By ROB TANENBAUM - Courier-Post Staff - 9-5-1974
PHILADELPHIA—Welcome to the Nations Trophy playoffs, people. They’ve been telling us all along that the box lacrosse championships would be everything the Stanley Cup is, except for Peter Puck.
They even gave us a reminder by starting the evening in the Spectrum with Bobby Clarke giving an MVP award to Wings’ goalie Wayne Platt.
Then they let Doug Favell score Philadelphia’s only goal of the first period. But the similarities ended right there with Maryland leading 5-1 after the first 20 minutes.
In the Stanley Cup, that score means wait for Game No. 2. In the Nations Trophy, the fun is just beginning.
In the Nations Trophy, no lead is insurmountable, any time is time enough. The Wings proved that to 7,615 in attendance Wednesday night by rallying for an 11-10 overtime victory.
During the first period, the Wings played like they were kids suffering through their first recital. The Arrows beat them to loose balls, beat them up and down the floor, and beat them up.
“A lot of our good players were tight,” said coach Bobby Allan. “And I wasn’t happy with the officials. They called some cheap ones on us early and our guys got frustrated.”
More NHL flavor. The refs were John McCauley and Bruce Hood, who called everything but icing. Hood called the Wings’ Larry Lloyd for charging at a crucial point in the game when Lloyd pushed down Arrow star Paul Suggate from behind on a breakaway. Lloyd’s play was an often-seen but never-called penalty this year.
“Hood hasn’t reffed one game all season, then he comes in here and does the playoffs,” complained Lloyd. “He didn’t know the rule on that play. He even admitted it to me.”
It was Lloyd who got the Wings headed in the right direction in the second period. Trailing 6-2, Platt lobbed a pass downcourt to Lloyd while the Wings were shorthanded; Lloyd used his height to retrieve the bouncing ball and when goalie Roger Williams came out of his net, the Wings’ top scorer put in a spectacular blind, backhand shot.
Lloyd also scored the next two goals. And the game returned to a close-checking Stanley Cup-type affair. During the regular NLL season, one goal usually meant nothing. But midway through this first playoff, it was evident this was not a time for goal inflation.
The Wings finally tied the game with 7:35 to play in regulation on a short-handed goal by John Grant while Lloyd was off.
But 26 seconds later, the Arrows’ Ken Henderson found the low corner with a blistering drive and the Wings were still going uphill. Actually, they would have crashed, but Platt came up with four miraculous breakaway saves.
But another miracle, one rarely seen in Stanley Cup play, was a must for the Wings. As the final seconds ticked away, Suggate had the ball safely tucked away in his stick.
Then, tiny but tough Larry Ferguson came from his off-wing to bash the ball out of Suggate’s grasp and (a la Dave Schultz in the fourth playoff game with the Bruins) got the ball out of the corner to Terry Lloyd. Lloyd spotted Grant alone on the right side and Grant let fly with a low bounce shot. Only two ticks from defeat, the ball hopped in the net and overtime was to come.
“It was a lucky shot,” said Grant. “Williams was stopping everything low tonight, but he came out a little and it just bounced past him into the corner.”
The 10-minute extra period started no better than the first did for Philadelphia. Just 16 seconds had passed when Tom Vann found the low corner with a long shot.
But 6:33 later, the Wings’ Terry Rowland took off on one of his patented roars for the net. The Arrows seemed to leave a path for the defenseman and he bounced a weak shot past a frightened Williams.
And, with only 59 seconds to go, it was Grant again in the right spot. The king-sized forward was perched on the crease with Suggate and Williams trying to stop him. But Grant swung away from Suggate and swept a quick shot over Williams’ shoulder for the game-winner. It was the first and best time for the Wings to be ahead.
“Williams isn’t much of a goalie,” said Grant. “But he’s improved a lot. I played against him last year and he must have gone to one of those goalie schools over the winter.”
The same two teams meet at 8:05 tonight for Game No. 2 in the Spectrum and the consensus is that the whole series will be a Stanley Cup affair.
“Yeh, they’ll all be like this one,” said Platt. “Close, all defense, every goal important. But I wish they weren’t.”
