Winter's Last Hurrah

It is hard to imagine anything more incongruous than an ice-hockey game played just before Memorial Day. Or, for that matter, a basketball game. But that is exactly what fans will be facing this week as the long, long hockey and basketball seasons finally wind down with championship play-offs between the Philadelphia Flyers and Buffalo Sabres on melting ice, and the Washington Bullets and Golden State Warriors on overheated courts. If the action is anywhere near as dramatic as the semifinal rounds, few fans will complain about delaying the season's first trip to the beach.

Not since the bumbling New York Mets turned into instant folk heroes in 1969 has the sports world witnessed anything so surprising as the New York Islanders' inspired dash through the Stanley Cup play-offs this year. After first knocking off the Rangers, their haughty New York cousins, and then churning back from a three-games-to-none deficit against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the young, spirited Islanders very nearly upset the league's defending champions, the Flyers.

Having spotted free-swinging Philadelphia a three-game lead in their best-of-seven series, the Islanders, led by diminutive Goalie Glenn ("Chico") Resch, stalled the Flyers' attack and turned the series around. By winning three straight, they forced a decisive seventh game last week. But there the Islanders' improbable success story came to an abrupt end. The Philadelphia team, which began the final game with the good-luck singing of Kate Smith (the Flyers have a record of 43-3-1 after her performances of God Bless America before home games), protected its league championship with a 4-to-l victory. Said Flyer Coach Fred Shero, with obvious relief: "Nobody had better take the Islanders for granted next season."

Shero still faces the most important part of this season: the finals against high-scoring Buffalo, which will be the N.H.L.'s first championship series between two expansion teams. Fired along by the shooting punch of its "French Connection" line--Center Gilbert Perreault and Wingers Rene Robert and Richard Martin--Buffalo reached the finals by humiliating the Montreal Canadiens four games to two. The outcome of the Flyers-Sabres series, which opened last week with a 4-to-l Flyers victory, should boil down to how well Goalie Bernie Parent and Philadelphia's hard-checking defense contain the flashy Sabre attack.

Brilliant Backcourt. In the N.B.A., the question is whether anyone can beat the Washington Bullets. In toppling the defending champion Boston Celtics on its way into the finals, Washington left no doubt why it has the best record in the league: overwhelming strength up front with Center Wes Unseld and Forward Elvin Hayes, and a brilliant backcourt in shifty Playmaker Kevin Porter and Phil Chenier. The Warriors will counter with Rick Barry, the league's second-leading scorer, and a crew of fleet young players including Rookie of the Year Keith Wilkes. They will need all the speed they can muster, plus a sensational performance from Barry, to wear down Washington.

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