The Memorial Cup: A History

From Gregg Drinnan...1966

1966 MEMORIAL CUP
Edmonton Oil Kings vs. Oshawa Generals
at Toronto (Maple Leaf Gardens)


The Edmonton Oil Kings made it seven Memorial Cup finals in a row when they eliminated the Estevan Bruins from the Abbott Cup final in six games.
This was the last Abbott Cup final before major junior hockey came to the Prairies in the form of the Western Canada Junior Hockey League.
The Abbott Cup final was a clash of hockey legends, what with the Bruins managed by Scotty Munro and coached by Ernie (Punch) McLean, and the Oil Kings coached by Ray Kinasewich and managed by Bill Hunter.
Following the series, the Oil Kings, featuring the likes of Garnet (Ace) Bailey, Al Hamilton, Bob Falkenberg and goaltender Don (Smokey) McLeod, announced they would add three Bruins to their roster for the national final -- forwards Jim Harrison, Ross Lonsberry and Ted Hodgson. Hunter also said he would take Weyburn Red Wings goaltender Don Caley as a replacement for Pete Neukomm who had suffered a fractured cheekbone in a western semifinal game against the Fort William Canadians.
Edmonton had spent the season playing in the Alberta Senior Hockey League, there being no junior league in Alberta. In fact, the Oil Kings tied the Drumheller Miners for the provincial senior championship.
The Oil Kings' opposition this time around was provided by the Oshawa Generals, featuring 15-year-old defenceman Bobby Orr, Wayne Cashman, Danny O'Shea, goaltender Ian Young, Billy Heindl, Barry Wilkins and Nick Beverley. The Generals were coached by Bep Guidolin and managed by Wren Blair.
Oshawa, which finished fourth in the Ontario Junior Hockey League, had eliminated the Shawinigan Falls Bruins in the eastern final, winning the best-of-five affair in four games.
All games in this national final series were scheduled for Maple Leaf Gardens -- the last Memorial Cup series to be played there.
The politicking began early as Blair announced he would protest (1) the presence of the Oil Kings because they didn't play in a junior league; and, (2) the inclusion of three Estevan players on Edmonton's roster.
Blair admitted he didn't expect success but "I'm going to file them anyway.''
Edmonton, which had lost five of the last six Memorial Cup finals, opened the series on May 4 by thrashing Oshawa 7-2, outshooting the Generals 52-20 in the process. Attendance was 4,310.
Centre Ross Perkins scored two shorthanded goals for Edmonton. And you can bet Blair was livid as the three Estevan players all figured in the scoring -- Harrison had a goal and two assists, Lonsberry had a goal and Hodgson had two assists. Galen Head, Hamilton and Bailey added singles. Hamilton also had two assists.
Orr, who dazzled with his rink-length dashes and had at least 10 shots on goal, and Chris Hayes scored for Oshawa, which trailed 4-1 and 5-2 at the period breaks.
Six players picked up fighting majors six minutes into the third period, the altercation starting when Harrison crashed into Orr, after which he was immediately confronted by Oshawa's Bill White. One of the ensuing fights featured Orr, who scored an easy decision over Dave Rochefort.
Kinasewich was upset and accused the Generals of head-hunting.
"I like a rough, hard-checking game,” Kinasewich said, "and if they can't take it, then let them go home.”
Guidolin countered: "We didn't see one good check all night, and you can tell them to stop sending bushers after Orr.”
Oshawa tied the series on May 6, riding a three-goal performance from O'Shea to a 7-1 victory before 7,210 fans, most of them apparently from the Oshawa area.
O'Shea and Cashman had gone into the final with 21 playoff goals apiece.
Cashman, Hayes, Heindl and Ron Dussiaume also scored for the Generals. Cashman also set up three goals as the Generals took period leads of 2-0 and 5-0.
Defenceman Doug Barrie scored Edmonton's lone goal.
Orr was used sparingly. He was on the limp with a groin injury he said he suffered during practice the previous week. Hamilton, Edmonton's top defenceman, was nursing a sore tailbone and hardly played in the third period.
When this one was over, Hunter pointed a finger at referee Frank Daigneault of Montreal.
When a Maple Leaf Gardens publicist said "we'll get a crowd of 14,000 here (for Game 3),” Hunter added: "Yeah, and we'll get a new referee.”
"He's going to lose control,” Kinasewich added, "and that won't be good for the players or the fans.”
After Game 2, Hunter announced the Oil Kings would use Caley in Game 3 only to be informed by the CAHA that he was ineligible.
After the Generals won Game 3 by a 6-2 count on May 8 before 7,365 fans, Hunter was again all over Daigneault.
"Daigneault must have signed a contract with Oshawa before the series,” Hunter said. "Generals' defencemen were stopping shots and pulling the puck into their bodies as they fell, and Daigneault, only five feet away, wasn't calling them.”
The Generals, with Orr playing only on the power play, got two goals from O'Shea and singles from Cashman, George Babcock, Bill Little and Dussiaume. Perkins and Ron Walters scored for the Oil Kings.
Kinasewich yanked McLeod and sent in Jim Knox after the first period with Oshawa leading 4-0.
"You don't expect that a fellow who's played well all season will choke up all of a sudden,” Kinasewich said. "But that's what he's done.
"Oshawa's not that good. We've played better teams than that all season. And this is the first time we've played two bad games in a row this year.”
Guidolin fired back: "You can tell 'em we've got a few surprises for (Game 4). We got the same team.”
The Oil Kings held a team meeting on the off day.
"We've just had a revival meeting,” Hunter said. "And we've given our lads the message -- God help Oshawa in the next game.”
McLeod was back at his best in Game 4 as he backstopped the Oil Kings to a 5-3 victory on May 11 before 5,761 fans. That tied the series 2-2.
Trailing 3-2 going into the third period, the Oil Kings exploded for three goals, the winner coming at 16:46 when Hamilton went coast-to-coast and set up Head. Perkins followed with an empty-net goal to wrap it up.
Lonsberry, Ron Anderson and Rochefort also scored for the Oil Kings. Hayes, Cashman and O'Shea scored for Oshawa.
Orr took a regular shift for two periods, but took his gear off after that. He aggravated his groin injury when checked into the boards by Perkins.
"We blew it,” Guidolin said. "We didn't skate. You gotta skate. If you don't, you're dead.”
Kinasewich thought it was Edmonton's turn.
"Don't you think we were due?” he said. "We couldn't get much worse than in the second and third games.”
The Oil Kings wrapped up the Memorial Cup posting two victories in two days -- 7-4 on May 14 and 2-1 on May 15.
Craig Cameron had three goals and an assist to lead Edmonton in Game 5. Perkins added two goals and four helpers, with Falkenberg and Hodgson also scoring. Heindl, Dussiaume, Cashman and Hayes scored for Oshawa.
In Game 6, it was two of the Estevan players -- Harrison and Hodgson -- who provided the victory.
For starters, Harrison put two players -- Heindl and Paul Cadieux -- out of the game with injuries after hard checks.
Heindl opened the scoring on a power play at 9:10 of the first period. Harrison tied it on a 30-footer at 17:02 of the second period and Hodgson won it with a blistering slap shot at 6:47 of the third.
Both goaltenders -- Young and McLeod -- stopped 37 shots in front of 5,018 fans.
The hero in the end was McLeod, the goaltender who had been so severely criticized in the early going.
"You are looking at the finest goalie in junior hockey,” Kinasewich said.
"When he gets that look in his eye,” Hunter said, "you just know that nobody's gonna beat him.”
Guidolin offered: "They owe it all to the goalie, who they said choked. What are they saying about him now?”
They were saying they had been misquoted earlier in the series.
This was the first time a western team had won the championship while playing in an eastern rink since the Port Arthur West End Bruins did it in 1948.

NEXT: 1967 (Port Arthur Marrs vs. Toronto Marlboros)

From Gregg Drinnan...1967

1967 MEMORIAL CUP
Port Arthur Marrs vs. Toronto Marlboros
at Fort William (Gardens)


The world of junior hockey began to change in a big, big way starting with the 1966-67 season.
No longer would the only junior hockey in western Canada be played in the provincial junior leagues -- the Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and B.C. junior leagues.
Now there was something called the Canadian Major Junior Hockey League. In its first season it featured the Edmonton Oil Kings, Estevan Bruins, Regina Pats, Moose Jaw Canucks, Saskatoon Blades, Weyburn Red Wings and Calgary Buffaloes.
The new guys on the block, who had met in Clear Lake, Man., and formed their new league, also had a lot of enemies.
Dick Chubey of The Albertan, then a Calgary-based tabloid newspaper, wrote: "The CAHA . . . stood against the move, so the rogues simply bolted from within its jurisdiction. They were tabbed throughout the land as outlaws and their pictures hung on post-office walls, although they, like any other head-strong revolutionaries, preferred to be known as independent.”
It didn't matter what they were called -- outlaw or independent -- the CMJHL operated outside the CAHA's jurisdiction, which meant that member teams weren't eligible to compete for the Memorial Cup.
This resulted in two things of note: (1) The Moose Jaw Canucks, who won the CMJHL's first championship, couldn't play for the Memorial Cup; and, (2) for the first time since the spring of 1959, when the Winnipeg Braves represented the west, the Edmonton Oil Kings weren't in the Memorial Cup final.
The Oil Kings lost out in a CMJHL semifinal, dropping a best-of-nine series to Moose Jaw. The Canucks won three games, lost two and four were tied. Ahhh, yes, things like that happened in those days.
Instead, it was the Port Arthur Marrs, coached by Albert Cava, carrying the west's colors. It was the first time in 19 years that Port Arthur had made it to the final.
The Marrs -- featuring the likes of goaltenders John Adams and Ted Tucker, and skaters Bob Kelly, Vic Venasky and captain Ray Adduono -- were allowed under the CAHA's equalization rules to add six players for the final. They picked up forwards Juha Widing and Bill Fairbairn from the Brandon Wheat Kings, Chuck Kelner (Geraldton Gold Miners), and Ron Busniuk (Fort William Canadiens), and defencemen Gerry Hart (Flin Flon Bombers) and John Ferguson (Fort William). Most of the offence of late had been coming from a line featuring Adduono, the Thunder Bay Junior Hockey League scoring king for the third season in a row, and Tim McCormack. Kelner was inserted on that line during the western final and had immediate success.
Adduono had scored 80 points in 28 regular-season games. In the playoffs, he totaled 16 goals and 38 assists in 19 games. McCormack had 24 playoff goals.
The Marrs' top defenceman was Ken Rodgers, who came east from his native B.C., where he had played three seasons in Kamloops.
The opposition would be provided by the Toronto Marlboros, coached by Gus Bodnar. Prior to this, Bodnar's claim to fame had been setting up all three of the goals scored by Chicago Blackhawks sniper Billy Mosienko in a 21-second span on March 23, 1952 in Madison Square Garden against the New York Rangers.
Starring on Bodnar's Marlies were goaltenders Gary Edwards and Bob Whidden, along with Fred Barrett, Mike Byers, captain Brian Glennie, Gerry Meehan, Brad Park and Mike Pelyk. Meehan was the team's leading scorer, but his 68 regular-season points left him 33 in arrears of the league scoring king, Niagara Falls Flyers' centre Derek Sanderson.
En route to the final, Port Arthur had ousted Fort William (five games), Geraldton (three), Flin Flon (six) and the New Westminster Royals (five).
Adduono proved he not only could score goals -- prior to each series he made a prediction and in each instance he had been correct.
The Marrs ousted the Royals from the best-of-seven western final in five games, including series-ending 6-2 and 5-0 victories right in New Westminster. Kelner arrived from Geraldton for the second game of the western final and promptly scored eight goals in three games.
The Marlboros, meanwhile, had put together a 37-19-13 record through 69 regular-season and playoff games. In the postseason, they got rid of the Kitchener Rangers, Hamilton Red Wings and Thetford Mines Canadians.
After playing to a win, two ties and a loss in their first four playoff games against Kitchener, the Marlies went on a tear, winning 10 of their next 11 postseason games as they reached the Dominion final.
The Marlboros manhandled Thetford Mines in the eastern final, winning the best-of-five series in four games, including 9-1 and 5-2 victories to wrap it up.
All games in the Memorial Cup final would be played in the 4,400-seat Fort William Gardens.
"All I've said all along was that it would take a good hockey team to beat us,” said Cava. "We've been the underdogs in a couple of series and we expect to be again. That's the way we like it. They didn't expect us to get this far but here we are.
"We know we're meeting a team which proved itself best in the top junior league in the country. We expect the Marlies to be tough. But we'll show up.”
The series opened on May 7 with the Marlies -- paced by the line of Doug Acomb, Frank Hamill and Byers -- posting a 6-3 victory in front of 5,300 fans.
Kelner opened the scoring at 1:05 of the first period and Adduono made it 2-0 at 3:20. But Acomb and Terry Caffery scored to tie it before the end of the first.
Busniuk and Meehan exchanged second-period goals, setting the scene for Toronto to score the third period's only three goals -- by Acomb, Caffery and Tom Martin.
"It looks like a long series,” Cava said. "They're a good club and play their positions well, but I think we can bounce back.”
Cava wasn't pleased with the play of his big line, which had totaled one goal and one assist. Cava said: ""It certainly wasn't their usual game and I can't say much after that.''
Prior to Game 2, Cava tried his luck at predicting the future.
"I predict we'll win,” he said of Game 2.
He was wrong.
The Marlboros won 8-4 in front of more than 5,300 fans on May 9 to go up 2-0 in games.
The difference was four goals in a span of 3:58 in the second period that gave the Marlies a 7-2 lead.
Meehan and Acomb had given Toronto a 2-0 first-period edge that Meehan upped to 3-0 early in the second. But Rodgers and McCormack cut the deficit to 3-2 just before the explosion.
Richie Bayes (12:29), Hamill (12:47), Meehan (14:40) and Acomb (16:27) scored to bury the Marrs.
The line of Meehan, Acomb and Caffery was killing the Marrs. Meehan and Acomb finished Game 2 with three goals each, while Caffery set up three goals.
Kelner and Fairbairn scored for Port Arthur.
The Marrs went into Game 3 knowing they had to stop Acomb (five goals, two assists), Caffery (two goals, six assists) and Meehan (four goals).
"I think we can still win this if we can get this third game,” Cava stated.
As for Bodnar, he offered: "Our guys are coming around to their potential. We're starting to play the hockey we're capable of.”
On May 11, the Marrs stopped the Marlies' big line and got back in it, as they won the third game 6-4 before more than 5,300 fans.
Widing and Fairbairn, both of whom had topped 100 points with the Wheat Kings, led the way with two goals each. They combined for three third-period goals as the Marrs erased a 4-3 Toronto lead.
John Healey and Widing gave Port Arthur a 2-0 lead after the first period. Caffery and Martin tied it in the second, before McCormack put the Marrs out front again. John Wright and Cam Crosby put the Marlboros into the lead before the second period ended.
Port Arthur won it in the third when Widing scored once and Fairbairn, who also had two assists, added a pair, including an empty-netter.
The game ended with some ugliness as linesman Roy Lamore emerged from a scrap with a cut on his scalp. Crosby and Adduono came out of it with majors, while Kelly, who had come off the bench, was hit with a major and a misconduct by referee John McVey of Ottawa.
It was Kelly's second fight of the game. Earlier, he and Martin battled, with the Toronto player leaving for facial repairs and then returning to action.
During his pro career, Kelly would be known as Battleship. As a junior, he was known as The Equalizer.
The next night, in front of another capacity crowd of more than 5,300, the Marlies moved to within one victory of the title by beating the Marrs 6-0.
(Earlier that day, Flin Flon had announced it would apply for admittance to the CMJHL.)
Port Arthur goaltender Johnny Adams let in a couple of weak ones early, while Whidden was perfect on 19 shots at the other end.
Martin and Bayes scored twice each, while Caffery and Acomb added one each for the Marlies.
Adams was yanked at 7:49 of the third period and the crowd cheered replacement Gordie Bishop on each of his four easy saves.
The Marrs were minus Kelly, who was sitting out a one-game suspension for leaving the bench to enter that altercation at the end of Game 3.
The Marlies wrapped up their fourth Memorial Cup in 12 seasons with a 6-3 victory before about 4,000 fans on May 14.
Bayes, Meehan and Martin had two goals each for the winners. Adduono scored all three Port Arthur goals.
"This is the best hockey club I've ever played with,” Glennie said as he accepted the trophy.
The Marrs led 2-1 after one period; the teams were tied 2-2 going into the third.
Meehan was credited with the Memorial Cup-winning goal at 4:11 of the third period.
Caffery led the series in points, 14, including 10 assists. Adduono led Port Arthur with seven points, including four goals.
Bodnar said winning the Memorial Cup was a greater thrill than winning the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL's rookier of the year. He had won the Calder in his first season (1943-44) with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

