Scorecard

Pause. "I guess I shouldn't have said that."

A CLOSE CALL

Clint Malarchuk was incredibly composed, all things considered. The Buffalo Sabre goalie had just had his external jugular vein opened by a skate blade in a goalmouth scrum in the first period of Buffalo's 2-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues. After kneeling on the ice for some 15 seconds, as his blood gushed in an arc and created a pool in front of him, Malarchuk skated off the ice under his own power. "I have three minutes to live," he told Buffalo trainer Jim Pizzutelli.

Pizzutelli applied pressure to the six-inch wound to stanch the bleeding, and Malarchuk was rushed to The Buffalo General Hospital, where his jugular was sewn back together. The next day, Malarchuk was conducting interviews at bedside.

Two nights after his near-fatal accident, Malarchuk, dressed in street clothes, waved to the Sabre crowd before Buffalo's game against Vancouver and received a standing ovation. He could be back in goal as early as the first round of the playoffs.

Malarchuk, however, wasn't the night's only casualty. Medical personnel at Buffalo's Memorial Auditorium treated nine people who fainted and dozens of others who became queasy at the sight of his blood.

LOU'S BACK

Two weeks ago, by a vote of 5-2, the school board of Georgetown, S.C., approved the hiring of a new football coach at the high school. Last fall, the Bulldogs finished 0-11, so the board members were on the lookout for someone who could turn things around—fast. They think they have their man in Lou Saban.

"I've been doing it all my life, resurrecting teams from the dead," said the 67-year-old Saban. "I find it most enjoyable."

Saban's last stop was at South Fork High—that's in Florida, not Texas. Under Saban, South Fork was 3-7 in 1988. Lest you conclude that Saban has lost his touch, consider this: The team had won only two games in the three seasons going into '88.