Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 29

TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 1996DETROIT FREE PRESS 7D T.C. Chen finds niche Back-to-back Lemieux joins fast Cup company ROBERTS ij BY VIV BERNSTEIN Free PreM SporU Writer MIAMI Colorado Avalanche winger Claude Lemieux this morning became the fifth player since 1927 to win the Stanley Cup in consecutive seasons with different teams. Lemieux won the Cup with New Jersey last season. Others in that category: Al Arbour (Chicago, 1961; Toronto, '62); Ed Lit-zenberger, (Chicago, 1961; Toronto, '62), Ab McDonald (Montreal, 1960; Chicago, '61); and Lionel Conacher (Chicago, 1934; Montreal Maroons, 1935). Lemieux, who also won the Cup with Montreal in 1986, is the fourth player to win Stanley Cups with three different teams in his career.

Others are Arbour (Red Wings, Chicago, Toronto); Larry Hillman (Wings, Toronto, Montreal) and Gordon Pettinger (Red Wings, New York Rangers, Boston). SWEEPSTAKES: The Stanley Cup finals are more likely to end in four games than five, six or seven. They have finished in a sweep 18 times. The 17th, for those who can't bear to recall, was last season when the New Jersey Devils swept the Wings. The other finals: Five games, 15 times; six games, 15 times; seven games, 10 times.

Crawford is the third-youngest coach to win the Cup. He is 35 years, four months. The youngest are Claude Ruel with Montreal in 1969 (30.6 years) and Cy Denneny (Boston, '29). WHO GIVES A RAT? Rats. Commissioner Gary Bettman said the NHL will take measures to stop fans from throwing objects onto the ice next season.

That means you, Red Wings fans. A strict league policy will be implemented as a result of the plastic rats showered onto the ice following Florida Panthers goals. So many were tossed in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals that it took about 30 workers more than three minutes to clear them from the ice at Miami Arena. Next season, no more rats. And no more octopi, either.

"We are going to have to focus over the summer on getting fans used to not throwing things," Bettman said in an informal media session. "Throwing things on the ice is a bad habit. After the season, we'll address it and get everybody in position to not be in position where games are being disrupted or slowed down because things are being thrown on the ice." The Wings played up the tradition of tossing octopi in the playoffs when their marketing plan used an octopus as its mascot. "We're not looking to take away a club's creativity in terms of game presentation," Bettman said. "The is sue is throwing things on the ice.

Bettman wouldn't say what moves can be made to prevent fans from can De maae to prevent ians rrom during the second round of the 1985 U.S. Open at Oakland Hills. .11. -WMjf Ji ym-mn golfing in Japan T.C. CHEN, from Page ID surprising that day: the double-eagle or Chen's name at the top of the leader board.

But T.C. Chen was not a total unknown. Three years after learning how to play the game at age 17, he was considered among the best young golfers in Asia. In 1982, he decided to come to the United States. He studied English for three months and flew to the PGA qualifying school in Ponte Vgdra, where he finished fifth in a field of 200, earning his tour card.

Chen showed promise on the PGA Tour. In 1983, he lost to Couples in a playoff at the Kemper Open. The next ye, he was tied for the second-round lead in the Western Open, but ended up sixth. He won twice on the Asian tour' in.1985 before his trip to Oakland Hills, his first appearance in the U.S. Open.

"He wasn't real well-known, but he was the nicest guy you'd ever want to meet," said Lealos, known on tour as Minnesota Mike. "It was real lonely out here for him. He could barely speak English. He could understand real well, hut he was never comfortable speaking. (Chen used an interpreter fof most interviews.) "But that week, the guy was just playing flawlessly.

It might have been a surprise to everyone else that he was, but it wasn't to me." When the weekend was over, Chen found himself owning another piece of golf history a kind of history, that, too, has never been replicated in the championship. The double-hit, a ball hit twice with fine swine. It did not seem possible at the time, i He had entered the final round the way he began each of the two previous days with the lead. In the second round, he tacked a one-under 69 to his opening 65 for a 36-hole total of 134, six under par. That tied the scoring record set by Jack Nicklaus in the 1980 championship at Baltusrol.

The next day, Chen plodded through the rain for nearly five hours and shot another 69 for a seven-under 203, which equaled the 54-hole record set by George Burns in 1981 at Merion. More important, it gave Chen a two-shot lead going into Sunday. "If T.C. would have taken care of business a little better, I wouldn't have had a chance," said Andy North, the eventual champion. Chen seemed in control on the opening holes of the final round.

