St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 29

sprite ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH THURSDAY, DEC. 20, 1973 SECTION MOB A Warm Welcome, But Not For Kings Perfect Hosts? No doubt about it. The Blues are perfect hosts. Just ask the 4115 hardy folks who braved the snow and cold to watch their favorite National Hockey League team play the Los Angeles Kings at The Arena last night.

Or just ask the Los Angeles Ki Hold it. We'd better not go that far. The Blues rewarded the fans who turned out for last night's game, braving first thehazard-ous roads and then the snow-drifted Arena parking lots, by announcing tfiat all the goodies at the refreshment stands were on the house for the evening. On the other hand, the Kings got nothing for their snowy journey here but a 3-1 defeat and the cold shoulder from Blues goalie Wayne Stephenson. Stephenson, after haying been out of the nets since" Nov.

29, turned in his second successive standout performance. He turned back 30 shots, stopping the Kings cold if you'll pardon the expression on several breakaways. The victory boosted the Blues into aotie for third place in the NHL's West Division with the Atlanta Flames. The Blues get a chance to break that tie when they play the Flames in Atlanta on Friday evening. The triumph also enabled coach Jean Guy Talbot to move into the No.

2 position on the list of Blues' coaching victories. He had been tied with Al Abour. Talbot now has a coaching record of 43-38-13, while Arbour was 42-40-25. The leader, of course, is Scotty Bowman, who piled up 110 victories during his tenture. Talbot almost didn't make it to The Arena in time for victory No.

43. It took him more than two hours to get there from the on which Stephenson was screened. Stephenson's heroics prevented further scoring by the Kings in the period. He got a pad in front of Mike Murphy's shot on a breakway, stopped an unobstructed shot by Danny Maloney and then made a save on a breakway by Don Kozak. With 42 seconds remaining in the period, Garry Unger tied the score with his twelfth goal of the season.

Steve Durbano's pass found Unger in the slot, and his hard shot hit the right goal post and banged into the net. The Kings Terry Harper was in the penalty box for hooking at the time. The power play provided the Blues with the winning goal at 3:20 of the second period. Kozak was sitting out a hooking penalty when Larry Giroux took a pass from Durbano and bounced the puck Into the net off the pads of Kings goalie Rogatien Vachon. 'Unger completed the scoring in the third period by slapping the puck into an unguarded Los Angeles net.

Glen Sather had an open shot of his own on the same play, but passed the puck to Unger instead. Afterwards, the Blues said that they had requested permission from the NHL to postpone the game but had been refused. After all, the league office reportedly said, the NHL is known for never postponing a game. Well, maybe. But wasn't it just Oct.

18, 1972, that the Chicago-California game in Oakland was postponed because the Seals didn't want to share their parking lot with the World Series crowd at the Oakland Coliseum? Neither rain nor snow nor gloom of night can keep the NHL from its appointed rounds but a little competition from baseball? Well LOS ANGELES 1 0 01 SIXES 1 1 13 FIRST PERIOD 1, Los Angeles, Corrtgan, 7 Kanneelesser, Berry), 10:24. 2, Blues, Unger 12 (Durbano, Bather), 19:18. Penalty Harper, LA, 19:02. SECOND PERIOD1 3, Blues, Olroux 3 (Durbano), 3:20. Penalties Glroux, Blues, Kozak, LA, 3:11: Hartwruk, Blues, Hoene, LA, 13:23: Sather, Blues 15:17: B.

Plager, Blues, 18:34. THIRD PERIOD 3, Blues, linger 13 (Plante, Sather), 19:01. Penalties St. iMarsallle, LA, 12:51: R. Blues, oenon, SHOTS ON GOAL 8 6 31 10 7 14 31 LOS ANGELES BLUES GOALIES (Los Angeles, Vachon; Blues, Btephenson.

A 4115. farm near High Ridge on which he lives. And two NHL officials, linesmen Bob Luther and Neil Armstrong, didn't show at all because their plane was grounded in Chicago. St. Louisans Eddie Olson, normally the official scorer, and Rich Schweigler, normally a goal judge, took their places.

The Blues themselves were on hand early, and some of them felt that the early arrival contributed to their flatness in a first period in which Stephenson had to keep his club in the game by some brilliant goal-tending. The Blues management had called the players about 4 p.m. and told them to leave immediately for The Arena to make sure they were there at game time. Most of them were on hand by 5 p.m. and then had to wait around for three hours.

"I think we lost our concentration," defenseman Steve Durbano explained afterward. Meanwhile, the Kings arrived at the usual time after the short trip over from their hotel. They then proceeded to dominate the first period, with Mike Corrigan putting them ahead at 10 minutes 24 seconds on a shot from 20 feet inside the blue line 1 tL. JuL NS xg. Tom Douglas waits on customers last night should get free refreshments.

The management allowed each of the fans management decided that any fans hardy to have two of everything and maybe that's why the young man at see the game with the Los Angeles Kings right has two hot dogs, two candy bars and two boxes of crackerjacks. MS BRISK BUSINESS. Harried at The Arena after the Blues enough to brave the snow to I -w mmismm Si 3 smmmmmmm DMA! ii 'I i Ml i Jt I i si i a a -1 if jL II s-' it iS 4. ji I- ILi', Forestering is enjoying our premium whisky for all the right reasons. Taste.

This year give the people on your gift list a bottle of premium Old Forester in the festive holiday package. After all, it's the spirit that counts. SEATS APLENTY. The Arena wasn't the most crowded place in the world last night. Only 4115 were on hand to see the Blues' 3-1 victory.

(Post-Dispatch Photos by 'Fred Sweets) Van Galder Discovers Journalism's azards jeff meyers ri I have friends who keep insisting that being a sports reporter is easier than working for a living. They envy my free tickets. (If I had to pay to see the football Cardinals, I'd probably stay home.) They envy my free food at half-time. (The uneaten cold cuts are returned to the city jail cafeteria.) They envy my association with the players. (The best rule the Big Red ever made was barring reporters from the locker room during the week.) "Sports writers should get hazardous-duty pay," said Alex Hawkins, a former Baltimore Colt who recently quit his part-time job as a columnist for the Atlanta Constitution.

He figures he escaped just in time. a baseball player invited me outside," he said. "'Next, one of the Falcon linemen wanted to fight, and he didn't care inside or outside. I never knew reporting was so rough. Have you ever tried to interview Norm Van Brocklin when he's got a mad on?" Athletes -turned -reporters are always amazed by the rigors and liabilities of journalism.

Armed with a pencil, they have discovered that the impact of the word can be more devastating than the forearms they used to wield with less discretion. Tim Van Galder is learning that his job as sports announcer for KMOX-TV can be tougher than facing the Pittsburgh Steelers. The quarterback's former teammates, and the Big Red management in particular, have been reacting to his recent criticism with more rage than they displayed when he threw interceptions. Van Galder, released last September by the Cardinals, knocked them on the air for not having an experienced quarterback between veteran starter Jim Hart and rookie Gary Keithley. The criticism was justified except coming from TVG it might have sounded like sour grapes, although his expertise puts him in a 'better position to comment than a layman.

The Big Red management, acting with the arrogance of a title contender instead of a cellar-dwellar, stormed over to KMOX and, as though it had the power of the Senate Wa- TURN TO PAGE 2, COL. 1 Kentucky Straight Bouffcon Whisky. 86 or 100 PrCjff Brown-Forman Distillers Corp Louisville Ky..