The Memorial Cup: A History

From Gregg Drinnan...1957

1957 MEMORIAL CUP
Flin Flon Bombers vs. Ottawa Canadiens
at Flin Flon (Community Arena) and Regina (Exhibition Stadium)


The junior hockey world was amazed -- the Flin Flon Bombers would represent the west in the Memorial Cup final.
The Bombers, for heaven's sake, had never before won their league championship. This 1956-57 season, however, was unlike any that had come before it.
Coached by Bobby Kirk, the Bombers roared through the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League with a 64-9-2 record, winning 43 of 55 regular-season games. They ousted the Humboldt Indians and Fort William Canadians from best-of-seven series in straight games and took six games to sideline the Edmonton Oil Kings and then the Prince Albert Mintos.
The Bombers, it was safe to say, owned the northern Manitoba mining town of 12,000 people.
The secret, according to Kirk, was "balance.”
"I have three lines and any one can come up with a goal,” said Kirk, noting that his team had eight players with at least 25 goals each.
Kirk, who replaced Alex Shibicky, was wrapping up his third season with the Bombers and had put three Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League titles under his belt in that time.
Included on the roster were centre Ted Hampson (the team captain, he was the SJHL's scoring champ with 118 points, including 48), Mel Pearson, Pat Ginnell (a 19-goal scorer in the playoffs, he had played for the Port Arthur North Stars the previous season and would later coach the Bombers) and Barry Beatty. Hampson, Pearson (another future Bombers coach), centre Ron Hutchinson and defencemen George Konik, Mike Kardash, Duane Rupp and Lyle Willey all came out of Flin Flon's minor hockey ranks. Goaltender George Wood, a native of Hartney, Man., had come over from the Lethbridge Native Sons, with whom he had spent the 1955-56 season.
Only Ginnell, Beatty (St. Boniface Canadiens) and Wood had been brought in for this season by the Bombers. The rest of the boys were homebrews, the product of an amazing minor hockey system.
For the Memorial Cup, the Bombers added centre Orland Kurtenbach from Prince Albert and two players from Port Arthur -- goaltender Lynn Davis and defenceman Jean Gauthier.
The series was scheduled to open in Flin Flon. If the first two games were split, a third would be played in Flin Flon, with the balance in Regina's Exhibition Stadium.
The rink in Flin Flon, which had been built in 1936 to house the senior Bombers, had had artificial ice since 1950. It seated 1,141 although an extra 200 seats were added for the Memorial Cup games by knocking out one end.
Flin Flon was in a furor when the Ottawa Canadiens, of coach Sam Pollock, didn't show up on time. The first game, scheduled for April 25, was postponed to April 26.
Ottawa showed up in Winnipeg on Monday, April 22, but chose to wait until April 24 to fly into Flin Flon. By that time the weather had closed in and its flight was grounded. The Canadiens boarded a train and rode the rails into the northern hinterlands.
Gordon Juckes of Melville, Sask., was the CAHA official in charge of the series. He said he would recommend to the CAHA that the Ottawa club be "severely disciplined” for causing the first postponement in the history of the Canadian final.
Flin Flon citizens are up in arms over criticism leveled at the town and its facilities by Ottawa officials who do not recognize, apparently, any part of Canada west of Ottawa,” said Bombers president Jimmy Wardle. "We feel that the nationally known, warm-hearted hospitality and a fine hockey club make up for the lack of a Chateau Laurier and what they amusingly call an ‘ice palace' in Ottawa.”
The arena manager in Flin Flon was none other than Robert (Pinkie) Davie, who had played in the 1932 Memorial Cup final with the Winnipeg Monarchs, who lost out to the Sudbury Cub Wolves. Davie, for one, was thrilled that the Ottawa boys weren't too happy about having to journey to Flin Flon.
"I hear those Ottawa characters are squawking,” Davie said. "That's great. I like to hear people squawk because it shows they are worrying about something.”
Upon arrival, the Canadiens were housed in the dormitories -- bunkhouses -- that usually were living quarters for miners.
On the ice, Ottawa was sparked by future NHLers Ralph Backstrom and Murray Balfour, the latter having played with the Regina Pats the previous two seasons and who was making his third straight appearance in the Memorial Cup final. Claude Ruel, a future coach of the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens, was on the Ottawa defence.
The Bombers won the opener 3-1 in front of more than 2,000 fans who packed into every available corner of the rink.
Konik, the SJHL's most valuable player, scored twice for the Bombers, with Hampson adding the other.
Backstrom opened the scoring at 4:49 of the second period, only to have Hampson tie it at 11:19 and Konik put the Bombers out front at 15:48. Konik wrapped it up with an empty-net goal at 19:45 of the third.
Wood was particularly outstanding, stopping 23 shots, including three clean breakaways.
"Ottawa's a good club and there are still a few more games to be played in this series, so why should I gloat?” Kirk said.
He was right about one thing. There were a few more games to be played.
Ottawa won Game 2 on April 28, scoring a 4-3 victory thanks to two goals in the final 33 seconds of the third period. A packed house of slightly more than 2,000 fans couldn't believe it.
Ginnell scored the game's first goal at 8:09 of the first period, only to have Bill Carter tie it before the period ended. Ginnell then scored the only goal of the second period, at 1:29.
Willey upped Flin Flon's lead to 3-1 at 3:06 of the third period and as play progressed the Bombers seemed on their way to victory.
But Mike Legace scored for Ottawa at 15:59 and then set up Carter for the tying goal at 19:27. Seconds earlier, the Bombers were guilty of icing the puck. Pollock pulled goaltender Claude Dufour with the faceoff in Flin Flon's zone. The puck was dropped. There was a mad scramble. Carter corralled the loose puck and fired it past Wood.
The Canadiens won the ensuing faceoff and moved the puck into Flin Flon territory. The loose puck slid toward Wood and he tried to beat Backstrom to it. But the Ottawa centre got there first and backhanded home the winner at 19:36.
"That was a break,” said Scotty Bowman, Pollock's assistant, of the icing call that preceded Ottawa's third goal.
Kirk agreed: "I sent out George Konik, who got the faceoff every time during the past season. He couldn't get the big one.”
Kirk also announced that he would keep Gauthier in the lineup (the defenceman was a standout in the first two games) and that Kurtenbach would see his first action in Game 3. Kurtenbach would play in place of Beatty who suffered a back injury in the second game.
Although he didn't announce it, Kirk would also sit out Wood and give Davis his first start in goal in Game 3 which, because the first two games were split, would also be played in Flin Flon.
Ottawa made it two out of three in Flin Flon with a 5-2 victory on April 29 as Balfour erupted for three goals.
"Well,” Pollock said, "Balfour came through tonight. Those were his first goals of the playoffs and they couldn't have come at a better time.
"His first one in the third was the turning point. It gave my boys a big lift. It also shows that we can come from behind in the worst places in the world.”
Ottawa scored three goals on breakaways and added two others when the Bombers got caught with just one skater back.
Both teams complained about soft ice when the game was over.
"That soft ice wasn't for us,” Kirk said. "It definitely had a lot to do with the outcome.”
It was the second time in a year that Balfour had come up big against the Bombers. The previous year, while with Regina, he had scored four times in a 9-6 Pats' victory in Game 7 of their western semifinal series.
Legace and Claude Richard, a brother of NHL star Maurice Richard and star-to-be Henri Richard, scored Ottawa's other goals. Konik and Hutchinson replied for Flin Flon.
The Bombers actually led 2-0 in the first period before Richard, in the first, and Balfour, at 1:25 of the third, tied it. Legace then got the winner at 6:12, with Balfour wrapping it up with goals at 14:48 and 15:58.
The teams then headed for Regina and the rest of the series.
Game 4 was played May 1 with the Bombers scoring a 3-1 victory to tie the series 2-2 in front of 5,118 fans.
Wood was credited with just 11 saves but one of them, a late second-period stop on Carter who broke in alone, was credited with sparking the Flin Flon boys to victory. Ottawa was leading 1-0 on a goal by Carter at 15:36 of the second period.
"That was the turning point,” Kirk said. "It was a key save. It kept us alive. That lifted my boys.”
Pollock agreed: "If we could have got another goal, then we would have won. It would have taken the heart right out of the Bombers for good.”
Flin Flon's big line -- Hampson between Pearson and Ginnell -- scored all three Bombers' goals, each skater getting one. Ginnell tied the score at 6:43 of the third, with Pearson putting the Bombers out front at 11:26. Hampson, who set up the other two goals, got the insurance marker into an empty net.
After Ottawa took those two in Flin Flon,” said New York Rangers general manager Muzz Patrick, "I thought, without seeing the teams, that it was the same old story ... too much balance by the eastern team. I changed my mind (May 1). This western club can win it.”
The Bombers took a 3-2 lead on May 3 with a 3-2 victory in front of 4,913 fans. Pollock wasn't around for the end of this one.
Ernie Fedoruk, writing in the Regina Leader-Post, explained: "The Bombers scored twice in the third period to settle the issue. Even so, the vociferous Mr. Pollock took the play away from the players. Sam, madder than ever, questioned the ancestry of the referees following the second period and wound up as a spectator.
"Assistant Ottawa coach Scotty Bowman took over after Pollock was ejected. Bowman managed to last the third period but he, too, took after the officials, Curly Brault and Dutch Van Deelan, as soon as the final buzzer sounded.”
Kurtenbach, Ginnell and Beatty scored for Flin Flon. Dick Damouchel got Ottawa's lone goal.
Dufour was outstanding in the Ottawa goal, turning aside 27 shots, while Wood stopped 17.
Ottawa had a new face in its lineup. Centre Gerry Wilson, originally from Winnipeg, had missed seven weeks while recuperating from a knee injury. (Wilson's career would be plagued by knee problems and he would eventually become a well-known Winnipeg doctor. His son, Carey, would later play in the NHL.)
It was thought that Pollock was getting Wilson some game experience because he thought he might lose Legace and Gilles Tremblay, both of whom were scheduled to return home to write university exams. In the end, Legace returned to Laval University while Tremblay stayed to finish the series.
Backstrom, 19, was the star of Game 6. He scored twice as Ottawa won 4-2 on May 6 in front of 4,949 fans.
Jean Marc Picard and Dumouchel, the latter into an empty net, also scored for Ottawa. Kurtenbach set up both Regina goals, by Ginnell and Konik.
And now the series was tied 3-3.
"It's too bad,” said Pollock, "that they can't divide the Memorial Cup. It's a shame. These two clubs out there both deserve it.”
One of the greatest Memorial Cup finals in history ended on May 8 in front of about 4,500 fans, the smallest turnout for any of the games in Regina. It ended with Flin Flon on top 3-2 thanks to Hampson's winning goal at 10:30 of the third period.
Hampson's linemates, Ginnell and Pearson, scored the game's first two goals. Ginnell beat Dufour at 17:23 of the first period and Pearson struck at 18:14 as the Bombers outshot Ottawa 13-2 in the opening period.
Legace, who had flown back to Regina but didn't arrive at the rink until after the first period, scored for Ottawa at 19:43 of the second period.
Hampson upped Flin Flon's lead to 3-1 at 10:30 of the third -- with rookie Bobby Rousseau in the penalty box -- before Legace scored at 19:59.
"It's the greatest thrill of my life,” Kirk said. ""We won the cup because an inspired, determined hockey club fought when the chips were down and never gave up.”
It was Flin Flon's 88th game of the season -- the Bombers won 72 of them.
It was the first time since 1948 (Port Arthur West End Bruins) that a western team had won the Memorial Cup and it left the east with a 22-17 edge overall.
And this victory really put Flin Flon on the map.
The mining community had never before been home to a national champion -- team or individual. The closest the community had come to national glory had been in the spring of 1938 when the senior Bombers got into a western semifinal series for the Allan Cup only to be ousted by the eventual champion Trail Smoke Eaters.
The junior Bombers began play in 1949 and had won six Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League titles. But, until the spring of '57, the Bombers had never gotten any further than that along the Memorial Cup trail.
The town's history went back as far as 1929 and there had always been hockey played there. The game started to take off there in 1935 when a Flin Flon team entered the Saskatchewan Senior Hockey League.
Players from the south were enticed north to work in the mines and play hockey. It worked, too, and by 1957 Flin Flon had seen the likes of Sid Abel, Jimmy Skinner and Bobby Simpson wear its colors.

