Eastern Hockey League

Douglas P. Adam, 78, of Norristown, a former professional hockey star and coach and champion amateur golfer, died of complications from a stroke on Monday at Lankenau Hospital. He had suffered the stroke on Dec. 19 on the 18th hole of the Bala Country Club golf course. From 1958 until 1964, Mr. Adam was a player and then player-coach and, briefly, general manager of the Philadelphia Ramblers of the Eastern Hockey League. Mr. Adam was born and raised in Toronto. After serving in World War II with the Canadian Army in Europe, he began his professional hockey career with the Hollywood Wolves of the Pacific Coast League and then joined the Tacoma Rockets of the Western League in 1947.

There's nothing unusual about a sold-out hockey game in Canada, so it was no surprise that the University of Manitoba's Max Bell Arena was packed with flag-waving supporters earlier this week when Canada and the United States dropped the puck. The only difference in the sweltering arena was that the game was played on plastic tiles and with inline skates, as the sport of roller hockey made its debut at the Pan American Games. In a fast-paced game that has no offside violations and no icing calls, and features four skaters and a goalkeeper on each side, the Canadians were able to skate away with the championship in a 7-6, gold-medal match that ended with the winners spraying champagne and the United States enduring a rare defeat.

The pieces are in place for the Flyers Cup semifinal round, which is to begin tonight at the Face-Off Circle in Warminster with an 8:15 p.m. faceoff between Suburban High School Hockey League champion William Tennent and Lower Bucks League champion Father Judge. The round-robin event will continue tomorrow, same time and location, as Judge will take on the runner-up from the SHSHL, Central Bucks. The Blazers, which earned a slot in the round-robin tournament with a 5-1 victory over Lower Bucks runner-up Bishop Egan on Thursday at the Face-Off Circle in a wild-card game, will meet Tennent in another 8:15 p.m. start Thursday.

Something was noticeably missing as Haverford High and Downingtown played Friday night in a critical game in the American Division of the Eastern Hockey League. Downingtown coach John Kincade. Kincade was traveling from the South that afternoon after a business trip, and the train he was riding on stopped dead outside Charlottesville, Va. After a two-hour delay, the passengers were told they were stuck. Thus, while his assistants manned the bench, Kincade paced in a hotel room.

While hardly resembling its teams from the 1980s that won seven straight Inter-County League titles, Conestoga's ice-hockey club has seemed to regain some of its competitiveness this year behind a new group of skaters. When they were finally deposed in the 1989-90 season by West Chester East, the Pioneers ended up that year in fifth place. Last season, the team slumped further by going 4-10-1 to wind up in 13th place in the 16-team league. But under the direction of new head coach Bob DiRico, things are beginning to look brighter for the Pioneers.

Episcopal Academy started its season minus seven key players from the 1988-89 club, lost its first four games and found itself at 1-7-1 by the midpoint of the season. But during the holidays, the Churchmen underwent a metamorphosis that coach Bruce Stone attributes to two factors. "It was maturity, and the guys finally got some confidence in themselves," Stone said. "With those two things, we started getting hot. " Since then, the Churchmen have climbed past a handful of teams in the Eastern Hockey League.

It wasn't supposed to come down to the last 7 seconds of the game. Council Rock (9-0-1) was the prohibitive favorite in its game with Cheltenham (4-4-1) Thursday, but it took a goal by the Indians' Wayne DePrince in the final moments to lift Rock to a 5-4 Suburban High School Hockey League victory. "Justin Kurzac took a shot at goal, and I deflected it off the goalie and into the net," said DePrince. "We had a lot of chances to score more goals, but Cheltenham was bigger than us and hit us a lot. They played a good game.

Art Dorrington has never considered himself a pioneer for black Americans in hockey. It just happened to work out that way. Dorrington was the first black American to skate professionally in the United States. That was in 1950, when he joined the Atlantic City Gulls of the Eastern Hockey League. "It was an honor to me, but I was at right place at the right time," Dorrington said. "I was doing what I wanted to do. Just the way it happened. " These days, Dorrington, 73, runs a hockey program in Atlantic City that reaches underprivileged youngsters in the black community and puts them on the ice at Flyers Skate Zone, a few blocks off the boardwalk.

Back in the 1940s and 1950s, when Herb Foster and Art Dorrington played professional ice hockey for the old Atlantic City Seagulls of the Eastern Hockey League, there was nothing like it for miles. "It was the biggest thing in the city," Foster, 83, said. "Every Friday, Saturday night, there would be 5,000 people in Convention Hall. " To this day, Foster has his diehard fans, people like Norma Thomas, 74, of Absecon, who yesterday could recall Foster's old Seagulls jersey number - 19 - faster than even Foster.

They watch him on game films and just shake their heads. B.J. Hogan has that effect on coaches. Ask any one of the Cardinal O'Hara football staff about him and they all say pretty much the same thing: "Anything the kid wants to do, he does. " Hogan seems to have the same impact on O'Hara's ice hockey coach, Bill Swahl, or in any other sport the 5-foot-10, 160-pound O'Hara junior participates. Hogan has the itinerary of a corporate executive, possesses deceiving speed and strength, and may arguably be the best three-sport athlete in the area.

