By Sam Cortes, Communications Coordinator
We are back at it with another season of hockey underway, so we thought it was fitting to pay homage to one of our inducted teams, the 1964 Winnipeg Maroons.
You could tell they were a special group the moment they stepped on the ice together, whipping passes across to one another like they had eyes in the back of their heads.
The season wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, however. After competing in a European tour that saw them defeat the German national team twice and tie the Czechs, they were a tired bunch, so there was chatter about them not playing in the 64’ playoffs.
They also suffered some injuries along the way to key players Fred Dunsmore and Reg Abbott. Some players were also having difficulty getting the time off work. They picked up a couple players from the Selkirk intermediates for some spot duty though, so that they could compete for the Allan Cup.
Their Semi-finals in the west was a best of seven series against the Port Arthur Bearcats out of Northern Ontario. The Maroons made quick work of them, dispatching the Bearcats in four straight games, outscoring their opponents 28 to 9 overall.
Next up was a date with the Saskatoon Quakers for the Western Championship. The Quakers posed a bit more of a challenge to the Maroons, managing to win one game out of the best of seven series. The Maroons ended up bullying the Quakers for the majority of the games and outscored them over the series 29-19.
The Allan Cup Finals
The finals of the Allan Cup pitted the best team out of the west vs the best team out of the east. That year, the championship took place in Winnipeg and featured the Winnipeg Maroons from the west vs the Woodstock Athletics from the east.
This best of seven series was really no contest, though. Over the period of 10+ years, the Maroons had been building for this moment, hoping that their time would come. From the first puck drop, they were all over the Athletics, taking game one 5-0. From that point on, the track meet didn’t stop. The Maroons fired in goal after goal, beating the Athletics in the other 3 games 7-1, 5-0 and 5-3 to win the best of 7 series in four games, becoming Allan Cup champions, and the best senior men’s team in the country.
