1977 Valor Cup tournament

 

1977 Valor Cup tournament: Winnipeg, MA

Teams: Fargo Owls, Kitchener Generals, Trois-Rivieres Titans.

Standings

Trois-Rivieres Titans: 4W, 0L.

Kitchener Generals: 2W, 2L.

Fargo Owls: 0W, 4L.

Story:

The Fargo Owls may become the first American team to be part of the Valor Cup tournament, but they became the first team to be eliminated after going winless. For the third time in four years that a 3rd seed team finish the round-robin round winless.

Kitchener Generals had a half and half tournament with 2 wins and 2 losses, but Patrick Herbco helped the team stay in the competition with crucial game playing with scoring goals and assisting teammates in advancing to the finals.

The Trois-Rivieres Titans dominated the whole tournament finished 4-0 and made a Valor Cup record of 20 goals while just letting in just 3 goals.

The Valor Cup Finals was what everyone thought was supposed to be a one-sided final, but the Titans faced a different Generals.

In the first period, the Titans take the lead by scoring 3 goals within 10 minutes, then only 2 minutes left; in the first period, the Generals Cal Winston scores a goal with help from Patrick Herbco.

The second period was all Generals game playing as Patrick Herbco scored 2 goals within 4 minutes to tie the game until 4 minutes left in the second Allen Guay broke the tie game with a long shot and hit the top corner.

The third period is where things get rougher for both goalies as they took shots like crazy from everywhere. 10 minutes left, Patrick hit a hat trick to tie the game at four apiece. With 1 minute left, controversy struck the Generals with what many fans call it “the high stick goal” as Andre Doucet lift his stick high enough to tip the puck in the net, the Generals claim it was a high stick to the Titans defence Andre is 6”11, while Generals goalie Sam Rogers is 5”10 so it is hard to call a high stick penalty. The Titans win it 5-4 final and complete their historic season as they are the 1977 Valor Cup Champions, and Mark Lewis is named MVP of the 1977 Valor Cup.

1976-77 AQHL Season

 

Standings

1. Trois-Rivieres Titans

2. Cape Breton Warriors

3. Drummondville Les Rouges

4. Moncton Bears

5. Verdun Knights

6. Fredericton Vikings

7. Laval Tigers

8. Portland Clippers

9. New Glasgow Highlanders

10. Sherbrooke Loups

Story:

AQHL President Paul Name announced that Shawinigan is the new team to join the league come 1977-78 season. After the number of nicknames for the team, the Voltages were voted the best name for the team. They will show off the logo and the jerseys during the off-season.

The Clippers' rookie forward, Frank Logan, had a hay day this season, putting in 30 goals, 75 points. Despite that, the Clippers lost some key players to injuries, even losing 20-year-old defence Rick Cooper to the Pittsburgh Pro Hockey club as he got called up mid-season for a playoff push. With that, Portland finished 8th place and got swept by the Titans in 3 games.

New Glasgow Highlanders got so many bad lucks this season. Assistant coach Frank Jensen suffered a heart attack and was forced to retire from coaching. Then goalie coach Vince Davidson got busted for speeding downtown and putting some players riding with him in danger; a week after that, he was fired. Lastly, the head coach of the team, Bill Cooper, did not do a good job at coaching and got let go in mid-season; the Highlanders hired Doug Reid to take over. The result they finished 9th place, but it did show some better results down the road. GM Ray Carter worked on redeeming himself (and save his job) by trading away defence Tim Jones, forward Will Bradley, and both 2nd and 3rd round pick to Sherbrooke for 16-year-old goalie Pierre Meloche and 1st round pick gives the Highlanders the first two picks for the 1977 draft.

Trois-Rivieres Titans show everyone why they guarantee a 1st place finish. All the rebuild they did has paid off with 5 players sitting in the top 10 in points leaders, forward Jim Goff was named MVP of AQHL, goalie Max Hebert played excellently and made a record of 15 shutouts. The Titans finished with 38-1-1, one of the best records in team history.

