The Windsor Star from Windsor, Ontario, Canada • 31

Pages 31 to 38 Sports The Windsor Star Monday, February 2, 1981, SOLO IN 60 DAYS OR MAJOR BUYS ITI Ch(k Mojtr'i Tim Agrmnt 944-8888 Blues in tune with Liut As he watched his goalkeeper, Mike Liut Of St. Louis Blues.steal a game from Detroit Red Wings, the Cat talked about how he was done at New York. The Cat is Emile Francis, 54, of North Battleford, Saskatchewan. Outside of George Imlach of Toronto Maple Leafs, Francis has been managing in the National Hockey League longer than anybody else. JACK DULMAS2 OH SPORTS But, hes still looking for his first Stanley Cup, and dont laugh when you consider the chances of St.

Louis. In 25-year-old Liut, Francis has uncovered the best goalkeeper afoot, and needs only some depth to make the Blues the best team around. Francis gave half his life to the Rangers. But New York isnt famous for appreciation. When Gulf and Western took over Madison Square Garden Corporation, they set about to number theCats days.

I knew theminutel met him, we were going to tangle," said Francis. He meant Cohen who fired I rands in 1975. Cohen lasted only about a year himself. Id like to tangle with him again some day. Worked to a frazzle Irancis went from Guelph juniors to the Rangers 16 years ago.

and coached himself to a frazzle while trying to find a coach who could allow him the luxury of leaving the bench in order to build a winner. He hired coaches such as Bernie Geoffrion, Larry Popem and Ron Stewart, but Emile found himself back behind the bench until he got Stewart. He refused to fire Stewart when they told him to, and thats when the Cat went down in New York. Two days later, they fired Stewart. I was in his office when the phone rang.

Guess what, Ron said when he put the phone dow n. Theyve fired me. "They would have done it the day before, but couldnt because we had agamethatnight." Stewart came back under John Ferguson, but neither lasted very long. Nor did Fred Shero. Security isnol a modern Rangerhallmark.

What about Liut? Is he as good as Eddie Giacomin? How did you find him? How did you get him? I first saw him playing for Bowling Green University against a St. Louis team in the conference they werein. He had 64 shots thrown at him, and won. 1 knew hewasgoingtobe a big leaguer. We drafted him in 1976.

"But we couldn't sign him because we were broke. We couldn't get anybody. We didnt have a dune. We were trying to fight the World Hockey Association. We couldnt pay anybody.

Our credit waseven nogood. Francis had gone to St. Louisear-ly in 1976, smack into economic disaster. The Blues, then owned by the Salomon family who looked like a gold mine when they led the first expansion rush in attendance and Stanley Cup finals, faced financial collapse. Unable to compete Their building, now known as the Checkerdome, had no air conditioning, and was unable to compete during non-hockey days of the year with a city-owned arena that did have air conditioning.

We were losing a million dollars a year," said Francis. Just when it seemed the Blues might go down the drain, they were saved by the wealthy Ralston-Puri-na Company. The Checkerdome got air-conditioned. They paid all the debts. Our money problems were over." Liut? Sure, he's as good as Giacomin.

Better. We got him when the WII A folded." Liut had gonctoCincinnaii Stingers who folded along with the WHA. When that happened, St. Louis draft rights meant Francis could reclaim him. And now, he had the money to sign him.

Liut won 32 games for the Blues, last season. NooneelseintheNHL won that many. Counting his sensational win at Detroit last night, he is 2 1-8-5. He was making his first start in three weeks because of injury. The Red-Wings outshot St.

Louis, 39-21. from beginning to end, it wasoutright theft because of Liut. Detroit coach Wayne Maxner, who hadn't seen Liut before, was impressed. Hes as good as anybody since Ken DrydencameintothcNHL.In fact', he reminds me of Dryden. He's so cool.

Said Francis, He makes you move first when hes trapped. He wantstoplayeverygame." Will heget better? Yes, because he works so hard in practice." The Blues have 70 points, second only to the Cup champion New York Islanders. They are third in the league in attack, seventh in defence. They were I Oth overall last season, and fell in the opening playoff round to Chicago, largely because the veteran Tony Esposito was red hot. Now, they need to be watched at all levels.

rancis is a little guy who played goal in the NHL when every team hdd a famous goalkeeper. Are goalkeepers di fferent today? Better, I think. They have to be. There are so many teams, so many games. And the shooters are bigger and fire harder." The Blues have arrived as an elite power.

