THE CITIZEN, Prince George - Friday, June 2, 1978 — 13
Gloom covers world soccer
  BUENOS AIRES (Reuter) — West Germany’s scoreless draw with Poland left a blanket of gloom over the opening of the 1978 World Cup soccer finals, but favored Argentina could strike a blow for adventurous soccer in today’s three-match program.
  After all the ballyhoo leading up to Thursday’s kickoff match at the River Plate Stadium, there was a feeling of deflation after the West Germans looked anything but defending world champions against the Poles.
  The Germans came to Argentina after suffering defeats in successive matches against Brazil and Sweden. Against Poland, their decline continued. Their defence was uneasy, they were unimaginative in midfield and non-existent in attack.
  Manager Helmut Schoen, the guiding force behind West German soccer during a 14-year reign as national team manager, admitted that it was a “very poor game.” Former West German World Cup star Guenther Netzer described the German performance as “shocking” while retired Brazilian idol Pele said Brazil had nothing to fear from European teams on the evidence of Thursday’s match.
  Poland had more cause for satisfaction. With a little luck they could have won comfortably against the Germans and manager Jacek Gmoch said it was only the brilliance of ageless goalkeeper Sepp Maier which stopped his team winning.
  But even Maier knew little about a fierce ground shot from Polish captain Kazimierz Deyna which struck him on the legs when destined for the back of the net.
  Grzegorz Lato and Andzrej Szarmach, the top scorers in the 1974 tournament when Poland was third after losing to West Germany in the semi-finals, showed they had lost none of their menace while Wlodzimierz Lubanski still had something to offer after fighting his way back into the team following serious injury.
  Remembering that this was the fourth successive scoreless draw in World Cup opening matches, there was a feeling that the strain of the occasion might have been responsible for the poor match.
  The result confirmed the view that both teams will qualify for the second round from Group 2 where their rivals are Mexico and Tunisia, who meet today at Rosario.
  But much more interest will be focused on the two opening matches in the fiercely competitive Group 1 - Argentina against Hungary in Buenos Aires and France versus Italy in Mar del Plata.
  Many of the Argentines who booed Poland and West Germany off the pitch Thursday will be back at the River Plate Stadium today for their team's opening match in a campaign aimed at bringing the cup to Argentina for the fist time.
Poland’s Maculewicz goes high to avoid a fallen West German during Thursday’s 0-0 World Cup game.
KURTENBACH STAYING
Canucks after Swedes
  VANCOUVER (CP) - Vancouver Canucks have made generous .contract offers to Swedish defencemen Lars Lindgren and Lars Zetter-
 stroem, general manager Jake Milford said Thursday.
 The players were scouted by BabetPratt, a member of Hockey’s Hall of Fame, at the
Fred Shero's in Ferguson's out
   NEW YORK (AP) - John Ferguson spent the day on the phone with his scouts, planning which players New York Rangers would choose in the upcoming National Hockey League draft of junior players.
    He should never have hung up.
   Ferguson s phone rang again at 6 p.m. Thursday. Team president Bill Jennings was on the line. “He said, ‘I’m sorry, but Fred Shero has been signed as coach and general manager,”’ Ferguson recalled.
    So Ferguson, who answered the phone as the Rangers’ general manager, was unemployed before the receiver returned to its cradle. So was Jean-Guy Talbot, who endured a year as the Rangers coach.
    In their place is Shero, who resigned as coach of Philadelphia Flyers on May 18 but saw his retirement last just 14 days. While Ferguson pondered who the Rangers would choose first in the draft two weeks from now, his bosses were trading that selection, and an unspecified amount of cash, to the Flyers for the right to sign Shero to a five-year contract at a reported $200,000 a year.
    “Frankly, I don’t feel that bad because the club's in good shape,” said Ferguson in a telephone interview. ‘‘They’ve got good young kids; the two Swedish players, Ulf Nilsson and Anders Hedberg, will be great. So there’s a good, solid nucleus.”
