1976 MEMORIAL CUP
New Westminster Bruins, Hamilton Fincups and Quebec Remparts
at Montreal (Forum)
Ernie McLean and his New Westminster Bruins were back for a second of what would be four consecutive trips to the Memorial Cup tournament.
This year the tournament would be played in the Montreal Forum. And, again, it would be a three-team round-robin, the fifth year in a row this format had been used.
This time the opposition was provided by Bert Templeton's Hamilton Fincups (Dale McCourt was their captain) and the Quebec Remparts, coached by Ron Racette.
Hamilton counted on goaltender Mark Locken and the likes of McCourt, Ric Seiling and Joe Contini.
The Fincups advanced by ousting the Sudbury Wolves in five games from the eight-point Ontario final. Prior to that, they had coasted past the Kitchener Rangers and Toronto Marlboros.
By the time Templeton and his players opened the Memorial Cup tournament they hadn't played a game in 11 days.
The Remparts had been the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League's third-best regular-season team. Their 86 points won the East Division, but left them behind the Sherbrooke Castors (111) and Cornwall Royals (87), who topped the West Division.
Quebec opened the playoffs by eliminating the Sorel Eperviers in five games, and then swept the Royals in four straight to win a semifinal series. In the final, the Remparts took out the Castors in six games, although they scored just 25 goals in the process.
This was a Quebec team that, believe it or not, won and lost on defence -- it allowed only 21 goals in the league final.
The Remparts, without a scorer in the top 10, scored only 336 regular-season goals (fifth in the 10-team league) and yet took out Sherbrooke, which had totalled 514 goals. The Remparts, however, allowed just 288, the third-best total, the key being goaltender Maurice Barrette.
The Remparts' defensive brigade was led by Jean Gagnon, voted the QMJHL's top defenceman, and Mario Marois.
The Bruins, meanwhile, took their reputation with them when they traveled east.
These were the big, bad and burly Bruins. Their roster featured eight players with more than 145 penalty minutes, including defenceman Barry Beck, at 325.
But unlike the team that had reached the final a year ago, this team could score. It had four players with more than 100 points -- Fred Berry (146), Rick Shinske (143), Steve Clippingdale (117) and Mark Lofthouse (116). Defencemen Brad Maxwell and Beck each came in with 99 points.
This was, indeed, a team that could play it just about any way you wanted.
The Bruins opened postseason play by sweeping the Brandon Wheat Kings from a best-of-nine series, and then won a best-of-seven semifinal from the Victoria Cougars in five, winning four and tying one.
That set up a best-of-seven championship final with the Saskatoon Blades. It went seven games, too, the Bruins winning four and tying one.
Due to the final going the distance, the Bruins won the WCHL championship just three nights before the Memorial Cup tournament opened.
And they arrived knowing that goaltender Blaine Peterson wouldn't be able to play after breaking his collarbone in the warmup prior to Game 1 against Saskatoon. To replace him, McLean picked up Brandon goaltender Glen Hanlon. The Bruins other goaltender was Carey Walker, whose brother Larry would go on to some fame of his own in baseball's major leagues.
Quebec and Hamilton opened the tournament before 7,400 fans on May 9, the Remparts winning 4-3 behind Barrette's 45-save performance.
The Remparts actually held a 3-0 lead going into the third period but they were hanging on at the end.
Centre Remi Levesque opened the scoring in a penalty-filled first period, and Gagnon and right-winger Eddy Godin struck for goals 27 seconds apart in the closing moments of the second period.
Steve Hazlett and Seiling got the Fincups to within one at 3-2 with five minutes to play, only to have Yvan Hamelin score what proved to be the winner at 17:14. Hazlett added a second goal at 19:56.
Hamilton, which fired 21 third-period shots at Barrette, outshot Quebec 48-25.
The next night, in front of another crowd of 7,400, the Bruins dumped the Remparts 4-2.
The Bruins jumped out to a 4-1 first-period lead and then manhandled Quebec for the last two periods of what became a fight-filled contest.
Beck, Harold Phillipoff, Clayton Pachal (with the Bruins two men short) and Shinske scored for New Westminster. Denis Turcotte and Jean Chouinard replied for the Remparts.
"We really didn't know what to expect from them,” Beck said. "The team we played from here (Sherbrooke) last year skated, so we knew we had to throw the body on them.
"Our game plan was to be aggressive -- throw the body. We had to cut down this year in the playoffs a little bit because we kept getting penalties -- we got some dumb penalties tonight, too.”
Referee Blair Graham of Oakville, Ont., handed out a dozen fighting majors and 17 minor penalties.
Walker was to have started in goal but took a shot off a shoulder in the pregame warmup and gave way to Hanlon, who went on to stop 23 shots. Barrette, in what would be his final appearance in the tournament, turned aside 38.
"We had a bad start,” Racette stated. "We've got a young hockey club and we kept coming on stronger and stronger. At times we were trying to play hockey standing still. You can't do that. If we play 60 minutes of hockey, I think we can beat them.”
Beck said the Bruins were surprised with the way the Remparts played.
"They didn't really forecheck us,” he said. "They let us come out of our own end. Usually, we're used to two men coming in at us.”
And Shinske pointed out something this team was growing tired of saying: "We're not just a physical team. We can play hockey, too. We have some guys who can put the puck in the net.”
The Remparts lost Barrette the next day, an off-day in the tournament, when he was hospitalized and underwent an immediate appendectomy.
That left Racette to choose between backup Grant McNicholl, who saw little action behind Barrette; Yves Guillemette, who was added from Shawinigan but hadn't played since the Dynamos were eliminated, almost a month previous; and, Gino Yanire of the Hull Festivals.
