he NHL’s recent expansion into Orange iE County, California, and Miami, Florida,

is nota good move for hockey. The two ams were granted entry into the league be- ause of money; the Disney Corporation owns he Anaheim franchise, and Wayne Huizenga pnd Blockbuster Video own the Miami. Sure, he NHL needs money, but expansion is not the ply money-making option open to the league. Dbviously, though, it is the only option the American-controlled league desires to pursue. The fact that both of the teams are owned by honey is important. The NHL seems reluctant 0 expand into Canada because of the lack of honey and big business found north of the order. Hamilton, Ontario has been bidding for franchise for several years, but it is always ned down. Why? Economics. Everything oes back to money. The NHL will not be able to sell hockey to nericans if it continues with the expansion ick. In order for expansion to work, it has to be Hcred because the fans want it and not because

¢ image of hockey for several reasons. The pol of eligible talent dwindles, which makes

Splayers they have spent much time develop- 8 Which makes the struggling teams weaker. “new Collective Bargaining Agreement guar- lees that salaries will escalate because the » Money teams are able to wheedle non-star gents from poorer teams for star prices. Counting the two new American teams, the has eight teams in Canada and eighteen in United States. IF the NHL were to put a na Canadian city, the new team would be anteed fans because ofhockey’s position in ‘da. An American team is not given that. _ American expansion teams grow with “am; people pay money because of the 'Y, not because of desire. NHL hockey is into an elitist business where money is ote the fans. Ifthe league is not careful “xpansion, it may lose all of Canada be-

‘ Canada cannot afford to keep up with the

f ‘he NHL really wanted to increase hock- Popularity in the States, it would curb

expansion fora few years. Give Ottawa, Tampa Bay, and San Jose a few seasons to develop. Allow older yet established teams like Hartford and the New York Islanders time to get every- thing together. Market the game for the game and not for the money. If the NHL continues to alienate the fans for the reason of expansion- generated revenue, it will be harder to market the sport. Fans turn a sport into a sport before money does. It is no fun when it is a business.

The Panthers have played four games at home since the time of the last issue of the paper. I have to apologize for having screwed up dates and writing that the Universite de Moncton was playing here on the 24th. Actu- ally the St. F. X. X-Men were in town and the referee’s over-exuberance in calling penalties allowed the X-Men to go home two points richer.

"The NAL will not be able to sell hockey to Americans..."

On Saturday, the 23rd, the Panthers won a hard game against the University College of Cape Breton Capers. The Capers started the game aggressively and forced the Panthers into working for the 5-2 win. The Panthers killed off Max Mazur’s major cross-checking penalty early in the first period and tied the game at 2- 2 early in the third. After that, the Capers’ organization and aggressive hockey could not get the puck past Jamie Blanchard. K.J. White was named the player of the game with his three goals and one assist. It is funny that defensive guys are never considered the game’s best play- ers. Although White’s offense helped the Pan- thers win, defenseman Greg Webber helped cause the Capers to lose. Webber played the best individual defense Panther fans have seen in a long time.

On the afternoon of the 24th the Panthers

started out okay against the X-Men. A plethora of penalties and a combined six power-play goals allowed the X-Men to win 8-4. The Panthers played an inspired game, especially in the third period when trailing 5-3, but X-Men goaltender Anders Hogberg’s brilliant saves and the solid goalposts kept the Panthers from capitalizing.

On the 29th, the Mount Allison Mounties took their vocal team to town. Cory Power was ejected from the game early in the first; the Mounties scored twice on his five-minute ma- jor penalty to go up 2-0 before the end of ten minutes of play. All seemed lost then, but the Panthers, working through a maze of bad pen- alties and aided by Jamie Blanchard’s good goaltending and Greg Webber’s excellent de- fensive play, tied the game at 3-3 near the end of the second. A roughing incident early in the overtime period cut down Panther offense and forced acting-coach Scott Blanchard to juggle his lines around. Blanchard produced the excit- ing line of Jim Somnez, Paul Crabbe, and Donald MacDonald which scored the goal to win the game 2:32 into overtime. Greg Webber was named the player of the game with three assists and a great save when Jamie Blanchard was caught out of the net; Webber deserved it not only for that but also for the great, hard game he played.

The Panther/Universite de Moncton Blue Eagles rivalry continued Sunday afternoon. The Blue Eagles scored six goals in the second period to win 7-4. Panther offense just could not match that sort of game, especially with all of the penalties called. Obviously the referee was trying to avoid the hockey adaptation of the boy who cried wolf story; it seemed that every time Moncton forward Serge Pepin hit the ice, the referee called a Panther penalty. Pepin is a better diver than the renowned New Jersey Devils forward Claude Lemieux. The AUAA needs to adapt or enforce the NHL rule of giving an obvious diver the two minute penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. It would have changed the outcome of this game.

This coming weekend will be the Panthers’ last two games at home before the playoffs. The University of New Brunswick Red Devils will play two games against the Panthers: Saturday night at 7:00 and Sunday afternoon at 2:00. Try

a game. @ 23