NEXT: 1958 (Regina Pats vs. Hull-Ottawa Canadiens)

From Gregg Drinnan...1958

1958 MEMORIAL CUP
Regina Pats vs. Hull-Ottawa Canadiens
at Ottawa (Auditorium) and Hull (Arena)


Regina, a junior hockey powerhouse in the early part of the century, hadn't won a Memorial Cup since 1930.
Hull-Ottawa -- or Ottawa-Hull -- had never won a national junior title, neither as separate entities nor as a combination. The Canadiens, however, had been to the final the previous spring when they had lost in seven games to the Flin Flon Bombers.
And in 1958 it was the Regina Pats and the Hull-Ottawa Canadiens, both of whom were affiliated with the NHL's Montreal Canadiens, in the best-of-seven Memorial Cup final.
Three members of Hull-Ottawa's front office would go on to become prominent NHL executives -- Lou Passador, later a long-time scout, was on the Canadiens' executive; Sam Pollock was the manager/coach; and, Scotty Bowman was Pollock's assistant.
The Canadiens were loaded with talent, from goaltender Bruce Gamble, who was picked up from the OHA's Guelph Biltmores, to captain Ralph Backstrom and beyond. Also on the roster: Terry Gray, Claude Richard (a younger brother of Maurice and Henri Richard), Bobby Rousseau, Gilles Tremblay and J.C. Tremblay.
Hull-Ottawa also picked up Wally Chevrier from Guelph to replace defenceman Claude Ruel who had lost an eye. Ruel and John Longarini served as the alternate captains.
The Canadiens, who weren't able to find a league in which to play, spent the winter playing exhibition games against senior teams, minor pro teams and some OHA teams.
Their season, then, really was the playoffs.
The eastern playoffs got under way with the Cape Breton All-Stars needing five games to sideline the Buckingham Beavers from a best-of-five series. Cape Breton won the opener 2-1, then lost twice (3-2 and 5-2), before winning 8-2 and 2-1.
Cape Breton then lost to Hull-Ottawa, 18-3 and 12-2, and the rest of the series was cancelled.
The Canadiens then ran up against the Toronto Marlboros of coach Turk Broda and general manager Stafford Smythe. The best-of-seven series went five games, the Marlies winning the third game, 3-1. The other scores: 8-3, 6-0, 4-3 and 9-0. The Baby Habs suffered a major blow in the last game against the Marlies when starry defenceman Andre Tardif suffered a broken arm.
The Pats, however, were no slouches themselves.
Coached by Frank Mario, they were led by the high-scoring line of Billy Hicke, Red Berenson and Joe Lunghamer. Mario used Gord Wilkie with Gary Butler and Jerry Kolb, and had Bill Kelly playing with Billy LeCaine and Max Geisthardt. Also in the lineup: Terry Harper, Aut Erickson, Jerry Serviss (added from the Estevan Bruins), John Palenstein, Dave Balon (he was picked up from the Prince Albert Mintos), goaltender Ken Walters, Emile Gilles (added from Flin Flon), and brothers Bill and Ken Saunders (the former from the Winnipeg Monarchs, the latter from the St. Boniface Canadiens).
Regina met the Edmonton Oil Kings in one western semifinal, winning the best-of-seven series in straight games -- 6-2, 9-7, 3-1 and 2-0. St. Boniface dumped the Fort William Canadians in five games in the other semifinal, losing the middle game 11-3 and winning the others, 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 and 10-7.
The Pats then took six games to oust St. Boniface, playing the first three games in Winnipeg and the last three in Regina. Regina went up three games to one -- winning 7-5, losing 8-3, then winning 8-4 and 8-0 -- before St. Boniface forced a sixth game with a 5-2 victory. Regina wrapped it up on April 16 with a 4-0 victory.
The best-of-seven national final would be played in its entirety in the east, with Ottawa and Hull sharing the games.
"The Canadiens may have a little more scoring punch this year but they're weaker defensively compared to last year's team,” well-know sportscaster Tom Foley said before the final started.
With Tardif gone for the series, Pollock was experimenting with Backstrom and Gilles Tremblay on defence.
"The Habs are a free-wheeling bunch,” said Mario. "We're going to have to skate and check like mad if we hope to keep them in tow. Backstrom is the key man. That boy can skate and skate and skate, for three and four minutes at a stretch. But there is going to be tremendous pressure on him. He's their ace and he's expected to produce.”
Mario, though, seemed more concerned with transportation in the nation's capital.
"All the cabbies think they're on the Indianapolis Speedway,” he said. "The guy that took us to the rink this morning slowed down to 60 when he went through a school zone. To make matters worse, it always seems that I get stuck with the death seat (next to the driver). A cabby comforted me today by noting that 80 per cent of all persons killed in auto accidents are seated in the one I was cringing in. When I get in a cab now, I brace myself, shut my eyes and hope for the best.”
The series opened in Ottawa before 4,500 fans on April 25. The Pats won 4-3 behind Ken Walters' goaltending and three goals from Hicke.
"All the boys played a tremendous game out there tonight,” Mario said. "Walters and Hicke were outstanding but so were all the others. They checked and skated hard all the way. It was a fine team effort. I'm really proud of the boys.”
The teams played through a scoreless first period, with Regina getting two goals from Hicke to take a a 2-1 lead into the third. Hicke and Harper upped that to 4-1 before Gray and Billy Carter cut it to 4-3. Backstrom had the Canadiens' other goal.
"The performance by Walters was phenomenal, completely over-shadowing the work of his more publicized rival, Bruce Gamble, at the other end of the rink,” reported the Regina Leader-Post. "Time and again, the lean little goaler came up with spectacular saves to frustrate the efforts of a classy pack of enemy snipers. Walters kicked out 31 shots, while Gamble blocked 19.”
Prior to the game, the Pats were informed the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association had turned down their appeal pertaining to Gamble. The Pats wanted the CAHA to reconsider its decision allowing Gamble to move from Guelph to the Canadiens. The Baby Habs needed a goaltender after their regular puckstopper -- Claude Cyr -- was lost for the season due to illness.
With the Pats up 4-1, according to The Leader-Post, "many of the fanatically partisan cash customers experienced a change of heart and changed their chant from ‘go Habs go' to ‘go Pats go.' But they switched their allegiance once again when the Habs came through with a stirring finish that kept the outcome in doubt until the final whistle.”
The fans proved to be something else. At one point, someone tossed a bathroom plunger at Walters. And one other time a giant firecracker exploded on the ice in front of the Regina goaltender while play was in progress.
"When I heard that explosion in our end, I turned around to see if Kenny was all right,” Harper said later. "For a moment, I thought, ‘Good heavens, somebody just shot our goalie.' “
