1920-21 Port Arthur North End
Thunder Bay Senior Hockey League champions
Goaltender: Harry Fisher
Defence: Gordon (Phat) Wilson; Jimmy Gagnon; John Healey
Forwards: Danny Cox; Alex Gray; Wilf L’Heureux; Albert Pudas; Wes Wellington
By Tom Annelin / HockeyThunderBay.com
WHILE it has been quite some time now, the early days of exceptional talent and teams produced over the decades remains prominent in historical annals of hockey in the Lakehead.
One such club was the 1920-21 Port Arthur North End senior side that boasted a plethora of on-ice skill.
The star of the squad was a gifted 22-year-old right winger, Alex Gray.
Born in Glasgow, Scotland, before emigrating to the Lakehead in his youth, Gray was the runaway scoring leader in the four-team Thunder Bay Senior Hockey League that year, that also featured the defending champion Fort William Maple Leafs, the Fort William Beavers and the Kenora Thistles.
Just how gifted of a goal-scorer was Gray?
In the 15-game regular season he scored 42 times and helped set-up 20 others, with his 62 points placing 33 points clear of his closest rivals, in teammates Albert Pudas and Wilf L’Heureux, along with Frank Hacquoil of the Maple Leafs.
It was even reported that Gray, and at least one other player, spurned a lucrative financial offer to bolt P.A. and sign on with a strong Eveleth Rangers side (14-1-3), who were competing in a United States league.
Like many of his teammates, he later went on to win multiple Allan Cups, later that decade with Port Arthur.
Gray also won a Stanley Cup with the New York Rangers in 1929, with another Port Arthur legend, in goaltender Lorne Chabot.
Finishing 13-2-0 to top the table in the TBSHL standings, it earned them a berth in the league final against the second-place Maple Leafs, who were 10-5-0 overall.
Meeting in a two-game, total-goal set for the Scotland Woolen Mills Trophy and the TBSHL championship, it was the defending title-holding Maple Leafs, who gained the upper hand with a 4-2 Game 1 victory.
Roaring back in the final contest, North End swamped Fort William 9-3 to take the series by an 11-7 margin.
Securing a date with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies in western Canadian semifinal play, the clubs travelled to Winnipeg to commence a neutral site two-game, total-goal affair in the Manitoba capital.
In the opener, Port Arthur set the tone early by skating out to a 7-1 lead after one period of play, as part of an eventual 13-4 triumph.
Albert Pudas paced the North End onslaught with five goals, while Gray had a hat trick.
Tacking on two tallies apiece were future Hockey Hall of Fame Honoured Member Gordon (Phat) Wilson and Wilf L’Heureux, with Danny Cox supplying a single.
Going into the finale with a nine-goal cushion, the Ports were meticulous in their on-ice efforts in securing a 4-2 triumph, to take the overall count by a margin of 17-6.
Wes Wellington potted a pair, including the game-winner in the middle stanza, while Gray and Wilson also connected in the match-up.
Staying in Winnipeg for the western final versus Brandon, Man., it was a former local rival that Port Arthur could not contain that led to their demise.
Fort William-born Bob Armstrong, who had played for the Maple Leafs the previous five seasons, including notching a combined 36 goals in 1919-20 to lead them to the TBSHL title, had joined the Wheat City squad and was all but unstoppable.
Armstrong struck 85 seconds into the proceedings and went on to pile up five markers in total, as part of a 12-4 decision, to give Brandon an almost insurmountable lead into Game 2.
The North End goal getters in the lopsided loss were L’Heureux, Cox, Wellington and Gray.
A high-scoring finale saw Armstong fill the net on another five occasions in an 11-7 win to claim the overall set 23-11.
Gray, with three, Pudas with a pair, along with L’Heureux and Wilson were the Port Arthur marksmen in the season-ending defeat.
Brandon went on to blank the University of Toronto Varsity Blues 2-0 in the opener of the Allan Cup final in front of a sold-out throng at the Winnipeg Amphitheatre, only to see the U of T storm back with an 8-1 triumph and claim the Canadian senior crown, with Armstrong kept off the game sheet in each game.
Of note, Armstrong returned home to play, before retiring in 1925 and becoming president of the Fort William Hockey Club.
In the end, Port Arthur went on to learn some valuable lessons after coming up short in 1921.
A number of those players built on those experiences that eventually helped them go on to win the Allan Cup in 1925, ’26 and ’29, making the north siders from the Lakehead into a perennial senior hockey power for years to come.