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Dec. 1, 1979

Canucks Capture 1st
With 10 Straight Wins

The Vancouver Canucks broke away from a three-team logjam at the top of the standings, using a 10-game win streak and 12-game unbeaten streak to pull ahead of the Boston Bruins and Chicago Black Hawks atop the UHL. The run included a 4-3 win at Chicago and a 4-0 shutout of the Kings at the Forum for Glenn "Chico" Resch's first shutout. The Canucks offense has been led by LW Blaine Stoughton (17-14-31) and C Kent Nilsson (14-16-30), with defenseman Larry Robinson chipping in with 22 assists.

Boston has stumbled with four ties in their last seven games, including two against Chicago, while the Hawks suffered losses at Detroit and Los Angeles in the last 10 days.

Federko's Double Hat Trick
Montreal Center Scores 7 in Back-to-Back Games

Montreal's Bernie Federko found the net seven times in back-to-back hat tricks Nov. 18 and 20, but it was not enough to lift the Habs out of a November slump. The results were a 6-6 tie against New York and a 5-6 loss at Vancouver. The Canadiens are winless in their last eight and sit eight points behind Detroit for the last playoff spot despite the emergence of Federko and D Denis Potvin, who scored 10 points in five games mid-month (two losses and three ties).

Montreal's Bernie Federko made history with back-to-back hat tricks.

League Standings

G W L T Pts G GA GD Last
1 3 Vancouver 24 17 3 4 38 102 61 41 11-2-1
2 4 Boston 24 13 1 10 36 90 54 36 8-0-6
3 2 Chicago 24 15 5 4 34 102 66 36 8-3-3
4 1 Hartford 23 15 5 3 33 111 80 31 8-4-1
5 6 Los Angeles 24 10 7 7 27 92 77 15 7-4-3
6 5 Detroit 23 10 7 6 26 88 73 15 6-4-3

7 8 Montreal 23 7 12 4 18 81 100 -19 4-6-3
8 7 Minnesota 24 6 14 4 16 75 110 -35 2-10- 2
9 10 Toronto 24 6 15 3 15 90 116 -26 5-7-2
10 9 Philadelphia 24 2 14 8 12 105 138 -33 1-9-4
11 11 New York 23 0 18 5 5 68 129 -61 0-11-2

League Leaders

CHI Darryl Sittler

VAN Gilles Gilbert

Points GP G A Pt
Darryl Sittler CHI 24 14 27 41
Marcel Dionne LA 24 16 23 39
Wayne Gretzky TOR 24 14 25 39
Charlie Simmer PHI 24 19 17 36
Dave Taylor CHI 24 15 20 35
+Steve Shutt PHI 24 14 20 34
Mike Rogers HAR 23 11 21 32
+Blaine StoughtonVAN 24 17 14 31
+Danny Gare PHI 24 14 16 30
+Kent Nilsson VAN 24 14 16 30
+Bryan Trottier DET 23 13 17 30

Goals Against Avg
GP GA GAA
+Michel Larocque BOS 8 16 2.00
Don Edwards BOS 16 38 2.38
+Gilles Gilbert VAN 8 19 2.38
Pete Peeters CHI 10 25 2.50
Glenn Resch VAN 15 38 2.66
Hardy Astrom CHI 15 40 2.79
+Denis Herron DET 8 23 3.10
Gerry Cheevers DET 14 42 3.12
Gilles Meloche LA 16 49 3.16
Mike Liut HAR 19 64 3.40

Goals
Charlie Simmer PHI 19
Blaine Stoughton VAN 17
Marcel Dionne LA 16
+Real Cloutier TOR 15
Pierre Larouche CHI 15
Blair MacDonald BOS 15
7 tied with 14

Save Percentage
+Gilles Gilbert VAN .925
Pete Peeters CHI .916
Glenn Resch VAN .911
+Michel LarocqueBOS .902
Don Edwards BOS .901
Hardy Astrom CHI .897
Gerry Cheevers DET .896
Gilles Meloche LA .892
+Denis Herron DET .884
Mike Liut HAR .883

Assists
Darryl Sittler CHI 27
Wayne Gretzky TOR 25
+Marcel Dionne LA 23
+Larry Robinson VAN 22
Mike Rogers HAR 21
+Denis Potvin MON 20
+Steve Shutt PHI 20
Dave Taylor CHI 20
+Bobby Clarke BOS 19
+Peter McNab PHI 19
+Gilbert PerreaultMIN 18

Power Play Goals
Rheal Cloutier TOR 7
+Pierre Larouche CHI 6
Kent Nilsson VAN 6
+Mike Bossy HAR 5
+Dave Christian LA 5
Mike Eaves HAR 5
+Guy Lafleur BOS 5
Blair MacDonald BOS 5
Mike Rogers HAR 5
+Darryl Sittler CHI 5
Bryan Trottier DET 5
Steve Vickers DET 5