The Baby Habs evened things up, posting a 4-2 victory before 4,052 fans in Hull on April 27.
"Man, but we were dead out there,” Mario said. "The last thing I told the boys before they took to the ice was that they were going to have to hustle right from the opening faceoff. So what happens? Canadiens rap in four in a row before my boys realize they're in a hockey game. You can't spot any team four goals. It was awful.”
The Pats found themselves down 4-0 before the game was 12 minutes old on goals by Carter (1:35), Gilles Tremblay (2:34), Backstrom (5:39) and Carter again (11:13). Regina's goals came from Berenson, late in the first period, and Hicke, with seven seconds left in the third.
The Pats were outshot, 35-16.
"Sure, we came to life a bit for the last two and a half periods,” continued Mario. "But I can't get that first 10 minutes out of my mind.”
The Pats lost Serviss when he broke a bone in his right hand in the second period. Gilles would be inserted for Game 3.
The Leader-Post's Hank Johnson noted that Pollock was in a "better frame of mind after the game, taking the padlock off his dressing room door.”
"We should have kept pouring the coal to them but we let up badly,” Pollock said.
With Game 3 set for Ottawa on April 29, Mario made some changes.
Bill Saunders was inserted (in place of Serviss as Mario chose not to use Gilles) and centred Balon and Hicke, with Berenson moving between Butler and Kolb, and Wilkie between LeCaine and Geisthardt.
The moves didn't help, however, as the Canadiens won 6-2 before 5,500 fans.
Once again, a slow start hurt Regina.
The Canadiens jumped out to a 3-0 first-period lead on goals by Carter (2:28), Backstrom (12:12) and Carter again (12:22). Gilles Tremblay set up both of Carter's goals. Backstrom made it 4-0 early in the second period before Balon and Saunders narrowed the gap to 4-2. But Richard and Backstrom scored before the second period was out and the teams then played a scoreless third.
Backstrom and Carter now had five goals each in the three games.
"They just kept slaughtering us in that first period,” Mario said. "I thought we were going to be all right in this one, but our defence lets up and it's 3-0 before we know we're in a hockey game.”
Mario went into his juggling act again prior to Game 4, which was played on May 2 in Ottawa. He said he planned to move Hicke from right wing to the left side with Saunders at centre and Lunghamer on right wing. Hicke had four of Regina's eight goals but three of them came in Game 1.
"I think Billy will go better on the left wing because the Canadiens are ganging up on him on the right side and giving him a rough time,” Mario explained.
He ended up putting Saunders with Hicke and Kolb, using Berenson, Balon and Lunghamer together, and using LeCaine, Wilkie, Geisthardt and Butler on the other line. Kelly would sit out as Mario added Gilles to his defensive corps.
Neither team was able to skate on April 30 -- wrestling and bingo had the ice halls booked -- so the Pats' new combinations worked out together on May 1.
The Pats won that fourth game 4-3 in overtime before 3,500 fans in Ottawa.
"I was breathing easier when we came out of the first period with only a one-goal deficit,” Mario said.
Saunders scored the winner off a pass from Hicke at 2:13 of overtime. Balon, LeCaine and Lunghamer also scored for Regina. Bob Boucher, Rousseau and Carter counted for the Baby Habs, who led 2-1 after one period. The teams were tied 2-2 after two.
Lunghamer gave Regina a 3-2 lead just 39 seconds into the third period. But Carter forced overtime when he scored with only 55 seconds left in the third period.
Saunders, whose NHL rights belonged to the Toronto Maple Leafs, came in for special praise.
"That boy has come along much better than I expected,” Mario said.
Walters continued to be sharp, especially in two one-on-one confrontations with Backstrom. The Pats were outshot, 42-26.
Carter tied the game from a wild scramble.
"Palenstein and I had the shot covered but the puck deflected off a skate and we looked on helplessly as it trickled into the net just beyond reach of my foot,” Walters said.
The winner came as J.C. Tremblay was about to be penalized for grabbing Hicke from behind. Hicke was able to swipe the puck toward Gamble and before the goaltender could get to it, Saunders swooped in and scored.
"It's a shame they couldn't play some of these games in Toronto,” said Maple Leafs coach Billy Reay. "A terrific game like that would pack the Gardens.”
Hull-Ottawa moved up three games to two with a 6-3 victory in Hull before 3,984 fans on May 4.
This time, the Baby Habs won it with three goals within a minute and 27 seconds late in the second period, two of them coming with the man advantage.
The teams were tied 2-2 after the first period, Lunghamer and Balon scoring for Regina around Montreal goals by Carter and Backstrom. It was the first time in the series that Regina had scored first.
Erickson put Regina out front 3-2 at 11:06 of the second period. And then the Canadiens exploded. Richard scored at 17:01, Gray at 18:17 and Gray again at 18:28.
Carter scored the only goal of the third period, an empty-netter with 15 seconds left to play.
Gray saw extra ice time after Boucher, Hull-Ottawa's leading point scorer during the season, was hit with a misconduct penalty, and it paid off with two goals.
Mario thought the game swung on two plays -- Hicke fired wide on a second-period breakaway and Balon hit a post with five minutes left in the third.
"We're starting to come along,” Mario said. "We should have won the game but we handed them their first three goals. All of them were outright gifts. The puck just wouldn't bounce the right way for us.”
The sixth game was no contest. Played before 4,800 fans in Ottawa on May 6, the Canadiens won it 6-1 to clinch the national title.
"I really thought we had a good chance to take it all,” Mario said. "But we got a little careless in the first period again and then couldn't come back. Two of the first three Canadiens goals were scored with the player having his back to our net.”
The Baby Habs got off to another fast start, going up 2-0 and leading 3-1 after the first period. They put it away with three third-period goals.
Gilles Tremblay, John Annable, Richard, Boucher, Gray and Jacques Begin scored for the Canadiens. Hicke had Regina's goal, his fifth of the series.
Annable's goal, his first of the series, at 18:05 of the first period -- he knocked in his own rebound -- stood up as the winner.
The game may well have turned in its early moments. Hicke broke in alone on Gamble, who came up with a superb stop. The Baby Habs went right back down the ice and Tremblay scored. The Canadiens poured it on from there.
"I'm very proud of every one of you,” Frank Selke, managing director of the Montreal Canadiens, told the Pats. "If this series had been played in the west, there isn't much doubt in my mind that the final outcome would have been different. I know how tough it is for a young man to have to play so far from home.”
It was Pollock's second Memorial Cup title. He also coached the Montreal Royals to the 1949 title.

