The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 67

THE BOVTON GLOBE FEBRUARY 27. 1963 67 aldio rot stx mdiO fo AUDIO He 's Canada 9s No. 1 US import B-C GEORGETOWN; BRUINS ALL GAMES INCL. PLAYOFFS, ALL CELTICS, INCL. PHILLY AND PLAYOFFS, RED SOX, OPENING DAY ALL GAMES, OLD TIMERS HOCKEY WITH BOB, BY ORR; DIANA ROSS, BETTE MIDLER, KINKS IN CONCERT, WILLIE NELSON, HALL AND OATES, BILLY SQUIER, ERIC CLAPTON.

0Z2Y OSBOURNE, TOM PETTY, RODNEY DANGER-FIELD. pua Many More Events lt a ticket W0 can get It Master Card Vlu ttorw Orders, Tick Ms MsHsd Richard B. Robinson's Granite State Ticket Agency, Inc. Daniel Webster Highway South Nashua, N.H. 03060 (617) 649-3525 (603) 680-1300 5 AUDIO 5 0 547-2727 95 Vassar St Camondgf 2 Mon-Ffi 10-7 Sat 01 oicliv 0 xvis sol oianv CLEARANCE Oo la Lafontaine America's gift to Canadian junior hockey has shattered, or is in the process of shattering, a host of scoring records.

He began the season in Verdun by getting a goal or an assist in 43 straight games, bettering by tore' Guy Lafteur junior record set in 1970-71. Through 59 games, he had accumulated 196 points, and he is a virtual certainty to become the seventh player in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League history to produce 200 in a season. As it is. his point total already represents a rookie record, easily surpassing the 128 scored by Chris Valentine in 1979-80. His 81 goals are a rookie record.

(Previous best: 70, Mike Bossy, 1973-74.) His 115 assists are another rookie record. (Previous best: 80, Valentine.) Records within Lafontaine's reach include: Most goals by a 17-year-old (93, Real Cloutier, 1973-74). Most assists by a 17-year-old (123, Cloutier). Most points by a 17-year-old (216. Cloutier).

Two records that undoubtedly will survive Lafontaine's assault are the marks for go-Is (130, Lafleur) and points (251, Pierre Larouche, 1973-741 in a season. But be assured of one thing: All of Lafontaine's totals stand as records for an American playing junior hockey in Quebec. BOB DUFFY AMERICAN PRODIGY Continued from Page 61 And there is a reason that the three are playing junior hockey. To prepare for the National Hockey League. If you go to Harvard Med, you're planning on doing some doctoring: if you go to one of the three Canadian major junior leagues, you're planning on playing pro hockey.

Despite the inroads made by Europeans and Americans in the past decade, the Canadian junior system remains the prime supplier of NHL talent. And the major juniors, the top level in the Canadian developmental system, is the final stepping stone for players aged 16 to 19. The caliber of the hockey is better here, and there is much more of it. Junior teams play a 70-game regular season: an American high school player would be fortunate to get in 25 or 30 games. An American in Canadian junior hockey once was as inconspicuous as E.T.

But the situation has changed. "Fifteen years ago." says Eric Taylor, the Verdun general manager and a Montreal Cana-diens scout, "I said in a newspaper interview that Americans would be making great strides in hockey. That's exactly what's happening now." But Americans hardly proliferate on the junior rosters. Besides the Verdun trio, there are 15 US citizens among the 300 players in the Ontario Hockey League, 14 among 280 players in the Western Hockey League. Juniors from the United States do have one advantage over their Canadian couterparts.

In a sense, they are adolescent free agents. Each year, the major junior leagues conduct a draft, just like the NHL. For the Canadians, there is no option. They must play for the team that selects them in the territory in which they reside. If you Head.

White Slag. Ferry. Cerac. Slalom Obermeyer. Woolricli.

Mother Karens and others away from home was the biggest adjustment, and living with Yvon and Gisele has made that a lot easier." Lafontaine roams freely and comfortably around the Boyer home. He follows Gisele's maternal rules slippers must be worn around the house so that his socks don't get dirty: he must make his bed each morning. He makes full use of his kitchen and breadbox privileges. He occupies a comfortable bedroom across the hallway from the Boyer living room. Gisele and Yvon are at all his home games.

Teammates are frequent visitors. The affection is mutual. As much as Lafontaine enjoys the Boyers. they enjoy him. "There was some apprehension at first, because he's not Canadian and we didn't know how he'd adjust." says Yvon Boyer.

"But it was no problem. We like him very much, and he knows that. He's just such a nice boy. When he came her he told me, 'I'm young. If I do something wrong, I want you to let me know." I liked that." Perhaps that is Lafontaine's most valuable quality, what would make him popular in any environment.

At an age at which most youths are worrying about whether they can get the car on Friday night, he is a bona fide institution in the making. But he is also a walking Boys' Life cover: clean-cut, relentlessly poised and gracious and polite, accepting his celebrity, but not flaunting it. "The personality of Pat Lafontaine has jelled this whole team," says Verdun GM Taylor. "On the bus, he goes up to each kid, sits with him and talks to him. They know, 'Yeah, I'm a star, but I'm your friend An American boy has jelled this whole team.

It's just amazing to see." But the inescapable fact is that he is not just any American boy, or any Canadian boy. He is a famous boy. He has done more radio and TV interviews lately than Richard Simmons. He has a plaque from the mayor of Verdun, saluting his scoring streak. He has been a between-periods guest on a national "Hockey Night in Canada" broadcast.

