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Sports: ’Birds line on big scoring spree! Seems just like yesterday, eh fellas? Left to right, Tom Sanlon and Val Steffan of the Richmond They won the grand championship at the prestigious annual Quebec International hockey tournament in Quebec City. The closest I could get was a month” ago. But I’d already gone when I got there. So I settled for a nostalgic look at that old (old?) Richmond Hill Peewee Lions team of 1967-68. Remember them? They were the ‘12-year-old youngsters who brought minor hockey in Richmond Hill its first taste of national acclaim. They won the grand championship at the prestigious annual Quebec International hockev tournament in mond Hill Arena. You’ll see names and faces like: Chuck Lunau, Paul Baillie, Peter Ranieri, Tom MacRae, Allan Graham, Rick Sackfield, Bill Stephenson, Kevin McKeage, Steve Gordon, Tom Sanlon, Steve Sexton, Jim Clement, Terry Rice, Bob Clement, Val Steffan, Mark Edwards. They were the 12-year-old youngsters who brought minor hockey in Richmond Hill its first taste of national acclaim. “We certainly didn’t think we’d win. Actually, we figured we might even finish last. Afiout myself. Except that I ran into a problem. I don’t know what became of me. I even checked around and couldn’t find anyone reliable enough to tell me. ' Surprisingly, or not surprisingly, only two members of that team are still playing organized hockey. They are Billy Stephenson of the Provincial A Rams and Jim Clement of the Oak Ridges Junior B Dynes Jewellers. . Strangely enough, several sources thought two of the most promising players at that time in space were Gordon and Tommy Sanlon. You never know. Still a thrill Another member, Allan Graham, still points to that Quebec trip as providing “one of my biggest thrills to date.“ I was going to pull one of those George Gamester of “The Toronto Star” epics this week. You know the kind. “What ever became of” type of thing. Hero The big hero of that 3-2 win over Shopsy’s was Steve Gordon who scored all three goals. He’s ap parently out of hockey now and no one seemed quite sure where he got to. Whatever became of . . .? Most of them have reached the grand old age of 20 or 21 and either going to some kind of college or working or whatever. Big happening It was an especially big deal in those days because the Richmond Hill club. was the first non “Double A” group to win the tournament against some pretty powerful clubs including a 3-2 win over favored Shopsy’s. They then downed Pt. Claire 4-1 in the big one. Rocky Pantalone . . . figoals, 4assists Remember when? What ever became of? Wednesday, January 19, 1977 itihtral Classified Hill Peewee Lions accept grand championship trophy at Quebec International. Competitors will include youngsters from 8 to 18 and also participating will be members of the National Gym team. “We never lost a game the rest of the season,” he recalls. "We were really on a high after that one.” Once upon a time The point of all this is very simple. Once upon a time a group of 12-year- olds (younger or older) got the thrill of a lifetime by winning the big apple. That‘s the stuff memories are made of. It may never happen again (not at Quebec because they‘ve changed the rules) but who cares? They were there once and no one can take that away from them. One final note. The Langstaff Gymnasium Club will be holding a demonstration for the public at the Langstaff gym next Wednesday from 6:80 pm. You all welcome. No, I haven’t forgot to mention the coaching staff or the parents behind it all. Very important. Coach of the team was Ray Brooks, manager Ed Sackfield, with Tom Graham and Stu Clement also in on the show. Sackfield hasn’t made the trip for two years but he has the memories and the photos. A thrill at age 12? My first thrill came at that age, too. I learned to tell the time. Not that I was dumb or anything. I just used to hate clocks. Lifetime Anyway, there‘s a lifetime bet- ween being 12 and 21 as you probably know. Take a peek at the photos of the gang in the lobby of the Rich- mond Hill Arena. Irony Speaking of Edwards. A slight touch of irony here. Mark was one of the goalies on the Lions (Bob Clement the other one). Early in February he’ll be returning to Quebec with the now Richmond Hill Cadillac-Baif Peewees as an assistant coach. “I still remember being shaky playing before 16,000 spectators and then receiving that trophy from the Governorâ€"General. It was a thrill all right.” fred Simpson Section B Mike Johns . . . lgoal,8assists