1976–77 Minnesota Fighting Saints season

1976–77 Minnesota Fighting Saints
Division	6th Eastern
1976–77 record	19–18–5
Goals for	136
Goals against	129
Team Information
General Manager	Glen Sonmor
Coach	Glen Sonmor
Captain	Ron Ward
Alternate captains	Bill Butters Ray Adduono
Arena	St. Paul Civic Center
Team Leaders
Goals	Mike Antonovich (27)
Assists	Dave Keon
Points	Dave Keon
Penalties in minutes	Bill Butters (133)
Wins	Jean-Louis Levasseur (15)
Goals against average	Jean-Louis Levasseur (2.73)

< 1975–76

The 1976–77 Minnesota Fighting Saints season was the last season of WHA hockey in Minnesota. The original Fighting Saints disbanded and the Cleveland Crusaders relocated to become the Minnesota Fighting Saints. The Fighting Saints disbanded on January 14, 1977 after playing 42 games.

Off-season

Jack Carlson and Ray McKay's 1976-77 jerseys.

The Fighting Saints jersey design stayed the same as it was for the 1973-74 season with one exception, the dark blue was changed to a fire red. The stripe pattern, outlined numbers, the names not outlined and the logo were unchanged.

Regular Season

Final Standings

Eastern Division	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	Pts
Quebec Nordiques	81	47	31	3	353	295	97
Cincinnati Stingers	81	39	37	5	354	303	83
Indianapolis Racers	81	36	37	8	276	305	80
New England Whalers	81	35	40	6	275	290	76
Birmingham Bulls	81	31	46	4	289	309	66
Minnesota Fighting Saints+	42	19	18	5	136	129	43

+Team disbanded after 42 games.
Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, Pts = Points
Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold.

Game Log

Regular Season Results
No.	R	Date	Score	Opponent	Record
3	W	October 10, 1976	4–1	Indianapolis Racers (1976–77)	1–2–0
6	W	October 17, 1976	6–1	Birmingham Bulls (1976–77)	2–4–0
8	T	October 22, 1976	2–2	Calgary Cowboys (1976–77)	2–5–1
11	L	October 30, 1976	1–5	@ Quebec Nordiques (1976–77)	3–6–2
13	L	November 3, 1976	2–4	@ Edmonton Oilers (1976–77)	3–8–2
14	L	November 5, 1976	2–9	@ Winnipeg Jets (1976–77)	3–9–2
15	L	November 7, 1976	1–3	Phoenix Roadrunners (1976–77)	3–10–2
16	T	November 11, 1976	3–3	New England Whalers (1976–77)	3–10–3
17	W	November 13, 1976	4–2	@ Quebec Nordiques (1976–77)	4–10–3
18	L	November 18, 1976	5–9	Quebec Nordiques (1976–77)	4–11–3
19	T	November 20, 1976	3–3	@ New England Whalers (1976–77)	4–11–4
20	W	November 21, 1976	5–1	Calgary Cowboys (1976–77)	5–11–4
21	W	November 23, 1976	4–0	Cincinnati Stingers (1976–77)	6–11–4
22	W	November 26, 1976	4–2	Quebec Nordiques (1976–77)	7–11–4
23	W	November 27, 1976	3–1	@ New England Whalers (1976–77)	8–11–4
24	W	November 28, 1976	3–1	@ Birmingham Bulls (1976–77)	9–11–4
25	L	December 3, 1976	3–4	Winnipeg Jets (1976–77)	9–12–4
26	W	December 5, 1976	5–1	Edmonton Oilers (1976–77)	10–12–4
27	W	December 7, 1976	4–2	New England Whalers (1976–77)	11–12–4
28	W	December 10, 1976	4–2	Calgary Cowboys (1976–77)	12–12–4
29	L	December 12, 1976	2–4	San Diego Mariners (1976–77)	12–13–4
30	L	December 15, 1976	0–5	@ Cincinnati Stingers (1976–77)	12–14–4
31	W	December 16, 1976	5–3	@ Indianapolis Racers (1976–77)	13–14–4
32	W	December 18, 1976	4–3	Cincinnati Stingers (1976–77)	14–14–4
33	L	December 22, 1976	3–4	Quebec Nordiques (1976–77)	14–15–4
34	L	December 23, 1976	1–2	@ Calgary Cowboys (1976–77)	14–16–4
35	L	December 26, 1976	2–3	@ New England Whalers (1976–77)	14–17–4
36	W	December 28, 1976	5–4	New England Whalers (1976–77)	15–17–4
37	W	December 30, 1976	4–2	@ Birmingham Bulls (1976–77)	16–17–4
38	W	January 2, 1977	3–1	Birmingham Bulls (1976–77)	17–17–4
39	T	January 7, 1977	1–1	Houston Aeros (1976–77)	17–17–5
40	W	January 8, 1977	5–0	Edmonton Oilers (1976–77)	18–17–5
41	L	January 12, 1977	3–4	Birmingham Bulls (1976–77)	18–18–5
42	W	January 14, 1977	9–5	Indianapolis Racers (1976–77)	19–18–5

