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Thread: The Memorial Cup: A History

  1. #21
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    From Gregg Drinnan...1939

    1939 MEMORIAL CUP
    Edmonton Athletic Club Roamers vs. Oshawa Generals
    at Toronto (Maple Leaf Gardens)


    It will forever be known as The Billy Taylor Show.
    The 1939 Memorial Cup featured the Edmonton Athletic Club Roamers against the Oshawa Generals.
    Everyone but Taylor was simply a bit player in this production.
    A year previous, Taylor had figured in 11 of Oshawa's 12 goals as the Generals lost the Memorial Cup's best-of-five final in five games to the St. Boniface Seals.
    Would it be a different story this time around?
    The Generals began the season with Doc Rowden -- Donald Walker Rowden -- behind the bench. But he was replaced late in the season by Tracy (The Fox) Shaw. Their manager was the legendary Matt Leyden after whom one of the Ontario Hockey League's divisions would be named.
    Other than Taylor, the Generals' attack featured the likes of William Earl (Nick) Knott, who would go on to play with the NHL's New York Americans; brothers Norm and Jud McAtee (Norm would play for the Boston Bruins, Jud for the Detroit Red Wings); and, defenceman Jim Drummond (New York Rangers).
    In the eastern playdowns, Oshawa swept the North Bay Trappers, but needed overtime to win both games -- 7-5 and 5-4. As well, Oshawa swept best-of-five series from the St. Michael's Majors and Harold (Baldy) Cotton's Toronto Native Sons.
    The Perth Blue Wings took a best-of-three series from the Charlottetown Royals, winning the opener 6-2, losing the second game 7-4 and then winning 7-6 in overtime. But Perth would be swept in a best-of-three with the Verdun Maple Leafs, 3-1 and 5-2.
    In the east final, with all games played in the Montreal Forum, Oshawa prevailed but not before losing the first game 2-1. The scores in the next two: 6-1 and 4-2 with Taylor totaling a goal and five assists.
    Edmonton was coached by Lowell (Lefty) Grove and the roster included Bobby Carse, Ken (Beans) Reardon, George Agar and Elmer Kreller. The latter became known as The Shadow during the championship final's last two games.
    Out west, Edmonton was blowing away the Trail Tigers, 16-3 and 14-1, and the Moose Jaw Canucks -- 4-1, 6-0 and 9-2.
    At the same time, the Brandon Elks, behind goaltender James (Sugar Jim) Henry, defeated the Fort William Columbus Club, 8-2 and 8-3.
    In the western final, Edmonton defeated Brandon -- which was coached by Jimmy Creighton who would later be the mayor of the Wheat City and whose son, Fred, would coach in the NHL. The Roamers won the first two games -- 6-0 and 6-0 -- before losing Game 3, 5-0. But Edmonton won the fourth game 9-3 to advance to the Memorial Cup final.
    Agar missed the final two games of that series after being suspended for hitting Brandon centre Chuck Taylor over the head with his stick during Game 2.
    Edmonton went into the final having won 10 of 11 playoff games and having outscored its opposition, 81-15. In 42 games, Edmonton had scored 310 goals while allowing 80 -- and the Roamers played in two leagues, junior and intermediate. They went 12-2-0 in the junior league's regular season and 11-3-0 in the intermediate circuit.
    And then they ran into the skater known as Billy the Kid.
    The Roamers arrived in Toronto for the best-of-five series with an injury-riddled roster. So banged up were they that they brought 19 players to Toronto even though they could dress only 12 per game.
    Defenceman Harry Pardee (ankle) and centre Kreller (hip) were the most serious injuries.
    The Memorial Cup opened on April 10 with Taylor, fighting off a slight charleyhorse, scoring five times in a 9-4 victory before more than 7,000 fans.
    Edmonton led 2-0, on goals by Carse and Agar, when Taylor and Gerry Kinsella scored in the final two minutes of the first period to tie it.
    Johnny Chad gave Edmonton a 3-2 lead early in the second period, only to have Taylor score back-to-back goals. Carse scored again, at 12:35, but Jud McAtee put Oshawa out front before the period ended.
    The Generals put it away in the third on two goals by Taylor and singles from each of the McAtee boys.
    The crowd got to Edmonton goaltender Cliff Kilburn near the end. He had to be restrained by teammates as, stick waving in the air, he headed towards the crowd.
    Afterwards, the Roamers said they were having problems adjusting to the atmospheric conditions.
    "I could hardly breathe after I had been on the ice a minute or so,” Agar said. "Whew, it was hot.”
    Eddie Shore, the great NHL defenceman who farmed north of Edmonton, claimed that the heavy, moist Toronto air was tough to deal with, particularly for players from the west where the higher altitude leads to a dry climate.
    Prior to Game 2, The Canadian Press reported: "Roamers will discard their underwear and change goalies in an effort to even the series, club officials said. The westerners, used to a dry climate, wilted in the heavy, moist Toronto air. Bill Dreyer will replace Kilburn in goal.”
    Meanwhile, Shaw was sounding optimistic.
    "We knocked off a lot of good clubs in the east this year,” he said, "and despite the Roamers' imposing scoring record I never had any doubt about beating them.”
    The second game, played on April 12, also belonged to Taylor.
    This time, Billy the Kid scored four goals and set up five others as the Generals won 12-4 before 7,612 fans.
    The Canadian Press called the game "one of the greatest scoring orgies ever witnessed in championship hockey.”
    The teams were tied 2-2 after one period but Oshawa ran away and hid with three goals in the second and seven more in the third.
    Knott, Drummond and Jud McAtee added two goals each, with Orv Smith and Kinsella scoring one each. Carse, Paul Steffes, Bruce MacKay and Dave Farmer scored for Edmonton.
    “No sir, they weren't any tougher than in the first game,” Taylor said. "Better tell them to send back to Edmonton for another goalkeeper.”
    Elmer Dulmage, writing for The Canadian Press, had this to say: "In all its 21-year history, or since the 1919 night when a young fellow named Dunc Munro plunged into the hockey picture, the classic Memorial Cup series probably has never had such a dazzling figure as Billy Taylor presents in the current bout.
    "Billy the Kid, 19 years old and marked for delivery to Toronto Maple Leafs, has the Edmonton Roamers and the paying clientele by the ears. The Roamers can't stop him and the fans can't get over him.
    "He's so amazingly good that Eddie Shore, Bill Cowley, Art Ross, Conn Smythe, Dick Irvin, Lester Patrick and the likes of these Stanley Cup characters refuse to believe what they see. Billy has the National league nobility rubbing its eyes.”
    Taylor's performance was second, Dulmage reported, "only to that of Murray Murdoch. In the 1923 series between University of Manitoba and Kitchener Greenshirts, Murdoch scored 10 goals as the Manitobans won a total-goals round 14-6.”
    Patrick, the general manager of the New York Rangers, called Taylor "the greatest junior I have seen in 20 years.”
    "The way Taylor passes is incredible,” Patrick added. "I will venture to say there aren't more than half a dozen centres in the National league who lay down passes as well as he does. And he does everything else well. He should have a great career.”
    Taylor's nine-year-old brother, Buddy, served as the Generals mascot. He would put on his uniform and skates and hit the ice between periods.
    In an interview after Game 2, Buddy suggested that he would eventually be a better player than his older brother.
    "Why? What have you got that Bill hasn't?” reporters asked.
    Buddy replied: "Brains.”
    Edmonton jumped back into the series with a 4-1 victory in Game 3, before 11,698 fans on April 15.
    Steffes, with two, Chad and Pardee scored for Edmonton, which led 2-1 after one period. The teams played a scoreless second period. Drummond scored an unassisted goal for Oshawa.
    "Outstanding in the victory was Elmer Kreller, a chunky speedster who handcuffed Billy Taylor, the Oshawa ace who had to be stopped if Roamers were to win,” reported The Canadian Press. "The way Kreller did it -- even if he fails to repeat the performance in the fourth game -- will live long in Memorial Cup history.
    "I was never so happy in all my life,” offered Kreller, who was from Lumsden, Sask. “And I don't think I ever worked so hard before. It was the toughest job I've ever had.
    "All I thought of was Taylor. I didn't even think of the puck. I didn't care whether I scored. But I was determined to keep Taylor from scoring. At times he was going to bite off my head but I didn't care.”
    The Canadian Press reported: "It was funny at times. Taylor, in disgust, sometimes would stay back at his own goal and Kreller would stay right with him as the play surged around the Edmonton goal.”
    Taylor said: "I told him in the first period I was going out for a drink and asked him to come along and hold the glass.”
    He then added: "We'll take them the next game. We'll get that first goal and they'll never catch us.”
    Oshawa ended it on April 17, winning 4-2 before 11,326 fans after trailing 2-1 going into the third period.
    In Oshawa, some 15,000 fans sang, danced and built bonfires in the streets in the biggest celebration the city had seen since the armistice some 21 years previous.
    The McAtee boys, from Stratford, Ont., led the way for the Generals in the final game. Jud scored at 7:54 of the third period to tie the game. Then Norm scored twice, at 16:43 and 17:30, to put it on ice.
    Drummond had Oshawa's other goal. Agar and Chad scored for Edmonton.
    Taylor was shadowed again by Kreller and was held to one assist, that coming on Drummond's goal. Taylor finished with nine goals and six assists in the four games.
    When it was over, Taylor praised Kreller, calling him a "honey of a checker, a darn nice guy and a clean player -- you can't take anything away from him.”
    "Who said we were a one-man hockey team?“ asked Oshawa goaltender Dinny McManus.
    Billy Taylor would go on to play for Toronto, Detroit, Boston and the Rangers, totalling 87 goals and 180 assists in 323 games over seven seasons.
    His NHL career, which began in the fall of 1939, ended on March 9, 1948, when NHL president Clarence Campbell suspended him for life.
    Campbell's explanation was terse -- Taylor and Don Gallinger were hit with "life suspensions for conduct detrimental to hockey and for associating with a known gambler.” That gambler was apparently James Tamer, a paroled bank robber.
    Taylor was 29 years of age when it all came crashing down.
    He was an outcast until the summer of 1970 when the NHL's board of governors reinstated he and Gallinger.
    Taylor then dabbled some in coaching and did some scouting for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
    But he never played the game again.

    NEXT: 1940 (Kenora Thistles vs. Oshawa Generals)
    Last edited by nivek_wahs; 06-12-2008 at 06:09 PM.

  2. #22
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    From Gregg Drinnan...1940

