Height: 5-11
Weight: 175
Shoot: R
Born: 12 Sep 1944, Cornwall ON
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Regular Season & Playoff Scoring Record (key)
| year | team | |||||||||||
| 1972-73 | New York | |||||||||||
| 1973-74 | Vancouver | |||||||||||
| Los Angeles | ||||||||||||
| Cleveland | ||||||||||||
| Totals (3 teams) | ||||||||||||
| 1974-75 | Cleveland | |||||||||||
| 1975-76 | Cleveland | |||||||||||
| 1976-77 | Minnesota | |||||||||||
| Winnipeg | ||||||||||||
| Calgary | ||||||||||||
| Totals (3 teams) | ||||||||||||
| Totals: |
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The Lamplighter Does His Thing • by Larry Bortstein • The Hockey Spectator • January 19, 1973
in his last game before the first WHA All-Star Classic in Quebec, to which he was a unanimous selection, Ron Ward became the first player of the three-month-old circuit to score five goals in a single game. Ward's five-goal burst shot the Raiders past the Ottawa Nationals here, 9-4, Thursday night, January 4. Ward has had several scoring milestones this first WHA season. He was the first player in the league to reach the 20-goal mark, for example. But his five-goal bombardment against young Ottawa goalie Gilles Gratton represented Ron's first markers in 10 games. Ward last had lit the lamp during a 9-1 rout of the Quebec Nordiques December 13 at Madison Square Garden. Ron scored his first two goals against Ottawa only 35 seconds apart late in the opening poriod to open the game's scoring. He scored two more goals in the second period as the Raiders opened up a 6-3 lead. After Ward scored his fifth goal of the night at the 4:34 mark of the third period, the Garden crowd of 4,927 clamored for Ron to keep shooting. Ward had a couple outstanding scoring opportunities in the closing minutes but failed to equal the major league record of six goals in a game. Two National Hockey League players have scored six: Syd Howe of the Detroit Ked Wings, February 3 1944, against the New York Rangers, and Red Berenson, when he was with the St. Louis Blues, November 7 1968, against the Philadelpbia Flyers. Though Ward badn't scored a goal in 10 games prior to his record-breaking splurge, he had maintained his hold on the league scoring lead by virtue of a large assist count. After his five goals against Ottawa, Ron regained the WHA goal-scoring leadership from New England's Tommy Webster, 33-32. A disappointed Webster said in Quebec the night before the All-Star Game that he "couldn't believe it" when he heard that Ward had scored five. "I was kind of ticked off," Webster laughed. "I mean, I was four goals ahead of him and then in one game he goes right past me again." Ward's achievement was more rousingly heralded in Quebec than it was in the city where he plays. The back page headline of the New York Dally News the morning after his five-goal game was "Ralders may get Derek", pertaining to the round of talks that have been going on within the league to settle the question of Derek Sanderson's status. It was the first time the Raidors had been recognized by the huge headline on the back page of the News, the nation's largest-selling daily. But many people around the club believed Ward should have gotten more space in the paper than a player not on the club. The New York Times diagnosed that Ward's five goals were the result of the game played "loosely and carelessly". Meanwhile, the Journal de Quebec, a French-language tabloid, ran a picture of Ward on its front page the morning after his five goals. Accompanying the picture, which appeared in the lower left corner of the opening page, ran the simple headline "Cinq But". |
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Excerpts from Zander Hollander's Guide to Pro Hockey, 1975-76 (by Reyn Davis)
Chronic worrier who fails to realize how much he worries other teams ... Not a good skater, but uncanny around the net ... Had six game winners among his 30 goals in 1974-75 ... Nickname in "Magic" because of his knack for scoring ... Excellent lacrosse player ... Scored on 14% of his shots to lead the Crusaders in accuracy last season ... Much travelled in hockey, with eight stops in eight years behind him ... Owns and operates an ice-cream stand in Cornwall during the off-season |
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Excerpts from Pro Hockey, WHA 1976-77 (by Dan Proudfoot)
There's absolutely nothing fancy about Ron Ward, until he's within 20 feet of a net. Then and only then does it become apparent why his teammates call him Magic. From the very start of the WHA, Ward has been among the league's dominant scorers. In the first year he was the star of the New York Raiders, scoring as many as five goals in one game and ending up with 51. Entering the 1976-77 schedule he stood sixth among the top scorers in WHA history. And he does it all with a sharp eye and fast reflexes around the goalmouth. He's not an easy skater, but when he gets within range he makes up for it. Old Magic was at his best again in 1975-76 when he enjoyed another five-goal game, leading Crusaders from behind 8-2 to defeat Toronto Toros 10-9. He finished the season as the team's leading scorer with 32 goals and 50 assists: his best points total since 1972-73. |
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