1979 MEMORIAL CUP
Brandon Wheat Kings, Peterborough Petes and Trois-Rivieres Draveurs
at Sherbrooke (Le Palais de Sports), Trois-Rivieres (Colisee) and Verdun (Auditorium)
Gary Green was back with his Peterborough Petes. Michel Bergeron was back with his Trois-Rivieres Draveurs. The New Westminster Bruins were missing after four straight appearances, the last two of them ending in Memorial Cup championships.
Ernie (Punch) McLean, the Bruins' head coach, was there, but only as a spectator.
"We won the Memorial Cup in each of the past two seasons,” McLean said. "And if I'd known then what I know now, we would have won it the first time, too.”
McLean was referring to the numerous distractions placed in front of players at a Memorial Cup. At this tournament he would serve as an unofficial consultant to the WHL representative -- the Brandon Wheat Kings of head coach Dunc McCallum, a former Wheat Kings player and NHL defenceman.
The Wheat Kings were coming off their third straight superb WHL regular season.
In 1976-77, paced by the line of Bill Derlago, Brian Propp and Ray Allison, Brandon had the league's best record -- 54-10-8 -- but lost the championship final to the Bruins in five games.
In 1977-78, again with Derlago, Propp and Allison providing the spark, Brandon finished 46-12-14, the best record in the league. This time the Wheat Kings never got past the first round, losing out in a round-robin with the Regina Pats and Flin Flon Bombers.
Then came 1978-79, a season from which legends are built.
The Wheat Kings lost only five games as they went 58-5-9. Derlago had graduated, but Laurie Boschman fitted in nicely between Propp and Allison.
In fact, they finished one-two-three in the points derby. Propp led the WHL in goals (94), assists (100) and points (194). Allison was next with 153 points, including 93 assists, and Boschman had 149 points, including 66 goals. How dominant was this line? The WHL's next-highest point-getter was 24 points in arrears of Boschman.
Propp would add 15 goals and 23 assists in 22 playoff games, again the best in the league. Allison was second, with 37 points, and Boschman was fourth, at 34 points.
Those three got great support from the likes of Dave Stewart, Steve Patrick, Don Gillen, Brad Kempthorne, Brant Kiessig, Darren Gusdal, Kelly McCrimmon, Dave Chartier and Dave McDonald. McCrimmon, the team's best penalty-killing forward, would miss the Memorial Cup with a broken left arm suffered during a regular-season game in March. He would return to the Memorial Cup as part-owner and general manager of the Wheat Kings in 1995 and '96.
In the regular season, the Wheat Kings totalled 491 goals, the best in the league by 59 goals.
Defensively, led by Brad McCrimmon (Kelly's older brother), Wes Coulson, Tim Lockridge, Kelly Elcombe and Mike Perovich, and with Rick Knickle and Scott Olson in goal, Brandon surrendered only 230 goals, 35 fewer than anyone else.
Perovich, however, went down with a broken arm in February and it was an injury that, in hindsight, would severely hurt this team.
The Wheat Kings opened the playoffs in a first-round round-robin series. They went 7-1 and advanced with the Saskatoon Blades (3-5), while the Edmonton Oil Kings (2-6) went home.
Brandon then swept Saskatoon from a best-of-seven East Division final and went into a round-robin that also included the Lethbridge Broncos and Portland Winter Hawks.
Brandon and Portland each went 3-1 to eliminate Lethbridge (0-4).
And, in the championship final, the Wheat Kings got past the Winter Hawks in six games.
The Draveurs, meanwhile, went 58-8-6 and were easily the best of the QMJHL's teams. They scored 527 goals (the Sherbrooke Castors, at 406, were the only other team over 400) and allowed 233, the best in the league by 58.
Their offensive leader was centre Jean-Francois Sauve, who won the league scoring championship with 176 points, including 111 assists. Robert Mongrain helped out with 142 points, including 66 goals.
Sauve was the most prolific scorer in the postseason, too, with 38 points, including 19 goals.
And the defence corps featured Pierre Lacroix, the best offensive blueliner in junior hockey that season. He had 37 goals and an even 100 assists.
The Draveurs, getting superb goaltending from Jacques Cloutier, coasted through the playoffs with a 12-1-0 record, scoring 76 goals and allowing just 36.
First, they took out the Shawinigan Cataractes in four games. Next to fall were the Montreal Junior, in five. And, in the final, the Draveurs swept the Castors.