    1940 MEMORIAL CUP
    Kenora Thistles vs. Oshawa Generals
    at Winnipeg (Amphitheatre)


    This was it for the Kenora Thistles.
    Never before had a team from the north-western Ontario community qualified for the Memorial Cup final.
    Nor would it happen again.
    Coached by Bobby Benson and managed by R.H. (Shorty) Elliott, the Thistles played out of the 1,800-seat Thistle Rink.
    Benson was well-known in amateur hockey circles. He had played for the 1920 Allan Cup-winning Winnipeg Falcons, who had won the gold medal at the Olympic Winter Games in Antwerp, Belgium. Benson had also coached the 1932-33 Brandon Native Sons who lost the western Canadian junior final to the Regina Pats.
    The Kenora lineup included the likes of goaltender Charlie Rayner, who was also the team captain, and defenceman Bill (The Beast) Juzda, who would go on to play in the NHL with the Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Rangers and earn the reputation as one of the toughest body-checkers the game has known.
    In the western Canadian playoffs, it came down to the Thistles and the Edmonton Athletic Club.
    Edmonton defeated the Trail Tigers 11-1 after which the remainder of the best-of-three series was cancelled. Edmonton advanced into a best-of-five series against the Regina Abbott Generals, winning the first game 6-4, losing the second 5-4 and then taking the next two, 6-2 and 6-2.
    Kenora, meanwhile, was defeating the Port Arthur Juniors. The Thistles actually lost the opener 5-4, before winning the best-of-three series with 5-4 and 4-0 victories.
    Edmonton and Kenora, which arrived by train just five hours before game time, opened a best-of-five series in Edmonton on April 4 with Rayner turning in an outstanding effort in a 2-2 tie.
    The E.A.C.'s roared back with a 7-1 victory on April 7 in a game that featured, according to one report, "three free-for-alls, 31 minor penalties, eight majors and three penalty shots against Charlie Rayner ... Ten policemen rushed on the ice to end the biggest of the brawls.”
    The series moved to Winnipeg where Kenora won it, winning 3-1 before more than 5,000 people on April 10, scoring a 6-5 victory on two goals by each of Dick Milford and Walter (Pinkie) Melnyk on April 12, and then earning a 2-2 tie on April 13.
    The Thistles stayed in Winnipeg, as the Memorial Cup was to open there on April 16.
    Oshawa was in the final for the third consecutive season.
    Tracy (The Fox) Shaw was again coaching the Generals, while Matt Leyden was back as the Oshawa manager.
    Among those returning players who had been on the 1939 Memorial Cup team were Buddy Hellyer, brothers Norm and Jud McAtee, and goaltender Dinny McManus. Jud McAtee was the captain.
    The eastern final featured Oshawa and the Verdun, Que., Maple Leafs. Oshawa had ousted the Toronto Young Rangers and Toronto Marlboros, and then had thrashed the South Porcupine Dome Miners (they were known as the Porkies), 10-1 and 10-1, sweeping the best-of-three series. Verdun had done the same to the Perth Blue Wings, winning 9-4 and 7-5.
    Oshawa won the opener against Verdun, 6-3 in Toronto on April 5, and then wrapped up the best-of-three series with McManus posting the shutout in a 4-0 victory in Montreal on April 10.
    "Kenora seems to have plenty of speed and a fairly strong defence but our polish and finish around the nets will beat them,” predicted Shaw.
    Milford, Kenora's starry centre, stated: "We'll be outweighed in this series but that's nothing new for us -- it's been the same all year.
    "Those McAtee boys looked good out there, but Benson will have them figured out for us by game time.”
    The series opened in the Winnipeg Amphitheatre on April 16, with Oshawa posting a 1-0 victory behind McManus's goaltending and a goal by centre Roy Sawyer 31 seconds before the end of the second period.
    "Dinny's a good boy,” Shaw said of his goaltender, "and has played some good games for us in the past two seasons but he never gave us more support than he did out there tonight.”
    The game also featured a brawl, as reported by Charles Hood to the Regina Leader-Post:
    "Play was rough in the early minutes. Hard play between the two teams came to a head late in the first session when Juzda, trying to bodycheck Jud McAtee of Oshawa, sent him flying into the boards. The pair rose with their fists flying and a brief free-for-all broke out.
    "Six policemen rushed on the ice as the trouble started ... only the 12 players on the ice were involved.”
    Elliott, the Kenora manager, wasn't concerned with the loss. After all, his boys had been hammered 7-1 by Edmonton in Game 2 of the western final.
    "If we can come back from a licking like that, we're not worrying about our one-goal defeat tonight,” he said. "We'll go home with the Memorial trophy yet.”
    Juzda, however, was in tears. He had been beaten by Sawyer for the game's only goal.
    "I stood still as he stepped around me,” Juzda sobbed.
    Oshawa went up 2-0 with a 4-1 victory on April 18, scoring twice with Juzda in the penalty box early in the first period.
    Jud McAtee, at 4:11, and Orville Smith, at 5:30, counted early in the first period, both on passes from Norm McAtee with Juzda off.
    Ron Wilson scored another power-play goal for Oshawa before the first period ended, this one coming with Vince Jorgenson in the penalty box.
    Sawyer scored Oshawa's other goal, in the second period. Melnyk, who was back in the lineup after missing the third period of Game 1, scored for Kenora early in the third period.
    "Generals have a good club but they're certainly no better than the clubs the western champs have beaten out in former years,” offered Harry Neil, who had coached the Winnipeg Monarchs to national junior titles in 1935 and 1937. "If Kenora can produce the hockey (in Game 3) that they showed us a month ago, they'll be sure of one game in the series at least.”
    Kenora wasn't dead yet. The Thistles posted a 4-3 victory on April 20 before 4,500 fans to cut the Generals lead to 2-1.
    "We beat 'em, boy, we beat 'em,” shouted Kenora defenceman Vic Lofvendahl, as the pain of a bruised ankle brought tears to his eyes. He had played through the pain to score twice and provide his mates with leadership.
    "The boys played their best hockey in years, even if they did seem a little shaky near the end,” said Benson, "and if we can take this next one we'll be home-free.”
    Melnyk and winger Eddie Dartnell also scored for Kenora, which was beginning to show signs of wear and tear. Melnyk suffered a slight concussion and was taken to hospital. Lofvendahl bruised his right ankle near the end of the first period and hardly played afterwards. Winger Nick Knott didn't play, thanks to a knee injury suffered in Game 2.
    Jud McAtee figured in all three Oshawa goals, scoring twice and setting up Orville Smith for the other.
    Kenora led 3-1 after the first period and 4-1 after the second. Smith and McAtee pulled the Generals to within one with eight minutes left and the Thistles were hanging on at the end, with Rayner the difference.
    However, the Thistles' dream ended on April 22 with Oshawa posting a 4-2 victory in front of fewer than 3,000 fans, far short of the capacity crowds of at least 4,500 that had watched each of the first three games.
    With the victory, the Generals became the first team to win the Memorial Cup in back-to-back seasons.
    "Their class overcame the greater aggressiveness of the Thistles,” wrote Charles Edwards.
    After a scoreless first period, Melnyk opened the scoring at 13:24 of the second period. Don Daniels tied it for Oshawa at 14:45.
    Hellyer sent Oshawa out front at 2:45 of the third period, only to have Milford pull the Thistles even at 11:10.
    Then, with Milford in the penalty box, Daniels, a veteran of five seasons with Oshawa, scored what proved to be the Memorial Cup-winning goal at 15:02. Sawyer added the insurance on a breakaway some 59 seconds later.
    When it was over, the teams mixed and mingled in the Kenora dressing room.
    Reported Hugh C. Chatterton: "Thistles hardly had time to unlace their skates before Generals rushed in to laud the fighting spirit of the Kenora boys.
    "The cry of ‘three cheers' rang out for each individual player and when the turn came for Bill Juzda, the hardy Thistle blueliner, the Oshawans, many of them bearing bruises from Bill's jolting bodychecks, discarded words and hoisted the 185-pound defenceman off his feet.”
    Mayor Percy Williams of Kenora, a star with the Thistles around 1910, was last seen with Sawyer's helmet on his head. Sawyer was left with a slightly oversized fedora.
    "Winning Memorial Cups is just like olives -- the more you get the more you want and it gets better every time,” Shaw said.
    Strangely, the Generals journeyed from Winnipeg to Regina where on April 24 they played an exhibition game against the Regina Abbott Generals.
    Some 1,500 spectators gathered in the Queen City Gardens to watch Regina hammer the newly crowned champions 12-4 with speedy Grant Warwick scoring three goals and setting up two others.
    As Dave Dryburgh pointed out in the Regina Leader-Post: "Of course, (Regina) had everything to gain and nothing to lose. Perhaps the Generals realize today the folly of these late-season exhibitions. No championship squad likes to take a 12-4 drubbing and it's safe to bet that Oshawa hadn't considered the possibility of such a crushing setback.”
    Oh well ... the Generals traveled on to Banff for a few days of rest before they took home the spoils of victory -- the Memorial Cup.

    NEXT: 1941 (Winnipeg Rangers vs. Montreal Royals)
    Last edited by nivek_wahs; 06-12-2008 at 06:10 PM.

  3. #23
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    From Gregg Drinnan...1941

    1941 MEMORIAL CUP
    Winnipeg Rangers vs. Montreal Royals
    at Toronto (Maple Leaf Gardens) and Montreal (Forum)


    The reign of the Oshawa Generals was over.
    The Generals, having lost in the 1938 Dominion final and having won the Memorial Cup in 1939 and 1940, came awfully close to getting to the final for a fourth straight spring.
    But the roadblock was in the form of the Montreal Royals, a team led by centre Ken Mosdell, who would go on to play in the NHL with the Brooklyn Americans, Montreal Canadiens and Chicago Blackhawks, and featuring goaltender Ross Ritchie.
    The Royals drilled the Ottawa Canadians 6-1 and 12-2 to sweep a best-of-three series and advance to the best-of-five eastern final against Oshawa.
    Montreal, coached by Lorne White, won the opener 7-4 on April 5 but Oshawa, getting three goals each from Roy Sawyer, Ron Wilson and Ron Nelson, hammered the Royals 10-2 in Toronto two nights later.
    On April 9, the Generals were jolted 7-4 in Toronto as the Royals, as they had done in Game 1, scored five times in the third period. But Oshawa roared back to win 7-1 on April 12 before 6,500 fans in Toronto to even the series 2-2.
