1941 - UGLY A'S WIN OUT WEST
St.Catharines extended it's dynasty in Ontario, plus repeated as Mann
Cup Champions, however it wasn't pretty. They made a fine start to the
season by defeating Hamilton Tigers 9-6 on May 30th. For the next
month they would struggle on the floor and behind the scenes. The
bickering which went on between them and Hamilton was most important of
all. The disagreement was over St.Catharines native Doug Cove. Cove
played for the Tigers in 1940. Now he wanted to return home and join
the Double Blues. The league eventually ruled in favour of Hamilton,
sparking a very embarrassing boycott. On July 2nd St.Catharines quit
the league. For two weeks they would hold to their position, thus
defaulting six games. Finally a compromise was reached to bring the
Athletics back. By a 10 to 2 vote the OLA decided to forgive
St.Catharines and even to allow them to reply the six defaulted
matches. Yet Doug Cove remained Tiger property(he would play 7 games)
thus the protest had accomplished nothing.
With such turmoil, the defending champions failed to finish first.
Mimico ran away with the regular season pennant and finished with a
19-5 record. The other teams were all well back: St.Catharines(14-10)
Hamilton(13-11) Brampton(9-14) and Etobicoke(4-19).
Bill Isaacs won yet another scoring title with 41 goals and 77 points.
He narrowly edged Roy Morton, though Morton led the league with 47
goals. Rookie sensation Jack Gair placed third on the last place
Etobicoke Indians.
He ended up with Etobicoke and slipped through Mimico's fingers,
something the Mountaineers would soon regret. Still Mimico was well
supplied with talent. They had picked up former Terriers Merv McKenzie,
John Hewitt and Bill Brunskill. That trio accounted for nearly a third
of their offensive output. Plus the Mountaineers had
plenty of young talent from the '38 Mimico Junior team, namely: Archie
Dixon, Scoop Hayes, George Masters and Jack Williams. Hamilton added
Arnold Smith and Red Storey. Brampton settled for Fergus star Rusty
White. Etobicoke had 3 out of the 4 Gairs, plus famed Toronto Argonaut
Anis Stukus.
First met third in the playoffs, to the eternal regret of the Mounties.
The team poised to end St.Catharines' dominance were unceremoniously
dispatched by the second week of September. Hamilton took the series
opener 7-5 as Isaacs and Bob Goldham both scored a pair. Mimico's only
playoff win was a convincing 13-4 decision. Jack Williams broke loose
with four goals. He did not score in any of the three losses. Two more
close wins fell the Tigers' way. The scores were: 11-9 and 9-8.
Isaacs and Smith led in Game 3, while Norm Worthy produced five timely
goals in the finale.
Meanwhile the Mann Cup holders found their championship form against
Brampton. Three straight wins as netminder Bill Whitaker dominated.
The first result was 12-5, Jack McMahon popped in three goals and Bill
Wilson added four points. Next was a 9-5 win, with hattricks to Morton
and Wilson. Finally a 9-6 victory as McMahon, Bill Fitzgerald and Joe
Cheevers each scored three points. The Excelsiors lone star was Moe
Thompson. He scored twice in each game.
The Double Blues next steamrolled over Hamilton in one week. They
defeated them 9-5 in the initial contest. Fitzgerald scored four
times. This was followed by a 13-8 blasting. Two way star Carl Madsen
led with four points. Isaacs was held to three points. Game Three was
a closer 8-6 decision. Another four goal game for Fitzgerald,
supported by Morton's five point effort. Bill Isaacs finally came to
life the next match. He scored two times and added a pair of assists.
Hamilton still lost 11-9. Hattricks from the unstoppable Fitzgerald
and Tom Teather ended the Tigers season.
Seven consecutive victories, yet the A's were still not OLA champs. Last
place Etobicoke had been playing the Intermediate champions from Owen
Sound and defeated the Georgians 4 games to 3. This put them into the
League Final. Talk about an easy playoff route!
The Indians hit the defending champions hard in the best of three final.
Jack Gair and Grant Gillespie both scored a trio as they pushed the
Athletics at home. St.Catharines narrowly escaped with a 12-9 win.
Bill Fitzgerald was still on a roll with another hattrick. Curly haired
Frank Madsen contributed five points and Roy Morton chipped in three
assists. The Double Blues winning streak was snapped in Game Two. 9-7
Etobicoke as Jack Gair scored four times and Lloyd Gair added three.
Fitzgerald again led the A's offence but he was held to a pair.
Suddenly the defending champions found themselves in a deciding third
game of the series and facing elimination. They produced their best
lacrosse and a 14-8 victory. Jack Gair was stumped by Bill Whitaker
and managed only one assist. Gillespie registered a hattrick and Bill
Harrison scored a pair, however that wasn't nearly enough. Morton's
seven point effort led St.Catharines. He and George Coles each scored
five goals. The Ali Baba, Carl Madsen, contributed six points as well.
With the beginning of October came Mann Cup play. The Athletics
travelled to Lachine, Quebec, a suburb of Montreal, to face the
St.Regis-Caughnawaga Indians. In the first game they routed the
easterners 18-5. Jack McMahon counted 5 goals and 6 assists, while
Bill Wilson added 7 and 3. After a days rest, The Double Blues were
victorious again. A sad affair which ended with one minute remaining
in the third quarter. St.Catharines led 14-0 at the time and that
would be the official result. A Mann Cup shutout for Bill Whitaker!