NEXT: 1959 (Winnipeg Braves vs. Peterborough TPT Petes)

From Gregg Drinnan...1959

1959 MEMORIAL CUP
Winnipeg Braves vs. Peterborough TPT Petes
at Winnipeg (Arena) and Brandon (Wheat City Arena)


Scotty Bowman, who would go on to an amazingly successful career as a National Hockey League coach (and sometimes general manager) with the Montreal Canadiens, St. Louis Blues, Buffalo Sabres, Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings, was back in the Memorial Cup final in the spring of 1959.
It was Bowman's third straight appearance in the national junior final.
He was an assistant coach with the Ottawa Canadiens when they lost to the Flin Flon Bombers in 1957. That year, the final was played in the west.
And he was back as an assistant coach with the Hull-Ottawa Canadiens in 1958 when, playing the series in Hull and Ottawa, they beat the Regina Pats.
This time around, the final would be played in the west and Bowman, 26, was the head coach of the Peterborough TPT Petes, so named because of a major sponsor -- Toronto-Peterborough Transport.
The Petes were in their third season in Peterborough, having moved over from Kitchener. They finished seventh in a seven-team league their first season there, then moved up to fifth the following season under coach Teeder Kennedy. They finished second under Bowman.
The game of hockey was slowly changing, witness the fact that Peterborough defenceman Barclay Plager set a club record with 252 penalty minutes. People were starting to pay attention to that kind of stuff. Plager's record, by the way, would last until 1972-73 when it was broken by Bob Neely.
The Petes were captained by Bill Mahoney, who would later take a turn at coaching the Minnesota North Stars in 1982-83. Unfortunately, a broken ankle suffered against Hull-Ottawa -- in an eastern final that featured two Montreal Canadiens' farm clubs -- kept him out of this Memorial Cup final.
Wayne Connelly, a 19-year-old right winger, was Peterborough's leading scorer, with 36 goals and 90 points. He went into the Memorial Cup with 15 goals and 31 points in 26 playoff games. With Mahoney gone, Connelly played alongside centre Larry Babcock and left-winger George Montague.
Gary Darling, with 15 goals in 26 playoff games, centred Wayne Boddy and Freddy Dart, with Pat Casey, Tom Clark and Bob Rivard the other forwards. With Mahoney injured, Darling also served as captain.
The roster also included goaltender Denis Dejordy, who was added from the St. Catharines Teepees when Jacques Caron went down with a hip injury against Hull-Ottawa. On defence, the Petes had Plager, Tom Thurlby, Jim Roberts, Larry Kish and Chuck Hamilton, a converted forward.
The OHA final would last eight games that year. It featured Peterborough and the St. Michael's Majors from the Irish Catholic school in Toronto. St. Mike's posted two victories and three ties in the first five games and needed just one more tie to wrap it up. But the Petes wouldn't let that happen -- they won the last three games and the series.
Hull-Ottawa was a force again, and it advanced to the eastern final by swatting aside the Quebec Baronets, 8-1 and 6-0.
The eastern Canadian final lasted seven games, with Peterborough winning four, losing two and tying one. The Baby Habs won the first two (5-2 and 4-1), Game 3 ended in a 2-2 tie, and Peterborough won the next four games (5-2, 6-2, 2-1 and 2-1).
Out of the west rode the Winnipeg Braves.
They were managed by Bill Addison, later the genial long-time commissioner of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League, and coached by Bill Allum. Allum was a longtime minor pro defenceman, who had done time in the American Hockey League cities of Buffalo, Philadelphia, Cleveland and St. Louis. He had also had a couple of cups of coffee in the NHL with the Chicago Black Hawks and New York Rangers.
Allum replaced the legendary Harry Neil as the Braves' coach during the 1957-58 season. That was the Braves' first season after Neil had put the organization together. Unfortunately, Neil died one day in November, shortly after a practice session.
Winnipeg featured Laurie Langrell, its leading scorer with 42 goals (including one six-goal game) and 63 points. Ernie Wakely was the goaltender and he was supported by the likes of Rene Brunel, Ted Green (an addition from the St. Boniface Canadiens), Doug Monro, Lew Mueller, Howie Hughes (another pickup from St. Boniface who would start the series as Connelly's shadow), Al LeBlanc, Gary Bergman, Bobby Leiter, and captain Wayne Larkin (who would die at the age of 29 on Sept. 10, 1968, after suffering a heart attack at the New York Rangers’ training camp in Kitchener). They also added right-winger Don Atamanchuk from the Transcona Rangers.
When the Memorial Cup opened, Allum had Leiter between Langrell and LeBlanc, the latter from Campbellton, N.B.; Hughes between Larkin and Atamanchuk; and, Brunel with Pat Angers and Al Baty. First-year player Ken King was the extra forward.
It's also worth noting that Braves fans, and there were lots of them, were able to follow their boys through play-by-play man (Cactus) Jack Wells on Winnipeg radio station CKY.
After bouncing St. Boniface in the MJHL final, the Braves ousted the Fort William Canadiens in five games, winning the opener (9-4), losing the second game (3-1) and then taking three in a row (4-3, 5-1 and 3-1).
At the same time, Flin Flon was sweeping the Edmonton Oil Kings -- 6-3, 8-3, 10-1 and 11-6.
The western final for the Abbott Cup lasted six games. The Braves fell behind by two games, losing 5-1 and 7-4, before roaring back to win four in a row -- 5-2, 6-4, 5-1 and 3-0. Wakely shone in that last game, stopping 37 shots before 9,018 fans, believed to be the largest crowd to witness a junior game in western Canada.
The Braves promptly added three players from St. Boniface to their roster -- left-winger Jerry Kruk, goaltender Paul Sexsmith and centre Johnny Rodger.
The Braves were the first MJHL team to win the west since St. Boniface did it in the spring of 1953. (Remember that Flin Flon played in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.)
"It's got to be hustle, hustle, hustle if we're going to win,” Allum said. "I don't know anything about this Peterborough team, but they must be pretty good to beat Hull-Ottawa. But we've got a pretty good team, too.”
The keys for Winnipeg as the series opened: 1. The Braves were counting on Hughes to stifle Connelly, just like he did to Flin Flon ace Cliff Pennington; and, 2. Wakely, the 157-pound goaltender, had to be at the top of his game.
The series was to open in Winnipeg on April 24.
At a practice on April 23, Bowman commented on the ice in the Winnipeg Arena.
"It's the best ice we've been on,” he said. Which is somewhat ironical considering the Winnipeg Arena would later become known for its poor ice.
Only 6,239 fans showed up for Game 1, thanks to a heavy, wet snowfall that plugged city streets. Those who couldn't make it missed a hard-hitting, fast-skating game which the Petes won, 5-4.
Peterborough trailed 1-0 after one period but scored four straight second-period goals and took a 4-3 lead into the third.
Boddy made it 5-3 at 1:06, before Langrell scored the game's last goal at 12:27.
Bergman had the only goal of the first period. Babcock, Thurlby, Rivard and Babcock again sent the Petes out front in the second, but Langrell and LeBlanc cut the deficit by two in the last 1:07 of the second period.
The Petes took seven of the 11 penalties handed out, with Plager getting four -- three minors and a misconduct, the latter for joining in a fight between Larkin and Darling.
The Braves tied the series on April 26, posting a 5-2 victory before 9,171 fans.
"Braves showed some of the speed up front that won them the western title as they beat the Petes to the puck while their defence and goalie Ernie Wakely left little to be desired,” reported The Canadian Press.
Langrell scored twice for the second straight game, while Winnipeg got singles from Leiter, Brunel and Angers. Tom Clark and Thurly replied for the Petes.
Leiter and Brunel gave the Braves a 2-0 first-period lead, before Clark and Langrell traded second-period goals. Angers and Langrell upped Winnipeg's lead to 5-1 before Thurlby closed out the scoring late in the third.
"All our forwards have got to check harder and we've got to start shooting better,” Bowman said. "We've been missing too many opportunities.”
Bowman also admitted the Petes were going to have to stop the Braves' ‘L' line -- Leiter, Langrell and LeBlanc had six goals and eight assists between them -- but, he said, "I'm not going to send any particular line against them.”
"Mahoney could have done the job,” Bowman said of his injured captain. "We really miss him.”
As for Connelly not having scored yet, Bowman said: "He's a streaker. He goes hot and cold. At one stage, he went nine games without scoring and then hit five in a row.”
The Braves went up two games to one on April 28, blowing a 2-0 lead before prevailing 5-2 before 7,939 fans.
Langrell had his third straight two-goal game, while Larkin also scored twice. LeBlanc got the Braves' other goal. Rivard and Boddy scored for the Petes.
Langrell and Larkin scored in the first period and the teams played a scoreless middle frame. Rivard, at 1:16, and Boddy, at 7:54, tied it in the third period, only to have Larkin get what turned into the winner just 15 seconds later. LeBlanc followed with a goal at 9:44 and Langrell wrapped it up at 17:12.
After the game, Ron Campbell wrote in the Regina Leader-Post: "For a Canadian final, the action left much to be desired and if it is any indication of things to come (both clubs are two of the weakest overall to have reached the final in the last decade -- an opinion shared by the experts) the National League will have trouble filling their ranks in the next few years. Without senior hockey the NHL could be in for plenty of grief.”
The Braves took a commanding 3-1 series lead on April 29, winning 5-3 before 8,375 fans.
"What can a guy do?” asked Bowman. "We play our best game of the series and a couple of bad breaks cost us a chance of drawing even.
"The winner was a really tough break. Our boy (Rivard) made a great play and had three of their men trapped. Then on a dubious call (Bowman felt a tripping penalty should have been handed out by referee Len Corriveau of Quebec) the puck bounces right on to the stick of their winger.”
The Braves trailed 2-0 after one period as Roberts and Rivard scored for the Petes. Larkin and Leiter tied it in the second, only to have Montague put Peterborough out front again at 14:11.
Leiter tied it at 7:40 of the third period, Baty got the winner at 15:12 and Larkin iced it at 18:19.
"We'll wrap it up on Friday,” Allum said, referring to Game 5 which would be played on May 1 in Brandon. "They had us on the run in the early stages but the fellows never quit trying and it paid off. You can't let up against them -- they proved it tonight.”
Toe Blake, head coach of the Montreal Canadiens, offered this analysis: "The Petes seemed to back into their own end too often in the final period. Their defence has a bad habit of dropping down on almost every shot and with the wide ice surface here they have trouble recovering.”
Bowman, meanwhile, was upset with Corriveau's work, saying he "called only the glaring trips, never the hooking or boarding.”
But Bowman had cooled off by the next day.
"I guess it wouldn't do any good any way to protest,” he said. "It wouldn't make that much difference to have a change in the referee; my boys will just have to work harder.
"Maybe my outburst will wake (Corriveau) up.”
The Braves wrapped it up on May 1 in the Wheat City Arena, getting three goals from Baty in a 6-2 victory.
Bowman, however, wasn't around for the end.
"The rugged game almost got out of hand in the third period,” reported The Canadian Press, “when coach Scotty Bowman of the Petes was first given a bench penalty for slapping a stick on the boards, then ejected from the rink for pulling out his wallet and appearing to offer money to referee Len Corriveau of Quebec City.”
Atamanchuk, Brunel and Larkin also scored for the Braves, with Darling and Boddy replying for the Petes, who didn't get one goal from Connelly during the entire series.
In giving Winnipeg its first Memorial Cup since the Monarchs won in 1946, the Braves blew a 2-0 lead in the first period before scoring the game's final four goals.
Baty scored at 3:53 and 4:08 of the first period. But the Petes tied it when Darling (7:28) and Boddy (17:09) counted.
Atamanchuk got what proved to be the winner at 3:08 of the second period, with Larkin and Green earning assists. Baty, Larkin and Brunel put it away with third-period goals.
It was the west's 18th Memorial Cup triumph, against 23 for the east.

NEXT: 1960 (Edmonton Oil Kings vs. St. Catharines Teepees)

From Gregg Drinnan...1960

1960 MEMORIAL CUP
Edmonton Oil Kings vs. St. Catharines Teepees
at St. Catharines (Garden City Arena) and Toronto (Maple Leaf Gardens)


