1983 - JAMES GANG MATCH GAELS 


 Oshawa Green Gaels record of seven Minto Cup wins was equaled by the
 Peterborough Juniors this year.  The James Gang won their third
 consecutive Canadian championship without too much trouble.  The nine
 team OLA league played a split schedule.  After a 16 game double round
 robin the top four clubs advanced to the championship round while the
 bottom five played for a Tier Two title.  St.Catharines Athletics were
 the victims of this arrangement.  They had a promising young squad but
 finished fifth, thus they were knocked out of the championship race
 before the end of June.  Their new coach, Jim Brady, was incensed with
 the schedule which forced his club to meet Oshawa early in the year,
 when they were still making the transition to a new coach.
 Consequently Oshawa won both contests and that proved to be the
 difference as they edged out the A's for fourth spot.  Tier Two play
 also ended disappointingly for the Double Blues.  Hamilton defeated
 them in five games for the title.

 Of the Big Four, Oshawa was out of its depth.  Years of an unproductive
 minor system had taken their toll, thus the Gaels' local talent had
 dried up.  General Manager Bob Duignan did his best to keep the team in
 contention.  He brought in players from Six Nations, Orillia, Guelph
 and even Alberta!  It still wasn't enough.  Oshawa would lose every
 game they played against arch rivals Whitby and Peterborough.  Their
 final trip to Iroquois Park was a heartening overtime defeat.  Still,
 the writing was on the wall.  This twenty-first season was the Oshawa
 Green Gaels last in Junior A.

 Meanwhile the James Gang rolled to another Minto Cup win.  Their only
 defeat was to Whitby as they went 23-1.  Playoff sweeps of Oshawa and
 Etobicoke followed.  The Eclipse may have had Whitby's number but they
 could not beat Peterborough.  Eight straight losses was extended to ten
 during the Minto Cup tournament.  The James Gang added four more
 victories to their record, against New Westminster and Etobicoke.  In
 the end, the Canadian championship final was played between two Ontario
 teams.  Peterborough met the Eclipse for the eleventh time.  It was a
 one game shot, so the previous ten results meant nothing.  With nothing
 to lose, Etobicoke gave the defending champs a bit of a scare.  The
 James Gang survived it, mainly by holding Adam Oates to one goal in his
 last game.  Doug Evans scored three goals and seven points.
 Peterborough won the contest 12-8.  Minto Cup Number Seven was in the
 books.

 Another Peterborough Double was on the cards much of the year.  The
 Senior Lakers were defending Mann Cup champions.  The big question was
 whether the veteran crew had one more title left in them.  Their chief
 challenger in the East would be Brooklin.  The youthful Redmen finally
 began to live up to the promise they initially showed three years
 earlier.  Rookie Gil Nieuwendyk won the scoring championship.  Yet
 Brooklin stumbled to a 14-10 regular season record.  Only six points
 shy of the Cup Holders, however they also trailed Owen Sound by two
 points.  The circuit was rounded out by fourth place Fergus, then
 Brampton and Scarborough.

 In the playoffs, the Redmen came of age.  They matched Peterborough's
 sweep of the Thistles by quickly disposing of the North Stars in four
 games.  After the series Owen Sound coach Derek Forbes predicted:
 "Brooklin will beat Peterborough in six games if they keep running.
 The moment they stop, they're finished."

 The series opener was attended by over one thousand fans.  Brooklin had
 started fast every game against the North Stars, however the Lakers
 ended that trend quickly.  After 40 minutes the Redmen had scored only
 once and trailed 5-1.  The netminding of Wayne Colley kept the deficit
 from being greater.  He was unbeatable in close.  Peterborough sniper's
 solved him in the third period with long, low shots which fooled
 Colley.  When asked about the low shooting after the game, Laker coach
 Cy Coombes merely smiled.  The champs won Game One 11-5.

 The Redmen evened the Final at home.  Again the Laker defence dominated
 early.  Brooklin scored only once on Shawn Quinlan in the first period.
 Quinlan had replaced Tim Barrie because, as Coombes put it, "Barrie
 never had good luck in Brooklin."  After the second period the coach
 had to admit that, "Quinlan wasn't making the stops." The home side
 surged ahead 6-4, enroute to a 10-9 victory.  Bryce Jordan won it in
 the last minute, scoring after Quinlan had stopped a John Jordan shot.

