The First OHL Game

Friday night was the first time I have ever set foot inside an arena to watch an OHL game. No, I didn't arrive early enough to get a denim hat as there had to be about 4000 people already at the arena at 6pm when I arrived, but I was treated to a heck of a hockey game between the visiting Guelph Storm and the Sudbury Wolves! Both sides have a few NHL prospects that they can boast, but none of them seem to be on a fast-track to The Show, so I was hoping we might see some dangles from the guys who are trying to work their way up depth charts and from guys who want to be on depth charts. Let's find out what I saw!

The first thing I noticed during warmups was Guelph backup netminder Colin Ellsworth thanks to the number he was wearing. As seen to the right, Ellsworth wears #55 for the Storm which, from my research, has been worn by two NHL goalies: Ken Appleby with Devils in 2018 and Felix Potvin with the Islanders in 1999. With Ellsworth being a rookie, he still has lots of time to impress an NHL team if he's hoping to be drafted, but he could be the third goalie to wear #55 in the NHL if he continues to wear that non-goalie number by traditional hockey standards. Kind of cool, right? And just as a note, please excuse the photo as my iPhone kept focusing on the netting, not Ellsworth. Sometimes, technology works against me.

As the game got underway, it was clear that the Wolves were the more aggressive team as they peppered Guelph's Brayden Gillespie with shots. That would pay off midway through the period when Winnipeg Jets prospect Kieron Walton picked the pocket of a defender, skated in on a partial breakaway, and dented twine!
Walton looked dangerous on this night, and it wouldn't be the last time his name is announced over the public address system. For those wondering, the Jets drafted Walton 187th-overall in the sixth round of the 2024 NHL Entry Draft, but he looked like he should have gone much higher with his play tonight. Again, it's just one game, but colour me impressed with how he played.

We'd get a second Wolves at the 15:47 mark when undrafted Luca Blonda used some speed down the wing before throwing a quick, high shot at the net that got inside the far post to make it a 2-0 game. And just to cap off an entertaining first period, I was treated to the new OHL rule where players who fight are given the rest of the game off as Washington Capitals prospect Cam Allen dropped the mitts with Seattle Kraken prospect Nathan Villeneuve, and Villeneuve had the home crowd on its feet as he landed a big punch that wobbled Allen before the linesmen jumped into the fray. Needless to say, it was a happy crowd through one period as Sudbury led 2-0.

It was a bit of a different period in the middle frame as Guelph turned up the intensity, but Wolves netminder Nate Krawchuk stood his ground. It would take a power-play later in the frame for the Storm to finally solve Krawchuk as 6'6" Vancouver Canucks prospect Vilmer Alriksson finished off a gorgeous goalmouth pass from Philadelphia Flyers prospect Jett Luchanko at 14:12 to cut the deficit to one. That lead would evaporate three minutes later when Quinn Beauchesne threw a puck at the net that somehow found a seam through Krawchuk to get into the net, and we'd have a 2-2 game at 17:43. However, the Wolves marched back down the ice where Alex Pharand chipped a rebound off Ethan Dean's shot past Gillespie at 18:45, and the Wolves carried the 3-2 lead into the third period!

The Wolves continued to pressure the Storm in the third period as they looked for more, and it was clear that time was becoming the enemy of the Storm. About seven minutes into the frame, though, there was a prolonged stoppage as Brayden Gillespie needed his helmet fixed or adjusted which drew the ire of the referee who, after a couple of minutes, told the Guelph bench to either swap goalies or give Gillespie a mask so he could continue. Ellsworth handed Gillespie his mask so Gillespie could return to the crease, but one had to wonder if it would affect Gillespie since the cage was different and Ellsworth's mask wasn't adjusted for Gillespie's head.

From my vantage point, the Wolves got a few shots away on a rush where it looked like Gillespie was fighting to see the puck clearly, possibly due to the different cage configuration. A couple of minutes after the mask swap, Gillespie had it resting on top of his head once more as he fished the puck out of the net for a fourth time.
Kieron Walton hammers home the one-timer off the feed from Kocha Delic at 9:48 for his second goal of the game, and the Wolves went ahead by a 4-2 score. While there was still ten minutes to play and Guelph has scored two goals in 3:31 earlier, would this lead hold up?

