Dale Kushner

Tim Tookey scored two goals last night as the Hershey Bears finished their American Hockey League season with an 8-2 victory over the Baltimore Skipjacks. The Skipjacks finished last in the Southern Division. The Bears will open their best-of-seven Calder Cup series Wednesday night in Rochester, N.Y. Dale Kushner, Tookey and Bill Armstrong scored within 1 minute, 21 seconds in the first period to put the Bears ahead for good. Len Barrie, Tookey and Mark Freer scored goals in the second period, and Wes Walz and Kushner scored in the third.

Coach Paul Holmgren yesterday named right winger Rick Tocchet the eighth team captain in Flyers history. Tocchet, 27, is entering his eighth season with the Flyers. He served as an alternate captain last season, and he replaced center Ron Sutter, who was traded to the St. Louis Blues on Sept. 22. Tocchet was Holmgren's choice because the Flyers need a charismatic leader in this season of transition. The Flyers will begin the season with four players who are 20 years old or younger.

Flyers coach Paul Holmgren has said throughout training camp that, to be successful, his team needed improved scoring from the left wing this season. Last night at the Orlando Arena, left wingers Craig Berube, Derrick Smith and Pat Murray all scored goals as the Flyers beat the New York Rangers, 4-1, before a sellout crowd of 13,237. The win, which was highlighted by outstanding goaltending by Ken Wregget, improved the Flyers' preseason record to 2-3-1. The Rangers fell to 1-2-2.

The Flyers sat out the NHL waiver draft last night, apparently finding no one unprotected whom they felt could help their team. Goaltender Pete Peeters, the only "name" player the Flyers could have lost, was not chosen and will remain a Flyer, playing behind Ron Hextall and Ken Wregget. The Quebec Nordiques, last overall last season, were the most active team in the draft, making three of the eight overall selections. The Nordiques took left wing Wayne Van Dorp from Chicago, defenseman Shawn Anderson from Washington and center Aaron Broten from Minnesota.

Dale Kushner is not the guy with the nasal voice and the bad toupee who used to host a TV show about rock music. Dale Kushner is a sturdy left wing, a veteran minor leaguer cut loose by the New York Islanders this summer. Before Kushner, 24, had much time to ponder whether it was time to think about life after hockey, he got a call from his old junior team's general manager. Russ Farwell had just been named GM of the Flyers, and he remembered Kushner fondly from their days together in Medicine Hat, Alberta.

Mark Pederson had heard for a few months that he might be shipped from Montreal to the Flyers, but with just hours remaining before yesterday's NHL trading deadline, Pederson figured the deal wouldn't happen. Pederson and the Canadiens were boarding an airplane yesterday afternoon in Calgary, where they had played Monday night. They were about to fly to Chicago. Then Pederson was called aside. He was told to stay in Calgary, where the Flyers will arrive today for their game tomorrow night against the Flames.

The Pittsburgh Penguins with strong goaltending is a concept the rest of the NHL isn't eager to face. The Penguins stand for scoring - 328 goals, through last night's 3-1 victory over futility's team, the Flyers, the third-best total in the league. They have Mario Lemieux. They have Paul Coffey. They have Mark Recchi and Ron Francis and Kevin Stevens and . . . Tom Barrasso. Goaltender Barrasso has been through a lot since he won the Vezina and Calder trophies in the 1983-84 season for Buffalo.

When training camp opened yesterday, the Flyers were without their captain and a versatile left winger, both holding out because of contract disputes. Team captain Ron Sutter and Murray Craven did not attend yesterday's workouts at the Coliseum in Voorhees. Both Sutter, a center, and Craven are entering the option years on their contracts, and both have decided to stay away from camp until progress is made toward resolving their differences with Flyers general manager Russ Farwell.

Kjell Samuelsson, rumbling down the slot like a Volvo in overdrive, took Scott Mellanby's pass and blasted it low to Troy Gamble's glove side, where the Vancouver Canucks' goalie never had a chance to stop it. Samuelsson's fourth goal of the season, late in the third period, sealed the Flyers' 2-0 victory last night. On the Flyers' earlier goal, Samuelsson collected his sixth assist. That's 10 points in 19 games for the Flyers' most stereotypical defensive defenseman. Samuelsson totaled five goals and 17 assists all last season, three goals and 14 assists the season before.

The Flyers yesterday re-signed three front-line players who saw limited action for the team last season and added two free-agent left wingers who played for Springfield in the American Hockey League. The re-signed players are left winger Tony Horacek, right winger Brian Dobbin and center Mark Freer. The Flyers, in search of young forwards to compete for spots on their 1990-91 roster and the Hershey Bears' roster, also signed left wingers Rod Dallman and Dale Kushner. Terms of the contracts were not announced.

