1937 MEMORIAL CUP
Winnipeg Monarchs vs. Copper Cliff Redmen
at Toronto (Maple Leaf Gardens)
The year was 1918 and the First World War was drawing to a close.
Two Saskatchewan athletes -- Lyman (Hick) Abbott and Charlie McCool -- were good friends who were eagerly awaiting war's end. But before the end came there were battles to be fought.
Abbott lost his life in one of those battles; McCool lost an arm in another.
Shortly after the war's conclusion, the Abbott Memorial Cup, in memory of Hick Abbott, was put into play. It would go to the winner of the western Canadian junior hockey championship.
In the 1930s, McCool found himself as the manager of the Saskatoon Wesleys. They won the Abbott Cup in 1936 and were back to defend it in 1937.
The Wesleys, coached by Dunc Farmer and featuring goaltender Charlie Rayner and centre Sid Abel, defeated the Edmonton Rangers, 4-0 and 5-1, and then got past the Trail Smoke Eaters, 5-0 and 5-1.
Meanwhile, coach Harry Neil's Winnipeg Monarchs capped off a stretch of nine games in 15 days by ousting Port Arthur, 8-2 and 8-0.
That set up a best-of-three western final between Winnipeg and Saskatoon, with all games played at the Winnipeg Amphitheatre.
The Monarchs would prevail, winning the opener 5-2 (Winnipeg's Remi Vandaele tied the score 2-2 on a penalty shot), losing the second game 6-5 on an overtime goal by Eddie Martinson, and then taking the series with a 6-1 victory.
At least three players off that Winnipeg team -- captain Alf Pike, Pete Langelle and Johnny McCreedy -- would play in the NHL. Pike and McCreedy were on the Monarchs' top line, along with Dick Kowcinak. Also on this team was left-winger Paul Rheault, a star on the 1935 Memorial Cup-champion Monarchs. Rheault would suffer a cut thigh in the second game of the western final, however, and his impact was negligent afterwards.
In the meantime, the Copper Cliff Redmen were headed for a date with the Ottawa Rideaus in the eastern final.
The Redmen defeated Timmins 5-3 and 11-2 to win the Copeland Cup as champions of the Northern Ontario Hockey Association. They then ousted St. Michael's College of Toronto, 5-2 and 8-2, and the Montreal Victorias, 4-1 and 10-4.
The Rideaus advanced to the eastern final by dumping Amherst, N.S., 5-4 and 7-5.
Copper Cliff made quick work of the Rideaus, however, hammering them 12-3 and 12-1. At that point, the Redmen had outscored their playoff opponents, 67-19.
The Redmen, coached by Max Silverman, featured goaltender Mel Albright and players like Jack (John) Shewchuk, Robert (Red) Hamill and Pat McReavy. Copper Cliff's big line featured McReavy, Hamill and Roy Heximer -- they totalled 21 points in the 12-1 victory over Ottawa.
The Canadian Amateur Hockey Association announced that all games in what was now a best-of-five Memorial Cup final would be played at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens, and that the referees would be Clarence Campbell of Edmonton and Cecil (Babe) Dye of Toronto.
"I don't know much about the eastern junior teams,” said Neil, whose club entered the final with an overall record of 25-5-3. "But I believe we have a good chance.”
Winnipeg goaltender Zenon (Zeke) Ferley, 18, was just thrilled to be in the national final.
"Ever since I was a little kid playing on corner lots, I dreamed of the day when I would turn aside pucks for the Western Canadian champions,” he said.
Two days before the series was scheduled to open, Alphonse Therien, registrar and secretary-treasurer of the Quebec Amateur Hockey Association, charged the Redmen with violating the "true ideals of junior eligibility” by using ineligible players.
In a letter to the CAHA, Therien wrote:
"We wonder if you have any new developments on the ages of the Copper Cliff players?
"Do we have to wait until said team participates in the finals before the investigation is complete?
"We in Quebec are in a position to satisfy anyone on our junior groups. We have made careful researches and are informed that player Shewchuk is using a different name than in Brantford, Ont. Dick Perry did not arrive up in the north in time to qualify for the residence rule.”
The CAHA refused to hear a protest from Quebec and the series opened in amazing fashion on April 10.
"Redmen, in a spectacular finish, drubbed the young westerners 4-3 in overtime and after the game a large crowd cheered conquerors and conquered alike,” reported The Canadian Press.
As incredible as it may sound, Winnipeg held a 3-0 lead with less than two and a half minutes to play in the third period.