The winner The Trappers tallied what turned out to be the winner when all-star forward J. Fox flipped a shot past Ram goalkeeper Mitch Lovelock seconds before the Rams got back to full strength from a penalty late in the second. They almost tied the North Bay Trappers Sunday night in North Bay when a Richmond Hill forward missed the puck with a wide open net in the last few seconds with the disk lying a few feet in front of the crease. They had to settle for a 6-5 loss. So the story went the rest of the week. Friday night they took on the front- running North York Rangers at North York and fought to a 5-5 tie. Tuesday night of last week it was a close 6-5 loss at home to the Toronto Nats. They downed Ajax 4-3 Thursday night. Sunday’s night‘s encounter with the Trappers saw the Rams score the only goal of the opening period with Mike Walker doing the honors from Dave Baker and Dave Campbell. The Trappers came out flying in the second and counted two quick goals by Ron Fortier and Rod Stamler. This seemed to stun the Rams and North Bay went on to dominate the period. Big 3 The Rams Larry Kimble then scored the first of his three big goals at 10:43 only to have North Bay’s John La Boeuf and Jim Fox bounce back with two more. RICHMOND HILL â€" It was an ‘almost’ week for the hard-luck Rich- mgpd HillA Provincial A hockey Rams. Richmond Hill‘s Frank Nigro was able to get one back at 18:55 of the period from Danny Jones and Ken Paraskevin. 'Almost' win “We skated pretty hard,” com- mented Dynes’ coach Pete Artemchuk after Monday night‘s game against Orillia. “We led them 5-2 at one point Monday night it was 31 5-4 squeaker over Orillia and Friday night a 6-3 verdict over Midland. RICHMOND HILL â€" The Richmond Hill Dynes Jewellers kept rolling along chalking up two more wins in Mid- Ontario Junior B hockey action. Jewellers take two more Cam Reston of the Oak Ridges Dynes Jewellers appears mesmerized by the magician-like antics of Orillia goalie Stu Near miss for Rams Bud Shirley . . . 6goals.3assists “They showed pretty well,“ was the somewhat understated comment of Thunderbird coach Ralph Beer after Monday night‘s game at Thornhill Community Centre. They didn’t do so well Friday night of last week managing only 14 points in a 645 tie against Midland Flyers in Midland. Having one of the pucks all to its own was the line of Rocky Pantalone. Mike Johns, and Bud Shirley who shovelled home no less than 17 points Monday night as the Thornhill Mid Ontario Junior B Thunderbirds devastated Owen Sound 11-5. How elSe could you account for one line 31 points in two games? Impossible. THORNHILL â€" Thornhill must have been playing with two pucks in their last two games. Big lead The Birds built up a 11-2 lead going into that final 20 minutes and then relaxed a little enabling the visitors to The Jeweller’s served several moments with two men short on several occasions and it cost them two goals. Sherman gets 2 Scoring for Dynes was Steve Sher- man with two goals and Mike Car- nevale with another two while Boyd Young got the final goal. At this point Buffy Dupuis cross- checked Ram forward Larry Kimble as he was lying on the ice. He was tackled by Walker and the Rams ended up, with a two-man advantage. Hat trick Kimble Then it was Kimble completing his hat-trick for the evening by scoring two power play goals to narrow the margin to 6-5. The Rams continued to have a one man advantage for five minutes and did everything but put the puck in the net to score. angthen‘we ran into penalty trouble.’ nevale .with another two while Boyd Strengthened Young got the final goal. “In the same instance" he said, “the “We're not putting the pressure on Orillia club has strengthened quite a the guys too much,” said Artemchuk. bit. They’ve added a couple new boys Try this sometime Brian Stankiewicz . all star goalie (See B-3) Parnham who, somehow, managed to block a hard shot against the cross-bar with his gloved hand. Spectacular, what? Orillia’s Joe Kovacs and Brad Neville scored for Thornhill but the very busy Mr. Leaman rapped in two more with assists to Saffrey, two, and Nigro. Rangers tie it The final session saw Saffrey give the Rams the lead at 3:15 from Nigro but the same Saffrey incurred a tripping penalty 13 seconds later and it took the Rangers just 30 seconds to tie the count at 3:58 from Alf Beasleyi Goals by Graham Foley and“ Mark Freeman evened the score before the period ended. The second period was the reversal of the first with the Rangers gaining a two»goal advantage only to