&2__ Castléar News sonvory, 1900 Brodeur helps Canucks WINNIPEG (CP) — Win. nipeg Jets appear to have a phobia about scoring on the power play against Smythe Division rival r SPORTS earn tie The Jets had six oppor tunities to score with the man advantage against Van- couver Tuesday, but it was the Canucks who twice on the power play to earn a 2-2 overtime tie. “Yes, we're 0 for 18 against them on the power play (this season),” Winnipeg coach Barry Long said after the game. “That's not very good “He certainly came up with the big stops for us,” Watt said after Brodeur blocked 37 shots in goal. “It was a very BRAND NEW HYUNDAI PONYS $136°2 1-800-332-7087 team that can win a lot of games,” Brodeur said. “Tve been playing well so far this year, but I knew I'd have to come up big. It's a good feeling to see it rub off on the guys,” Brodeur said. Vancouver centre Steve Tambellini scored on the power play midway through the third period to lift Van- couver into a 2-2 tie and set up overtime. Tambellini, who assisted on Vancouver's earlier power play goal, took a pass on the left boards and ripped a low shot inside the near post at 10:13. Right winger Tony Tanti had scored his 23rd goal of the season on a pass from Tambellini at 19:58 of the first period to open the scor- Future 1 ter Broker with inada’s leadi Coming Soon . . . See the Castlegar News of Sun., Jan. 19 WINNING RINK . . . Trail’s April Biscaro rink won West Kootenay ladies curling playdowns in Castlegar on the weekend. From left are: second, Gail Schmidt; Skip Biscaro, third Loreen Lloyd and lead Sharon young. — Castews Phote by Ryen Wilson Trail rink By CasNews Staff The April Biscaro rink of Trail beat the Carol Waters rink of Nelson Sunday at the Castlegar Curling Club to, win the West Kootenay zone curling playdowns and the right to represent the zone at the interior championships. The playdowns came down to the last rock of the last end in an exciting conclusion to the third match-up between Waters and Biscaro. The semi-final games of the B side of the double knock. out tournament were won by identical scores of 8-5. The Bisearo rink edged out Nel son's Salekin team while the Waters rink defeated the Brown foursome of Trail In the B final, the Waters rink took advantage of the assaf. yscured fs see ft c0-wel-Becce > BESS VeRESES Stars on Ice Montreal Old Pros vs. The Kootenay Select Oldtimers , See Many Former Great NHL Old Pros Wed., Jan. 15 — 7:30 p.m. Castlegar & District Community Complex TICKETS $8.00. 12 & UNDER $5.00. Available at the Arena Complex, CKQR, Mallards Ski & Sports and Mountain Sports Hut. Live Game Broadcast with Color Commentary by the Dobber on QR 760 Dinner with Dobber Pre-Game Dinner with Ken Dobson, January 15. Drinks at 4:45 p.m. Dinner at 5:30 p.m. wins title steals and took the game by a score of 10-5. This win neces- sitated a playoff between the two closely matched teams, as the Biscaro rink had won the A side. Playing their third game of the day, the Trail team, con- sisting of Sharron Young, lead; Gail Schmidt, second; Loreen Lloyd, third; and April Biscaro, skip; went on to defeat the Nelson rink of Maureen Palmer, lead; Janie Benedett, second, Bev Ste- vens, third; and Carol Wat- ers, skip. The Biscaro rink will rep- resent the West Kootenay at the Ladies Interior Bonspiel in Vernon this weekend. Four teams advance from the bonspiel to the B.C. finals ATOMS CAPTURE ‘B’ DIVISION Castlegar Atom Reps hosted an exeiting thred-day hockey tournament on Dec. 27-29 that involved visiting teams from Beaver Valley, Nelson, Trail, Creston and Spokane. oa finished in first place in the B division after defeating Beaver Valley. Trail and Nelson placed in the A division, while Spokane and Creston were in the C and Trail faced off for the first game of the ended in a 2-2 tie. - ‘Trail broke the tie in the third period by scoring three more goals which gave them the final 5-2 win over Castlegar. Most Valuable Player awards went to Vaughn Evdokimoff. ‘The boys’ first vietory occurred the next day in a 2-1 MVPs were received by Adam Pruss and Johnny Castlegar’s two wins and two losses placed them in Mid-Week Wrap-up Beles B2b88~ aeeueereeeerRe