1945-46 NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
The big addition for 1945-46 was Gordie Howe's arrival in the game with Detroit. Just 17 years old, Howe is expected to spend the entire season in the minors so it might be another long year for the Red Wings, who finished in last place a year ago.
Over the summer Howie Morenz was enshired in the Hockey Hall of Fame along with King Clancy and Frank Boucher. Morenz spent his entire career in Montreal, leading the Habs to three Stanley Cups and led the league in scoring 3 times. He retired following the 1937-38 season and remains the NHL's all-time goal scoring leader with 286 and is second to fellow inductee Frank Boucher in total points with 717 for his career. Boucher is the all-time leader with 746 but Syl Apps of Toronto is closing in quickly on the two of them. Boucher split his career between the Ottawa Senators and New York Rangers, winning two Stanley Cups and being named league MVP 6 times. Defenseman Clancy was a long-time teammate of Boucher in Ottawa before moving on to the Montreal Maroons after the Senators folded and ended his career with a season in Chicago. In all, Clancy played in 710 games and recorded 596 career points while winning 5 Norris Trophy's as the NHL's best defenseman and a pair of MVP awards.
REGULAR SEASON
Montreal followed up it's Cup win last April with a dominant season as the Habs pretty well led from start to finish and ended up with a 15 point lead on second place Detroit when the season came to an end. Certainly a big season from Maurice Richard (34-31-65), who finished second in league scoring behind Boston's Roy Conacher, carried the Canadiens along with his centerman Elmer Lach (17-36-53) but the big factor in Montreal's success was the play of goaltender Bill Durnan as the third year pro had a breakout season. Montreal was tied with Boston for the most goals scored and their 119 against was the lowest in the league.
Even with a 17 year old Gordie Howe still in the minors the Detroit Red Wings rose from the basement to second place in the league. Turk Broda, after some shaky seasons early in his career, was very good between the pipes for the Red Wings while the line of captain Sid Abel (22-29-51) between youngsters Bep Guidolin (12-29-41) and Jimmy Peters (15-23-38) provided the offensive punch. Defenseman Bob Dill (2-16-18), who came to Detroit in a summer deal from Montreal, added stability on the blueline while a 20 year old rookie winger by the name of Ted Lindsay (10-3-13) made his NHL debut and appeared in 26 games for the Wings.
After finishing with the best regular season record a year ago, big things were again expected from Chicago but an injury cost Max Bentley (9-24-33) 18 games and broke up the top line in the league. Bill Mosienko (37-25-62) and Doug Bentley (22-32-54) adapted well to a new center in Ab DeMarco (9-36-45) but the loss of Max Bentley greatly weakened the second unit when Carl Liscombe (21-29-50) and Pete Horeck (10-23-33) were forced to play without DeMarco.
Boston had plenty of offense led by Roy Conacher (30-45-75), who won his third Art Ross Trophy as leading scorer but his first since 1941-42. Milt Schmidt (16-32-48), Gaye Stewart (20-23-43 in just 32 games) and defenseman Jack Crawford (11-27-38) added to the offense. However, there is concern about goaltending for the first time in quite a while in Boston. Frank Brimsek was still the top guy in the Boston net but the 5 time Vezina Trophy winner had a down year in the season he turned 30 years of age.
Shockingly the two teams that missed the playoffs were Toronto and New York. For the Leafs it was the first time they failed to qualify for the post-season since 1926-27 when they were still known as the St. Patricks. It was less of a surprise for the Rangers, who missed the postseason for the second straight season after winning the Cup the year before their drought began. The Leafs may be starting to worry that at age 31 Syl Apps is beginning to break down. He missed three weeks last season with an injury and this year he suffered an even more serious one, breaking a bone in his foot and missing the last 14 games of the year. Prior to his injury the 7 time Art Ross Trophy winner was looking like he might claim another scoring title as he had 44 points through his 36 games so he still has the ability to dominate if he can stay healthy.
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FINAL NHL STANDINGS
TEAM GP W L T PTS
Montreal 50 30 11 9 69
Detroit 50 22 18 10 54
Chicago 50 22 22 6 50
Boston 50 20 24 6 46
Toronto 50 14 22 14 42
New York 50 14 25 11 39
FINAL SCORING LEADERS
NAME TM GP G A PTS
Roy Conacher BOS 50 30 45 75
Maurice Richard MON 49 34 31 65
Bill Mosienko CHI 50 37 25 62
Doug Bentley CHI 45 22 32 54
Elmer Lach MON 48 17 36 53
Sid Abel DET 50 22 29 51
Carl Liscombe CHI 49 21 29 50
Milt Schmidt BOS 48 16 32 48
Hy Butler MON 50 12 33 45
Ab DeMarco CHI 50 9 36 45
Syl Apps TOR 36 22 22 44
Gaye Stewart BOS 32 20 23 43
Bep Guidolin DET 47 12 29 41
Don Raleigh NY 50 7 32 39
Jimmy Peters DET 49 15 23 38
Jack Crawford BOS 43 11 27 38
FINAL GOALIE LEADERS
NAME TM GP W L T GAA ShO
Bill Durnan MON 42 25 8 8 2.16 4
Turk Broda DET 39 19 13 5 2.59 4
Hec Highton CHI 30 12 12 4 2.87 1
Mike Karakas CHI 19 8 9 2 2.96 0
Frank McCool TOR 28 8 11 6 3.05 0
Jim Henry NY 35 10 19 5 3.26 2
Frank Brimsek BOS 32 13 16 2 3.28 2
Harvey Bennett BOS 21 7 8 4 3.34 1
Chuck Rayner TOR 27 6 11 7 3.45 0
Ken McAuley NY 19 4 6 4 3.53 0
PLAYOFFS
Detroit and Montreal each had little trouble in their opening round playoff series. Montreal took care of Chicago in 5 games while the Red Wings also only need 5 to dispose of fourth place Boston. Maurice Richard followed up his incredible playoff run a year ago with 8 points in the 5 semi-final games, tying with Chicago's Doug Bentley for the playoff lead. Detroit dropped the opener at home to Boston by a 3-1 score but the Wings would win the next four games. It was tight, as aside from Game Two's 6-1 Red Wing win, the margin in each of the other 3 Detroit victories was just a single goal with two of them being decided in overtime. Kenny Mosdell got the winner in a 4-3 Detroit win in the third game and then Jimmy Peters was the hero in a game four contest that needed 3 overtime periods. Detroit closed out the series with a 1-0 regulation victory in which Turk Broda was outstanding.
