The Memorial Cup: A history . . . 1974

1974 MEMORIAL CUP
Regina Pats, St. Catharines Black Hawks and Quebec Remparts
at Calgary (Corral)

The 1973-74 junior hockey season was dominated by talk of money.
Salaries in professional sports had begun to escalate at an amazing rate. And the impact was beginning to be felt in junior hockey.
In early June of 1973, Dennis Sobchuk, an 18-year-old centre who would have a real impact on the 1974 Memorial Cup tournament, visited Las Vegas and San Diego.
The purpose of the visit? He and his father, Harry, were negotiating with the World Hockey Association's Los Angeles Sharks. Dennis, a farm boy from Milestone, Sask., with one season of junior eligibility remaining, was looking at a four-year deal worth a cool $350,000.
"We played it cool . . . we stayed cool,” said Harry, after negotiations ended without a contract being signed.
Dennis later would sign a 10-year, $1.7-million deal with the WHA's Cincinnati Stingers.
Charles Hillinger of the Los Angeles Times wrote: “The kid earns only $300 a month. Come fall his paycheck soars to $472 a day, $14,166 a month, $170,000 a year.”
Sobchuk couldn't believe it all.
"I've been skating since I learned to walk, but I sure never expected anything like this,” he said. "It all happened so sudden. My name on a piece of paper and I've gone from farmhouse to penthouse.”
Sobchuk was 19 when he signed for what at the time was the most money ever given to a junior hockey player.
The major junior leagues were concerned about possibly losing stars like Sobchuk before their time was up.
Said WCHL president Ed Chynoweth: "I am quite confident that our league and any other junior league that may lose a potential superstar would have no recourse but to lay an injunction against any of its players that left while still having a year of junior eligibility left . . . if professional teams are allowed to walk in and take our players, we are going to end up being a glorified juvenile league. We have to have some guarantee of protection while we are producing what we hope are top-notch professionals.”
Meanwhile, the WCHL made a major change to its playoff rules by choosing to go to sudden-death overtime for all games that might be tied after three periods. For the past three seasons, overtime was used only if the eighth game of a best-of-seven series (they were actually eight-point affairs) was tied after three periods.
Regina had raced through the regular season, finishing at 43-14-11, for 97 points. The Pats could play tough and didn't mind playing on the road -- as their 17-10-7 record away from home showed -- although they were the least-penalized team in the league.
And they won six playoff games on the road; in fact, they won each of their three postseason series away from home.
The Pats had three key performers -- Sobchuk, goaltender Ed Staniowski and defenceman Greg Joly.
Sobchuk was the star of a team coached by Bob Turner, who as a defenceman had won five consecutive Stanley Cups with the Montreal Canadiens in the late 1950s.
Sobchuk centred the Pats' top line in the playoffs, with big, burly Clarke Gillies on one wing and Rick Uhrich on the other. They scored 28 playoff goals.
The Pats had set a WCHL record for goals in a season (377). Sobchuk was second in the scoring race, with 146 points, including 68 goals, as he became the first WCHL player to total more than 400 points in three seasons.
Regina's second line featured Glen Burdon, Robbie Laird and Jim Minor, who spent much of their time checking the opposition's big line but still found time to outscore the other guys 20-13. Laird was the big surprise, leading the team with 11 playoff goals.
A third line comprised Dave Faulkner, Rob Tudor and Bill Bell.
Turner agreed, however, that the key to the club was on defence, where Joly, Kim MacDougall, Mike Harazny, Mike Wirachowsky and Dave Thomas ruled the roost.
And in goal they had Staniowski, the best goaltender in junior hockey, something borne out by a 2.92 GAA in the postseason as they eliminated the Saskatoon Blades in six games and Swift Current Broncos in six, and then swept the Calgary Centennials in the championship final.
Regina added goaltenders Garth Malarchuk (Calgary) and Larry Hendricks (Edmonton Oil Kings) as insurance. They wouldn't be needed as Staniowski was superb.
Turner had one concern as the team headed for Calgary, where the Memorial Cup would be decided in the Corral.
"The air is a lot thinner in Calgary and the Corral is quite a warm rink to play in,” he explained. "We want to win this thing badly so we want to go up there early and give the guys every opportunity to get familiar with the place.”
The Pats had made a trip to Sweden at Christmas and that, felt Turner, gave them an edge over other teams.
"The kids get along very well together, sort of like a family,” he said. "The trip we made . . . brought us closer together as a team and we're hoping something similar will happen on this trip.”
Turner, it would be fair to say, was more than a coach and he knew exactly what was his role.
"You have to be a psychologist from the start of training camp until the end of the season,” he stated. "But it is really crucial now. You can't start teaching them new ways of getting the puck out of their own end at this point.”