Paired with North, Chen was handed a three-shot lead when North bogeyed the first hole. The lead grew to four with a birdie at the second. But when the two players reached the 457-yard par-four fifth a hole known generally for its tough, sloping green the day turned dark for Chen. His tee shot was perfect straight down the middle of the fairway. But he followed that by pushing his second shot right of the green, and his third shot stuck in the tall grass short of the putting surface.

Chen pulled out his pitching wedge. Biit as he swung to hit the ball, the club hung up in the grass and somehow struck the ball twice. Chen was assessed a penalty stroke after the ball cdfne to rest on the collar of the green. From there, he chipped eight feet past the hole and missed his putt, finishing with a quadruple-bogey eight. "You couldn't do it again if you tried," Lealos said of the double-hit.

"But the next shot was probably the biggest mistake. He tried to chip it in instead of getting the heck out of there. It was probably the only real mistake hi' made the whole hole. "If he hadn't double-hit it, it would have been close. When you watch the replay, which I'm sure they're going to show over and over and over, the club hits the grass and hangs up for a split second.

All T.C. said to me after we made our quad there was, 'Long way to gd." Chen bogeyed the next three holes, and suddenly North was the leader with a three-shot advantage. "He was a little rattled," Lealos said of Chen. "There were other important shots that day North's par-saving sand shot and Chen's three-putt bogey at the 17th, for example. And Chen nearly pulled off a miracle when he almost holed his bunker shot at No.

18, which would have forced a playoff. But as it was, Chen parred the last hole and shot a 77, tying him for second with Dave Barr and Denis Watson, one shot behind North, who finished at one-under 279 after a final-round 74. Time has a way of preserving the most crucial shots good and bad and for that, Chen's double-chip has its place in golfing lore. 1 0 it 4 4 T.C. Chen looked almost unbeatable Today, it is the reason for his silence.

It is the reason he has not returned phone calls. Chen said he has turned down all interview requests the last few months. He almost agreed to talk to ESPN, but he wanted to write down his answers and not appear on air. He tried to explain. "So many so many like ESPN, so many I mean, so many reporters want interviews," Chen said late last week.

"It doesn't feel good. It doesn't feel good to accept any interviews. I don't know why. I don't think about it anymore. I don't want to think about it anymore.

I mean, I play good there except for one hole. I want it to go away. It was 10 years ago. A long time ago. Lealos, who now caddies for Bill Glasson, hasn't talked to Chen in nearly two years, but he knows what he must be feeling this week.

That's because Lealos feels it, too. "I hear it all the time," he said of the double-chip. "Whenever I mention his name, that is always the first thing out of their mouths. It's a defining moment in golf, maybe, but I wish they could remember him for something else, though like winning." Had Chen won instead of North, Lealos thinks the double-eagle would be the shot remembered. Not in the same fashion, obviously, as Gene Sarazen's double-eagle the shot heard 'round the world at the 1935 Masters but it surely would have made the double-chip seem more of a footnote.

"They say a double-eagle is rarer than a hole-in-one," Lealos said. Yes, beaten only by a double-chip. When Lealos looks back at the shot "I was only three feet away," he said he remembers thinking that Chen was too aggressive. Not just that hole, but most of the round. "He wasn't really that nervous," Lealos said.

"On the first tee, he looked at me and said, 'We take our He wasn't the least bit uncomfortable, either. But he had a bad strategy going into it. He tried to be a little too aggressive. He said before the round began, 'If I shoot two-under-par after the first nine holes, no one will catch That's what he told me. He was playing so good, though, that I can't fault him at the time." The second shot that set up the fatal double-chip, though, provided the best example of Chen's aggressiveness.

"Instead of trying to hit it close, he tried to hit it in the middle of the green," Lealos said. "The ball was maybe 20 feet right of the hole when it hit the tree; it kind of overhung there a little bit. I felt so bad for him. "I always felt like a big brother to him, at least over here. Someone would say something mean to him, and he wouldn't say anything.

He would just walk away. I feel bad because people have the wrong impression of him. They think he choked. People who think that don't know what they're talking about. If he would have putted at all on Sunday, he still would have won by two or three.

It was a special week for him to be in that situation. Even though he finished second, people act like he shot 90 and finished 20th. All he did was barely not win." Before Chen hit his bunker shot at to I of 19 a his sank to throwing objects on the ice. A policy in, Florida to revoke season tickets had; zero impact. No wonder.

