European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 31, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 26 the stars and stripes sports saturday october 31,1992 blues Deal first loss to penguins by the associated press St. Louis after just 10 games Bob Plager decided he had seen enough. After deciding to resign As coach thurs Day morning Plager agreed to remain be Hind the blues Bench one last time. St. Louis then went out and beat the Pittsburgh penguins dealing the two time Stanley cup champions their first loss this season. His Farewell certainly was quite a feat Blue general manager Ron Caron said. They re  Plager 49, has been in the blues front of fice since 1967. He signed a two year con tract to replace the fired Brian Sutler on May 1, but had been troubled by the slow Start of the blues 4-6-1. He was replaced by Bob Berry 48, who had been an assistant coach with the blues for four seasons and was appointed assist ant general manager last summer. Berry has a .514 winning percentage in nine years As a head coach with los an Geles Montreal and Pittsburgh. Plager who returned to the front office went out a Winner As Rookie Jason Ruff broke a 4-Ali tie by scoring his first career goal with 3 26 left. Bob Bassen scored off a rebound with 2 38 remaining. Mario Lemieux had two goals and an As Sist for the penguins extending his goal scoring Streak to 11 games. He leads the nil with 35 Points on 16 goals and 19 assists. Aba Williams in Accord with Kings by the associated press Sacramento Calif. Walt Williams the Sacramento Kings no. 1 draft Choice and the seventh pick Overall reached agreement thursday with the Kings on a multiyear contract reportedly Worth $13.5 million. The 6-foot-8 Williams a former Star at the University of Maryland was expected to be in uniform at the Kings final preseason game Friday in Toronto against the Chi Cago bulls. The team declined to discuss Williams contract but a local newspaper report described it As a six year pact totalling $13.5 million. Williams 22, averaged 26.8 Points last season at Maryland. Thorpe s Streak imperilled Houston Houston rocket Forward Otis Thorpe whose 542 game run is the longest current consecutive game Streak Likely will miss the Aba opener because of a kidney injury he suffered in an exhibition game. A medical examination wednes Day showed a blood buildup in the Wall of the kidney and doctors have told him to avoid strenuous activity. Doctors have recommended he remain out of action from four to six weeks. The rockets open their season Friday night against Seattle in Tokyo. There was a Little crack in the Wall of the kidney Thorpe said. In other games thursday Bruins 8, Kings 3 Boston Adam Gates scored three times and Vladimir Ruzicka and Dmitri Kvarta nov added two goals each for the Bruins whose Only loss in nine games this season was to los Angeles. Oates scored twice in the final period getting the first three goal game of his career with 28 seconds left. Kvarta nov a Rookie who has 10 goals this season and at least one Point in each game scored twice in the first period. Rusicka who also had three assists scored twice in the third. Nordques 6, rangers 3 new York Quebec ended an eight game losing Streak in Madison Square Gar Den dating to Jan. 23,1986, As Andrei Koya Lenko scored twice. Quebec got its third Road Victory one More than last season total. Flyers 5, Blackhawk 5 Chicago Jocelyn Lemieux spoiled Eric Lindros two goal night scoring with 2 56 left to give Chicago the tie. Lindros second goal of the game and eighth this season gave Philadelphia a 5-4 Lead with 5 15 to go. Steve Smith s 40-foot slap shot tied the score at 4 with 7 16 remaining. St. Louis goalie Guy Hebert stops Penguin Forward Kevin Stevens on thursday. Last of the Davids prepare for Safe Grid showdowns by Rob Staggenborg staff writer two Goliath on a crash course for the nov. 8 Continental sports conference final must first contend with a couple of Pesky Davids this weekend As air Force football in Germany the Netherlands and the United kingdom Heads into league semifinals. Ramstein 35-3 winners Over Hahn on sunday will face the Span Dahlem Sab ers 6-0 double of winners Over Lindsey on sunday. Rhein main which blanked Sembach 35-0 on saturday hosts 7-2 Oesterberg. The