se NBBRSELSS THURSO. HOCKEY—RECREATIONAL LEAGUE: Costlegor Knights vs. Checkers/Mallords, 10 p.m TLEMEN'S LEAGUE: Bill's Heavy Duty vs. Mountain Sports, 6:15 p.m., Pioneer Arena FRIDAY GENTLEMEN'S LEAGUE: Loomis/AM Ford vs. Gonder HOCKEY Creek, 9:30 p.m., Pioneer Arena SATURDAY GENTLEMEN'S LEAGUE: Kolesnikoff vs. Bill's Heavy Pioneer Areno, KUHL: Castlegar Rebels vs. Rossland Warriors, 8 p.m., Community Complex. MHL: Edmon- ton Oilers vs. Montreal Conodiens, 5 p.m. ° HOCKEY Duty, 8:30 p.m Spokane: Seartie Now Weer Vietorie Community Complex. GEN- TRANSACTIONS BgHE TE Pall Ht ht #B8 hi tit [i ill ih HTT i oi] f HT 1H i i ul! aia i ply ett 5 ioe Wee Division — 1 tam, (oir) Firat, Averil NSTC, 6:08. Second. TC, #16. Melanie Gib Fourth, Serah Smith. i IRR | “Talk about overstuffed!" But not over priced! our im 34 : i i i 8 i i it fiat BBS latag St rtetintitaTT ‘ip eye? faefl tif ° 2nf ay H i j ; ii HE fs 18TH Lay i Het FF j ef a I pant ute ul : He aii ae t $ z DQ beats Mountain Sports By CasNews Staff Dairy Queen i fil } if Hit TH inf ; fi p I Novice team wins tourney attended the Crowsnest Pass Novice Tour- nament Dec, 27-29, taking first place in the event. In its first game, the boys faced Spokane, winning 7-1. In the first of three games on Saturday, the team played a fast pace of hockey against Fernie. Fernie had a 4-3 lead going into the third period. The boys scored the tying goal with 12 minutes gone. The winning goal came 1+ minutes later. The final score was 6-4. The boys’ second game was against one of three teams from Crowsnest. Castlegar came away with a 6-4 win. The Novices finished its Francis rebuilds Whalers team By JOHN KOROBANIK The Canadian Press Emile Francis is a man who obviously loves puzzles and the challenge of trying to complete them. Building a hockey team, he reasons, is much like making a puzzle; you do it patiently, one piece at a time. Sometimes a piece doesn’t fit, so you set it aside and keep trying others until you find the right one. That's about as accurate a description as you'll come up with for the way Francis has been rebuilding the Hartford Whalers. He has put together enough pieces to make the Whalers competitive in the toughest of all National Hockey League divisions, the Adams. In case there are still some who don't believe the Adams is the toughest, look at a telling statistic. Within the division, only Quebec Nordiques have a winning record. In games outside the division, all five teams have winning records. The only other division close to matching that is the Patrick. However, with the existing playoff setup, the key to success is winning in your division. “You have to become a better team in your division,” Francis says. “In our group, the others had a hell of a jump on us. “Now we're at a level where we can compete with them.” HARTFORD LAST Hartford is last in the Adams, one point behind Buffalo Sabres, but with 39 points it's in the hunt for first. The Whalers would be second in both the Smythe and Norris divisions and battling for third in the Patrick. Hartford's playoff plight is familiar and well doc- umented. They finish out of the running yet with more points than half a dozen teams from other divisions who make the playoffs. Francis and the Whalers say the playoff format is unfair, but are working to reach post-season play through their division. To that end, Francis, one of the NHL's most active traders since he become,a general manager in 1964, is still wheeling and dealing. And most of the deals improve his team. “From one year ago, we have 12 different players in the lineup”, Francis says proudly. “If you look, you'll see that includes a goalié, five defenceman and three centres . . right down the gut.” It's the old strength-down-the middle theory. Those changes include the acquisition of goaltender Mike Liut, defenceman Dave Babych and centre Doug Jarvis. ~ From the day Francis joined Hartford in May, 1983, only two players have remained Whalers — centre Ron Francis and defenceman Risto Siltanen. PLAN SIMILAR And through it all, the team has retained its youth. Its game plan is similar to that of Edmonton Oilers. “They're playing the kids and that’s the way