NEXT: 1968 (Estevan Bruins vs. Niagara Falls Flyers)

From Gregg Drinnan...1968

1968 MEMORIAL CUP
Estevan Bruins vs. Niagara Falls Flyers
at Niagara Falls (Memorial Arena) and Montreal (Forum)


The Canadian Major Junior Hockey League, the outlaw/independent league that had been formed over the summer of 1966, was gone.
In its place was the Western Canada Junior Hockey League. Same people. Mostly the same teams. Different name.
And it was mostly back in the good graces of the CAHA, meaning that after a one-year absence its teams were eligible to compete for the Memorial Cup.
Up until now, the focus of junior hockey had been mainly on the ice. Oh, the characters were always in the neighbourhood -- hockey giants like Rudy Pilous and Sam Pollock and Scotty Bowman and Al Ritchie and Joe Primeau et al -- but they always seemed to be on the periphery.
That started to change in the late 1960s as men like Hap Emms, Scotty Munro and Bill Hunter began to dominate the game of junior hockey.
These men had always been there and they had always been colourful characters. They just weren't always able to make it onto the front pages of the sports sections.
In the late 1960s, however, that changed, primarily because the media changed. No longer was it enough just to cover the games; now the readers, listeners and viewers were demanding a look inside the game, inside the dressing room.
And so it was that the 1968 Memorial Cup final came to be dominated by two men, neither of them players, both of them able to blow smoke with the best of them.
Hap Emms was running the Niagara Falls Flyers, the eastern Canadian champions, with his son, Paul, serving as coach. They would meet Roderick Neil (Scotty) Munro and his Estevan Bruins in the Memorial Cup final. Munro was the Bruins' general manager; the coach was Ernie (Punch) McLean. It was the latter's first of what would be many appearances on the national stage.
This final was unique in that it featured teams that wore exactly the same uniforms -- fashioned after the NHL's Boston Bruins.
Munro and Emms had long been associated with the NHL's Bruins. Thus, it was most ironic that in Munro's first trip to the national final -- he had been in seven Abbott Cup finals, winning for the first time in 1968 -- he should be up against a team run by Emms.
The Bruins had finished second in the regular season, their 45-13-2 record leaving them seven points in arrears of Bobby Clarke, Reg Leach and the Flin Flon Bombers.
Estevan didn't have a scorer in the top 10 during the regular season, but it had the second-best defence and the offence, led by Jim Harrison, caught fire in the playoffs. Harrison would lead the postseason in goals (13), assists (22) and points (35), all in just 14 games. Ernie Moser chipped in with 23 points, including nine goals, Dale Hoganson had 22 points, nine of them goals, and Dan Schock had 21 points, including six goals. (Hoganson, a defenceman, was joined on the team by his older brother, Wayne, a left winger.)
The Bruins began the 1967-68 season with a 22-game unbeaten streak. They finished the regular season by winning nine in a row, then opened the playoffs by sweeping a best-of-seven from the Winnipeg Jets. They then ventured into a best-of-seven semifinal against Moose Jaw, and ousted the Canucks in five games (four victories and a tie). And the Bruins had it pretty much their own way in ousting the Bombers from the final, again winning four games and tying one in the best-of-seven series. That left the Bruins unbeaten in their last 23 games.
They then won the first two games of a western semifinal with the Westfort, Ont., Hurricanes, a team they would take out in five games. In the western final, the Bruins swept B.C.'s Penticton Broncos in four games to win the Abbott Cup.
Overall, Estevan played 23 postseason games -- winning 20, losing one and tying two.
The Bruins arrived in Toronto while the Flyers were still engaged with the Verdun, Que., Maple Leafs in the Eastern Canadian final, a best-of-five series that went the distance. The Flyers won the first two games in Verdun, only to have the Maple Leafs roar back and win the next two games in Niagara Falls. And, in Game 5 on May 4 in Niagara Falls, the Maple Leafs led 4-3 with 13 minutes to play when things fell apart and the Flyers went on to a 7-4 victory.
Prior to that, the Flyers had survived three Ontario Junior Hockey League best-of-seven playoff rounds -- they eliminated the Peterborough Petes in five games, the Montreal Junior Canadiens in six and then went eight -- there was one tie -- in the final with the Kitchener Rangers.
Munro and McLean also brought some extra players with them, what with the western team still allowed to add players from other teams in its league. So as the Bruins sat in Toronto and prepared, Munro and McLean were deciding which players to use.
Left-winger Ron Garwasiuk of the Regina Pats, an all-star, was sure to play. McLean would then choose from among Edmonton Oil Kings centre Ron Walters, Moose Jaw goaltender Ken Brown (Estevan's regular netminder was Gordie Kopp), and defencemen Kerry Ketter of Edmonton and Joe Zanussi of the Swift Current Broncos. Before the series was over, McLean would use all of them.
Up front, the Bruins featured Harrison. He was the team leader. Period. But they also had the likes of Moser, Schock, Greg Polis and Greg Sheppard.
The Flyers could boast of goaltender Phil Myre and a defence that featured future NHLers Rick Ley, who was the team captain, and Brad Selwood, along with Mike Keeler and Rick Thompson. Up front, the big line featured centre Garry Swain and right-winger Tom Webster, along with whomever Paul Emms happened to put on the left side. Doug Brindley centred a second line with Phil Roberto on the right side and Ron Schwindt or Dan MacKey on the left wing. Ross Webley centred Steve Atkinson and left-winger Don Tannahill.
On the eve of the series opener, the teams were still bickering over where games would be played.
"In no way will we play all of the series in that barn,” Munro said, referring to the 2,900-seat Niagara Falls Memorial Arena.
The series also began with Hap Emms having barred two Toronto sports writers -- Frank Orr of The Star and Jack Marks of The Globe and Mail -- from the Flyers' dressing room.
And Hap Emms was, as usual, blowing smoke.
"The series against Kitchener Rangers killed us,” he said, referring to the league final having gone eight games. "No way we can beat Estevan, if we get past Verdun. We're dead and the Bruins are resting.”
Well, the Flyers got past Verdun and the best-of-seven Memorial Cup final opened in Memorial Arena on May 6.
The first game was won 7-4 by the Flyers, who held period leads of 2-0 and 4-2 as they got two goals from each of Roberto and Swain before 3,023 fans.
The Flyers got singles from Atkinson, Webster and Karl Haggarty, with Harrison, Greg Sheppard, Jerry Dionne and Dale Hoganson replying for the Bruins.
But when it was over, everyone was left talking about a last-minute donnybrook. Referee Jim McCauley of Montreal almost called the game when fans became involved behind the Bruins' bench.
It began with Garwasiuk and Ley, a veteran of the 1965 Memorial Cup-champion Flyers, tangling at centre ice. Before it was over, Harrison, who was already in the penalty box, tangled with a fan. The gentleman happened to be Thompson's father. And, according to one report, Mr. Thompson "left the arena battered and bleeding.” The fan was also reported to be stripped to the waist.
After Garwasiuk was separated from Ley, Myre was waiting for him. At the same time, Estevan's Bob Piche went at it with Atkinson.
The Bruins had taken 11 of 16 minor penalties before the brawl, and the Flyers had struck for three power-play goals.
And when it was over, Munro said the fans in Niagara Falls "are nothing but animals.”
"(The fans) kept baiting the boys on my bench,” Munro said.
Other than that, Munro said, "we got off to a slow start. Of course, we took five minor penalties in that first period and it was bound to harm us.
"Then our goaltender (Kopp) let three shots between his legs. That's something for him. He's a good goaltender.”
Munro wasn't about to point the finger at the officiating. At least, not yet.
"We took a lot of penalties before the fight started, and we don't usually play that brand of hockey,” he said.
The scene shifted to the Montreal Forum for Game 2 on May 8 and only 1,849 fans showed up.
The Bruins evened the series 1-1 by scoring a 4-2 victory as Schock, who had been dumped a year earlier by Emms, scored one goal and set up two others.
"It was the greatest moment in my career and the only thing that will ever be bigger is to take the Memorial Cup back west,” said Schock, a native of Terrace Bay, Ont.
Dale Hoganson, Sheppard and Moser also scored for the Bruins, who tallied three times with the man advantage. Atkinson, on the power play, and Webster replied for the Flyers.
The Bruins, who had gotten off to a slow start in Game 1, came out flying for Game 2 and led 3-0 in the first period, with Hoganson and Schock scoring 71 seconds apart. They took a 4-2 edge into the third period.
Munro and McLean chose to go with Brown in goal and he sparkled with 26 saves, six fewer than Myre.
The fact both teams wore the same colors finally posed something of a problem. The Flyers wore the Montreal Junior Canadiens uniforms for this one, which caused at least one person to do something of a doubletake.
As Ron Campbell reported in the Regina Leader-Post:
"The use of the Junior Canadiens sweaters created quite a hubbub in the Forum when Sam Pollock, general manager of the NHL Canaadiens, returned and walked into the Forum to see Niagara suited up in Hab colors.
"Reports have it that Pollock has ordered two sets of special uniforms to make sure the situation won't ever occur again.”
The scene was to shift to Niagara Falls for Game 3. But as the teams left Montreal to return to the Honeymoon City, dates and sites for games beyond that had yet to be announced.
However, prior to Game 3 it was revealed that Game 4 would also be played in Niagara Falls. It seemed that Munro was losing on and off the ice.
The Flyers made short work of the Bruins in Game 3 on May 10, winning 7-4 as Atkinson scored twice before a capacity crowd of 3,905.
Estevan led this one 2-0 in the first period before the bottom fell out.
Atkinson, with two, Brindley, Russ Frieson, Swain, MacKey and Tannahill, with an empty-netter, scored for the Flyers. Sheppard, with two, Harrison and Dale Hoganson replied for the Bruins.
Once again, the Flyers didn't wear their own uniforms. This time they wore the sweaters of the St. Catharines Teepees.
The Flyers, again wearing Teepees uniforms, closed to within one victory of the Memorial Cup title on May 13 with a 4-3 overtime victory in front of 2,627 fans.
Webster's goal at 12:56 of the extra period was the difference.
A fifth game? It also was scheduled for Niagara Falls.
Brown kept the Bruins in Game 4, making 59 saves as he was tested time after time after time.
Estevan had possession of the puck in its zone prior to Webster's goal. But the Flyers knocked down a clearing pass and Webster went in alone on Brown. He put a couple of moves on Brown before backhanding the puck into the gaping net.
Swain had two goals for the Flyers, with Webley getting the other. Sheppard, Garwasiuk and Dionne scored for Estevan.
The Flyers, again wearing Teepees uniforms, wrapped it up two nights later, posting a 6-0 victory as Myre made 20 saves before 3,813 home-town fans. The Flyers actually sent backup goaltender Dave Tataryn in for the final 80 seconds, but he didn't have to make a save.
The game was plagued by on-ice fog problems that, according to Campbell, "at times made it almost impossible to see the puck from the press gallery.”
The Flyers jumped out to a 3-0 first-period lead and never looked back.
"We just ran out of gas. The two playoffs in the west -- one against (Thunder Bay) Westforts and the other against Penticton -- killed us,” McLean said. "It was impossible to get sharp again. I'm not saying this to belittle the Flyers -- they are a great team -- but if we had met them after we beat Flin Flon it would have been a different series.”
Brindley, with two, Webster, Atkinson, Selwood and Roberto looked after the scoring. Webster's goal, on a power play at 9:15 of the first period, stood up as the winner.
Brown was again heroic in the Estevan goal. He made 51 saves, but on this night that wasn't enough.
It was only fitting, one supposes, that the game ended with the victors wearing their own uniforms. With five minutes left in the third period, Hap Emms had his players put on their familiar black-and-yellow uniforms.
"They never quit,” Munro said. "They gave us all they could. They are a great bunch of kids -- the best I've ever had. It was unfair to make them play a national final under the circumstances the CAHA made us play.”
Munro was referring to the fact that this was the Bruins' 105th game of the season, 28 of them coming in the postseason.
It was revealed afterwards that Harrison, ineffectual through most of the series, played the last four games with a broken bone in one hand. He had broken it in the final minute of the first game, when he had gotten into a scrap with the father of Niagara Falls defenceman Rick Thompson.
Some of Harrison's pain was soothed moments after the game when he signed a contract worth $37,000 with the Boston Bruins. To that point, only defenceman Bobby Orr had gotten more money -- an estimated $60,000 -- in signing with the Bruins.