    It all ended for the Generals on April 15 when they lost 7-4 (all three of Montreal's victories were by the same score) to the Royals, half of whom had become ill on the flight to Toronto earlier in the day, before 8,000 fans in Maple Leaf Gardens.
    Amazingly, the Royals became the first team from Quebec to advance to the Memorial Cup final. This would be the 23rd Memorial Cup final.
    Montreal suffered three injuries in the fifth game against Oshawa -- defenceman Bob MacFarlane was left with a badly bruised side, defenceman Bruce Ward twisted a knee and forward Buddy Farmer was scheduled for surgery to repair a broken cheekbone.
    The Royals had also won the east despite having four players writing exams at McGill University during the series. Those players flew between Montreal and Toronto after each game.
    Because of that situation, the Royals hoped to have the entire Memorial Cup final played in Montreal. There was even talk that the Royals wouldn't be able to ice a team if the final was held in Toronto as was being discussed.
    The west, meanwhile, was represented by the Winnipeg Rangers, a team that featured Bill Mortimer who would go on to play for the 1941-42 Oshawa Generals who would lose the Memorial Cup final to the Portage la Prairie Terriers. The Rangers were captained by Hugh Millar and coached by Lawrence (Baldy) Northcott, who had played in the NHL with the Montreal Maroons and Chicago. Among the top players were Doug Baldwin (Toronto, Detroit, Chicago) and Glen Harmon, a native of Holland, Man., who would play for the Canadiens.
    It came down to the Saskatoon Quakers and the Rangers in the western final for the Abbott Cup.
    Saskatoon, featuring the likes of Keith Allen, Hal Laycoe, Harry Watson, Mike Shabaga and Pete Leswick, had beaten the Edmonton Athletic Club in a best-of-five series, losing Games 1 (5-2) and 4 (7-2) and taking the others, in order, 3-1, 6-5 and 2-1.
    Winnipeg swept a best-of-three affair from the Port Arthur West Ends, 6-3 and 9-1.
    The western final would go seven games and enthrall a lot of hockey fans.
    It opened in Winnipeg on April 4 with the Rangers winning 6-4. The Quakers won 4-1 on April 7 to tie the series. On April 9, the Rangers got goals from Les Hickey and Dave Livingstone 41 seconds apart early in the second period and went on to a 3-1 victory.
    The series continued in Saskatoon, with the Quakers posting a 10-5 victory -- Ken Ullyot scored four times for the home side -- on April 12. Two nights later, the Rangers won 4-3 on centre Bill Robinson's goal at 19:33 of the third period. The Rangers lost Hub Macey (back) for the rest of the season in Game 5. Bill Mortimer, out since Game 3 when he injured a shoulder, was still on the shelf. As well, spare forward Lou Medynski suffered a deep facial cut in practice and was believed lost for the season. Medynski, however, would resurface and play a crucial role before the season was done.
    The Quakers evened the series on April 16, with Shabaga scoring three times and Laycoe twice in a 10-2 victory in front of fewer than 2,000 fans. That decision set up a Game 7 in Winnipeg on April 18.
    And the Rangers finally won the Abbott Cup, posting a 7-3 victory before more than 5,000 fans, the largest crowd in Winnipeg that season. The Rangers scored three power-play goals en route to taking a 4-0 lead by early in the second period. Mortimer returned to action with two goals. Macey also dressed but was used sparingly.
    Education was still front and centre with the Royals as the teams prepared to open the best-of-five final in Toronto.
    "Four R's blocked the path that Montreal Royals hope leads to the Canadian junior hockey championship with three of them those oldtimers -- reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic -- and the fourth a Ranger team from Winnipeg,” reported The Canadian Press.
    When the final opened on April 21 in Montreal, the Royals were without three players -- Ritchie, Ward and left-winger Grant Morrison -- all of whom still were writing exams.
    Leith Dickie would start in place of Ritchie, with Allan Hall taking Ward's place. Johnny Horman, who would in later years become a force in Quebec junior hockey at the executive level, played in Morrison's spot.
    Of more urgency was the injury to Farmer. His broken cheekbone would keep him out of the entire series. That put Allan (Bunny) Glover into the lineup, but broke up Montreal's first line of Farmer, Morrison and Bob Carragher.
    The Rangers won the opener 4-2 on April 21, scoring twice in each of the first and third periods.
    A 36-hour train ride got Winnipeg to Toronto just 12 hours before game time, but the Rangers showed few ill effects from their journey.
    Sam Fabro, with two, Robinson and Les Hickey scored for the Rangers, with Carragher getting both Montreal goals. The Royals led 1-0 and 2-1 in the first period before Robinson tied it with 11 seconds left in the frame. The teams played a scoreless second and Winnipeg won it on goals from Fabro and Hickey in the third.
    "You know,” said Fabro, who played on a line with Robinson and Hickey, "I'm only out there to do the backchecking. I scored only twice in the seven-game series with Saskatoon, although I did pick up quite a few assists. However, I suppose every guy has to have his night, and it was my turn tonight.”
    Robinson, meanwhile, felt this would be a long series.
    "They're unlike anything we've met so far, and we're in for a tough series,” he explained. "And we've never been bumped around quite so much.”
    The scene shifted to Montreal for Game 2, which meant the Royals had all of their students back in the lineup. But there was concern about the future -- Games 3, 4 and 5, if necessary, were scheduled for Toronto. The third game was to be played on a Saturday, which wouldn't pose a problem, but the students would miss Games 4 and 5. As it turned out, it wouldn't be a problem -- all hands were on deck for the rest of the series.
    On April 24, the Royals earned Quebec's very first victory in a Memorial Cup final series -- posting a 5-3 triumph on a pair of goals from Mosdell and singles from Glover, Jim Planche and Carragher, and superb goaltending from Ritchie.
    Bob Ballance, Millar and Harmon replied for Winnipeg, which trailed 2-1 after one period, but led 3-2 after the second.
    Millar and Harmon scored early in the second to put Winnipeg out front. But Montreal won it on third-period goals by Mosdell (at 3:35 and 6:30) and Glover (at 7:45).
    "The Royals, bolstered by the return of three players who missed the first game ... through college examinations were much stronger than the club which bowed 4-2 in the initial meeting,” reported The Canadian Press.
    The Rangers resumed the series lead with a 6-4 victory on April 26 before almost 9,000 fans at Maple Leaf Gardens.
    Medynski, thought done for the season when he suffered a severe facial cut during a practice prior to a game in the western final, was the hero.
    Playing despite the gash not being completely healed -- a photo published in the Regina Leader-Post on April 29 shows Medynski with a huge dressing wrapped around his head -- Medynski scored the winning goal, breaking a 4-4 tie at 18:36 of the third period.
    According to writer Robert Clarke: "Medynski's payoff goal came on a passing play with Bob Ballance and was fired while Royals were resting their main defence star, Bill Southwick, due to the indication that the game would go into overtime.”
    Fabro put it on ice, scoring on a breakaway at 19:38.
    Winnipeg also got goals form Hickey, Babe Hobday, Ballance and Millar.
    Montreal got two goals from Glover and singles from Jimmy Peters and Southwick.
    Clarke also reported that the two real stars were goaltenders Ritchie and Hal Thompson.
    It had been decided to move the series to Montreal, rather than finish it in Toronto, and the Rangers came back to tie the series on April 28 in Montreal, scoring a 4-3 victory on goals from Morrison, with 49 seconds left in the third period, and Roland Bleau, with 25 seconds left.
    There were 3,826 fans in attendance and they watched as the Rangers scored at 16:52 of the third period to take a 3-2 lead and move to within three minutes of winning the Memorial Cup.
    Carragher had scored for the Royals in the first period, which preceded a scoreless second period.
    Peters gave Montreal a 2-0 lead at 1:07 of the third period and the Royals seemed on their way.
    But Winnipeg got three goals -- from Medynski (4:54), Mortimer (8:20) and Fabro (16:52) -- to close in on the championship.
    But Fabro's tripping penalty with two minutes remaining gave Montreal its chance and the Royals didn't waste it.
    Morrison stickhandled through a crowd and beat Thompson with a waist-high shot at 19:11. And Bleau scored from a scramble seconds later.
    The series was back in Toronto for a fifth game on April 30 and the Rangers won it all, thanks to a 7-4 victory -- Winnipeg won the three games played in Torono, Montreal won twice at home.
    It was the 12th Memorial Cup championship for the west, versus 11 for the east.
    According to The Canadian Press: "The Rangers gained their triumph on the great offensive play of Bill Robinson, centre on their first line, and one of his linemates, Les Hickey. Although they couldn't have won without the work of the Robinson-Hickey combination, it was just as true that Royals would have won had it not been for the spectacular goaltending throughout of Hal Thompson of the Rangers.”
    The Royals held an edge in play through two periods but trailed 4-3 thanks to Thompson's play.
    Robinson, with two goals, and Hickey gave Winnipeg a 3-1 first-period lead, Morrison having scored for Montreal.
    Bleau and Planche pulled the Royals even in the second before Hickey, from Robinson (who set up two goals), sent Winnipeg out front at 10:36.
    That set the stage for the third period and three straight Winnipeg goals -- by Mortimer, Millar and Ballance. Carragher counted for Montreal in the game's final two minutes.
    Mortimer's goal, at 9:37 of the third period with MacFarlane off for charging, proved to be the series winner.
    Carragher and Hickey led the championship in points, each with nine. Carragher had five goals, and Hickey four.
    "It doesn't seem real,” Thompson said.
    "We had 18 good men to start with,” Northcott stated, "and we were able to throw in replacements at any time without weakening our team. Our defencemen were better because they could score. On the whole, however, the balance of power rested in goalkeeping.”
    Farmer played in the final game, wearing a helmet to protect his cracked cheekbone.
    "We were all pretty tired, and in my opinion that explains everything,” Farmer said.

