1942: Hockey, Ice

Hockey played to the largest crowds during 1942 and the professional game continued its activity into the longest season in its history, up to several weeks after the opening of the baseball season. The top team in the National Hockey League turned up in the New York Rangers, clinching the championship by an outstanding defeat of the Chicago Black Hawks, piling up sixty points, three more than the total scored by the Toronto Maple Leafs, the runners-up. The starring Rangers, having lost many of their best players to the armed forces, are now rebuilding a new team.

In the play-off for the Stanley Cup, emblematic of the world professional title, played at the conclusion of the 1941-42 season, the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Detroit Red Wings in a stirring four-straight victory, even though Detroit had a lead of three games in a seven-game series. Toronto defeated the Rangers in this series four games to two. Boston won the best-of-three series from Chicago, then lost to Detroit after the latter had eliminated the Canadiens of Montreal. In this professional competition Americans have been finally eliminated from top honors.

Indianapolis, top team in the western division of the American Hockey League, also defeated the Hersey team, leaders in the eastern section in the finals of the League's annual fixture. The American Association's top honors for the season went to the hard-playing Omaha Knights.

In high-ranking amateur circles, the N. Y. Rovers won the Eastern Hockey League championship after a tie with the Johnstown Bluebirds and the Boston Olympics. The Rovers won the title by virtue of a goal record which showed an accumulation during the season of 272 points. Boston scored 263 and Johnstown 248.

The Allen Cup, awarded for the Canadian amateur hockey championship, was captured in masterful style by the Canadian Royal Air Force with the assistance of three top players of the National Hockey League. The Portage la Prairie team captured the Memorial Cup, championship of the junior amateurs, against several fast Dominion teams.

In college circles, Dartmouth not only succeeded Princeton as winner of the Pentagonal Hockey League but also swept through the season without losing a contest. The Big Green team, amassing sixty-four goals, was scored on only twenty-seven times. Yale scored five victories, and with three defeats was six points behind Dartmouth. Harvard won three games and lost five, while the U. S. Military Academy finished last.

The Boston College squad won the A.A.U. championship at the Boston Arena by turning back the strong St. Nicks, the defending titleholders, in a thrilling 6-4 final. The tournament started with Boston College beating the High Standard Club of New Haven. The final was an excellent game, with the St. Nicks twice coming from behind to gain ties, and to go ahead once, before Boston College wore them down in the home stretch.

1941: Hockey, Ice

Now acknowledged as winter's top sport indoors and outdoors, hockey accounted for a vast following of more than 5,000,000 persons during the successful 1940-41 season. Considered second only to basketball (indoors only) in popularity, the annual expenditure for hockey's admissions to games, salaries of players and officials, and equipment topped $8,000,000 at the most conservative figures.

Professional games in the United States took the limelight, to be sure, but amateur contests are also creating a larger following every year. Kingpins among the pro teams in the National League are the Boston Bruins, a top-flight aggregation, who swept away all opposition in winning the league crown and the hockey championship of the world for the Stanley Cup. The Bruins scored twenty-three straight victories over their opponents until finally halted by the New York Rangers, winners of nineteen games during the 1939-40 season. It was the third straight annual victory of the Bruins in taking the league title, followed by a victory over the second place Toronto Maple Leafs for the play-offs in the Cup series. Later the Bruins won four straight against the Detroit Red Wings in a four-out-of-seven sectional series.

The Washington Eagles scored a signal triumph as a newcomer in the Eastern League, running up 92 points in 65 games and scoring 280 goals, with Baltimore second. After leading all the way, the Cleveland Barons captured the championship of the American League. The St. Louis Flyers won the championship of the American Association, comprising Kansas City, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Omaha, Tulsa, Dallas and Fort Worth. The Regina Rangers won the Allen Cup, emblematic of Canadian amateur hockey supremacy, and Canada's junior championship and Memorial Cup was taken by the Winnipeg team.

With the Canadian colleges out of hockey competition because of the war, Princeton won the Quadrangular title, replacing Yale, with Dartmouth third and Harvard last. Always among the top teams, the St. Nicholas Hockey Club defeated the Clinton Hockey Club for the National A. A. U. championship in New Haven, Conn., among six teams. The N. Y. Exchange Brokers won the laurels in the Metropolitan (N. Y.) Hockey League, and six other district associations in the A. A. U. held annual championships in the Eastern and Mid-Western states. Manual Training High School was triumphant over all high schools in New York for the P. S. A. L. championship title.

The lion's share of individual honors in professional hockey were won by players on the Bruins' team, including the Hart Trophy for the most valuable player on his team, awarded to Bill Bowley, center. The Lady Byng Trophy for the best conduct on the ice was awarded to Bobby Bauer, Boston's capable right wing. Walter (Turk) Broda, of the Maple Leafs, captured the goal-tending award, the George Vezina Trophy, and the Calder Trophy for the season's most outstanding rookie was voted to Johnny Quilty, of the Canadians. Like all other sports, hockey is doomed to lose many of its best players who are now enlisting for war duty.