The Stanley Cup Finals opened in Montreal in a game that was a scoreless duel between Broda and Montreal's Bill Durnan for two periods before each team scored twice in the third. Overtime was required and it took just 4:54 for Montreal's Ted Kennedy to end the game with a goal.
Broda and Durnan were at it again in game two as each was outstanding in net. The only goal of the game came early in third period and it was Ted Kennedy once again who scored it, on an assist from Maurice Richard to put Montreal ahead 2 games to none in the series.
The trend of tight contests continued in game three with Richard giving Montreal a 1-0 lead early in the second period. Detroit would finally get one past Durnan in the third to tie the game on a point shot through traffic from Steve Wojciechowski and it looked like overtime was once again in the picture. However, the Canadiens avoided it when George Gee scored with just 36 seconds remaining in regulation to give Montreal a 2-1 win and a 3 games to none lead in the series.
The Canadiens would end the series two nights later as Bill Durnan would get his second shutout of the series in a 3-0 Montreal win to give the Habs their second straight Cup. Ted Kennedy, with his 5th of the playoffs, and Johnny Quilty scored in the first period to give Montreal more than enough offense and Kennedy would set up John Mariucci for an added insurance marker midway through the third period. Durnan, who had a 1.87 goals against average in the playoffs, was named the Conn Smythe Trophy winner as post-season MVP. Ted Kennedy and Maurice Richard would tie for the playoff scoring lead with 10 points each. In contrast, Red Wings leader Sid Abel had an awful playoff, getting just 2 assists in 9 playoff games and was held off the scoresheet entirely in the finals.
The Cup win is the sixth for the Canadiens while Detroit is still searching for the franchise's first Stanley Cup win. Immediately following the playoffs the Wings fired coach Bill Stewart despite the fact he took over late last season and led Detroit from last place to the Stanley Cup Finals in his only full year behind the bench. He was replaced by King Clancy, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame last summer and would be making his first foray behind the bench.
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PLAYOFF SCORING LEADERS
NAME TM GP G A PTS
Ted Kennedy MON 9 5 5 10
Maurice Richard MON 9 5 5 10
Doug Bentley CHI 5 1 7 8
Bob Fillion MON 9 1 7 8
Bill Mosienko CHI 5 3 4 7
Russ Brayshaw MON 8 2 5 7
Elmer Lach MON 9 1 6 7
Here are the NHL AWARD WINNERS
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HART TROPHY: Sid Abel Detroit - MVP (3rd time winning)
ART ROSS: Roy Conacher Boston - scoring champ (3rd time winning)
NORRIS TROPHY: Glen Harmon Montreal- top defenseman
CALDER TROPHY: Doug Baldwin Toronto - Top rookie
LADY BYNG: Don Raleigh New York - Gentlemenly play
VEZINA: Bill Durnan Montreal - top goalie
FIRST ALL-STAR TEAM
G Bill Durnan Montreal
D Glen Harmon Montreal
D Hy Butler Montreal
C Sid Abel Detroit
RW Maurice Richard Montreal
LW Woody Dumart Boston
SECOND ALL-STAR TEAM
G Turk Broda Detroit
D Jack Crawford Boston
D Doug McCaig Detroit
C Don Raleigh New York
RW Bill Mosienko Chicago
LW Roy Conacher Boston
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HISTORY OF STANLEY CUP WINNERS
YEAR TEAM
1917-18 Toronto Arenas
1918-19 Montreal Canadiens
1919-20 Montreal Canadiens
1920-21 Ottawa Senators
1921-22 Ottawa Senators
1922-23 Toronto St Patrick's
1923-24 Calgary Tigers
1924-25 Montreal Canadiens
1925-26 Ottawa Senators
1926-27 Pittsburgh Pirates
1927-28 Montreal Canadiens
1928-29 Chicago Black Hawks
1929-30 Toronto Maple Leafs
1930-31 Toronto Maple Leafs
1931-32 New York Americans
1932-33 Toronto Maple Leafs
1933-34 Toronto Maple Leafs
1934-35 New York Rangers
1935-36 Toronto Maple Leafs
1936-37 Toronto Maple Leafs
1937-38 Toronto Maple Leafs
1938-39 Boston Bruins
1939-40 New York Rangers
1940-41 Toronto Maple Leafs
1941-42 Boston Bruins
1942-43 Toronto Maple Leafs
1943-44 New York Rangers
1944-45 Montreal Canadiens
1945-46 Montreal Canadiens
Next up the 1945-46 College Basketball story.