Now he's preparing for perhaps the ultimate tribute to a Quebec resident, temporary or otherwise. "I have an invitation to go on the 'The Michel Jasmin says Lafontaine. "He's like the Johnny Carson of Quebec. But I've got to work on my French first. Otherwise, I won't be able to say anything." Ah, well, e'est la vie, mon ami.

NEXT: The family life tlx. 6. includes Qlin, Head, K2, Elan, Rossignol, Dynastar, Hart, Tamam, Atomic Wn WMiiii 1 Buy any pair of cross country skis at full price and get a second pair absolutely free. supportive, and I knew that once I made my de-' clsion, I wasn't going to look back. I was going to make the most of it." There were some cultural differences to be dealt with.

Lafontaine found that his dollars were worth 20 percent more once he crossed the Canadian border, that rondelles were hockey pucks, not a Fifties pop group. Canadian high schools run only through the 1 1th grade. There were about 1500 students at his hometown high 'school; at Verdun Catholic, where he enrolled in September, he had 400 schoolmates. His family had lived by a lake, since he was Verdun is a cramped parade of brick three-deckers stuck together like oversized dominoes, and the largest body of water in the vicinity is the family bathtub. But Lafontaine seemed specially equipped to handle the transition.

One distinct advantage was his heritage. Both his mother and grandmother speak fluent French; in fact, his grandmother lived in Verdun for 24 years. While French hardly was a staple at the dinner table, Lafontaine was exposed to the language. "I can understand about 50 percent of the words," he says. "I don't know all the phrases, but I have an idea of what's being said." Since he was headed for a different educational system, he took courses at home during the summer.

By the end of his first semester at live in yuebec, you play in Quebec. There are no such restrictions for US juniors. They can be drafted by more than one league, and they can play for the team of their choice. Consider Lafon-taine. He was selected by both Belleville in Ontario and Verdun tar 2 tmm mm IF Hi A LnJLs 15 ii PAT LAFONTAINE Quebec.

He optcd 59 games: 196 points Ui My first choice was Cornwall (Ontario)," says Lafontaine. "I liked the team and the style, what they had to offer. But Belleville picked me before Cornwall could draft. And when I was picked by Verdun, I talked to Mike Bossy and Denis Savard (two notable Quebec junior alumni), and they told me what hockey in Quebec was all about. It was very impressive." So is Lafontaine; hence all the commotion.

Last year with the Compuware Midgets, who are based in suburban Detroit, he scored 175 goals and added 149 assists while leading the team to an 81-2 record and a runnerup finish in the national tournament. This year with Verdun, he is the runaway scoring leader in the Quebec league, having totaled 81 goals and 115 assists for 196 points in 59 games. He already owns a trophy room full of records: he is on the verge of a whole new batch. He began his Quebec career by scoring in 43 consecutive games, eclipsing by three the record established by a kid named Guy Lafleur 12 years ago. He defi? nitely will be among the top three selections when the NHL conducts its player draft in June; there is every likelihood that he will be picked first overall, the only American ever to achieve that distinction.

Obviously, he is a cherished hockey prize, an instant monument in his adopted city, and so his adjustment to a different country and a different culture has not been the same as those made by his countrymen, Kolioupoulos and Glickman. For that matter, none of his teammates, French or English, could begin to identify with the celebrity status Lafontaine enjoys. On the other hand, he turned 18 only last week. Removed from the spotlight and the idola-tors, he is still a kid away from home and family and country for thefirst time. Lafontaine grew up in Waterford.

an hour north of Detroit. His roots, his entire experience, lie there, and the decision to leave all that for a foreign city at 1 7 was not an easy one. "It's very difficult to leave all your friends and family behind," he says. "But I knew I wanted to play hockey. My parents were very Verdun Catholic, he had accumulated enough credits for his high school diploma, and he is now enrolled at Dawson College, the equivalent of an American junior college.

"Pat is an exceptional young man in the classroom as well as on the ice," says Ron Dai-gle, a secondary school principal who is the educational counselor for the English-speaking Verdun players. "He has high potential. If he wanted to, he could qualify for advanced university courses." But the most crucial adjustment to be made is a universal concern, just as pertinent if one has moved to Quebec or Tibet a new living situation. Verdun players whose families do not reside in the area are placed in carefully selected households English homes for the English-speaking players, French homes for the French. The families are solicited either through newspaper ads or contacts.

Candidates are intensively screened and scrutinized by the Verdun management; once selected, they receive $65 a week for housing a player. Jhe most important consideration is that a player be treated as a surrogate family member, not a boarder. Lafontaine wound up at 6490 Champlain a two-story residence of five spacious rooms occupied by Yvon Boyer, a retired butcher who now works with the elderly, and his wife, Gisele. Lafontaine struck gold with this living arrangement. The Boyers regard him "as a son," and they are genuinely devoted to him, whether he has 80 goals or eight.

"When he came here," says Gisele Boyer, "I told him, 'Here's the fridge, here's the breadbox, now consider yourself at Which Lafontaine does. "Gisele and Yvon are like a second mother and father to rne," he says. "They treat me like a son. They had presents for me at Christmas. Gisele just asked me what I want for my birthday.

Of course, I still miss my friends and family. I'm in touch back home about once or twice a week, and I got home for a week and a half at Christmas. My parents have visited four or five times. Being WHIM QJJTo UUULriALJ WL gm PPWB taBsB It's almost here. The hard-hitting, fast-paced action of professional football.

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