A REGAL AFFAIR, Part 3: Move becomes official but wins are elusive

On Jan. 4, 1956, the decision was finally made. The Regals were officially moving to Brandon from Regina.

Wealthy Saskatoon contractor Jim Piggott, who had placed the Western Hockey League team in Regina, was looking for a more lucrative spot for his professional team, and with the support of boosters in Brandon, was willing to give the league’s smallest city a try.

“My sincere desire to associate myself and the Regals with your hard-working Citizens’ Hockey Committee and your fair-minded and enthusiastic fans in Brandon and district, coupled with my reluctance to quit has dictated my decision to permanently move the Regal hockey club to your city,” Piggott said. “The fact that I have suffered considerable financial loss through the lack of support of processional hockey by the Regina people is of course no fault or concern of the Brandon fans.”

In 14 home games in Regina, they averaged just 816 fans per game, and Piggott’s losses were pegged around $40,000. While Brandon’s gates had bounced between 1,200 and 2,945, he now had local people selling tickets for him and agreeing to help underwrite any red ink on the ledger.

It was an almost perfect landing spot.

Still, the rumours were already flying that Piggott might take his team back to Saskatoon to amalgamate with the Quakers in his hometown.

Quakers GM Norman Couch quickly said that was bunkum.

“There will be no amalgamation,” Couch said. “I don’t know who starts these rumours, but I can assure you that there is nothing to this one.”

It was the first of many similar statements over the next 18 months.

Incredibly, part of the local committee’s optimism about the Regals came from the fact the Brandon Curling Club burned down that week. With seven sheets and two draws per evening, that meant 112 curlers might attend the hockey games instead to fill their evenings.

Season tickets were being sold with no money down as the newly christened Brandon Regals began their new chapter with a tall task.

They headed into Winnipeg on Jan. 6, 1956 to face the surging Winnipeg Warriors, who were on a five-game winning streak and trying to track down the Prairie Division leaders, the Calgary Stampeders.

Still, the Winnipeg Free Press noted “Regals have a plucky band of players who could upset the dope bucket.”

Alas, the dope bucket remained upright as Ed Chadwick starred in net for Winnipeg with 28 saves in a 2-1 victory.

Hugh Barlow scored twice for Winnipeg, with the former Wheat King Murray Wilkie replying for Brandon.

Also in the lineup for the Warriors was Billy Mosienko, the former Chicago Black Hawks star who recorded the fastest hat trick in National Hockey League history in just 21 seconds against the New York Rangers in 1952, a record that still stands.

He was in the first of four seasons with Winnipeg at age 34.

“They were up for this one,” he said of the Regals after the game. The Regals finally beat the Warriors at home on Jan. 8, a 5-1 victory in front of 2,200 fans.

In the game story, goaltender Lucien Dechene’s exploits were celebrated. Sort of.

“The pudgy netminder was positively brilliant on many occasions,” the unnamed writer enthused.

It was the first home game since the team officially transferred to Manitoba, and the City of Brandon presented the key to the city to the players before the game, who then went out and snapped Winnipeg’s six-game winning streak.

On Jan. 9, the Chamber of Commerce unanimously approved a resolution welcoming the Regals to the city. The Sun’s Krug Crawford and Norman Bergman both spoke on behalf of the team at the meeting, noting the good publicity for the city and also that extra money was coming into Brandon from Westman folks driving in for the game.

Bergman said Virden residents alone had asked for 100 tickets per game.

Attendance was down 13.1 per cent across the league from the 1954-55 season, but enthusiasm was up in Brandon when the Regals blanked the visiting Calgary Stampeders to jump into fourth place in the Prairie Division on Jan. 10.

On Jan. 13, the Seattle Americans came to town, which was reported to be the first time a club from the United States ever played in Brandon. The Regals, who were suddenly world beaters, won their third game in a row with a 6-4 decision.

The game was played in front of 3,624 noisy fans — the largest crowd to date — and Piggott deadpanned after the game “terrible crowd, wasn’t it?” before breaking into a wide smile.

League president Al Leader was in Brandon from Seattle, and when he heard a Sun reporter speaking to a radio announcer in Seattle, he grabbed the phone and said “These Regals are really flying now and if they play like they did tonight, they’re going to give a lot of teams a lot of trouble.”

When the Regals trounced the Quakers 6-2, the Regals held a three-point lead for the final playoff spot and were on a four-game winning streak.

Just when it seemed like the enthusiasm of the club and its players couldn’t get any higher, forward Bill Bucyk spotted a fire in the Paragon Grocery building at the corner of Tenth Street and Lorne Avenue.

He stopped another driver to turn in the alarm, and dashed into the adjacent Hydro Lunch Cafe and alerted residents. He then assisted two women and infant from the building and kept them in his car until arrangements were made for them to stay with neighbours.

He was prevented by firefighters from running into the 58-year building after he learned four people were trapped. They were carried out soon after by firefighters, with a pet dog the only casualty.

Soon after, the team lost the use of the Wheat City Arena with the annual curling bonspiel on, so they headed to Minnedosa, where they practised in front of school children and other fans. There was hope they could something similar in Virden, but the lack of showers and other accommodations made it impossible.

With everything starting to look so good, the Victoria Cougars ended Brandon’s winning streak with a 4-1 victory.

On Jan. 27, the team held Neepawa Night, and although a bus ran off the highway near Forrest, the fans only missed the first period of a 4-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks.

