Calgary Herald from Calgary, Alberta, Canada • 45

WORLD or rnjgJiD SPORT WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 12, 1972 PAGE 45 Jim COLEMAN Cents top Bombers; keep lead By Bob Tate IHerald Staff Writer! Calgary Centennials put it all together for 20 minutes Tuesday and it was enough to beat Flirt Flon Bombers 4-3 and keep the Western Canada Hockey League Western Division leaders ahead of the pressing Edmonton Oil Kings. The Cents, tired and weary from a week-long excursion into the league's eastern sector, scored four times in the second stanza to even their season record to 1-1 against the Bombers. Calgary leads the defending league champion Kings by just a single point. The Cents started slowly in this one, moving to an impressive peak in the second period, and then checking the Bombers to a standstill in period three. FlinJPlon was unable to find the third-period legs perhaps because they too have been on the road against the western division clubs.

A crowd of 4,460 at the Corral watched the Bombers score twice in the first period then crumble under the smooth Calgary attack which accounted for four goals in less than nine minutes. Jimmy Watson, Ron Homenuke, Derek Black and Doug Horbul scored for the Centennials with Blaine Stoughton, Rav Maluta and Barry Chernos hitting for the Bombers. TORONTO Back in the Golden Age of sport, when almost every athlete of international prominence had a nickname, Paavo Nurmi and Willie Ritola of Finland dominated the world's distance-runners in any event from 1,500 metres to 10,000 metres. Quite naturally, Nurmi and Ritola were dubbed the Flying Finns. Now, Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League liave a couple of Flying Finns in their lineup.

The gentlemen in question are 24-year-old Juha Widing and 34-year-old Ralph Backstrom. The latter still is skating so swiftly that his legs belie his actual age. HOLD IT NOW BOYS, YOU FORGOT SOMETHING Linesman Randy Mitton eautioni Bombers' Al Hiller and Cents Mike Rogers tlllllllllltll Illl lllllllllllltllllllllllllllMlllllltllllllllllltltlllllllltlll IT'S OFFICIAL! 12-TEAM WHA Scotty gags on old home hospitality The Cents unveuea newcomoer uerry nuudiiu una game and the centre-forward was one of the more impressive performers on the ice. The B. C.

Junior Hockey League scoring leader from Kamloops (44 goals this year) assisted on Black's tying marker, missed two good chances and showed outstanding two-way ability. "He played an excellent game," said Cents' coach Chuck Holdaway. "He forechecks well and really goes to the body good," Chuck said. "All this after a 15-hour train ride." Holland, it would seem, could be around for a while. Stoughton got the Bombers first on the score sheet when his blue-darter from 30 feet away found the corner behind Calgary netminder John Davidson after 10 minutes of play and less than two minutes later Chernos was left alone in the slot and he beat Davidson easily with a 15-foot blast.

Watson put Calgary back in the game when his screened drive beat Flin Flon's Herman Hordal at 11:38 of the second period but the Bombers roared back three minutes later when Maluta's casual drive from the point went into the net. Homenuke scored his 20th goal of the season at 15:54 when he whipped a rebound past Hordal who was sprawled out of position after stopping John Senkpiel from point blank range. It inspired the Cents. Black scored at 16:41 and Horbul jammed home the winner with just two seconds left in the period when he made a good move to keep the puck in Flin Flon's end, then blistered a 35-footer in behind Hordal. The Cents might have added to the margin in the final 20 minutes but Hordal held them at bay.

Cents outshot the Bombers 36-21 and enjoyed a wide edge in play in the final two periods when Flin Flon managed only 11 shots at Davidson. The teams split six penalties evenly and none figured directly in the scoring. The Calgary club doesn't play again until Sunday afternoon when they meet the Medicine Hat Tigers at the Corral in a charity game for amateur hockey. ICanadian Press Scotty Bowman's St. Louis fans showed Tuesday night they don't hold any hard feelings against the one-time Blues coach by wining and dining him prior to shellacking his new club, Montreal Canadiens, 7-3.

It was a grand homecoming for the 38-year-old Montrealer It was learned Tuesday, however, that Shayne has 20 confirmed dates in Madison Square Garden and the remainder in Long Island. Another controversial entry accepted was one from Hamilton, Ont. Quebec City, on the other hand, was left out this time even though they were considered a strong possibility. According to Munro, the teams now ready and able to operate the WHA franchises are Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Hamilton in Canada and Long Island, Chicago, New England, Miami, Dayton, Los Angeles, San Francisco and St. Paul in the United States.

The Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Los Angeles, St. Paul and San Francisco fran-chise's will make up the Western Division of the league which is scheduled to begin play Oct. 14. Herald Staff Writer) The World Hockey Association will operate this year with a full complement of 12 teams according to an announcement made late Tuesday night by the Calgary Broncs organization. Scotty Munro, general manager and coach of the Calgary entry, the Broncs, confirmed the 12-team operation in a phone call from Los Angeles.

