1913 - OTTAWA GOES AMATEUR
Yet another loss for the N.L.U. as Capitals took the year off. In
their place was Ottawa Shamrocks, an amateur club which participated in
the O.L.A. championship. Ottawa joined the East Division with Almonte,
Carleton Place and Prescott. In the West was Brampton, Lansdowns,
St.Catharines and Young Torontos. Shamrocks and Almonte tied for first
place with 4-2 records. The tie break began in Almonte. The home side
humbled Ottawa 8-1. The next week they nearly blew their seven goal
lead as Shamrocks beat them 7-1. The series still went to Almonte by a
9-8 count.
Jack Carmichael's Excelsiors came through in the West. Not even the
A's, last C.L.A. champs, could stop them. Brampton lost only once, in
the Garden City on July 19th. St.Catharines surprised them with an
11-5 victory. A week later Excelsiors, wearing their home whites,
hammered Young Torontos 11-3 to secure the division crown.
The championship final opened in the Rose Town. Almonte arrived on a
Friday to find the entire place covered with red and white tissue paper
and flags. Even pictures of old Excelsior teams were seen bedecked in
store windows. The visitors were entertained at the Griffin Theatre
that evening and given a Saturday morning tour of Dale Estate. They
also received pictures of the town. 1,400 witnessed the afternoon
contest. It was a clean game, with few penalties, and no player
required medical attention. Almonte scored 2 minutes into the match,
however they were hopelessly outclassed over the following 78 minutes.
George Sproule scored 7 goals and 11 points as the home side won 25-3!
The Excelsiors travelled east for the rematch. They were hosted by Mr.
and Mrs. Garbutt and given a tour of the Thousand Islands. With a 22
goal lead the championship was secure. The Red Shirts extended that
margin as they cruised to a 13-2 win.
Two new clubs replaced Capitals in the N.L.U., St.Thomas Aquinas and
Sherbrooke. Both newcomers won once, against each other. Neither team
would be back in 1914 and neither would be missed.
Cornwall and M.A.A.A. dueled for the pennant. Shamrocks struggled to a
4-4 record. Colts had lost Ambrose Degray and Ed Nicholson to the
D.L.U.. At least Lawrence Degray stuck with the club and Fid Cummins
returned from Vancouver. Another addition was hockey star Cy Denneny.
He scored 12 goals in 9 games. The Winged Wheels had to cope with
limited production from their veterans. Frank Hogan only played three
games. Defensive specialists George Finlayson and Clarrie McKerrow
missed most of the season also. It was the Triple A's young guns who
turned their fortunes around. S.McDonald led the circuit with 27
goals, followed by 21 from Billy Walsh and 14 from Jimmy Walsh.
M.A.A.A. grabbed the early advantage with a 6-4 victory on June 24th.
Cornwall responded by winning 8-4 on August 16th. Both finished at
7-1. The first tie break game was outstanding for three quarters
before controversy ruined the day. The score was 6-6 when Colts sent
on Henry Donihee. The former Cornwall player had spent 1 1/2 seasons
in the D.L.U.. He had not yet played for 1913 Cornwall and Winged
Wheels captain Andy Hamilton had warned Colts not to use him. Thus
tie and Donihee banned for the final match. The Triple A's won it 8-4
as McDonald scored three. It would be M.A.A.A.'s last N.L.U. pennant.
Big Four honours went to Irish-Canadians. They began the year in
Quebec City but the experiment failed and they quickly returned to
Montreal. The irish finished 12-6 only one game better than Nationals.
Close wins were the key as they only scored 10 goals more than they
gave up. They were led by league scoring champ George Roberts. He
tallied 30 and teammates Henry Scott(23 goals) Jimmy McIntyre(18) and
Fred Scott(16) all did their bit. Jim Hogan played two games and fired
home 7 goals.
The frenchmen were without Newsy Lalonde for 2/3 of the season, yet
they still had the best offence. Their top scorers were: Bouliane(29)
Oncle Lamoureux(23) Didier Pitre(19) Ambrose Degray(12) Dare Devil
Gauthier(11) and Georges Dussault(11). Newsy appeared in six games and
scored 19 goals - a sign of things to come.
Both Toronto teams had losing records. Tecumsehs were 8-10 and the
defending champions fell to 5-13. The indians grabbed Guy Smith from
Cornwall, good for a dozen goals, however they lacked the consistency
to contend. Toronto was competitive for their record. They just
couldn't buy a win the second half of the season. They defeated
Tecumsehs on the August Civic Holiday to improve to 5-7. Then came the
six game losing streak. Henry Donihee was the first rat to abandon the
sinking ship. He had scored 11 goals while the squad was winning.
Nationals kept snapping at Irish-Canadians heels right to the end. A
crucial three game August winning streak put the irish at 11-5 with a
two game lead. The violet et blanc prevented them from clinching on
Labour Day thanks to their resounding 17-2 win over the frontrunners.
Give the irish credit, they rebounded like champs. The next Saturday
they defeated Toronto 14-11 to clinch the pennant. Lucky for them they
did win because Nationals beat Tecumsehs 10-9. Newsy Lalonde scored 7
goals and added 2 assists in that game.