Does this power begin with Liut? Id say so," said Francis. Id say so, too. IN EVERY DEPT. Winning skip John Base helps opposition rock Starphotoby BEV MacKENZIL pass through house STARTING THURSDAY, 50 SAVINGS Base defeats Howard in final to take Ontario junior crown By Dave Hall Assistant Sports Editor Oakvilles John Base made his single opportunity pay off Sunday afternoon in winning the Ontario Curling Association junior men's championship at RoselandCurling Club. Base and Glenn Howard of Midland each arrived at the seventh and final drawwith 5-1 records, setting up a winner-take-all situation.

And, it was Base who took it along with teammates Paul Stewart, Tim Evans and Jock Tyre with a 6-4 triumph in the I (Tend match. Base had been unbeaten through five rounds and had he won in the sixth and gone to 6-0, Howard would have needed two victories over Base to take the title. We were pretty discouraged after the loss, explained Base of the 7-5 setback to Jeff Parsons of Unionviile. But, we sat down and talked it out and decided to try and forget about it. It meant we had just one shot at Glenn instead of two and we wanted to make sure nothing was going to bother us, added Base, a Grade 1 3 student at Oak ville-Trafalgar High School.

Nothing did, as Base and his mates came through with a near-perfect game against Howard who lost in this Oakvilles Paul Stewart and Jock a 1 same situation last year. This was the best weekend of curling weve gone through all season, said Evans, the 17-year-old second. Weve been playing well all year but we were never really this sharp before." Obviously, the timing was perfect as Base and his crew hit an extremely high percentage of their shots in taking 4-2 lead after fourends and a 6-4 edge coming home. Twoupcominghome Base held a slim 5-4 edge after eight erfdsand counted one in the ninth a strategy which could have backfired since it gave Howard last rock in the finalend. Normally, you might want to blank the end, keep the one-shot lead and hold the hammer coming home," admitted Base.

But, Ill take my chances with a two-shot lead in that situation, too. W'e felt prety confident by then because wed all seen Glenns rink curl better, he added. "I just felt we could play takeout and hold on. It worked like a charm as Bases rink played a perfect takeout game in the 0th and Howard simply ran out of rocks. We just couldnt get anything going," said a disappointed Howard af Star photo by BEV MacKENZIE Tyre embrace after victory terwards.

"We were outcurled it was one ofthose games. "We kept wrecking on the guards and I could tell early it wasnt happening for us," he added. John took advantage of every break and we didnt." In his single loss against Parsons, Base trailed 6-4 after eight ends and scored once in the ninth before Parsons hit and stayed for a single in the 1 Oth to end it. Meanwhile, Howards rink fought back from the brink of disaster almost all weekend. Against Nick Rizzo of Glencoe, they trailed 4-0 after the first end before winning 10-8; against Parsons, they trailed 6-3 after five before winning 1 1-8 and against Brian Gallant of Ottawa, they trailed 3-0 and 6-3 before rallying foran 1 1-7 win.

But against Base, they couldnt make any headway and could have been out of it earlier. Howard twice faced a near-full house of four Base rocks but each time managed to escape disaster. No, that didnt really bother me that much as far as my shots were concerned, claimed Howard. It just meant we werent doing anything to helpourselves. "John called an excellent game and he deserved to win, added Howard who wasasgracious in defeat as he had been with a 2-0 record Friday night.

But its not over for Howard by any means, as he and his rink head for Scotland next month following their victory in a bonspiel in Toronto last month. Altenhoffourth Howards only loss, before Base, came against local favorite Mike Al-tenhof of Kingsville on Saturday morning. Altenhofs 8-5 triumph put the former Essex Kent boys golf champion in contention for the title until a pair of Sunday defeats knocked him back into fourth place behind Gallant. In the win over Howard, the two were tied 5-5 after seven ends before Altenhof counted one in each of the final three ends. He had earlier scored three in the sixth to rally from a 4-2 deficit.

Altenhof then dropped a 6-3 decision to Ken MacDonald of Trenton and lost 8-6 in II ends to Gallant in the final match ofthc eight-rink, two-day. round-robin event. For Base, the victory means a trip to Saint John, New Brunswick for the nationals to be held Feb 15-21. Were not that experienced at the provincial or national level, but then most of the others wont be either," said Base. "Itll be a great place to learn, though.

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