Years ending in six lucky in these parts

If you review the hockey history of Manitoba, you will note that several years ending with the number six have led to a championship for a local team.

The Winnipeg Jets began the 2025-26 NHL season with dreams of winning the Stanley Cup, based on the club’s success in 2024-25, when it topped the league standings during the regular season. As this season winds down, it will take more than a miracle to add another championship to that list.

The series of successful sixes began in 1896 when a team from Winnipeg did win the Stanley Cup. In 1895, the Winnipeg Victorias travelled east to play games in Toronto, Ottawa, Quebec City and Montreal. The team won four of five and, while in Montreal, learned that teams from the west could challenge for the Stanley Cup, which had been put up for play in 1893.

The Winnipeg Victorias thus issued a challenge to the Montreal Victorias and the two clubs met in the eastern city on Feb. 14, 1896. It was a happy Valentine’s Day for the visitors, who won 2-0 on goals by captain Jack Armytage and Tote Campbell. Goalie George (Whitey) Merritt, who was wearing cricket pads for protection, got the shutout. On Dec. 30, 1896, Montreal reclaimed the Cup with a 6-5 victory in a game played at the McIntyre rink in Winnipeg.

In 1916, during the First World War, the 61st Battalion Hockey Club based in Winnipeg won the Allan Cup, emblematic of the Canadian senior amateur hockey championship. During the season, the 61st finished tied for first place in the Patriotic League with the defending Allan Cup champion Winnipeg Monarchs. The 61st then beat the Monarchs in a challenge and followed with victories over the Patriotic Leage B Division champion Victorias, Fort William, and Regina. That was the final year challenges for the Allan Cup were allowed. Bullet Joe Simpson from Selkirk, a 1963 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee, played for the 61st. Two weeks after the final game, he was shipped overseas where, in 1917, Lt. Simpson was awarded the Military Medal.

In 1946, the junior Winnipeg Monarchs went to Toronto to play the heavily favoured St. Michael’s Majors for the Memorial Cup. The eastern lineup featured future NHLers Red Kelly, Tod Sloan, Fleming Mackell, and Ed Sandford. In a series that attracted record crowds to Maple Leaf Gardens, the Monarchs prevailed in seven games. In the deciding game, which the Monarchs won 4-2, George Robertson scored the winning and insurance goals in the third period. In an interview before his death in 2021, Robertson spoke about the strong play of his linemates Red McRae and Harry Taylor and defensive stalwarts Tom Rockey and Bill Tindall.

Pro hockey came to Winnipeg in 1955-56, when the Winnipeg Warriors joined the Western Hockey League. Bolstered by players provided by the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens, the Warriors won the league championship and then beat the Montreal Royals five games to one in an east-west battle for the Edinburgh Trophy. The Warriors had a strong Manitoba component, featuring forwards Billy Mosienko, Ed Mazur, Cec Hoekstra, Gary Aldcorn, and Eric Nesterenko, and a defensive crew of Fred Shero, Mickey Keating, Bill Burega, and Danny Summers, backup goalie Don Collins and coach Alf Pike.

Winnipeg was back on top in 1976 when the Jets won their first Avco Cup, the World Hockey Association’s championship trophy. The Jets won three rounds of playoffs, sweeping the final in four games over the Houston Aeros. The series-clincher at the Winnipeg Arena was a 9-1 romp, with Anders Hedberg, Veli-Pekka Ketola and Peter Sullivan all scoring a pair of goals. Bobby Hull, Lyle Moffat and Bob Guindon added singles. Defenseman Mike Ford had four assists and Ulf Nilsson three. Nilsson, who topped all playoff scorers with 26 points, was named playoff MVP. The Aeros lineup that season included Gordie Howe and his sons Marty and Mark, along with Manitoba products Ted Taylor, Don Larway and Gord Labossiere.