Adapted from Chapter 11
Real war in Europe was on as was a salary war in hockey and by the end of the 1914-15 season, the Ottawa Senators were engaged in their own war – hockey style.
The National Hockey Association (N.H.A.) and the Pacific Coast Hockey League (P.C.H.A.) had recently entered into an agreement for an east-west series to determine the Stanley Cup champion. By the middle of February of 1915, the Senators were in first place, the Montreal Wanderers in second, while the current Cup holders, the Torontos, were well back in N.H.A. standings.
The regular schedule ended with Wanderers and Senators deadlocked in first place at fourteen wins and six losses apiece. The right to defend the Stanley Cup against the west would be decided in a two-game, total-goals series. In the first, played at Dey’s Arena before a boisterous crowd of nearly 7,000, the Senators came out strong. Art Ross, playing point on this occasion, scored early on. Duford added one in the second, and Merrill and Darragh finished things off in the third to give Ottawa a comfortable four-goal lead in the series. Back in the dressing room, the high-spirited players had a cocky response to manager Frank Shaughnessy’s announcement, “Remember, fellows, the train leaves at 3:15 for Montreal.” In unison, Broadbent, Duford and Gerard hollered back, “What time does the train leave for the coast?”
For the Saturday night return game in Montreal, rush end spectators formed a line nearly half a mile long outside the Westmount Arena during the afternoon and were in their standing room spots two hours before game time. Nearly 1,000 Senators’ supporters came in from the capital. What they saw was a defensive wall thrown up by coach Alf Smith’s boys. Smith’s tactic was to play two forwards and three defencemen and not to worry at all about scoring more goals. The Senators repelled attack after attack, allowing only one goal. The Senators won the series four goals to one.
Unlike the Senators, the Vancouver Millionaires were well rested, perhaps too much so, not having played since March 2. The Millionaires had won the P.C.H.A. handily, with thirteen victories and four losses. Their roster included a forward line of Cyclone Taylor, Frank Nighbor and Mickey Mackay, who among them had scored seventy-seven of their team’s 115 goals that season.
Because the P.C.H.A. still played seven-man hockey, it was agreed that a rover would be used in alternate games, all to be played in the Vancouver’s spacious Denman Arena. In game one, Eddie Gerard filled the position for the Senators, Cyclone for the Millionaires. Following instructions from coach Smith, the Senators paid special attention to the Cyclone, but it was no use. The old Ottawa and Renfrew stalwart had little trouble eluding his checkers and scored two of his team’s six goals. Jack Darragh and Art Ross replied for the Senators.
It looked like the Senators had found their legs for the second game. At the end of the first period, they led 2 to 0 on goals by Punch Broadbent. But Ottawa could not sustain the pressure and, while Punch added a third, the momentum swung to the Millionaires. They won the contest 8 to 3, Cyclone accounting for three.
Observers agreed that game three would be nothing more than a formality, and they were right. The Millionaires humiliated the eastern champions 12 to 3. In winning the Stanley Cup, the Millionaires became the first club west of Winnipeg to do so. “I have got to hand it to the Vancouver team,” said Ottawa manager Frank Shaughnessy. “They surely earned the championship.”
It was the first time Ottawa had lost a Stanely Cup championship series and the first time a team west of Winnipeg had won it.
The 1914-15 Ottawa Senators in wartime uniform. Back Row: Cosy Dolan (trainer), Jack Darragh, Hamby Shore, Art Ross, Horace Merrill, Frank Shaughnessy (manager) Middle Row: Angus Duford, Sammy Hebert (goalie), Alf Smith (coach), Clint Benedict, Leth Graham Front Row (seated): Eddie Gerard (left), Punch Broadbent. LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA R11922-0-4-E.
Source: Kitchen, Paul. Win, Tie, Or Wrangle: The Inside Story of the Old Ottawa Senators, 1883-1935. Manotick: Penumbra Press, 2008.