On Jan. 30, the team received word from former Chicago Blackhawks great Doug Bentley that he would be joining the team. Bentley had started the season as player-coach of the Saskatoon Quakers, but quit the team when his successor as coach was named.

The Regals were one of three teams attempting to lure Bentley, who began his NHL career in 1939 and led the league in scoring with 73 points in 1942-43. He moved to the WHL in the 1951-52 season.

On Feb. 2, the Regals were 35 minutes late to a 5-1 loss in Winnipeg when their train was held up in Elie due to a freight derailment ahead of them. Piggott and general manager Frank Boucher issued a desperate call for help and the players and staff were transported into Winnipeg in cars supplied by generous Elie citizens.

On Feb. 3, Brandon Wheat Kings defenceman Bill Shadlock made his debut with the Regals, replacing Gord Strate, who was injured earlier in the week. The Regals were also without Gord Stratton, who was called up by the American Hockey League’s Cleveland Barons, freeing up a spot for Bentley.

Shadlock was allowed to play up to three games without damaging his amateur status.

Back then, teams were only allowed to carry 15 players, including the goalie, but were able to register a number of amateurs in case of emergency.

On Feb. 7, Regals forward Bill Bucyk had a chance to play against his younger brother Johnny, a forward with the Edmonton Flyers. The younger Bucyk went on to a Hockey Fall of Fame career as one of the greatest Boston Bruins of all time.

Bentley had two assists that night on a line with George Senick and Bill Kyle in a 4-0 victory. Within the week, rumours began to fly that his younger brother Max was also the way, but Boucher was quick to say he had suffered a groin injury with Saskatoon and didn’t want to play unless he was healthy.

There was also a chance Pat Lundy might join them. He hadn’t made the trip from Regina after the team moved to Brandon because he managed the Regina Arena. There was a possibility he could sneak away after the Ice Capades show, and he did.

The team weathered a tough stretch after the January winning streak, and after an overtime loss to Saskatoon, the Quakers pulled back within two points of them for the final playoff spot.

When the Regals headed out west on a five-game trip and managed just three points, the Quakers jumped back into fourth place. With a massive game against Saskatoon coming up, and the Ice Capades filling the Wheat City Arena, the Regals skated out in Minnedosa, and somewhat oddly decided to get an exhibition game in against the Minnedosa Jets of the Big Six Intermediate League.

By then, the team had closed the door on the possibility of Max Bentley joining them.

With 11 games left for the Regals and Quakers and Saskatoon up two points, the biggest game of the season took place on Feb. 25.

Brandon was nursing a 2-0 lead into the third period and were still up 2-1 when Jackie McLeod tied the game with 37 seconds left and the goalie pulled, and longtime NHLer Earl Ingarfield won it in overtime. Back then, there wasn’t a loser point awarded, so Brandon found itself four points back.

When Bentley came down with the flu, another Wheat King, forward Jim Nicholl, made his pro debut.

The Regals finally got a little frustration out against the red-hot Quakers during a visit on March 3 with “a brawl of pier-six proportions” in overtime during a 1-1 game. The bad news was the Regals remained six points back.

On March 6, the city finally got some good news when Piggott said the team would be back for the 1956-57 season. Unfortunately, the announcement came with a massive caveat: The local committee would now have to sell 3,000 season tickets.

The Sun’s Krug Crawford greeted the news enthusiastically, writing “That’s not a big duty for this rabid hockey centre. We’re sure we can meet it, with plenty to spare.”

Since Piggott moved a last-place club to Brandon for the 1955-56 season, which doesn’t exactly bring people flooding into the rink, he vowed Brandon would be competitive for the next season.

“We know the weakness of the present lineup and we’re going to do something about it,” he said.

On March 7, the Regals actually honoured one of their opponents. Edmonton Flyers forward Max Szturm. The Brandonite came through the ranks in Brandon, but he left after the Wheat Kings dropped out of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League to play intermediate hockey instead. Szturm, who was a Detroit Red Wings prospect, was brought in by Edmonton after his junior team in Hamilton was knocked out of the playoffs.

He was presented with a gold watch by Mayor Stuart Schultz before his club lost 5-1.

The Regals played their final game of the season on March 17 at home, earning a 6-5 victory over Winnipeg in front of 2,511 fans.

After a wild season, maybe it wasn’t a surprise that referee Blair Peters fell along the boards in the second period, breaking a small bone in his leg. After he was taken off the ice on a stretcher, local refereeing legend Andy Gurba took over with assistance from local junior player Andy McCallum.

In one final bit of good news, Dechene won a gold watch as the team’s popular player.

Local and visiting media, Piggott, Winnipeg owner Jack Perrin and coach and general manager Boucher all went to the Prince Edward Hotel afterwards for a wild duck dinner sponsored by the local hockey committee.

The ducks came courtesy of local hunters Curly McKay and Mal Brodie. The two teams were also treated to a buffet dinner.

After the season, The Sun’s Henry Stothard noted a lack of scoring punch was the reason they missed the playoffs, with their 199 goals setting a league record for fewest ever, and their 18 home losses setting a record for the most ever.

But the Regals were coming back and would have a fresh start in the fall of 1956.

» This is the third instalment in a 10-part series chronicling the unlikely story of Brandon’s only professional hockey team, their mid-season move to the city, their brief stay and why the Regals eventually left after the 1956-57 season. Tomorrow, the Regals come to camp looking to build a contender.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com