to go,” Edmonton centre Wayne Gretzky says of the Whalers. “There's no sense playing the fringe guys or the oldtimers.” Two of Francis's major moves have come in the last year. He obtained Liut from St. Louis Blues last February and acquired Babych from Winnipeg Jets last month. “One of the most important moves had to be Babych,” Francis says. “We had a young defence and we needed some experience. hockey team Novice were winners at the Crowsnest Pass First Novice tour- nament in Dec From lett are: (back row), eacock, ember. coaches Maynard Fauth, Mike Byers, Ivan P, (middle row), Phillip LaPorte, Mike Byers, Rick Fouth, Craig Swanson, Mark Perrier, Todd Bondaroft PAUL MacLEAN Jets winger sidelined WINNIPEG (CP) — Being forced to sit and watch while his teammates do battle on ice has made Winnipeg Jets’ right winger Paul MacLean feel like a frustrated cheer- leader Sidelined because of an injury, the six-foot, 250- pound MacLean fidgeted and paced in the corridor leading to the dressing room as he watched his National Hockey League teammates perform. “You're kind of like a cheerleader, only you're not as good looking and you don't get to wear the short skirts,” said MacLean. “It’s really not that much fun.” MacLean, benched because of aggravated abdominal muscles, suffered through teeth-clenching pain before yanking himself out of a game against the Los Ang- eles Kings just before the new year. Prior to that he skipped four games after pulling himself out of a match against Vancouver Canucks in mid-December. The 27-year-old veteran is undergoing daily laser treat ments at Winnipeg's Health Seiences Centre for what three-game road swing start- ing Saturday afternoon in Boston. He skated for the first time in a week on Monday and said it's “not as bad as it was.” Last season was the best of MacLean's career as he scored 41 goals and picked up 101 points. The first month of this season, he exploded out of the starting blocks with 10 goals and 16 points. But the injury apparently derailed the Bic Mac Attack Braves reduce ATLANTA (AP) — Gen- eral manager Bobby Cox, citing financial considera- tions, said Atlanta Braves will carry a 24-man roster in the 1986 National League baseball season. In doing so, the Braves join a growing list of teams that either have abandoned, or are considering dropping, the usual 25-player roster. Cox said the Braves will stick with the decision, regardless of what other teams do. “Sometimes your 25th player is a young player who would be better off playing in the minors,” Cox said. “some- times your 25th player is an older player, just hanging on and making a lot of money. “Basically, this is a fin- ancial move. I think you can play with 24 players.” While with Toronto Blue Jays in 1985, Cox managed the club to the American League East Division title with a 23-man roster. Rookies Lou Thornton and Manny Lee, both acquired in the December 1984 major- league draft, had to either spend the entire season on the Jays’ 25-man roster or be offered back to their original clubs. Neither received a great deal of playing time and some observers argued after the season ended that Toronto and he’s mustered just 15 points since then. “Tve played with pain before but there comes a point where you can't play. You're not helping yourself and you're not helping the had been able to play the way I know I can, maybe we would have won a couple of those games we lost. I'd like to think I contributed a lot last year and I could have done more this season.” CAN'T STAY HOME He said if he had his way, he would just sit at home until the injury healed. “But you can’t do that. The club is playing hard and you have to be able to help even if it’s just little things like talking to the guys and making a few suggestions.” MacLean said the exper- ence has taught him that he roster proved a team could win with a 23- or 24-man roster. Atlanta manager Chuck Taner said he has no qualms with a 24-player roster. “I don't mind this,” Tanner said. “I in the minors with 18 players, 22 players.” Teams may carry a maxi- mum of 25 players and a minimum of 24. Tanner has said he plans to have 10 pitchers. People’s Insulation Services *500°