have Richâ€" mond Hill fight back to tie it. The main factor in the Rams tieing rather than winning was their inability to control the Rangers power play as three of their goals e. 1e with the Hill Shorthanded. Rams 4. Ajax 3. This was a closely fought contest with the Merchants gaining the upper hand in the second period after a scoreless opening 20 The opening 20 minutes saw the Rams jumping into a 2â€"0 lead on quick goals 26 seconds apart. It was Leaman at 10:31 from Nigro and Ed Saffrey and Nigro from Leaman and Saffrey. Richmond Hill was unlucky not to win as they hit two goalposts and one crossbar; the latter in the last few seconds of the final period. Rams 5, North York 5. Bill Leaman, newly arrived from the Peterboro Petes, was a one man 'missile as he came up with three goals against the league’s top dogs. He was referring to the Ontario Winter Games which will see the Jeweller’s representing this region starting Feb. 11. The same Pantalone, Shirley and Johns line for the Birds handled all their scoring in compiling 14 points. Especially the aforementioned Pantalone, Shirley‘ Johns threesome. Hear this To wit: Shirley scored three goals and added one assist; Pantalone had three goals and three assists; Johns one goal and six assists. Also getting in on the act was Ernie Takeuchi with a goal and two assists; Scott Howson with two goals and an assist; and A] Cook with a goal. Ho hum It was almost the same story Friday night in Midland, ho hum. “We built up a big lead in the first two periods," said coach Beer. “and then we tried a few different things in the third and they didn’t work out so well. Flying “But the guys were really flying, all of them. All of our forward lines are starting to jell.“ “We want them to stay loose for the trip torNorth Bay." put three pucks behind goalie Dean Dorsey. Tie Rangers Edge Ajax goalie Parnham could have used a real magician the rest of the way as the front- running Jewellers won 5-4. When Dave Robson drew a holding penalty 20 seconds later the Rams were two men short and it took Ajax just 28 seconds to grab a 2-1 lead on Stone’s goal. Coming up: Newmarket Flyers visit Richmond Hill next Tuesday for a 7:45 game. Markham is in town for a 7:30 pm. game next Sunday. For the Nats it was Scott Shields, Harry Pfluegl, Phil Gaidy, Bryan Cleaver, Pfluegel. and Cloutier. The Nats outshot the Rams 35-32. Saffrey ties it Then it was Saffrey tying the game early in the third followed by Jones who rapped in a pair to put the Rams in command. Ron MacDonald scored the other Richmond Hill goal. The last few moments of the final frame saw them coming within an ace of tieing the score but time ran out. Richmond Hill goals were by Bill Colville unassisted; John Olds from Bill Stephenson and Frank Nigro; Ken Paras, Kevin from John Olds and Dave Campbell; Paraskevin again from Olds and Jones; and, finally Olds from Jones and Paraskevin. This happened after Rams’ captain Bill Stephenson was ejected from the game for being the aggressor in a fight and Richmond Hill was forced to play a man short for seven minutes. They fought back and were within a goal of the winners on four separate occasions but were never able to get the equalizer. ' Toronto Nats 6, Rams 5. The Rams got behind the eight ball early and found themselves down 3â€"0 before the five minute mark of the opening period. “We shrer 'miss him a lot on defence," he said. Missing from the Midland game was Larry Gueran which also hurt. Hurting Artemchuk added that the Jewellers were also hurting from the absence of injured Neal Crockford who will be out for a couple of games. , and they were really skating out there.” minutes Midland’s Larry Fallon opened the scoring in the first period but Thor- nhill’s Shirley tied it from, yes, Par- talone and Johns. Thornhill didn‘t fare quite so well generally as they blew a 5-3 lead going into the third period and had to even- tually settle for the tie. Midland leads The Midlanders moved into a 3-1 lead on goals by Dan Rowat and Neal Parker early in the second period. Then came the Thornhill act again with Shirley scoring at 12:16 from Pantalone and then the same Pantalone popping home three goals in a row assisted twice by Shirley and once by Johns. Goals by Ross Walton and Neal Parker tied it at 5â€"5 before Shirley put Thornhill ahead again at 13:02. Tying goal Then it was Midland’s Tim Merkley getting the tying goal at 18:29. No one was sure the two-game binge by Pantalone, Johns and Shirley was a (continued on 8-3) Na ts Win 6-5 (Photo by Hogg)