The Petes were, well, the Petes. They would throw a checking blanket over you and then score just enough to beat you, preferably by a goal, or two with an empty-netter.
They had 11 players back from the team that had lost to New Westminster in the 1978 final.
Among the forwards returning were Bob Attwell, Tim Trimper, Keith Crowder and Bill Gardner.
On defence, they were led by Larry Murphy and Dave Fenyves. And in goal the key was Ken Ellacott.
They didn't exactly coast through the postseason en route to the Memorial Cup.
First, they struggled with the Kingston Canadians, at one time trailing 6-4 in the eight-point series. Then, they took care of the Sudbury Wolves, 8-2. And, in the final, they were down 6-4 before getting past the Niagara Falls Flyers.
The Draveurs opened the tournament at home on May 6, their first game in 10 days. They responded by beating the Petes 4-3 before about 3,000 fans.
The Draveurs hadn't played in 10 days, but they were able to get the jump on early goals by Gaston Douville and Sauve.
Michel Normand and Bernard Gallant also scored for Trois-Rivieres.
Peterborough got two goals from Terry Bovair and one from Crowder.
"The first two periods, we were in trouble,” Bergeron said, "because we couldn't make a good pass and we couldn't skate the way we're capable of skating. In the third period, I was happy to see my boys skate the way they can.”
The Petes actually came back to tie the game, but Normand broke the 2-2 tie with a power-play goal after Ellacott had been penalized for slashing.
Gallant upped the lead to 4-2 before Crowder scored at 18:12 of the third period.
Cloutier, 18, was superb in stopping 36 shots.
"He's like that,” Bergeron said. "We played 72 regular-season games and 13 more in the playoffs. He's only 18 years old but he thinks like a man twice his age. He never wants to come out. He just loves to play in the nets.”
The Draveurs came back the next night, again on home ice, and beat Brandon 4-1 behind three goals from Mongrain before 3,105 fans.
The evening was highlighted by two pregame incidents, the second of which erupted into a full-scale donnybrook and set the stage for a fight-filled game.
"If we played these guys 16 times in a season, we'd likely have 15 brawls,” Brad McCrimmon said.
Across the way, Bergeron, who never stood at the team's bench during the playing of O Canada, said he was "disappointed with the style of hockey.”
Asked about the brawling, he said: "It reminds me of when, at the zoo, the animals get out of their cage.
"You'll have to go ask Brandon what happened before the game. I've seen the Memorial Cup for five years and they do that all the time out west. I'm disappointed by this team and I have no respect for them.”
McCallum saw it this way: "It started when their No. 8 (Mario Tardif) speared one of our guys as he was skating in the warmup. These things will happen, I guess, when emotions are running high.”
(The next day, the CAHA announced that each team had been fined $1,000.
(Brandon owner Jack Brockest responded: "This is a CAHA-sponsored event so I assume we'll pay. I don't think we have any choice. But I think the CAHA contributed as much as anyone by having the game in a two-by-four barn.”)
This wasn't the same Wheat Kings team that had roared through the west and the shots on goal -- Trois-Rivieres outshot Brandon 31-19 -- indicated that.
"We were standing still a lot,” McCallum said. "The Draveurs are a good skating hockey club and we had too many dead spots. We were standing around and against a club like that you've got to be skating. But we'll play better . . . I'm sure of that.”
Douville scored the fourth goal for the Draveurs. Boschman scored Brandon's goal with 43 seconds left in the game.
It was Brandon's 96th game of the season and only its 10th loss.
One night later, May 8, the scene shifted to Sherbrooke. And the Petes dropped the Wheat Kings 7-6 on Jim Wiemer's second goal of the game, this one at 2:31 of overtime.
The winning goal came on a knuckler from outside the Brandon blue line on which Knickle couldn't find the handle.
McCallum had dressed Bart Hunter, a pickup from the Portland Winter Hawks and the son of ‘Wild' Bill Hunter, as Knickle's backup. It was a sign of things to come.
Chris Halyk, Larry Floyd, Bovair, Attwell and
"This,” said Green, "was a good, clean game, and it was exciting for the fans. But that's not my type of game. Our game is not really aggressive -- we usually play better defensively -- but we can play any type of game. We prefer to skate, shoot and check.”
Brandon, which played without Elcombe (wrist), rallied from a 2-0 first-period deficit to tie the game, but gave it away on goals by Bovair and Attwell in the last minute of the first period.