The answer was a resounding "yes" as Guelph opted to pull Gillespie while on the power-play with five minutes to play, and it would be Quentin Musty who found the back of the vacant Storm net with a shot at 17:03 to make it 5-2. Just for good measure, Alex Pharand scored his second goal of the game as he one-timed a great centering pass from Wilton who was behind the net, and that goal with 28 seconds to play put the icing on a 6-2 victory for the Sudbury Wolves!

Take nothing away from the crowd of 4258 who showed up to cheer on the Wolves and sounded more like 8000 fans when the Wolves added to their total on the scoreboard. They were loud, they were raucous, and they made sure the Wolves knew they appreciated the effort. With a large number of fans in their denim hats and their Wolves jerseys, it was hard not to be impressed with the turnout on Friday night. Sudbury gets a solid thumbs-up!

For me, it was a fun time at my first OHL game. I would like to suggest that the Wolves introduce their fans to honey dill sauce for the chicken fingers they serve because the plum sauce they gave me just isn't the same. I know honey dill sauce is a Manitoba thing, but it could be a distinctly Sudbury thing if fans took to it. Of course, they may not embrace it like Manitobans have, but I'm just making a suggestion that likely will never come to light.

If you happen to get to a game, the Sudbury Community Arena looks and feels old from the outside, but there's some charm and history in those four walls as you start walking around the concourse. For example, there's a picture of Queen Elizabeth II on one wall like the Winnipeg Jets once had. There's a stuffed wolf that is sent out over the north part of the ice via a suspended wire when the Wolves score, and I found it more creepy than charming. There weren't any food or beverage selections that made one want to come back to the rink, but the food and drink served was certainly good enough for a hockey game. The banners hung from the ceiling show history from 1932 through to today, but there are only a handful of them.

None of the above paragraph took anything away from the action on the ice or the result, though, and the total for the night cost me less than $50 for my ticket, parking, and dinner. Frankly, that's a heckuva deal, and I hope people realize that junior hockey is still entirely affordable compared to other leagues. If you were to ask me if I'd go again, my answer would be a definite yes.

I didn't get a hat, but a win on a Friday night while watching a player who could be a future Winnipeg Jets forward have himself a night on the ice wasn't a bad way to close out the work week. I'll be working again today before hitting the road to my next destination, but my lone night in Sudbury was definitely worth it!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Sudbury: A Green And Gold City?

When shopping online for hockey jerseys through various auction sites, there's always a "caveat emptor" feeling that one should have. The number of fake jerseys that are seen online outnumber the authentics exponentially, and today's jersey to the left felt like one of those jerseys. Of course, that photo comes from a legitimate auction house in Classic Auctions, but my first thought when I saw this photo was that this was some beer league jersey using the Sudbury Wolves' logo. As I found out, this is the 1986-87 jersey worn by Paul DiPietro during his time with the OHL club!

The history of the green Sudbury Wolves begins before the OHL team was in the Ontario city as Sudbury won the Gordon Cup in 1915 while wearing white and green sweaters. The prevailing thought is that those sweaters were worn as some of the players on that championship team were on a local club with the same colour scheme according to Scott Miller, author of Leading the Pack: 50 Years of Sudbury Wolves History. With the victory of the top championship trophy in Ontario, Sudbury teams, specifically Wolves teams, began wearing green for high-level games and tournaments.

What isn't mentioned above is that the Wolves earned berths in Allan Cups, Dominion Junior Hockey Championships, winter carnival exhibitions, and world championships. That last one might be more surprising to people, but the Wolves represented Canada on the international stage in 1938 at the World Ice Hockey Championship in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Fourteen teams participated in this World Championship with rounds reducing the number of teams participating at each stage. Canada/Sudbury would win their preliminary pool over Czechoslovakia, Sweden, and Austria before beating Germany and Hungary to set up the final pool.

Canada beat Germany (again) and Great Britain defeated Czechoslovakia to set up the gold medal final, and Canada/Sudbury used three first-period goals to pace themselves to a 3-1 over the British to claim Canada's tenth World Hockey Championship gold medal. The fun part of this story, though, is that the Sudbury team went on a European tour where they played teams from a number of countries. Starting January 1938, they toured Germany, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Austria, Belgium, England, and Scotland where they compiled a 19-2-5 record! The two games they lost were to the British team after the World Championship on March 8 and 10 when their trip was ending!