Munro, attending a WHA meeting in the California metropolis, said that all teams including Neil a 's Long Island, N.Y. outfit registered the bankroll for next season. Shayne, embroiled in court action against the NHL New York Rangers and a Long Island arena, was not expected to operate next year because he could not get dates in the Long Island icehouse. FLYING FINNS OF LOS ANGELES Ralph Backstrom (left) and Juha Widing You didn't know that Backstrom is a Finn? Well, to tell the truth, Ralph is as apple-pie Canadian as Fierre Trudeau or John Diefenbaker. However, Backstrom's mother and father both were born within a few miles of the village of Vaasa in Finland.

Strangely, enough, they never met until both had become residents of Kirkland Lake, Ontario. There they met and married and, there Ralph Backstrom was born. "Funny thing about it," Ralph was saying Tuesday afternoon, "neither my father nor mother ever returned to Finland, after they left, as mere kids. Then, last summer, Juha Widing and I operated a hockey school for three weeks in Osby, Sweden. When we went to Sweden, I took my wife and three kids and, also, I persuaded my mother to come along.

"After we closed the hockey school, we got on a little boat and took my mother over to Vaasa to meet her two f- sisters and her brother whom she hadn't seen in 43 years. It was, as you can understand, a very emotional reunion. Her brother had been onlv nine years old when my mother East Division GWLT A 39 27 6 6 178 86 60 39 2 7 7 5 1 57 8 7 59 40 23 10 7 153 109 53 41 19 13 9 120 11047 42 17 18 7 131 132 41 42 8 54 10 113 H3 24 39 10 24 5 94 138 25 West Division 40 28 8 4 134 71 40 22 12 6 106 82 50 42 13 22 7 120 145 33 43 12 22 9 128 174 33 40 12 21 7 96 128 31 41 11 23 7 101 129 29 42 11 30 1 92 169 23 New York Boston Montreal Toronto Detroit Buffalo Vancouver Chicago Minnesota St. Louis California Philadelphia Pittsburgh Los Angeles Illlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllilllllllllllllllllilllll high-scoring Frank Mahovlich missed the i a game with a temperature of 103. He continued to St.

Louis with the team but entered hospital there. He was discharged Tuesday but admitted still feeling "lousy" and was a questionable starter for Thursday night's game in Montreal against Pittsburgh. Captain Henri Richard's unassisted score 52 seconds into the game gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead, but the Blues took command thereafter with goals by Floyd Thomson, Bob Plager and rookie Mike Muf-phy prodding St. Louis into the lead. Murphy's second score, at 5:59 of the second period with Richard serving a minor penalty, was the winner.

Bowman, making his first trip back to St. Louis since resigning as coach and general manager last April, re-placed starting goaltender Dennis DeJordy with Phil Myre at 11:56 of the first period, soon after the Blues opened their 3-1 lead. Bill Goldsworthy's 18th goal of the season with less than seven minutes remaining lifted the visiting Minneso-tan's into a tie at Vancouver. Only superb goaltending by veteran Cesare Maniago had kept the North Stars in a threatening position as the Canucks ripped 31 shots at the Minnesota nets, 14 in the second period when they gained a 2-1 margin. IMDE-TQ-MSURE SUIT who spent five years building the Blues into a solid National Hockey League expansion franchise before jumping to the defending Stanley Cup champions this season after a dispute with the St.

Louis owners. The setback almost ruled out any possibilities of the in-juryjplagued Canadians over-taking either New York Rangers or Boston Bruins in the race for first place in the East Division and the Prince of Wales Trophy. In other games, Detroit Red Wings continued their revival with a 5-0 win over Philadelphia Flyers and Vancouver Canucks held Minnesota North Stars to a 2-2 tie. Montreal's i i woes were added to Sunday when iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimmiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiMiiiiiiiniii ENGLISH SCOTCH LOW ONLY: 73 world stane site m. i Regina given Broom venue originally went to Canada." Ralph Backstrom learned to play hockey in Kirkland Lake and, after he turned professional, he had 12 rewarding years as an exceptionally fleet centreman with the Montreal Canadiens.

He won the Calder Trophy, awarded annually to the outstanding NHL rookie in his first season of 1958-59. Slightly less than 12 months ago, Les Canadiens traded Backstrom to Los Angeles under extraordinary circumstances. Ralph Backstrom was the first professional hockey player ever to be traded for a "piece" of a world heavyweight championship boxing bout. Officially, Ralph was traded to Los Angeles in return for Gordon Labossiere, Ray Fortin and "other considerations." Jack Kent Cooke, the owner of the Los Angeles Kings, also was the promoter of the Joe Frazier-Muhammad Ali championship fight. Cooke is a cutie.

