A REGAL AFFAIR, Part 5: Team gets off to great start, finishes strong

The new-look Brandon Regals kicked off the 1956-57 season against the Calgary Stampeders with real optimism.

The Western Hockey League club brought back just six players from the previous season after going 23-39-8 and missing the playoffs, and were in their first full season in Brandon after the move from Regina in late December of 1955.

“I think we have the makings of real contenders,” general manger Frank Boucher said, “and we’ll be going all out to pick up an early two points on Monday night.”

The eight WHL teams were split into two four-team conferences, with the season starting on Oct. 8 and ending on March 24.

Each club made three inter-divisional trips, playing the teams across the league three times at home and three away in their 70-game seasons.

The Regals won their opener 3-1 at home over the Stampeders, although their new uniforms had not arrived yet, so they were still wearing last season’s jerseys. Calgary actually opened the scoring but Bucyk and Colwill sniped 10 seconds apart late in the second period and Yanosik added an insurance goal early in the third period.

By the nine-game mark on Oct. 31, Brandon was 7-1-1, a remarkable start for a team that won just 23 times in the previous season.

Even better, rugged defenceman Howie Milford made his debut on Halloween night after undergoing off-season knee surgery. To make up for his return, the Regals went to a configuration of five defencemen and nine forwards, along with their all-star goalie Lucien Dechene.

Teams were only allowed to dress 15 players, and since they only carried one netminder, injuries and other absences were a massive problem.

On Nov. 5, Dechene learned his father had died and flew home to Quebec City for the funeral.

That created a frantic situation for Boucher, because the Calgary-based netminder that the entire league used as an emergency goalie the year before had retired. One of the candidates was 19-year-old practice goalie Don (Chuck) Woodward, a former Brandon Wheat King who served as the team’s practice goalie.

He ended up with the job, and beat the Calgary Stampeders 4-1 in his debut, making 18 saves.

Woodward went 2-1 for the team, and made 32 saves in his only loss. He was restricted to three games because a fourth would affect his amateur status, so his Regals teammates gave him three cheers in the dressing room after his final outing as a show of appreciation.

With the Seattle Americans coming to town, the plucky Citizens’ Hockey Committee advertised in nearby North Dakota communities in an attempt to sell tickets.

By that time, Dechene was back and the team added forward Eldred Kobussen after their former 10th forward, Murray Wilkie, left for the Winnipeg Warriors.

The Regals kept winning at home, pushing their home streak to nine games with a 2-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Nov. 14. Overall, they had 10 wins, four losses and one tie to lead the Prairie Division.

But the American fans they invited earlier to the rink earlier in the month may have helped lead Seattle to a 5-2 victory in front of a season-high crowd of 3,911 fans at the Wheat City Arena, a development that troubled player coach Don (Bones) Raleigh.

“We just didn’t play good hockey,” Raleigh said. “It’s too bad it had to happen with all those people out there.”

The ice wasn’t good that night, and it got worse in the third period when fans pelted it with programs, peanuts and other assorted debris after Norm Johnson was assessed a holding penalty by referee Andy Gurba.

Even with the hot start, their top scorer, Raleigh, was only 12th in the league with 17 points, with Johnson a point behind with 16. Les Colwill led the team in goals with nine.

A team that managed to win low-scoring games beat Calgary 8-3 on Nov. 20, and three nights later were handed an ugly 8-1 loss by the host Edmonton Flyers. They quickly recovered with four wins in a row, but couldn’t shake Edmonton, which remained within striking range.

With Brandon struggling to start a West Coast trip, the Flyers pulled into a tie with the Regals for the first time.

In mid-December when the team was in Vancouver, someone broke into hotel rooms and took $70 from Johnson and $50 from Howie Milford, with Dechene losing a ring and watch.

The two wallets were later returned but without the money.

On Dec. 22, the Regals hosted an old-fashioned skating party at one end of the ice and moccasin dance at the other end after the game, with barbecued beef sandwiches and coffee handed out. Children under 12 were let in free, and the 5-1 win over the Winnipeg Warriors drew 2,500 fans.

Brandon won five in a row and seven out of eight, but after a pair of losses to red-hot Edmonton, they fell out of first place for the first time all season on Jan. 1.

A 6-5 overtime loss to the visiting New Westminster Royals after the Regals led 5-2 in the third period on Jan. 2 didn’t help, so Brandon was feeling a little cranky when Edmonton visited on Jan. 5 with a three-point lead in the standings.

It proved to be an explosive night at the Wheat City Arena.

The Regals were leading 3-1 with three minutes left in the third period when Flyers forward Tom McCarthy swung his stick and brought it down on top of the head of the Regals defenceman Milford in the era long before helmets were worn.