"We were lucky to win -- it must have been heartbreaking for those Winnipeg kids,” said Silverman. "But our boys showed they had the fight -- I never saw anything like it. I know Redmen can play much better -- if Monarchs can play any better, boy, what a series this will be.”
McCreedy scored in the first period and goals by Pike and McCreedy in the first two minutes of the third gave Winnipeg the 3-0 lead.
Copper Cliff's comeback began when Heximer scored at 17:39 of the third. He added a second goal at 18:30 and then drew an assist when McReavy tied it at 19:16.
The winner, from Hamill, came 4:59 into overtime.
Still, Neil wasn't too concerned.
"Say,” he said, "this Copper Cliff isn't in it with Portage la Prairie. And look what we did to Portage. They beat us 7-2 in the first game and then we came back to win two straight and take the series.
"Copper Cliff will be just a pushover from now on.”
The Monarchs, described as "courageous purple kids from Winnipeg,” evened the series on April 12, winning 6-5 after two periods of overtime before more than 8,000 fans.
Copper Cliff led 2-0 early in the second period on two goals by Alf Webster. But Winnipeg went ahead 3-2 on goals by McCreedy, Jack Fox and Kowcinak (who would have two goals and three assists), only to have the Redmen tie it when Walter Zuke scored.
Heximer and McCreedy traded third-period goals to force the overtime.
The Redmen took a 5-4 lead 34 seconds into the second extra period. But Winnipeg roared back, tying it at 2:31 on Kowcinak's second goal and winning it on Fox's goal at 5:47.
To this point, the Monarchs had yet to use two injured players -- Rheault and right-winger Jack Atcheson (bruised ankle) -- both of whom were well-known as scorers. Rheault would return to action in the third game; Atcheson would miss the entire series.
The third game, played on April 14, was a goaltending duel between Ferley, who stopped 17 shots, and Albright, who blocked 20.
Ferley emerged on top, however, as the Monarchs won, 2-1.
Langelle scored the only goal of the first period, with Webster pulling the Redmen even at 7:08 of the second period.
Pike's goal, on a one-timer off a give-and-go with Kowcinak, with four minutes left in the second period stood up as the winner.
"Winnipeg's jubilant Monarchs crowded into a rousing, cheering dressing room,” reported The Canadian Press, "with the song and battle cry ‘We Don't Give a Damn for All the Rest of Canada.' ”
The series ended on the afternoon of April 17 before 11,455 paying customers.
"Climaxing one of the most spectacular junior series in history,” The Canadian Press reported, "the Winnipeggers whitewashed Copper Cliff Redmen 7-0.”
Copper Cliff had a distinct edge in play in the first period but wasn't able to score.
When the Monarchs erupted for three goals in the first period the writing was on the wall.
McCreedy, a 20-year-old playing his final junior game, scored four times. His first, at 5:24 of the second period, proved to be the winner. Singles came from Vandaele, Martell and Rheault.
"We were beaten by a better team,” Silverman said. "I can speak now and I can say these Monarchs are just about the best junior team I've seen.
"You can take it from me we lost to a honey of a club.”
Ferley, who stopped 25 shots for the shutout, said: "I don't know what to think or what to say.”
It's worth noting that Langelle is one of three Winnipeg-born players to play on a Memorial Cup-winner and score the Stanley Cup-winning goal for the Toronto Maple Leafs. The others: Cal Gardner and Andy Bathgate.
Langelle scored the winner for the Leafs in the spring of 1942. Gardner, who won the Memorial Cup with the 1942-43 Winnipeg Rangers, got the Stanley Cup-winning goal in the spring of 1949. Bathgate, a member of the Memorial Cup-winning Guelph Biltmore Mad Hatters in 1952, had the 1964 Stanley Cup-winner for the Leafs.
Other prominent Memorial Cup graduates to score Stanley Cup-winning goals include: Harold (Mush) March, 1927-28 Regina Monarchs, 1933-34 Chicago Blackhawks; Lawrence (Baldy) Northcott, 1940-41 Winnipeg Rangers coach, 1934-35 Montreal Maroons; Bobby Bauer, 1933-34 St. Michael's Majors, 1940-41 Boston Bruins; Toe Blake, 1931-32 Sudbury Cub Wolves, Stanley Cup-winners for the Montreal Canadiens in 1944 and 1946; Dickie Moore, 1948-49 and 1949-50 Montreal Junior Canadiens, 1956-57 Montreal Canadiens; and, J.C. Tremblay, 1957-58 Ottawa-Hull Canadiens, 1967-68 Montreal Canadiens.
NEXT: 1938 (St. Boniface Seals vs. Oshawa Generals)
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