Leo LeClerc, the manager of the Edmonton Oil Kings, was concerned from the outset.
"You've got to be 25 per cent better than the opposition in order to win out here and we just haven't got it,” he said.
LeClerc's Oil Kings were preparing to meet the St. Catharines Teepees in the best-of-seven Memorial Cup final.
The series would open in St. Catharines and then shift to Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens.
"In order to win at the other end of the country you've got to have a powerhouse,” LeClerc continued. "I figure we have to be 25 per cent better, at least, and after watching that St. Catharines club in action I'm very doubtful.”
Was he blowing smoke? Only time would tell.
The Teepees, who were in last place in their league at Christmas and went on to finish fourth, had taken eight games to sideline the Brockville Canadians in the eastern final. The Oil Kings ousted the Flin Flon Bombers in six games and then took seven games to sideline the Brandon Wheat Kings.
Coached by Max Kaminsky, the Teepees featured the likes of goaltender Roger Crozier, captain Chico Maki, Vic Hadfield and Ray Cullen.
The Teepees got their name from their sponsor -- Thompson Products, a firm that manufactured automotive and aircraft parts.
The Oil Kings, of coach Harry Allen, were led by Ed Joyal, Cliff Pennington, Bruce MacGregor and Dunc McCallum, an addition from Brandon. Rookie Larry Lund, an 18-year-old sensation, wouldn't play due to a damaged knee.
Pennington, a pickup from Flin Flon, paid dividends in the opener on April 27. He got the winning goal at 11:40 of the third period as Edmonton won the first game, 5-3.
The hero, however, was Oil Kings' goaltender Russ Gillow. Cut for eight stitches over the left eye early in the game, Gillow returned to turn in a sparkling 35-save performance.
"This guy Gillow is the best goalkeeper the Teepees have faced all season,” offered Chicago Blackhawks coach Rudy Pilous, who owned and managed the Teepees.
The teams were tied 1-1 after one period, with Edmonton taking a 2-1 lead into the third.
MacGregor, with two, Joyal, and Bob Cox scored for Edmonton. St. Catharines got goals from Terry McGuire, Cullen and Maki.
The series moved to Toronto with the Teepees evening it up with a 6-2 victory in Maple Leaf Gardens on April 29.
The Oil Kings had to start goaltender Dale Gaume, who had hardly played in the last month, when Gillow experienced swelling around his left eye.
Defenceman Bill Speer scored twice for the Teepees, with singles coming from Duke Harris, Cullen, Bill Ives and Doug Robinson. Joyal had both Edmonton goals.
Gaume made 32 saves and was steady but the Teepees controlled the play. Crozier blocked 30 shots in front of 5,833 fans as his mates skated to period leads of 3-1 and 6-1.
"We played better in St. Catharines and lost,” offered Kaminsky after Game 2.
Two nights later, on May 1, there were 10,666 fans in Maple Leaf Gardens as the Teepees buried the Oil Kings, 9-1.
This was the largest crowd to see a Memorial Cup game since the Toronto St. Michael's Majors and Winnipeg Monarchs played a seven-game series in 1946.
"Too many things went wrong out there for us,” Allen said. "Our club has been up and down all year and I think we're at the bottom right now.
"But before this thing ends, St. Catharines will know they were in a series.”
The Teepees fired 54 shots at Gillow, scoring their first goal 42 seconds into the game and taking a 3-0 lead into the second period. They led 7-1 after two.
"I could hardly see out of my eye,” Gillow said. "Only two of those St. Catharines goals were good. The others were flukes.”
Cullen scored twice and set up two others, while Murray Hall also had two goals. Defenceman Pat Stapleton had a goal and two assists. Speer, Harris, Maki and John Brenneman also scored.
Left-winger Bobby Goebel, plagued by a groin injury in recent weeks, scored Edmonton's goal.
The Oil Kings roared back on May 3 to hammer the Teepees 9-3 before 2,344 fans in a game that featured plenty of rough play and fighting.
"When players try to maim other players there's something wrong with the management or the coach,” Allen said. "I can't believe Max Kaminsky would do that. It must have come from higher up.”
LeClerc said: "Junior players just don't play like that. They must be sent out. Our players have sticks, too, but we play hockey.”
The biggest concern to the Oil Kings was the condition of defenceman Wayne Muloin. He had been hit on the head by Maki's stick and needed five stitches to close the gash.
Game 5 was played on May 6 and for the third game in a row the winning team scored nine goals. This time it was the Teepees and they won 9-6 in front of 4,014 fans.
Gillow stopped 47 shots, while Crozier made 21 saves and that tells the tale.
Stapleton and Cullen had two goals each for the winners, with singles from Robinson, Ives, Carlo Longarini, Chico Maki and Hall. Maki also had four assists. Pennington scored twice for the Oil Kings, who got one each from MacGregor, Goebel, Don Chiz and Cox.
"They outhustled us,” Allen said. "But Sunday will be another game.”
It was that but the outcome was the same as the Teepees won the Memorial Cup.
St. Catharines won 7-3 in a game that featured brilliant goaltending by Gillow and Crozier.
The Teepees led 2-0 after the first period, on goals by Cullen and Ives, and took a 3-0 lead into the third after McGuire had the second period's lone goal.
Cox got Edmonton on the board only to have Robinson reply for St. Catharines at 7:12. Joyal cut the deficit to 4-2 but that was as close as the Oil Kings would get.
Maki, Harris and Robinson scored in a span of less than three minutes before Pennington ended the scoring at 17:37.
Robinson's first goal, at 7:12 of the third, stood up as the Memorial Cup-winning score.
The Teepees now were a perfect 2-for-2 in Memorial Cup appearances. They had beaten the Oil Kings in five games in their only other appearance, that in 1954.

NEXT: 1961 (Edmonton Oil Kings vs. Toronto St. Michael's Majors)

From Gregg Drinnan...1961

1961 MEMORIAL CUP
Edmonton Oil Kings vs. Toronto St. Michael's Majors
at Edmonton (Gardens)


Toronto St. Mike's, led by defencemen Terry O'Malley, the team captain, and Barry MacKenzie, two players who would become household names with Canada's national team, swept the Moncton Beavers -- 11-2, 6-2 and 11-2 -- in the East's best-of-five final.
That put St. Mike's into the final for the first time in 14 years. And it was on to Edmonton to face the Oil Kings in the Memorial Cup final.
Coached by Father David Bauer, the Toronto team featured the Draper twins, Bruce and Dave, along with the likes of Larry Keenan, Arnie Brown, Billy MacMillan, Terry Clancy, the son of longtime NHLer King Clancy, and goaltender Gerry Cheevers. During the regular season, Cheevers had spent eight games playing on left wing. He never scored a goal, but did pick up one assist.
The Oil Kings, of coach Buster Brayshaw, had won 16 of 19 playoff games against the Lethbridge Native Sons, Trail Smoke Eaters, Regina Pats and Winnipeg Rangers.
Edmonton added defenceman Ken Stephanson from Winnipeg and Brandon centre Bryan Hextall but Brayshaw said he would only use them in the event of trouble.
Don Chiz was particularly hot for Edmonton, having scored what was then a Canadian record 29 playoff goals. But, of late, he was bothered by a sore groin.
The series opened in Edmonton Gardens on April 25. Cheevers, a 20-year-old from St. Catharines, blocked 17 shots in posting a 4-0 shutout in front of 6,674 fans.
Bruce and Dave Draper, Keenan and Andre Champagne scored for St. Mike's, which scored twice in each of the second and third periods. Paul Sexsmith in the Edmonton goal stopped 24 shots.
"He's all they said he was,” Father Bauer said of Sexsmith. "I thought we should have been ahead 3-0 by the end of the first period but for him.”
Edmonton manager Leo LeClerc assured all who would listen that the Oil Kings "could not be that bad again.”
He was right. The next time out the Oil Kings scored one goal.
Toronto won the second game 4-1 in front of 6,112 fans on April 27.
Clancy scored twice as Toronto held period leads of 1-0 and 4-1. Tom Burgess scored Edmonton's goal at 13:25 of the third period, stopping Cheevers' shutout string at 113 minutes and 25 seconds. Cheevers stopped 31 shots, seven more than Sexsmith.
Hextall and Stephanson were both in the lineup for Edmonton, while regular forwards Owen Malley and Vince Downey were left out.
"I expect to win (Game 3) and with any sort of breaks at all we're going to make this a rough series yet,” stated Brayshaw, who added that forward Dave Richardson, a teammate of Stephanson's with the Rangers, would dress for Game 3.
St. Mike's was expected to have Sonny Osborne, one of its big guns in the playoffs, in the lineup. A University of Toronto student, he had been at home writing exams.
Still, Father Bauer wasn't expecting a sweep.
"No, no,” he said. "They're much too good a team for that.”
Brayshaw was upset that his big guns had been performing more like pop guns.
"Big guns who aren't doing anything aren't much good to you in a series like this,” he said.
Chiz scored 30 goals in 30 regular-season games and added 29 in 28 playoff games. Dennis Kassian had 29 regular-season goals, while Bobby Cox had 29 playoff assists. But they hadn't done much in Games 1 and 2.
On April 29, before 6,500 fans, St. Mike's pushed the Oil Kings to the edge with a 4-2 victory.
Osborne scored three goals and set up the fourth, by Keenan. Hextall and Chiz scored for Edmonton, which trailed 1-0 and 2-1 at the period breaks.
Cheever was brilliant again. This time he made 27 saves, five more than Sexsmith.
"It's hard to believe we could play like we have in the last two games and be three games down,” Brayshaw said. "They gave their best, but it wasn't enough.
"Win, lose or draw, I'm proud of every one of them.”
The Oil Kings prolonged the inevitable on May 1 when they scored a 5-4 victory before 4,864 fans.
Burgess, Richardson, Larry Lund, Bob Marik and Roger Bourbonnais scored for Edmonton. St. Mike's got goals from Clancy, Paul Conlin, Keenan and Bruce Draper.
The scoreless first-period was highlighted by a collision between Burgess and Cheevers after which the latter left the ice for repairs to his face.
He would return to make 27 stops. Sexsmith stopped 32 shots.
"We've certainly got our backs to the wall,” Brayshaw said, "but we looked a bit more like the old Oil Kings and if we carry on this way St. Mike's are in for a good series.”
Father Bauer credited the Oil Kings, saying: "From the coach out, they wanted to win more.”
The Oil Kings continued along the comeback trail on May 3 as they won 4-2 before 6,114 fans.
Kassian finally got untracked, scoring twice. Singles came from Chiz and Richardson. Bruce Draper and Champagne scored for St. Mike's.
Sexsmith, a 20-year-old out of Winnipeg, was superb in stopping 36 shots. Cheevers blocked 19 shots.
"We have no false illusions,” Brayshaw said. "We know it will take plenty of hard work but Sexsmith is our meal ticket. If he's hot, we just might force this series to seven games.”
Father Bauer, 36, praised Sexsmith, too: "You might say that Paul was great ... he handled everything we could throw at him.”
It ended on May 5 with St. Mike's scoring a 4-2 victory before 7,159 fans.
Jack Cole, Bruce Draper, Conlin and Champagne scored for the winners. Hextall and Lund replied for Edmonton.
Cole scored the only goal of the first period, at 2:47. Hextall tied the score at 9:44 of the second, before Draper, at 12:07, and Conlin, at 15:25, gave Toronto a 3-1 lead going into the third.
Champagne upped that to 4-1 at 13:15 before Lund cut it to 4-2 at 18:11.
Conlin's goal stood up as the Memorial Cup-winning score.
This was St. Mike's fifth Memorial Cup appearance. It now had won four championships, one more than the Toronto Marlboros, Oshawa Generals and Winnipeg Monarchs.
It was the fifth straight loss for Edmonton in the national final.
The east now held a 26-17 edge in Memorial Cup championships, including 14-5 since 1943 when the present best-of-seven format was adopted.

