1911 - GO WEST YOUNG MEN
And west they did go. Lured by the salesmanship of Con Jones many
N.L.U. players did head for Vancouver. Jones wished to wrestle the
Minto Cup away from New Westminster and put together essentially an
eastern all-star team. The roster spoke for itself: Newsy
Lalonde(nationals) Bill Fitzgerald and Nick Carter(toronto) Don Cameron
and Dot Phelan(cornwall) Mickey Ions, Archie Adamson, and Harry
Griffith(tecumsehs) and Bones Allen(ottawa). Lalonde was paid $208.45
per week.
The B.C. Final was a two team affair, Vancouver versus New Westminster.
Jones' money had been well spent. 4-2 Vancouver in the season opener.
Fitzgerald, Carter and Adamson all scored, while Ions and Lalonde had
two assists each. The next win was 6-3. Newsy scored three and was
involved in every goal. Fitzgerald helped with a deuce. Salmonbellies
battled back with a 6-4 win. Grumpy Spring's pair of goals made the
difference. Three of Vancouver's markers came from eastern sticks.
Thus the titanic struggle was underway. It would rage all summer long.
By early August it appeared that the Cup would go to the challengers.
A convincing 7-4 win gave Vancouver a 5-3 series lead. In that game it
was a hattrick from Lalonde and a pair from Fitzgerald. Len Turnbull's
two scores were too little. The champions came storming back to even
the series with two wins. The August 19th victory was very
controversial. With the contest level 5-5, Lalonde appeared to score
the winner. Newsy and his teammates began celebrating, however the
umpire ruled that the ball had only hit the post. Clifford Spring
tallied the decider with three seconds left in the match. The next two
games were split, thus the series ended 6-6. A two game tie break was
needed to settle the matter. At this point Con Jones' boys stepped it
up a notch. They took both contests, by scores of 4-3 and 6-2. New
Westminster was dethroned! The N.L.U. had sort of won back the Minto
Cup. Of course Burrard Inlet was a long way from Central Canada.
This year Young Torontos did win the O.L.A. Senior title. Early on
Woodbridge appeared to be their chief threat. They won three out of
their first four, defeating Torontos and Brampton. Excelsiors knocked
them out of contention with a 5-2 win in late July. The
Brampton/Toronto rivalry started the season with an 8-8 tie. Their
second meeting, in front of 800 spectators, was one of the fastest
amateur games ever seen. The red shirted Excelsiors led 4-3 after
three quarters but Torontos scored three straight and dominated the
final 20 minutes. The schedule concluded by replaying the tied match,
a must win game for Brampton. They responded with an emphatic 10-4
victory. Duchy Davis and Bill Stevens both scored hattricks. The tie
break was held at Woodbridge. On a wet field the Toronto club
prevailed 7-4.
Please do not ask me about the Mann Cup. It did end up in Vancouver by
year end. Whether the western amateurs came to Ontario and beat Young
Torontos or not, I do not know. It was only through the coverage of
the Brampton Conservator that the O.L.A. season was pieced together.
The Toronto media had other things on their mind besides the O.L.A. or
C.L.A.
By the way, the C.L.A. league had grown to six teams, four from
Toronto. St.Catharines waltzed to another title.
With or without the Mann Cup the N.L.U. was still the big league. The
summer began on a sad note. Alex 'Bowery' Robertson passed away in
June, suffering from a tubercular condition. The former Capital had
served from 1897 to 1905. He left behind a wife and two children.
Ottawa had a sickly bunch this season. They won only once and
surrendered an astounding 135 goals! Capitals tried seven different
goaltenders through the year. Matters were no more cheery with
Corwnwall or Shamrocks. 3 wins each against 9 losses.
For the top four clubs, it was as fiercely contested a championship as
ever. The Montreal team's rivalries were the most bitter. M.A.A.A.
and Nationals teamed up down the stretch for the roughest match.
Nationals won on the scoreboard, 8-6, and physically. Three Winged
Wheels left the field unconscious, plus George Roberts had his nose
broken. That was his reward for scoring a pair of goals. Henry Scott
tallied a trio and was lucky to survive the contest. At one point
Secours tried to take his head off. He missed Scott and accidentally
hit his teammate Dulude! Dulude left on a stretcher as Secours was
penalised ten minutes. The frenchmen's snipers fared better. A
hattrick for Oncle Lamoureux and a brace for Bouliane as they left the
field on two feet. Lamoureux's 40 goal season set yet another record.
It was a year for record scores. M.A.A.A. started it on Victoria Day
by defeating Ottawa 18-3. 7 goals and 3 assists for Roberts, while
Frank Hogan counted 6 and 3. Tecumsehs crushed Capitals in June 19-2.
Max McGregor counted six and Dolly Durkin added a modest four.
Nationals got into the act by hammering Ottawa 16-7. Seven goals for
Lamoureux. He had another seven goal game in September, at Shamrocks
expense. 18-1 was the score as Dare Devil Gauthier helped out with six
markers.
This was Tecumsehs' year. They only faltered twice enroute to the
pennant. On July 15th, the Triple A's defeated them 8-2. Both Scotts
did the damage with three goals each. A month later Nationals made the
title race interesting by beating the indians 6-4. Three for Lamoureux
and a pair for Didier Pitre. Tecumsehs response was immediate. They
ended the Winged Wheels' hopes with a 5-4 win. McDougall counted two
as Neil Felker potted the winner. Next came Toronto on Labour Day.
Fred Rowntree led with two goals as the indians won 5-2. That was
their tenth victory, they could not be caught. Hard luck for the high
scoring Nationals at 9-3, plus 8-4 Toronto and M.A.A.A.
Tecumsehs concluded the season by heading west. A Minto Cup win was
not on the cards. Vancouver shut them out and Newsy Lalonde did the
damage with three of the five goals. The visitors did not go home
empty handed. In the second match they became the first eastern club
to win on the coast. They took the game 3-2 but lost the series by
four goals.