NEXT: 1969 (Regina Pats vs. Montreal Junior Canadiens)

From Gregg Drinnan...1969

1969 MEMORIAL CUP
Regina Pats vs. Montreal Junior Canadiens
at Montreal (Forum) and Regina (Exhibition Stadium)


Once again, the politics of junior hockey played a role in determining a Memorial Cup champion.
Unable to see eye-to-eye with the CAHA, the Western Canada Junior Hockey League bolted once again, choosing to operate independently.
Three teams -- the Regina Pats, Moose Jaw Canucks and Weyburn Red Wings -- didn't agree with the move and returned to the security of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.
The WCJHL changed its name -- this time to the Western Canada Hockey League -- and operated with eight teams, rather than the 11 of the previous season.
Ironically, one of the teams that left the WCHL -- Regina -- would represent western Canada in the Memorial Cup final.
The Pats, under head coach Bob Turner, who had five Stanley Cup titles under his belt as a defenceman with the Montreal Canadiens, featured goaltender Gary Bromley, defenceman Barry Cummins, and forwards Laurie Yaworski, Ron Garwasiuk, who had played with the Estevan Bruins in the 1968 Memorial Cup final, Larry Wright and Don Saleski. Also here was forward Bob Owen, who would go on to coach the Regina Pat Blues of the SJHL and then move into the NHL scouting ranks.
Regina won the SJHL championship by ousting Moose Jaw in four games and Weyburn in six.
Entering into interprovincial play, the Pats took six games to sideline the Lethbridge Sugar Kings and then went seven games in the Abbott Cup final with the Manitoba Junior Hockey League's Dauphin Kings. Regina had held a 3-1 lead in games over Dauphin, only to have the Kings pull even at 3-3 by winning a sixth game 3-2 in overtime.
It's of interest that the Estevan Bruins, even though they were members of the WCHL and therefore not eligible for Memorial Cup play, were making some noise here. You see, the Bruins were the defending Abbott Cup champions and their coach, Ernie (Punch) McLean, was heard to say that he wasn't about to give up the Abbott Cup without a fight.
McLean's reasoning? He said the Abbott Cup was a challenge trophy and that no one had challenged the Bruins for it.
(When the Pats finally won the west, the Abbott Cup wasn't anywhere to be found. And it wouldn't turn up for a year, at which time some people would say it had been missing for two seasons, while others would claim it hadn't been seen for three years.)
No matter. The Pats beat hometown Dauphin, and goaltender Ron Low, 4-3 in the seventh game before 3,194 fans, defenceman Gord Redden's goal at 11:18 of the third period standing up as the winner. Redden, whose son Wade would make two Memorial Cup appearances with the Brandon Wheat Kings in the 1990s, had been added to the Pats' roster from Weyburn after the Red Wings were sidelined. The crowd included quite a few Reginans, who were able to get return bus fare and a game ticket for $10.
One other item of note from the Dauphin-Regina series: Dauphin management brought in Kelly Sveinson, a specialist from Winnipeg, to spend up to three hours a day working with the team on the powers of positive thinking.
Turner, for one, wasn't impressed.
"I do the positive thinking for this club and we don't need anyone from outside to come in and tell us how good we are,” the Pats coach said.
Afterwards, Regina added three Kings -- centre Butch Goring, left-winger Dennis Schick and defenceman Bob Neufeld -- for the Memorial Cup series. Goring, Dauphin's best player, suffered a separated shoulder in the final seconds of the sixth game of the Abbott Cup final and didn't play for the Pats until the third game of the national final. Prior to the series with Dauphin, the Pats had added four Weyburn players -- Redden, centres Murray Keogan and Ross Butler and goaltender Wayne Bell -- and right-winger Doug Kerslake from Moose Jaw.
As it turned out, the Pats were no match for the Montreal Junior Canadiens, of coach Roger Bedard, a team that boasted the likes of Guy Charron, Rejean Houle, Marc Tardif, Richard Martin and Gilbert Perreault, along with goaltenders Wayne Wood and Jimmy Rutherford, the latter a playoff addition from the Hamilton Red Wings.
Houle, a right winger, had won the Ontario Junior Hockey League scoring title, with 108 points, including 53 goals, in 54 games. In the playoffs, he had added 19 goals and 10 assists. Perreault, in the regular season, had scored 97 points, including 60 assists. They played on a line with Bobby Guindon on the left side.
The second line featured Bobby Lalonde between J.P. Bordeleau and Tardif. Tardif, who was just starting to mature into a superb player, followed up a 72-point regular season with 22 goals and 19 assists in the playoffs.
And there was the Kid Line -- Richard Lemieux between Norm Gratton, the right winger, and Charron, who had 54 points, including 27 goals, in the regular season.
The defence was keyed by Jocelyn Guevremont, Serge Lajeunesse and Andre Dupont. Claude Moreau and Gary Connelly also patrolled the blue line.
Montreal had gone through four playoff series before reaching the Memorial Cup final.
In league play, the Junior Canadiens eliminated Hamilton in a best-of-seven series -- without overtime they were sometimes called eight-point series -- that lasted five games. Montreal won three games and two were tied. The Junior Canadiens then swept the Peterborough Petes in four games, to advance against the St. Catharines Black Hawks in the final -- a series they won in five games to claim the Robertson Cup as OJHL champions.
That moved them into the best-of-five eastern Canadian final against the Sorel Eperviers, a team coached by Ken Hodge, then 21 years of age. Hodge, who would go on to earn 742 coaching victories in the WHL, had suffered a career-ending eye injury two seasons previous while with Moose Jaw. At 21, he may well have been the youngest fulltime junior hockey head coach in history.
Montreal won the George C. Richardson Trophy as eastern Canadian finalists by taking out Sorel, 3-1 in games.
The Junior Canadiens were gunning for their city's first Memorial Cup since 1950. The Montreal Royals had won it in 1949, the Junior Canadiens won it in '50.
The Pats, who hadn't been in the national final since 1958, hadn't won it all since 1939.
The two teams had met earlier in the season in Regina, with Montreal winning, 5-2.
The series opened on April 30 in the Montreal Forum where, including playoffs, the Junior Canadiens were 32-2-3.
Charron scored three times as the Junior Canadiens won 5-3 before a crowd of 8,821. (Attendance was not what had been expected, and it was speculated that the fact the Montreal Expos were playing their first night game of the National League baseball season may have had something to do with that.)
It was the first time this playoff season that Regina had trailed in a series.
Tardif and Perreault scored Montreal's other goals. Keogan, with two, and Wright scored for the Pats, who trailed 5-1 before scoring two late goals.
Bromley turned aside 40 shots, 20 of them in the third period. At the other end, Rutherford was spectacular, stopping 32 shots.
Toe Blake, coach of the NHL's Montreal Canadiens, was heard to say that the Junior Canadiens were fortunate to have Rutherford in goal, especially in the first period when the Pats dominated play.
"The Pats deserved a better fate than a 3-1 deficit after two periods of hockey,” stated New York Rangers general manager-coach Emile Francis.
The Pats spent the next afternoon, an off day, watching the Montreal Expos play the New York Mets at Jarry Park.
The Junior Canadiens wrapped up their home portion of the series with a 7-2 victory in front of 10,862 fans on May 2.
Guindon scored twice for the Baby Habs in a game marred by a third-period bench-clearing brawl sparked by a scrap between Dupont and Regina's Gary Leippi. In the end, only six players from each team weren't given game misconducts.
Perrault, Charron, Gratton, Lemieux and Arthur Quoquochi added Montreal's other goals. Regina got its goals from Saleski and Garwasiuk.
Montreal took a 2-0 lead into the second period, only to have Regina tie the score. But Charron's goal late in the second period gave the Junior Canadiens a 3-2 lead and the Pats weren't able to recover.
Had it not been for the play of Rutherford, however, Regina may have been off and running. The Pats threw 15 shots at Rutherford in the first period and 18 more in the second, but could only score twice.
The brawl began with an altercation between Dupont and Leippi. Before you knew it, there were seven more scraps taking place.
Then, just when it seemed calm had been restored, Rutherford, who had gone to the bench in favor of Wood after Montreal's final goal, chose to go after Bromley, who was taking in the proceedings from near the Pats' bench. That resulted in both teams dumping their benches and it became a full-scale donnybrook.
After the game, never mind the scraps, both teams boarded the same charter flight and headed for Regina, landing around 3 a.m.
The series resumed on May 4 before 5,120 fans at Regina's Exhibition Stadium.
Only the location changed, however, as the outcome was the same.
Lalonde, a 17-year-old in his first season, scored four times as Montreal won 5-2 to close to within one victory of the national title. Lalonde had six shots on goal in the game; his goals came on his first four shots.
Tardif had Montreal's other goal. Butler and Goring scored for Regina.
"You can't score goals if you don't shoot the puck,” Turner said. "You can't take anything away from Canadiens; they're a real good club, but our guys continually tried to work in too close. (Montreal) played better as a team here than in Montreal and they backchecked harder than they did in the previous two games.”
Bedard agreed, saying: "We played much better as a unit than we did in the first two games.”
Bedard also had a bit of praise for Lalonde.
"He played really well,” Bedard said, "but if it hadn't been him, it would have been someone else. This has been a rotating club all year, first one player stars and then another.”
By now, Turner knew the writing was on the wall.
"John Statz and Barry Cummins played steady,” he said, "but you could have thrown a blanket over the rest. We're going to need a better effort out of all our own guys. A couple of our pickups played well, but the rest were terrible.”
Goring played his first game since being injured in Game 6 of the western final. Turner felt he played well, although his conditioning was obviously lacking.
Montreal wrapped it up the next night with an 8-6 overtime victory, scoring twice in a 10-minute extra period before 4,500 fans.
Charron scored twice, including the first goal in overtime, at 2:06, while Dupont also had two goals. Gratton scored the other overtime goal, just 52 seconds after Charron found the range. Singles came from Martin, Quoquochi and Tardif. Charron finished the series with six goals.
Regina, which built up a 5-1 lead before fading, got two goals from each of Saleski and Goring, with Garwasiuk and Statz adding one each. Goring played only the last two games, but totalled three goals and two assists.
The Pats led 5-3 when Martin scored at 6:05 of the third period. Saleski got that one back five minutes later.
The overtime was forced on goals by Tardif (14:02) and Dupont (15:19).
Charron's winner came when he broke free at the Montreal blueline and beat Bromley on the breakaway.
Turner pointed to a Montreal line (Perreault between Tardif and Houle) as the difference. "When Bedard put those three together they dominated the play,” Turner said.
Ironically, on the same night the Junior Canadiens were winning the Memorial Cup, the Flin Flon Bombers were winning the first championship of the Canadian Hockey Association.
The Bombers, ahead 3-1 in a best-of-seven final with St. Thomas, Ont., were leading the Barons 4-0 in Game 5 in Flin Flon when the visitors left the ice midway in the second period.
The walkout happened following several fights, after which St. Thomas manager Jack Cassidy said his club wouldn't continue the series.

