1953 MEMORIAL CUP
St. Boniface Canadiens vs. Barrie Flyers
at Winnipeg (Amphitheatre) and Brandon (Wheat City Arena)
Yes, Don Cherry really did play in a Memorial Cup championship.
It was the spring of 1953 and he was a defenceman with the Barrie Flyers.
The Flyers, coached by Leighton (Hap) Emms, eliminated the Quebec Citadels, winning the fifth game of a best-of-seven Eastern Canadian final 7-3 to advance.
Among Cherry's teammates were Doug Mohns, Orv Tessier, Skip Teal, goaltender Marv Edwards, who was picked up from the St. Catharines Teepees, and captain Don McKenney.
(Wondering from where Cherry got his chutzpah? During a semifinal series against the Toronto-St. Michael's Majors, Emms sent Turk Broda, the opposing coach, a book -- How To Coach Hockey.)
The Flyers would travel west to meet coach Bryan Hextall's St. Boniface Canadiens, who won the Abbott Cup with a seven-game series victory over the Lethbridge Native Sons. The Canadiens won four games (including a 12-1 victory in Game 7), with two losses and a tie.
It was St. Boniface's first western junior title since 1938 when the Seals won the Memorial Cup.
The Canadiens featured Ab McDonald, Cec Hoekstra, Al Johnson, goaltender Hal Dalkie and captain Syd White.
The Memorial Cup final would be played at the Winnipeg Amphitheatre, with the exception of Game 2 which was scheduled for the Wheat City Arena in Brandon.
Eastern teams had won the last four titles and the Flyers, winners in 1951 with Emms coaching, went in as 8-to-5 favorites.
The series opened on April 27 with Teal's two goals and two assists leading the Flyers to a 6-4 victory before a sellout crowd of 5,000.
Game 1 was carried on St. Boniface radio station CKSB, the first time in Manitoba history the national final had been broadcast in French.
The Canadiens led 3-1 after the first period and 4-2 after the second, but gave up four third-period goals.
McKenney, playing on Teal's wing, had a goal and three assists. Jim Robertson, Tony Poeta and Tessier added one each.
Gary Blaine, with two, Leo Konyk and Barry Thorndycraft replied for St. Boniface.
One highlight was a goal in which Blaine roared down the left boards, changed hands on his stick and rifled a low drive into the net at 2:47 of the first period.
The Flyers hadn't been on skates for more than three days and it showed as the Canadiens dominated early.
But once the Flyers got their legs, they took over.
"We're not licked yet,” said Edwin Hansford, the St. Boniface mayor.
In Game 2, played April 29 in Brandon, the Canadiens held a 3-2 lead early in the third period but gave up four straight goals and lost 6-3, leaving a crowd of 4,800 stunned with the outcome.
The roof fell in shortly after White took a cross-checking penalty at 12:56 of the third period with the scored tied 3-3. Barrie scored three times with White in the penalty box.
Centre Johnny Martan scored three times for the Flyers, including the goal that tied the score 3-3.
After White was sent off, Teal (13:53), Martan (14:28) and Poeta (14:35) put it away for Barrie. All three goals came on rebounds.
Poeta finished with two goals and two assists. Tessier checked in with five assists.
Blaine had two goals for St. Boniface with Thorndycraft getting the other.
"We beat ourselves in that game,” Hextall said, "and now we've got to get the next one.”
After Game 2, Emms got together with the city of Brandon and put in a request for Game 4 to be held there. But the CAHA turned that down, although it did say a Game 6, if needed, would be held in Brandon.
Back in the Amphitheatre, Barrie went up 3-0 on May 1 by winning Game 3 7-5 before more than 5,000 fans.
The Flyers led 1-0 after the first period. St. Boniface would forge a 2-2 tie in the second period but fell behind 4-2 before the middle frame ended.
Edwards was spectacular in stopping 34 shots, many from right on top of him. At the other end, Dalkie blocked 41 but he wasn't as severely tested as was Edwards.
Tessier and McKenney led Barrie with two goals each. Teal, Poeta and Martan added one each, with Martan chipping in with three assists.
Blaine had two goals for St. Boniface for the third straight game. McDonald also scored twice, with Len Thornson getting the other. Thornson also had two helpers.
While most people were predicting a sweep, the Canadiens stayed alive with a 7-4 victory on May 4 that broke the east's 12-game Memorial Cup winning streak. The west hadn't won a game since Game 4 of the 1950 final when the Regina Pats beat the Montreal Junior Canadiens, 7-4.
Prior to the game, which was played before more than 5,000 fans, the Canadiens had received a telegram from Montreal Canadiens head man Frank Selke urging them to "go out and win.” Which is just what they did.
Konyk, Bill Short, Thorndycraft, Lou Marius, Gabe Pankhurst, Blaine and Thornson scored for the winners. Teal, with two, Cherry (on a long screened shot) and Mohns replied for Barrie.
The Canadiens owned this game from the outset, holding period leads of 2-0 and 5-1.
The Flyers were virtually without Poeta, a speedy winger who had suffered a knee injury in Game 3. Game but injured, he was limited to three short shifts in the first two periods of Game 4.
Emms, meanwhile, was blasting officials Ching McDonald and Louis Lecompte of Montreal as "the worst I have ever seen.”
Then, he hammered away at the Amphitheatre: "It was just a pool of water. In fact, the whole set-up at this barn is a disgrace.”
Sheesh . . . and he was leading the series 3-1.
It ended on May 6 with Barrie posting a 6-1 victory before another capacity crowd of more than 5,000.
The Flyers led 2-1 and 5-1 by periods and coasted to the title.
Robertson, with two, Mohns, Ralph Willis, Tessier and Cherry scored for the Flyers. Konyk had the Canadiens' lone goal.
The Cup-winning goal came from Willis at 4:43 of the first period on a screened shot from the blue line.
For the record, Cherry had one assist in Game 1, was kept off the scoresheet in Game 2, picked up one minor penalty in Game 3, had a goal in Game 4 (one report said he was "a standout“), and scored once in Game 5 during which he also picked up a fighting major and a minor.
The Cherry legend includes -- or doesn't include, depending upon to whom you are speaking -- an incident from Game 5 that included Blaine, a St. Boniface defenceman of immense potential whose career would fall victim to the demon rum, and Cherry.
Legend has it that Blaine actually chased Cherry around the Amphitheatre in an attempt to get him to fight.
As Winnipeg Free Press columnist Hal Sigurdson recounted in June of 1996, "Blaine's teammate, Ab McDonald . . . says it was Cherry. So does former provincial cabinet minister Larry Desjardins, who was general manager of Blaine's St. Boniface Canadiens at the time.”
As for Blaine . . .
"To be honest,” he told Sigurdson, "I'm not sure.
"Orval Tessier had just slashed our goaltender, Hal Dalkie, and I drilled him. When he went down I tried to pick him up, but he turtled. I'd never seen a guy do that before. Anyway, I heard another of their players chirping so I went after him. He took off and I chased him. When I asked our guys who it was they told me his name was Don Cherry.”
Cherry's totals for the series : 5 games played, 2 goals, 1 assist, 3 points and nine penalty minutes. Oh, and a Memorial Cup ring.