Long Island Cougars
The Long Island Cougars played in the North American Hockey
League for the first two seasons of the league’s existence, 1973-74 and
1974-75. The team was affiliated with the Chicago Cougars of the World Hockey
Association.
The Long Island hockey franchise originated as the Long
Island Ducks in the Eastern Hockey League in 1959-60. With the demise of the
EHL after 1972-73, the Ducks carried on in the NAHL. The team played out of the
Long Island Arena in Commack, New York. The arena sat 4,000 and was only home
the Ducks / Cougars franchise ever knew. Long Island Arena was closed in 1996.
1973-74
The Cougars were coached in their first year by EHL legend
and future NHL coach John
Brophy. Long Island placed third in the seven team NAHL during the regular
season with 73 points over 74 games. The Cougars finished 39 points behind the
first place Syracuse
Blazers.
In the Lockhart Cup playoffs, Long Island went 4-3 in the
opening round, which was played in a round robin format. This set up a
semi-final matchup with the Cape Cod Cubs. The Cougars beat the Cubs four games
to two to earn a berth in the final series against Syracuse. The Blazers easily
handled Brophy’s troops in a four game sweep. Syracuse outscored Long Island
27-5 in the series.
During the regular season, the Cougars were led offensively
by Lorne Rombough. Lorne played 68 games, scoring 50 goals and assisting on 42
for 92 points. He was one of just four players with 50 or more goals in the
NAHL that season. His 92 points placed him tenth in the league’s scoring race.
1974-75
The Cougars weakened in their second year in the NAHL. Long
Island finished seventh in the eight team league with 63 points in 74 games.
John Brophy was gone as head coach and in his place was Ron Racette. Racette
was an outstanding junior coach in the QMJHL during the 1970’s, taking both the
Cornwall
Royals and Quebec Remparts to the President’s Cup finals.
Despite their low ranking going into the post-season, Long
Island came up big in the quarter-finals with a three to one upset of the Philadelphia
Firebirds. In the semi-finals, the Cougars came close to another upset when
their series with the Binghamton Dusters went the full seven games. Binghamton
came out on top, winning four games. However, the Dusters outscored Long Island
by a close margin, 24-22. Two of the games needed overtime to decide a winner.
Offensively, the Cougars were led by Dave Walter. Playing in
just 62 games, Walter scored 38 goals and assisted on 42 for 80 points. NAHL
superstar Joe
Hardy played four games with the club while spending most of his season in
the WHA with the Chicago Cougars, Indianapolis Racers and San Diego Mariners.
The following year, with the Beauce Jaros,
Hardy would set NAHL records with 148 assists and 208 points. He became the
first professional hockey player to surpass 200 points in a season.