That wouldn't be the only time that the Sudbury Wolves skated under the "Canada" name as the Wolves competed at the 1949 World Hockey Championship in Stockholm, Sweden as Canada's entry into the event. They'd come home after finishing in second-place, but the boys in in green certainly showed the world that Canada was there to play, beating Denmark 47-0 and Austria 7-0 in the preliminary round. The round-robin saw Canada lose to Czechoslovkia and tie Sweden before hammering the US and Austria. They'd tie Switzerland in the final game, but it wasn't enough to catch Czechoslovakia who ended the round-robin portion with a 4-1-0 record.

It should be noted that there was some concern heading into the 1949 championship as the Wolves took some losses in Great Britain where they played exhibition games, but the Wolves found their game and won a few contests as the World Championship neared!

Of course, if you think that criticism of Canadian teams who go to the World Championship is a new thing, here's a newspaper article from 1949 that says this has been happening in Canada for decades!

Jokes aside, seeing the Wolves with one World Championship gold medal while appearing at two World Championships to its name is pretty cool! That legacy, though, was something that Bud Burke wanted to create when the OHL offered membership in their league. Ralph Connor, named as Team President, helped an interested Sudbury party to purchase the Niagara Falls Flyers from Leighton "Hap" Emms and move the team to Sudbury. On May 6, 1972, the OHA approved the sale from Emms to the group fronted by Bud Burke as the OHA's Sudbury Wolves would begin play in 1972-73 wearing the green and yellow to which hockey fans in Sudbury had become accustomed! Fans would see some amazing players don the green and gold including Randy Carlyle, Ron Duguay, Mike Foligno, Don Beaupre, Pat Verbeek, and Jeff Brown, but success would elude the Wolves as they never brought home a Memorial Cup nor a J. Ross Robertson Cup.

Of course, the green-and-yellow colour scheme made these early Wolves a favorite of Uni Watch founder Paul Lukas, but the green jerseys would be retired in the 1988-89 season for the current blue-white-and-gray look that the OHL's Sudbury Wolves wear. It was Ken Burgess, who owned the OHL team in 1988, who once asked, "Who ever heard of a green wolf?" before changing the Wolves' colours to a similar scheme as his Burgess Power Train and Manufacturing company, now known as Burgess-Norton Manufacturing. Since the change, there have been some smaller modifications made to the jerseys, but the blue colour scheme has stayed intact.

It's pretty cool to know that Sudbury, Ontario has a long history with a colour scheme other than the one they currently wear, and it almost feels like the current OHL Wolves should honour that history with an alternate jersey that pays homage to its own history as well as the hockey history of the city. Of course, the green-and-gold colour scheme makes complete sense with the 1939 Sudbury Wolves winning the World Championship gold medal while wearing green, but who am I to demand any team honour the history of its city? That would almost make too much sense.

They wore green and they brought home gold - it sure sounds like Sudbury had the right colours through their history!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Hockey Show - Episode 635

The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, returns tonight with our hosts outside of the studio. With Teebz on a cross-Canada work tour, the boys settled into a recording on Wednesday night to get the hockey chatter going. Everything is relevant from the last week of hockey news and action, but anything that happens on Thursday may be included next week. Last week's news will get the full hour of attention from our hosts, and that all goes down tonight on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!

Tonight on the program, Teebz and Jason will discuss why the firing of Jim Montgomery was the wrong move to make for the Bruins, some new broadcast partners and rules in the PWHL, the Champions Hockey League having their quarterfinalists, Utah being the best-selling team for merchandise ever, and we touch on the 16-3 Winnipeg Jets who will finish the month on the road. As always, our hosts will do their best at breaking down these stories and whatever else comes up tonight so you have the latest on what's happening in hockey! Get your audio device set up tonight for The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT on one of 101.5 FM, Channel 718 on MTS TV, or via UMFM.com!

If you live outside Winnipeg and want to listen, we have options! The new UMFM website's online streaming player works well if you want to listen online. We also recommend Radio Garden if you need an easy-to-use online stream. If you're more of an app person, we recommend you use the TuneIn app found on the App Store or Google Play Store. It's a solid app.

If you have questions, you can email all show queries and comments to hockeyshow@umfm.com! Tweet me anytime with questions you may have by hitting me up at @TeebzHBIC on Twitter! I'm here to listen to you, so make your voice heard!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason talk the mess the Bruins are in, the offence the PWHL is creating, the elite eight in Europe, the dollar signs in Salt Lake City, the Jets flying high, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!

PODCAST: November 21, 2024: Episode 635

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Asterisked Championship?

