Perreault scored seven points (2 goals, 5 assists) against the California Golden Seals on February 1, 1976
Perreault scored seven points (2 goals, 5 assists) against the California Golden Seals on February 1, 1976
Written by Dick Johnston for the Hockey News edition on February 27, 1976
The first time the Buffalo Sabres visited the West Coast this season, the French Connection line scored exactly one goal. Gil Perreault got it. His wingers, Rick Martin and Rene Robert, didn’t pick up a single point between them on the three-game jaunt, on which the Sabres defeated only the California Golden Seals.
The second West Coast trip produced two victories in three games and the members of the French Connection had themselves quite a scoring spree.
The only thing was—the three of them were playing on different lines.
In fact, the way coach Floyd Smith was mixing his forwards at that particular point in time, anyone might be playing on different lines during a single game.
In the three coast games, the three ex-Connection forwards picked up a total of 19 points. Robert scored four goals and assisted on three. Perreault had three goals and six assists. Martin scored only once and assisted on another goal but the goal he scored was the only one the Sabres got in a 2-1 loss to Vancouver. That goal was, in fact, the only one the Sabres put past Gary Smith in six periods of hockey in the Canucks’ Pacific Coliseum.
Martin scored that goal while at left wing on the power play. On regular shifts, he was playing right wing on a line with Pete McNab and Brian Spencer.
McNab, however, suffered a 12-stitch cut on his scalp in the final period of the Vancouver game and sat out most of the game in Los Angeles the next night.
Perreault, who fed Martin a perfect pass in front of the net for the goal against Vancouver, was the dominant figure in both Sabre victories.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj1SUF4wzu0[/embed]
The trip began with a 9-5 triumph over the California Golden Seals, a game which was a showcase for Perreault’s talents. Gil scored two goals and assisted on five.
“Best night I’ve ever had,” said the dipsy-doodling center in what for him is a long and surprising sort of statement.
Gary Simmons, who had won six straight games in goal for the Seals before this one. marveled. “That Perreault is just amazing, really amazing. On that one goal when we had two and they had one in the penalty box, he just cruised around looking for the perfect screen.
“I’ll tell you this, he sure found it because I never saw that puck.”
Perreault set up his new right winger, Danny Gare, for the Sabre sophomore’s third hat trick of the season in the California contest. The three gave Gare 33 in the club’s 50 games and made him the team leader in that category.
In the final West Coast game, a 4-3 victory over the Los Angeles Kings, Perreault failed to score on a penalty shot—his first as a pro—but came back to score what proved to be the winning goal.
It was an odd game.
The Sabres ran up a 3-0 lead on a pair of goals by Robert—who also had scored two against California—and one by Jerry Korab.
Perreault was awarded a penalty shot by referee Andy Van Hellemond when goalie Rogie Vachon raced out of the net and tossed his stick at the puck when Gil broke in alone.
Perreault tried to beat Vachon with a high shot to the corner but Rogie blocked it.
The Kings then came alive. It took them only 13 seconds to get on the scoreboard. Vic Venasky scored on a rebound and Mike Corrigan made it 3-2 about six minutes later.
The Kings appeared to have momentum when Perreault managed to control the puck in the Los Angeles end with a great effort, then drilled a 35-foot shot past Vachon. Mike Murphy scored on a Los Angeles power play in the final period but the Sabres held on to deal the Kings their first home loss in a month.
Al Smith, who hadn’t played in a hockey game since the end of the 1974-75 season, tended goal for the Sabres against the Kings and did an outstanding job. Smith, who played for the New England Whalers in the World Hockey Association the last three years, signed with the Sabres shortly before they left for the West Coast.
His victory in L.A. was his first in the NHL since a 6-1 win over Chicago when he was with Detroit in 1972. The win also was the first in the Forum for a Sabre team with Floyd Smith as coach.
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