    NEXT: 1942 (Portage la Prairie Terriers vs. Oshawa Generals)
    Last edited by nivek_wahs; 06-12-2008 at 06:11 PM.

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    From Gregg Drinnan...1942

    1942 MEMORIAL CUP
    Portage la Prairie Terriers vs. Oshawa Generals
    at Winnipeg (Amphitheatre)


    Guess what?
    Yes, the Oshawa Generals were back in the Memorial Cup final in 1942 . . . for the fourth time in five years.
    This time, the Generals were under the guidance of manager Matt Leyden with help from Charlie Conacher. They took over during the 1941-42 season after Tracy Shaw ran afoul of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association -- he got into an altercation with a referee -- and was hit with an indefinite suspension.
    Shaw's suspension would last until May 1, 1943.
    The Generals featured veterans like Red Tilson, Ron Wilson, Ron Nelson and Floyd Curry. While the Generals weren't exactly strangers to Memorial Cup play, their opponents were.
    The Portage la Prairie Terriers, under coach Staff-Sgt. Addie Bell and manager Jack P. Bend, emerged as champions of Manitoba and then all of western Canada.
    The Terriers, playing out of a city of 6,500 people located 56 miles west of Winnipeg, featured goaltender Gordon Bell and forward Joe Bell -- yes, they were Addie's sons and both would later play in the NHL. Bend's son, John (Lin), was also on the team; in fact, he was an alternate captain and had set a Manitoba junior scoring record with 57 regular-season points. Jack McDonald, who would also play in the NHL, was team captain.
    Other Terriers who would eventually play in the NHL included Bill Gooden, Don Campbell and Billy Heindl, who had seen some action with the 1940-41 Winnipeg Rangers.
    The Terriers swept past the Fort William Hurricane Rangers, 7-6, 11-4 and 15-11, while the Edmonton Maple Leafs were getting past the Regina Abbotts -- the first game was tied 2-2, Edmonton won the second 5-4, Regina took the third 7-6 and Edmonton wrapped it up with a 4-0 victory in Game 4.
    The best-of-five western final for the Abbott Cup opened in Winnipeg on April 6 with Portage thumping Edmonton 13-3 before 5,000 fans. McDonald led the way with four goals and Gooden added three.
    The Terriers ran their winning streak to 21 games on April 8, dumping the Maple Leafs 6-4 before 3,000 fans. This time it was Joe Bell who was the hero. Despite fighting the flu, he scored four goals. The Terriers lost Heindl, perhaps their best defenceman, when he left early with an injured leg.
    The Terriers completed their sweep two nights later, posting a 7-6 victory in front of 3,000 fans. Trailing 5-4 midway in the third period, Portage scored three straight goals to take the victory. It was the Terriers' 22nd straight victory -- 11 of them in the playoffs -- and sent them to the Memorial Cup final for the first time in their 10 years of existence.
    The Terriers, though, were without two of their best players -- Heindl (leg) and Joe Bell (flu) were both in hospital. With Heindl out of the lineup, Portage defencemen Jack O'Reilly and Bud Ritchie played the entire 60 minutes.
    "With Ritchie and O'Reilly playing their hearts out in front of me, I couldn't let them down ... those 60-minute boys really gave me wonderful protection,” offered Gordie Bell.
    In the east, meanwhile, Oshawa rolled past Ottawa's St. Patrick's College, 6-4, 7-4 and 11-5, while the Montreal Royals hammered the Halifax Canadians 12-3 after which the rest of the series was cancelled.
    Oshawa then swept Montreal in the best-of-seven eastern final, winning by scores of 3-2, 4-3, 7-2 and 6-4. Game 3, played in Montreal on April 6, featured a wild donnybrook near game's end. It began with Nelson and Montreal's Bob MacFarlane banging around behind one net and turned wild when defenceman Bep Guidolin rushed in to help Nelson.
    The Memorial Cup would be held in Winnipeg, opening on April 14, and Heindl and Joe Bell were expected to be ready for the Terriers.
    The Generals were slight favorites when the best-of-five affair opened but it wasn't long before the Terriers had turned things around.
    The Terriers opened with a 5-1 victory on April 14, surprising the more than 5,000 fans with the ease in which they won.
    "The battling Terriers, minus their starry winger, Joe Bell, went all out against the Generals and went into a 2-0 lead at the end of the first period, increased it to 3-0 in the second and skated off with a convincing win,” reported The Canadian Press.
    It seems no one kept track of shots on goal, but Gordie Bell, just 16 years of age, was credited with almost 50 saves in a brilliant performance.
    McDonald, with three, Bend and Bobby Love scored for the Terriers. Nelson had Oshawa's lone goal, that at 6:54 of the third period with Portage out front 3-0.
    "That Oshawa goal cost me $27,” said Gordie Bell, pointing out that some Portage fans had put together a shutout collection for him.
    "We've won 23 straight and we're not going to quit now,” Heindl said. "We can do better than we did tonight.”
    Wilson, Oshawa's veteran right winger, said: "I think we will win the series and I think it will go only four games.”
    Joe Bell's bout with the flu now was a bladder infection. "The kid cried when he couldn't play,” said his dad.
    Of note was this addition to the CP report: "Under new Canadian Amateur Hockey Association rules, the ice was flooded in between periods, enabling the players to skate their fastest on a smooth sheet.”
    The Terriers kept on rolling when they got past the Generals 8-7 before more than 5,000 fans on April 16.
    Gooden was easily the star on this night, striking for five goals and setting up two others for the Terriers.
    "Oh baby! I'll never be that lucky again,” said Gooden, who also found time to get into a fight with Oshawa's Jim Galbraith. The Generals defenceman left for repairs when it was over, too.
    Gooden continued: "Five goals and two assists in a game is something to dream about ...”
    The Terriers got all eight goals from the line of Gooden, McDonald and Wally Stefaniw. McDonald had two goals and an assist, while Stefaniw had one goal.
    Tilson scored four times for Oshawa, with singles coming from Ken Smith, Ken McNaught and Wilson.
    By now, Addie Bell was feeling confident.
    "We're going to finish the series (in Game 3),” he stated.
    Asked why he was so confident, the coach replied: "We'll have Joe back and that will give us our two regular forward lines. That will make plenty of difference.”
    The Terriers had an off-day skate the following day. They didn't really work on any weaknesses because, as Addie Bell pointed out, "we haven't any.”
    The Terriers' winning streak ended at 24 games when the Generals posted an 8-4 victory on April 18 before another capacity crowd of more than 5,000 fans. It was the first time in 32 games the Terriers had lost by more than one goal.
    "Facing elimination after dropping the first two encounters, Charlie Conacher's eastern titlists outchecked, outskated and trimmed Terriers at their own game of a good offensive is better than cautious defensive action,” wrote Marshall Bateman.
    Defenceman Bill Mortimer, who had played with the Cup-winning Winnipeg Rangers in 1941, scored three times for Oshawa. Curry, a flashy right winger, scored twice, with singles from Smith, Wilson and Guidolin.
    Joe Bell marked his return with two goals for Portage. Love and Stefaniw added one each.
    Conacher used Nelson, Buck Davis and Wilson to check Stefaniw, Gooden and McDonald, with two former Regina juniors, Tilson and Smith, handling Bend, Joe Bell and Love. It paid off with McDonald and Gooden held to one assist each, while Tilson found time to set up three goals.
    "We'll do the same in the next game,” offered Mortimer, the Oshawa captain. "Terriers have a good team, but I think we are a little better.”
    Gooden felt that the end of the winning streak would turn out to be a good thing.
    "Now we don't have to worry about that 25 games straight,” he explained. "We'll play a lot better next time. I think the boys were concentrating too much on that and it sort of got them down.”
    On April 20, H.A. Jones of Winnipeg arrived at the Amphitheatre at 4 a.m. He wanted to be first in line for tickets. By 9 a.m., 2,000 people were in line. When the box office opened a short time later, an estimated 4,000 people were there.
    And there were more than 5,000 people in the Amphitheatre on April 21 as the Terriers whipped the Generals 8-2 to win the series, 3-1. It was the west's 13th cup victory, to 11 for the east.
    The teams were tied 1-1 after the first period, with Portage taking a 3-1 lead into the third.
    McDonald and Bend scored three times each for Portage, with McDonald getting three in a row in the third period. Joe Bell and Stefaniw scored once each, with the latter's goal, at 18:31 of the second period, standing up as the Memorial Cup-winner.
    Tilson and Smith scored for Oshawa.
    Schools closed and business establishments declared a holiday as Portage la Prairie celebrated.
    "Citizens trooped to the railway station, waving flags,” reported The Canadian Press. "And downtown, the city's largest theatre congratulated coach Addie Bell and his kids by flashing colored lights on a sign board.”
    "A great hockey team won,” Conacher said. "They were really flying out there.”
    Tilson added: "They were just too good for us and they deserved to win.”
    Guidolin, Oshawa's superb 16-year-old defenceman, offered: "Our club is OK and most of us will be together again next year, so we have plenty to look forward to.”
    Time would prove him correct.