Viacheslav Butsayev, a 6-foot-2, 200-pound center from Tolyatti, Russia, arrived in Philadelphia yesterday and agreed to a contract with the Flyers. The terms were not announced. Butsayev, who is expected to become one of the team's top centers this season, has been a favorite of Flyers general manager Russ Farwell ever since the 22-year-old was selected in the sixth round of the 1990 draft. Butsayev can score and play defense. His addition gives the Flyers three centers - Eric Lindros and Rod Brind'Amour are the others - who are over 6 feet tall and weigh at least 200 pounds.

Tim Tookey scored two goals last night as the Hershey Bears finished their American Hockey League season with an 8-2 victory over the Baltimore Skipjacks. The Skipjacks finished last in the Southern Division. The Bears will open their best-of-seven Calder Cup series Wednesday night in Rochester, N.Y. Dale Kushner, Tookey and Bill Armstrong scored within 1 minute, 21 seconds in the first period to put the Bears ahead for good. Len Barrie, Tookey and Mark Freer scored goals in the second period, and Wes Walz and Kushner scored in the third.

Terry Carkner and Ron Hextall stood in the parking lot with their hands in their pockets. The doors of their dressing room were locked. Reporters had to beg to get inside the building. Television crews filmed interviews outside just before the rain began. Only Al Conroy, Mark Freer and Dale Kushner were allowed inside. And they were headed to Hershey, Pa., of the American Hockey League. Nobody at the Flyers' practice rink - which was empty and dark - at the Coliseum in Voorhees had anything positive to say. The strike was on. Team president Jay Snider predicted a long strike.

Garry Galley challenged a crossword puzzle and Mark Pederson answered mail. Kevin Dineen jawed on the phone while Rod Brind'Amour posed for pictures. And Ron Hextall? He needled Dale Kushner about something personal. No moping on a team that only 12 hours earlier had learned that it failed to make the NHL playoffs for the third straight season. And that's just how coach Bill Dineen wanted it. "I thought maybe they'd be down, but they were good," Dineen said. "We had a real hard practice, and they skated well, with lots of jump and enthusiasm.

Mark Freer doesn't score many goals for the Flyers, but he makes them timely. Freer scored in a 3-0 shutout in Quebec on Feb. 8. In the next game, he scored the winner in a 3-2 victory over the Nordiques at the Spectrum. In yesterday's 1-0 win over San Jose, Freer supplied the only goal, his fourth of the season. When Flyers coach Bill Dineen was coaching Adirondack in the American Hockey League, he saw Freer playing for Hershey. "The first year he came into the league (1988-89)

This is the kind of challenge that makes Keith Acton's stomach churn, his knees knock and, to be truthful, his heart race with anticipation. Last night at the Spectrum, it was Acton's job to follow St. Louis superstar Brett Hull, the NHL's leading goal-scorer, a guy who just last week had joined Wayne Gretzky in the league record book as the only players to reach 50 goals by their 50th games in consecutive seasons. Hull would go scoreless. Acton would not. Fifty-four seconds into the third period, his shot from the point clanked off the right pipe and into the net. It was then that he did his Hull-style dance of celebration, right arm and leg pumping together, to punctuate what was the fourth Flyers' goal in their 5-1 win over the Blues.

It's time to salute the Flyers for a change. No need to get carried away - after all, they are a last-place team - so hold the confetti. Still, the boys of winter appear to be serious about making the Spectrum a place where visiting teams skate warily. Sort of like the old days. Last night, the Flyers did away with the St. Louis Blues with an efficient 5-1 victory to run their record to a gaudy 7-1-2 in their last 10 home-ice appearances. It was a night when Rod Brind'Amour made an emphatic statement to the team that traded him away.

Before you get excited over the Flyers' patching together back-to-back victories for the first time since late December, you might consider this: They are 0-2 this season on Long Island, where they will meet the New York Islanders at 5:35 p.m. today, and they are 0-7-1 in their latest eight road games. Fresh in coach Bill Dineen's mind is the Flyers' 4-3 road loss to the Isles on Jan. 16, in which they had several quality opportunities to tie the score in the final period.

Coach Paul Holmgren yesterday named right winger Rick Tocchet the eighth team captain in Flyers history. Tocchet, 27, is entering his eighth season with the Flyers. He served as an alternate captain last season, and he replaced center Ron Sutter, who was traded to the St. Louis Blues on Sept. 22. Tocchet was Holmgren's choice because the Flyers need a charismatic leader in this season of transition. The Flyers will begin the season with four players who are 20 years old or younger.

When training camp opened yesterday, the Flyers were without their captain and a versatile left winger, both holding out because of contract disputes. Team captain Ron Sutter and Murray Craven did not attend yesterday's workouts at the Coliseum in Voorhees. Both Sutter, a center, and Craven are entering the option years on their contracts, and both have decided to stay away from camp until progress is made toward resolving their differences with Flyers general manager Russ Farwell.