‘AS Once again, | must con: front that spectre that looms before quite a few old guys like me. To retire and live on beans and dog food, dr to step once more into the breach, dear friends, and not become an old dog, licking its wounds and less savorable parts, waiting for the final stiffening into extinction. Well, that was a fairly literary first paragraph, anyway, with a reference to a spectre, Henry V, and old dogs, ‘perhaps loved, but in- creasingly useless, and ready fora shot through the head, I could get the last-named, at times, from my wife, if we kept a gun in the house. That's one reason we don't. Another is that I decided, some years ago, after shoot- ing a black squirrel while thinking it was a black bear, that I wasn’t cut out to be a hunter and bring home the game, unless it happened to be chess, or dominoes, or Scrabble. Secondly, I am not an old dog, though I would love to be. 1 always wanted to be a devilish old dog, twitching my moustaches at the ladies, pouring a sherry for a fascin- ating widow in a suave flat overlooking Kensington Gar- dens at the age of 82, sipping an aperitif in the great square in decaying Venice when I was 88. "Twas was not to be. fam just a youngish old dog, to whom no widow under the age of 59 (her ver- sion) would give a second :look. Unless she were really ‘broke. In the third case, | am not syoung King Hal of Tudor “times, looking for breaches “to go into once more, have been in too many breaches (note to proof-reader; that is offs. se Z Ciccarelli scored’ three times ‘last night to set a playoff record. for; rookies with 10 goals as the North “By Al Colletti NEW YORK (CP) — sweep of the Rangers’ bed the sweetest of victories for coach Al Arbour of the Is- landers, miffed at the par- tisan press. Even rabid Ranger fans died a little at. Madison Square’ Garden: last, night. Partisan ‘. writers’ ‘one’ picked the Rangers to sweep — went: home embarrassed: ’ Stars buried Calgary Flames 7-4 to take a commanding. lead in. the best-of-seven se “They told mé before the 6 that I would be playing game with Bobby Smith and Tom: McCarthy,” a’ subdued . Cic- carelli said later, “Until.then I didn’t know : just: who I would be ‘pla: with. “I thought before then that it would: be like. the’ other night, ‘playing ‘with “every- body else. The Injury to Tim ‘Young threw all our lines‘out. of kilter — until tonight.” The: Sinith-Ciecarelli-Me- Carthy combination had nine * Smith double-shift Young (knee) and McCarthy : got back into the lineup after. i sitting out one game,.with a: injury. $1". centre with theinjury’ to |” Don Beaupre in'goal for the ‘firat: time in the. series ‘and the 19-year-old. was. 5! harp » until letting in goals by Gould wae of the soven Minnesota: ° goals came from rookies Steve Christoff, Brad Paimer and Kevin Maxwell got the ‘. others — as the North Stars *: points as Smith contributed a. p goal ‘and three assists —h second: straight | four-point production — and. McCarthy had two. timely assists ‘on Ciccarelli's ‘second and third goals 72 seconds apart in the second period which broke the game open. “what: we 5 did. “Never mind tho el It. was a tough series. We dom- inated the first game here at: the. Garden.” Tonight, we: ago with efght.’ The Flames got’ their fret power-play goal of the series, .. from. : defenceman Pekka ating Los 2 angeles Kings and 8t. Louis Blues-was gone — even when‘ they returned ‘to ‘after knew that they were really going to come at us and we held them off very: well.” Arbour said‘ all the pres-: sure was on the Islanders in “the series. Vahey (tho Rangers). bad no. pressure on them and our eres handled it with a lot es. 5 Sweeping: the best-of. seven, National _ Hockey - ‘League semifinal was a step- pings stone, he said. “A lot of things have been said in the media about our club. I'd say about 90 per cent of the media around here were pulling for the Rangers. So, it's very nice to see us do Torrey stood outside the vis- ” itors’ “band-box placa .Foom and patted and hugged “each. of his players’ as they. - _whooped :-and - cheered, ; no- “body in the crowd of-17,880 - could .doubt who ‘won the - hyped-up battle of New York. , All the fire the 18th-place Loc kindled in elimin- Celtics ‘down’ Houston BOSTON (AP) — The at- mosphere in the winning locker room was subdued, al- most funeral. There-were few smiles,’ Boston Celtics knew they had escaped with a victory that easily might have been a loss. In