    NEXT: 1943 (Winnipeg Rangers vs. Oshawa Generals)
    Last edited by nivek_wahs; 06-12-2008 at 06:12 PM.

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    From Gregg Drinnan...1943

    1943 MEMORIAL CUP
    Winnipeg Rangers vs. Oshawa Generals
    at Toronto (Maple Leaf Gardens)


    Yes, the Oshawa Generals were back in 1943.
    It was their fifth visit to the Memorial Cup final in six years, although they had only the victories of 1939 and 1940 to show for their troubles.
    This time, the Generals would find themselves up against the Winnipeg Rangers, a team that had last appeared in the Memorial Cup final in 1941 when it had won it all.
    Oshawa again was coached by Charlie Conacher. He had stepped in as the interim coach the previous season when Tracy (The Fox) Shaw was suspended after an altercation involving a referee. During the 1943 Memorial Cup final, the CAHA would announce that Shaw's suspension would be lifted as of May 1, 1943.
    In the eastern playdowns, the Montreal Junior Canadiens advanced to the final by sweeping Sydney, N.S., 14-3 and 5-3.
    Oshawa, meanwhile, had sidelined a team from Hamilton and then the Brantford Lions. The Generals then dismantled Ottawa's St. Patrick's College, 12-1 and 7-2, to earn the other berth in the best-of-five eastern final.
    That final was no contest, Oshawa winning three straight -- 9-2, 6-4 and 9-1.
    The Rangers were coached by Bob Kinnear. Their best player was arguably Cal Gardner, who would go on to a solid NHL career. Bill Boorman was the team captain.
    Also on the roster were the likes of Church Russell, Frank Mathers (a broken ankle kept him out of the final), Eddie Kullman, goaltender Doug (Stonewall) Jackson and Tom Fowler, all of whom would play in NHL. Ben Juzda -- Bill's brother -- played for the Rangers, as did Bill Tindall, who would later play for the Winnipeg Monarchs, a team that would qualify for the 1946 Memorial Cup final.
    As a note of interest, most of the Rangers players came out of the ranks of the midget Winnipeg Excelsiors, who were coached by legendary Winnipeg newspaperman Vince Leah.
    On the western playoff trail, the Edmonton Canadians swept the Trail Tigers, 5-2 and 4-3, and then lost 3-2 and 4-2 to the Saskatoon Quakers. At the same time, the Rangers swept the Fort William Hurricanes -- 7-5, 7-3 and 5-4.
    The Rangers then sidelined Saskatoon -- winning Games 1 and 2 by scores of 12-8 and 7-2, losing 12-4, and then wrapping it up with a 3-2 victory.
    The Memorial Cup final, a best-of-seven affair, was played in its entirety at Maple Leaf Gardens.
    Oshawa right-winger Floyd Curry (knee) was the only regular player in doubt for the opener.
    Conacher admitted he didn't know much about the Rangers.
    "We don't need to scout them anyway,” he said. "They'll have to be pretty good to catch up to my kids, I think.”
    Conacher refused to name his starting goaltender, an oddity for a period in hockey when virtually every team played one goaltender almost all of the time. This season, however, Conacher had alternated Regina native Harvey Bennett and Johnny Marois. Under that rotation system, it was Marois' turn, but Conacher wasn't saying anything. (Bennett, however, would start all six games.)
    The Rangers, the 11th Manitoba team to represent the west in the final, included seven players who were in the navy -- Russell, Ritchie McDonald, Bill Vickers, Joe Peterson, Jack (Smiley) Irvine (he replaced Mathers in the final), Jackson, and Bill Boorman -- and one -- Eddie Coleman -- awaiting his call from the RCAF.
    Also helping out was Lawrence (Baldy) Northcott. The coach of the Rangers when they won the 1941 Memorial Cup, Northcott joined the Rangers in an advisory capacity for the 1943 final.
    The Rangers didn't make a lot of noise before this series started, preferring to let the Generals do the talking.
    "This may not be the best Generals team to ever go into a Memorial Cup final,” offered Oshawa manager Matt Leyden, "but in my opinion it's the best-balanced club we've ever had.”
    Conacher added: "Our formula will be speed and plenty of it when we meet the Rangers. Just keep pouring it on will be our motto.”
    Red Tilson and Ken Smith, two former Regina juniors, combined with Curry on Oshawa's top line. The second line featured Charles (Chuck) Scherza, Nelson and Bill Ezinicki.
    Ed Reigle, Ross Johnstone and Frank Bennett got most of the work on defence.
    "Regardless of all the reports we have heard about Oshawa's power,” Kinnear said, "our boys are certain to make it a real series.”
    Which is just what they did.
    Suffice to say the Generals were stunned when the Rangers won the opener 6-5 before 12,739 fans in Maple Leaf Gardens on April 17.
    "The fast-skating Winnipeg squad back-checked the powerful eastern Canadian champions dizzy almost from bell to bell and cut loose with an all-out offensive in the second period of a thrill-packed game to score four goals which clinched the victory,” reported The Canadian Press.
    Coleman and Russell scored twice each for Winnipeg, which trailed 2-1 after the first period but scored the only four goals of the second period. Boorman and Gardner added one each for the Rangers. Oshawa got two first-period goals from Scherza, while Nelson, with two, and Smith scored in the third.
    The Generals were without Curry and now were admitting his knee injury might keep him out of the entire series.
    "The fans saw a real hockey game out there and we're glad,” offered Winnipeg manager Scotty Oliver. "We just came down here to do our best. We haven't got any big ideas. That's about all there is to say.”
    Conacher felt his club had a bad case of overconfidence.
    "They probably thought all they had to do was to go through the motions,” he said, "particularly after they moved into a 2-0 lead in the first period.”
    After the game, a telegram was read in the Rangers' dressing room: "Win this one for Ronnie Ward.”
    Ward, a former Rangers player, was in hospital with severe burns suffered when his RCAF trainer crashed 10 months previous near Dafoe, Sask.
    A hush fell over the room as the telegram was read. Then, someone said: "Well, we did, didn't we?” And then the cheering started.
    Oshawa got back on track on April 19, whipping the Rangers 6-2 before 9,402 fans.
    Tilson scored twice and set up another for the Generals, who got singles from Ezinicki (he also had two assists), Russ Johnstone, Scherza and Smith. Oshawa also had Curry dressed but he didn't play much.
    Peterson and Gardner scored for Winnipeg, which trailed 3-1 and 4-2 at the period breaks.
    By now, the Generals had decided not to do their bragging out loud.
    "Wait until we win that Memorial Cup and then you'll hear some real shouting,” Conacher said. "(The Rangers) have got a real good team and don't let anybody kid you about that.”
    Kinnear, meanwhile, was planning the next day's practice.
    "We played a terrible game,” he said. "Work is the only thing to get them back clicking again.”
    The Generals had Curry's leg examined on the off-day and it was discovered it wasn't healing all that well. Conacher then chose to use Don Batten in Curry's place. Batten was the only Oshawa native in the Generals' lineup.
    The Generals went up 2-1 on April 21, posting a 5-3 victory in front of 10,872 fans.
    Ezinicki, a Winnipeg native who would make a name for himself with the Toronto Maple Leafs, struck for three Oshawa goals, while Batten got the other two, scoring them six seconds apart late in the second period to put his mates up 3-0.
    Irvine, Boorman and Coleman replied for Winnipeg in the third period, cutting Oshawa's lead from 4-0 to 4-3. But Ezinicki put it away with seven minutes left to play.
    "Despite the loss,” reported The Canadian Press, "the Rangers whooped it up for a full 15 minutes. In contrast, the Generals took the victory that moved them ahead in the series calmly.”
    "That was a real hockey game out there,” Conacher said. "You couldn't have watched better hockey in a Stanley Cup final. I'm proud of the way my kids came through. But they've still got a tough fight on their hands. These Ranger boys don't quit -- they fight until they're ready to drop.”
    Oshawa was starting to look a little worn. Already without Curry, Bennett, a defenceman, and Scherza, a winger, were now nursing sore knees. (Scherza’s son, Ron, would be the general manager of the Selkirk Steelers who would win the Centennial Cup, as Canadian junior A champions, in 1974.)
    There were 13,868 fans in Maple Leaf Gardens for Game 4 on April 24 and they saw the free-wheeling Rangers roar to a 7-4 victory.
    Oshawa led 1-0 on Nelson's first-period goal when Winnipeg exploded for three quick goals early in the second period. Irvine, Boorman and Gardner scored before the period was half over and the Rangers were on their way.
    Smith narrowed the lead to 3-1 at 11:30, but Vickers and Coleman replied and the Rangers led 5-2.
    Vickers and Irvine scored again in the third period to up the lead to 7-2, before Smith and Tilson pulled Oshawa to within three.
    Oshawa tried to use Curry again, but it didn't work out. Batten would be back in the lineup for Game 5.
    "The Rangers held an edge in the offensive exchanges all the way and were bulwarked by Jackson's brilliant display in goal when the Generals did get close,” reported The Canadian Press. "Ticketed for future delivery to the Chicago Black Hawks of the National league, the teen-aged youngster performed in big league fashion.”
    "That's one of the hardest games I've ever played,” Jackson said. "They've certainly got a good team, but we whipped them and we can do it enough times to win the series.”
    Which is just what happened on April 26 when the Rangers won 7-3 in front of 12,420 fans to take a 3-2 lead.
    Winnipeg led 1-0 after the first period on Gardner's goal, and 2-1 after the second as McDonald and Reigle exchanged goals. Ezinicki tied it early in the third before Winnipeg exploded, getting a goal from Gardner and a pair from Russell in less than six minutes to go up 5-2.
    Tilson cut the lead to 5-3 only to have Coleman and Gardner score in the game's final minute.
    "I'm so darn tired I can hardly stand up,” Kinnear said. "We really showed them out there, didn't we? I think we'll take it now. Possibly not in the next game. But we'll take it.”
    And that's just what happened on April 28 as the Rangers won 6-3 before 14,485 fans.
    "The western Canada champions won the game in the third period with a scoring outburst which produced three goals, while the Generals faltered in the closing minutes before the relentless offensive,” reported The Canadian Press.
    Coleman scored three times and Gardner added two for Winnipeg. But it was Peterson who broke a 3-3 tie in the third period with what turned out to be the Memorial Cup-winning goal.
    Johnstone, Ezinicki and Tilson replied for the Generals.
    "Boy oh boy, wouldn't it have been awful if I'd missed that shot,” said Peterson, who finished off a brilliant rink-length dash by whipping the puck past Harvey Bennett.
    Paid attendance for the six games was 73,867 -- an average of 12,311, which was a record for amateur hockey in Canada.

    NEXT: 1944 (Trail Smoke Eaters vs. Oshawa Generals)
    Last edited by nivek_wahs; 06-12-2008 at 06:13 PM.

