[Devils-list] slightly off-topic:Stanley Cup article

[John Lopez]

Stanley Cup in Victoria to honour 1925 hockey victory
DIRK MEISSNER

VICTORIA (CP) - The Stanley Cup will take a detour Friday from the National
Hockey League playoffs to commemorate a 76-year-old hockey victory by the
Victoria Cougars over the venerable Montreal Canadiens.

NHL brass will fly the cup, the oldest professional sports trophy in North
America, to Victoria where it will be part of a ceremony honouring the
Cougars, the Stanley Cup champions of 1925.

The suburban Victoria community of Oak Bay will unveil the granite monument
in a high school field near where the Cougars defeated the Canadiens in a
best-of-five series in March 1925.

An apartment block now occupies the former site of the Victoria Arena where
the Cougars played their home games from 1912-1926.

"There will be people there who were in the arena and watched the (winning)
game," said Mike Woodley, an Oak Bay Secondary School history teacher.

"Two old timers who were Victoria rink rats at the time will help unveil the
monument. They're in their 80s now."

Victoria is one of 10 Canadian cities to win the Stanley Cup, Woodley said.

Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary,
Vancouver and Kenora, Ontario have also won the 108-year-old trophy at least
once, he said.

A banner hanging in Victoria's aging Memorial Arena was about the only
official memento of the historic win.

Oak Bay resident David Sly decided the city needed something more to
preserve the victory.

He managed to convince the Oak Bay council to pursue the idea, but Sly
wasn't having much luck attracting NHL interest.

Finally, he contacted former NHLer Russ Courtnall, who called the league and
asked for the Stanley Cup's presence at the ceremony. Courtnall grew up in
Victoria and played his junior hockey there.

"We're thrilled," said Woodley, 58, a former member of the 1959-1962 Flin
Flon Bombers.

"Russ Courtnall's the one who made the arrangements," he said. "He contacted
the NHL office and the NHL has rearranged the Stanley Cup's schedule,
cancelling an event in Colorado to fly the cup out here. That's really big."

The 2001 Stanley Cup final between the New Jersey Devils and Colorado
Avalanche starts Saturday in Denver.

Courtnall and his brother Geoff, also a retired NHLer, will be in Victoria
for the ceremony.

Woodley said the monument will help preserve Victoria's exciting hockey
history.

The legendary Patrick family - father Joseph and sons Lester and Frank -
were behind the Victoria franchise.

The Patricks formed a West Coast professional hockey league in the early
1900s.

Woodley said the Cougars needed four games to defeat the Canadiens in the
1925 Stanley Cup final.

Three games, including the 6-1 final on March 25, were played in Victoria
and one game in Vancouver.

The 5,000-seat Victoria Arena was packed for every game and the 10,000-seat
Vancouver rink was sold out for its only series game, Woodley said.

The Canadiens, who travelled by train to the West Coast, were stacked with
five NHL Hall of Famers - Georges Vezina, Howie Morenz, Aurel Joliat,
Sprague Cleghorn and Sylvio Mantha - and Hall of Fame owner-coach Leo
Dandurand.

The Cougars had four Hall of Famers, including series leading scorer Frank
Fredrickson and stand-out goalie Happy Holmes. They were coached by Lester
Patrick, also a Hall of Fame member.

Woodley said when the Canadien players were asked how they felt about losing
to Victoria, they responded: "We lost, but we lost to a better team."

Woodley said the Canadiens spent most of their spare time at the Empress
Hotel. They told reporters they enjoyed themselves on the West Coast.

The Victoria Arena, known locally as the Patrick arena, was destroyed by
fire under suspicious circumstances on Nov. 11, 1929, Woodley said.

The monument to be unveiled Friday contains an image of the old arena and
the names of the players on both teams.

"It's a lovely monument and it's right across the road from where the arena
once stood," Woodley said.

The Victoria Cougars still play in Victoria, but now as members of the
Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League.