1940: Hockey, Ice

Now boasting a major ranking, hockey shares the glamour of top indoor and outdoor winter attractions in the Northern States and in many of the Central States, where artificial ice spreads its glistening surface, and in Canada. In the United States it is estimated that nearly 5,000,000 persons saw the game in 1940, in both professional and amateur contests, and that a total of nearly $8,000,000 was spent for admissions, salaries and new equipment. Such is an indication that the flashing steel blades have turned to gold. In this flourishing game Canada also shared its prosperity, for in the Dominion it rates first, as baseball does in the United States. More colleges and schools are playing hockey than ever before.

In big-time professional circles, the New York Rangers are the world's champions, capturing four of the seven principal trophies offered for various 'bests' in the National Hockey League at the end of the 1939-1940 season. Now in possession of the Rangers, either as a team or with individual players, are the Stanley Cup, the William MacBeth Trophy, the Calder Trophy and the Georges Vezina Trophy. The Prince of Wales Trophy was captured by the Boston Bruins as first place winner in the National Hockey League.

In the minor (professional) leagues, the Providence team won in the Eastern Division and the Indianapolis team captured the Western Division of the International American Hockey League; St. Louis won in the American Hockey Association; Vancouver took the title in the Pacific Coast Hockey League.

The Eastern Amateur Hockey League's Baltimore Orioles captured the championship and won the James J. Walker Trophy; the New York Rovers won both the Atlantic City Boardwalk Trophy and the Hershey Challenge Trophy; the Hamilton B. Wills International Trophy was won by the United States team from the Canadian team, in a closely contested series, 12 games won and 11 lost, 26 points for the U.S. team and 24 for the Canadians. The Metropolitan Amateur Hockey League (N. Y.) title went to the Exchange Brokers team, and in the Lester Patrick playoff series the Sands Point Tigers won the trophy. The New York Amateur Hockey Association title was won by the St. Nicholas Hockey Club.

In collegiate circles, Yale captured the Quadrangular Hockey League title from Princeton, Harvard and Dartmouth. The University of Toronto won the International Intercollegiate Hockey League title, one point behind McGill, with Yale third. Toronto also took the Canadian intercollegiate crown. The Allen Cup, emblematic of the amateur championship of Canada, was won by the Blue Devils of Kirkland Lake, Ont., when they defeated the Calgary Stampeders in three straight games in the final round.

The Amateur Athletic Union national ice hockey championship was won by the University of Minnesota, defeating the Brock-Hall Hockey Club in the finals, held at Lake Placid, N.Y.

1939: Hockey, Ice

It is estimated that there were 5,000,000 paid admissions in the United States to witness the games of ice hockey during the past season. The professional game has gone ahead with such leaps and bounds in the big cities, that the National Hockey Professional League, the major league in the sport, claims an average attendance of 10,000 persons daring its seven-team schedule. Ice hockey is now the most important feature of the winter program in Madison Square Garden, New York City.

In the major league (the National Professional Hockey League), the Boston Bruins fought out a nip-and-tuck series with the New York Rangers for the Stanley Cup, emblematic of the world's championship. Among the fast-moving minor league combinations, the Philadelphia Ramblers won in the Eastern Division, and the Hershey team in the Western Division of the International Hockey League; the St. Louis Flyers outplayed the others in the American Hockey Association, and the Portland team finished first in the Pacific Coast Hockey League.

The national A.A.U. ice hockey championship was won by the Cleveland American Legion, which defeated the Minnesota Gophers. An increasing number of district associations of the A.A.U. now promote the sport. Among leading amateur teams in the big circuits, the New York Rovers led in the Eastern Amateur Hockey League and also bested the Holzbaugh Fords of Detroit in a post-season series for the championship of the United States Amateur Hockey Association, a newly organized outlaw amateur group. The Jamaica Hawks won the title in the Metropolitan (New York) Hockey League.

Stanley Cup Finals (best 4 of 7 games): April 6 — Boston 2, Toronto 1; April 9 — Toronto 3, Boston 2 (overtime); April 11 — Boston 3, Toronto 1; April 13 — Boston 2, Toronto 0; April 16 — Boston 3, Toronto 1, Boston vanquished Toronto, 4 games to 1.

In one of the few championship contests on foreign soil, a team of Canadian skaters known as the Trail (B. C.) Smoke Eaters won a so-called world amateur crown by defeating a United States team, at Basle, Switzerland. In Canadian amateur hockey, honors were divided between the East and West — the Port Arthur Bear Cats captured the Allen Cup, symbolic of the championship of Canada; the Oshawa Generals won the Memorial Cup in the junior competition. McGill University won the International Intercollegiate Ice Hockey League crown.