pipes instead. Dennis Sobchuk had an opened net but
when he took his shot, the puck flat-out missed the goal. The Nordiques finally broke the
scoring silence with a gaol by Bob Fitchner. The goal came when Nordiques Charles
Constantin bottled up the Cincinnati defense from behind the net. Fitchner dug the puck
out and slapped it past Norm LaPointe for the score. Cincinnati answered shortly there
after when the Nordiqes Marc Tardiff passed the puck to his teammate J.C. Tremblay. Dennis
Sobchuk then swiped the puck from Tremblay and quickly batted the puck in the Nordiques
net.
In the second period the Stingers were
unable to capitalize yet again on scoring oppurtunities. A minute and twelve seconds into
the period, Paulin Bordeleau had drawn an tripping penalty. Later Bordeleau was called for
high sticking. Each time the Stingers failed to score. The Nordiques however, were able to
take a one goal lead in the period after Paulin Bordeleau scored on the rebound of a shot
taken by Serge Bernier.
In the third period, the Nordiques
scored their third goal of the game in only ten seconds of play.Brackebury took the
rebound of Fitchner who's shot was deflected by LaPointe. Former Quebec Nordique Pierre
Roy scored against his former team at 2:55 in the period. His shot came from the point
which bounced off a Nordique defenseman and into Quebec's net. The Nordiques however
answered with three straight goals in fourty eight seconds. The three goals came from the
sticks of Tardiff, Real Cloutier and Chris Bordeleau. The game was over and that was that. |