NEXT: 1962 (Edmonton Oil Kings vs. Hamilton Red Wings)

From Gregg Drinnan...1962

1962 MEMORIAL CUP
Edmonton Oil Kings vs. Hamilton Red Wings
at Hamilton (Forum), Guelph (Memorial Gardens) and Kitchener (Auditorium)


The Edmonton Oil Kings took seven games to finish off the Brandon Wheat Kings in the Abbott Cup final.
This was one close series; in fact, the seventh game, in Brandon on April 25, was tied 3-3 in the third period before the Oil Kings pulled out a 5-3 victory.
The Oil Kings then headed east to meet the Hamilton Red Wings -- coached by Eddie Bush and featuring Lowell MacDonald, Bob Wall, Earl Heiskala, Bryan Campbell, Ron Harris, Pit Martin, Paul Henderson, Wayne Rivers, captain Howie Menard and Jimmy Peters.
Edmonton was led by Glen Sather, captain Wayne Muloin, Roger Bourbonnais and Larry Hale.
Both teams were affiliated with the NHL's Detroit Red Wings.
The fighting began before the Oil Kings arrived in Toronto.
Originally scheduled to be played in Maple Leaf Gardens, the CAHA announced the first game would be played in Hamilton, with the next three in Guelph. A fifth game, if needed, would be played in Kitchener.
All this because of a hassle over television rights involving Hamilton and Toronto stations -- the first time in Memorial Cup history that TV had reared its head.
The Oil Kings, by now en route to Toronto, had picked up Brandon defenceman Bob Ash and forward Ted Taylor, along with forward Norm Beaudin from the Regina Pats.
None of the three played in the opener, won 5-2 by the Red Wings before 3,275 fans in the 3,800-seat Hamilton Forum.
MacDonald sparked the Red Wings with three goals, as they jumped out to 1-0 and 4-1 period leads. Heiskala and Wall also scored for Hamilton. Doug Fox and Phil Dutton scored for Edmonton.
Dutton later left the game, blood streaming from his face after being high-sticked by Harris. Dutton needed eight stitches to close a cut over one eye and also had a broken nose.
The Oil Kings were travel-weary and had trouble keeping up with the Red Wings from the outset. The Red Wings had also enjoyed two more days of rest than had the westerners.
Hamilton goaltender Buddy Blom stopped 27 shots, while Edmonton's Harrison Gray stopped 30.
Bush had welcomed Edmonton as "the scruffiest-looking team I've ever seen in a Memorial Cup final.
"They all need haircuts, their uniforms were dirty and full of holes and on top of that they came to the arena in windbreakers.”
Meanwhile, Edmonton manager Leo LeClerc fired back, choosing as his target the 3,800-seat Hamilton Forum: "This place looks like a converted factory chimney.”
LeClerc wanted to play all the games in Maple Leaf Gardens. As he said: "You don't play the Grey Cup in a cow pasture.”
No matter. It was off to Guelph.
Guelph hadn't seen a Memorial Cup game since 1952 so Memorial Gardens was given a real facelift prior to Game 2 on May 1.
Dutton was out with a broken nose; Beaudin took his place.
And Beaudin scored once, but it wasn't enough as the Red Wings posted a 4-2 victory before about 3,000 fans.
The Oil Kings, despite being outshot 40-18, were in the game until the last five minutes when MacDonald scored the game's final goal. It was his fourth goal of the series and came via the power play.
Edmonton's John Lesyshen scored the game's first goal, but John Gofton tied it before the period ended. Martin scored the only goal of the second period.
Beaudin tied it for Edmonton three minutes into the third period. But Hamilton won it with goals from Menard, at 3:34, and MacDonald, at 15:20.
A newly formed line featuring Butch Paul between Marc Dufour, a late addition from Brandon, and Beaudin sparked the Oil Kings to a 5-3 victory in front of 3,175 fans in Game 3 in Guelph.
Beaudin scored twice, with Dufour, Harold Fleming and Bourbonnais adding one each. Harris, Rivers and Martin scored for Hamilton.
The Red Wings scored the game's first two goals, but Edmonton tied it 2-2 before the second period ended.
Hamilton took a 3-2 lead early in the third, only to have Beaudin tie it. Beaudin scored the winner at 1:41 and Bourbonnais iced it with an empty-net goal at 18:52.
"Edmonton played much better and we were due for a letdown,” Bush said. "The whole team had it all at once and I hope they got it out of their system.”
Across the way, Brayshaw felt his club was finally back in gear.
“They played more like the club that won the western championship,” he said. "If we play that well again (in Game 4) this could be a long series yet.”
By now, people were speculating that attendance was down because the game was being televised in the Toronto-Hamilton-Guelph-Kitchener area by CHCH-TV of Hamilton.
On May 5, the Red Wings moved to within one game of the championship, winning 3-0 in Guelph as Blom posted the shutout.
Hamilton scored two power-play goals 36 seconds apart in the third period, at 9:45 and 10:21, to put this one away.
MacDonald had the game's first goal, at 4:38 of the second period. He got his second in the third, with Martin scoring the other.
Hamilton used Peters, Heiskala and Rivers to check Paul, Dufour and Beaudin and the strategy worked as Edmonton was kept off the board.
The series shifted to Kitchener for Game 5 and Brayshaw promised changes -- Beaudin would play with Vince Downey and Bourbonnais; Dufour moved onto a line with Sather and Paul; the third line would feature Fleming, Dutton and Gregg Pilling.
The Red Wings had all but given up on having one of their stars, Larry Ziliotto, in the lineup. He missed the first three games with a foot injury, then tried to play in Game 4. But he collapsed on the bench during the game and again in the dressing room after the game. So Bush was considering dressing Jack Wildfong. In the end, he dressed both and sat out defenceman Bob Hamilton.
By now, the CAHA had gotten around to announcing that Games 6 and 7, if needed, would also be played in Kitchener.
"We played well enough to win (Game 4) but we didn't score,” Brayshaw said. "If we play that way we should take (Game 5). The breaks have got to come our way some time soon.”
Brayshaw also took a shot at the officiating.
"We need men who have refereed this type of hockey before,” he said. "The man we have (Gord Kerr of Winnipeg) is from Manitoba and he just hasn't been handling hockey played this way. We would have been satisfied with an OHA man even before the series started.”
There were 7,071 fans in the Kitchener Arena as Hamilton posted a 7-4 victory to win the championship.
The crowd greeted every score, according to The Canadian Press, "with a barrage of programs and other debris, and on one occasion a bottle of green ink, causing numerous delays in the contest.”
In the end, everyone was left talking about fights among spectators and "a bitter fistic battle involving Hamilton coach Eddie Bush, Howie Young, a former defenceman with the Detroit Red Wings, and Detective Sergeant Charles Bignell of the Kitchener police department.”
The CP report continued: "Young was taken away by police. Bignell, bleeding about the face, was carried on a stretcher to the first aid room and later removed to hospital.”
The game took three hours 15 minutes to play which, at the time, was believed to be a record for a Memorial Cup game that ended in regulation time.
MacDonald and Rivers scored twice for Hamilton, with singles coming from Menard, Martin and Henderson. Dufour, Bourbonnais, Paul and Downey scored for Edmonton.
Henderson and MacDonald gave Hamilton a 2-0 first-period lead. Dufour, Bourbonnais and Paul gave Edmonton a 3-2 edge by 13:22 of the second, only to have Martin tie it before the period ended.
Menard, MacDonald and Rivers struck for consecutive goals when the third period opened, before Downey cut the deficit to 6-4 at 14:55. Rivers wrapped it up with an empty-netter at 19:38.
The Memorial Cup-winning goal was MacDonald's second of the game at 8:40 of the third period.
The gross gate of $16,402 was a record for a single hockey game in the Kitchener Arena.
And now Edmonton had lost in all six of its trips to the Memorial Cup final.

