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Hockey HistoryTigers and the 1919 Allan Cup – Chapter 5
The Tigers win a nail-biter and the first Allan Cup for Hamilton
Another load of Hamilton fans boarded the special train to Toronto for the second and final round of the 1919 Allan Cup. With a five-goal lead in the two-game series, fans were relaxed as the locomotive chugged its way east with a bevy of heavyweight passenger cars.
But the relaxation turned to nail-biting fear as the Winnipeg Selkirks scored five unanswered goals during regulation time to tie up the series with six goals apiece.
Officials decided to finish the game in five-minute periods with the first team scoring winning the series. The cut-off time for the overtime sets was midnight.
With a train to catch, the Tigers resumed the play they had performed the night previous, and before the two-minute mark of the first overtime period, defenseman Joe Matte slipped the puck into the Selkirk net, giving the Tigers their first Allan Cup championship.
The two-game goal total was seven for Hamilton, six for the Selkirks.
“What a fright!” started the Hamilton Herald account of the second game. “If you weren’t in at the death you missed the fracas of your life. If you were there, rooting and sweating and fidgeting about in your pew uncomfortably you didn’t behave one bit worse than 500 or so loyal Hamiltonians who went down to see the tussle.”
Winnipeg juggled its lineup from the previous game, with Gillespie and Oliver scoring the first two goals for the Selkirks. Then Hughes ran three goals past Tiger netminder Herbie Reaume to tie up the series.
Under the headline “Tigers allowed Allan Cup to rock on its base, then cemented it down,” the Hamilton Spectator spoke of the leisurely playing of the Tigers early in the game:
“They thought it (the Tiger five-goal lead) was as safe as Mr. Gibraltar’s well-know rock, and played accordingly. They saw it dissipated and then, their backs up against the wall, they just launched an attack that had the westerners helpless. The wonder is that the world’s champs – rolls nice on the tongue, eh? – did not get a half dozen in that last ten minutes.”
The Herald’s account was a little more subtle, but just as impressive:
“They (Hamilton) tore into the enemy in a manner that showed determination in every move. For the first time during the evening they commenced to show their proper form, and it was Hamilton’s turn to cut loose.”
Some of the Toronto press was not as kind with the play of the Tigers. From the Globe:
“ Hamilton retained their laurels, it is true, but it was a hollow victory. The Ambitious City sextet are undisputed holders of the Allan Cup, but the westerners get all the glory. They looked away and by far the better aggregation last night, and it is the prevailing opinion that had not the goddess of fortune smiled upon the Tigers the trophy would have gone to the challengers.”
The Mail and Empire writer thought the game was won in the dressing room, not on the ice.
“The Allan Cup was won in the dressing room before the overtime session,” the report said, “and there is no doubt but that the Tigers were given a powerful stimulant, while the same process was not applied to the westerners.”
The Toronto News took a couple of hits at the Tigers, but did say the Hamilton team entered the overtime session with renewed vitality.
“The Tigers returned to the ice like giants refreshed, their eyes were clear and bright and they were full of ginger – or something else. They attacked with vigor.”
The Hamilton victory was not a popular one in Toronto, which was still licking its wounds over the defeat of its St. Patrick’s team by Hamilton in the OHA semi-finals. And the crowd at the Toronto arena was providing the Tigers with almost as much grief as the Selkirks. But when Matte scored the winner, the Tigers and their fans were able to take that train ride home with pride.
“It is doubtful if the people out west took the defeat in the series as hard as the Toronto crowd took it last night,” stated an editorial opinion in the Spectator. “The Toronto bunch, to a man, was with the challengers, and how the roof of that arena shook when the score was tied on the round, but when Joe Matte scored the goal that turned the tide all was as still in the pews occupied by the Toronto fans as Dundas at midnight. It’s hard to convince the Toronto critics that Tigers are a good team, but the fact that all senior trophies are here, while the alibis are in Toronto, shows where the real class is.”
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