The Titans continue their historic season by beating Drummondville Les Rouges in 4 games to win the 1977 Bronz Cup. With that win, the Valor Cup is the team’s final piece to the puzzle to complete history in the making.

1976-77 OMJHA Season

 

Standings

1. Kitchener Legionnaires

2. Kitchener Generals

3. Waterloo Maroons

4. Owen Sound Arrowbirds

5. Oshawa Diamonds

6. Guelph Crusaders

7. Barrie Admirals

8. Oakville Oaks

9. Burlington Metros

10. Milton Micmacs

Story:

A lot of buzzes are happening this season, with new teams coming next season. Orangeville announced the name for their team would be known as the “O’s.” Over at Peterborough, they will be named the “Braves” after the original Braves club the played the OMJHA from 1948 to 1962. Both teams will reveal their logo and jerseys during the off-season.

The Generals Patrick Herbco had a grand rookie season, with 30 goals, 65 points, just 5 points shy of even his brother’s rookie year record. However, on January 31st, 1977, Patrick makes a record of 10 points in one game with 5 goals and 5 assists in the Generals 10-2 win over the Micmacs.

 The Barrie Admirals made a big surprise in the league by making it to their first playoffs ever thanks to winning 7 of the last 10 games with the help of forward Leo Jackson and forward Ross Silverman. In the playoffs, they ran out of gas as they got eliminated by the Generals in 3 games.

The battle of Kitchener heats up in a big way as both teams try to claim the top spot in the league. After 4 games between each other, both tie with 1-1-2, and to even the same record of 37-1-2, the only thing that kept the Generals from taking 1st place is the goals. The Legionnaires were 5 goals more to take 1st place over the Generals.

The Generals may not get the top spot in the league, but they became the top of the mountain as they beat the Legionnaires in 6 games to win the Smyth Cup title and will take a lovely trip to Winnipeg for the Valor Cup.

1976-77 WCLH Season

 

Standings

1. Fargo Owls

2. Saskatoon Cats

3. Kenora Pioneers

4. Nanaimo Sharks

5. Abbotsford Forest Kings

6. Brandon Buffalos

7. Lethbridge Cougars

8. Moose Jaw Wings

9. Medicine Hat Hawks

10. North Battleford Crusaders

Story:

The downfall of the Cougars has begun with losing their 1st 15 games until they finally get their 1st win of the season. But their luck would turn around when the Vancouver Pro Hockey Club assigned Cliff Burns to the team, and they went on winning the last ten games and finished 7th. However, they got swept by the Cats in 3 games in the playoffs.

The Fargo Owls made history as they became the first American team to finish 1st in the WCLH by winning 33 games, followed by losing just 2 and 5 ties.

On February 15, 1977, a piece of bombshell news hit both the league and the town of North Battleford as the Crusaders owner Ron Jackins officially sold the team to businessman Patrick Cox. He would go on and announced that the team would move from North Battleford to Swift Current in a brand-new arena called “Swift Current Veteran Memorial Centre” this is excellent news for Swift Current. Still, horrible news for North Battleford as no one cannot agree on a new arena deal at all. “This is one of the things that we let the past get into our heads and fall apart, I mean, we were the 1960 Jade Trophy champions, and we can’t seem to work together to build this team better and put funds in a better arena.” Former Crusaders player Neal England said after the news broke. The team finishes last and will start the 1977-78 season in Swift Current.

One of the best series ever played happened in the 2nd round was Saskatoon Cats vs. Kenora Pioneers. They battled all five games, and all of them were overtimes, and in-game five, the Cats' left-winger Pete Quinn scored the overtime winner with the score of 2-1 to win and move on to the Jade Trophy finals.

Fargo kept their historic run to the finals as they beat the Saskatoon Cats in 6 games. Led by the Owls' top scorer Tom Gregson made 9 goals and 21 points as the Owls become the first American team to win the Jade Trophy title and will make a trip up north to Winnipeg for the 1977 Valor Cup tournament.