Marti Hui- zenga, wife of Panthers owner Wayne-Huizenga, is the first lady of rat-tossers! at Miami Arena. "We haven't discussed the personal throwing habits of members of the Huizenga family," Bettman said. Among other issues addressed: Bettman said a fine on Red Wings' coach Scotty Bowman "has not yet been imposed" for his parking-lot tirade against Lemieux following Game 3 of the Western Conference finals. Bowman got into a shouting match with Lemieux, who had sucker-punched Slava Kozlov during the game. Lemieux was suspended for the following game.

The league does not announce fines when imposed, but is planning on changing that policy for next season. Bettman wouldn't put a timetable on expansion but said it's "something at some point in the not-too-distant look at," and characterized it asC "closer than a year ago." No list oft cities has been formulated, but Atlanta and Portland, are markets the league hopes to expand into in future. A comprehensive drug-alcohol plan, is expected to be in place by nextj season. A regular-season game could take place in Japan during the 1997-98, season. That's the season the league will shut down for several weeks to allow NHL players to compete in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Jai, pan.

FOOD FIGHT: A chef at a Miami restau- rant recently served Avalanche general manager Pierre Lacroix an egg and caviar platter molded into little Not to be outdone, Lacroix grabbed a1 couple of salt shakers and emptied their contents onto the platter. Lacroix said to the chef, me, sir, but your rats have been buried in an Avalanche." NOTEBOOK: Lacroix issues daily denials' that Avalanche coach Marc Crawford will be allowed to bolt Colorado to' coach the Maple Leafs. But there is some tension in negotiations: Crawford'' reportedly is upset that a deal wasn't struck before the playoffs. Crawford-made $300,000 in Canadian funds this year and wants $600,000 U.S. season, along with compensation fof being underpaid this season.

He has one more year on his contract St Louis general manager-coach Mike1, Keenan reportedly was fined $10,000 for criticizing the officiating in the Blues' second-round series with the-' Wings. He also was fined $5,000 for KnocKing me reis in tne nrst rouna. nnlnir Cnr ill knocking the refs in the first round. STANLEY CUP Avalanche wins, 4-0 RESULTS Game 1 Colorado 3, Florida 1 Game 2 Colorado 8, Florida 1 Game 3 Colorado 3, Florida 2 Game 4 Colo. 1, Fla 0 (3 OT) brouck had made 40 saves, Roy 42.

But Vanbiesbrouck made three outstanding saves in the first overtime to keen, the game going. He stopped on a point-blank rising wrister, making a glove save 7:42 into the overtime period. At 10:24, Ozolinsh once again stepped up from his defensive position and found himself in the slot for a one- timer that Vanbiesbrouck got his body in front of for the save. r' Vanbiesbrouck robbed Forsberg on. a shot from the left circle headed to the far side, once again flashing the glove late in the period.

Roy's best came on Rob Nieder-mayer with 5:29 remaining in the overtime session, Niedermayer beat- ing Sylvain Lefebvre along the boards', and cutting to the net for the pointJ blank attempt. In the third period, Vanbiesbrouck could have cost his team when he took a needless penalty for interference on'' Mike Keane, putting the butt end of his stick into Keane's face in the third period. But Vanbiesbrouck also saved the Panthers on a 3-on-l shorthanded break, stopping Stephane Yelle's bid, from deep in the left circle midway through the third. Roy had 35 saves through three periods, Vanbiesbrouck 29 in the first Stanley Cup finals game to go to overtime since May 31, 1994, when Vancouver beat the Rangers, 3-2, in Game 1 of the finals. tUAUllIU 111X3 1L3 kj Utility VlJ 111 3 overtimes, completes sweep, 1-0 'v Detroit Free Press hole of sudden death with a par to Crenshaw's bogey.

It was his first and only victory on tour. "I was so happy for him," Lealos said. "The U.S. Open deal was constantly grinding on him. I didn't realize how much it was until after that (victory in LA).

I knew it was in the back of his mind, obviously, and he never backed down talking about it when someone asked him about the double-chip. That was the kind of guy he was. But when he won, it was like a vindication-type thing. He said, 'I can go home Chen will watch part of this week's U.S. Open on television, just as he always does.

He's rooting for Norman and Tom Watson. "Even though he lost the Masters, he's a great player a great, great player," Chen said of Norman. "And Tom Watson was my hero when I was starting golf." For now, Chen is content with life on the Japanese tour. He has won four tournaments since 1991, but is winless the last 2'2 years. He tied for 39th Sunday at the Sapporo Tokyu Open and is currently 22nd on the money list with $137,424.

Chen does not think he will ever come back to play on the PGA Tour. If he does, he will have to qualify again. But that is not the reason. "Maybe I am too old," Chen said, quietly, before adding, "that is just joking." Chen has three children Jennifer, 10; Jason, and Jeffrey, almost 2. In 1990, Jason was injured when he was hit by Chen's car when Chen was backing up in his driveway in Linkou, Taiwan.

