| The
temperature in in Cincinnati remained comfortable over the weekend, but winter caught up
with the Cincinnati Stingers Sunday as a blizzard struck Winnipeg, Man., causing
postponement of the Stingers-Jets game Sunday night. The Stingers arrived in Winnipeg
Saturday, but the Jets, after playing in Indianapolis Saturday night, were en route to
their home city when the snow storm struck, closing the airport and closing the airplane
carrying the team to return to Minneapolis. Stingers' coach Jacques Demers said the
Winnipeg airport closed at 2 p.m., but the game had already been called because of the
weather. The contest has been tentatively reshecduled for tonight (8:30 p.m.) "The wind and snow got worse later in the day and the prediction is for
it to continue until sometime Monday," Demers said. "If it keeps up we might not
be able to play Monday night." This is the first time the Stingers have been involved
in a game stopped by weather, although it is not the first time in the World Hockey
Association. Demers recalled a game in 1972 when he was with the Chicago Cougars and a
game in St Paul, Minn., was postponed by snow. If the Stingers play the Jets tonight, they
will have a string of five games in six nights through the Thanksgiving week-end. The
Quebec Nordiques play at Riverfront Coliseum Wednesday night, and then the Stingers hit
the road again for games at Birmingham Thursday, Houston Friday and Indianapolis Saturday.
We've already been on the road 11 days," Demers pointed out. "That's going to be
tough on us and we're going to have some tired hockey players before we get back from that
next road trip."
Cincinnati's Junior Stingers, a junior "b" class hockey
team playing out of Northland Ice Center, traveled to Cleveland over the weekend and split
two games with Cleveland Northfield Cincinnati won Saturday's game, 6-2, with Tim Clarke
scoring two goals, while Cleveland Northfield won Sunday's contest, 5-4 Steve Dufek had
the hat trick for the Junior Stingers Sunday and Clarke scored the other goal. |