NEXT: 1970 (Weyburn Red Wings vs. Montreal Junior Canadiens)

From Gregg Drinnan...1970

1970 MEMORIAL CUP
Weyburn Red Wings vs. Montreal Junior Canadiens
at Montreal (Forum)


Once again, a team from the Saskatchewan Amateur Junior Hockey League carried the west's colors into the best-of-seven Memorial Cup final.
(Again, the eight teams from the Western Canada Hockey League were ineligible as the league continued to operate outside the CAHA.)
This time it was the Weyburn Red Wings of coach Stan Dunn representing the west.
And as in 1969, the Montreal Junior Canadiens, with Roger Bedard behind the bench, provided the opposition.
The Junior Canadiens, featuring among others Gilbert Perreault, Richard Martin, Norm Gratton, Ian Turnbull, Paulin Bordeleau and Bobby Guindon, swept Guy Lafleur and the Quebec Remparts in the best-of-five eastern final. And Montreal added goaltender John Garrett from the Peterborough Petes.
First of all, though, the Baby Habs had to get out of the Ontario Junior Hockey League. They had finished on top of the regular-season standings, their 37-12-5 record good for 79 points, nine more than Peterborough. Montreal then sidelined the Ottawa 67's and St. Catharines Black Hawks before being forced to go seven games with the Toronto Marlboros.
The Junior Canadiens won the seventh game from the Marlies, 6-3, with Perreault scoring four times and setting up the other two goals.
That sent Montreal into a best-of-seven eastern semifinal against the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, champions of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League. The Soo surprised visiting Montreal in the first game by winning 5-4. It was the first victory by an NOJHL team over an OJHL club since 1947.
The Junior Canadiens then went out and won four straight, including a 20-3 romp in the fifth and final game. Turnbull and Perreault had four goals each in that victory.
While Montreal was battling the Soo, the Remparts were scrapping their way past the Charlottetown Islanders in the other eastern semifinal.
The Remparts lost the first two games and then won the series in six games. But the sixth game just about wasn't played, at least not in Charlottetown. The second game of the series had ended in a brawl and Charlottetown police ended up on the ice. The Remparts weren't impressed with the treatment they received and asked the CAHA to move Games 6 and 7 to neutral ice.
The CAHA refused. The Remparts, who would be involved in a similar controversy again in 1971, wrapped it up with a 5-2 victory in Game 6 in Charlottetown.
That set up a classic matchup -- the Remparts, coached by Maurice Filion and featuring Lafleur, against the Junior Canadiens, starring Perreault, in the best-of-five eastern final.
Lafleur had totalled 103 goals in 56 regular-season games as the Quebec Junior A Hockey League played through its first season. Perreault had 51 goals in 54 games.
Montreal won the opener 7-4 behind Perreault's four goals and one assist. Lafleur, playing in front of more than 10,000 fans in Quebec City, more than held his own as he scored twice and set up Quebec's other two goals.
The Junior Canadiens won the second game 9-7, also in Quebec City, as Perreault scored twice. Lafleur had one goal for the Remparts, who led 6-3 after the second period and then surrendered six third-period goals.
The next night in Montreal, before 18,571 fans in the Forum, Martin scored three times as the Junior Canadiens won 7-1 to wrap up the series. Perreault had one goal, while Lafleur was blanked.
Weyburn, meanwhile, won its very first Saskatchewan junior title, beating the Regina Pats in six games in the SAJHL's best-of-seven final. The Red Wings had been around since the 1961-62 season.
In interprovincial play, featuring best-of-seven series, Weyburn opened by ousting the Vernon, B.C., Essos in six games and then took out Alf Cadman's Red Deer Rustlers in six games.
That put the Red Wings into the Abbott Cup final and they took care of the Westfort (Thunder Bay) Hurricanes, coached by former NHLer Benny Woit, 4-2, winning the sixth game 8-6 in Weyburn.
The Abbott Cup, it seems, hadn't been seen for two or three years, depending upon whom was telling the story. And then it reappeared.
In late April of 1970, the trophy showed up in Weyburn where the Red Wings were playing the Hurricanes in the western final.
Mal Isaac reported the finding in the Regina Leader-Post of April 30, 1970:
“It seems that Red Wings president Don Garinger just happened to be walking down the street and noticed the trophy sitting on the back seat of a car. Just what happened after that is not quite clear, but one of the many accounts of the incident goes like this.
“Garinger apparently waited until the owner of the vehicle and two other companions returned and immediately laid claim to the trophy. However, since the Wings had not won the series at that time, the trio was somewhat reluctant to part with the tropy.
“With the aid of one or two other Weyburn citizens, Garinger finally convinced the culprits to turn over the trophy. However, in the confusion, the identity of those responsible for the absence of the trophy during the past two seasons remained a mystery.”
Going in, Dunn felt his boys had a chance, even though the Red Wings didn't have a true superstar, at least not one in the Perreault mold, in their lineup.
“You can stop a superstar,” Dunn said, “but this type of team should be harder to hold. We have no superstars, but we have three balanced lines, and these kids want to play.”
As for stopping Perreault, Dunn said: “We haven't seen Perreault, but our scouts told us there is no way to cover him. I understand that to stop him, you have to keep him from winding up in his own zone.”
Weyburn, which won 20 of 28 playoff games en route to the Memorial Cup, went into the final with three goaltenders -- regular Brent Wilson and pickups Jerome Mrazek (Moose Jaw Canucks) and Gary Bromley (Regina). Wilson was injured in the first game against Red Deer, which resulted in Bromley joining the team. When Wilson returned for the first game against Westfort at the Fort William Gardens, Bromley was in Regina writing university exams. In Wilson's absence, Mrazek had taken over and played well.
Up front, the Red Wings had added 17-year-old Scott Smith, a pickup from Regina, and played him between two 19-year-olds _ left-winger Cal Booth and right-winger Wendell Bennett. Smith had won the SAJHL scoring title with 68 points, including 33 goals, and added another 22 goals and 28 assists in the playoffs. Booth struck for 32 regular-season goals and then added 32 in 28 playoff games through the Abbott Cup final.
Unfortunately, Smith suffered a broken ankle during a practice prior to the first game of the Memorial Cup final.
The Red Wings also counted on forwards Garnet Currie, Rod Norrish, Gene Sobchuk, Gary Leippi, Bob Miller, Bob Gerrard, and Vic Venasky. Norrish, Sobchuk and Leippi were added from Regina, while Venasky came over from the Hurricanes.
The defence, which allowed 223 goals in 64 regular-season games, featured Greg Hubick, Larry Giroux, Al Wawro and Graeme Bennett. Coming on board as pickups were former Canadian national team member Steve Carlyle, who had finished the season with Red Deer, and Ron Lemieux of the Dauphin Kings.
Norrish, Leippi, Smith and Bromley had been with the Pats one year earlier when they were swept by the Junior Canadiens in the national final.
“I saw Montreal play Toronto Marlboros in the OHA final,” said Garinger, “and I feel we can skate with them. But they're deadly within 30 feet of the net.”
Truer words were never spoken.
The Baby Habs made it two sweeps in a row as they routed the Red Wings in a four-game series that was played in its entirety in the Montreal Forum.
There was a disappointing crowd of 6,067 fans in the Forum on May 6 as the home-town lads opened with a 9-4 victory on the strength of four goals from Martin.
Bordeleau, Bobby Lalonde, Pierre Brind'Amour, Serge Lajeunesse and Claude Moreau added Montreal's other goals. Perreault was held to two assists.
Giroux, Leippi, Carlyle and Gerrard replied for Weyburn, which trailed 5-2 through two periods after being tied 1-1 after 20 minutes.
Despite outshooting the Baby Habs 20-12 in the first period, Weyburn was on the short end of the shots at game's end, 40-37. Wayne Wood went the distance in goal for Montreal, with Mrazek doing the same for the Red Wings, who surrendered four power-play goals.
“They forechecked us like crazy in the first period,” offered Montreal right-winger Scott MacPhail, who was inserted onto Perreault's line to replace Hartland Monahan (sore knee), “and then they just ran out of gas. They've got no stars really, but they're not a bad team. They work hard.”
Two nights later, on May 8, only 4,100 fans showed up at the Forum. They saw the Junior Canadiens get two goals from Bobby Guindon en route to a 6-2 victory.
“We were much sharper and if we had received an all-out effort from everyone on the club it would have been a much closer hockey game,” Dunn said.
Lajeunesse, Lalonde, Gratton and Richard Lemieux added Montreal's other goals.
Venasky and Currie counted for Weyburn.
“We didn't start as well as we did in the opener but we still should have been all even at 1-1 at the end of the first period as we were on Wednesay,” Dunn said. “Cal (Booth) took a bad penalty just after we had killed one off and they scored. It came in the final minute of the first period and gave them a 2-1 edge.
“Goals in the final minute of any period really hurt you. It gave them a big lift and they got the jump again in the second period to go up 3-1. Even then we came back to stay with them.”
Garrett stopped 29 shots in Montreal's goal, including 12 in the second period. Mrazek made 39 saves for Weyburn.
“(Montreal) has three solid lines and three more forwards sitting on the bench that can step in and you wouldn't know the difference,” Dunn said. “Their defence hasn't impressed me that much. The big difference is that they have been playing together all year and have been faced with tough opposition. It's paying off for them now.”
The Junior Canadiens upped their lead to a commanding 3-0 on May 10 when Lajeunesse, a defenceman, scored on a 40-footer through a maze of legs with 33 seconds left in the third period to give Montreal a 5-4 victory before 4,030 fans.
Perreault, who would be the first pick in the NHL's 1970 draft, going to the expansion Buffalo Sabres, scored twice for Montreal, including the game-tying goal at 16:46 of the third period.
Martin and Monahan, whose knee had gotten well enough for him to play, had Montreal's other goals.
Weyburn's goals came from Venasky, Bennett, Booth and Sobchuk, whose brother Dennis would play a key role in the 1974 Memorial Cup tournament with Regina.
After a scoreless first period, Weyburn led 2-1 going into the third period.
Mrazek was superb in the Weyburn goal but was forced from the game at 4:13 of the third period when he took a puck in the head. Bromley finished up, and the two combined for 31 saves. Wood stopped 28.
“When Montreal has to use its best eight players in the last eight minutes to win, there's nothing wrong with our club,” Dunn said.
The Red Wings lost Norrish with a bruised left leg after he was on the receiving end of a first-period check from Lajeunesse. Montreal was without Gratton for the last two periods after he banged up his left elbow.
“Weyburn gave its ultimate effort and lost. I'm sure we can win in four,” offered Martin.
Which is what happened two nights later when 4,561 fans watched the Baby Habs win 6-5 as Gratton, sore elbow and all, scored three times. Monahan's goal at 14:16 of the third period proved to be the winner.
Lalonde and Perreault also scored for the home side. Perreault also had three assists as he finished out his junior career.
Weyburn's goals came from Bennett, Currie, Miller, Giroux and John Rogers.
Montreal led 2-0 after one period, with Gratton scoring both goals.
Weyburn then scored four consecutive goals -- Garrett was replaced by Wood after the first two of those. But, Montreal scored twice in the last two minutes of the second period and took a 6-4 lead on third-period goals by Perreault and Monahan.
The Junior Canadiens became only the third team to win back-to-back championships, following the Oshawa Generals (1939 and '40) and Toronto Marlboros (1955 and '56).
It was the ninth time in 11 seasons that the OHA representative won the Memorial Cup.
(It's worth noting that in mid-April, the Western Ontario Junior A Hockey League decided not to enter a team in an east-west final that would have featured a team from the Western Canada Hockey League. Both leagues were members of the Canadian Hockey Association which operated outside of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association umbrella.)

NEXT: 1971 (Edmonton Oil Kings vs. Quebec Remparts)

