David McAdam earns shutout, Paul Scheer notches two hat tricks, Alan Morin scores his first NIHL goal as Huskies defeat Calvert GMs and Kirkland Lake Blue Devils at Moore Arena

David McAdam 1970s

The Kirkland Lake Blue Devils, one of the strongest teams in the Northland Intermediate Hocky League (NIHL)came to the Moore Arena for a Sunday afternoon matchup with the Chapleau Huskies in November 1978, and it was fitting that David McAdam, the team's first goaltender was between the pipes for the team's first shutout in its history. 

David earned his shutout in a 10-0 romp over the visitors as the Huskies made few mistakes as they went on a scoring spree, leading the Blue Devils 3-0 at the end of the first period, 6-0 when the second closed and adding four more for good measure in the third.

It was the Blue Devils first season in the NIHL and they were in first place. They eventually defeated the Huskies for the league championship.

David had been part of the team's history since it was established in the 1974-75 season and then entered the NIHL in 1975-76. He was part of the successful David Mizuguchi- David Furthey Bantams teams, then played for the Junior 'B' Huskies of the International Junior 'B' Hockey League when Earle Freeborn was the coach.

Interestingly, after his career as a goaltender, he ended his hockey playing days as  a forward, playing in the town league in the 1980s.

It was a very successful weekend  for the locals as they defeated the Calvert GMs 12-6  in a Saturday night encounter at the Moore Arena.

More team history was made on the weekend as Paul Scheer, who was the league's Rookie of the Year in 1977-78 and set a league record for most assists, notched hat tricks in both games, while rookie Alan Morin scored his first Intermediate 'A' goal assisted by Dave Baker and Dave McMillan against the Calvert GMs.

Against the GMs, other goal scorers were Paul with two more and Alan, were Moe Poirier, John Simon with two, John Tavella with two, Bill Scheer, Dave McMillan and Tom McCrea.

Against the Blue Devils, the Huskies made few mistakes in their netbuster of a weekend with Dave Baker opening the scoring assisted by McMillan and Bill Scheer, with Paul Scheer notching his first of the game from Ron Larcher and Ted Zajac and Pat Swanson from Zajac and Ted Swanson making it 3-0 at the end of the first.

In the second Simon scored from Bill Scheer and Keith McAdam, then it was Bill again from assisted by George Card and Keith McAdam, followed by McMillan from Pat Swanson and Baker.

The scoring spree continued in the third as McMillan started it off with one from Card and Baker while Pat Swanson followed with assists going to brother Ted and Larcher. 

Paul Scheer capped off his highly successful goal scoring weekend of hat tricks in both games with the final two goals with Larcher and McCrea assisting.

A Chapleau Sentinel report on the two games said it wasn't just a matter of winning two hockey games or scoring 22 goals, each player was a star in his own way and was a real morale booster for the team. 

The only dark side was the loss of Jamie Doyle, one of the keenest players who was injured in the game against the Calvert GMs and had to be hospitalized. However, his injury was not serious.

Hockey team names:

Chapleau Hockey team early 1950s. Back from left Orville Robinson, unknown, Doug Swanson, Lorne Riley, unknown, unknown, Tee Chambers, Fred Goheen, Fuzzy Strapp, Toddy Collinson, Ernest Bignucolo, unknown, D.O. Payette, Pat Serre, Ross Hamlin, George Payette. Front from left Yen Hong, Bobby Evans, Reg Sonego, Ross Thornton, Tom Jardine, Angelo Mione, John Morin, Mike Mione, Clarence Fiaschetti. from Joy (Evans) Heft collection

Joy (Evans) Heft kindly sent me the photo of a Chapleau hockey team from early 1950s, and I am sharing it with you this week. In it you will see some great Chapleau stars from that era, with Ross Thornton as coach and D.O. (Ovide) Payette as manager. Mr. Payette played on Chapleau teams in the early 1900s. If you are able to identify any in the photo marked "unknown" please feel free to send along their names. Thanks Joy. My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Early look at classic railway town that Chapleau became by Ian Macdonald

East wall of CPR depot

Here is Part Two of Ian Macdonald's fascinating look into the early years of Chapleau buildings built by the Canadian Pacific Railway when it arrived at the community and it was established as a divisional point. Ian, who worked for the CPR, and attended Chapleau Public and Chapleau High schools, is retired professor of architecture and professor emeritus at the University of Manitoba. Thanks so much Ian.  MJM
CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE

By Ian Macdonald

The first generation of CPR buildings shared similar characteristics regardless of whether the building was a depot, boarding house, two storey houses or a bungalow. The east façade of the original Chapleau CPR depot illustrates these distinctive architectural features. The station was painted many different colours during 24 years of service. The diagram indicates the final paint scheme before the building was relocated to Monk Street.

