Season Summery
With Winnipeg relocating to Waterloo being one of the big news stories, the other was a feud between New York and Minnesota. The Mad Hatters honoured the 1930 champions and gave them the title of the first American Alex Cup Champions, but there was one problem: in 1928, the Nationals won the Alex Cup, which led to a back-and-forth debate. On the one hand, the 1928 Nats had mostly Canadians on the roster; on the other, New York’s coaching staff were Canadians. Both sides were overhauling to prove once and for all which was the best American team in the NIHA.
NIHA president Jack Haultraugh made some changes across the league; the biggest is that next year the number of games will increase from 36 to 54, along with the introduction of an offside rule.
Even with the Mad Hatters Nationals feud going on, the Detroit Speed raced themselves back to first place for the second season in a row with the addition of 17-year-old forward Allen Talbot, with a 15-20-35 stat record in the first season of his career. After last season's championship loss, the Pittsburgh Iron began their season with a chip on their shoulders and played well enough to finish the season in second place, thanks to their goalie John Hallock winning 20 of 30 games, along with a career-high 8 shutouts so far. Many players within the Chicago Lynx stepped up to the plate, and with a record of 18-17-1, they would finish third place. Even though they lost some players due to an aging roster, they have, little by little, been bringing in new players, including Victor Smyth, a 20-year-old forward who had a good rookie season with 41 points. In the end, the Pros finished fourth. The Nats' Nick Watertown finally got back to the form he was in his first season, scoring goals and setting teammates up to score; he was ten points less than his first season, but it was enough for Minnesota to finish fifth place. In sixth place, the New Brunswick Brown Bears dropped from second place last season due to injuries on the roster; Jack Ranger played in barely 20 games this season. The New York Mad Hatters had a rough season; Rat Robinson was on pace, but his season was cut short due to injuries, and it was tough for rookie John Ruth, who didn’t do much but held his ground as the Mad Hatters finished this season in seventh place. The Buffalo Rams have some improvement, just enough to finish eighth place. Montreal fans just saw the writing on the wall as the Or Rouge finished ninth place, making things hard for Montreal. John Giroux, Marc Dupont, and Etienne Rehnquist announced they had called it a career; the trio had been part of the team since the early 1910’s and won two Alex Cups in the pre-NIHA era and two more in the first two years of the NIHA era. It’s a big loss for the team; many believed it would be a while before the Or Rouge got back into playoff contention. Lastly, the relocated Waterloo Engineers finished last.
1936 NIHA Playoffs
Round 1
For the second season in a row, it’s the first-place Speed vs. eighth-place Rams, and just like last year, it was Speed’s win in three games. This time, Duke Pepper allowed no goals in all three games; with that, the Speed moves on to the second round. In game one, the Mad Hatters took the victory, with controversy that Iron goalie John Hallock got hooked by one of the Mad Hatters players, which allowed Rat Robinson to score the game-winner; it would be the best the Mad Hatters could do, as the Iron would win three games in a row to win the series and head to the second round. It was a back-and-forth series, but in game five, Jack Ranger scored two goals with two minutes left to win it, and the Brown Bears are heading on to the second round. In the battle between the Pros and the Nats, Toronto had the upper hand with two games to one, but in game four, Maple Thomas took a puck to the face and suffered a broken nose; with that, he is out for the rest of the playoffs. Victor Smyth did play well, but the Nats would win game four and game five to win the series and will play in the second round.
Round 2
Detroit set out to return to the Alex Cup, but everyone thought they had no chance of beating the Brown Bears; however, rookie Allen Talbot stepped up and scored goals, giving the Speed a three-game-to-one series win and sending them to the Alex Cup Finals. Both Iron and Nats went all the way to game five, where Greg Washington scored a hat trick, and John Hallock was a brick wall as the Pittsburgh Iron beat the Minnesota Nationals 3-0 to win the series and move on to the Alex Cup Finals.
1936 Alexander Cup Finals
Two days before the championship began, NIHA president Jack Haultraugh announced that this season's championship would now be a best-of-7 series. Pittsburgh took both game one (3-2) and game two (4-1); in game three, Detroit bounced back with a 3-1 win, two days later, in game four, led by Allen Talbot, who scored three goals, Detroit won 5-2 to even the series two games apiece. Game five was anyone's guess as to who could win, and Detroit did just that with the score of 5-3. Game six could be Detroit's chance to finish this series, but one problem: in game five, Luke Pepper elbowed three Iron players in the head, which led to a one-game suspension; with that, the Iron took it as a chance and with Greg Washington scoring 2 goals and 5 points, they won 6-3 to even the series at three games apiece. Winner-take-all Game Seven was for all the marbles; Detroit’s Allen Talbot didn’t score, but he did set up four of his teammates for goals to take a 5-0 lead halfway through the second period; however, Pittsburgh was making a comeback, scoring four goals, two of them made by Greg Washington and one by Mitchell Stevenson. With five minutes left in the third period, Pittsburgh poured on the shots, but Duke Pepper held his ground, and Luke Pepper came back from his one-game suspension, knocking forwards down till the clock hit zero. Detroit won game seven, 5-4, and the Detroit Speed is 1936 Alexander Cup Champions for the second time in a row.
No comments:
Post a Comment