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    From Gregg Drinnan...1944

    1944 MEMORIAL CUP
    Trail Smoke Eaters vs. Oshawa Generals
    at Toronto (Maple Leaf Gardens)


    Bob Kinnear, who had coached the Winnipeg Rangers to the 1943 Memorial Cup title, didn't mince any words prior to the 1944 event.
    "Oshawa by a mile,” Kinnear said. "Junior hockey in western Canada is not what it used to be. Most junior teams of previous years would have beaten either one of the two teams, Trail or Port Arthur, who have just concluded the western Canada playoffs.
    "When you stop to think that most of these kids still have two or three years of junior hockey left, and that Oshawa is about two years older per man, is it any wonder I say Oshawa?”
    It was the Trail Smoke Eaters and, yes, the Oshawa Generals for the 1944 Memorial Cup, with all games played at Maple Leaf Gardens. Oshawa won the Ontario title for the seventh straight season and was into its sixth national final in those seven seasons.
    This Oshawa bunch was arguably as good as any junior team ever to arrive on the scene.
    Coached by Charlie Conacher and with Matt Leyden still the manager, these Generals were loaded with talent.
    Left-winger Ken Smith, originally from Moose Jaw, would play seven seasons with the Boston Bruins. Goaltender Harvey Bennett of Edington, Sask., played with Boston in 1944-45. The other goaltender, Johnny Marois, saw action with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Chicago Blackhawks. Defenceman Bob Dawes of Saskatoon played for Toronto and the Montreal Canadiens. Right-winger Floyd Curry ended up spending 10 seasons with the Canadiens. Defenceman Bill Ezinicki spent nine seasons in the NHL, with Toronto, Boston and the New York Rangers.
    On top of all that, the Generals added three players from the St. Michael's Majors -- left-winger Ted Lindsay, who would play 17 seasons in the NHL, 14 with the Detroit Red Wings and three with Chicago; defenceman Gus Mortson, who would spend six seasons in Toronto and seven in Chicago; and, David Bauer, who is today better remembered as Father David Bauer and who had a longtime involvement with Canada's Olympic hockey program.
    Oshawa didn't have a whole lot of trouble qualifying for the Memorial Cup, although the Montreal Royals were able to at least keep the games close.
    Oshawa took out St. Mike's, winning a best-of-seven series 4-1, and then whipped the University of Ottawa, 10-3 and 11-1 to sweep a best-of-three affair. That put the Generals in the east final against the Royals, who had advanced when the Amherst, N.S., Ramblers forfeited.
    In the east final, a best-of-five affair, the Generals won the first two games, 6-3 and 3-2, lost the third 5-4 when Montreal scored twice in the last five minutes of the third period, and wrapped it up with a 5-3 victory.
    Meanwhile, the Trail Smoke Eaters were stumbling along the western playoff trail.
    Coached by Gerry Thomson, and starring 16-year-old goaltender Bev Bentley, nephew of Chicago scoring ace Doug Bentley, the Smoke Eaters were anything but dominating.
    They swept a best-of-three series from the Edmonton Canadians, winning 6-3 and 6-1, and moved on to meet the Regina Commandos.
    Trail ended up winning a best-of-five series in five games, even though the teams played eight games. That's right -- eight games.
    The first three games of the series ended up being tossed out when Paul Mahara, a Trail player, was found to be ineligible. In fact, the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association ended up suspending Mahara from organized hockey for three years for "twice falsifying baptismal papers.” Only a signed confession by Mahara kept the CAHA from hitting him with the maximum five-year suspension.
    The Commandos then came awfully close to ousting Trail, winning the first two games, 4-3 in overtime and 1-0, only to have the Smokies roar back to win three in a row -- 7-2, 6-4 and 5-0.
    In the meantime, the Port Arthur Flyers were eliminating a St. James Canadians team that included future NHL coach Fred Shero. St. James won the opener of the best-of-five series 7-4, but Trail then won three in a row, 5-2, 6-2 and 4-2.
    In the best-of-five west final, it was Trail over Port Arthur in straight games -- 4-2, 4-3 and 3-2 -- and the Smoke Eaters headed for Toronto having won seven straight games.
    With an average age of 17.5 years, it was said that the Smokies were the youngest team to ever represent the west. They were also the first team from B.C. to reach the Memorial Cup final which was about to be contested for the 26th time.
    "I'd like to look over this Oshawa club before saying how we'll stack up,” Thomson said. "We've heard a lot about them and I'm anxious to see what they've got.”
    One report prior to the series opening noted: "The Trail team has astounded many who have watched them on their way to the Canadian finals. They are a strange team in these days of strange ‘military replacements' -- the Smokies haven't added a single player since they started their hockey campaign in November.”
    Still, the Smoke Eaters went in on a high note as they were wearing brand new sweaters and socks. When Thomson took the jerseys into a Toronto sporting goods store to have new numbers sewn on, Charlie Watson, a prominent Toronto sportsman, "noticed the ragged sweaters and donated 15 new sweaters and 15 new pairs of stockings to the team.”
    The best-of-seven final opened on April 15 in front of 14,643 fans.
    Ezinicki scored just seven seconds into the game and that pretty much set the tone, not only for the first game, which the Generals won 9-2, but for the series.
    "Oshawa Generals had too much power, speed and polish . . .,” reported The Canadian Press. "Smoke Eaters fought gamely, but appeared nervous and were unable to keep up with Generals on their fast, ganging attacks.”
    Oshawa held period leads of 4-1 and 7-2.
    Smith led Oshawa with three goals, while Bob Love scored twice. Lindsay, Curry and Bill Barker added one each, while Ezinicki chipped in with three assists.
    Jake McLeod and Lorne Depaolis replied for Trail.
    When it was over, though, they were singing the praises of Bentley.
    "Star of the game,” read the CP report, "was 16-year-old Bev Bentley in the Trail goal. He held off the smooth-skating Generals almost single-handed, kicking and batting away dozens of shots that poured at him from all angles . . . without Bentley the score probably would have been doubled.”
    In the Oshawa dressing room, Conacher went out on a limb.
    "I think we can take them in four straight,” he said.
    The Generals went up 2-0 on April 17, thanks to a 5-2 victory before 7,474 fans.
    Eddie Miller got Trail on the board first, early in the first period, but Smith tied it for Oshawa before the frame ended.
    After that it was all Oshawa -- Ezinicki and Curry scored in the second period, and Lindsay and Mortson found the range in the third before Depaolis ended the night's scoring late in the third.
    "It seems they're in on me all the time,” Bentley said. "Their shots aren't so tough, but when everybody piles in front of the net I can't see the puck. Oh well, you can't stop them all. And 5-2 wasn't bad.”
    Thomson said: "You can tell the folks back home we're not beaten yet. The Generals have a strong club, but we were in a tough spot against Regina when we had to win three straight and the kids came through.”
    Except that the Smokies hadn't seen anything yet.
    Dave Dryburgh, writing in the Regina Leader-Post, noted: "Oshawa has finally come up with a team that isn't faltering on the home stretch. This bunch of Generals can wheel and have the poise of National leaguers.”
    And wheel they did. The score on April 19, in front of 7,138 fans, was 15-4.
    The Generals, who had 67 shots on goal, held a slim 3-2 lead after one period but erupted for nine second-period goals, including four in a 70-second stretch.
    Thomson took out Bentley at that point, and inserted backup Howard Wilson.
    "Generals found him just as much to their liking as Bentley,” The Canadian Press reported, "and out of three shots they pasted at him two went in for goals.”
    Bentley was back in for the third period.
    Smith led the scoring parade with three goals and four assists. Love and Dawes added three goals each, with Curry scoing twice. Singles came from Lindsay, Barker, Ezinicki and Johnny Chenier as everyone in the Oshawa lineup, with the exception of goaltender Harvey Bennett and defenceman Bert Shewchuck, figured in the scoring.
    Roy Kelly, Frank Turik, Harvey Ross and Dick Butler scored for Trail.
    "All I can say is that we'll be in there battling again (in Game 4),” Thomson said. "The team is too young and inexperienced, but I'm not at all disappointed in them. In fact, I'm quite proud of them. They've got lots of guts.”
    The Smokies ran out of players before Game 4. Injuries to Turik (arm), Depaolis (ankle) and Mark Marquess (shoulder) left Trail short of players. So the CAHA allowed the Smoke Eaters to add three players from St. Mike's. Coming on board: Johnny McCormick, Jim Thomson and Bobby Schnurr.
    They didn't help.
    Oshawa wrapped up the Memorial Cup with an 11-4 victory before 7,929 fans on April 22.
    The teams were tied 3-3 after one period and Oshawa led 4-3 heading into the third as the Smoke Eaters tried to hang in there. But they ran out of gas and were outscored 7-1 in the third period.
    Smith was the big gun, again, this time with three goals and three assists (he totalled 10 goals and eight assists in the four games). Curry, Love and Lindsay scored twice each, with singles coming from Ezinicki and Don Batten.
    Kelly, McCormick, Schnurr and Butler scored for Trail.
    The Memorial Cup-winning goal went to Smith. His goal at 4:46 of the third period put Oshawa out front 5-3.
    Oshawa outscored Trail 40-12 in the series.
    Kinnear had been right.
    About the only thing missing from Oshawa's victory was Albert (Red) Tilson. He had been part of six consecutive OHA championships with the Generals (1938-43), but missed 1944 because he was overseas. Tilson never came home.
    The Red Tilson Trophy, established by The Globe and Mail, has gone annually to the regular season's most outstanding player since 1945.

    NEXT: 1945 (Moose Jaw Canucks vs. Toronto St. Michael's Majors)
    Last edited by nivek_wahs; 06-12-2008 at 06:14 PM.

  7. #27
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    From Gregg Drinnan...1945

    1945 MEMORIAL CUP
    Moose Jaw Canucks vs. Toronto St. Michael's Majors
    at Toronto (Maple Leaf Gardens)


    A couple of well-known NHL veterans met up in the best-of-seven Memorial Cup final which was played in its entirety at Maple Leaf Gardens.
    Joe Primeau, a member of the Kid Line that had sparked the Toronto Maple Leafs to the 1932 Stanley Cup title, was at the helm of Toronto St. Michael’s Majors (St. Mike's as they were known), while Roy Bentley, one of the famed brothers from Delisle, Sask., worked the bench for the Moose Jaw Canucks.
    The pressure was on the Canucks as Saskatchewan hadn't won a Memorial Cup since 1930, the last time the Regina Pats turned the trick.
    "Is this Moose Jaw club good enough to win down east?” asked Ted Allan of the Winnipeg Tribune. "Well, all I can say is that Canucks are a very good buy at the 3-1 odds which St. Mike's supporters are said to be offering. Unquestionably, Canucks are better equipped to go up against St. Mike's than our Monarchs.”
    Moose Jaw went in to Maple Leaf Gardens with a playoff record of 15 wins against just one loss, having scored 110 goals and allowed 40.
    St. Mike's advanced by bumping off the Montreal Royals in six games in the best-of-seven eastern final. They won the sixth game 7-4 behind Joe Sadler's three goals in front of 10,548 fans at Maple Leaf Gardens on April 11.
    Five of the St. Mike's players had junior experience in the west -- Jimmy Thomson, Bob Gray and Johnny Arundel were from Winnipeg; Frank Turik had played the previous season for the Trail Smoke Eaters; and, Johnny McCormack was from Edmonton.
    Going into the final, the Canucks were concerned that they had lost Gerry Couture, their best player. A medical student at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, it was expected he would stay behind to write exams.
    But darned if he didn't show up in Toronto ... in the red-and-white of the Detroit Red Wings. Couture, 19, played on a line with centre Jud McAtee, a former Oshawa Generals star, and 18-year-old rookie left-winger Ted Lindsay in a 1-0 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs in a Stanley Cup final game.
    "He is a good boy and we were hard up,” explained Detroit coach Jack Adams, adding that Couture was free to return to the Canucks if he wished.
    Bentley said he would use Couture so long as the CAHA felt he was still eligible.
    St. Mike's won Game 1 by an 8-5 count before 12,420 fans on April 14.
    "Beaten only four times in 38 previous starts this season, coach Joe Primeau's class-laden collegians struck swiftly for two goals in the first eight minutes, held Moose Jaw at bay through a bristling second period and sealed the issue with three rapid-fire goals early in the third,” reported The Canadian Press.
    Tod Sloan and Thomson sent St. Mike's out front 2-0, before Bert Olmstead got Moose Jaw on the board. Turik's goal sent St. Mike's into the second period with a 3-1 lead.
    Olmstead promptly scored twice to open the second period, only to have St. Mike's regain its two-goal lead on scores by McCormack and Gus Mortson.
    Len Costello, Mortson and Sadler upped St. Mike's lead to 8-3 in the third before Moose Jaw made it respectable on goals by 17-year-old Metro Prystai and Frank Ashworth.
    Couture was not in Moose Jaw's lineup; instead, he played with Detroit in a 5-3 victory over Toronto. It was Detroit's first victory, after three losses, in the Stanley Cup final.
    Moose Jaw turned the tables on April 16, dazzling 12,399 spectators with a 5-3 victory to even the series 1-1.
    "Saturday's horrible nightmare was completely erased on Monday as Canucks took charge of the traffic lights, stared Toronto's fancy St. Mike's in the eye and challenged them to do their darndest,” wrote Dave Dryburgh in the Regina Leader-Post. "The eastern champs didn't have it and Canucks scampered home with a 5-3 decision that wasn't exactly easy to pick up. But it wasn't a toughie, either.”
    Sadler and Prystai exchanged first-period goals, with Frank Ashworth giving Moose Jaw a 2-1 lead midway in the second. Sloan tied it at 17:34 only to have (Hurricane) Lou Hauck put Moose Jaw ahead, off a pretty feed from Prystai, at 18:13.
    Clarence Marquess upped the Canucks' lead to 4-2 in the opening minute of the third. Sloan cut into the deficit midway in the third period, but Marquess wrapped it up just 17 seconds later.
    "We haven't much to talk about but I think we'll come back Wednesday,” Primeau said.
    He was right.
    On April 18, before 14,032 fans, St. Mike's overwhelmed Moose Jaw in taking a 6-3 victory and a 2-1 edge in the series.
    McCormack struck twice for St. Mike's in the game's first eight minutes. Thomson added two more before the first period ended and St. Mike's took a 4-0 edge into the second.
    Doug Toole and Ashworth got Moose Jaw back in it, only to have Sloan make it 5-2 at 11:34. Hauck, however, struck before the period ended and it was 5-3 going into the third.
    Costello finished the scoring midway in the third.
    Officials with Maple Leaf Gardens were so pleased with the attendance to date that the Canucks were handed a bonus cheque for $500. They would have preferred a victory or two.
    By now, the Canucks were saying they had forgotten all about Couture. He was still with the Red Wings, who now had two wins in the Stanley Cup final.
    And by now the Canucks had been bitten by the injury bug -- Ashworth (leg), Toole and Dick Butler (back) were all shelved.
    Noted Dryburgh of Ashworth: "The wizard of stickhandling from Notre Dame is a hopeless cripple.”
    With the junior final and the Stanley Cup final on at the same time, Dryburgh noted: "Despite injuries and what not, the ticket situation hasn't improved. It is a vexing and exhausting problem.
    "As of this time, a person might secure a ducat for the junior matinee that would enable him to climb on the Gardens roof and view the proceedings through a periscope. For the Stanley Cup game in the evening, the closest standing room available is at the corner of Yonge and Carlton streets, two blocks away from the main entrance.
    "But still the telephones ring.
    "The Royal York switchboard operators are threatening to install a direct line to our quarters and have laid a charge of unfair tactics to the management. We're taking the punishment in two-hour shifts up in the rooms and outlasting the operators who are toiling on six-hour stretches.
    "By actual count, well, almost, on Friday, 39,000 former Moose Jaw citizens, 339 Dryburghs, who all claim relationship, 416 Hendersons, who swear they rocked Cliff on their knees when he was a youngster, and 117 sundry individuals with even more elaborate stories, placed a bid for ducats.
    "New York's Grand Central Station is a lonesome spot compared to this.”
    St. Mike's took a 3-1 series lead on April 22 with a 4-3 victory over the Canucks, who had taken an early 2-0 lead.
    St. Mike's, which hadn't won the national title since 1934, thrilled the crowd of 12,740 with the come-from-behind victory.
    Jackie Miller gave Moose Jaw a 1-0 lead in the game's first minute and Ralph Nattrass made it 2-0 some 13 minutes later. Turik, who would score three times, cut into the deficit before the period ended.
    Thomson and Turik scored in the second period to give St. Mike's the lead. Hauck tied it at 17:56, only to have Turik put St. Mike's back out front with 15 seconds left in the stanza. The third period was scoreless.
    By this time the Leafs had won the Stanley Cup in seven games. Couture was still with the Red Wings. He never did return to the Moose Jaw lineup.
    The very next night, April 23, St. Mike's wrapped it up with a 7-2 victory before 13,715 fans.
    Dryburgh wrote: "Canucks knew they were at the end of the trail very soon after the puck was dropped. They tried to break into a gallop, found that the old zip was missing and all the encouragement that 14,000 spectators provided failed to produce the spark that would make the red-and-white Moose Jaw flyers flame again.”
    CP wrote: "Before 13,715 paid admissions, Leo Gravelle paced the powerful Irish machine to its first national championship since 1934 with three goals. Frank Turik, 19-year-old Trail, B.C., product, accounted for two and the others went to Gus Mortson and Johnny McCormack.”
    Olmstead got Moose Jaw's first goal but by that time the Canucks trailed 5-1 in the final minute of the second period. Marquess had Moose Jaw's other goal.
    The Memorial Cup-winner? It came from Gravelle just 34 seconds into the second period.
    Paid attendance for the five games was 65,437, which exceeded the Maple Leaf Gardens junior record for five games (59,301) that had been set in 1943 when the Winnipeg Rangers tangled with the Oshawa Generals. That 1943 series still held the six-game record of 73,867.