Playoffs

• The Fighting Saints ceased operations after 42 games.

Player Stats

Regular Season
Scoring
# Player Pos GP G A Pts PIM +/- PPG SHG GWG 14 Keon, DaveDave Keon C 42 13 38 51 2 25 1 1 0 12 Antonovich, MikeMike Antonovich C 42 27 21 48 28 20 6 0 0 24 Ward, RonRon Ward C 41 15 21 36 6 9 4 1 0 19 McKenzie, JohnJohn McKenzie RW 40 17 13 30 52 14 3 0 0 26 McDonough, AlAl McDonough RW 42 9 21 30 6 13 0 0 0 10 Adduono, RayRay Adduono C 40 4 19 23 17 -14 3 0 0 17 Arbour, JohnJohn Arbour D 33 3 19 22 22 14 0 0 0 23 Gruen, DannyDanny Gruen LW 34 10 9 19 19 7 2 0 0 9 Patrick, CraigCraig Patrick RW 30 6 11 17 6 4 0 0 0 15 Deadmarsh, ButchButch Deadmarsh LW 35 9 4 13 51 -5 2 0 0 25 Carlson, SteveSteve Carlson C 21 5 8 13 8 3 0 0 0 8 Zrymiak, JerryJerry Zrymiak D 40 2 10 12 14 7 0 0 0 4 McKay, RayRay McKay D 42 2 9 11 28 19 0 0 0 6 Westrum, PatPat Westrum D 40 1 9 10 42 15 0 0 0 16 Gallant, GordGord Gallant LW 37 6 3 9 64 -1 0 0 0 20 Carlson, JackJack Carlson LW 36 4 3 7 55 -1 0 0 0 2 Butters, BillBill Butters D 42 0 7 7 133 5 0 0 0 7 Stewart, JohnJohn Stewart LW 15 3 3 6 2 -6 0 0 0 5 Hanson, DaveDave Hanson D 7 0 2 2 35 -9 0 0 0 30 Levasseur, Jean-LouisJean-Louis Levasseur G 30 0 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 Clearwater, RayRay Clearwater D 2 0 0 0 2 -3 0 0 0 Legge, BarryBarry Legge D 2 0 0 0 0 -1 0 0 0 11 Milani, TomTom Milani RW 2 0 0 0 0 -2 0 0 0 1 Curran, MikeMike Curran G 16 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 0
Goaltending
Player MIN GP W L T GA GAA SO Levasseur, Jean-LouisJean-Louis Levasseur 1715 30 15 11 2 78 2.73 2 Curran, MikeMike Curran 848 16 4 7 3 50 3.54 0 Team: 2563 42 19 18 5 128 3.00 2

Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/- = plus/minus; PIM = Penalty minutes; PPG = Power-play goals; SHG = Short-handed goals; GWG = Game-winning goals

MIN = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; GA = Goals-against; GAA = Goals-against average; SO = Shutouts

Awards and Records

• The Fighting Saints did not win any awards this season.

Farm Teams

• Syracuse Blazers, NAHL

See Also

• 1976–77 WHA season