The Ontario champions this time around were the St. Catharines Black Hawks, who had finished second to the Kitchener Rangers in the regular season.
After the 1971-72 season, Hap Emms had sold the Niagara Falls Flyers (for more than $250,000) to a group from Sudbury. Three days after that deal was official, Emms bought the St. Catharines Black Hawks from Fred Muller.
Hap was the general manager and his son, Paul, was the coach. This was the same combination that had led Niagara Falls to the 1968 Memorial Cup title.
The Black Hawks could call on an offence led by the line featuring Rick Adduono between Dave Gorman and Dave Salvian. Adduono, with 135 points, had tied Jack Valiquette of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds for the league scoring title. Gorman, the right winger, chipped in with 53 goals and 76 assists, and Salvian had 36 goals and 61 helpers.
Emms went mostly with three lines. The other two had Greg Craig between Kevin Kenery and 18-year-old Wilf Paiement, who was rated one of junior hockey's best players, and Rick Hampton between Gary McAdam and Terry Casey. Paiement totalled 50 goals, 73 assists and a team-high 136 penalty minutes.
Mark Dumesnil, Jim Vanni and Mike Noonan saw spot duty up front.
Dave Syvret, Gary Lariviere, Larry Finck, Don Labreche and Ken Breitenbach were the regulars on defence. Individually, they weren't spectacular; as a group, no one played defence any better.
And in goal Bill Cheropita posted a 3.92 GAA in the regular season, improving that to 2.64 in the postseason. The Black Hawks added Peterborough goaltender Frank Salive for the Memorial Cup.
St. Catharines had gone unbeaten in the postseason, winning 12 and tying two of 14 games. The Black Hawks swept the Oshawa Generals in four games, then took out the Toronto Marlboros and Peterborough Petes, going 4-0-1 in each of the latter two series.
It was the fourth Ontario title in 41 years of junior hockey for St. Catharines, the others having come in 1954, 1960 and 1971.
Head coach Marc Picard's Quebec Remperts, meanwhile, were in the tournament for the the fourth time in five seasons. One year earlier, they had lost in the final game to the Toronto Marlboros.
This time around, the Remparts were led by the hottest line in junior hockey -- Jacques Locas, Real Cloutier and Richard Nantais.
Locas, who was already under contract to the World Hockey Association's Cincinnati Stingers, had totalled 99 goals and 206 points in 63 regular season games. That left him 10 points behind Cloutier, who had 93 goals and 216 points in 69 games. (Pierre Larouche of the Sorel Eperviers won the scoring title, with 251 points.) Nantais had 194 points, including 64 goals, and still found time to accumulate 213 penalty minutes.
If those three didn't score, well, there was always Guy Chouinard (75 goals, 85 assists), Daniel Beaulieu (45 and 59) and Michel Lachance (nine and 63).
Quebec's defence was full of holes, as the goals-against averages indicated -- Maurice Barrette was at 4.33 in 33 games, and Michel Corcoran was at 4.66 in 37 games. They added Robert Sauve of the Laval National for the tournament.
Quebec opened the playoffs by taking out the Shawinigan Bruins in four games and Laval in six.
The Remparts won the QMJHL final in six games over Sorel, never mind that the Eperviers had finished first in the regular season during which it had won five of eight games with the Remparts.
"It was very unexpected. Not too many people thought we could do it. But we really worked as a team and that's what won it,” offered James Bateman, perhaps the Remparts' toughest player.
Before the tournament began, Hap Emms was posturing. He threatened to take his team and go home. He threatened this; he threatened that.
He was upset that a school bus had been sent to pick up the Black Hawks at the aiport. He was upset that practice times had been changed.
He was, well, he was Hap Emms.
"I don't think that one man should be able to disrupt the whole thing,” said WCHL president Ed Chynoweth, a frequent Emms target. "But we're trying a new system and it has flaws.”
Already, there was talk of changing the format, either returning to a best-of-seven final or finding a way to add a fourth team to the tournament.
"Maybe,” speculated Pat Ginnell, owner-GM-head coach of the WCHL's Victoria Cougars, "it would work if Quebec had two teams when the Memorial Cup final was in Quebec, Ontario had two teams when it was in Ontario, and the west had two teams when the final was held out here.”
For now, it didn't matter. There were three teams and they were ready to go.
It began on May 5 with St. Catharines posting a 4-1 victory over Quebec before 6,577 fans in the Corral.
Hampton, the 17-year-old centre who captained the team, scored twice for the Black Hawks who won it with three goals in the third period.
"It's rare to have a captain so young,” stated Hap Emms. "But he's mature and . . . probably our best hockey player. He's an outstanding leader.”
Gorman and Dumesnil had the other goals for St. Catharines. Cloutier scored for the Remparts.