From Gregg Drinnan...1971

1971 MEMORIAL CUP
Edmonton Oil Kings vs. Quebec Remparts
at Quebec city (Le Colisee)


The Western Canada Hockey League, no longer operating outside the jurisdiction of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association, sent its first representative to the Memorial Cup.
But the Edmonton Oil Kings had to issue a challenge to the eastern winner before it could happen.
“The Memorial Cup is greatly needed for the good of the game, the players and fans. Having games in both the east and west would mean that fans in both parts of the country would be able to attend,” said Edmonton general manager-head coach Bill Hunter in issuing the challenge during the Eastern Canadian final between the Quebec Remparts and St. Catharines Black Hawks.
Hunter began by proposing a best-of-seven series and combined with the Edmonton Exhibition Association to cover all expenses for the eastern champion, along with a $5,000 per-game guarantee.
He said the $5,000 guarantee was the largest financial guarantee ever offered in the west “and shows our sincerity and desire for a Memorial Cup final.”
Making sure all the bases were covered, Hunter also said the Oil Kings were prepared to play a one-game winner-take-all affair. The Oil Kings, he said, were also prepared to play all games in the east, if necessary.
And if the challenge was turned down, Hunter said the Oil Kings would claim the Memorial Cup by default, but “we hope we don't have to get it that way.”
WCHL president Ron Butlin said he would meet with various eastern officials. “We don't care where the series is played,” Butlin said.
A couple of days later, on May 8, CAHA president Earl Dawson said he wasn't optimistic that a Memorial Cup final would be held.
The big hangup was the fact that the WCHL had different age restrictions than did the leagues in Ontario and Quebec. While the eastern leagues had an age restriction of 19 years, the WCHL allowed each of its teams to use four 20-year-old (or overage) players, although the Oil Kings didn't have any of the older players on their roster.
A monkey wrench landed in the middle of all the talks and all the plans when St. Catharines, trailing Guy Lafleur and the Remparts 3-2 in the best-of-seven eastern final, refused to play another game.
The Black Hawks had won the Ontario Junior Hockey League title by sweeping the Toronto Marlboros, winning the fourth game 5-3 behind three goals from Marcel Dionne.
That set up an eagerly anticipated eastern final for the Richardson Cup, featuring Dionne's Black Hawks versus Lafleur's Remparts.
The Black Hawks went into Game 4 in Quebec City trailing two games to one. The Remparts won the fourth game 6-1 before 13,410 fans. It was a victory interrupted by a couple of third-period brawls and marred by postgame incidents involving fans.
The Black Hawks bench was bombarded with, among other things, potatoes, tomatoes, bolts from seats, eggs, golf balls, erasers imbedded with nails and at least one knife.
St. Catharines got a police escort to its bus. Later, according to Black Hawks coach Frank Milne, the bus was surrounded by about 2,000 bottle-throwing fans. Milne also said carloads of fans spent several hours circling the team's motel.
The Black Hawks moved the fifth game to Toronto, where they posted a 6-3 victory. It was then that Fred Muller, the Black Hawks' co-owner and president, dropped the bombshell.
The Black Hawks, he announced, would not return to Quebec City for a sixth game.
Muller, The Canadian Press reported, said: “St. Catharines would rather forfeit the series.” St. Catharines team management felt it could play if the game was moved to Montreal, but officials were adamant that they would not return to Quebec City.
Muller claimed his life had been threatened and that “one detective in Quebec City told me that they are helpless in the situation because they are dealing with a small group of radicals who carry knives, guns and grenades.”
“The lives of our hockey players are in danger,” Mueller continued. “We've had threatening phone calls to the parents of our players and to the executive of our club.”
Dawson got involved by saying the series should continue in Quebec City, no matter what the Black Hawks said.
The next day, however, Dawson declared the Remparts the series winners after he was officially informed by the Black Hawks that they were withdrawing.
“I got a phone call at home from the St. Catharines officials and they are not going back,” Dawson said from his home in Rivers, Man., about 30 miles from Brandon.
“The official story I get,” Dawson stated, “is that the St. Catharines players held a vote this afternoon and the coach and five players were the only ones that signified they would return.”
Muller confirmed that, saying that he, Milne and five players were prepared to go back to Quebec City. The other players and their parents refused.
One of the Remparts officials pointed out that they had had problems the previous season in Charlottetown and “we did not want to go back.”
“The CAHA made us and there was no trouble at all,” he said. “I can't see why St. Catharines won't play.”
It also was revealed that St. Catharines officials weren't enamoured with the winner of the eastern final possibly having to play a team from the west.
“We had a firm agreement between Ontario and Quebec that we would not play the west for the Memorial Cup this year,” said Black Hawks vice-president Ken Campbell. “Now I hear that if they win the series, they're ready to start playing the west (in three days).”
What apparently convinced Dawson to forfeit the series was an official statement from the Black Hawks:
“As far as the management of the St. Catharines Hockey Club Ltd. and the coach are concerned they would be willing to attend the scheduled game on Friday, May 14, in Quebec City.
“However, the management has received requests from numerous parents of the players demanding that these players not be taken to Quebec.
“We feel that to do so contrary to wishes of the parents, and taking into consideration that these boys are minors, would be contrary to the best interests of the players and would also expose the St. Catharines hockey club to very serious liability in the event of an injury to one of these players.”
The forfeiture was announced on May 13 and Dawson signified that he felt there was time for Quebec and Edmonton to meet in a best-of-three Memorial Cup final, with all games in Quebec City. But that couldn't be approved until a vote of the CAHA directors.
That was done almost immediately and the stage was set for a series that would be played in Quebec City.
Commenting on the politics of the game, Hunter said the actions of the St. Catharines team and the Ontario Hockey Association were a disgrace, and that the agreement on an Edmonton-Quebec series was a victory for the WCHL.
(At the CAHA annual meeting in Thunder Bay in late May, Muller was hit with an indefinite suspension.)
As for what was ahead for the Oil Kings . . .
“The Remparts are the fastest skating junior club in Canada,” Hunter said. “Our biggest problem will be keeping up with them.”
Harvey Roy had coached the Oil Kings through the regular season and into the playoffs only to have Hunter, the general manager known far and wide as Wild Bill, move him out from behind the bench early in the postseason.
The Oil Kings could call on the likes of defencemen Phil Russell, Derek Harker, Tom Bladon and Ron Jones, the latter having been named the WCHL's top defenceman. Up front, the Oil Kings had Danny Spring, Darcy Rota, Dave Kryskow, Don Kozak, John Rogers and Doug Bentley Jr. And in goal it was Larry Hendrick, their sensational goaltender who was only 15 years of age.
Spring led them in the regular season with 43 goals and 122 points in 65 games, some 41 points off the pace set by Chuck Arnason of the Flin Flon Bombers, the WCHL's scoring champion. Kozak helped out with 60 goals and 61 assists. Spring showed the way in the postseason, with 20 goals and 15 assists, his 37 points two fewer than Arnason's. And Kryskow had 16 goals and 17 assists.
The Oil Kings had finished the regular season with the WCHL's best record, 45-20-1. That gave them the West Division pennant, 10 points ahead of the Calgary Centennials.
Edmonton opened the postseason by ousting the Saskatoon Blades 4-1 in a best-of-seven quarterfinal. That put the Oil Kings into a semifinal with the Centennials.
Down 2-0 in games to the Centennials, Hunter took over from Roy behind the bench and turned to Hendrick, whose WCHL experience amounted to 30 minutes in the regular-season's final game, as his starting goaltender, usurping Jack Cummings.
Hendrick was superb and the Oil Kings lost just one more game during their run to the WCHL title.
The Flin Flon Bombers, under coach Pat Ginnell, had won three straight WCHL titles. But because the league wasn't sanctioned by the CAHA, the Bombers weren't permitted to appear in the Memorial Cup.
The first season in which the WCHL moved back into the CAHA's good graces, the Bombers -- featuring the likes of Blaine Stoughton, Ken Baird, Gene Carr and goaltenders Cal Hammond and Herman Hordal -- were knocked off their throne by the Oil Kings.
Edmonton won the best-of-seven WCHL final in six games (4-1-1), winning the sixth game 7-6 right in Flin Flon's legendary Whitney Forum.
While the Oil Kings were winning the west, the Remparts, under general manager-head coach Maurice Filion, were skating through the east.
Led by Lafleur, who had scored 130 goals in the regular season, this was a team that could score and score and score some more. Andre Savard, Jacques Richard, Jacques Locas and Michel Briere were perfect complements to Lafleur. And the Remparts got championship-calibre goaltending from Michel Deguise, and great defence from Pierre Roy.
The Remparts had cruised through the Quebec league playoffs, taking best-of-seven series from the Verdun Maple Leafs in five games (one game was tied) and the Trois-Rivieres Ducs in four games, before meeting the Shawinigan Bruins in a championship final that lasted five games.
The Oil Kings had to sit for almost two weeks before they got to play Game 1 of the Memorial Cup final. That was in Quebec City on May 17.
Lafleur and his teammates would make short work of the Oil Kings, who hadn't appeared in the Memorial Cup final since the spring of 1966, when they beat Bobby Orr and the Oshawa Generals.
Briere scored twice and Lafleur had a goal and three helpers in Game 1 as the Remparts won 5-1 before 10,812 fans at Le Colisee.
Spring scored the game's first goal, a shorthanded effort that went in off one of Deguise's skates and stood as the first period's only score.
After that, it was all Remparts.
Briere tied the score at 1:49 of the second period, some 30 seconds after Hendrick had stoned Richard on a breakaway.
Savard scored less than five minutes later to give the Remparts the lead for the first time and they carried it into the third period.
Deguise beat Spring on a breakaway about 8 1/2 minutes into the third period. That was as close as the Oil Kings, who outshot the Remparts 39-36, would get.
Rejean Giroux scored some 30 seconds later and it was all but over. Briere and Lafleur scored before the period ended.
“The difference in the game was Guy Lafleur,” offered Claude Ruel, chief scout for the NHL's Montreal Canadiens. “I hope that those who doubted he was the best junior hockey player in Canada now are convinced that he is.
“He never lets his fans down and that's the sign of a star.”
Another scout offered:
“They said if Lafleur ever played in the Ontario junior league, he wouldn't get any goals. Well, against St. Catharines in the third game of that series, Quebec was leading 2-0 after the first period and who had both goals? Lafleur.”
Meanwhile, the Quebec City fans, who gave the Oil Kings a hearty round of applause prior to Game 1, were getting nothing but praise.
“They are great fans,” Hunter said. “I hope they sing as loud as they did (in Game 1) when we are leading 5-1 in the second game.
“We needed that game. We hadn't played since May 5 and the players put on a uniform for the first time since then when we got here (May 16).
“You will see the Oil Kings play their game (in the second game). We are going to win . . . you can be sure of that.”
Well, so much for Hunter's guarantee.
The series ended on May 19 as Quebec scored three unanswered second-period goals and won 5-2 in front of 11,401 fans in Le Colisee.
Richard and Jean Landry scored two goals each for the Remparts, with the singleton coming from Savard. Harker and Bruce Scott replied for Edmonton.
As time wound down, the fans stood and broke into song – ‘Ils Sont En Or’, the Remparts' theme song.
This was the 53rd time the Memorial Cup had been awarded; it was the first time a team from Quebec City had won it.
It was the third straight Memorial Cup victory for the province of Quebec -- the Montreal Junior Canadiens having won it the previous two springs -- and the fifth straight championship for the east.

NEXT: 1972 (Cornwall Royals, Edmonton Oil Kings and Peterborough Petes)

