1947 - PARITY IN ONTARIO 


For the rest of the decade there would be a curse on first place teams.
Hamilton, Owen Sound and Brampton would all win Regular Season pennants
but all would disappoint in the playoffs.  The Tigers and Georgians
would both be eliminated in the opening round.

Hamilton and St.Catharines tied at the top of the standings with 21-9
records.  Hamilton were led by Bill Isaacs, George Masters, Arnold Smith
and Merv McKenzie.  They had picked up two Gairs, Gordon and Jack, plus
added a pair from St.Catharines - Joe Cheevers and Tom Teather.  The
Athletics still had enormous talent with Stu Scott, Jack McMahon, Bill
Nelson and company.  Plus they had Doug Favell between the pipes(father
of the NHL goaltender Doug Jr.).  They made one nice addition as local
youngster Blain McDonald donned Double Blue.

In the two game Tie Break Hamilton won at home 8-5 as Isaacs led with
four points.  St.Catharines took the rematch 7-5, giving the Tigers
first place by one goal.

There was also a tie for third place.  Both Mimico and Owen Sound won 16
games.  The Mountaineers pulled off the biggest pre-season coup by
luring Ike Hildebrand away from New Westminster.  Owen Sound boosted the
new league scoring champion in Doug Gillespie.  Their Tie Break series
commenced on August 25th.  Ray Mortimer held the Georgians to 9 goals
and Eddie Sandford potted a hattrick as the Mounties won 13-9.  The next
evening, they took the second contest 17-14.  Jack Williams beat Lloyd
'Moon' Wotton six times to steal the show.

All six clubs made the playoffs and the bottom pair also tied with 8
wins a piece.  It was another struggle for Brampton, though the Madgett
brothers, Carl and Harvey, emerged as new stars.  Weston Yorks were the
other bottom club.  Bill Brunskill was their chief asset.  He fired in
61 goals to finish second for league honours, just three behind Blain
McDonald.

The Excelsiors and Yorks did not need to play a tie break because they
would meet each other in the Quarter Finals.  In the initial match a
crowd of 3,500 was treated to quadruple overtime!  The 97 minute 28
second contest was the longest in OLA Box history.  Each extra period
was 10 minutes long.  Bob Lagerquist and Red Hartley both went the
distance in goal and were brilliant in extending the game.  Brampton won
it 12-11 as Elmer Taylor finally beat Hartley to decide it.  The
Excelsiors went on to win the series in four games, with victories of
18-6 and 13-10, plus a third game loss of 11-3.  Bill Brunskill played
only once in the series.  The slack was picked up by Jack Dorney.  He
scored seven goals and ten points in three games.

After their series with St.Catharines, Hamilton was promptly knocked out
of the playoffs in three straight games.  The Athletics fared better,
only just!  Home advantage would save them against Owen Sound. The
opener was a frustrating 8-5 win for the Double Blues.  The Georgians
liked to play ball possession and slowed the contest to a crawl at
times.  That kept things close, however the northerners could only beat
Doug Favell five times.  It was Lloyd Wotton's turn in the next game.
He held the defending champs to 6 goals.  The home team scored 14 times
on Bill Whitaker.  Russ Slater's three goals were best.  With no rest
the two teams played their third game in four nights.  The A's had
Favell back in goal and tripled the Georgians 12-4.  The series took a
couple of days off for the long weekend.  Next came the crucial fourth
game up north.  Wotton finally got the best of Favell in a thriller.
Owen Sound was down much of the night but a third quarter rally saved
them.  Doug Gillespie scored back to back, then Jack 'Curly' Mason fired
in a pair 17 seconds apart.  The clubs went to the last quarter even
7-7.  Wotton pitched a shutout and Don Campbell scored the winner with 3
1/2 minutes left.  The Georgians added two more late for the 10-7
decision.  The one day rest before the finale became two days because of
a rain out.  The game did take place on September 6th.  It was the
lowest scoring contest of the series.  There were no goals in the first
quarter.  By halftime it was only 2-2.  Campbell scored Owen Sound's
last goal of the year midway through the third period.  St.Catharines
made the turn for home up 4-3 and extended that margin for a 6-3 final.
Roy Morton's hattrick was key.  Morton would go on to score 16 playoff
points, putting him over 1,000 career.  He was only the second player,
after Bill Isaacs, to reach that milestone.