It should be no surprise that if someone mentions Sault Ste. Marie, the first hockey team that comes to mind is the OHL's Soo Greyhounds. Based on their longevity in the city, that's completely understandable, but there is another team that plays in Sault Ste. Marie despite them being in another country. As you may know, Sault Ste. Marie straddles the Canada-US border, so half of the city resides in Michigan rather than Ontario. That's where the NCAA's Lake Superior State University Lakers call home, and the Lakers have put their name on the hockey map a few times thanks to winning the NCAA National Men's Hockey Championship!

From their website, the Lakers play in Taffy Abel Arena, a 4000-seat rink with a 200x85-foot ice surface. Taffy Abel was established in 1976, and, in 1995, the arena was renovated to its current size which happened after Laker Hockey won their fifth National Championship. It was named after American ice hockey player Clarence "Taffy" Abel who was born in Sault Ste. Marie. It is the only on-campus hockey arena in the United States which has a seating capacity greater than the enrollment of the school for which it's used, and the arena serves a number of purposes in the community including hosting youth hockey games and practices, community events, and summer camps.

You may have noticed that little detail above where it says "fifth National Championship". That is factual as the Lakers own the 1972 and 1974 NAIA championships along with the 1988, 1992, and 1994 NCAA championships. There is also an unofficial asterisk on that total, however, because the 1993 NCAA Men's Hockey Championship apparently ended prematurely thanks to some video footage that should have been reviewed long ago. Could Lake Superior State have been a three-peat champion in NCAA's men's hockey?

Apparently, the answer is yes. According to Flo Hockey's Tim Rappleye, Lake Superior State University head coach Jeff Jackson was given a plaque following the 1993 NCAA championship game that reads, "1993 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Championships National Champion". The only problem with that plaque is that the Maine Black Bears are the 1993 NCAA champions based on all historical records. So how did Jackson end up with this plaque from the NCAA if Maine has the trophy?

In Rappleye's article, he frames the final moments of the game where a "point-blank scoring chance by Lake State junior Sean Tallaire with 50 seconds remaining appeared to bank off the crossbar" in a documentary called "Out of the Woods". Let's run that clip here.

I have watched this clip over and over again, and I still can't figure out if Tallaire scores on that move to the front of the net while goaltender Garth Snow scrambled in the crease. Yes, the puck goes up and looks like it hit the crossbar, but I can't tell if it pinged off the iron or went under the bar and into the net.

In 1993, the NCAA had yet to institute video review, so the option to go to the film wasn't there. The official's call on the ice would be the only call that the NCAA would accept, and the lone referee on the ice ruled that the puck had gone off the crossbar. If you watch the clip again, the referee isn't even in the picture or standing near the net to make an accurate call, so the 5-4 finish would stand and Maine would be crowned the 1993 champion.

Except we still have that plaque that makes no sense if Maine won.

What we need is another angle or a more definitive look at the goal. I went hunting for more evidence, and I discovered that a YouTube user named TJ Rogers had uploaded the highlights from this game. In that 26-minute highlight package is this moment from a number of different angles. Let's take a look at this moment again with different angles included as we try to figure out if Tallaire actually scored. Two different looks and a third replay at the same broadcast angle while slowed down doesn't give us anything definitive except that the puck appears to disappear for fractions of a second in that final replay under the bar as opposed to ricocheting off the iron. To be fair, I have never seen netting cause a bounce-back like that, so the puck may have hit the back crossbar and come back out. Again, the quality of the replay doesn't have enough definition to say that it happened like that, but it seems that it could be plausible.

Jeff Jackson recalls the moment still, telling Rappleye, "I remember Sean came back to the bench and said, 'That puck was in, Coach!'"

Perhaps this is simply a moment of wanting to believe that Tallaire scored, but Jackson claims he has other evidence. He told Rappleye, "Every time I watched the clip, I noticed something was weird, so I kept on rewinding it back on the old VHS systems and trying to determine. You couldn't see the puck go in the net. But what I did see was the skate lace tying down the water bottle on the top of the net, flying in the air. That's when I knew the puck had gone in."

This is the part that becomes hard to explain because Jackson is right in noticing the skate lace move. If you watch the angle from behind the net, you can see the skate lace on top of the net that was used to tie the water bottle down securely move as the puck appears to either hit the bar or go in the net. In the video above, it's just to the left of the water bottle, and its position clearly changes. Is that enough proof to change the outcome? I'd say no, but it seems to lend credence to the idea that Tallaire did score.