Still, the Wheat Kings did have a two-goal lead in the third period.
"Our backs were against the wall,” said Green. "But it's been the same story all year. We won a lot of games like that this season.
"Quite frequently, we've been behind by two or three goals going into the third period and we've come back to win it.”
McCallum felt that of the six periods his team had played in the tournament only one had been worth a darn.
"We really came on in that period,” he said of a four-goal second period. "We've only played one period the way we're capable of playing.”
Still, McCallum felt his guys were still in it.
"We're capable of winning two games,” he said. "If we play our best hockey, we can beat either of these teams.”
Peterborough upped its record to 2-1 with a 3-2 victory over the Draveurs in front of 3,635 fans on May 9 in Sherbrooke.
The key was Ellacott, who turned aside 28 shots in his best performance of the tournament.
"It's really a bad situation,” Ellacott said of the tournament atmosphere. "All the (NHL) scouts and general managers stay in the same hotel as the players and you know they're looking at you all the time.
"You have to learn to put it out of your mind and just play the game.”
Green admitted Ellacott hadn't been sharp in the first two games.
"Kenny was much better tonight,” the coach said. "I felt that he had two bad games and that is not his style. I consider him one of the best goaltenders in Canada.”
Halyk's power-play goal at 6:08 of the third period broke a 2-2 tie.
Attwell and Bovair also scored for the Petes, with Sauve and Gallant replying for the Draveurs.
The Draveurs fell to 2-2 on May 10 as they were whipped 6-1 by Brandon in a game played in the Montreal suburb of Verdun. Attendance was only 2,300.
The key was two goals from Boschman 15 seconds apart in the first period. Propp, Stewart, Allison and Gusdal also scored for Brandon.
Douville replied for Trois-Rivieres.
"Up until tonight's game,” McCallum said, “we had played only one good period out of six. I couldn't figure out why, but I finally decided it was because the kids are tired.
"I hope our owners and our league can realize just how tiring it really is, coming here just after traveling thousands of miles in our own final against Portland.”
The Wheat Kings had won the WHL title in Portland, flown to Winnipeg and bussed to Brandon, before bussing back to Winnipeg and flying to Montreal.
They had a day off on May 9 and McCallum made sure his players got their rest.
"After the day off, the guys had more spring in their legs,” McCallum stated. "In the first two games, we weren't executing because we weren't skating. And we weren't skating because we were tired.”
Brandon, which outshot Trois-Rivieres 45-31, led 4-1 after one period and 5-1 after two. The Wheat Kings got 10 points from their big line -- Boschman had two goals and two assists, Allison and Propp had a goal and two helpers each. Allison, Boschman and Propp were tied for the scoring lead, each with six points.
McCallum also chose to sit Knickle and go with Hunter in goal.
"Bart played well against us (in the WHL final),” McCallum said, "and he's a fiery guy. I thought the guys needed a spark.”
Hunter was surprised to be playing.
"I had a feeling they might ask me to join them,” he said. "But I never really expected to dress.”
The victory gave Brandon a chance to clinch a berth in the final the following night when it met the Petes.
And that's exactly what happened.
Brandon, which had started the tournament by losing its first two games, edged the Petes 3-2 on May 11 in the Verdun Auditorium before 1,680 fans.
That left the three teams each at 2-2 and put Brandon and Peterborough into the final on goals-for and goals-against ratio. Brandon ended up plus-2, with Peterborough even and Trois-Rivieres minus-2.
The Wheat Kings, with Hunter stopping 32 of 34 shots, won it on Propp's goal at 9:08 of the third period.
Allison scored Brandon's other two goals. Halyk and Trimper replied for Peterborough.
"Bart has been super,” McCallum said. "If it weren't for him, we'd likely be on the outside looking in. When we picked him up, I sort of planned on playing him. He's 19, in his draft year and the way he played against us, he deserved to play.
"Knickle can't be faulted, though. But there wasn't any fire with him in there. Hunter is very emotional in the dressing room.”
McCallum also had praise for two other players.
"Stewart has been super,” he said. "His penalty killing has been great.
"And (Brad) McCrimmon! Just think how good he would be if he played a regular shift instead of 50 minutes a game. He'll play 45 minutes a game with no problem. His composure is great and he's got super upper-body strength. He never comes to the bench and says he's tired.”
Green, meanwhile, was telling everyone that his club didn't go into the tank to eliminate the Draveurs.