    But now it’s in the hands of the 52-year-old Shero, who guided the Flyers to Stanley Cup championships in 1974 and
Watt won't coach Stars
  TORONTO (CP) - Tom Watt beat Minnesota North Stars to the conference table Thursday and announced that, after reassessing his output to hockey, he had decided to remain at the University of Toronto.
   Watt, whose Toronto teams have won nine national collegiate titles in his 13 years on the job, had been expected to be named head coach of the National Hockey League team at a news conference today.
      1
 1975. Shero is expected to coach the Rangers next season and possibly the year after before turning the bench duties over to his assistant, Mike Nykoluk.
   That is, if he ever gets around to calling Nykoluk.
   “I’ve heard all the news as far as Freddy signing and that I’m supposed to be going with him, but I haven’t heard from Freddy yet,” Nykoluk said. “I know Freddy well enough. He’ll get around to it.”
   Ferguson, hired by the Rangers on Jan. 7,1976, said he has no resentment about his release, ‘‘but I must say it
SHERO
 caught me totally by surprise.”
    He might have been the only person in New York who didn’t see it coming. Madison Square Garden President Sonny Wer-blin, the man who brought Joe Namath to football’s Jets and bought the Swedes for Ferguson’s Rangers, had promised sweeping changes.
Earlier story page 15.
 recent world championships in Prague. Pratt is a member of the Vancouver club’s public relations staff and a television analyst.
    “If I thought I had the inside track to get them,” Milford said, ‘‘I’d go to Stockholm tomorrow to sign them.
    “But their lawyer is talking to several other NHL teams and he’s to get back to me within the next week.”
   Milford said the Canucks will be making five or six changes next season in an effort to get back into the NHL playoffs, which they’ve missed for two years.
   The Canucks already have released veteran forward Gerry O’Flaherty and signed goaltender Gary Bromley, who played for the champion Winnipeg Jets of the World Hockey Association last season.
   Vancouver will have the fourth pick in the NHL amateur draft later this month and Canuck scouts hope to have a shot at centre Ryan Walter of Seattle Breakers, or right winger Wayne Babych of Portland Winter Hawks, or centre Bill Derlago of Brandon Wheat Kings. All played junior in the Western Canada Hockey League last season.
    Milford also said that goal-tender Curt Ridley, who suffered a knee injury late in the season, will not require surgery.
    Orland Kurtenbach, fired as coach in April, will stay on with the Canucks for two years as a scout, a club spokesman said Thursday.
   Kurtenbach coached the Canucks for 1V4 seasons. He was the team’s first captain in 1970-71 when Vancouver entered the NHL as an expansion team. He had two years left on his contract when relieved of the coaching duties by Milford.
   The Canucka named Harry Neale as their new coach last week. He’s the sixth coach in their brief NHL history. Neale coached New England Whalers to the WHA final against Winnipeg.
RON ALLERTON SPORTS EDITOR 562-2441
 The Citizen
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Beth Stone close again
  TORONTO (CP) - Beth Stone has been too close t6 winning in past years to get excited about holding the opening-day lead in the $100,000 Ladies Professional Golf Association tournament.
    She shot the best round of her professional career on Thursday over the 6,265-yard par-73 St. George’s Golf and Country Club course—a seven-under-par 66— to take a one stroke lead in the tournament.
    Stone, 38, is one stroke ahead of Susan O’Connor, who also shot her best sub-par round-a six-under-par 67.
    Incredibly, during the last 17 years and the opening 13 tournaments of 1978, Stone has never won.
   Second? Yes, many times. A total of five in all with the last No. 2 spot occurring in the 1974 women’s U.S. Open.
   “I’ve been out here too long to let it (not winning) bother me,” said Stone, a Miami, Fla. native. “I‘m just not going to push it. If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen."
  Included in her round Thursday were six birdies, one eagle and one bogey.
  By her own standards, O’Connor’s round was one of her most satisfying.
   “It wasn’t easy,” the Newport Beach, Calif., resident said, “it was a lot of hard work.”
by MIKE TRICKEY Citizen Sports Reporter
      Save-T Driving School finally won its first game of the Big Six Softball Association season Thursday, after five straight losses.
      The all-native club broke a 3-3 tie in the fifth and went on to a 5-3 triumph over the winless expansion Analog.
