Liut’s Return Made Easy by Teammates

While 21,624 eyes (6,218 below the 1988-89 average) at the Civic Center focused on goalie Mike Liut, other people took the pressure off him Wednesday night.

The Washington Capitals, who held a 20-9-3 all-time series advantage over the Whalers and had beaten them in five of six games the last two years, were the victims, 4-1.

Paul MacDermid, who hadn’t scored a goal in the Whalers’ first three games and had never scored a goal against the Caps, got all the home team needed, two, in the first period.

Ed Kastelic, who is with the Whalers because the team’s best player, Kevin Dineen, is injured, scored his first goal as a Whaler. A former Capital, he is likely to be returned to Binghamton of the American Hockey League when Dineen’s back spasms are no longer a problem, which will be shortly.

Ray Ferraro, who led all Adams Division centers with 41 goals last year, scored his first of the season, too, and had two assists. He seemed relieved.

“I had four or five great opportunities to score in the first three games,” Ferraro said. “And they wouldn’t go. Getting that first one is really important.”

The size of the crowd, 10,812, the smallest number to see a Whalers game in almost four years, is troubling. The range of ticket prices, $13 to $28, and the fact that the games are available to television viewers, may be the answer if the question is, “Where’d everybody go?”

If the question is, “How do we get them back?” the answer is simply keep playing, Whalers, as you did Wednesday night.”

This was a superior effort. The way to defeat any enemy is to figure out its weaknesses and exploit them. Coach Rick Ley and his men did just that. Rod Langway, one of the NHL’s best defensemen, couldn’t play because of a sprained knee. So the Whalers put all the pressure they could on the Caps defense.

“We tried to make (Scott) Stevens and (Kevin) Hatcher work hard and I think we were able to do that,” Ley said. “We put a lot of pressure on them.”

The Caps have goaltending problems, but they probably wouldn’t have been able to deal with the Whalers this night even if they had boarded up the goalmouth and hung a “No Parking” sign in the crease. The home team was swarming.

The goalie coach Brian Murray sent into battle, 19-year-old Olaf Kolzig, had never seen a second of NHL action. He is no Mike Liut, but even if he was he would have needed more help.

Coach Murray sympathized with the youngster later, saying, “I thought we were very unfair to him, early on. On a normal night, our defense would give him a hand (on loose pucks) and not let the guy get to the rebound.”

The first goal of the game was a good example of what the visiting coach was talking about. The puck caromed behind the Caps net and Hatcher and Bill Houlder converged on it. But they were like two undecided infielders who let a popup drop. They let the puck lay. Dean Evason skated in, said “‘scuse me, gents,” picked up the puck and centered it to MacDermid. Bingo, 1-0.

And so it went for last season’s Patrick Division champions.

It’s a good thing MacDermid got his heavy work done early. He was banished for the final seven minutes of the game, charged with high-sticking Rob Murray. The rugged winger drew a five-minute major and a game misconduct for the violation.

But don’t judge him harshly. MacDermid, voted the No. 2 star of the game, is a two-fisted hockey player who willingly mixes it up with anyone who wants to challenge him, but he’s not mean-spirited. Murray’s injury was an accident.

“The puck came across the center,” said MacDermid, “and I went to lift Murray’s stick. He moved it, and my stick caught him and drew blood. It’s one of those penalties that the referee had to call. I understand that. But he knew it was an accident and he told me he would put that in his report. One of those things, that’s all.”

Luckily, the Whalers had their rival lashed to the mast, 4-1, by the time Mac retired for the night. They needed only to keep the other guys at bay, which they did rather easily.

“You certainly don’t want to leave a 3-2 game, or any close game, that way,” said MacDermid.

The Whalers had a 21-17-2 record at home last year. If you want to do big things in this league, you have to do better than that. The Whalers opened this season with a loss at home.

“We were under .500 (overall) last year because we didn’t play well enough at home,” Ferraro said. “We don’t want to fall behind like that again.”

Nor do they want to play before comparatively small crowds at home. Those empty seats don’t make any noise at all.