NEXT: 1963 (Edmonton Oil Kings vs. Niagara Falls Flyers)

From Gregg Drinnan...1963

1963 MEMORIAL CUP
Edmonton Oil Kings vs. Niagara Falls Flyers
at Edmonton (Gardens)


The Edmonton Oil Kings were back in the national final for a fourth consecutive year. And coach Buster Brayshaw was all but guaranteeing victory over the Niagara Falls Flyers.
This, he said, was the best team he had brought to the championship. And furthermore, he said, this team had been taught to play "the eastern style of play.”
"This is the biggest club overall that I've taken to the final,” Brayshaw said. "It has more weight because I've found that our light clubs in past years have run out of oomph as the season wears on.
"The larger club may take more time getting started but they have the staying power.”
Considering the west had won but seven titles since 1940, the Oil Kings had their work cut out for them.
"In the past, (eastern clubs) have come out on top by clutching and grabbing, playing the man and shooting the puck a lot,” Brayshaw said. "We will play that way now, too. Any club that gets into a series with us now will know it as we can play as tough as anybody.”
The Oil Kings had made it to the final with best-of-seven playoff victories over the SJHL-champion Estevan Bruins (six games) and a five-game victory over the Brandon Wheat Kings in the Abbott Cup final.
Included on the Edmonton roster were Bert Marshall, Pat Quinn, Glen Sather, Max Mestinsek, Bob Falkenberg, Gregg Pilling, Dave Rochefort, Ron Anderson, Jim Eagle, Butch Paul, goaltender Russ Kirk and captain Roger Bourbonnais. Marshall, Quinn and Sather would go on to coach in the NHL.
The Flyers, managed by the legendary Hap Emms and coached by Bill Long, had eliminated the Neil McNeil Maroons and Espanola Eagles in Ontario playoffs and then dumped the Notre Dame de Grace Monarchs 8-2, 7-1 and 5-0 in the best-of-five eastern final. The Flyers were led by Bill Goldsworthy, Wayne Maxner, Ron Schock, Ted Snell, Gary Dornhoefer, Don Awrey, Terry Crisp and goaltender George Gardner.
The championship, with all games played at Edmonton Gardens, opened on May 2 with Niagara Falls roaring to an 8-0 victory before 6,785 fans.
Snell and Maxner, with two goals each, Dornhoefer, Goldsworthy, Gary Harmer and Ron Hergott scored for the Flyers. Gardner, 20, posted the shutout.
The game was physical and featured 25 penalties, 14 to the Flyers.
"They had an off night,” Emms said. "It's going to be a tough series yet.”
Brayshaw added: "They certainly aren't eight goals better than us.”
Crisp was the only casualty from Game 1. He was left nursing a charleyhorse.
The Oil Kings rebounded on May 5 to even the series with a 7-3 victory in front of 6,845 fans.
Paul, an 18-year-old from Red Willow, Alta., scored twice and set up three other goals for Edmonton. Bourbonnais, Mestinsek, Harold Fleming, Butch Barber and Falkenberg also scored for the Oilers. Bill Glashan, with two, and Schock replied for the Flyers.
Crisp was in the lineup, while the Oilers dropped forward Jim Chase, who had joined the team for the playoffs from the juvenile ranks, in favor of Rochefort.
Gardner stopped 37 shots in this one, while Edmonton's Russ Kirk blocked 18.
On May 6, before 6,424 fans, the Oil Kings exploded for four second-period goals en route to a 5-2 victory.
Paul continued his superb play with two goals, while singles came from Mestinsek, Falkenberg and Bourbannais. Harmer and Glashan scored for the Flyers.
The teams played through a scoreless first period before Edmonton outscored the visitors 4-1 in the second.
Gardner was brilliant again in a losing cause, this time stopping 30 shots.
Dornhoefer was lost for the series when he suffered a broken leg when checked by Quinn, who was hit with a major penalty for charging.
This marked the first time in four years that the Oil Kings had a series lead during a Memorial Cup final.
The Oil Kings upped their edge to 3-1 on May 7 with a 3-2 victory before 6,300 fans.
Doug Fox's goal at 11:08 of the third period broke a 2-2 deadlock and gave Edmonton the victory. He was able to lift the rebound of a Falkenberg shot over Gardner for the winner.
The teams played to period ties of 1-1 and 2-2. Maxner scored both Niagara Falls' goals, with Edmonton getting its goals from Paul and Mestinsek.
Emms played the game under protest after his request to be allowed to select which end of the ice his team would first defend was denied. The start of the game was delayed 15 minutes while the request was considered.
As it turned out, Emms had filed an all-encompassing protest before the series started. This one was because he felt the CAHA rules dealing with the placing of goal nets out from the end boards was being violated.
The Flyers stayed alive on May 9 with a 5-2 victory in front of 6,746 fans.
According to The Canadian Press: "Flyers, showing much more drive than they have in any other game this series, took a physical beating from the hard-hitting and sometimes brutal Oil Kings.”
Crisp, with two, Harmer, Glashan and Awrey, who was having a superb series on defence, scored for the Flyers. Eagle and Fox scored for Edmonton.
More from CP: "The game almost turned into a donnybrook with less than two minutes to go. Greg Pilling of Oil Kings and defenceman Rich Morin of Flyers crashed against the boards and Morin, on the outside, bounced to the ice. As the play moved up to centre and with the referee watching the puck, Pilling brought his stick down across Morin's head. Morin was taken from the ice on a stretcher and it took five minutes to get play under way again.”
Earlier in the game, Barber had flattened Harmer at centre ice. Harmer was taken to hospital with what was believed to be a fractured right leg.
Gardner was excellent again, this time stopping 23 saves. Kirk blocked 19.
Emms, who came west with 19 players (17 skaters and two goaltenders), said before Game 6 that he had 10 players injured in the first five games, including Harmer and Dornhoefer, both of whom had broken legs.
The known injured: Rich Morin, 10-stitch cut to the head; Goldsworthy, torn stomach muscles; Crisp, charleyhorse; Glashan, 12-stitch cut to the chin; Hergott, 10-stitch facial cut; Awrey, concussion, forehead contusions, two black eyes; Gardner, mild concussion; and, Maxner, stretched muscles near the rib cage.
"I said if the Oil Kings lost the fifth game, they'd lose the series,” Emms stated. "Our boys appear more accustomed to the climate and the altitude and have regained their strength.”
But the Oil Kings wrapped it up on May 11, posting a thrilling 4-3 sixth-game victory before more than 6,700 fans.
The crowd swarmed on to the ice at the final siren and lifted Kirk, Quinn and Bourbonnais on to its collective shoulders.
The Oil Kings had this game in control until the last half of the third period.
Goals by Fox, Sather, Paul and Pilling gave the Oil Kings a 4-0 lead early in the third period. But Mestinsek took the game's only penalty shortly thereafter and seven seconds later Glashan put the Flyers on the board.
Niagara Falls swarmed around the Edmonton net for the rest of the game, getting goals from Schock and Crisp. But the Flyers weren't able to pull even.
Kirk made the game's biggest save on Maxner with about five minutes to play. Kirk stopped 27 shots, three fewer than Gardner.
Pilling scored what turned out to be the Memorial Cup-winning goal at 4:11 of the third period when he put a low backhander through Gardner's legs.
CAHA president Art Potter presented the Memorial Cup to Bourbonnais. That picture is one of the great photos in Canadian sporting history -- Bourbonnais is pictured wearing a cape and a crown, both of which had been placed on him by adoring fans.
"I never thought anything could give me the thrill I got last year when a bunch of fuzzy-cheeked kids carried us to the Memorial Cup final,” Brayshaw said. "But this club did. It's a great feeling, a better thrill than I got from anything I ever did as a player or coach anywhere.”
Edmonton won the Memorial Cup for the first time in seven trips to the final. The only other Alberta team to win the Memorial Cup was the Calgary Canadians in 1926.
This was also the first time a team from one of the three western provinces had won it all since the Regina Pats were successful in 1930.

NEXT: 1964 (Edmonton Oil Kings vs. Toronto Marlboros)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nivek_wahs

From Gregg Drinnan...http://gdrinnan.blogspot.com/


"The game almost turned into a donnybrook with less than two minutes to go. Greg Pilling of Oil Kings and defenceman Rich Morin of Flyers crashed against the boards and Morin, on the outside, bounced to the ice. As the play moved up to centre and with the referee watching the puck, Pilling brought his stick down across Morin's head. Morin was taken from the ice on a stretcher and it took five minutes to get play under way again.”

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Good thing that game wasn't 40-50 yrs later...it would constantly get replayed all week on our 24 hour sports TV stations, giving hockey another bad rep.