      Errors proved Analog’s undoing, as Save-T scored just one earned run.
      Gord Gervais, who was reportedly out for the season with arm trouble, was the winning pitcher, while Mike McCallum took the loss, in spite of belting an inside-the-park homer in the third.
      Pine Centre Mailers finally scored some runs in the nightcap, as they downed McDermid and Lofting Canadians 9-3.
      The nine runs is one more than the Mailers scored in their first four games.
      A five-run third inning did the job for the Mailers, as they tagged losing pitcher Paul Castongay for three consecutive singles, after opening the inning by reaching base on an error.
      Gerry Melnyk was the winning pitcher, in relief of Rick Tuttosi.
      All league teams except the Lumbermen and Analog are entered in this weekend’s tournament.
      Pioneer Homes continued to have bad luck as it dropped its fifth straight senior women’s league game.
    Pioneer allowed the Backwoods Corner Juniors to score once in the bottom of the seventh and jgave up an unearned run in the eighth to lose 2-1.
   The loss was the third by one run for the Pioneers.
   Toni Foisy continued to pitch well, in spite of taking the loss and Carol Legere picked up the win.
Interior Warehousing maintained its hold on first by com-
 Second period costs Northern
  Taco Grande Pizza Hut scored five second period goals enroute to an 8-3 triumph over Northern Sportswear in a North Central Lacrosse Association game Thursday.
  The teams were deadlocked 1-1 after the first, but the second period outburst was all Taco Grande needed for the win, as it limited Northern to just one goal in each period.
  Brian Berg did most of the damage, scoring three of his four goals in the second period.
  Other Taco Grande Pizza Hut scorers were Dan Weatherly and Bob Ormond with two.
  A1 Graves, Ken McIntyre and Mike Mushins replied for Northern Sportswear.
  Taco Grande held a 33-31 shots advantage and took five of 14 penalties including one of two majors.
  Northern Sportswear plays the Blues Tuesday at 8 p.m. in the Coliseum.
  ing from behind to defeat Yel-lowhead Inn 5-3.
   The warehousers scored three in the sixth inning to take the victory.
    Dawn Storey was the winning pitcher and Alma Mohr the loser.
     The league is idle until Monday, when Yellowhead plays Interior and Jack Ellis meets the Juniors at Cawdell Park.
    Baldy Hughes won its first game of the recreation men’s league season with a 6-5 extrainning decision over Wansa.
    Dave Fehr walked in the winning run in the bottom of the eighth.
    Ted Doyle took over first with an ll-0drubbingof Fraser Stationers Thursday.
    Tabor Lake moved into a tie for second in the commercial women’s league with a 24-16 in over Allied Power.
  • Heather Murdoch pitched the win for Tabor.
    Earlier in the week Terry’s Cafe thumped The Pas Lumber 26-3 and P.G. Pulp downed Tabor Arms 14-5.
    The league has six games Sunday, beginning at 9 a.m.
    The top two teams in the senior men’s slow pitch league took advantage of rival outfielders’ errors to record Thursday victories.
    Angels remained undefeated by dumping winless Inland Kenworth Wobblers 15-3 and the John Deere Grapplers dumped Molson Canadians 12-6.
    Both games were tight until the late innings, when the losing clubs’ outfielders misjudged fly balls, resulting in a flood of unearned runs.
    Next play is Monday, when the Wobblers play Yellowhead-Midas at 6:30 p.m. and P.G. Pulp battles Target Transport at 7:45 at the Highway 16 West park.
 Lions trying Yankee guard
   COURTENAY, B.C. CP) -British Columbia Lions have signed guard Tony Rice of San Jose State to a 1978 Canadian Football League contract.
     Rice was brought to training camp Wednesday after Canadian rookie Gary Evans failed his physical_ examination.
    Two player's left training camp on their own—import linebacker Lorenzo Turner and guard Terry Davis, a Canadian rookie.
    Head coach Vic Rapp said he wants to get another import linebacker into camp. The Lions failed to sign Tom Perry of the University of Colorado and import Pat Richardson also failed his medical.
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