HISTORY shows it was nearly 90 years ago to the day, back on February 27, 1933, that the Port Arthur Junior Hockey Club claimed the local league championship for a second consecutive campaign.
Competing in a four-team loop with rival Port Arthur West End as well as the Westfort Maroons and Fort William Juniors, saw the side finish in top spot during the course of a 12-game season.
They were led offensively by the trio of Jimmy Haggerty, Joe McCormack and Henry (Peanuts) Heino.
Haggerty paced the TBJHL in both goals and points with 14 and 19 respectively while McCormack was next in each department at 12 and 14, while Heino’s 11 points tied him for third.
West End meanwhile were paced by Leo Lespi and Weikko Koivisto, who helped them secure second place and a berth in the final, just ahead of the Maroons.
Meeting in a two-game, total-goal, series, the Juniors prevailed by taking the opener 3-1, then skated to a hard-fought 1-1 tie to take the title by a 4-2 count.
Up next came a match-up with the Fort Frances Blackhawks in a quest for the Young trophy and the Thunder Bay Amateur Hockey Association crown.
Game 1 saw Haggerty and Stan King find the back of the net in a 2-2 draw.
They then wrapped up the district title by riding the shutout goaltending of Floyd (Phat) Pherras who blanked Fort Frances 4-0 in Game 2 to advance to the western playdowns.
For coach Bill Whear and his club, confidence must have been elevated as they would host the opener at the old 4,000 seat Port Arthur Arena on North Court St., where the former Canada Safeway store later stood for many years.
Their opponent would be the Brandon Native Sons, who upset heavily favoured Winnipeg to capture Manitoba Jr. hockey laurels.
Probably unbeknownst to Port Arthur at the time, a key reason in Brandon prevailing was the stalwart goaltending of an uber-talented 17-year-old netminder by the name of Walter (Turk) Broda, whose 31 stops in the finale backstopped the Sons to a 5-1 triumph to cap off the shocker.
This was the same Broda went on to backstop the Toronto Maple Leafs to five Stanley Cups in the 1940s and early ‘50s and would later be named one of the NHL’s Top 100 players of all-time.
As for the Port Arthur players and the hometown faithful cheering them on, they were about to get a first-hand glimpse as just how good was the burgeoning future star Broda would be.
His stellar efforts proved to be pivotal.
Things looked good for the hosts early though as defenceman George Lawrence provided a splendid rush up the ice and knocked in the initial tally, just over four minutes into the proceedings.
From there, the Juniors dominated play, but could not put another one by Broda.
In all, the home side held a decided 38-16 edge in shots on goal, but Broda’s brilliance kept Brandon in it long enough to notch an equalizer with under nine minutes to play in the third period.
Boarding the train and heading to Winnipeg, the teams traveled to the Manitoba capital to complete the two-game, total-goal affair.
There, the Ports once again pressed the pace and were rewarded with a Heino marker, eight and a half minutes into the contest.
Yet again though, the Brandon goalkeeper proved to be unbeatable the rest of the way as the stout stopper turned aside 30 attempts before his team eventually tied it, then went on to prevail 2-1 in overtime to take the series three goals to two, while posting a crisp .971 save percentage throughout.
However, Broda’s heroics were not enough in the west final as Brandon fell to the Regina Pats after a 0-0 tie, a 1-1 triple OT thriller and a 2-1 setback to close out the well-played affair.
The Pats in turn went on to be edged out by Newmarket, Ont., in the Memorial Cup final at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto by identical 2-1 scores, including a dramatic three-OT match-up to wrap it up.
While we’ll never know, had it not been for the outstanding efforts of a future hall of fame netminder, Port Arthur may have boasted another national champion, nine decades ago.