Rappleye added this nugget in his article as well.

"Unlike the low-resolution analog footage that Jackson was using to edit his piece, a clean tape, one generation removed from the original footage, was rescued from ESPN's tape truck an hour after their championship telecast went off the air. Four replay angles of Tallaire's tying goal, images that were never broadcast, were dubbed off onto a digital cassette, a relic that was last seen buried in the NHL's video archives.

"The cassette got into the hands of a college hockey producer in November of 1993 and was employed during an intermission feature during a live broadcast of a Lake Superior/Vermont clash from Burlington, Vermont. It was there that the end-zone camera angle of Tallaire's shot finally made air on the now defunct Prime Network, rolled in slo-mo, allowing the viewers to see incontrovertible evidence: the 1993 NCAA championship game—the game that would have secured Lake Superior's bid for a historic three-peat—had been tied up in the final minute."

By this measure, it seems that Tallaire did indeed score on that shot, and it should have sent the 1993 NCAA Men's Hockey Championship towards overtime with Maine and Lake Superior State tied 5-5. Of course, that video would need to be seen and verified to become the smoking gun in this dispute, so Maine remains as the rightful winner of the 1993 NCAA Men's Hockey Championship until that time.

I won't deny that Lake Superior State has a case to be made, but it makes one appreciate the high-definition reviews we get in hockey today that much more. I can't explain why the NCAA gave that championship plaque to Lake Superior State when it seems that there is no definitive evidence to change the results, but perhaps the NCAA saw the same Prime Network video that was aired in November 1993.

I'm not suggesting that anyone change history at this time, but this may be one of those moments that will be lost to time if that Prime Network video never surfaces. The Maine Black Bears will always be the 1993 NCAA Men's Hockey Champions, but it seems clear that the Lake Superior State Lakers have a valid reason to contest that result. Until the evidence is found, though, Lake Superior State will have to be content with their championship plaque that isn't an NCAA Men's Hockey Championship trophy.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Stanley Cup In Northern Ontario

In my discussion about the Thunder Bay Flyers yesterday, I received a couple "what about..." emails when it came to specific teams. I'm not saying there haven't been exceptional teams in the communities of northern Ontario, and there has even been a Stanley Cup winner who called the region home. If that surprises you, we're talking about history that's more than a century old, but the fact remains that Kenora, Ontario once called the Stanley Cup theirs. While they didn't win four cups in one single year on both sides of the border, the Kenora Thistles do deserve a tip of the cap for the history they made in the early 1900s.

Before we get into the history of the Thistles, there is a fact that needs to be examined first. Back in the 1890s, the town of Kenora was actually known as Rat Portage. The name was a rough translation of the Anishinaabe name "Waszush Onigum" which, in English, meant "carrying place to the muskrat country". Clearly, that phrase isn't going to work for a city's name, so the town was renamed as "portage du rat" by the French and it was coined "Rat Portage" after the name was adopted by the Hudson's Bay Company and a post was established in the town. That same year, the communities of Keewatin, Norman, and Rat Portage were encouraged to amalgamate, but all three remained independent.

Being that the hockey team was founded in 1894, they took that town name and named themselves the Thistles, becoming the Rat Portage Thistles. Rat Portage played in and around Manitoba in leagues throughout the Keystone province thanks to their proximity to Manitoba, and would eventually join the Manitoba Hockey Association in 1902. Thunder Bay, then known as Port Arthur, sits some 500kms away from Kenora whereas Winnipeg is just 200kms away from the city. Clearly, it made more sense to travel west than east back then, and having a line in the town for the Canadian Pacific Railway only furthered that logical conclusion.

The Thistles began as a team of wealthy individuals. George Dewey, one of the wealthiest people in the town whose source of wealth seems to lost in history, donated the initial funds for the team, and was named the club's honorary president thanks to his considerable donation. Most of the initial Thistles' players were from wealthy families or independently wealthy, meaning they had the means to take time off work and to cover the considerable expenses associated with ice hockey at the time. Because there was very little support from town businesses or investors with profitable businesses, the team relied solely on the players' wealths in order to play games.

The Thistles played well in the second tier of the Manitoba and Northwest Hockey Association in 1894, winning games and showing they could skate with the more polished Manitoba teams from larger communities. While the team wouldn't win a championship in the circuit for a few more years, they showed that the Rat Portage boys were there to play. As the junior Thistles matured, a new wave of talent joined the club, pushing the team to new heights by the turn of the millennium as they began to show how good they could be.