The Fincups, preparing to meet the Bruins, now knew what to expect. They said they would show up anyway.
"Hitting isn't going to stop us,” Templeton said. "We use a lot of contact drills in our practices so we can take the rough going.
"You can be small but physically strong. We have some small players who are exceptionally strong.”
The difference on May 12 was special teams.
The Fincups struck for seven power-play goals as they beat the Bruins 8-4 in front of 3,550 fans.
"Everybody says our power play isn't worth a damn,” Templeton said after his club had earned a berth in the tournament final.
With each of the three teams at 1-1, the Fincups went through on the best goals-for and goals-against ratio -- plus-three. The Bruins were minus-two; the Remparts minus-one.
Contini scored three goals and set up three others, and Seiling chipped in with two goals and four assists. Hazlett, with two, and Cal Herd had Hamilton's other goals.
Stan Smyl, with two, Shinske and Maxwell scored for the Bruins.
Templeton said the key to his power play was that "we were just finishing off our plays.”
"Listen,” he said, "we're not a big team. Our style isn't brutality, and we made sure not to play their style of hockey.”
Hamilton scored five power-play goals and led 6-1 after a first period that featured 70 minutes in penalties, including 12 fighting majors.
Yes, referee Marcel Vaillancourt of Sherbrooke had his hands full.
And, yes, when it was over McLean was calling the head official "incompetent.”
At 6:17 of the opening period, Hamilton lost Ed Smith, Archie King, Ted Long and Mike Fedorko with majors. The Bruins to take majors were Don Hobbins, Smyl and Maxwell, with Pachal taking a double major. About a minute later, Beck was hit with another major, leaving the Bruins two men short.
The Fincups scored five times on Walker before he was replaced by Hanlon, who was beaten on the first shot he saw. Hamilton led 6-1 on the scoreboard and held a 17-1 edge in shots on goal.
"We decided it would be foolish to take bad penalties and it paid off -- we had six power-play goals, didn't we?” Contini said. "Part of the game is aggressiveness, but sometimes you have to pay the price, and tonight they paid that price.”
The Bruins by now were awash in a sea of bad ink, and they were determined to do something about it.
"We're not goons and we don't go around looking for fights,” Beck said as they prepared to meet Quebec in the semifinal game. "We've come here to win the Memorial Cup and we're going to win it.
"We outscored (Hamilton) in the second and third so we know we can handle them. But we can't take those stupid penalties.”
The Bruins settled down in the semifinal on May 14. They didn't incur so much as one major penalty as they whomped the Remparts 10-3 before 8,262 spectators.
"They can play tough, they can play rough and they can play disciplined hockey,” McLean stated of his charges who took six of eight minors handed out by Graham.
Lofthouse scored four times, Phillipoff and Smyl added two each, and Pachal and Clippingdale had one apiece. Shinske drew four assists.
Val James, Michel Frechette and Jean Savard scored for Quebec, which used Yanire in goal.
Lofthouse opened the scoring just 14 seconds into the game, but the Remparts went up 2-1 as James and Frechette beat Hanlon before the game was four minutes old.
That prompted McLean to change goaltenders, only to have Walker beaten on the first shot he saw.
"I took Hanlon out because I wanted to talk to him,” McLean explained. "He was very nervous and I wanted to calm him down -- then the puck bounced on Walker for another goal.”
McLean reinserted Hanlon, and the redhead from Brandon didn't allow another goal.
"After the second period the guys really settled down and in the third they really played their game,” McLean said. "They moved the puck and they dumped it in the hole, and they weren't doing that before.”
Still, the Remparts were even with the Bruins at 3-3 when they lost Gagnon, their undisputed leader, to a bruised thigh at 10:25 of the second period.
The Bruins got goals from Phillipoff (10:39) and Pachal (11:11) inside of a minute later to take control.
"We could have done better,” Racette said, "but we came from last place in November to the Memorial Cup, so I have to say I'm proud of them.
"When Gagnon was hurt we missed him and that was the turning point in the game -- they got those two quick goals and that was it.”
Prior to the final, Templeton offered up his coaching philosophy:
"If you want a simple description of the game, you get the puck out of your end as fast as you can, you get it into their end as fast as you can, and you get on it as fast as you can.”
The Fincups did just that in the final on May 16. They grabbed a 3-1 first-period lead and went on to a 5-2 victory in front of 4,450 fans.
"That club that we played was a super hockey club,” Templeton said. "But I think the other day we made them change their style and today they were afraid to get rough.”
McCourt, selected the tournament's most valuable player, agreed.
"Intimidation is a pretty big word,” he said. "We aren't afraid of anybody, no matter how tough they are. When it came down to the final, they couldn't play tough or they would have hurt themselves.”
Mike Keating, Hazlett, King, Contini and Joe Kowal scored for Hamilton, which scored twice with the man advantage. Allen Fleck and Smyl counted for New Westminster.
Hanlon went the distance in goal for the Bruins, who were outshot 37-22.
"They beat us to the puck,” Hanlon said, "that's all there is to it. I don't think they have any more talent.”
The tournament all-star team featured Barrette, Gagnon, Beck, McCourt, Phillipoff and Seiling. Barrette was named the best goaltender, with Shinske being selected the most sportsmanlike player.
McCourt won a television set as the MVP and said the prize would certainly alter his family's lifestyle.
"We've got electricity but we've only got one plug,” he joked of the family home near Sudbury. "Now we'll have to unplug the radio to plug in the TV.”
NEXT: 1977 (New Westminster Bruins, Ottawa 67's and Sherbrooke Beavers)