From Gregg Drinnan...1972

1972 MEMORIAL CUP
Cornwall Royals, Edmonton Oil Kings and Peterborough Petes
at Ottawa (Civic Centre)


“It will be a classic, one of the best junior finals ever played and Edmonton will win it,” said Del Wilson, a scout for the Montreal Canadiens and the president of the Regina Pats.
Wilson, whose Pats lost the WCHL final to the Oil Kings in five games, was speaking as the Edmonton Oil Kings, Peterborough Petes and Cornwall Royals gathered in Ottawa for the first Memorial Cup to be decided using a round-robin format.
As what was once simply junior hockey split into two distinct groups -- major junior and junior A -- the premier group formed three leagues, one in Ontario, one in Quebec and another in Western Canada.
The three major junior leagues would continue to compete for the Memorial Cup, but it was obvious it no longer could be capped with two teams playing a best-of-seven final.
It was decided, then, that each league would send its champion to a predetermined site and the Memorial Cup would be decided there.
Originally, this was done in a single round-robin tournament -- each team would play the other team once. The two teams with the best records would meet in the final. If each team finished the round-robin with a 1-1 record, the finalists would be decided using a formula based on the ratio of goals-for to goals-against.
All three coaches who would appear in this Memorial Cup -- Edmonton's Brian Shaw, Peterborough's Roger Neilson and Cornwall's Orval Tessier -- were against the new format.
According to a Canadian Press report, “They complain of the pressure put on their players in so short a series, the lack of home crowds and other factors.”
However, NHL president Clarence Campbell told folks at the Memorial Cup luncheon in Ottawa that junior hockey just might be on to something here.
According to CP: “To accomplish this, Campbell noted, the series would need television coverage (which was) lacking this year. The strike at CBC, and CTV's already hefty sports programming, ruled out TV coverage.”
(The National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET) was on strike.)
Edmonton, with Shaw running the bench, featured goaltenders Larry Hendrick, Doug Soetaert and John Davidson, the latter added from the Calgary Centennials with whom he had been named the WCHL's most valuable player.
The Oil Kings had finished second in the West Division, their 90 points from a 44-22-2 record leaving them 11 points behind the Centennials.
Edmonton was a team that scored 320 regular-season goals, the league's fifth-highest total, but didn't have a scorer in the top 10. In the postseason, Darcy Rota led the offence with eight goals and nine assists in 16 games. Terry McDonald, at 15 years of age, was Edmonton's best penalty-killing forward.
On defence, Edmonton was led by Keith Mackie, at 6-foot-6 and 240 pounds perhaps the first of the really big defencemen who would become so common in future seasons.
The Oil Kings opened by eliminating the New Westminster Bruins in five games. Edmonton then took care of Calgary in six games, setting up what was a five-game final with Regina.
Edmonton's style of play was similar to Peterborough's -- physical and close-checking.
Neilson and his Petes opened postseason play by dumping the St. Catharines Black Hawks 4-1 in games. They then finished off the Toronto Marlboros, also 4-1.
And, in the final, the Ottawa 67's also went out in five games, but in this instance -- remember, these were eight-point series -- the Petes won three and tied two.
With the Ottawa Civic Centre the predetermined home for this first tournament, organizers were not overly thrilled to see the 67's get bounced. Still, they forecast good crowds for the games in the 10,000-seat facility.
Tessier's Royals, meanwhile, counted on goaltender Richard Brodeur in a big way.
Brodeur, who would go on to some fame as King Richard with the NHL's Vancouver Canucks, sparked the Royals past the Verdun Maple Leafs 4-0, the Shawinigan Bruins 4-1 and, in the Quebec final, the Quebec Remparts in seven games (the Royals won four, lost two and tied one).
(The Remparts, Memorial Cup champions in 1971, promptly announced that head coach Maurice Filion's contract wouldn't be renewed because of differences of opinion between he and the team's board of director. Within a week, he had replaced the fired Ron Racette as general manager and head coach of the Sherbrooke Castors.)
As the tournament opened, the CAHA revealed that 70 reporters had applied for accreditation and that 50 of those were from outside the Ottawa area.
Peterborough got great goaltending from Mike Veisor and opened with a 4-2 victory over Cornwall before 7,893 fans in the Civic Centre on May 8.
The Royals pressed the Petes for much of the game and were in it until the dying seconds when defenceman Ron Smith lost control of the puck in front of his empty net and Peterborough's Ron Lalonde pounced on it to score his second goal of the game.
Peterborough's other goals came from Doug Wilson and Paul Raymer, who gave the Petes a 3-1 lead six minutes into the second period.
The Royals' goals came from Bob Murray and Yvon Blais, the latter pulling Cornwall to within one, at 3-2, with two minutes left in the second period.
The first period was awfully physical -- referee Joe Cassidy, a WCHL regular from Calgary, hit the Petes with eight of 14 minors and gave Cornwall's John Wensink a misconduct -- but the teams settled down afterwards.
Cornwall dominated the third period but wasn't able to beat Veisor.
“He has been doing that for us for a long time,” Neilson said of Veisor, who was backed up by Rolly Kimble and Michel (Bunny) Larocque, the latter having been added from the 67's.
By now, most of the scouts were touting the Oil Kings as the favorites.
But Shaw, with his boys preparing to meet Peterborough in the tournament's second game, wasn't buying it.
“The scouts have been wrong before,” he said, pointing out that earlier in the season the scouts had tagged the Marlboros as the country's best junior team. “Peterborough beat them, so Peterborough must be better than the Marlies.”
As for Cornwall, Shaw said that the Royals “come from the league that last year won the cup, so they have to be strong.”
Still, Shaw liked his team's chances.
He said his players “are extremely dedicated. We had to come off the floor four times to get this far.”
Shaw added: “We have been able to win key games and we play well away from home.”
What the Oil Kings hadn't counted on was running into Neilson, who was just beginning to carve out a reputation as a coach who would play the game by the rules and take advantage of the loopholes when it was needed.
In the second game, on May 10, the Petes beat Edmonton 6-4 before about 5,800 fans, clinching a berth in the tournament's final in the process. Peterborough hadn't been in the Memorial Cup final game since 1959.
The score was 4-4 when, prior to the start of the third period, Rota was fingered for playing with an illegal stick. Referee Michel Vaillancourt of Sherbrooke, Que., found the stick to be 1 3/8 inches thick at the tip of the blade, while CAHA rules called for a minimum of two inches.
Peterborough, which got two goals and two assists from Doug Gibson, scored on the ensuing power play.
“They're sick . . . it's the cheapest way I know to win a hockey game,” seethed Edmonton general manager ‘Wild’ Bill Hunter. “If we're going to lose to them, we're going to lose on the ice . . . not through cheap penalties . . . we'll win it.”
Hunter's demeanour wasn't helped any by the fact that Brian Ogilvie was fingered for playing with an illegal stick later in the third period.
Said Neilson: “I know it's a cheap penalty for the Memorial Cup . . . I didn't call it.”
As for the play on the ice, Neilson said: “We heard that Edmonton was better than Cornwall but I'm not sure now . . . the edge for us was in the goals.”
After Gibson's power-play goal, the Oil Kings managed just two shots on goal as the Petes put on the defensive clamps.
Overall, though, the Petes outskated, outhit and outclassed the Oil Kings, outshooting them 49-33.
Lalonde, Jim Turkiewicz, Rick Chennick and Jim Jones also scored for the Petes.
Edmonton got its goals from Ogilvie, Gerry McDonald, Don Kozak and Rota.
The next day, Shaw was trying to forget about the first illegal-stick penalty.
“That was just an excuse,” Shaw said. “We didn't play as well as we can. We'll just have to win the next two games.
“We didn't have six goals scored against us before this year in the playoffs. We didn't play our game.”
While most observers felt the illegal-stick call was the turning point, Shaw pointed to a missed opportunity early in the second period. With the Oil Kings leading 2-1, they hit a goal post with Veisor cleanly beaten.
“We're a good checking team, too, and able to protect a lead,” Shaw said. “We didn't hit nor shoot as well as we can.”
The Oil Kings didn't do anything very well on May 12 as coach Orval Tessier's Royals blanked them 5-0 before 8,408 fans.
Cornwall, which scored two power-play goals, led 3-0 in the third period before scoring two empty-net goals, by Dave Johnson and Gary McGregor, as Shaw pulled Davidson with just less than three minutes to play.
After McGregor's goal, Cornwall fans unveiled a banner that read: ‘Happiness is a Royal Memorial’.
Johnson and McGregor both had two goals for the Royals. The other came from Gerry Teeple.
The Oil Kings apparently played better than they had against the Petes, but they weren't able to beat Brodeur, who kicked out all 40 shots he saw.
The game was marred by an injury to Mackie, who was struck in the face by a deflected puck. Mackie, who was wearing contact lenses, was hit in one eye. He was carried off the ice on a stretcher and taken to Ottawa General Hospital where an eye specialist was called in to look at him.
The diagnosis was a torn iris, and Mackie spent a week in hospital.
As for the game, Hunter said: “Cornwall had a wide edge in play. We disappointed ourselves . . . but I'm proud of the team.”
Shaw felt that his club had been beaten by a better team.
Asked to pick a winner in the final, Shaw said: “I have no predictions . . . but I would like to see Cornwall win.”
Looking ahead to the final, Tessier said: “We have to take control of the game early. We have to come out skating and hitting.”
Tessier also thought his club had something of an edge -- the Royals were “a little bit fresher” -- because he used four lines a lot, while the Petes went primarily with three.
Cornwall, in the Memorial Cup final for the first time, then edged the Petes 2-1 on May 14 in front of 10,155 fans to win the title.
It was the second straight year a team from the Quebec Junior Hockey League had won the Memorial Cup. Governor-General Roland Michener presented the trophy to the Royals after the game.
The busiest guy around in the first period was Cassidy, who handed out 76 penalty minutes, including a game misconduct to Peterborough's Craig Brown. By period's end, the fans were chanting: “We want hockey.”
McGregor scored the winner at 2:01 of the third period as a hooking penalty to Peterborough's Danny Gloor expired.
Cornwall's Brian Bowles scored the game's first goal early in the second period when his slapshot from the point bounced off the end boards, hit Veisor and rolled into the net.
The Petes' Mike St. Cyr tied it at 11:17 of the second.
Peterborough outshot Cornwall 47-38 but couldn't put more than one puck behind Brodeur, who was selected the tournament's most outstanding player. As such, he was the first recipient of what was then called the Conn-Stafford Smythe Trophy.
“He's never been in a playoff game before,” Tessier said of Brodeur. “He's just a great goaltender.”
As for Brodeur, he sat in one corner of the Royals' dressing room, smoking a cigar and saying he didn't deserve the award.
“They're the toughest bunch of kids in the world . . . they've never stopped since last fall and will probably want to practise tomorrow morning,” Tessier said.
“Peterborough was the toughest club we've played this year.”
It was a tough loss for the Petes, who had been the only team to win both its round-robin games.
“Cornwall outhustled us a little,” Nielson said. “It was a goalkeepers' duel.
“We knew what to expect . . . it's tough to lose the Memorial Cup.”
With this being the first time around for this format, a tournament all-star team was selected -- Brodeur, defencemen Colin Campbell of Peterborough and Murray, Teeple at centre, and wingers Bob Smulders of Peterborough and Johnson.
As for the new format, CAHA officials said the Memorial Cup would be decided the same way in 1973. And, because of the great reception the teams received in Ottawa, the nation's capital apparently had the inside track as the host city.
That turned out to be just talk, however. The 1973 tournament would be played in Montreal.

NEXT: 1973 (Medicine Hat Tigers, Quebec Remparts and Toronto Marlboros)

From Gregg Drinnan...1973

1973 MEMORIAL CUP
Medicine Hat Tigers, Toronto Marlboros and Quebec Remparts
at Montreal (Forum)


The Medicine Hat Tigers won the Western Canada Hockey League championship in only their third season of existence.
Some called them the Mad Hatters.
But the Tigers were perhaps best known as the Gassoff Gang -- Bob Gassoff was the league's toughest player and brothers Brad and Ken were no slouches, either. And let's not forget ‘Big' Jim McCrimmon, who was tagged as Bob Gassoff's sidekick.
The Tigers led the league in penalty minutes (1,727 in 68 games) in a season in which the Philadelphia Flyers set an NHL record with 1,754 minutes.
Defenceman Bob Gassoff totalled 388 penalty minutes that season, smashing the WCHL record of 333 set in 1967-68 by Craig Reichmuth of the Flin Flon Bombers.
“They say we intimidate teams,” Tigers head coach Jack Shupe said. “I guess we have a couple of teams out there that don't like hitting.”
It was all part of the new breed of hockey that was being played. They were doing it in the professional ranks and the major junior ranks were a direct reflection of that.
But there was more, a lot more, to the Tigers than intimidation.
They had Sam Clegg and Jerry Thomas in goal. Clegg had played with the Saskatoon Blades and Victoria Cougars before making his way to Medicine Hat where he solidified the Tigers at that position.
“Now that our goaltending is in shape, we're as good as anybody,” Shupe would say prior to the Memorial Cup.
The likes of Randy Aimoe, Dick Jellema and Murray Worley helped Bob Gassoff and McCrimmon patrol the defensive zone.
The forward ranks could boast of Boyd Anderson, Tom Lysiak, Lanny McDonald, Eddie Johnstone, Ken and Brad Gassoff, Barry Dean and Greg Vaydik.
Shupe would later refer to Lysiak as “the best hockey player I ever had.”
“I think talent-wise, size-wise and everything else, Tommy was a great hockey player,” said Shupe, who would later run a Victoria operation that featured goaltender Grant Fuhr. “Fuhr is the best goaltender I've ever seen or ever had. But Tommy was the most talented (player).”
While the opposition was worried about getting a glove in the face from McCrimmon or the Gassoffs, Lysiak and McDonald, a couple of prolific offensive players, were putting the puck in the net.
Not since the days of Bobby Clarke and Reggie Leach in Flin Flon had the WCHL seen anything like the offensive wizardry performed by Lysiak and McDonald.
How the Tigers came to have McDonald -- pre-moustache, of course -- and Lysiak on their roster is one of the great stories in WCHL history.
When the WCHL held an expansion draft to stock the Tigers' roster, Medicine Hat originally selected forward John Senkpiel off the Calgary Centennials roster.
When Senkpiel chose not to join the Tigers, Shupe and Calgary's Scotty Munro cut a deal involving the Centennials' junior A affiliate, the Lethbridge Sugar Kings -- Munro would protect one Lethbridge player and Shupe would select a player to replace Senkpiel.
When it came down to it, Shupe had to choose between McDonald and goaltender John Davidson. It was not an easy decision to make.
“Heck,” recalled Shupe, “Lanny McDonald and (goaltender) John Davidson were both left available, and we had trouble making up our minds. But we finally took Lanny.”
Believe it or not, the Tigers got Lysiak the same way.
Originally, the Edmonton Oil Kings owned Lysiak’s WCHL rights. But the Tigers picked forward Henry Van Drunen in the expansion draft and -- guess what? -- he, too, wouldn't report.
“So Bill Hunter, who was Edmonton's general manager then, said we could have two players off the club's list in exchange for Van Drunen,” Shupe said. “So we took two kids from High Prairie, one named Leif Jacobsen, and the other named Tom Lysiak.
“Hunter must have thought we were getting the raw end of the stick at the time. He threw in another player just for good measure, even though the kid didn't work out.”
Just like that, the table was set for the Tigers to become a major success story in the spring of 1973.
In 1972-73, only their third season in existence, the Tigers won the WCHL championship.
(History would repeat itself but not until 1984-85 when the Prince Albert Raiders won the west in only their third season in the league.
(It's also worth noting that this was the first Memorial Cup for the WCHL under Ed Chynoweth, who had replaced Thomas K. Fisher as the league's executive secretary in February.)
Lysiak won the regular-season and playoff scoring titles. He was tops in the league with 96 assists and 154 points in 67 regular-season games as he won his second straight points title. McDonald was third, behind Dennis Sobchuk of the Regina Pats, with 62 goals and 139 points in 68 games.
Anderson, who had set single-game records for the fastest four goals (two minutes 35 seconds) and fastest five goals (three minutes seven seconds), played on the left side with Lysiak and McDonald. Anderson had 48 goals and 112 points in 68 games.
Johnstone gave the Tigers a fourth player with more than 100 points.
Backed by this high-powered offence, the Tigers finished second in the West Division with a 39-20-9 record.
And they set off on the playoff trail, not knowing what was ahead.
They opened by eliminating Calgary in six games and then they bounced the league's other Alberta team, Edmonton, also in six games.
The opposition in the final was provided by Saskatoon. Game 2 would feature a brawl for which McCrimmon was fined $75, a considerable sum for a junior player in those days, and owner Rod Carey was forced to post a $1,000 bond.
It was a best-of-seven series that went five games and the Tigers never lost one of them. They didn't play overtime that season, meaning the first team to eight points would win the series. The Tigers posted three wins and two ties and the Blades were gone.
The seemingly impossible had happened -- a three-year-old team was the west's Memorial Cup representative.
The dream would come crashing to an end in the Montreal Forum in a Memorial Cup tournament that also included the Quebec Remparts and Toronto Marlboros.
By the time it all ended the Tigers had no reason to hang their heads because they had left an indelible stamp on the junior hockey world.
Toronto, the Ontario Hockey Association champion, was coached by George Armstrong, the former captain of the NHL's Maple Leafs.
The Marlies reached the Memorial Cup by the skin of their teeth.
They ran up against the Peterborough Petes in the OHA final. The best-of-seven final, which was actually one of those eight-point affairs, went seven games. The Marlies held a 7-5 edge in points going into Game 7.
The largest crowd in OHA history, 16,485, was in Maple Leaf Gardens for that one. The Petes led 5-4 with less than two minutes remaining when referee Jim Lever awarded a penalty shot to Toronto.
Lever detected Petes defenceman Jim Turkiewicz close his hand on the puck in the Peterborough crease. Paulin Bordeleau, the Marlies' star centre, would take the penalty shot.
Before skating to centre ice, Bordeleau chose to consult with Armstrong.
“Shoot,” Armstrong told him.
Bordeleau then headed to centre ice, only to be beckoned back by Armstrong.
“If the goalie comes out, deke him,” Armstrong said.
Again, Bordeleau headed to centre ice. Again, Armstrong called him back.
“Bords,” Armstrong said, “do anything the (censored) you want.”
Bordeleau deked and scored. The goal, with 1:09 left in the third period, gave the Marlies a 5-5 tie and the point that won the series, 8-6.
The Petes and Marlies played the last three games of that series over a four-day stretch, meaning it was a tired Toronto bunch that arrived in Montreal to open the Memorial Cup.
Before running up against the Petes, the Marlies had eliminated the St. Catharines Black Hawks in four games and then ousted the Ottawa 67's 8-2 in points.
The Marlies counted a lot on goaltender Mike Palmateer, and their defence was led by big Bob Dailey and Marty Howe. Marty's brother, Mark, was the club's top left winger at just 17 years of age. Bordeleau, a speedy sniper, had been with the Montreal Junior Canadiens when they won the 1970 Memorial Cup. They also counted on Wayne Dillon and Tom Edur for scoring punch.
These Marlies had owned the Ontario junior league. In 63 games, they posted a record of 47-7-9 in becoming the first OHA team to reach 100 points. At one point, they put together a 25-game unbeaten streak. And they lost two consecutive games only once.
While doing all of this, the Marlies scored an amazing 416 goals while surrendering only 199.
“Yes, I guess you could say we had a successful year,” Armstrong would say at the conclusion of the Memorial Cup tournament.
The Remparts, coached by Orval Tessier, had sidelined the Cornwall Royals in the Quebec final, but it took them seven games to do it. The Remparts outscored the Royals 43-31 in the final but it went seven games.
Prior to that, the Remparts had swept the Trois-Rivieres Ducs (outscoring them 43-7 in the four games) and the Sherbrooke Castors (outscoring them 26-14).
Centre Andre Savard was Quebec's leader. He totalled 18 goals and 24 assists in 15 postseason games after winning the QMJHL scoring title with 151 points, including 67 goals. Jacques Locas led the league in goals, with 68. Yvon Dupuis had struck for 50 and Guy Chouinard checked in with 43 (and 86 assists).
Two days after winning the OHA title, the Marlies opened the Memorial Cup tournament in the Forum against the Remparts.
The star was Bordeleau, who scored three times and set up another in a 5-2 Toronto victory.
Brad Winton and Glenn Goldup also scored for Toronto, which led 3-0 after one period and 4-2 after the second.
Andre Deschamps and Chouinard replied for the Remparts, who outshot the Marlies 40-33.
The second game would feature the Tigers and the Marlboros.
“We forecheck a lot and hit in the offensive zone,” Shupe said prior to the game. “We have played the same style all year. We play a tougher checking game than either Quebec or Toronto.”
Shupe had prescouted the Marlies.
“I think that young 23 (Bordeleau) really skated well and I was impressed with (Mark) Howe. And Dailey played well on defence, I thought.”
The difference between his team and the other two, Shupe felt, was Lysiak and McDonald.
“I don't think there is anyone in the country that can compare with them,” Shupe said. “They play a lot.”
Which was fine with Lysiak, who said: "In fact, the more ice time we get, the better we play.”
There were 6,088 fans in the Forum, including 500 from Medicine Hat, on May 9 and they watched Brad Gassoff break a 2-2 tie at 8:31 of the third period as the Tigers edged the Marlies 3-2.
Gassoff fired a 20-footer over Palmateer's right shoulder.
Ryan Wecker and Johnstone had Medicine Hat's other goals. Mark Howe scored both goals for Toronto, which got a superb 28-save performance from Palmateer. Clegg also stopped 28 shots.
The opening period was marred by a bench-clearing incident with 16 seconds left to play.
According to a Canadian Press report:
"The benches cleared shortly after a fight between Bob Gassoff of the Tigers and Toronto's John Hughes. Hughes got the first punch in, but that was about all as Gassoff . . . scored a clear-cut decision.
"Hughes had to leave the ice for repairs and that's when the fun started. As he crossed the ice from the east side of the rink to the entrance to the clinic on the wst side, Brad Gassoff, sitting on the end of the Tigers' bench, said something to the Toronto player.
"Hughes bumped into Gassoff as he passed the Medicine Hat bench en route to the passageway to the clinic and the Medicine Hat player leaped off the bench and jumped him in the hallway. The Toronto bench then cleared and the Marlies were met by the Medicine Hat players, but no further fighting was done.”
Medicine Hat held a 2-0 lead at that point. But Howe tied it with two second-period goals, at 0:54 and 10:02.
"We were aggressive in the first period,” Bob Gassoff said. "We let up after the first, though. I'd have to say it was a bad game for us. Being off for 10 days didn't help us at all.”
"(We) turned in a poor performance out there tonight,” Shupe said. "(We) just weren't skating. It's as simple as that.
"The Marlies are a good, solid hockey team. And I think they gave us one of the toughest games we've had in a long while.
"I was surprised at the score, though. Most of our games during the playoffs out west were high-scoring ones. This is probably the lowest-scoring game we've had in postseason play this year.”
As for the physical play and the brawl, Shupe said: "We weren't trying for anything dirty out there.
"We hit as much as possible. Our players like to step into guys and I think they do that well. But the thing is that they are good hockey players and they don't have to rely on that to win games.”
Marty Howe, for one, wasn't bothered by the rough stuff.
"I don't think they're really dirty,” he said. "It's just that they like coming at you. We weren't pushed around though.
"I found our biggest trouble was getting the puck and holding on to it. The passes weren't clicking and we had a hard time getting good rushes organized.
"The defencemen had a hard time finding the forwards. The forwards were getting caught up ice on occasion but they came back and were there when we needed them.”
Two injuries occurred during the game. Goldup, a right winger, suffered a leg injury in the first period. And McCrimmon took a stick in the mouth in the third period and needed four stitches.
The Tigers would meet the Remparts two nights later. A Quebec victory would leave the three teams with 1-1 records, meaning the finalist would be decided using a tiebreaking formula involving a goals-for and goals-against ratio.
Going into the last round-robin game, Toronto was plus-2, Medicine Hat was plus-1 and Quebec was minus-3.
"We will play better than we did (against Toronto),” said Savard, the Quebec captain. "We'll beat Medicine Hat and then meet Toronto again.”
Savard was right.
Medicine Hat's dream ended two nights later with a 7-3 loss to the Remparts, who scored six times in the first period.
Chouinard, Nantais and Savard scored twice for the winners before 12,699 fans, with defenceman Jean Landry adding the other.
Johnstone, with two, and Lysiak replied for the Tigers.
The Remparts outshot the Tigers 21-10 in that first period and held a 34-31 edge at game's end.
"You know, I was a bit nervous there for a while after we took that big lead,” Tessier said. “But when the period was over I saw (Montreal Canadiens coach) Scotty Bowman walking by and I asked him if his club ever let down after jumping into a big lead. He said, ‘Yes.’ So I told myself we weren't doing badly after all.”
One thing Shupe didn't do was point fingers at his goaltenders, both of whom got to play in this one.
“Although Quebec scored quite a few goals, I wouldn't put too much blame on the goalie,” Shupe said. "We didn't have any defence, the forwards weren't coming back and with the penalties . . . well, we just had a hard time getting untracked.”
The Tigers were nailed with four minor penalties in the game's first 2:40. Quebec was only able to score one power-play goal in the early going, that by Chouinard, but the Remparts were able to go on the offensive and set the tone for what was to follow.
On the night, Lever dished out 31 minors, 17 to the Remparts, and each team took a misconduct.
"Penalties can really put a team off, especially in junior hockey,” Shupe said. "The kids start thinking they're going to be called for every little thing they do and so they lose some of their aggressiveness.
"Playing a team like Quebec, that can be a costly thing to do.”
Tessier was thrilled to be on the way to the final.
"All week long, people were whispering about us and looking at us sideways,” Tessier said. "They said the Remparts were a good team in the Quebec league but they didn't belong here, not with the best junior teams in the country.
"People were saying that we were just something to pad out these playoffs. Well, I don't think they'll be humming that same tune now.”
But, then again . . .
The Marlies didn't leave any doubt in the final on May 12, scoring four times on the power play and winning 9-1 with Mark Howe scoring twice and adding three assists. Goldup and Peter Marrin added two goals each for Toronto, with singles coming from Dillon, Winton and Bordeleau.
Dupuis scored Quebec's lone goal.
Howe, with four goals and four assists in three games, was named the tournament's most valuable player and awarded the Stafford C. Smythe Memorial Trophy.
"I didn't do anything special,” Howe said. "They should have given out 19 trophies. The Marlboros were 19 players, not one.”
"That Howe, he's quite some player,” Tessier said.
Armstrong said it was "as exciting as capturing the Stanley Cup.”
“It's great to be associated with any championship club,” added Armstrong, who captained four Stanley Cup winners in Toronto and now had a Memorial Cup in his first season as a coach. "I was surprised I liked the Marlies' coaching job as much as I did. It's like having a big family, I guess. It can be a very rewarding experience.”
As for the game, the key, according to Armstrong, was that "we met the Remparts at the blue line. We stood up to them. We didn't let them cross our blue line very easily and we sure forced a lot of offsides.
"I'm really proud of the boys.”
Tessier said: "I don't think there's a junior hockey club in Canada that could have beaten the Marlies tonight. I'm just sorry we didn't put on a better performance.”
Tessier also felt his club played a bit out of character and that, more than anything else, cost the Remparts.
"We went out, took an early lead and then just relaxed,” he explained. "The players were taking cheap penalties and I think that's what hurt us the most.
"I told the players this all through the game, but they kept on hitting with their elbows and playing chippy hockey. You just can't do that against a team like Toronto and expect to win.
"Four of the first five Toronto goals were scored by their power play. I thought the referee (Gregg Madill) did a good job. We just played a stupid game.”
The Remparts took nine of 13 minors, with the lone major going to Toronto.
"We skated with the Remparts all over the ice,” said Dailey, the Toronto captain. "We were always on top of them.
"Before the game one of the players in the dressing room pointed out that we had played 92 games to get here and we weren't about to blow it all on one game.”


NEXT: 1974 (Regina Pats, Quebec Remparts and St. Catharines Black Hawks)

From Gregg Drinnan... 1974

1974 MEMORIAL CUP
Regina Pats, St. Catharines Black Hawks and Quebec Remparts
at Calgary (Corral)


The 1973-74 junior hockey season was dominated by talk of money.
Salaries in professional sports had begun to escalate at an amazing rate. And the impact was beginning to be felt in junior hockey.
In early June of 1973, Dennis Sobchuk, an 18-year-old centre who would have a real impact on the 1974 Memorial Cup tournament, visited Las Vegas and San Diego.
The purpose of the visit? He and his father, Harry, were negotiating with the World Hockey Association's Los Angeles Sharks. Dennis, a farm boy from Milestone, Sask., with one season of junior eligibility remaining, was looking at a four-year deal worth a cool $350,000.
"We played it cool . . . we stayed cool,” said Harry, after negotiations ended without a contract being signed.
Dennis later would sign a 10-year, $1.7-million deal with the WHA's Cincinnati Stingers.
Charles Hillinger of the Los Angeles Times wrote: “The kid earns only $300 a month. Come fall his paycheck soars to $472 a day, $14,166 a month, $170,000 a year.”
Sobchuk couldn't believe it all.
"I've been skating since I learned to walk, but I sure never expected anything like this,” he said. "It all happened so sudden. My name on a piece of paper and I've gone from farmhouse to penthouse.”
Sobchuk was 19 when he signed for what at the time was the most money ever given to a junior hockey player.
The major junior leagues were concerned about possibly losing stars like Sobchuk before their time was up.
Said WCHL president Ed Chynoweth: "I am quite confident that our league and any other junior league that may lose a potential superstar would have no recourse but to lay an injunction against any of its players that left while still having a year of junior eligibility left . . . if professional teams are allowed to walk in and take our players, we are going to end up being a glorified juvenile league. We have to have some guarantee of protection while we are producing what we hope are top-notch professionals.”
Meanwhile, the WCHL made a major change to its playoff rules by choosing to go to sudden-death overtime for all games that might be tied after three periods. For the past three seasons, overtime was used only if the eighth game of a best-of-seven series (they were actually eight-point affairs) was tied after three periods.
Regina had raced through the regular season, finishing at 43-14-11, for 97 points. The Pats could play tough and didn't mind playing on the road -- as their 17-10-7 record away from home showed -- although they were the least-penalized team in the league.
And they won six playoff games on the road; in fact, they won each of their three postseason series away from home.
The Pats had three key performers -- Sobchuk, goaltender Ed Staniowski and defenceman Greg Joly.
Sobchuk was the star of a team coached by Bob Turner, who as a defenceman had won five consecutive Stanley Cups with the Montreal Canadiens in the late 1950s.
Sobchuk centred the Pats' top line in the playoffs, with big, burly Clarke Gillies on one wing and Rick Uhrich on the other. They scored 28 playoff goals.
The Pats had set a WCHL record for goals in a season (377). Sobchuk was second in the scoring race, with 146 points, including 68 goals, as he became the first WCHL player to total more than 400 points in three seasons.
Regina's second line featured Glen Burdon, Robbie Laird and Jim Minor, who spent much of their time checking the opposition's big line but still found time to outscore the other guys 20-13. Laird was the big surprise, leading the team with 11 playoff goals.
A third line comprised Dave Faulkner, Rob Tudor and Bill Bell.
Turner agreed, however, that the key to the club was on defence, where Joly, Kim MacDougall, Mike Harazny, Mike Wirachowsky and Dave Thomas ruled the roost.
And in goal they had Staniowski, the best goaltender in junior hockey, something borne out by a 2.92 GAA in the postseason as they eliminated the Saskatoon Blades in six games and Swift Current Broncos in six, and then swept the Calgary Centennials in the championship final.
Regina added goaltenders Garth Malarchuk (Calgary) and Larry Hendricks (Edmonton Oil Kings) as insurance. They wouldn't be needed as Staniowski was superb.
Turner had one concern as the team headed for Calgary, where the Memorial Cup would be decided in the Corral.
"The air is a lot thinner in Calgary and the Corral is quite a warm rink to play in,” he explained. "We want to win this thing badly so we want to go up there early and give the guys every opportunity to get familiar with the place.”
The Pats had made a trip to Sweden at Christmas and that, felt Turner, gave them an edge over other teams.
"The kids get along very well together, sort of like a family,” he said. "The trip we made . . . brought us closer together as a team and we're hoping something similar will happen on this trip.”
Turner, it would be fair to say, was more than a coach and he knew exactly what was his role.
"You have to be a psychologist from the start of training camp until the end of the season,” he stated. "But it is really crucial now. You can't start teaching them new ways of getting the puck out of their own end at this point.”
The Ontario champions this time around were the St. Catharines Black Hawks, who had finished second to the Kitchener Rangers in the regular season.
After the 1971-72 season, Hap Emms had sold the Niagara Falls Flyers (for more than $250,000) to a group from Sudbury. Three days after that deal was official, Emms bought the St. Catharines Black Hawks from Fred Muller.
Hap was the general manager and his son, Paul, was the coach. This was the same combination that had led Niagara Falls to the 1968 Memorial Cup title.
The Black Hawks could call on an offence led by the line featuring Rick Adduono between Dave Gorman and Dave Salvian. Adduono, with 135 points, had tied Jack Valiquette of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds for the league scoring title. Gorman, the right winger, chipped in with 53 goals and 76 assists, and Salvian had 36 goals and 61 helpers.
Emms went mostly with three lines. The other two had Greg Craig between Kevin Kenery and 18-year-old Wilf Paiement, who was rated one of junior hockey's best players, and Rick Hampton between Gary McAdam and Terry Casey. Paiement totalled 50 goals, 73 assists and a team-high 136 penalty minutes.
Mark Dumesnil, Jim Vanni and Mike Noonan saw spot duty up front.
Dave Syvret, Gary Lariviere, Larry Finck, Don Labreche and Ken Breitenbach were the regulars on defence. Individually, they weren't spectacular; as a group, no one played defence any better.
And in goal Bill Cheropita posted a 3.92 GAA in the regular season, improving that to 2.64 in the postseason. The Black Hawks added Peterborough goaltender Frank Salive for the Memorial Cup.
St. Catharines had gone unbeaten in the postseason, winning 12 and tying two of 14 games. The Black Hawks swept the Oshawa Generals in four games, then took out the Toronto Marlboros and Peterborough Petes, going 4-0-1 in each of the latter two series.
It was the fourth Ontario title in 41 years of junior hockey for St. Catharines, the others having come in 1954, 1960 and 1971.
Head coach Marc Picard's Quebec Remperts, meanwhile, were in the tournament for the the fourth time in five seasons. One year earlier, they had lost in the final game to the Toronto Marlboros.
This time around, the Remparts were led by the hottest line in junior hockey -- Jacques Locas, Real Cloutier and Richard Nantais.
Locas, who was already under contract to the World Hockey Association's Cincinnati Stingers, had totalled 99 goals and 206 points in 63 regular season games. That left him 10 points behind Cloutier, who had 93 goals and 216 points in 69 games. (Pierre Larouche of the Sorel Eperviers won the scoring title, with 251 points.) Nantais had 194 points, including 64 goals, and still found time to accumulate 213 penalty minutes.
If those three didn't score, well, there was always Guy Chouinard (75 goals, 85 assists), Daniel Beaulieu (45 and 59) and Michel Lachance (nine and 63).
Quebec's defence was full of holes, as the goals-against averages indicated -- Maurice Barrette was at 4.33 in 33 games, and Michel Corcoran was at 4.66 in 37 games. They added Robert Sauve of the Laval National for the tournament.
Quebec opened the playoffs by taking out the Shawinigan Bruins in four games and Laval in six.
The Remparts won the QMJHL final in six games over Sorel, never mind that the Eperviers had finished first in the regular season during which it had won five of eight games with the Remparts.
"It was very unexpected. Not too many people thought we could do it. But we really worked as a team and that's what won it,” offered James Bateman, perhaps the Remparts' toughest player.

Too long for one message so it was split into two. Again from Gregg Drinnan 1974 cont....

Before the tournament began, Hap Emms was posturing. He threatened to take his team and go home. He threatened this; he threatened that.
He was upset that a school bus had been sent to pick up the Black Hawks at the aiport. He was upset that practice times had been changed.
He was, well, he was Hap Emms.
"I don't think that one man should be able to disrupt the whole thing,” said WCHL president Ed Chynoweth, a frequent Emms target. "But we're trying a new system and it has flaws.”
Already, there was talk of changing the format, either returning to a best-of-seven final or finding a way to add a fourth team to the tournament.
"Maybe,” speculated Pat Ginnell, owner-GM-head coach of the WCHL's Victoria Cougars, "it would work if Quebec had two teams when the Memorial Cup final was in Quebec, Ontario had two teams when it was in Ontario, and the west had two teams when the final was held out here.”
For now, it didn't matter. There were three teams and they were ready to go.
It began on May 5 with St. Catharines posting a 4-1 victory over Quebec before 6,577 fans in the Corral.
Hampton, the 17-year-old centre who captained the team, scored twice for the Black Hawks who won it with three goals in the third period.
"It's rare to have a captain so young,” stated Hap Emms. "But he's mature and . . . probably our best hockey player. He's an outstanding leader.”
Gorman and Dumesnil had the other goals for St. Catharines. Cloutier scored for the Remparts.
"We just didn't play solid hockey,” Picard said. "We didn't skate well and we didn't shoot enough.”
The Black Hawks ran at the Remparts in the first period but then pulled back for the final 40 minutes.
"We didn't try to intimidate them,” insisted Paul Emms. "Our style is to check, and that's all we were doing in the first period. This was the first time I've seen the Remparts and I didn't know if they could be intimidated.”
The Black Hawks now had to meet Regina the following night.
"It stinks, this round-robin,” Paul Emms moaned. "There was nothing wrong with the old best-of-seven format. This way we have to play two games in a row.”
Oh yes, he also didn't like the air.
"There's a dryness in the air out here,” he said. "It just seems to sap our guys' energy.”
His father, however, felt it was simply a case of the Black Hawks not playing very well.
"We played about half as well as we can,” said the 69-year-old Emms. "Anybody could tell we're a better club than we showed tonight.”
The next night, with 7,415 fans in the seats, Staniowski blocked 29 shots as the Pats hung a 4-0 whipping on St. Catharines.
Joly was the best skater on the ice and had two goals to show for it.
"When everyone plays well, like we did tonight, it makes my job a heck of a lot easier,” Joly said. "We knew we had to win. You can't lose any in this thing.”
Laird and Uhrich also scored for the Pats, who led 2-0 and 4-0 by period.
Observers agreed that this game may well have been decided in the first 10 seconds. Finck chose to run at Laird right off the bat. Not only did the Regina forward not turn away, but he pummelled the Black Hawks defenceman. After the game, Laird was talking about having "a couple of sore hands.” Before the first period was out, Gillies had pounded on McAdam, and Sobchuk and Paiement also went at it.
It was apparent that Paul Emms was trying to get to Sobchuk.
Dale Eisler of the Regina Leader-Post described one incident:
"Emms didn't even attempt to try to disguise his intentions in the second period when he sent out fifth-string defenceman Don Labreche to take a faceoff with Sobchuk deep in Pats territory.
"As soon as the puck was dropped, Labreche jumped Sobchuk. Two minutes later, more fighting erupted when Gillies wrestled Paiement to the ice and Finck tried to even his grudge with Laird, using the attack-from-the-rear method.
"When order was restored, Laird and Hawks' Greg Craig had been given game misconducts. The Emms' strategy blew up in his face as Pats put the game away with goals by Uhrich and Joly while Hawks were suffering a manpower shortage.”
Sobchuk indicated the abuse he was subjected to, especially from Paiement, didn't particularly bother him.
"I'm not really used to it,” Sobchuk said, "but it doesn't bother me. Swift Current used to give me a hard time too, but it's something you have to learn to play with.”
Many hockey people felt that Emms spent far too much time trying to stop Sobchuk, which meant the Black Hawks all but forgot about Joly.
As for Turner, he said: "No one would have beat us tonight. This is one of the finest games we've played all season.”
Following a day off for all teams, the Remparts surprised most everyone by beating Regina 5-3 on May 8 in front of 7,140 fans.
That result left all three teams at 1-1, and Regina went through to the final on goals differential. Regina was plus-2, St. Catharines and Quebec both were minus-1.
Picard said later that he would have pulled Sauve had his club gone ahead by three goals. A four-goal victory would have pushed the Black Hawks into the final.
"We weren't ready, that's all,” Turner said. "The guys weren't fired up like they were for Monday's game against the Black Hawks. Maybe the loss will do us some good.”
Quebec got goals from Beaulieu, Chouinard, Richard Perron, Jean Gagnon and Nantais. Burdon, Laird and Uhrich scored for Regina. Each team scored three times with the man advantage.
"We were a little bit overconfident,” Sobchuk said. "The loss may be good for us; we never did anything the easy way all year.”
Staniowski, who had been perfect two nights earlier, was anything but on this night.
"There's no sense talking too much tonight,” he said. "I've got no excuses. Everybody worked their butts off to win and I played like I was out there for a joy ride.”
Laird was battling again, this time with Nantais, who posted a unanimous decision. Laird was left with a swollen left eye.
"We weren't up for it like the game before,” Laird said. "There just wasn't the same life in the team.”
Picard, for one, said he had been looking for a different kind of game.
"I expected a rougher game,” he said, "but it didn't work out like that. I knew we could player better. We had to play better and we can play etter yet.”
Turner praised the Remparts.
"They were super,” he said. "Maybe they just wouldn't let us play as well as we wanted to.”
One player who really wanted to forget this game was Faulkner, one of the Pats’ centres. He was forced from the game in the third period with a dislocated elbow. Earlier, he had had to retire to the dressing room for 13 stitches after being hit above one eye with the puck while seated on the bench. The elbow injury would end his season.
The following day, with the Black Hawks and Remparts preparing for the next day's semifinal, Turner decided to take the heat off his players.
He did so by pointing fingers at a recent phenomenon -- the player agent.
"I made it specific when we came here that I didn't want any of the players talking to agents,” Turner told Eisler. "All the players told me that they wouldn't get involved with them, but today I had to kick two of them out of one of the agent's rooms.
"If I catch any more of our players talking to lawyers or agents, then they won't play in the national final. I don't care who they are. And if (GM Del) Wilson won't back me up, I'll resign. He will, though.”
The dilemma, as Turner saw it, was this: "How can you make kids think about hockey when they're thinking about thousands of dollars?”
Two people singled out by Turner were Alan Eagleson and Norm Kaplan.
"Alan Eagleson was sitting right in my room,” Turner said, "and he promised me that he wouldn't bother the players. ‘I've got more class than that' was what he told me. And Norm Kaplan promised the same thing, too.
“Well, I caught two players in Eagleson's room and Kaplan talked to two others behind my back.”
It was, indeed, a new era in junior hockey.
"(Agents) are't worrying about the kids,” Turner said. "All they want is their eight per cent. That's what Kaplan got for signing Sobchuk last year. What did the team get? Nothing. I'm sick and tired of that.”
Turner concluded: "Agents are tops on my (bleep) list. They are parasites.”
Hap Emms was in agreement with Turner and wondered if, in fact, agents had something to do with Paiement not playing especially well.
"He's a great hockey player,” Emms said. "He has not played as well in this series as he can play. I think something should be done to help us protect young men from agents who do not care about the men and do not care about the game.
"There is no one-word answer. But there must be an answer.”
The next day, the spotlight was again on the ice.
The Remparts moved into the final with an 11-3 whipping of St. Catharines.
It was a bitter end for the Blackhawks. They went 1-2 in the Memorial Cup after a 12-0-2 run in their league playoffs.
"I don't know how to explain it,” Hap Emms said. "Our club hasn't been sharp since it won the OHA crown. I think we peaked then.
"When our club isn't hitting, then they're not playing. I don't know why we didn't play a more physical game. All I can say is the players weren't told not to hit.”
Hap was left to face reporters when Paul didn't appear for the post-game chat with reporters.
The Remparts, who held period leads of 1-0 and 5-2, got three goals from Cloutier and two each from Locas and Beaulieu in front of 6,745 fans. Perron, Chouinard, Lachance and Andre Perreault added one each. Chouinard also had four assists.
Adduono, Dumensil and Paiement scored for St. Catharines.
"I didn't expect us to win 11-3,” Picard said, "but we played a good game. The guys worked for it.
"I think they tried to force us in our end. But our defence passed the puck faster than in the first game. We have a mobile defence and when they play their kind of game we do well.”
There were 7,382 fans in the Corral for the final on May 12. They watched Quebec, on goals from Charles Constantin, Perreault and Locas, take a 3-0 lead before the first period was 12 minutes old.
But Sobchuk promised some offence and then came through, scoring two goals and setting up another in the second period and adding another goal in the third as the Pats won 7-4.
Trailing 3-1 after the first period, Turner walked into the dressing room prepared to try to fire up his boys.
"Sobchuk got up and said, ‘You don't have to say a word',” Turner said. "He said, ‘We're going to win this game,' so I just turned around and walked out. They went out and played like gangbusters.”
Uhrich, named the tournament's all-star right winger, and Burdon, the all-star centre, also scored for Regina, as did Tudor and Gillies.
Locas added a second goal for Quebec in the third period.
"We've been down before and come back and we knew we could do it again,” Sobchuk said. "I think the turning point was when we started hitting them in the second period.”
Turner felt a unanimous decision by Gillies over Nantais at 13:10 of the second period turned it around. The score was 3-3 at the time, but Uhrich scored 1:13 after the fight, at 14:23, and Sobchuk added what proved to be the winner at 15:52.
Regina outshot Quebec 52-31 and only Remparts goaltender Bob Sauve kept it as close as it was.
"This,” said Turner, "means more to me than anything else in hockey . . . even five Stanley Cups.”
It was Regina's first Memorial Cup title since 1930.
"When it was 3-0, I was shook up pretty good,” Turner said. "I thought we might be waiting another 44 years.”
Six years later, Turner was still in seventh heaven.
"I was on five Stanley Cup teams,'' he told The Leader-Post's Arnie Tiefenbach, "but got a bigger thrill out of winning that one Memorial Cup.
"You live with these players and you work with them and you know that a lot of them are going to go somewhere. And maybe, just maybe, what you did played a small part in it.”


NEXT: 1975 (New Westminster Bruins, Sherbrooke Castors and Toronto Marlboros)