When Monarchs were kings of junior hockey

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/03/2016 (3830 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In the spring of 1946, the Winnipeg Monarchs wanted to add to Manitoba’s hockey legend by placing the Memorial Cup back on the mantelpiece. They knew it wouldn’t be easy. To take the national junior title, the Monarchs would have to defeat the powerful Toronto St. Michael’s Majors in a best-of-seven series.

To get to Maple Leaf Gardens, the Monarchs defeated Brandon, Port Arthur Flyers and Edmonton Canadians.

If someone had been able to look into the future, they would have seen the following NHL numbers — St. Mikes players Red Kelly, Tod Sloan, Fleming Mackell, Ed Sandford, Ed Harrison and Les Costello suited up for 3,437 big league games. Monarch players went on to play just 169 NHL games. But this was the Winnipeg team’s time to shine.

Defenceman Tom Rockey, 90, has lost his sight but has a strong voice and a sharp memory when it comes to that championship season. A resident of  Carman, Man., he says “90 is just a number.”
The official capacity of Maple Leaf Gardens at that time was 12,627. The opening-night crowd was larger than that and it grew as the series went along, setting an attendance record for a seven-game series.

“Nobody worried about the fire regulations,” Rockey said.

Toronto won the first game 3-2, but St. Mikes took the next two 5-3 and 7-3. Led by Harry Taylor’s two goals and an assist, the Regals evened up the series with a 4-3 victory.
Rockey recalled the next game with no trouble.

“Tod Sloan could really skate and he proved it that night with five goals in a 7-4 St. Mikes win,” he said.

Clint Albright, who missed game five with a bad skate cut, returned for game six and had a goal and an assist in a 4-2 Monarchs win.

That forced a seventh game and set the stage for George Robertson’s heroics. Robertson, who is still around Winnipeg, scored two third-period goals to break a 2-2 tie and win the national junior championship for the Monarchs. The second came just as they were announcing the final minute of play.

Rockey said there was both good news and bad news at the end of the series. While the team celebrated, a big friendly guy who posed as a team member got into the dressing room and stole all the players’ wallets.

“We barely had enough money to buy two cases of beer from a taxi driver,” Rockey said.

The good news, besides emerging victorious, was that a young guy who had been placing bets on the series finally picked up 25-to-one odds on Winnipeg and, after collecting, paid for all the players’ meals on the train ride home. The police recognized the thief from a dressing room photo and picked him up a few weeks later. There was no sign of the wallets and, of course, the cash.

When Foster Hewitt broadcast a full series, he always chose his own all-star team. After the  Monarchs-St. Mike’s event, the Toronto Maple Leafs voice in the gondola selected Rockey to one of the defence positions on his team.

Memories of Sport appears every second week in the Canstar Community News weeklies.