From Gregg Drinnan...1964

1964 MEMORIAL CUP
Edmonton Oil Kings vs. Toronto Marlboros
at Toronto (Maple Leaf Gardens)


When May of 1964 arrived, the Edmonton Oil Kings were in the Memorial Cup final for a fifth consecutive season.
This time, they added centre Fran Huck (Regina Pats) and wingers Larry Mickey (Moose Jaw Canucks) and Ron Boehm (Estevan Bruins) to their roster as they prepared to leave for Toronto where they would face the Marlboros.
The first five games in this series would be played in Maple Leaf Gardens. After that, if the series was still alive, the last two games would be played in London, Ont.
The Marlies advanced with an 11-3 victory over goaltender Rogatien Vachon and the Montreal NDG Monarchs to win the best-of-five eastern final in four games.
Toronto, owned by Harold Ballard and coached by Jim Gregory, featured Gary Smith in goal, Rod Seiling and Jim McKenny on defence and the likes of Peter Stemkowski, Mike Walton, Wayne Carleton, Ron Ellis and Brit Selby up front.
The series opened on May 3 with the Marlies, a bigger team, posting a 5-2 victory.
"This is the first time I've seen (Edmonton) play,” Gregory said. "But from what I've heard about them and what I saw today, I know they can play much better than they did.”
Ellis, with two, Seiling, Gary Dineen and Andre Champagne scored for Toronto, which led 2-1 and 4-2 at the period breaks. Reg Taschuk scored both Edmonton goals.
"We can play better hockey than you saw out there,” Edmonton coach Buster Brayshaw said, "and we'll have to if we want to beat the Marlboros.”
The best of the Edmonton players was Huck, the 18-year-old, 5-foot-6, 155-pound centre from Regina. An 86-goal scorer in 40 SJHL games (he added 22 more in the playoffs), they called him the Golden Hawk and he dazzled everyone with his skating ability.
"Huck is the type of hockey player who has lots of heart,” Brayshaw said. "He isn't big but the kid has a lot of guts. He carried that Regina club all season.”
Only 2,704 fans attended Game 2, won 3-2 by the Marlies, thanks to early third-period goals one minute 31 seconds apart from Walton and Stemkowski.
Stemkowski finished with two goals, his first tying the game 1-1 in the second period after Taschuk opened the scoring in the first. Boehm scored the game's final goal late in the third period.
Huck was sharp again and only superb play by Smith kept him off the scoreboard.
"I think (Game 3) will be a real tough one,” Gregory said. "It will take until tomorrow until the Kings are accustomed to Toronto. The three-hour difference in time can have a big effect on a team.”
Brayshaw felt his club had played better, but knew it still had a ways to go.
"If you don't shoot, how do you expect the puck to go in?” he said. "They just weren't shooting as much as I would have liked them to.”
Despite Huck's superb play, Brayshaw had, so far, declined to use him on the power play.
"He won't pass the puck,” Brayshaw explained. "All season long he was a lone wolf on the Regina team and it's hard to change after six months playing like that. He's a real digger but he won't pass the puck.”
Edmonton's Butch Paul summed it up like this: "We stopped playing hockey for a couple of minutes, they bang in two goals and that's the game.”
By now, the Oil Kings were hurting. Their top line -- Paul, Max Mestinsek and Glen Sather -- was on the limp. All three had leg injuries.
The Marlboros, playing without Seiling who was writing university exams, went up 3-0 on May 7 with a 5-2 victory in front of only 2,204 fans.
Toronto, with Stemkowski and Selby each scoring twice, held period leds of 2-1 and 4-2. Paul Laurent also scored for the Marlies. Paul and Bert Marshall replied for Edmonton.
Edmonton goaltender Russ Kirk faced 36 shots as the Marlies took it right to the Oil Kings.
"They're not giving the puck away like they were in the first games,” Gregory said of his players. "And I thought my penalty killers -- Barry Watson, Nick Harbaruk, Andre Champagne and Brit Selby -- played a great game.
"Everybody played a good game, for that matter.”
Toronto completed the sweep on May 9, whipping the Oil Kings 7-2.
Stemkowski, Grant Moore, Seiling, Harbaruk, Walton, Dineen and Champagne scored for Toronto, which held a 49-28 edge in shots.
Mestinsek scored both Edmonton goals.
It was the Marlies' first Memorial Cup since 1956. The winning goal was scored by Stemkowski at 6:30 of the second period.
"We'll never know how really good they are,” Brayshaw said of the Marlies. "We never pressed them at all. We had enough chances in two periods and all we came up with was two goals.”
Brayshaw praised the Marlies for having "too much quality and too much quantity. Every line they threw at us was as good as the one that went off.
"They're a great hockey club. I don't think they'll ever find another as great.”

NEXT: 1965 (Edmonton Oil Kings vs. Niagara Falls Flyers)

From Gregg Drinnan...1965

1965 MEMORIAL CUP
Edmonton Oil Kings vs. Niagara Falls Flyers
at Edmonton (Gardens)


When the Edmonton Oil Kings bounced the Winnipeg Braves 6-3 on May 2 to win the Abbott Cup, they earned their sixth consecutive berth in the Memorial Cup final.
It was an incredible streak of success, matched perhaps only by the futility they had run into in the final. The Oil Kings went into this final, with all games played in the Edmonton Gardens, with but one championship in those five previous trips.
Edmonton's opposition this time would be the Niagara Falls Flyers, managed by Hap Emms, coached by Bill Long and starring Gilles Marotte, captain Dave Woodley, Don Marcotte, Steve Atkinson, 15-year-old defenceman Rick Ley, Bill Goldsworthy, Jim Lorentz, Rosaire Paiement, goaltender Bernie Parent, Jean Pronovost and Derek Sanderson.
This was a rematch of the 1963 final, which Edmonton had won in six games.
By the western final, the Oil Kings were without coach Buster Brayshaw, who had been ordered by doctors to rest. Harry Allen took over as coach and, while Brayshaw was back with the team for the Memorial Cup, Allen would run the bench.
The Oil Kings went into the final with their goaltending situation uncertain. Gary Simmons had suffered an eight-stitch cut on his right kneecap late in the regular season. It never healed properly and he was on crutches on the eve of Game 1.
Edmonton added goaltender Wayne Stephenson from the Braves and he went the distance in the series. The Oil Kings also added centre Fran Huck (Regina Pats) and defenceman Jim Cardiff (Weyburn Red Wings) but neither dressed for Game 1.
The Flyers opened with a 3-2 victory on May 4 with some of the fans at times chanting, "We want Huck.”
Paiement, Bud Debrody and Sanderson scored for Niagara Falls, which never trailed. The teams were tied 1-1 after the first period and the Flyers led 3-1 after the second. Rookies Ross Perkins and Red Simpson scored for the Oil Kings.
Stephenson was strong, finishing with 20 saves, two more than Parent.
"If we'd played that badly all year, we'd have wound up on the bottom of our league,” Long said.
The Oil Kings came out of Game 1 quite banged up. All three members of their highest-scoring line were injured -- Ron Anderson (knee), Graham Longmuir (back) and Greg Tomalty (shoulder).
Huck was in the lineup for Game 2 on May 6 and scored once, but it wasn't nearly enough as the Flyers skated to a 5-1 victory.
Debrody led the charge with two goals. Singles came from Goldsworthy, Sanderson and defenceman John Arbour.
Niagara Falls led 2-0 and 3-1 by periods in front of 4,957 fans.
The Flyers were by far the most aggressive team, three times playing two men short as they took 14 of 25 penalties.
Parent stopped 22 shots, four fewer than Stephenson.
The series was forced into a three-day layoff because of an evangelical meeting in the Gardens. Emms was upset about that and the officiating.
"That guy is worse than the one we had two years ago,” Emms said of referee Jim McAuley of Montreal. "We play just as hard in the OHA but the penalty box isn't always full.”
By now, the flu bug was making its way through the Oil Kings' roster. That, combined with the injuries to Tomalty and Anderson, had the Edmonton brass concerned.
"However, this cannot be considered a reason why we have looked so bad on the ice,” manager Leo LeClerc said. "We're planning to throw the boys into two-hour practices each day until the next game . . . in an attempt to get rid of their fuzziness.
"After all, we may be inexperienced but we are the western champions and we have to go out there and play like champions.”
Edmonton, which now had lost six straight Memorial Cup games, finally ended that streak on May 10 with a 5-1 victory before 3,403 fans.
But this wasn't a pretty one.
McAuley called a halt to the game with 3:30 left to play in the third period after Edmonton policemen came on to the ice to stop a brawl.
Art Potter, the Edmonton-based past-president of the CAHA, ordered McAuley to stop the game. McAuley dished out 33 penalties, including three match penalties, nine majors and three misconducts.
Edmonton captain Bob Falkenberg was carried from the ice on a stretcher. He was pummeled into unconsciousness by Sanderson and was left with a cut over one eye and a concussion.
Sanderson received a match penalty for that. The other match penalties went to Ley and Anderson for a stick-swinging duel early in the third period.
"The series could easily be over,” Potter said. "I've been told the Gardens is closed until this is settled.”
The first period ended in a near riot after Goldsworthy was thumped by Falkenberg at the final whistle. Sanderson tangled with Edmonton's Brian Bennett and Flyers' goaltender Doug Favell became involved. It took police to restore order. Falkenberg was given a spearing major. Goldsworthy returned for one shift in the second period, was hit with a crushing check by defenceman Al Hamilton and didn't return.
At 16:30 of the third period, Hamilton tangled with Paiement at the Niagara Falls blueline. That started it. The police ended it.
Edmonton got goals from Huck, Cardiff, Perkins, Dave Rogers and Simpson. Sanderson scored for the Flyers.
Favell stopped 14 shots in the first period before Parent came on for the second and third and blocked 16. Stephenson stopped 22.
Following the game, it was later revealed, Sanderson was hauled into a room (believed to be a broom closet) while en route to his team's dressing room and beaten up. He was left with facial lacerations and body bruises. Police investigated the incident but no arrests were made.
CAHA secretary-manager Gordon Juckes announced the next day that Anderson and Ley had been handed one-game suspensions for their stick-swinging episode, and that Sanderson had been suspended indefinitely for deliberate injury of a player.
The Flyers roared back on May 12 and posted an 8-2 victory before 5,326 fans.
Brian Bradley, an 18-year-old left winger, struck for five goals, two in the first period and three in the third.
Goldsworthy, who wasn't expected to play, scored twice, opening and closing the scoring on breakaways. Stephenson stopped Goldsworthy on one other breakaway and again on a penalty shot at 5:11 of the second period. Pronovost also scored for Niagara Falls.
Simpson and Longmuir replied for Edmonton.
The game was cleanly played with no hint of what had happened in Game 3. The Flyers took 11 of 17 penalties with each team picking up a misconduct.
Niagara Falls wrapped it up with an 8-1 victory in front of 2,477 fans on May 14.
Woodley and Marcotte scored twice each for the Flyers, with singles coming from Paiement, Debrody, Goldsworthy and Marotte. Bradley followed up his five-goal game with a one-assist outing.
Cardiff scored for Edmonton. It was the game's first goal and gave the Oil Kings a lead for only the second time in the series. It lasted less than four minutes.
Debrody's goal at 12:28 of the first period stood up as the winner.
Niagara Falls held period leads of 2-1 and 5-1 as the east won its 28th Memorial Cup since 1919. The west had 19 victories.
It was the third time Emms had won the Memorial Cup, the others coming in 1951 and '53 with the Barrie Flyers.
"I hope that some day the Oil Kings will come to Niagara Falls and play in our rink,” Emms said.

NEXT: 1966 (Edmonton Oil Kings vs. Oshawa Generals)