The "other considerations" which he gave to the owners of the Montreal Canadiens in the Backstrom deal proved to be a special "cut-price" for the rights to show the Frazier-Ali bout on closed-circuit television in the Montreal Forum. Cooke, of course, is a hockey magnate of distinct originality. When Cooke's Los Angeles Kings obtained Juha Widing last year in a trade with New York Rangers, the Finnish player's name was pronounced: "Yoo-haw Veeding." Cooke decided, in his unchallenged wisdom, that Los Angeles hockey followers would be baffled by the name. Accordingly, Cooke issued orders to his television and radio commentators that, henceforth, Widing must be described in all telecasts and broadcasts as "Whitey Wye-ding." A perusal of young Juha Widing hockey saga up to this point leaves the impression that Juha won't give a damn about Cooke's conniption of his name. Juha was born in Uleaborg, Finland, but he went to Sweden as a kid.

When he was only 14 years old, he decided that he wanted to play hockey in the NHL of North America and, in his forthright Nordic fashion, he negotiated a transfer to Canada. Juha first mentioned his ambitions to Gordon Rice, a 1 former Brandon hockey player who was coaching a junior team in Sweden. Rice persuaded Ulf Jannsen, a Swedish hockey official, to write to Dennis Ball, who was Western Canada scout for New York Rangers. Ball, in turn, got in touch with Jake Milford, coach of the junior Brandon Wheat Kings, who then were sponsored by New York Rangers. The result of all this correspondence was that Juha Widing, unable to speak any English, arrived in Brandon, at the age of 16.

To solve the language problem, coach Milford lodged Widing with a multilingual Nordic family in the Manitoba city. Juha progressed rapidly as a hockey player and a linguist in Brandon. As a matter of fact, he learned English so speedily that he wooed and wed a Brandon girl before he left town. When Julia was 20 years old, New York Rangers decided that he was ready for professional hockey and they sent him to their Central League farm team at Omaha. He scored 27 goals in his rookie season.

The following year, he led the Central League with 41 goals. Emile Francis, general manager of the Rangers, engaged in some soul-searching last February before he traded Widing and Real Lemieux to Los Angeles in return for Ted Irvine. When he made the deal, Francis said wryly: "I hate to give them Widing who could turn out to be one of the best forwards in the league. But Widing still is an untried rookie and, right at this moment, I need a big tough guy like Irvine, who will give us some solid hitting on left wing." Ralph Backstrom is one man who suspects that Emile Francis may have been over-hasty in trading Widing. "This kid is a really good hockey player," says Backstrom.

"He has a great set of legs and, he is dedicated to the 2 Suits for $135.00 The 1973 event will be staged in the Regina Stadium March 20 to 24 and it could involve 10 countries. Currently, the competing nations besides Canada are the United States, Scotland, Sweden, France, Switzerland, Norway and Germany. Italy and Denmark have applied for entry but a decision on their participation likely won't be made until later this year. Canada has won the international competition 11 times, including the last four years in a row. Four of the championships were brought home by Ernie Richardson of Regina.

Regina was chosen over Calgary and Saskatoon for the event and although the American i i of Duluth, Chicago and Colorado Springs entered bids, they weren't really considered in contention since the event was held in that country two years ago. REGULAR UP TO $99.50 You can have the finest made-to-measure suit and enjoy remarkable savings Men. It's our 4Sth anniversary and we've you to thank. To show our appreciation, we invite REGINA (CP) The 1973 world curling championship has been awarded to Regina. Announcement of the successful application was made today at a news conference by the event's sponsor, Air Canada.

Making the announcement for the airline were H. D. Laing of Vancou-ver, vice-president of the Western region, and D. E. McLeod of Montreal chairman of the Silver Broom committee.

It will mark the fourth time in the 14-year history of the championship that it has been held in Canada. The last time was in 1968 in Pointe Clare, Que. Laurie Artiss, chairman of the local committee which organized the city's application, said the group was "overjoyed" by the annoucement. "With its international nature, we're pleased it will provide the city and province with unique and positive exposure. "We also believe it will provide a new dimension for the game in our city and in our province." "We fully realize, however, that it is just the start.

Now the major task begins; to provide a distinctive flavor to the 1973 Silver Broom and make it the most memorable for all those who visit here or are involved in its I- ill- Ut Jl Wh Englishc) you to save as much as SjO on a superbly tailored made-to-measure suit of superior quality. Its an outstanding opportunity to refurbish your wardrobe and stretch your dollars. Many styles to choose from: Lightweight worsted and tropicals, flannels, twists, tweeds, stripes, checks, etc. Come see. you'll asrec.

6 Woytowich goes to Penguins The Regina bid had the backing of the provincial and civic governments and the city is expected to send, a representation to the site of this a 's competition, in Garmisch, Germany, to accept the Silver Broom pennant at closing ceremonies. games with Pittsburgh this season. He played previously in the NHL with Boston Bruins and Minnesota North Stars. McDonough, 21, was the Kings' second-round draft pick in 1970, and played in 31 games with Los Angeles this season. LOS ANGELES (AP) -Los Angeles Kings Tuesday acquired veteran defenceman Bob Woytowich from Pittsburgh Penguins for right winger Al McDonough in a straight National Hockey League player trade.

Woytowich, 30. had one goal and four assists in 31 Phone 269-2468 iniiiiiiiii i iiMiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiimiiMiiiiiimmiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimi.