WITH amalgamation of Fort William and Port Arthur, as well as Neebing and McIntyre Townships, into the City of Thunder Bay on January 1, 1970, it also marked a season a trio of local clubs would vie for league supremacy and a quest for the first-ever Centennial Cup Canadian Junior A Championship.
Prior to that, back in the spring of 1970, the Westfort Hurricanes won a third straight local crown and would try to win the Memorial Cup for the Lakehead one last time.
The Herks got past the Port Arthur Marrs three games to two in semifinal play, then topped the Fort William Canadians, taking the best of best-of-seven final, in five outings.
Playing that year in the west, Westfort dropped the Dauphin Kings of Manitoba in six contests, then built up an early 2-0 lead of the Weyburn Red Wings before the Saskatchewan side reeled off four straight victories to claim the Abbott Cup Western championship.
Moving to the 1970-71 campaign, which saw a split in the ranks across the nation to major junior and Jr. A, the Hurricanes, Marrs and Canadians renewed acquaintances and aimed to win the newly minted Centennial Cup, which would go to the top team in Jr. A for the first time.
All three Thunder Bay clubs were stacked with local talent and were all highly competitive.
Former Detroit Red Wing Benny Woit coached the Hurricanes while Max Mekilok and Moe Irving led the Canadians bench and Ab Cava and Gary Cook guided the Marrs.
Through a 30-game regular season, only five points separated first to third in tightly-contested battle that saw Port Arthur finish just ahead of the Herks and Habs.
Each team was talented. Westfort boasted Joe Kompon, Dave and Ted Vescio, Doug Adams, future NHLer Dennis Owchar along with goaltenders Bob Welch and Terry Edwards.
Fort William was equally solid with the likes of Rick Adduono, Jerry Adduono, Tom Milani, Danny Gruen and Bob DePeiro, plus netminders Jim Szturm and Ken Turko.
As for the Marrs, their lineup featured more soon to be NHLers Lee Fogolin Jr., and Nelson Pyatt as well as the ever-popular Bill Goldthorpe along with future standout coaches Bill McDonald and George Gwozdecky.
They also sported a trio of goalkeepers in Dave Lysak, Ron Charbonneau and Dan Prokopchuk.
With Port Arthur finishing first and getting a semifinal bye, Westfort would go the distance before slipping past Fort William and advance.
In the final, the league-leading Marrs proved to be too much, winning the Thunder Bay Jr. Hockey League in five games vs. the Canadians.
Up next for P.A., was a three-game sweep of the Fort Frances Royals to claim the Jack Adams Trophy as champions of northwestern Ontario.
Moving to the start of the Centennial Cup playdowns, the Marrs went head-to-head against the Sudbury Wolves in the Eastern quarter-finals.
Stuffing 5,500 fans into the Fort William Gardens for their home games, the Marrs rallied with back-to-back one-goal wins, while facing elimination, to take a hard-fought best-of-seven that went the maximum.
However, the squad’s success came to an end in the next round as they fell to the eventual Eastern champion and Centennial Cup finalist Charlottetown Islanders in five outings to end what would be the Marrs’ final season, before they transformed into the Thunder Bay Vulcans.
Considering just how solid and closely matched each of the Lakehead’s Jr. A clubs were, you can’t help but ponder how much better they would have been if they had morphed into one squad.
Either way, be it 50 years ago, or well before and after, the sustained talent level of players and teams from Thunder Bay remains supreme and firmly establishes the Lakehead as one of the best hockey-producing towns in all of Canada.
Members of the 1970-71 Port Arthur Marrs city and regional championship side included (from left):
Front row: Larry Zulianello, Andy Melville, Dan Prokopchuk, Albert Cava, Ron Charbonneau, Dr. George Gwozdecky, Jim Mitchell.
Middle row: Bill Goldthorpe, Bill McDonald, Dave Enstad, Kent Clarke, Lee Fogolin Jr., Don Eby, Willie Trognitz, Nelson Pyatt, Greg Fisher, David Lysak.
Back row: Terry Talarico, Dave Durant, Dan Tomlak, Gary Cook, Neil MacDonald, George Gwozdecky, Wayne Larocque, Etalo Cava.
THE TEAM ROSTERS