Jason suffered a broken leg, but some of Chen's former friends in the United States thought the son had died. The China Post didn't report the accident for seven weeks. "He is fine," Chen said of Jason. His children are the reason Chen will stay put. "Before I was single, I could go anywhere I want to go," Chen said.

"But now I have a family. I can't stay anywhere longer than two weeks, or else I get homesick. So that's probably my choice, my point, I make. I can go home in three hours to see my family. "When I played there (in the United States), I had so many problems first of all, the language problem.

The second was a food problem. I can't eat hamburgers every day. I need rice. The other one is travel, because in the States, you have jet lag, even east and west, and travel makes it tough to play the tour, especially for people like me who don't speak much English." Chen gets quiet again. "I talk too much," he said.

But he has one more thing. A message. "I don't know how to say this, but please tell all of the people that I miss them," he said. "Tell them I'm doing good in Japan. Tell them not to worry about me." Translated, Tze-chung means courage and honor.

Something else to remember him by. Special to the Free Press T.C. Chen lines up a putt the Sapporo Tokyu Open over the weekend. He still wears the sponsor Three Bond on his hat, as he did in 1985. the 18th, Lealos remembered, Chen looked at him and said, "I feel most sorry for you today.

I should have won it for you." Lealos replied: "It's not over yet. You can make this. I'll bet you a beer you can make this." Til try," Chen said. The ball rolled over the edge of the hole. Jay Haas, who played with Chen in the third round, said: "Everyone felt bad for T.C.

that day." Haas said Chen's demise can't be compared to Greg Norman's collapse at the Masters in April. Norman blew a six-shot lead going into the final round and lost to Nick Faldo. "To seemingly have the tournament in hand, then when something like that happens, it's hard come back from that, that day," Haas said. "But unlike Greg, he wasn't the best player in the world at the time. think everyone assumed that at any moment he was going to crack certainly, not like he did, but that he was going to start making some bogeys.

But he was fooling everyone and then came that one hole." The week after the Open, Chen received a telegram from the president Taiwan that said, "Fourteen million people are very proud of you." But Chen was never the same. "He was emotionally drained for a long time," Lealos said. Chen missed the cut the next three tournaments. He stayed on the tour for three more years. In 1986, he played in events and had one top-10 finish tie for sixth at the Anheuser-Busch Classic.

He led the Masters that year at midround Friday but eventually finished 23rd. In 1987, though, Chen finally had day of redemption. In the final round of the Los Angeles Open, he a 1 4-footer for par on the last hole force a playoff with Ben Crenshaw. Chen then beat Crenshaw on the first STANLEY CUP, from Page ID ended it. Krupp scored on a screened point shot 4:31 into the third overtime to give the Avalanche a 1-0 victory in the third-longest Stanley Cup final game in NHL history.

Colorado's Joe Sakic won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff most valuable player. Roy probably was a close second. In Game 4, he had 63 saves for his eighth career playoff shutout. Vanbiesbrouck stopped 55. "John played outstanding out there," Roy said.

"He made some unbelievable saves. Vanbiesbrouck said: "We accomplished a lot. We can't be disappointed with our season. "We couldn't get anything past Roy. This puts him right up there with the legends of the game.

They deserve it. They absolutely do." Vanbiesbrouck had entered the series as the clear Conn Smythe Trophy candidate for the Panthers. But he was 0-3 with a 4.32 goals-against average and .841 save percentage in the finals heading into Game 4. Roy had gone 3-0 with a 1.33 goals-against average and .955 save percentage. Vanbiesbrouck played his best.

He was outstanding in the overtimes, robbing Sandis Ozolinsh numerous times. In the second overtime, Ozolinsh stepped up for a deflection of Peter Forsberg's shot and Vanbiesbrouck got his glove on it at 1:55. Then it was Forsberg in the slot, deflecting an Ozolinsh shot at 4:47. Vanbiesbrouck stopped Krupp in the slot with 9:30 left, and Adam Deadmarsh on the rebound. Mike Ricci put one between Vanbiesbrouck's pads, but it slid through the crease and out of harm's way with 8:40 remaining.

And then there was Deadmarsh, alone in front, sending the puck off the crossbar with 3:18 remaining. Scott Young got to the rebound and couldn't put it through, either. Vanbiesbrouck had 52 saves through two overtime sessions. Roy had an unbelievable 60. Through one overtime, Vanbies- 1,.