 Next, the Redmen won in Peterborough.  Andy Perroni scored the first
 and last goals.  He broke a 7-7 tie with less than 4 minutes left.  Gil
 Nieuwendyk returned from a referee's clinic and contributed one marker.
 It was the first time Peterborough had been held under 8 goals all
 year.  "I hope Brooklin knows they haven't won anything yet," Cy
 Coombes warned.

 They immediately gave home advantage back to the Lakers.  Even with
 three power play goals in the first 5 minutes, the Redmen were unable
 to win Game Four.  Peterborough battled back to take the period.  Four
 straight goals in the second knocked Colley out of the match as the
 Lakers pulled ahead 8-3.  They evened the series with a 13-9 victory.
 "Some of our players had it all counted up before playing the game,"
 Brooklin coach Brian Brady complained.

 The home teams won the next two contests.  Quinlan posted a third
 period shutout as Peterborough extended a 5-4 lead to win 9-4.  Then
 Brooklin got two timely goals from Emil Labaj in Game Six.  The turning
 point came on a Derek Keenan shorthanded marker to put them ahead 8-7.
 Keenan was flown in from Syracuse for the game.  He'd been away at
 Ithica College.  Next Colley robbed J.J. Johnston at one end of the
 floor then John Fusco scored at the other.  The Redmen went on to an
 11-8 triumph.

 That would be Brooklin's last win of the season.  Close to 3,000
 spectators watched the deciding match.  It was settled early, thanks to
 an 8-1 Peterborough first period.  The second period the benches
 cleared for a brawl.  In the end, the Lakers won 20-4.  J.J. Johnston
 and Jim Wasson both led with four goals each.

 Thus everything was falling into place for Peterborough to sweep the
 Junior and Senior titles once again.  For the Mann Cup the Lakers would
 face a third place Victoria club which had a losing record.  There were
 two catches however.  First, the final would be played in Victoria.  No
 eastern team had won in the west since 1969.  Second, two of the past
 three Mann Cup winners had losing regular season records.

 The first game was played in Nanaimo.  A crowd of 2,000 saw former
 Timberman Kevin Alexander score 76 seconds into the series.  He'd
 finish the night with four goals and two assists.  It was 3-0 before
 J.J. Johnston got the visitors on the board.  By the end of the first
 period it was 7-2.  The Lakers inched back in the middle stanza, to
 8-5.  The Pay Less scored on four of their first six shots to begin the
 third period and it was over.  They went on to double Peterborough
 14-7.

 Victoria's Memorial Arena was a kinder setting for the easterners.
 They registered their first win in BC since 1955.  Bob Wasson missed
 the opener due to work committments.  He scored six points in Game Two.
 Johnston added four goals.  The home team nearly turned the 13-11
 result around with a late rally.  Alexander hit three posts in the
 final 2 minutes.

 The Pay Less took charge with wins in the next two matches.  A 10-9
 victory was followed by a 15-7 romp.  Peterborough outshot them 53-44
 in the fourth contest.  Mac Maude had their number, including four big
 saves on one power play.  Meanwhile Tim Barrie was pulled during the
 second period after surrendering three goals in 61 seconds.  Jim
 Meredith beat him shorthanded.  Next, John Crowther scored off a
 backhand pass from Kevin Alexander.  Then Jim Lynch capped the run.

 The defending champs prolonged the final with a fifth game triumph.  It
 was a narrow 7-6 decision.  A six goal beginning to the second period
 made the win possible.  Bob Wasson scored four times as the Lakers led
 7-3 by the 30 minute mark.  The third period heroics were reserved for
 Shawn Quinlan.  Among his many great saves, "Walter" Quinlan robbed Dan
 Green twice, stopped Paul Michael on a breakaway and Dave Lowdon one on
 one.  In the last minute Norm Baker beat the Peterborough goalie but
 hit the post.

 Over 4,000 witnessed Victoria win the championship in Game Six.  It was
 an 8-6 victory, in which Alexander and Crowther both scored hattricks.
 Cy Coombes lamented that: "We couldn't shutdown Crowther and Alexander.
 What can you say?  Take your eyes off them for a second and the ball
 is in the net.  What could we do?  We checked them as well as humanly
 possible."

 Both Victoria stars finished the series with 16 goals.  Crowther led
 all scorers with 30 points.  He took home the Mike Kelly Award as
 series MVP.  Crowther would come east to play for Owen Sound in 1984.
 Back in BC, he was tragically murdered during the off season.