Evening star., 1941-03-17
DC. Team Needs Win
Tie 10 Keep Trophy
From Baltimore
Triumph Over Orioles
For Title CIimoxes
Amazing Recovery
BY BURTON HAWKINS.

ton Eagles, most of whom were
collected quickly by Coach Redvers
Mackenzie only four days before
the squad converged on Montreal
for an abbreviated training season,
now own the Eastern Amateur
Hockey League championship.
Remaining is the formality of
finishing five Eastern League games,
in which the Eagles doubtless will
clinch the Walker Cup, symbolic
of superiority in the final third of
the campaign, before plunging into
a playoff for the United States
Amateur Hockey Association cham
pionship. A win and a tie will get
them the Walker Cup.
Washington climaxed a coura-
geous comeback last night at Balti-
more by beating the Orioles, 2-f,
to capture the Eastern League pen
nant, thus crushing Baltimores bid
for a second successive crown into
a fattened, futile gesture.
Shakeup Helps Eagles.
The Eagles accepted the chal-
lenge of the Orioles heading into
the stretch and went to the whip,
scoring IL victories against one
defeat and two ties after swapping
a losing streak which threatened
to throttle their title ambitions.
1t may be significant that the
spectacular splurge of the Eagles
dates from the day Defenseman
Johnny McTeer was released, Wing
man Mike Germann was placed on
probation and two other Eagles
salaries were clipped. The Eagles,
who had allowed once seemingly
prohibitive lead to perish and wit
messed the Orioles hop into the top
spot, lost only one contest after
Coach Mackenzie clamped down.
Mackenzie, incidentally, has pre-
served his 31-year record of never
having had team finish lower
than third in the Eastern League.
He accomplished it with q club
whose identity was unknown to him
only a few hours before he was
to start whipping it into condition
at Montreal. He was grasping at
straws to collect a team and, it de-
veloped, virtually every straw was
raft of talent
Good Players Picked Up.
He plucked his goahe from the
River Vale SkeeterS, who finished
last in the Eastern League last
season, and fortified the capable
Gordon Hemming with a smooth
understudy in Les Colvin. From
the same Skeeters he nabbed Center
Morn Burns, l4th among league
scorers last season, and had the
satisfaction of seeing Burns set an
l-time Eastern League goal scoring
record
He saw such players as Jimmy
McCurry, Frank Mailley, Gordon
Pranschke and Russ Rossignol bios
som into steady, sometimes spec
tacular, performers. In Walter
Scherer, defenseman who replaced
McTeer, he came up with one of
the leagues hardest hitting players.
Mackenzie saw Len Burrage con-
tinue his polished play of last sea-
son and doubtless was surprised
when Wingman Hal Dewey showed
some spark, seemingly the only
item he required to become one of
the loops most feared fellows.
Courteaus Goal Tells.
The Eagles, though, have reached
only half their goal. Soon they will
battle for the United States amateur
crown in a somewhat silly scrap, for
the only teams entered in the strug-
gle are Eastern League outfits.
Washington has battled for months
to prove it is the best of those six
teams and now is requested to prove
1t again in a shorter series.
Washington trailed, OIL. enter
ing the final period last night
against the Orioles, but Dewey
locked the score after only % Sec
onds and fiery little Paul Courteau
shot the pennant winning goal past
Goalie Frank Ceryance some 13
minutes later.
A capacity crowd of $500 wit
messed the rough match and an
estimated 1000 fans were turned
away.