the opener of their National . Basketball Associ- ‘ation championship - series with. Houston Rockets, the Celtics: played like anything but champions. | With 13 Rockets _ able to get back in the game with opportunity. baskets. “We lost our composure the end.” The Rockets, who have lost their last 14 games with Boston, carried an 81-76 lead into the final. quarter, but scored only 14 more points. After Murphy's jumper gave them a 91-88 lead with 5:18 to play, they managed just two field ‘goals, by Tom Hen-. derson. ban- ners earned by past Celtic teams hanging over them, : the current Celtics overcame 8 22-8.deficit, 19 ‘turnovera and 48-per-cent shooting, to haul down the Rockets 98-95 last night in the first game of the best-of-seven series. . That, said: Larry Bird, should. give the Rockets, something to think about going.into the second: game here Thursday night. __. “If this game was played at Houston, P'm afraid we would have been beaten,” said Bird, - who led Boston in scoring for the 10th time and rebounding for the 11th’ time in its 12- playoff games. = ROCKETS FADED For three quarters, the Rockets played like the team that pulled playoff . upsets over Los Angeles and San Antonio before beating Kan- | sas City to reach the final., For ‘the last quarter, they . played like’ the team. that struggled to a 40-42 regular- season record... “We were patient early in the game and didn’t give the Celtics good shots,” said Houston reserve guard Cal- vin Murphy, who scored 16 points. “The Celtics were Cc i baskets by. Robert Parish, Bird, M.L. Carr‘and Cedric Maxwell put the Celtics ahead for good, . 96-91, with 2:54 left. Hender-: son then sank his two buck-' ets, Bird finished with 24 re- bounds, matching his regu- lar-season high; 18 points, eight of them in the final quarter; and nine assists. BOSTON GOT REBOUNDS ’ ‘The Celtics had 25 offen- . sive five in the firat scored wall a 31 victory. over "Vietoria: j - Cougars last night in Memor- 7 ip actic : The.win moved the Royals 4 ‘round: robin national final. ‘The Royals, Quebec Major Junior Hockey League cham- pions, have a 2-1 record while game the ‘Cougars, the Western Hockey ‘ League representa. _ ‘ tives are 1-1. Kitchener Rai League ‘champions, are,0-2.. |. Bob Kilger, coach and:gen- . ral: manager of the Réyals, mihi credited ‘ rookie . goaltender “Pe! Joe Mantione with a standout performance, a “Joe ‘played a superb hoe- key game for us,” Kilger said of Mantione, who blocked 29 “'shots in the game. “It was'a challenge for him to: play against (Grant) Fuhr (of Fie toria), whom many consider to be the best -goallo, in Canada.” Scott: Arniel scored the other: Royals goal... Mark “in the last 10 minutes, to 19 for Houston, and outre- - bounded the Rockets, 64-42. The Rockets, the first team with a losing record to reach the NBA final since 1959, maintained leads of 29-24 after.the first quarter and 57-61 at halftime. Maxwell's two free throws with 3:24 left in the third quarter produced Boston's first lead of the ‘game, 69-68, Robert Reid of the Rockets had a game-high 27 points. Houston centre Moses Ma- lone, the NBA’s leading re-. bounder with a 14.8 average, grabbed 15 rebounds, but wasn't a dominant force. His 18 points were less than half his 27.8 regualr-season av- erage. was the-lone goal scorer for the Cougars.. Mantione was tested early, making a smooth glove save on Victoria’s Dary] Coldwell and stopping John MOkosak cold as the Victoria defence- man attempted to finish off a two-on-one brak. KNOCKS IN REBOUND Victoria scored its . only goal of the game on a power- play at 11:54 when Morrison . knocked in a ‘rebound of 4 drive by Tony Feltrin to take 21-0 lead with three nds left in the penalty.- <1 For the next 2's periods, Mantione was perfect. He was jculary; sharp in stopping the powerful duo of Barry Pederson and Torrie Robertson, who combined fr remaining in‘the’ penalty.” “Fuhr played super for us,” said Jack Shupe,:. Victoria coach and general manager. “We had chances to clear th on fered’ th el ie), gam winner on another. Loe wall took control of the game, >" forechecking better than the’ Cougars and refusing ‘to:let Victoria complete many of its ”.- passes, 5 -The Royals threatened to break the game open‘in the sixth minute of the middle. : period when scoring sensa- '. tion ‘Dale Hawerchuk inter- cepted 2 pass off the stick of -: Victoria's Lenny Dawes’ at’: centre ice, and swooped in on ‘' Fuhr, only to hit the -