The Oshawa Generals, winners of the Ontario Hockey Association Junior A crown, added the all-Ontario junior championship to their collection of titles last night. The Generals finished their demolition of the Northern Ontario Hockey Association champs, the North Bay Trappers, with a 10-0 shellacking in North Bay.
Complete Domination
The complete and utter domination of the Trappers by Oshawa could spell the end of future NOHA-OHA playoff series. The light attendance for all four games may signal a lack of interest in such one-sided matchups.
Ottawa goalie Ian Young made 23 saves to record the shutout. It was his busiest game of the series as his mates seemed to take it easy, wanting to avoid injury and further embarrassment to their opponents.
Bobby Orr once again proved to be head and shoulders above any player on either team. He scored two goals and added a pair of assists for four points. In the four games, Orr amassed eight goals and 14 assists for 22 points. And he did all this while playing impenetrable defense.
Bill White had three goals for the Generals. Singles came from Bob Dickson, Roger Knowles, Bob Black, Ron Dussiaume and Bill Heindl. Dickson and Knowles were in for the game after being called up from the Oshawa Junior B team to replace Danny O’Shea, Paul Cadieux and George Babcock.
Ottawa had “only” 53 shots at the North Bay goaltenders in the game.
Matt Leyden, president of the Ontario Hockey Association, said that the one-sided series need not have taken place. The OHA offered to alter the usual process and allow North Bay to face a team from the Ottawa district and then the Maritime champions. The Trappers refused the offer and insisted on taking on the Generals.
The OHA even offered to waive their cut of the gate receipts to facilitate the change.
Oshawa now goes on to face the Shawinigan Cataracts in the Eastern Canada final on Saturday. First two games of the series are in Oshawa.
Aces Lead Amerks
The Quebec Aces took a 2-1 lead in their Calder Cup semi-final series last night. They tripped the Rochester Americans 5-3 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. The games are being played in Toronto because the Rochester rink is being used for a lengthy professional bowling tournament.
Quebec stole this game with three goals in the final six and a half minutes of the third period. Ed Hoekstra was the scoring hero for the Aces with three goals. Don Blackburn and Red Berenson had the others. Mike Walton, Brian Conacher and Don Cherry replied for Rochester.
Rochester coach Joe Crozier placed the blame for the loss squarely on the shoulders of Amerks’ goalie Gary Smith:
“Goaltending was the difference. Gary Bauman made the big saves for them. Smith gave up three soft goals. Our club played well, a good effort in fact, but those bad goals just took the starch out of us.”
Barons Down Springfield
The Cleveland Barons defeated the Springfield Indians in the first game of their best-of-five Calder Cup semi-final series last night in Cleveland. The Barons took a 3-1 decision from the Indians thanks to a third-period goal from Gordon Wilkie.
Bob Courcy and Tom McCarthy also scored for Cleveland. Howie Menard ruined Cleveland goalie Les Binkley’s shutout bid with the only Springfield score.
Ratelle in Hospital
New York Rangers fine young centre Jean Ratelle will be entering a New York hospital on Friday for observation of his injured back. Ratelle had complained of back pain late in the season and missed the Rangers’ final three games.
Ratelle had played every one of New York’s games before sitting out the end of the schedule. He scored 21 goals and added 30 assists for 51 points, all career highs. He was the third-highest scorer on the team.
Blazers Win CPHL Crown
The Oklahoma City Blazers complete a four-game sweep of the Tulsa Oilers last night to capture the Central Professional Hockey League title and the Adams Cup. Ron Buchanan and Keith Wright each scored twice to lead the Blazers to an 8-4 win.
Other Oklahoma City goal-getters were Brian Bradley, Terry Crisp, Skip Krake and J.P. Parise. Ron Ward, Marc Reaume, Eddie Joyal and Terry Clancy replied for the Oilers.
Goalie Gerry Cheevers was the series hero for the Blazers. The Boston Bruins farm team went undefeated in the playoffs, winning eight straight games.
Seals Nip Victoria
The San Francisco Seals tied their Western Hockey League playoff series with the Victoria Maple Leafs at two games apiece with a 3-2 win. Larry McNabb scored the winning goal in overtime.
John Gravel and Ron Harris also scored for the Seals. Bob Barlow and Fred Hucul were the Maple Leaf marksmen.
NBC “Pleasantly Surprised”
The National Broadcasting Corporation says it is “pleasantly surprised and encouraged” by the public response to its National Hockey League playoff television broadcasts. But executives of both NBC and the Columbia Broadcasting System cautioned that it is far too early to determine the national appeal of a sport that is not played in perhaps half of the country.
The network is happy with the ratings of the Sunday afternoon contests, which were higher than expected. The NHL games were in direct competition with National Basketball Association games and with the Masters golf tournament.
A CBS executive said that his network had televised NHL games for three years on Saturday afternoons. He said that the first year was good, but ratings fell so sharply in the third year that the network abandoned the sport. He believes that the advent of colour television and improvements in broadcast technology may enhance hockey viewing enough to eventually make it worthwhile for a U.S. network.