Jets check Norsemen in rough 6-4 battle, Neeld is suspended, transcribed article (Tonawanda News, 1976-03-23).pdf

Jets check Norsemen in rough 6-4 battle, Neeld is suspended, transcribed article (Tonawanda News, 1976-03-23).pdf

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JOHNSTOWN — Player-coach Guy Trottier and his Buffalo Norsemen ran into their old friend again Tuesday night when the Johnstown Jets put together a second period rally to defeat the Norsemen, 6-4, evening up the best-of-five quarter final series at one game apiece.

That old friend was referee Gene Kusy, who was the center of attention is this penalty-filled, hard-hitting game.

Johnstown, the defending Lockhart Cup champions, came out hitting everyone in sight, but couldn’t find any takers on the Norsemen side. Its antics produced a lot of penalties and only a 1-0 lead after the first period.

The action continued in the second period as the Jets completely out-hit, out-hustled and out-played the Norsemen to take a 5-1 lead. The Jets outshot Buffalo, 24-8 in the period and 38-17 over two periods.

The N-Men tried to come back in the final period with three power play goals, but a John Gofton goal late in game, put the icing on the Jet cake.

Kusy, who has a habit of officiating a lot of games that get out of hand, had no fun in this one. From the start, he was hit from both sides about letting calls go.

After letting the first two periods go, Kusy tried to call everything he saw in the third period. That angered both benches and by the time it was over a Jet had blasted a puck in Kusy’s direction during play, two Jets were given 10-minute misconducts for arguing a call and Greg Neeld was given a game-misconduct for throwing his stick into the stands after the game had ended.

On top of all this, Kusy got beaten up by some fans as he walked from the ice to the dressing room. He needed six security officers to escort him out of the building.

Hansen, who was steaming over a penalty call, won a faceoff early in the third period and quickly fired the puck in Kusy’s direction. Hansen and Guido Tenesi were both given 10 misconducts later in the third period when they wouldn’t stop arguing with Kusy about another call.

After the game was over and the Jets were off the ice, Trottier, goalie Jim Mackey and Neeld stayed on the ice to argue with Kusy. While the three were conferring, many of the 2,364 fans were littering the ice with all kinds of debris, while yelling displeasures at the threesome.

Something that somebody said angered Neeld so much that he turned around and whipped his stick into the stands. Nobody was hit by it, though.

Kusy, who saw the incident, handed Neeld a game misconduct. A one-game suspension goes along with a game misconduct.

NAHL Commissioner Jack Timmins was in attendance and a Johnstown report said that Timmins rushed into the Jets’ office after the game to make sure that Kusy had given Neeld a game misconduct for his action.

Johnstown’s Cambria Arena has been the scene of many fan-player brawls this year, including a Feb. 21 encounter with Binghamton, which resulted in four Dusters being arrested.

Dave Peace, Charlie Labelle, Larry Gould and Neeld netted Norsemen goals.

The third game of the series is Wednesday night here before a fourth game is scheduled for Thursday in the Tonawanda Sports Center.

1976-03-23