Art Dorrington has never considered himself a pioneer for black Americans in hockey. It just happened to work out that way. Dorrington was the first black American to skate professionally in the United States. That was in 1950, when he joined the Atlantic City Gulls of the Eastern Hockey League. "It was an honor to me, but I was at right place at the right time," Dorrington said. "I was doing what I wanted to do. Just the way it happened. " These days, Dorrington, 73, runs a hockey program in Atlantic City that reaches underprivileged youngsters in the black community and puts them on the ice at Flyers Skate Zone, a few blocks off the boardwalk.

Douglas P. Adam, 78, of Norristown, a former professional hockey star and coach and champion amateur golfer, died of complications from a stroke on Monday at Lankenau Hospital. He had suffered the stroke on Dec. 19 on the 18th hole of the Bala Country Club golf course. From 1958 until 1964, Mr. Adam was a player and then player-coach and, briefly, general manager of the Philadelphia Ramblers of the Eastern Hockey League. Mr. Adam was born and raised in Toronto. After serving in World War II with the Canadian Army in Europe, he began his professional hockey career with the Hollywood Wolves of the Pacific Coast League and then joined the Tacoma Rockets of the Western League in 1947.

They watch him on game films and just shake their heads. B.J. Hogan has that effect on coaches. Ask any one of the Cardinal O'Hara football staff about him and they all say pretty much the same thing: "Anything the kid wants to do, he does. " Hogan seems to have the same impact on O'Hara's ice hockey coach, Bill Swahl, or in any other sport the 5-foot-10, 160-pound O'Hara junior participates. Hogan has the itinerary of a corporate executive, possesses deceiving speed and strength, and may arguably be the best three-sport athlete in the area.

There's nothing unusual about a sold-out hockey game in Canada, so it was no surprise that the University of Manitoba's Max Bell Arena was packed with flag-waving supporters earlier this week when Canada and the United States dropped the puck. The only difference in the sweltering arena was that the game was played on plastic tiles and with inline skates, as the sport of roller hockey made its debut at the Pan American Games. In a fast-paced game that has no offside violations and no icing calls, and features four skaters and a goalkeeper on each side, the Canadians were able to skate away with the championship in a 7-6, gold-medal match that ended with the winners spraying champagne and the United States enduring a rare defeat.

Back in the 1940s and 1950s, when Herb Foster and Art Dorrington played professional ice hockey for the old Atlantic City Seagulls of the Eastern Hockey League, there was nothing like it for miles. "It was the biggest thing in the city," Foster, 83, said. "Every Friday, Saturday night, there would be 5,000 people in Convention Hall. " To this day, Foster has his diehard fans, people like Norma Thomas, 74, of Absecon, who yesterday could recall Foster's old Seagulls jersey number - 19 - faster than even Foster.

It wasn't supposed to come down to the last 7 seconds of the game. Council Rock (9-0-1) was the prohibitive favorite in its game with Cheltenham (4-4-1) Thursday, but it took a goal by the Indians' Wayne DePrince in the final moments to lift Rock to a 5-4 Suburban High School Hockey League victory. "Justin Kurzac took a shot at goal, and I deflected it off the goalie and into the net," said DePrince. "We had a lot of chances to score more goals, but Cheltenham was bigger than us and hit us a lot. They played a good game.

Something was noticeably missing as Haverford High and Downingtown played Friday night in a critical game in the American Division of the Eastern Hockey League. Downingtown coach John Kincade. Kincade was traveling from the South that afternoon after a business trip, and the train he was riding on stopped dead outside Charlottesville, Va. After a two-hour delay, the passengers were told they were stuck. Thus, while his assistants manned the bench, Kincade paced in a hotel room.

While hardly resembling its teams from the 1980s that won seven straight Inter-County League titles, Conestoga's ice-hockey club has seemed to regain some of its competitiveness this year behind a new group of skaters. When they were finally deposed in the 1989-90 season by West Chester East, the Pioneers ended up that year in fifth place. Last season, the team slumped further by going 4-10-1 to wind up in 13th place in the 16-team league. But under the direction of new head coach Bob DiRico, things are beginning to look brighter for the Pioneers.

The pieces are in place for the Flyers Cup semifinal round, which is to begin tonight at the Face-Off Circle in Warminster with an 8:15 p.m. faceoff between Suburban High School Hockey League champion William Tennent and Lower Bucks League champion Father Judge. The round-robin event will continue tomorrow, same time and location, as Judge will take on the runner-up from the SHSHL, Central Bucks. The Blazers, which earned a slot in the round-robin tournament with a 5-1 victory over Lower Bucks runner-up Bishop Egan on Thursday at the Face-Off Circle in a wild-card game, will meet Tennent in another 8:15 p.m. start Thursday.

Episcopal Academy started its season minus seven key players from the 1988-89 club, lost its first four games and found itself at 1-7-1 by the midpoint of the season. But during the holidays, the Churchmen underwent a metamorphosis that coach Bruce Stone attributes to two factors. "It was maturity, and the guys finally got some confidence in themselves," Stone said. "With those two things, we started getting hot. " Since then, the Churchmen have climbed past a handful of teams in the Eastern Hockey League.