Milford was bleeding profusely from a two-inch gash, while McCarthy ended up with 21 minutes in penalties and was tossed from the game. When blue-liner Jim (Red Eye) Hay came to his defence a little too vehemently, he too was tossed.

“With only two minutes 55 seconds remaining in the game, McCarthy and Hay left the ice for the dressing room, both giving universally-recognized gestures toward the booing crowd before departing,” the Sun’s story said.

Hay and a fan then began to fight in the corridor, and Edmonton’s Larry Hillman saw the scrap and vaulted over the boards to come to his teammate’s defence.

Other fans and players from both teams joined the melee before police got everything under control.

No arrests were made but the police added charges might be laid against some of the fans. Hay claimed he was assaulted but declined to press charges.

Regals coach Don Raleigh wasn’t happy with the attack after the game as Milford sat at his locker with fresh stitches from the hairline down his forehead.

“Something should be done when a player is the victim of an assault like that one … attempt to injure, that’s a laugh,” he said. “Take a look at Milford’s head — that attempt was successful.”

The next day, Boucher forwarded a complaint to WHL president Al Leader that the Flyers were engaging in “dirty hockey.”

“I was amazed by the behaviour of some of the Edmonton players,” he said, “and I can’t believe that they would play that way unless they were so directed. I can only conclude that they were working under instructions from (Edmonton coach Bud) Poile.”

Naturally, it didn’t take long for Poile to fire back.

“As far as sending any of my players to deliberately hurt any other player, the statement is utterly ridiculous,” he said. “I can hardly make myself believe that during Mr. Boucher’s many years of coaching and managing hockey teams at sometime or another his team has not been involved in the odd brawl. The Edmonton Flyers will continue to play their usual forceful exciting brand of hockey.”

The page turned quickly, however, with Regals exhibition games set for Rivers and Shilo.

On Jan. 12, their game in Calgary against the Stampeders was pushed back two days after Brandon’s train arrived nine hours late because of a freight-car derailment.

By the third week of January, the Regals were falling off the pace, five points back of Edmonton after earning just four wins in 12 games, with four of those losses to Edmonton.

The gamesmanship continued between the teams: Prior to another visit on Jan. 19, Edmonton’s Poile dramatically requested police protection for his team.

The tide officially turned on Jan. 23 when Brandon beat Calgary 6-5 on the road and parlayed that into a season-high nine-game winning streak.

Edmonton continued to win too, however, but Brandon temporarily moved back into first place on Jan. 30 with a 4-2 road victory over Seattle.

On Feb. 2, the team charged $5 for every ticket and a car would be given away for every 2,000 fans. The game drew 2,616, with the announcement of the attendance drawing boos because it meant fewer prizes. Boucher later had to deny the team gamed the numbers to give away less.

On the ice, everything was going great. By Feb. 10, the Regals were six points up on the Flyers.

The winning streak was finally snapped by New Westminster on Feb. 13, and after another loss, Brandon was victorious in nine of their next 10 games.

By March 2, the Sun reported that any combination of six Regals wins or Flyers losses would ensure Brandon would finish first, because both clubs had just nine games left and the home side had a six-point lead.

The league record of 40 wins set by New Westminster in 1951-52 was also within striking distance for Brandon, which had 37 at the time. Their 16 road victories were also within two of the record, which was also set by New West in 1951-52.

On March 9, Brandon beat Edmonton 4-2 and three nights later, Les Colwill scored 8:11 into overtime to beat the Flyers again for their record-setting 41st victory.

The rags-to-riches race to first place became official with a clinching 7-1 victory over the Calgary Stampeders at home on March 13.

“It’s nice to know that now at least nothing can keep us from finishing on top,” player-coach Raleigh said after the game.

After a season-ending sweep of Winnipeg, the Regals finished 44-22-4.

Ray Manson was Brandon’s top scorer with 40 goals and 43 assists, finishing fourth in the league, 39 points behind WHL legend Guyle Fielder of Seattle.

When the Prairie Division all-star team was announced, it included Brandon forward Ray Manson, defenceman Bob Chrystal and goaltender Lucien Dechene.

Dechene played 66 of his team’s 70 games, with a league-leading 2.65 goals-against average, 1,829 saves made and 173 goals against. When asked about it, the reporter made the odd decision to write it phonetically the way the Quebecker said it.

“Fur sure at leas’ my best season evair,” said Dechene, who had previously weighed as much as 228 pounds but was down to 195.

The reporter, who was talking to the goalie in the dressing room after a game then noted “Stripped, he still exhibited a bit of a balcony south of his chest, but it wasn’t the corporation it used to be.”

» This is the fifth 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. That was the hockey: All the stuff that was going on behind the scenes that season will be in part nine of the series next week. On Tuesday, a capsule look at every player who ever suited up for the Regals.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com