In 1900-01, the Thistles won a tie-breaker to claim the second-tier championship. In 1901, the team opened the season with a blowout, leading to concerns that non-competitive games would cause a drop in revenue if people stopped coming out to watch them play. As a result, they applied for a spot in the Manitoba Hockey Association. To prove they could play competitively in the league, the MHA organized a game against the former Stanley Cup champions in the Winnipeg Victorias, and the Thistles played extremely well despite a close loss. However, they were denied access in 1901 to the league after it was determined they had applied too late to gain entry.

For the 1902-03 season, the Rat Portage Thistles made their debut in Manitoba's top hockey league. However, the two Winnipeg teams threw a hissy fit and opted out of the league, citing concerns over distance to both Rat Portage and newly-admitted Portage la Prairie, leaving Portage, Rat Portage, and Brandon as the only teams playing one another. The Thistles handled the other teams easily as they won the three-team championship, and were allowed to issue a challenge for the Stanley Cup as a result. They made that challenge, and they would face the Ottawa Senators in Ottawa for the Stanley Cup.

The two-game series would be decided on total goals between the Thistles and the Senators. Game One didn't go well for the Thistles as they dropped a 6-2 contest to the Senators with the press noting that thr Thistles looked nervous. Game Two was an Ottawa 4-2 win as well as they retained the Stanley Cup, but the Thistles gained valuable experience against one of the country's best teams.

In a stunning turn of events back home, the Thistles were welcomed back to Manitoba by having the two Winnipeg teams - the same two who wanted nothing to do with the year before - offer a spot in the Western Canadian Hockey League for the 1903-04 season to the Thistles. Apparently, they were impressed with the Thistles' showing against Ottawa, so they extended the invitation. The Thistles, however, declined the offer and staying in the three-team league with Portage and Brandon. Brandon would win the league that season and challenege Ottawa, but the Senators claimed victory once more.

In 1904, the Manitoba Hockey Association and the Western Canadian Hockey League (with only the two Winnipeg teams in it) merged under the Manitoba Hockey Association name. The Thistles, bolstered by the addition of goaltender Eddie Giroux from Toronto who was lured to Rat Portage to work in the lumber industry, were the class of the league in 1904-05, going 7-1 to win the MHA championhip. This would grant them challenge rights once more, and the Thistles had their focus on Ottawa as they descended on the nation's capital for a best-of-three series.

Ottawa was the favorite going into the series, but the Thistles got the jump on them by showing a new formation and style of play where passing and puck possession was the name of the game. Rat Portage took Game One by a 9-3 score using this new style where passes were made to trailing players (no forward passes in those days) who could skate the puck further up the ice. With their defencemen spread across the ice, cross-ice passes opened new lanes of attack for the Thistles! Speed helped them win as Rat Portage went up 1-0.

It didn't help that Ottawa superstar Frank McGee missed Game One for the Senators, but his return in Game Two showed his importance as he helped the Senators square the series at 1-1 in a 4-2 victory as he was shadowed almost all game by a Thistles player. That win setup the all-important deciding game where McGee broke out in a big way, scoring a hat trick for the Senators including the game-winning goal with two and half minutes to play in a 5-4 Ottawa victory! The Thistles were close, but, as we know, that only counts in horseshoes.

In 1904, Rat Portage Town Council had raised the town name issue once more. The people of Rat Portage seemed completely against the idea of changing the name at this time with letters and petitions being sent to Toronto to prevent the change from taking place. The municipal election on January 2, 1905 made the name change one of the issues on the ballot due to the candidates running, and a special Council meeting was held where the name change resolution was passed. However, many townspeople rejected the idea at Town Council meetings that followed to the point where the Ontario provincial government stepped in and demanded that a vote be taken on the name change.

The "Wins" Of Change

In 1905 under Mayor AS Horswill, the name of the city changed to Kenora, derived from the first two letters of names of three communities KEewatin, NOrman, and RAt Portage. Despite locals still rejecting the idea, the Thistles assumed the new name as the Kenora Thistles, and this may be where history smiled upon them as the 1905-06 season finished tied atop the MHA standings and won the one-game tiebreaker with the Winnipeg Hockey Club.

