The day before the Stingers took on their Midwest rivals, President Gerald
Ford lost the election for a second term to former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter in a very
tight election. Ford was the nation's first President who
was not elected to neither the Presidency nor Vice Presidency. Instead, following the
resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew in 1973, he was appointed as Vice President by
Richard Nixon following confirmation by Congress, and when Nixon later resigned on August
9, 1974, Ford assumed the Presidency. Fords loss in the election was for the most
part blamed on the fact the he pardoned President Richard Nixon on September 8th 1974 for
any crimes he may have committed in the Watergate Scandel.
Also in the previous day, Cincinnati
assigned Dale Smedsmo, Dan Justin and Barry Melrose to the minor leagues. Smedsmo was
assigned to the Hampton Gulls of the Southern Hockey League and the 25 year old left
winger was not pleased. Smedsmo broke his foot when training camp opened which caused him
to miss valuable playing time. With his foot healed and feeling as if he had learned
everything he could in the minor leagues, Smedsmo asked the Stingers personnel director
Jerry Rafter to be traded.
Meanwhile Dan Justin and Barry Melrose
were assigned to the Springfield Indians of the American Hockey League. The reason was
that the Indians head coach was John Hanna, who was a former defenseman. The Stingers
really felt that Melrose and Justin would benefit by playing for him. Hanna played six
seasons in the majors with his last major league team (as a player) being the Cleveland
Crusaders. He played in 66 games with Cleveland during the 1972-73 season.
|
© Courtesy of Cincinnati
Public Library. |
The Stingers Blaine Stoughton scores in the
first period with a shot past Jim Park of the Racers. Byron
Baltimore of the Racers is also pictured. |
The first period opened up with
very little action. The first goal of the game came at 10:10 with Claude Larose batting in
the first goal. Peter Marsh followed at 11:15. The Stingers LSD line scored shortly after
with Leduc nailing one past Racers goalie Jim Park. Leducs goal came after a pass from
fellow LSD linemate Blaine Stoughton. At 15:53, the Racers defensman Kim Clackson was sent
to the penalty box for a boarding call against Dennis Sobchuk and the Stingers would take
advantage of it. Stoughton went on to score shortly after, putting the Stingers at
4-0......And the mauling wasn't over.
The Stingers Dennis Abgrall went on to
score at 4:45 in the second period while teammate Jacques Locas would score another goal
on a power play. Both power play goals (one in the first and one in the second) came while
Racers defenseman Kim Clackson was sitting in the penalty box. However, once the Racers
were back at even strength, it didn't really matter. Cincinnati's Peter Marsh scored
again. The Racers bench boss Jacques Demers had enough, so he pulled Racers goalie Jim
Park and replaced him with Andy Brown. Shortly after Brown entered the game, the Stingers
Claude Larose scored again after a pass he received from Greg Carroll. But despite the
goal, Brown held the Stingers offense in check.
The Racers finally got on the board in
the third period after the Stingers became content with their commanding 8-0 lead. Blair
McDonald scored at 10:30 while Hugh Harris netted another Racers goal thirty seconds
later. Cincinnati held the Racers off for any real attempt to score again and as a result,
Cincinnati won their fourth straight game.
After the game, Racers head coach
Jacques Demers fines each one of his players $250 dollars for the debacle. Stingers head
coach Terry Slater would say after the game "Indianapolis has a good hockey team.
Don't let the score tonight fool you. It's going to be tough when we play them on their
home ice." |