"We just didn't play solid hockey,” Picard said. "We didn't skate well and we didn't shoot enough.”
The Black Hawks ran at the Remparts in the first period but then pulled back for the final 40 minutes.
"We didn't try to intimidate them,” insisted Paul Emms. "Our style is to check, and that's all we were doing in the first period. This was the first time I've seen the Remparts and I didn't know if they could be intimidated.”
The Black Hawks now had to meet Regina the following night.
"It stinks, this round-robin,” Paul Emms moaned. "There was nothing wrong with the old best-of-seven format. This way we have to play two games in a row.”
Oh yes, he also didn't like the air.
"There's a dryness in the air out here,” he said. "It just seems to sap our guys' energy.”
His father, however, felt it was simply a case of the Black Hawks not playing very well.
"We played about half as well as we can,” said the 69-year-old Emms. "Anybody could tell we're a better club than we showed tonight.”
The next night, with 7,415 fans in the seats, Staniowski blocked 29 shots as the Pats hung a 4-0 whipping on St. Catharines.
Joly was the best skater on the ice and had two goals to show for it.
"When everyone plays well, like we did tonight, it makes my job a heck of a lot easier,” Joly said. "We knew we had to win. You can't lose any in this thing.”
Laird and Uhrich also scored for the Pats, who led 2-0 and 4-0 by period.
Observers agreed that this game may well have been decided in the first 10 seconds. Finck chose to run at Laird right off the bat. Not only did the Regina forward not turn away, but he pummelled the Black Hawks defenceman. After the game, Laird was talking about having "a couple of sore hands.” Before the first period was out, Gillies had pounded on McAdam, and Sobchuk and Paiement also went at it.
It was apparent that Paul Emms was trying to get to Sobchuk.
Dale Eisler of the Regina Leader-Post described one incident:
"Emms didn't even attempt to try to disguise his intentions in the second period when he sent out fifth-string defenceman Don Labreche to take a faceoff with Sobchuk deep in Pats territory.
"As soon as the puck was dropped, Labreche jumped Sobchuk. Two minutes later, more fighting erupted when Gillies wrestled Paiement to the ice and Finck tried to even his grudge with Laird, using the attack-from-the-rear method.
"When order was restored, Laird and Hawks' Greg Craig had been given game misconducts. The Emms' strategy blew up in his face as Pats put the game away with goals by Uhrich and Joly while Hawks were suffering a manpower shortage.”
Sobchuk indicated the abuse he was subjected to, especially from Paiement, didn't particularly bother him.
"I'm not really used to it,” Sobchuk said, "but it doesn't bother me. Swift Current used to give me a hard time too, but it's something you have to learn to play with.”
Many hockey people felt that Emms spent far too much time trying to stop Sobchuk, which meant the Black Hawks all but forgot about Joly.
As for Turner, he said: "No one would have beat us tonight. This is one of the finest games we've played all season.”
Following a day off for all teams, the Remparts surprised most everyone by beating Regina 5-3 on May 8 in front of 7,140 fans.
That result left all three teams at 1-1, and Regina went through to the final on goals differential. Regina was plus-2, St. Catharines and Quebec both were minus-1.
Picard said later that he would have pulled Sauve had his club gone ahead by three goals. A four-goal victory would have pushed the Black Hawks into the final.
"We weren't ready, that's all,” Turner said. "The guys weren't fired up like they were for Monday's game against the Black Hawks. Maybe the loss will do us some good.”
Quebec got goals from Beaulieu, Chouinard, Richard Perron, Jean Gagnon and Nantais. Burdon, Laird and Uhrich scored for Regina. Each team scored three times with the man advantage.
"We were a little bit overconfident,” Sobchuk said. "The loss may be good for us; we never did anything the easy way all year.”
Staniowski, who had been perfect two nights earlier, was anything but on this night.
"There's no sense talking too much tonight,” he said. "I've got no excuses. Everybody worked their butts off to win and I played like I was out there for a joy ride.”
Laird was battling again, this time with Nantais, who posted a unanimous decision. Laird was left with a swollen left eye.
"We weren't up for it like the game before,” Laird said. "There just wasn't the same life in the team.”
Picard, for one, said he had been looking for a different kind of game.
"I expected a rougher game,” he said, "but it didn't work out like that. I knew we could player better. We had to play better and we can play etter yet.”
Turner praised the Remparts.
"They were super,” he said. "Maybe they just wouldn't let us play as well as we wanted to.”
One player who really wanted to forget this game was Faulkner, one of the Pats’ centres. He was forced from the game in the third period with a dislocated elbow. Earlier, he had had to retire to the dressing room for 13 stitches after being hit above one eye with the puck while seated on the bench. The elbow injury would end his season.