A note on Lloyd Wotton, who becomes a central figure in our story very
soon.  There is some question regarding the spelling of his name.
Officially the CLA has it as Wooton.  Newspapers have commonly spelt it
Wootton, even Wotton.  During one of my trips to Peterborough a few
years ago I was picked up by a fellow who used to play poker with
Moon(he told me a story about Moon taking his false teeth out and
setting them on the table, but we won't get into that!).  He also
informed me that Lloyd's widow lived in Port Hope.  Glancing through the
phone book I found her, and the spelling of the name was Wotton.  Please
don't ask how it's pronounced!

After that Quarter Final scare, the A's were happy to accept a bye to
the Final.  That left Mimico to extend their playoff winning streak to
seven games.  They blasted Brampton 18-7 in the first contest.  The
Mounties had seven multiple goal scorers - Ike Hildebrand, Jack
Williams, Don McPhail, Mickey McDonald, Ken Dixon, Eddie Sandford and
Tom Love.  The next game was an 18-8 rout.  Ken Dixon led with four
markers.  Carl Madgett, in Game One, and Bill Arthurs, in Game Two, were
best for the Excelsiors.

The St.Catharines-Mimico rivalry resumed yet again.  This would be the
last series for a while and the second last ever!  It would also be the
most disappointing.  The Mountaineers hit the rested Athletics hard and
fast.  The initial match was a 13-5 blitz.  Ray Mortimer shutdown the
Double Blue snipers, while Doug Favell couldn't cope with the shooting
of John Hewitt, Ken Dixon, Tom Love and Sandy Milne.  Hildbrand starred
with a four assist game.  The next contest might have turned things
around for the Mann Cup holders but it ended in a narrow 8-7 defeat.
Archie Dixon stepped to the forefront with two big goals to down
St.Catharines.  Seven would be their magic number for the rest of the
series because Mortimer would hold them to seven goals in the remaining
two games.  That wouldn't be nearly enough.  Mimico claimed victories of
10-7 and 15-7 to sweep the series.  Ken Dixon and Hildebrand were the
top scorers for the new champs.  They both counted ten points over the
four games.  Irrepressible Pung Morton was best for the losers with a
seven point effort.

The Mounties next opponent was the Cornwall Flyers.  They won the two
meetings to earn Eastern Canadian honours.  The first victory was an
uninspiring 14-3 decision.  On September 25th they shot the lights out
by beating the Flyers 34-11!  Hewitt and McDonald had five goals each,
plus both Dixons scored four times.  Beehey Fillon was best for Cornwall
with a hattrick.

Thus Mimico headed west, riding a thirteen game winning streak.  Little
did they realise it but they had won their last game of the year.  The
powerful New Westminster Adanacs awaited them.  Yet the western A's
should have been prime for picking.  Their regular goaltender Gordie
Pogue missed the Mann Cup Final with a throat injury.  His replacement
was a runner who was dragged out of retirement and tossed into goal.
Garnie Carter had tended goal only once before in his life.  The Adanac
defence would have to be at its best.

Likewise the A's offence.  It ran 17 goals past Mortimer as New
Westminster narrowly won the opener 17-14.  As if the big western
defence wasn't tough enough for Mimico, Carter suddenly started to get
the hang at playing goal and began to stone them.  What followed for the
Mounties was a miserable 13-9 loss.  Only nine goals!  Worse was to
come.  The third and final game was over after it had barely began.
John Douglas scored 17 seconds into the match.  It was 5-0 before the
Mountaineers solved Carter.  The Adanacs rolled on to an 18-9 triumph.

Bob Lee led the westerners with eight goals and ten points.  He also
took home the Mike Kelly Trophy as series MVP.  Archie Browning was
right behind him with seven goals and Jake Proctor fired home six.  Ken
Dixon's six goal effort was best for the losers.  Tom Love chipped in
seven points.

The Mann Cup had settled into a disturbing trend.  In their last three
trips west, the OLA champs had won only one game while losing nine!  The
ICLL's record was worse.  They still had not won the Mann Cup in
Ontario!