The Rise and Fall of the Buffalo Norsemen Part 3: Hockey Night in Tonawanda – Norsemen v. Sabres

(Read time: 7 minutes)

The Norsemen’s first test

Before the old Norse seafarers slid their wide-bellied cargo knarrs (boats) into water for the first time, they offered a few words and a splash of ale to Njǫrðr, patron of seafaring, fair winds, and prosperity. Blocks kicked free, the hull ran down greased skids into the chill of the North Atlantic. Eyes went to the seams—tar-soaked wool sealed with hot pine tar—where a little weeping was normal, but anything more could prove fatal.

It’s unknown whether Buffalo Norsemen player-coach Guy Trottier prayed before his team took the ice for the first time—or whether GM Willie Marshall or owner Dr. Dudley Turecki poured Genesee Cream Ale on the Tonawanda Sports Center Zamboni. What was clear: training camp was over, and a date with the Buffalo Sabres rookies would tell the truth. Could this franchise skate with NHL-caliber kids? Were they an entertaining product on the ice? Would the community show up—and buy tickets?

“You know, the Sabres have been in camp for awhile and we only have three days to prepare for the game against their rookies.”

Norsemen player-coach Guy Trottier managing expectations in the Tonawanda NEWS, September 19, 1975.

Norsemen vs. Sabres Rookies

Standing room only

On Friday night, September 26, 1975, the lights go up on a standing-room only crowd of 3,056 in the new Tonawanda Sports Center–almost 400 over seating capacity. The exhibition match between the Buffalo Norsemen and the Buffalo Sabres rookies will benefit the U.B. Alumni Scholarship fund, with tickets set at $4. It’s the third year in a row the Sabres have partnered with UB for a pre-season benefit game.

Starting lineups

For the Sabres, the game is a chance to evaluate some of their youngest talent. The amazingly named Morris Titanic, a top pick in 1973 before languishing in the AHL for two years, will be at left wing. Bob Sauvé, the Sabres top pick in the 1975 amateur draft, will split the net-minding with Don Edwards and Ken McKenzie. Beyond this, to the casual fan, the Sabres line-up is less “Who’s Who” and more “Who’s That?” (This is by design. No one nicknamed “The Pig”–as Norsemen defenseman Shane McConvey is–will get within a mile of Sabres’ franchise player Gil Perreault while coach Punch Imlach is alive). Those Sabres rookies who fail to distinguish themselves tonight may be sent down to their farm team, the AHL Hershey Bears. Or worse.

Stakes are high for many Norsemen players, too. Coach Trottier has already publicly stated that the Norsemen will retain as few as 6-8 players now on the roster, as players from their parent club the WHA Toronto Toros are scheduled to arrive on October 1st. Indeed, only a handful of names will be seen later in regular season rosters.

“I’ll never forget seeing the Norsemen bus come around the corner, onto Ridge from Payne Avenue, and out comes Claude Noel, this skinny kid from Kirkland Lake, Ontario, with a duffel bag and duct tape on his sticks.”

– Tim Lynch, Tonawanda Sports Center Zamboni driver, assistant rink manager, pro shop manager, 1974-1977

Tonight, veteran ex-Sabre (and ex-Bruin, and ex-Capital) Steve Atkinson will be at center for the Norsemen, wearing #11. Smooth-skating Freddie Hunt Jr., born in Buffalo and the son of Sabres assistant GM Fred Hunt, will wear #14 at right wing. Claude Noel, a prospect from Willie Marshall’s hometown of Kirkland Lake, Ontario, will also be at center, wearing #15 (Claude will go on to great success in the minors, and will coach the NHL Winnipeg Jets 2014-2017). Larry Gould, brother of ex-Sabre John Gould and former NHL Vancouver Canuck property, will be brandishing his female fan-thrilling mustache, and sweater #8, at left wing. Two bruising defenseman, #2 Wayne Morin (who will go onto lead the Norsemen in penalty minutes), and the aforementioned #3 Shane “The Pig” McConvey (rocking peak 70s hockey hair) will help hold the blue line for the home team.