The following day, with the Black Hawks and Remparts preparing for the next day's semifinal, Turner decided to take the heat off his players.
He did so by pointing fingers at a recent phenomenon -- the player agent.
"I made it specific when we came here that I didn't want any of the players talking to agents,” Turner told Eisler. "All the players told me that they wouldn't get involved with them, but today I had to kick two of them out of one of the agent's rooms.
"If I catch any more of our players talking to lawyers or agents, then they won't play in the national final. I don't care who they are. And if (GM Del) Wilson won't back me up, I'll resign. He will, though.”
The dilemma, as Turner saw it, was this: "How can you make kids think about hockey when they're thinking about thousands of dollars?”
Two people singled out by Turner were Alan Eagleson and Norm Kaplan.
"Alan Eagleson was sitting right in my room,” Turner said, "and he promised me that he wouldn't bother the players. ‘I've got more class than that' was what he told me. And Norm Kaplan promised the same thing, too.
“Well, I caught two players in Eagleson's room and Kaplan talked to two others behind my back.”
It was, indeed, a new era in junior hockey.
"(Agents) are't worrying about the kids,” Turner said. "All they want is their eight per cent. That's what Kaplan got for signing Sobchuk last year. What did the team get? Nothing. I'm sick and tired of that.”
Turner concluded: "Agents are tops on my (bleep) list. They are parasites.”
Hap Emms was in agreement with Turner and wondered if, in fact, agents had something to do with Paiement not playing especially well.
"He's a great hockey player,” Emms said. "He has not played as well in this series as he can play. I think something should be done to help us protect young men from agents who do not care about the men and do not care about the game.
"There is no one-word answer. But there must be an answer.”
The next day, the spotlight was again on the ice.
The Remparts moved into the final with an 11-3 whipping of St. Catharines.
It was a bitter end for the Blackhawks. They went 1-2 in the Memorial Cup after a 12-0-2 run in their league playoffs.
"I don't know how to explain it,” Hap Emms said. "Our club hasn't been sharp since it won the OHA crown. I think we peaked then.
"When our club isn't hitting, then they're not playing. I don't know why we didn't play a more physical game. All I can say is the players weren't told not to hit.”
Hap was left to face reporters when Paul didn't appear for the post-game chat with reporters.
The Remparts, who held period leads of 1-0 and 5-2, got three goals from Cloutier and two each from Locas and Beaulieu in front of 6,745 fans. Perron, Chouinard, Lachance and Andre Perreault added one each. Chouinard also had four assists.
Adduono, Dumensil and Paiement scored for St. Catharines.
"I didn't expect us to win 11-3,” Picard said, "but we played a good game. The guys worked for it.
"I think they tried to force us in our end. But our defence passed the puck faster than in the first game. We have a mobile defence and when they play their kind of game we do well.”
There were 7,382 fans in the Corral for the final on May 12. They watched Quebec, on goals from Charles Constantin, Perreault and Locas, take a 3-0 lead before the first period was 12 minutes old.
But Sobchuk promised some offence and then came through, scoring two goals and setting up another in the second period and adding another goal in the third as the Pats won 7-4.
Trailing 3-1 after the first period, Turner walked into the dressing room prepared to try to fire up his boys.
"Sobchuk got up and said, ‘You don't have to say a word',” Turner said. "He said, ‘We're going to win this game,' so I just turned around and walked out. They went out and played like gangbusters.”
Uhrich, named the tournament's all-star right winger, and Burdon, the all-star centre, also scored for Regina, as did Tudor and Gillies.
Locas added a second goal for Quebec in the third period.
"We've been down before and come back and we knew we could do it again,” Sobchuk said. "I think the turning point was when we started hitting them in the second period.”
Turner felt a unanimous decision by Gillies over Nantais at 13:10 of the second period turned it around. The score was 3-3 at the time, but Uhrich scored 1:13 after the fight, at 14:23, and Sobchuk added what proved to be the winner at 15:52.
Regina outshot Quebec 52-31 and only Remparts goaltender Bob Sauve kept it as close as it was.
"This,” said Turner, "means more to me than anything else in hockey . . . even five Stanley Cups.”
It was Regina's first Memorial Cup title since 1930.
"When it was 3-0, I was shook up pretty good,” Turner said. "I thought we might be waiting another 44 years.”
Six years later, Turner was still in seventh heaven.
"I was on five Stanley Cup teams,'' he told The Leader-Post's Arnie Tiefenbach, "but got a bigger thrill out of winning that one Memorial Cup.
"You live with these players and you work with them and you know that a lot of them are going to go somewhere. And maybe, just maybe, what you did played a small part in it.”

NEXT: 1975 (New Westminster Bruins, Sherbrooke Castors and Toronto Marlboros)