    NEXT: 1946 (Winnipeg Monarchs vs. Toronto St. Michael's Majors)
    Last edited by nivek_wahs; 06-12-2008 at 06:15 PM.

  8. #28
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    From Gregg Drinnan...1946

    1946 MEMORIAL CUP
    Winnipeg Monarchs vs. Toronto St. Michael's Majors
    at Toronto (Maple Leaf Gardens)


    The 1946 Memorial Cup drew to a conclusion the first hockey season following the end of the Second World War.
    Canada lost a lot of young men, many of them hockey players, on the battlefields of Europe. And as the 1945-46 hockey season wound down, it was as though a country had decided to rediscover itself in its arenas.
    The 1946 Memorial Cup would feature the old Irish college from Toronto, St. Michael's, against the Winnipeg Monarchs.
    But the road to Maple Leaf Gardens, site of what would be a thrilling best-of-seven series that would go the distance, was quite interesting.
    In Eastern Canada, St. Patrick's College of Ottawa swept a best-of-three series from Halifax St. Mary's, 9-5 and 11-2, only to fall 11-3 and 10-6 to Montreal Junior Canadiens, coached by Wilf Cude, in a best-of-three semifinal.
    St. Mike's ousted the Oshawa Generals of coach Charlie Conacher in six games in a best-of-seven series. The Generals actually held a 2-1 lead before losing three straight -- 4-2, 4-2 and 9-0.
    That put St. Mike's, coached by former NHL star Joe Primeau and now oftentimes referred to as the Saints, into a best-of-three provincial final with the Copper Cliff Redmen, coached by Jim Dewey.
    The Redmen had sidelined the Porcupine Combines, the first junior team they had played all season. Copper Cliff had played in a senior league in Sudbury, finishing with a 3-5-1 record. You're right ... it was no contest. St. Mike's won this one 13-2 and 8-1 and then won the eastern final from Montreal, winning a best-of-five series in straight games.
    St. Mike's took the opener 7-2 before more than 7,000 fans in Montreal. Tod Sloan scored three times as St. Mike's won the second game 8-2 before more than 12,000 fans at Maple Leaf Gardens. St. Michael's took Game 3, 6-5, as Johnny Blute, on passes from Leonard (Red) Kelly and Fleming Mackell, broke a 5-5 tie late in the third period before 6,934 fans.
    In Western Canada, it appeared for a while that the Edmonton Canadians were going to grab the Abbott Cup.
    The Canadians first took a best-of-five series from the Nanaimo Clippers in four games, losing the opener 4-3 and then taking three in a row _ 4-1, 7-0 and 6-3.
    Edmonton, under coach Earl Robertson, then took five games to eliminate the Moose Jaw Canucks from a best-of-seven series. Edmonton went up 2-0 with 7-4 and 7-6 victories, lost 10-4, and then finished off the Canucks, 5-4 and 4-3.
    That last game was played in Regina's Queen City Gardens and draw a paid crowd of 6,672 fans (officials estimated there were at least 7,000 fans in the building), the biggest crowd in western Canadian junior hockey history. A 12-coach special train brought in some 900 Moose Jaw fans. The previous single-game record, of 6,300, had belonged to Edmonton.
    Meanwhile, the Winnipeg Monarchs, of coach Walter Monson, advanced to the Abbott Cup final against Edmonton by winning a best-of-seven series from the Port Arthur Flyers. Port Arthur took the opener 5-4, only to lose the next four -- 5-4, 7-3, 5-4 and 8-3.
    The Abbott Cup final, a best-of-seven affair, belonged to Winnipeg, although Edmonton took Game 1, 4-2. The Monarchs won the next four -- 5-1, 6-3, 5-3 and 9-2.
    During the western final there was talk, perhaps for the first time, that these games should be available on radio throughout western Canada.
    "As it stands,” wrote Dave Dryburgh in the Regina Leader-Post, "Foster Hewitt has the contract to sell all rights for Memorial and Allan cup games. He handles the job on a percentage basis and probably does all right down east where he is on the inside track. But Foster doesn't know the western picture and nothing is done about it.
    "Even if it costs money, the CAHA should make an effort to broadcast all its important games. The association has an obligation to the public. It takes overall provincial winners and moves them around the country -- often to centres where rich gates are gathered in. The fans back home are entitled to some compensation.
    "After all, the fans built the hockey teams that made the CAHA the powerful and wealthy organization it is today.”
    The Monarchs were sparked by four University of Manitoba students -- forwards Clint Albright, Don McRae, Al Buchanan and Hy Beatty. Buchanan was the team captain. And as they prepared for the Memorial Cup they were uncertain as to whether defenceman Bill Tindall would be able to get time off from his job.
    McRae and Albright didn't travel to Toronto with their teammates. They stayed home to write exams, but got to Toronto in time for Game 1.
    Tindall got there too, as he was finally able to arrange for time away from his job. Tindall keyed a defence corps that included Tom Rockey and Laurie May. They relied on goaltender Jack Gibson.
    Winnipeg's top forward line featured McRae, Harry Taylor and Gord Fashoway.
    Prior to the series a Winnipeg report noted that Monson "expects the series to go close to seven games while confident that he has a squad that is capable of winning the prized mug.”
    Primeau's club, meanwhile, could boast of Pat Boehmer in goal, defencemen like Kelly, and forwards like Mackell, who was but 16 years of age, Les Costello and Sloan.
    The two teams had played two early-season games, with Winnipeg winning the first 2-1 and St. Michael's taking the second 5-4. It seemed, then, that these were two evenly-matched teams.
    In fact, about all that was certain was this -- hockey fever had Toronto by the throat. Before the series even began there was talk of a new Memorial Cup attendance record. More than 30,000 ticket applications had been received for Game 1. A year earlier, St. Mike's and Moose Jaw had drawn 65,437 fans to five games, an average of 13,087. The Maple Leaf Gardens attendance record for a junior game was 15,065, set when St. Michael's and Galt Biltmores closed out the 1945-46 regular season.
    In case you were wondering, the CAHA, according to a Canadian Press report from Toronto, "provides transportation and berths for the travelling teams and allows $120 a day while the club is staying in a hotel and $90 a day while travelling. The home team is allowed $100 per game and the visiting club $50 per game for incidental expenses.
    "In the final series ... the clubs will receive a bonus of $500 for qualifying. In addition, they share in division of the profits, with each club participating in the series receiving an allowance in accordance with the number of games played in CAHA competition.”
    Just prior to the start of Game 1, Canadian Press reported that one Winnipeg supporter "had $4,000 in cash to back up his belief and was overjoyed when he found the odds were two to one against the Monarchs in the first game.”
    Monson felt his charges were ready.
    "We're better than we were at Christmas,” he said. "We're sharp right now, and I'm not worrying about their performance. They'll do all right.”
    St. Mike's had made two previous Memorial Cup final appearances, beating the Edmonton Athletic Club in 1934 and Moose Jaw in 1945.
    The Monarchs also had two titles to their credit, having beaten the Sudbury Wolves in 1935 and Copper Cliff in 1937.
    The series opened on Saturday, April 13, and the Monarchs scored a 3-2 victory before "a roaring crowd of 14,000.”
    Experts, according to one report, "had set pregame odds of 8-5 on the east for the 28th renewal of the cup final.”
    Winnipeg scored the first period's only two goals, those coming from Taylor (6:48) and McRae (14:58), who was set up by Taylor.
    Eddie Sandford scored for St. Mike's in the second period, the only shot to beat Gibson who would later say: "I sure was lucky half-a-dozen times. Hope it holds.”
    Winnipeg took a 3-1 lead at 4:40 of the third period when George Robertson, on assists from Taylor and McRae, beat Boehmer from a scramble.
    Sloan, the Ontario Hockey Association's regular-season scoring champion, rounded out the scoring at 14:07.
    "Gee, I'm tired,” Sloan said afterwards, echoing the sentiments of both players who had participated in what was a speedy, hard-fought battle.
    "It's a keen series and a tough game to lose,” Primeau said. "They play a close-checking, fast-skating game and never seemed to tire.
    "But I honestly think we can take them. It may have to go the limit, but I think we'll retain the cup.”
    Monson offered: "They're a solid team and there's still a whole series to play. The lads fought hard -- the way they should -- and I've every reason to believe they'll come through again.”
    Two nights later, on April 15, St. Michael's evened it up with a 5-3 victory before 14,263 fans.
    "That's the best thing that could have happened,” Monson said of his club losing the game. "Now they know how they've got to play to win. That's probably the best hockey St. Mike's ever played and there's a good chance they won't do it again.”
    The Monarchs, who fell behind 2-0 in the first period and trailed 4-1 in the second, got back into this one on goals by Eddie Marchant and Robertson near the midway point of the third period.
    Only a goal by Sloan at 19:01 of the final period thwarted the Winnipeg comeback.
    Sloan finished with two goals and an assist, while Mackell scored once and set up two others.
    Blute and Bobby Paul had the Saints' first-period goals, before Taylor halved the deficit at 18:35.
    Mackell and Sloan upped it to 4-1 late in the second period and set the stage for Marchant (who replaced Gordon Scott in the Winnipeg lineup) and Robertson.
    Canadian Press reported: "Although the game was bruising, with the Toronto team especially trying to bodycheck Monarchs and cut down their speed, only two minor penalties were called -- one to each team -- and both were in the first period.”
    Maurice Smith of the Winnipeg Free Press wrote: "St. Mike's pulled every trick they could on Monarchs and got away with a lot of stuff that would have drawn penalties in Winnipeg. St. Mike's, apparently under orders, really roughed it up.”
    An off-day followed -- the Monarchs were back in Maple Leaf Gardens anyway as Monson took them to watch Willie Joyce and Jimmy Hatcher battle in a lightweight boxing match.
    Game 3 was played on April 17, with St. Mike's winning 7-3 to take a 2-1 edge in games. Suddenly, the Saints were seen as distinct favorites.
    Winnipeg outshot the Toronto team 38-26, before what was said to be just under 15,000 fans, but St. Mike's got a big game from Boehmer and had a lot more polish around the net.
    "If you play aggressive enough hockey, you make the breaks for yourself,” Primeau said. "And we sure had the breaks (in Game 3).”
    The teams were tied 1-1 midway in the first period -- Costello having scored for St. Mike's and Clint Albright (he wore glasses while he played) for the Monarchs -- when the Saints struck for two goals 24 seconds apart to take control. Again, it was Mackell (10:17) and Sloan (10:41) scoring the key goals.
    McRae pulled the Monarchs to within one at 7:29 of the second period, only to have Sloan and Sandford up the Toronto team's lead to 5-2 going into the third. The goal was Sloan's fifth of the series.
    Taylor scored for the Monarchs early in the third period. But the Saints won going away as Blute and Paul found the range.
    There was some concern in the Winnipeg dressing room because McRae was limping on a gimpy knee. The right winger, nicknamed Red, developed water on his right knee in February and took a shot on it in Game 1. The knee was now swollen.
    <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]-->And for the first time there was criticism of -- guess who? -- the officials.
    The criticism came from Jim Primeau, Joe's brother and an NHL linesman. Asked about the officiating in the series, Jim replied: "It's crummy.”
    Monson agreed, but said he wasn't complaining because "the refereeing hurt both sides.”
    The CAHA was still using the two-referee system and Monson said he felt it was time to go to two linesmen for the final and "let the referee look after his own job.”
    The two officials for the first three games were Stan Pratt of Ottawa and Port Arthur's Harold Guerard.
    The teams took two days off before playing Game 4 on Saturday, April 20.
    The talk before Game 4 was that Monson would drop Cam Millar, the fourth defenceman, and add forward Hy Beatty. Millar had gone in for Beatty for Game 3.
    And the Monarchs took Game 4, scoring three power-play goals and posting a 4-3 victory before 14,371 fans to even the series, 2-2.
    The story this night was the Winnipeg line of McRae, Taylor and Robertson. Taylor scored twice and set up another by McRae. That gave Taylor nine points in the series, one more than Sloan, who drew two assists.
    Rockey opened the scoring for Winnipeg at 9:36 of the first period. Blute tied the score at 13:20.
    St. Michael's took a 2-1 lead at 13:06 of the second period -- its only lead of the game -- when Sandford scored and Taylor tied it at 19:21.
    The Monarchs won it in the third on goals by McRae (5:44) and Taylor (11:19). Eddie Harrison pulled the Saints to within one at 17:16, after which Gibson held the fort.
    "There's no doubt about it,” Joe Primeau said, "this series is going the full seven games. I can't see either team winning two straight now.
    "It's down to a best-of-three series now, and it's going to be a mighty tough proposition.”
    Both coaches did have one common complaint -- "too much holidaying and partying.”
    Said Primeau: "Easter holidays are no good for my boys. They're getting too lax.”
    Monson admitted he was afraid his players would be "killed by kindness” with all the parties thrown on their behalf.
    Two nights later, with 14,264 fans looking on, Sloan pumped home five goals and St. Michael's won 7-4 to close to within one victory of the Dominion championship.
    According to The Canadian Press, "A near free-for-all in the final period produced four major penalties, and a penalty shot against goalie Jack Gibson of Monarchs, who participated in the battle. Sloan scored his fifth goal by beating Gibson on the penalty shot.”
    That goal, at 11:13 of the third period, gave St. Mike's a 7-3 lead.
    The Toronto lads jumped out to a 4-0 first-period on goals by Ted McLean, Paul and two from Sloan. Robertson got Winnipeg on the board before the period ended.
    Sloan scored again early in the second period, before Robertson and Tindall cut the deficit to 5-3. That was as close as Monarchs would get as Sloan scored at 19:40 of the second.
    Sloan, on the penalty shot, and Rockey exchanged third-period goals.
    That lifted Sloan's points total to 13, tops in the series. In the regular season, Sloan, a 155-pounder from Falconbridge, Ont., had won the OHA scoring title with 132 points in 49 games.
    The third-period donnybrook featured Rockey, Tindall and Gibson of Winnipeg against Harrison and Costello. Gibson and Costello paired off and came to blows.
    After the game, Pratt and Guerard, the two officials, came under heavy fire from both teams.
    But Monson admitted: "There was a heck of a lot wrong with our playing. We lost control of the puck and ourselves completely.”
    And now the fans of the St. Mike's boys were expecting a six-game series victory.
    McLean, the team captain, cautioned: "After we took them 7-3 in the third game, they came back to wallop us. We'd better watch ourselves or we'll be flat on our seats again.”
    McLean then yelled across the dressing room to Sloan: "Take two Cokes. You deserve them.”
    The Monarchs had played without Albright, who needed stitches to close a gash in his left leg that he incurred in practice earlier that day. He would return for Game 6.
    Before Game 6, word got out that Guerard would be replaced as one referee by Geroge Hayes of Ingersoll, Ont.
    Before Game 6, Monson was heard to say: "I'll sure be glad to go home, but I want to stay around at least until Saturday (April 27).”
    He got his wish.
    The Monarchs won Game 6 on April 24, posting a 4-2 victory in front of 14,970 fans, the largest crowd of the series so far.
    <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]-->The attendance was a record for a six-game Memorial Cup final, surpassing the mark of 73,867 from 1943 (the Winnipeg Rangers beat the Oshawa Generals in a six-game series in Maple Leaf Gardens).
    The Monarchs took period leads of 2-1 and 4-1.
    Rockey and Buchanan got Winnipeg off to a 2-0 lead with goals 12 seconds apart, at 17:30 and 17:42, in the first period. Costello pulled St. Mike's to within one when he scored, after being set up by Sloan, with 56 seconds left in the opening period.
    McRae and Albright scored the only goals of the second, before Sloan rounded out the scoring with his second penalty-shot goal in two games.
    Hayes, reffing his first game, award Sloan the shot after ruling that Rockey had held the puck in the Winnipeg crease with his hand.
    "Two factors were mainly responsible,” Monson said of the victory. "We had Clint Albright back in the lineup and that George Hayes as a referee.”
    Primeau didn't see it quite that way.
    "Sure (Hayes) galloped around a lot,” he said, "and blew his whistle. But he let an awful lot of rough stuff go.
    "There's no doubt about it. We were off our game and were outplayed.”
    The teams then took two more days off before playing Game 7 on Saturday, April 27, before a record-breaking crowd of 15,803.
    (Because it was a Saturday night, the teams would have played just one 10-minute overtime period had they been tied after three periods. If they were still tied after OT, an eighth game would have been played on Monday, April 29.)
    "Two sensational goals by a truly great right winger, Georgie Robertson, provided the third-period victory margin that gave the west the coveted cup for the 15th time in 28 years of competition,” reported The Canadian Press.
    The pregame odds were 7-5 against Winnipeg, but the Monarchs didn't pay that any mind.
    They fell behind 1-0 when Mackell scored at 6:38 of the first period, an ominous sign for the westerners as the team that had scored first had won each of the first six games. But Albright tied it at 10:59.
    May, with his first goal of the series, gave the Monarchs the lead at 1:55 of the second period. Paul tied it at 3:05.
    The teams went into the third period tied 2-2, at which point Robertson took things into his own hands.
    CP reported: "Robertson, who gathered 10 points during the series, took the puck at centre, shifted the two-man Irish rearguard out of position, and fired a waist-high shot from 15 feet out and to the side. Goalie Pat Boehmer never touched it.
    "Then, the ubiquitous Robertson did it again, with the clincher just 47 seconds before the end, and at a time when it appeared certain the desperate, ganging Saints were about to at least score the deadlocking goal.”
    In a wild Winnipeg dressing room, there was one calm individual. Lefty Laird, a commerce student at the University of Manitoba and a huge Monarchs fan, said he wasn't worried.
    "They always win on Saturday nights,” he explained. "In two years, they've only lost one Saturday night game -- that was to Moose Jaw Canucks last year.”
    The Game 7 attendance set a record for a junior hockey game in Canada, breaking the previous record of 15,659 set at Maple Leaf Gardens for a 1938 Memorial Cup game between the St. Boniface Seals and Oshawa Generals.
    All told, the series drew 102,575 fans, a record for a seven-game amateur series in Canada.

    NEXT: 1947 (Moose Jaw Canucks vs. Toronto St. Michael's Majors)
    Last edited by nivek_wahs; 06-12-2008 at 06:15 PM.

  9. #29
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    From Gregg Drinnan...1947

    1947 MEMORIAL CUP
    Moose Jaw Canucks vs. Toronto St. Michael's Majors
    at Winnipeg (Amphitheatre), Moose Jaw (Arena) and Regina (Queen City Gardens)


