The Stingers began their season opener in front of a crowd of 9,346 at
Riverfront Coliseum. Cincinnati's first opponent was the new Minnesota Fighting Saints.
The original Fighting Saints folded midway through the previous season. So after the
conclussion of the 1975-76 season, the WHA shifted the Cleveland Crusaders franchise to St
Paul. And thus a second Fighting Saints club was created. During the off season, the
Stingers traded right winger John McKenzie to the new Fighting Saints for defenseman Bryan
Maxwell. McKenzie played for the original Fighting Saints and when the club folded,
Cincinnati was able to pick him up for their play off run.
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© Courtesy of Cincinnati Public Library. |
Rick Dudley on the left just netted his
first goal of the season. Mike Curran was the Fighting Saints goaltender. |
The Stingers opened up
the first period with a lot of passing and hard checking. Minnesota was unable to
establish a good game tempo and appeared very sluggish to say the least. The Stingers
Blaine Stoughton scored the first goal of the season during a power play when he slipped
the puck past Minnesota Fighting Saints goalie Mike Curran. Curran mistakenly pitched the
puck away from the net and right into the waiting stick of Stoughton. Suprisingly,
Stingers Dudley and Leduc were credited with assists. Pierre Guite scored the second
Stingers goal at 9:55 when teammate Jacques Locas made a nice pass to him from about 25
feet back.
The second period was all Stingers with
the onslaught of Cincinnati goals beginning when Locas stole the puck from former Toronto
Maple Leaf great Dave Keon during a power play. Locas then popped the puck in the net for
the score. Rick Dudley scored the next goal at 9:46 and then Dennis Sobchuk scored another
at 13:31. Former Cleveland Crusader Richie Leduc put in the final Stingers goal of the
period against his former team at 14:20.
In the third period Rick Dudley scored
his second goal of the game with assists coming from Blaine Stoughton and Richie Leduc.
The three Stingers made up what had been called the "LSD Line". The line would
be responsible for three goals in the game.
Cincinnati's goalie Paul Hoganson was
pitching a shutout until former Stinger John McKenzie sneaked one past him at 16:59.
Minnesota added another goal after Dave Keon made a pass to center Mike Antonovich with
twelve seconds remaining in the game. Antonovich managed to knock the puck in, but the
goal was far to little and far to late. The Stingers went on to take their first victory
of the season.
"The Saints couldn't score on a
power play all night". Stingers Billy Steele would say after the game. "When we
killed that penalty with Guite in the box (early in the second period for tripping) it
made a lot of difference.". |