In December, the Winnipeg clubs and Kenora banded together to ask the Ottawa Senators to visit for exhibition games in what might have been a preview of what was to come. As champions, the Thistles had the chance to challenge for the Stanley Cup, and they'd take that opportunity for the third time in a few short months. On January 6, 1906, however, the Thistles and Senators met in Winnipeg for the exhibition game, and the Thistles would shock the Stanley Cup champions with four goals in the final eight minutes to earn victory!

For anyone wondering if there was an article written in the Manitoba Free Press about the game, there definitely was one, but there are a number of racially-insensitive descriptions used in the article that I, frankly, don't want displayed here on HBIC. I know society has evolved, but some of the imagery published shouldn't have been used back then and certainly not today. Because of this, all you get is the headline and scoring summary above here on HBIC.

Some newspaper writers weren't convinced of the Thistles' win in Winnipeg, though. Printed in the January 13, 1906 edition of the Winnipeg Tribune, it seems someone at the Montreal Herald thought that Kenora got off easy by not having to face Ottawa's best team. While I'm sure 1906 was long before there was true bulletin board material, one has to wonder if the lads from Kenora saw the comments made by a Montreal writer. With the Montreal teams not able to secure the Stanley Cup from Ottawa, I also wonder if this is a little bit of sour grapes considering how well Kenora had played against Ottawa in Winnipeg. Only history will know, though.

On March 9, 1906, however, the Winnipeg Tribune gave the Thistles credit after beating the Winnipegs in the championship.

With Kenora set to battle the reigning Stanley Cup champions in another challenge opportunity, it was expected that the Thistles may give the Stanley Cup holder a run for their money. After all, they had beaten the Senators in December, and now had won the Manitoba championship again. So where would the Thistles be going?

Well, they got an answer despite it not being the one they wanted.

The Montreal Wanderers had wrestled the Stanley Cup away from the Ottawa Senators, but it seems they weren't too keen on having anyone challenge their reign over the Dominion of Canada. The Thistles, as stated in the article, were determined to play for the Stanley Cup one way or another, and they weren't going to take "no" for an answer. Whether it was the Montreal Wanderers or the Ottawa Senators, the Kenora Thistles were determined to play for the Cup!

On October 19, 1906, it was determined that the Wanderers and the Thistles would meet between January 10 and February 20 for the Stanley Cup after a deal was reached by James Bell to have the series played. Despite the Wanderers wanting to play the challenges for the Stanley Cup after their season had concluded, Bell had also convinced both the Senators and Wanderers to play a three-game series in Winnipeg for each team in late December and early January potentially as a way for the Wanderers to prepare for the Thistles' challenge in early 1907. Whatever the case may be, the dates had been set for the Thistles' challenge they had earned at the end of the 1905-06 season!

By December 6, 1906, it was known that the Thistles and Wanderers would meet in Montreal for a two-game, total-goals series on January 7, 1907 with a second game potentially on January 9. Those dates weren't firm, though, and the games would eventually get shifted to January 17 and January 21. Game One was a 4-2 victory for Kenora as Tommy Phillips scored all four goals for the Thistles. They'd need to play well in Game Two to secure hockey's ultimate prize, and Tommy Phillips would add three more goals in an 8-6 win for the 12-8 total to win the series! For the first time in their history, the Kenora Thistles would have their name on the Stanley Cup!

For those wondering, their reign as Stanley Cup champions lasted all of two months as the team returned home, were challenged by the Wanderers in a rematch, won the Manitoba championship, and then lost the two-game, total-goals series to Montreal by a 12-8 score. Montreal was named the Stanley Cup champions once again while the Thistles saw a number of their players leave for green pastures and better pay in other professional leagues. By the end of 1908, the Thistles were disbanded as costs went up and they could no longer ice a competitive team.

It should be noted that Kenora remains the smallest town in hockey history to win the Stanley Cup, and it's the smallest town to win a major North American professional championship. The 65-day span as champions also remains the shortest in hockey history. The Thistles did see four players inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as Si Griffis, Tom Hooper, Billy McGimsie, and Tommy Phillips all were inducted. The Stanley Cup-winning team was also inducted into the Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 1982. As part of the team's legacy, there are several hockey teams in Kenora now named the "Thistles" who play at different levels!

While I still maintain that the Thunder Bay Flyers were the best team ever for the number of accolades they collected in one season, there certainly is room in the argument for the Kenora Thistles. As a Stanley Cup-winning team, that's a pretty high accolade that not many teams have equalled, and the Thistles deserve to be mentioned for their accomplishments as well!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!