    This was a rematch of the 1945 Memorial Cup final. But while that one was played in its entirety in Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens, this best-of-seven series, featuring the Moose Jaw Canucks and Toronto St. Michael's Majors, was played in the west -- in Winnipeg, Moose Jaw and Regina.
    Joe Primeau was still the coach of St. Mike's. Former Regina Pats star Ken Doraty was running the Moose Jaw operation.
    Edmonton also had wanted to play host to a game in the final but that never happened, perhaps because Primeau said he didn't want his team "to be any part of a travelling circus.“
    The Canucks earned their berth by winning a thrilling Abbott Cup final series from the Brandon Elks. This best-of-seven affair actually didn't end until the eighth game, won 6-4 by Moose Jaw before 6,320 fans in Regina's Queen City Gardens.
    Brandon actually won the first two games of the series and tied the third. When the next two games were split, Brandon was one point from winning the series but that one point proved terribly elusive.
    The Memorial Cup's best-of-seven final opened in Winnipeg on April 15 with St. Mike's hammering Moose Jaw 12-3.
    "Heralded as the smoothest team to come out of the east in years, Toronto St. Mike's lived up to all the nice words said about them by waltzing to a 12-3 triumph over Moose Jaw Canucks,” wrote Scotty Melville in the Regina Leader-Post. "A milling crowd that had literally clawed its way to the wickets in an all-day demand for pasteboards saw a disappointing Moose Jaw outfit hold on for one brief period before the magic sticks of the eastern powerhouse went to work with a vengeance.”
    The first period was very loosely played and ended with the Toronto lads out front 4-3. After that it was no contest -- the Canucks were outscored 2-0 in the second and 6-0 in the third.
    Toronto's line of Ed Sandford, Les Costello and Fleming Mackell owned this game.
    As Melville wrote: "(They) passed the disc around like a hot biscuit to collect a baker's dozen in scoring points.”
    Sandford, the centre and team captain, set up five goals. Costello, who would later play with the Toronto Maple Leafs but gain more renown as the man behind the Flying Fathers, scored three times. Mackell, who would go on to a fine NHL career, had two goals and three assists.
    Ed Harrison added two Toronto goals, with singles coming from Bob Paul, Benny Woit, Rudy Migay, John McLellan and Leonard (Red) Kelly.
    Harvey Stein, Herbie Lovett and Angus Juckes scored for Moose Jaw.
    "St. Mike's have a good team,” Moose Jaw's Metro Prystai said, "but we can do better. They're very fast and play a rougher style of hockey than Brandon.”
    The teams then headed for Moose Jaw, where Game 2 was to be played on April 17. Only the site was different.
    "They donned their fighting trunks and went out punching, but Ken Doraty's Moose Jaw Canucks simply didn't have enough on the ball as they yielded a 6-1 edge to the polished Toronto St. Mike's in a robust, exhausting struggle,” read one report.
    Sandford struck for three goals as Toronto grabbed period leads of 3-0 and 5-0. Harrison scored twice and Costello added the other.
    Vic Kreklewetz had Moose Jaw's lone goal in front of 3,700 fans who witnessed the first national final game ever to be played in Moose Jaw.
    Wrote Vince Leah of the Winnipeg Tribune: "Joe (Primeau) has the softest job in the world. My four-year-old son could lead St. Mike's to the Memorial Cup. That's how competent the youthful easterners are.”
    Game 3 was played in Regina's Queen City Gardens in front of 5,959 fans. It was started but never finished.
    St. Mike's was awarded an 8-1 victory in a game that was halted because of bottle-throwing fans with six minutes 55 seconds left in the third period.
    Moose Jaw was able to hang in there until the game's midway point. In fact, Moose Jaw took a 1-0 lead on a goal by Amos Wilson into the game's second half.
    Harrison had three more goals for Toronto. Ray Hannigan, with two, Costello, Paul and Migay also scored for Toronto, with Migay adding five assists.
    But the talk was all about incidents involving fans.
    The first occurred with less than two minutes left in the second period. It followed a Moose Jaw penalty.
    "The remaining time was carried into the final session while sweepers collected the fragments of broken glass,” wrote Melville. "The hoodlums took over again after seven minutes in the third period, another Moose Jaw penalty bringing several bottles over the boards. One Canuck and two players from the Toronto club were struck glancing blows by the missiles.
    "The ice was cleared, but again bottles and other odds and ends were heaved to the ice while the referees tried vainly to face off in the southeast corner of the rink. After nearly 15 minutes delay, the face off took place at the Moose Jaw blue line. A few minutes later another bottle came out from the stands and Al Pickard, vice-president of the CAHA, then gave warning over the loudspeaker that the game would be called and awarded to St. Mike's if anything further was thrown. Seconds later, just as play started and less than seven minutes of time left, the ice again was littered and the officials stopped the game and gave the victory to the collegians.
    "The ice was swept four times and half an hour in all was needed to clean up the debris. Hundreds of fans, ashamed and disgusted at the stupidity of the irresponsible few, streamed away from the national final long before it was halted.”
    Vic Lindquist of Winnipeg and Ken Mullins of Montreal were the referees involved.
    In an editorial headlined "We hang our heads in shame” Dave Dryburgh of The Leader-Post wrote: "In Brooklyn they'd call it a rhubarb, but Regina simply branded it the most disgraceful and humiliating episode in the city's sports history. Saturday's Memorial Cup shambles at the Gardens gave Regina a pair of the blackest eyes you ever saw.
    "Thousands of sportsmen from all over Saskatchewan were at first disgusted by the bottle-tossing demonstration, then became boiling mad to think that a handful of scatter-brained hoodlums could cause such scenes and break up a national hockey final.
    "This was worse than the Stanley Cup riot we saw in Chicago in 1944. It was definitely more vicious.”
    Three nights later attendance in Regina was just 2,186. The fans saw St. Mike's wrap it up with a 3-2 victory.
    The Toronto boys scored the only goal of the first period and added another early in the second. But Moose Jaw scored before the second was up and then tied the game early in the third.
    St. Mike's won it all when Sandford scored later in the third period.
    Mackell and Paul also scored for St. Mike's, with Stein and Lovett scoring for Moose Jaw.
    It was a sad ending to the junior career of Moose Jaw goaltender Bev Bentley. He had appeared in three of the last four Memorial Cups -- one with the Trail Smoke Eaters and two with Moose Jaw -- and wasn't on a winning team.

    NEXT: 1948 (Port Arthur West End Bruins vs. Barrie Flyers)
    Last edited by nivek_wahs; 06-12-2008 at 06:16 PM.

  10. #30
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    From Gregg Drinnan...1948

    1948 MEMORIAL CUP
    Port Arthur West End Bruins vs. Barrie Flyers
    at Toronto (Maple Leaf Gardens)


    It was a powerful Port Arthur West End Bruins team that qualified for the 1948 Memorial Cup final.
    Coached by Ed Lauzon, the Bruins were sparked by two players who had spent the 1947-48 season with the Memorial Cup-champion Toronto St. Michael's Majors -- Rudy Migay and Benny Woit. Migay, in fact, was the Bruins' captain.
    Also in the Port Arthur lineup was flashy Danny Lewicki, who had been added to the roster from the Fort William Columbus club. And the Bruins featured goaltender Lorne Chabot, one of the best around in those days.
    The Bruins would meet the Lethbridge Native Sons in the western Abbott Cup final.
    The Native Sons, under coach Scotty Munro, had advanced to that point by winning a six-game series from the Moose Jaw Canucks, a team that featured the likes of Jackie McLeod, Jim Bedard, Hugh Coflin and Larry Popein.
    The Native Sons featured the highest-scoring line in junior hockey that season. Eddie Dorohoy, Freddie Brown and Bill Ramsden accounted for 418 points in 63 games, including Ramsden's mind-boggling 107 goals and Dorohoy's 86 assists.
    Lethbridge would finish the season with a 50-10-3 record (six of those losses were in the playoffs), but with Dorohoy on the limp and not nearly as effective as he had been earlier in the season.
    Playing in Moose Jaw, the Canucks won the opener 3-2, lost the second game 8-5 and won the third 3-2. The scene then shifted to Lethbridge and the Native Sons won three straight, 4-3, 5-2 and 7-2.
    At the same time, Port Arthur was needing six games to oust the Winnipeg Monarchs. The Bruins won 12-3 and 6-4 at home and then traveled to Winnipeg where they won 10-4, lost 7-5 and 5-3, and won 7-2.
    The western final -- now pay attention here -- opened with two games in Lethbridge. The next four were played in Port Arthur. And the seventh game was played in -- yes -- Maple Leaf Gardens, a purely logical site to decide the western Canadian junior hockey championship.
    Actually, in those days they preferred to play a seventh game at a neutral site. In this instance the Winnipeg Amphitheatre was tied up with an ice show, and with the Memorial Cup scheduled to open on April 24 in Maple Leaf Gardens, there wasn't time to move Lethbridge and Port Arthur as far west as Regina and then have the winner get to Toronto.
    Anyway, the Native Sons won their home games, 6-1 and 7-6. Port Arthur won its first home game, 7-4, lost the second, 5-4, and then won three in a row, 5-0, 6-4 and 11-1. That last game, in Toronto, was played on April 21 in front of about 1,200 fans.
    And so it was that Port Arthur advanced to the Memorial Cup final for the first time in 21 years. In 1927, Port Arthur had lost to the Owen Sound Greys.
    This time the opposition would be supplied by the Barrie Flyers. Coached by Leighton (Hap) Emms, a man on his way to becoming a hockey legend in the east, Barrie had never before reached the final.
    On the basis of what they had seen in Game 7 between Port Arthur and Lethbridge, the so-called experts were quick to establish the Flyers as heavy favourites.
    So you can imagine the shock and dismay when the Bruins opened the best-of-seven final with a 10-8 victory before 13,075 fans on April 24.
    Port Arthur held period leads of 2-0 and 8-3 in a game that wasn't as close as the final score would seem to indicate.
    Migay scored three times for the winners, with Lewicki and Alfie Childs adding two each. Dave Creighton, Fred Bacarri and Bart Bradley added one each.
    Barrie got two goals from each of Billy Barrett and Whit Mousseau, while Rusty Aikin, Stan Long, Bruno Favero and Alfie Guarda added one each.
    And already Emms was crying the blues, something that would become a trademark of his, not only in this series but in the years to follow.
    "We can't come back,” he moaned. “The team has too many injuries ... No, I don't think we can come back and I wouldn't be saying so if I thought differently.”
    Barrie's Jerry Reid (ankle) and Paul Meger (leg) were listed as doubtful starters for Game 2.
    Across the way, Lauzon was all smiles.
    "We may take the series in straight games and then again it may go the full seven,” he said. "The outcome will depend on the boys themselves.”
    Writing for the Regina Leader-Post, Dave Dryburgh reported: "Barrie's gaudily attired Flyers looked for two periods as if they had reached the Memorial Cup final by false pretenses; but Port Arthur Bruins were good sports about it all and proceeded to give a 20-minute show of how a good hockey team shouldn't peform ...
    "If the guys out west who holler about rough play had seen the game, they'd seek a court injunction to halt the series. Barrie has a character named (Ray) Gariepy who makes Moose Jaw's Jim Bedard look like a Lady Byng Trophy winner. But Mr. Gariepy made one mistake on one of his wild sallies and was flattened like a rug by Port Arthur's Benny Woit, who has been around a while, too. It was the bodycheck of the decade ...
    "Even those who like their hockey in the raw thought there was too much charging and boarding and the referees (Vic Lindquist of Winnipeg and Montreal's Ken Mullins) have been instructed to clamp down.”
    The Bruins romped 8-1 in Game 2 before 11,828 fans on April 26 and the sniping started.
    "We can't complain, but I've seen better officiating,” Lauzon said. "It was the first time I have ever seen a player banished for taking a swipe at the puck and clipping an opponent's boot tops in the process.”
    The Flyers dressing room was closed to reporters. Emms would be heard from later.
    Lewicki and Creighton led the way with two goals each. Robbie Wrightsell, Bacarri, Bob Fero and Childs added one each. Only Favero was able to score for Barrie.
    The Flyers were without Reid (ankle), while the Bruins played without forward Bill Johnson (bruised hip, knee).
    The Bruins closed to within one game of the title with a 5-4 victory in front of 11,555 fans on April 28.
    "The eastern champion Flyers surprised the fans by coming up with their best game to date,” reported The Canadian Press. "They kept pace with the slick Bruins almost throughout and came from behind three times to tie the score.
    "Flyers, however, didn't have the extra punch and drive to take over the lead any time. Bruins did not play as well as they did in the first two games and their defence suffered lapses at times while their forwards did little back-checking.”
    Bacarri, Childs, Lewicki, Pete Durham and Allan Forslund scored for the Bruins. Gil St. Pierre had two goals for Barrie, with Mousseau and Aikin adding one each.
    Forslund's goal, at 15:54 of the second period, broke a 4-4 tie. The teams played a scoreless third period.
    After the game, Emms announced to the world that his Flyers wouldn't play the Bruins in a fourth game without a change of referees. Lindquist and Mullins handled the first three games.
    "If they don't give us different referees, we won't show up,” Emms said. "They can suspend me or do anything they want, but we won't play.”
    The next day, Canadian Amateur Hockey Association president Al Pickard of Regina announced: "The fourth game will go on as scheduled ... and with the same referees.”
    Dryburgh wrote: "It doesn't matter if (Emms) does drop out because he won't win the cup anyway. But why he should insult the referees is beyond us. They've been extremely lenient with his Flyers who play in such robust fashion that it is evident they gave the rule book only a cursory glance.
    "What is annoying Emms is that Port Arthur Bruins have taken a liking to playing it he-man style, too. Ray Gariepy, the terror of the OHA, doesn't visit Benny Woit and Pete Durham any more. They've shown him a few tricks about carpet-laying and Bruins are calling all the shots in the series. Some papers said they were outclassed on Wednesday. That's all bosh. The Bruins were so over-confident that they hauled themselves down to Barrie's level. The Ports were flying on one wing and still won. They're home free in the series and they know it -- that's all that ails them.”
    When Game 4 began, the Flyers were without Long, a solid defenceman who had separated a shoulder in Game 3.
    The Bruins won the Memorial Cup on May 1, beating the Flyers 9-8 in overtime before 13,053 fans.
    "The game was the most bitterly contested seen in Toronto junior hockey in years,” reported The Canadian Press. "The lead changed hands several times as both clubs went all out for victory. Tempers flared and sticks crept high and referee Vic Lindquist of Winnipeg was attacked by a Barrie player in the overtime session.”
    Yes, indeed, Lindquist was given a going over by Guarda.
    Here's CP's report: "Early in overtime, Creighton put Bruins up 8-7 while both teams were at full strength. At the four-minute mark, referee Lindquist was rushed by Guarda of Barrie when the official tried to call a penalty against Barrie's (Sid) McNabney. Guarda threw several soft punches at the official, but players soon separated them.
    "Guarda was given a match misconduct penalty while (Ray) Mayer, who also did a little shoving, drew a misconduct and McNabney a minor at the same time.
    "Flyers would not resume play until the officials finally gave them two minutes to ice a team.”
    The Flyers were a man short when Mousseau tied the score 8-8. But Lewicki scored what turned out to be the winner at 8:37 of the overtime period.
    Creighton totalled four goals and two assists, while Lewicki and Bradley had two goals each. Childs scored Port Arthur's other goal. Reid had three goals for Barrie, while Mayer added two. Sid McNabney, Guarda and Mousseau added one each.
    "It was a tough game to win and a tougher one to lose,” Lauzon said. "I figure I should really head for the showers. I'm soaking wet.”
    Emms, meanwhile, was still talking about the officiating.
    Oh yes, he also found time to announce that he wouldn't be returning to the Flyers next season.

    NEXT: 1949 (Brandon Wheat Kings vs. Montreal Royals)
    Last edited by nivek_wahs; 06-12-2008 at 06:17 PM.

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