A REGAL AFFAIR, Part 8: Squad failed to ace its final test

If the old professional Western Hockey League is a mostly forgotten loop these days, the Edinburgh Trophy has almost entirely been lost to time as an important hockey championship.

The annual event, which was contested four times between 1954 and 1957, pitted the winner of the WHL against the Quebec Hockey League champion for a trophy donated by Prince Philip (the Duke of Edinburgh) in March 1954.

In the best-of-nine series, the Calgary Stampeders beat the Montreal Aces 5-1 in 1954, the Shawinigan Falls Cataractes got by the Edmonton Flyers 5-2 in 1955 and the Winnipeg Warriors topped the Montreal Royals 5-1 in 1956.

With the prohibitive costs associated with flying across the country, the championship alternated between Western Canada and Quebec, and in 1957, five games were planned for Quebec City, with Game 3 in Montreal, as the Regals prepared to face the Quebec Aces.

In the six-team QHL, the Aces swept the Trois-Rivières Lions in the semifinals and then topped the Chicoutimi Sagueneens in six games in the final.

The Aces included the National Hockey League’s first black player, Willie O’Ree, former Brandon Wheat Kings defenceman Joe Crozier of Winnipeg and more than a dozen skaters who were at least short-time National Hockey League players.

In the QHL, they were both the highest scoring and stingiest team in the league, with goaltender Al Millar of Winnipeg leading the way.

After winning the WHL title on Thursday, April 25, Game 1 of the national final was set for Sunday, April 28, so they left by train on Friday morning on the 2,700-km trip with The Sun’s Henry Stothard along to cover the series.

On the train, overtime hero Vic Lynn said the first game would be a big one as the teams figured each other out.

“If we can win that first contest I figure we’ll be alright,” Lynn said, “but if we lose it we’re really going to have go then.”

They also had some precedence to overcome because the home team had won the first three trophies.

The road-weary Regals certainly showed the miles to start Game 1 on April 28.

They were down 2-0 in the first nine seconds before Les Lilley scored late in the period and Norm Johnson tied it 4:11 into the middle frame. But goals by Joe Crozier and Orval Tessier gave the Aces a 5-3 lead midway through the third period, and while Ray Manson scored, the Regals fell 5-4.

“Well, that means it has to go at least six games now,” player-coach Don Raleigh joked in the dressing room after the game. “I thought for sure we might win it but we made a couple of bad plays and the Aces didn’t make any. That was the difference. It looks the clubs are pretty evenly matched, but I think we can win it yet.”

Len Haley agreed.

“If that’s all these guys have we can take them,” he said. “We’re going to be a lot harder to beat next game.”

As it turned out, he was right.

The teams had the next day off because of a booking in the arena, which was the Coliseum or Colisée. It was built in 1949 and would later host the Quebec Nordiques.

In Game 2 on May 1, Brandon goalie Lucien Dechene made 31 saves in front of his home fans and Les Colwill gave the Regals a 1-0 lead that stood into the final minute of play.

With the goalie pulled for an extra attacker, Quebec forward Skip Teal tied the game with 15 seconds remaining in regulation. With the game seemingly headed to overtime and the Quebec fans still cheering, Brandon’s Bob Chrystal sent a shot at net that bounced in off the stick of Ray Manson for a miracle goal 10 seconds later to hand the Regals an unlikely 2-1 victory.

“That was one of the most weird and wonderful endings to a hockey game that I have ever seen,” Regals general manager Frank Boucher said.

Game 3 the next night was just as exciting but couldn’t have been more different.

The teams were tied 2-2 after the first period and Quebec led 5-4 after two periods. Les Lilley singlehandedly put the Regals ahead with goals 28 seconds apart early in the third period, but Aces forward Marcel Bonin tied it 6-6 two minutes later.

In overtime, with two seconds left in a Brandon penalty, Tessier sniped at the 6:10 mark for a wild 7-6 victory.

Goaltender Lucien Dechene made 38 saves.

The series resumed with Game 4 on May 5, and the Regals were simply outclassed in a 4-2 loss. They trailed 4-0 before late goals by Elliott Chorley and Bob Chorley.

“That was our worst game of the playoffs by far,” GM Frank Boucher said. “They had it all over us. We didn’t do anything right.”

Brandon’s special teams hurt them, with the power play going for 0-for-6 and Quebec scoring on their only opportunity.

In Game 5 on May 7, it was more of the same to start, with Tessier scoring twice to give the Aces a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes, and Bonin making it a 3-0 game in the second period.

The third period was completely different, with Elliott Chorley, Les Colwill and Les Lilley tying the game during a five-minute stretch early in the third period to send it to overtime.

But just as it seemed the Regals were ready to get back into the series, Joe Crozier fired a desperation shot at the net when he was being checked at the blue-line and it bounced in off Teal 14:24 into overtime to give the Aces a 4-3 victory and a 4-1 series lead.

“If we ever deserved to win a hockey game, it was that one,” a disappointed head coach Don Raleigh said. “If we had beat’em tonight, it would have been a brand new hockey series … but despite those ‘ifs’ it still goes in the record books as a loss.”

The next day, Raleigh was nowhere close to giving up as his team faced elimination in Game 6 on May 9.

“We’re certainly not conceding defeat, and besides, we’re not talking on terms of four games,” the coach said. “We’re going to take them one at a time. We’ve been doing that all season and those one-game victories have had a habit of mounting up in the past. Don’t forget, we won eight straight that way in our own league playoffs.”

He was right about the playoffs, but wrong about Game 6.

After Bill Bucyk gave the Regals the lead 17:10 into the first period, Bonin tied it for the Aces 93 seconds later. The game turned on a two-minute stretch midway through the second period when Dick Gamble and Bob Beckett scored to give Quebec a 3-1 lead, and Tessier made it 4-1 in the third period.

Fittingly, with 25 seconds left in their season, Raleigh scored the final goal in Brandon Regals history in a 4-2 loss.

When asked about it later, the player-coach known as Bones said his team was simply half a step behind the Aces in a season that might have been a little too long.

“We just ran out of steam in this series,” Raleigh said. “They just had too much speed and too much stamina for us.

“I’m really sorry we couldn’t bring back that trophy for the Brandon Regals but I guess it just wasn’t to be. I just hope they realize that we gave it everything we had. I want them to look as us as the team that broke all those records in our own league and captured the WHL championship, not as the team that lost out in the Edinburgh Cup finals.”

» This is the eighth 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 behind-the-scenes manoeuvring during the 1956-57 season that ensured the team would pull out of Brandon.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com