wolfhounds ousted the Pitburg Barons with a 15-0 win in soes Turberg s first Ever playoff game. The Hahn and Lindsey losses closed the Book on a pair of football programs forever both bases Are scheduled for clo sure in 1993. In the United kingdom the upper Heyford sky Kings and the Lakenheath eagles hit the pitch in both teams play off opener this weekend both earned byes through the first round of the . Playoffs. Upper Heyford the top . Seed hosts Mildenhall on saturday and Lakenheath s House guests will be the Chicksands fighting Chicks. Both games kick off at 1 . Continental sports conference playoff games kick off at noon an hour earlier than regular season games. In the Eifel Region Hahn gave Ramstein fits through three quarters but the rams were Able to break it open on a pair of defensive touchdowns by Tim Blackwell. That game was played in a steady rain Shower which turned a verdant Green Field into a pig s dream. The rain washed out Ramstein s potent passing attack and players had trouble holding onto the Ball. Rams quarterback Vonnie Mayberry coughed it up twice and Hahn fumbled seven times but recovered three of them. The Hawks playing in what became their last Ever football game sacked Mayberry four times in the game and held him to under 40 Yards passing. May Berry who came off the rams Bench in week 3 to replace the injured Bruce leg groan has been sacked 10 times in the past two weeks. If we Don t pass our offence sput ters Ramstein coach Larry Boldin said. Any time your quarterback s getting sacked 10 times in two weeks you have to work on your blocking assignments. What we re going to work on this week is How to prevent the sacks. If Hahn can sack Mayberry Spang s going to be thinking they can get to him  at Rhein main the rockets seem Tobe peaking at the right moment As is Rhein main tradition remember 1990 s 3-5 team that advanced to the Safe title game the rocket defense picked off seven Sembach passes in the rout but had problems containing tigers quarterback Michael Phares one of four quarterbacks the tigers have used this season. Phares threw for More than 200 Yards completing 22 of 43 attempts. But perhaps the biggest heartbreaker in the Csc was Span Dahlem s win Over Lindsey. The underdog flyers held the sabers scoreless throughout and it took Durand Tyler s 6-Yard to run in the Sec Ond tiebreaker set to win it for the Sab ers. Rhein main s Tim Langley said while his rockets and the rams Are favored to meet in the Csc final nothing is a lock. You try to fire yourself up with play ing Ramstein on your mind but we know Oesterberg s going to be there before we can even worry about playing Ramstein again. We have the ability and Talent to Rise above All that stuff. Who knows Ramstein May not even make it. When Spang and Ramstein play that game can go either Way. Spang s a scary team any Way and with the sabers coming off that double overtime win that can raise a team s  Alconbury also was eliminated in the . Playoffs in another double of Nail biter. The marauders advanced to hey Ford with a 19-13 Squeaker that took a pair of tiebreaker sets to decide. Nate Clark scored two touchdowns i the Mcaa style tiebreaker. The spartans drove to the Mildenhall 10 thanks to a roughing the passer Call that gave Alcon Bury a first Down. Two plays later Mildenhall s Joseph Barrow fell on a Fumble to Seal the Victory. Chicksands did the skin of the Teeth thing against Ben Waters As William Hutchinson s. First Quarter Field goal from 24 Yards out stood up throughout for the deciding Points. Oesterberg which improved 700 per cent from last year from 0-10 to 7-2 this season faces its first hurdle of the sea son in Rhein main. The wolfhounds Haven t played the rockets this season and Oesterberg lost to the Only team it played with a winning record Span Dah Lem. Not that wolfhound coach Thomas Newton is fretting. We re just keeping our minds open and staying focused he said. We Haven t seen them this season and they Haven t seen us which i think is an  this is going to be a Tough game Langley said a lot tougher than people think. We Don t know anything about Oesterberg. We Don t know if they run pass or what. We do know they re going to come up Here to play Ball and that s the Only thing we have to worry