The incident which ended the contest prematurely, involved Indian
captain Angus Thomas. He objected to a penalty call against his side
and went after referee Leo Murray. He struck Murray on the chin,
knocking him out and giving him a 4 inch gash. Thomas was arrested.
The Indians left in protest, which ended their pathetic bid for the
Dominion championship.
The Final began on the west coast a week later. It was a weird series.
Richmond Farmers represented British Columbia. They had dominated
ICLL play with the best offence, best defence and 24 wins against only 4
losses. Richmond was situated directly south-east of Vancouver and a
short distance west of New Westminster(not walking distance, I know!).
It didn't really matter which town was closer because in a series
against any Ontario squad the Farmers would have home advantage. Yet
there would prove to be a major difference between the Vancouver Forum
and New Westminster's Queens Park Arena. St.Catharines would win every
game played in Vancouver and lose every one played in New Westminster.
Queens Park was the smaller venue, however both arenas were sold out
the entire series. It was just one of those things. The A's settled
into their home away from home and took the series opener in front of
8,600 fans. It was a clean game with St.Catharines receiving 18 minutes
in penalties to Richmond's 15. The Double Blues led 7-5 after three
quarters but were stiffly challenged in the last period. The Farmers
won it 4-3, however fell short by a 10-9 count. Defenceman Art Noble had
a controversial goal disallowed midway through the session for a crease
violation.
Over the long weekend the visitors obviously indulged themselves with
too much food. They rolled into Queens Park for the Monday night
encounter like a stuffed turkey heading to the slaughterhouse.
Richmond devoured them as any good farm boy would clean his plate at
the family dinner. Coach Eddie Gilmore put out a call for help and
added three players fresh from their RCAF duties. The match was a level
4-4 in the second quarter when Richmond went on a 14 goal run, including
10 third quarter goals. Penalties were a big problem for St.Catharines
as they ended up being thumped 21-10. John Smith added five goals for
the winners as Joe Cheevers answered with four for the losers.
Back in Vancouver Wednesday night the Athletics avoided the rough
tactics. Bill Whitaker was unbeatable early as they took the opening
period 5-0. Bill Fitzgerald scored a pair. By halftime it was 9-1 as
Cheevers potted a couple of second quarter goals. The Double Blues
went on to take the game 17-9.
Friday night a New Westminster crowd of 4,000 watched Richmond prolong
the series. They struck fast with two goals in the first 30 seconds.
The Farmers took the period 3-1, then extended their lead to 10-3 by
the half. At 14-6 in the last quarter they were well on their way to
winning when the defending champs made a late rally. St.Catharines
scored three times in 5 minutes. They also added two more before the
final bell. A more respectable looking 14-11 loss, as the series
headed to a fifth and deciding game.
Only the second Mann Cup Final to go to a fifth contest and the
Vancouver audience was in for a treat. After resting on the weekend,
the Athletics were at their best defensively. They'd need to be as
they would have to deal with a remarkably bad break in the middle of
this crucial game. Bill Whitaker took a shot to the head which
temporarily knocked him out of the game. St.Catharines had no back up
goaltender with them! Coach Art Brown desperately looked up and down
his bench for a solution. How Joe Cheevers got the job is a matter of
debate. One version had him calling for some water and caught with his
hand in the air at the wrong time. Another version had the players
drawing straws and Cheevers losing. Perhaps he just wanted more floor
time? Regardless of the reason, the St.Catharines sniper took his
position between the pipes, despite never having played goal in his
life! Well it might as well have been his son Gerry in a Boston Bruins
uniform 30 years later. Thanks to great Double Blue defensive work and
lots of ragging Cheevers pitched a 12 minute shutout. By then Whitaker
had recovered sufficiently to return to the game and the A's had beaten
all the odds and survived. What saved then was the fact that they
played in front the entire game. A 2-1 first quarter lead was increased
to 5-1 by the 30 minute mark and 7-2 heading into the fourth period.
Thanks to St.Catharines penalties, Richmond shooters finally solved
Whitaker and reduced the lead to 7-5 and 8-6. That was the closest they
would get. Two more Athletic goals iced it. 11-9 was the final score.
The '41 Mann Cup marked the first time a series MVP was chosen. The
Mike Kelly Award made it's debut with a curious choice, a member of the
losing team won it. Clayton Black took the award thanks, in part, to a
6 goal 7 assist effort in the series. His teammate John Smith scored 13
goals and defenceman Art Noble 14! On the Double Blue side: on top of
his goaltending heroics, Joe Cheevers scored 10 goals and 15 points in
the series. Not good enough! The Mann Cup was returning east, however
the Mike Kelly Award would remain in the west. This was Bill Wilson's
final Mann Cup appearance. He contributed 7 goals and 3 assists. For
the veteran it was his 7th Mann Cup win. He had also won while playing
for Hamilton, Orillia and New Westminster. Was it a case of the player
picking the right team or the team picking the right player? I suspect
the latter. Wilson was leading scorer in two finals, '37 and '40, plus
Orillia's top pointgetter in 1934. He played in 8 Mann Cup Finals, 28
games, and scored 60 goals and 29 assists. In all Mann Cup games he
played 40 and scored a still untouched total of 90 goals. His 131
points is second best all time.