Hat Tricks
+Charlie Simmer PHI 2
+Bernie Federko MON 2
13 tied with 1

MVP Race

Skaters GP G Ast Pts PIM +/- TkA Hits BkS MVP
1 2 Darryl Sittler CHI 24 14 27 41 27 10 13 39 3 100
2 8 Marcel Dionne LA 24 16 23 39 23 17 10 39 8 98.3
3 1 Dave Taylor CHI 24 15 20 35 27 8 10 40 7 89.8
4 - Wayne Gretzky TOR 24 14 25 39 6 -2 9 36 14 88.1
5 - Kent Nilsson VAN 24 14 16 30 4 18 13 21 9 83.1
6 - Charlie Simmer PHI 24 19 17 36 27 -8 9 27 9 83.1
7 - Blaine Stoughton VAN 24 17 14 31 6 16 7 22 6 83.1
8 7 Pierre Larouche CHI 24 15 12 27 6 11 13 21 6 78.0
9 9 Bryan Trottier DET 23 13 17 30 19 6 16 35 13 76.3
10 3 Mike Rogers HAR 23 11 21 32 4 10 8 15 6 76.3

Goalies GP GAA Save% Great W L T OL SO MVP
1 3 Don Edwards BOS 16 2.38 .901 22 8 1 7 0 0 100
2 2 Mike Liut HAR 19 3.40 .883 23 13 3 2 0 0 98.5
3 5 Gilles Meloche LA 16 3.16 .892 31 8 2 5 0 0 95.6
4 4 Glenn Resch VAN 15 2.66 .911 22 11 2 2 0 1 92.8
5 - Tony Esposito MIN 22 4.50 .871 32 6 12 3 0 1 91.5
6 8 Hardy Astrom CHI 15 2.79 .897 9 7 4 3 0 1 76.1
7 6 Wayne Stephenson MON 18 4.10 .875 15 5 8 2 0 0 72.3
8 7 Gerry Cheevers DET 14 3.12 .896 19 4 6 3 0 1 72.4
9 9 Pete Peeters CHI 10 2.62 .916 18 8 1 1 0 1 65.9
10 - Gilles Gilbert VAN 8 2.38 .925 16 6 0 2 0 1 52.2

Milestones

Oct 11 - MTL C Ulf Nilsson 1st UHL goal
Oct 15 - MIN G Tony Esposito first UHL shutout, record 57 saves
Oct 17 - BOS Dennis Maruk first UHL hat trick
Nov 20 - MON Bernie Federko back-to-back hat tricks

Team Capsules

Won 10 straight Nov 4-24. Blaine Stoughton and Kent Nilsson scored 18 points during the win streak. G Gilles Gilbert had a 41 save streak and leads the league with a .925 save percentage. LW Pierre Mondou scored a hat trick in a 6-4 at Toronto Nov. 22.

G Don Edwards leads the MVP race for goalies with a .901 save percentage. His 2.22 GAA led the league in November. After just 1 goals in October, Guy Lafleur scored 13 goals in November, tied for the league lead. D Rick Green leads the league with 20 takeaways.

Darryl Sittler took over first position in the MVP race with 23 points in November, inlcuding a league-leading 17 assists. The 29-year-old center leads the league with 27 assists, including three in a 6-5 win at Montreal Nov. 30.

The streaky Whalers dropped three spots from 1st to 4th after starting the month 0-4-1, but have won eight straight since, coinciding with C Mike Rogers league-best eight-game point streak.

C Marcel Dionne leads the league with 26 star points and shot from 8th to 2nd in the MVP race in November, helping the Kings move up a spot from 6th to 5th. L.A. won four straight to end the month. 24-year-old F Tim Young scored five goals in the last three games after netting just three in his first 21 games.

The curse of the late goal has returned after a brief respite. Detroit lost 2-3 at home to Boston Nov, 18 after Clark Gillies scored a power-play goal with 10 minutes to play. Then at home against Toronto on Nov. 28, the Wings rallied from three goals behind only to lose the game to Dan Labraaten's power-play goal. In the season's first month, Detroit was notorious for squandering late leads or blowing games in the final period.

The league's third weakest offense has come to life lately. After averaging 3.0 goals in their first 15 games, the Habs have upped their production to 4.5 goals per game in their last eight. D Borje Salming had a single goal in his first 18 games before turning in a hat trick in a 5-6 loss to Chicago Nov. 30. Bernie Federko's 11 November goals came on just 21 shots, giving him a league-best 52.4 shooting percentage.

The slumping North Stars are 2-11-4 since their 4-3-0 start. Five different scorers featured in a 5-1 win against New York Nov. 20 that snapped a nine-game winless streak. G Tony Esposito has made a league-best 32 great saves, but allowed 5+ goals in five straight games Nov. 8-16 (four losses and a tie).

Toronto climbed a spot to 9th but is still 11 points out of the playoffs zone. C Wayne Gretzky came to life in November, with 25 points, tied for the league league, including 4- and 5-point games Nov. 26 and 30. Goaltending has been an issue with Mario Lessard (.839) and Greg Millen (.842) ranking 14th and 15th in save percentage among 18 qualified goalies.

UHL goal leader Charlie Simmer's Nov. 18 hat trick was his second of the year. Both of his hat tricks came in losses. Philadelphia has allowed the most goals (138, 5.8 goals per game). Steve Shutt scored 25 points in November, tied for the league lead.