The Memorial Cup: A history . . . 1973

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

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

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