"We definitely went out there determined to win,” he said. "Quebec would realize by watching that it was a good solid effort by both teams. We wanted to win . . . we wanted the advantage of being the home team in the final.”
It was about here that the scene shifted to the boardroom.
The final of the 1979 Memorial Cup was to have been played in the Montreal Forum on the afternoon of May 13. But that wouldn't happen as the Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers had gone ahead and scheduled the opener of the Stanley Cup final for that afternoon of May 13 in the Forum.
"Junior hockey is again being told what to do, when to do it and how to do it,” WHL president Ed Chynoweth said. "But, then, we are used to it.”
As late as May 11, the juniors believed they were going to play in the Forum.
"We would have liked to have heard about it earlier,” said the CAHA's Roland Mercier. "We only found out about it this (May 11) morning. We studied a few alternatives and talked with sponsors, the Forum people and the (CTV) people and decided on Verdun . . .
"It really upsets us. We're sorry the pros, meaning the Montreal Canadiens, didn't think about junior hockey.”
The Canadiens actually had wanted to play a night game on May 11. But TV time couldn't be cleared because of a political debate.
No matter.
The Petes won it all on May 13, beating Brandon 2-1 in overtime in one of the greatest championship games this tournament has seen.
Trimper and Propp exchanged first-period goals and that was it until Attwell scored at 2:38 of overtime. To this day, members of the Brandon entourage will tell you an icing call should have preceded the winning goal.
But it didn't happen.
"We knew what to expect this season,” Green said. "It was something totally new to us last year and I think the experience paid off for us late in the game.”
The Petes, who outshot Brandon 36-20, pressed the Wheat Kings through the third period and into the overtime. It paid off with the winning goal.
Peterborough cleared the puck the length of the ice and McCrimmon actually got there first.
"I skated pretty hard for it and it was over the line,” McCrimmon offered. "That's all I'll say.”
"It was pretty close, wasn't it?” McCallum said.
Anyway, Bovair ended up with possession. He dumped the puck into the high slot from where Murphy unleashed a shot. Hunter made the stop but couldn't control the rebound. Attwell pounced on it to score the winner.
"I've dreamed of doing something like this plenty of times,” Attwell said. "And the feeling is just the same as in the dreams -- it's unreal.”
Green had taken his club to the Laurentians for the night prior to the game.
"When we came to the rink, there were several buses unloading fans from Peterborough,” Green said. "All I did was ask the players to avoid looking at or speaking to parents or friends -- I didn't want any distractions.”
The Wheat Kings were hurt by overplaying McCrimmon. He and Perovich were the two defencemen who could move the puck for Brandon, but Perovich (broken arm) wasn't dressed. And by the time the final game went into overtime, McCrimmon was whipped.
"Everyone on this team showed guts, desire, pride and class,” McCrimmon said when it was over. "We might not have won it, but we proved ourselves. We wanted to win it so bad. We came back after losing our first two games -- the guys kept working and working -- and we ended up one goal away.”
Propp overheard McCrimmon and added: "Brad showed more of those attributes than anyone else on this team. If every player was like Brad . . .”
Green was quite aware of McCrimmon's condition.
"I thought, near the end, their defence was finally starting to tire,” Green said. "I felt Brad McCrimmon was finally starting to have a tough time.
"He's an incredible defenceman, he's got an amazing amount of stamina . . . he played really well.”
McCallum didn't feel badly about losing to the Petes.
"They've got a hell of a club,” he said. "It's no disgrace to lose to them twice in overtime. Gary's got his club very well-disciplined. They play a close-checking game better than we do and we didn't play our game, which is offence.
"In fact, we never did get our offence untracked in the three games with Peterborough.”
Hunter was selected the tournament's most valuable player and top goaltender and was named to the all-star team. Halyk was named the most sportsmanlike player.
Also on the all-star team: McCrimmon and Normand Rochefort of Trois-Rivieres on defence, and forwards Boschman, Allison and Trimper. Propp, who wasn't named to the all-star team, was No. 1 with 10 points.
The Wheat Kings had played 99 games and won 78 of them. Unfortunately for them, they couldn't win the last one.
And Brandon still was the only city in the world to have had a team play in the Stanley Cup final, the Allan Cup final and the Memorial Cup final and not to have won even one championship.
NEXT: 1980 (Guelph Platers, Hull Olympiques, Kamloops Blazers and Portland Winter Hawks)