Jr. hockey flashback: 1979-80

THANKS to some dutifully kept Chronicle-Journal press clippings by a fan, we have some historical insight on Junior A hockey in the Lakehead from some four decades back.

Long-time local sports enthusiast Glenn Morin, who now calls Strathroy, Ont., home, dug into his archives to provide some facts and figures from the 1979-80 Thunder Bay Junior Hockey League campaign.

The three-team loop featured the DeGagne Buccaneers, Port Arthur North Stars and the Nip-Rock Rangers, with each of the clubs possessing some impressive talent.

Regular season action saw the Bucs and Stars play 34 games apiece while the Rangers took to the ice in 36 outings.

Through that, the Buccaneers finished in top spot, going 24-10, while Port Arthur was second at 20-14 and Nip-Rock ending up in third at 8-28.

The high-scoring league averaged over a combined 11 goals per-game with the top two sides netting over 200 tallies apiece while Nip-Rock had 153.

Pacing the league in goals, assists and points was Mark Backor of DeGagne as he collected 34, 37 and 71 respectively.

Next on the leader-board was Joe Ladoucer of the North Stars who picked up 53 points in 31 games.

Sitting third in league scoring that year was Jukka Efraimson as he etched his number on the game sheet 51 times followed by Rick Markic with 47 points.

Bill Duncan, who went on to coach minor hockey locally for many years, led the Rangers offensively with 20 tallies and 26 helpers to finish fifth in league numbers.

Among the other notable names in the league at the time were Ron Talakoski and Bob Bodak, who would both be future NHLers.

On the back-end, Gerald Bolduc, who went on to win multiple Allan Cups with the Thunder Bay Twins, was a stalwart defenceman for Port Arthur while John Kelly was a talented blueliner with the Buccaneers.

Facing plenty of rubber each night, Port Arthur’s Shawn Reilly paced all league netminders in goals-against average at 4:17 while the Bucs’ Ed Pawlicki was second at 4.64.

Physicality was also part of the proceedings as well with Dale Goegan-Stars (186); Lance Hughes-Bucs (178) & Bob Dalton-Bucs (158) pacing the pack in penalty minutes.

Not finishing within 20 points of the second place club to qualify for the playoffs meant the Rangers did not make the postseason and resulted in the two Thunder Bay teams not having to play their final two regular season games against each other and instead advancing right to an eight-point league championship series.

With Lorne Allard coaching the North Stars and Dave Simpson behind the Buccaneers bench, the highly anticipated match-up began with a 7-7 overtime draw after DeGagne had a late marker waived off with the officials deeming the siren at the Fort William Gardens had sounded before the puck entered the net.

After that, it was all North Stars as they reeled off four consecutive victories, including taking the last two contests by scores of 9-8 in OT and 12-9 in the finale to claim the Jack Adams trophy as league champions for a second straight campaign.

Heading to the Centennial Cup trail, the North Stars would meet a strong North York Rangers side from Toronto.

After dropping the first two games at the Gardens, Port Arthur would go on to be swept in a best-of-seven.

As for North York, they only lost three times in the postseason that year, falling twice in double OT and being edged 3-2 in the Centennial Cup final by the Red Deer Rustlers who were led by Brent Sutter, an eventual two-time Stanley Cup winner with the New York Islanders.

Following the 1979-80 campaign, the newly formed Thunder Bay Trophy Kings, who were later dubbed the Burger King Kings, went on to play for a couple of seasons in a four-team local league that featured them, the Thunder Bay Twins, Bay Beverage Blazers intermediate side and the L.U. Nor’Westers university squad all competing against each other.

From there the Thunder Bay Flyers came about in 1984 and went on to win two Centennial Cups under Dave Siciliano in 1989 & ’92 as part of the long and storied history of Jr. A hockey in the Lakehead.