game each a 15-minute mini-game followed. The Roughnecks took a three-goal lead, the Sting pulled a goal back but there was to be no dramatic comeback in this game as the Roughnecks advanced into round two of the playoffs with a 3–1 win to take the series by two games to one. Karl-Heinz Granitza finished the season as the league's second highest scorer (behind Julie Veee of the San Diego Sockers) with 35 goals and 36 assists. In the home game against the New York Cosmos on January 30 he scored a hat-trick, as the Sting won 5–3, extending his indoor scoring streak to 35 consecutive games. Three games earlier he had beaten the league's existing record of 32 in the 6–5 overtime win against the Jacksonville Teamen. Defending champions fail to make playoffs 1982 (Outdoor): The possibility that the Sting would become the first defending champions to fail to make the playoffs since the Soccer Bowl's inauguration in 1975 was certainly far from anyone's minds when Chicago resumed NASL outdoor action in April. However, four straight losses in the opening month set the trend for what would become a topsy-turvy campaign. The players had had little time to rest after a tough indoor season and the team and its management also had to adjust to a number of rule changes. First, the league had agreed to FIFA's demands that offside rule should apply from the half-way line and not the NASL's 35-yard line as had been the case since the league's inception. Second, the league insisted that clubs have at least four North Americans on the field at any one time. The Sting had sufficient players to do so but was left with a surfeit of foreign stars and David Huson and John Tyma – who had both played their part in the 1981 success – were traded to other teams. The first win of the season came against the Tulsa Roughnecks at Wrigley Field on May 1 but that was just a brief respite as the Sting slumped to a further four defeats to end the month with a 1–7 record. Then remarkably Frantz Mathieu – a firm fan favourite – was traded to the Montreal Manic, with Gordon Hill coming the other way, making his return to Chicago after a seven-year absence. A break from league action saw the Sting take part in the Trans-Atlantic Challenge Cup.