By DICK WEISS - PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS - 6/18/1975
Wayne Platt was part of the active 20-man roster last night when the Wings defeated the Quebec Caribous, 16-10, before 3,784 fans at the Spectrum. But the pudgy All-Star goalie never got off the drawing board and into coach Jim Hinkson’s game plan.
Platt is sick. He has stomach cramps and a severe ear infection caused last week after a heavy check by Boston’s Chuck Li broke blood vessels in his throat.
“THE INFECTION has spread to both ears,” Platt explained, “and now, to top everything off, they’re running tests on me for mono. Turns out I slept 15 hours yesterday.”
While Platt is recuperating, John Hamilton is busy proving there is more than one quality goalie on the team which is now 11-9-1 and only one point behind second-place Maryland in the National Lacrosse League standings.
Hamilton had an incredible 53 saves last Saturday during a 19-13 victory over the Long Island Tomahawks. He made 39 more saves against the Caribous.
“Eventually,” Hinkson said, “what I’d like to do is alternate our goalies on a game-by-game basis. I like to have my goalies sharp though and after Wayne missed practice Monday, I decided to use John two games
in a row. I think he’s shown he can play in this league.”
Hamilton almost didn’t give the league a second chance. After a restless summer as a deep sub, Hamilton came close to retirement at 22.
“JOHN COMES from a quiet town in Victoria, British Columbia,” Hinkson said. “I don’t think he’s used to the rush-rush atmosphere that sometimes surrounds a pro athlete. I know he didn’t like commuting to Canada.”
Wings officials made six calls and two trips to Victoria before Hamilton finally agreed to come out of hibernation two days.
After agreeing on a contract, he moved into a South Jersey teammates apartment with Joe Hutchings and Ziggy Musial.
His stabilized lifestyle has carried over to his play, which Hinkson de- scribes as “much more mature.”
Hamilton goes a step further. “I don’t consider myself second-string to anyone,” he said. “I feel I’m sharing the job with Wayne.”
Last night, he wasn’t sharing the job with anybody. “I was so uptight,” Hinkson admitted, “that I forgot to call the league offices in Montreal and move Grant Bryck, our third- string goalie, up from the plus-five list. It was my mistake.”
Fortunately, Hamilton was injured or tested against Quebec, a last-place team playing without three stars. Jim Higgs, Pat Differ and Paul Cioci were all injured and did not dress.
“It was pretty much of a breather,” Hamilton said.