Goalies are to the Norsemen what drummers are to Spinal Tap. At least eight different players take turns in net for the green and gold during the regular season, not counting those used only in preseason, like tonight’s starter, Peter Crosbie.

Forward Charlie Labelle will wear #5 tonight: a number he will later exchange with future Norseman Greg Neeld. Labelle and Neeld will be at the epicenter of the notorious brawl in Johnstown that will effectively end the Norsemen franchise.

“I am going to supply our players with a lot of glue for this game,” Norsemen coach Guy Trottier laughed. “It will be a very close-checking game and I’m telling the guys to stick to them wherever they go, even if we have to follow them into their dressing room.”

Tonawanda NEWS, September 26, 1975.

Puck drop

Sabres rookies take an early lead, Norsemen rally

It is an inauspicious first six minutes for the brand-new Norsemen.

The Sabres rookies outskate the motley crew and crank in three goals. After the third goal, the Norsemen settle down and start to play the kind of close-checking game coach Trottier promised in the papers.

The offense flickers into operation, too. The first franchise goal is recorded by Randy Montgomery, beating Sabres starter Bob Sauvé. Less than two minutes later, Steve Atkinson guides a low wrist shot home from an impossible angle to slash the Norsemen deficit to one.

The Norsemen’s Jim Tunney scores the only goal in the 2nd period, tying the game at 3-3 on a beautiful setup from Atkinson. Of the deft deke he uses to slide the puck under the sprawling Sabres goalie, Tunney later says, with no undue modesty, “That play was something I saw Gil Perreault use.”

In the end, the handful of pros and, let us say, mixed composition of the Norsemen could not hold up against the polished NHL system. The Sabres rookies add two more goals in the third to hand the Norsemen their first defeat in their first match, 5-3.

Oh yeah, and there was lots and lots of face-punching

The score was secondary to the fans, who were treated to four fighting exhibitions.

Mike Billoni, Tonawanda NEWS, September 27, 1975.

Just because it is an exhibition game, doesn’t mean there won’t be fighting. Everyone expects it. Mike Billoni describes the largest fray, near the start of the third:

The brawl started at center ice with the Sabres’ Jack Surbey challenging Shane McConvey. McConvey stood and took Surbey’s verbal abuse before the Sabre speared him. Both players were sent to the penalty box. Surbey, who never stopped yelling at McConvey, jumped out of the box and went after the stocky Norsemen. Both players tangled in front of the Norsemen bench with McConvey landing three good blows, before the linesmen broke it up.

Meanwhile, Steve Atkinson and the Sabres Bob Smulders squared it off, with Smulders landing a couple good punches to Atkinson’s head. That brought goalie Peter Crosbie out of his crease to assist Atkinson, causing an immediate ejection. When the excitement died down, Crosbie, Atkinson and Surbey were issued early showers as a total of 61 penalty minutes were assessed.

“Norsemen Outbattled,” Mike Billoni. Tonawanda NEWS, September 27, 1975

And that isn’t even the only fight the goalie gets into. In the previous period, the Sabres’ Terry Martin bumped Peter Crosbie in the crease; Crosbie instantly tore off his blocker and glove, landed two clean shots—then realized who he’d hit. Interviewed afterward, he sounds almost sheepish: “I didn’t realize it was Martin…I roomed with him in juniors.”

How much violence is too much violence in hockey?

The question haunts the sport to this day. The fans undeniably love it. The players angle for it. Even the most ardent hockey pacifists allow that some fighting is inexorably “part of the game.”

Two days after their opening defeat, the Norsemen make themselves feel better by traveling to St. Thomas, Ontario to beat up on their own farm team, 12-3. The “fight-filled exhibition contest” features a bench-clearing brawl at the end of the second period. Multiple players are served game misconducts.

In an exhibition game.

Against their own farm team.

It’s not a Norse saying, but perhaps it suits: “Live by the sword, die by the sword.”