Cottage Row 1st Chapleau buildings 1886 CP Corp Archives

The first buildings in Chapleau consisted of a boarding house eventually called “The Pig’s Ear” and six housing units which together became known as ” Cottage Row”. These buildings ranging from a three storey boarding house to single storey bungalows all incorporated the same wood frame construction method, exterior wood siding and distinctive features of the T-1 depots including double hung windows, gable end trusses and window canopies. They were, like the CPR depot, also built on similar types of concrete surface foundations to avoid the cost and time involved in building full basements.

South side of Birch Pig's Ear behind V Crichton collection

Most people would probably expect new buildings to face a street. The buildings on Cottage Row for some odd reason were built facing south towards an open field and the new CPR round house while turning their backs and backyard fences on to Birch Street, which was to become Chapleau’s main street. The result of this was that the south side of Birch Street was lined wth fences extending from Young Street all the way to where the Fox theatre was eventually built. 

This unfortunate condition would last for the next fifty years and may account for the fact that most of the early photographs and post cards of Chapleau’s main street were always of the north side. The Algoma Dairy began to make things right when it was built facing Birch Street on the site of the Pig’s Ear in 1939. Smith and Chapple continued to correct the original planning sin when they expanded their department store to the south side of Birch Street in the 1950’s, and also faced the street.

Standard CPR duplex. Rob Collings collection

Following construction of Cottage Row, the CPR erected a number of standard duplex houses on Monk Street and Pine Street. A second group of duplex houses were built on Monk Street in 1913 that were similar to the originals with the exception of the addition of a front porch. 

These homes were built in the same resourceful manner as other CPR buildings of the era and, although providing adequate living space, were found to be drafty and uncomfortable by most of the occupants. Similar houses of this type were built and still exist in Schreiber and White River.

Chapleau YMCA. G. Collins collection

The last of the first generation of CPR buildings and their distinctive features was the Chapleau Railiroad Y built on Lorne Street in 1908 a few hundred feet from the last bungalow on Cottage Row. The “Y” was a three-storey timber framed building with the distinctive CPR gable end over the main entrance verandah.

The architectural expression of a building is often associated with its social role in the community. This is certainly the case with the Chapleau Y. The social role is described best in the CPR Bulletin of April 1924 as follows: 

“ The value of the organization cannot be fully appreciated by other than those who know its workings.  The engineers and trainmen, after driving through the snow and cold, find an open fire, a good meal and cheerful companionship awaiting them at the end of a journey. They can enjoy practically all the comforts of a home and the satisfaction which this gives them, and the general effect it has on the morale and well-being of the employees generally amply compensates the Company for its rather heavy expenditures.”  

It is therefore not an accident that the Railroad “Y” has many of the characteristics associated with the traditional idea of home. This begins with a carefully manicured front lawn and fence, rambling front porch, a traditional pitched roof, dramatic chalet style roof overhangs and the ever-present distinctive CPR gable ends. These features had mostly disappeared in the latter years of the Chapleau Y but can be seen in many of the early photographs and post cards.

The enduring lesson taken away from the first generation of CPR buildings is that the CPR in those early days had no alternative but to seek solutions that were innovative, cost-effective and functional to get a near-impossible job done. There was no alternative but to yield to the demands of uncompromising climatic and geographical conditions and make maximum use of local materials and common labour skills. This produced a different kind of architecture that was the polar opposite of the fussy and self-indulgent Victorian architecture of the day. This honesty and lack of pretentiousness, however, made it distinctive, important, uniquely Canadian and in some respects ahead of its time. This was then the early look of the classic railway town that Chapleau was to become.

My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Randy Carroll, Michael Tremblay score winning goals as Chapleau Midget Huskies in great team effort win NOHA championship in 1979

Names at bottom

The Chapleau Midget Huskies went all out to defeat Blind River for the Northern Ontario Hockey Association Midget "C" championship winning the best of three series in two thrilling straight games in 1979.

And as there was no Midget "C" category in southern Ontario, it gave the team bragging rights as the all-Ontario champions.

Playing on Easter weekend, it didn't look good for the Huskies in the first game as they fell behind Blind River 4-0 early in the first period, but David Freeborn followed by Yves Gervais put them on the scoreboard.

The Chapleau Sentinel account of the games kindly provided to me by team member Dan Tebbutt, relates that in the second period "hot goaltending" by Shane Gillham making "key saves" kept the Huskies in the game and the second period ended with them behind 5-3.

A determined effort in the third led to the game ending in a 6-6 tie with John Bernier and Geoffrey Hong both scoring.The story leaves out who scored two goals but I am sure one of the players will remind me as I am still in touch with several of them. I was at the games but my memory is not as good as it once was.

In the first overtime period despite "thrilling action at both ends as both teams tried desperately to end the game" they remained deadlocked.

At the 11:36 mark of the sudden death overtime, Randy Carroll notched the winner.

In the second game, the Huskies took the lead in the first period on a goal by Gary Chambers but Blind River tied it up shortly thereafter. In the second their opponents took the lead, but David Freeborn got the equalizer.

In the first two periods the game was "free wheeling with great chances by both teams."

However, disaster seemed to strike in the third period as the Huskies had fallen behind by three goals.

But this team was no quitter. Trust me on this one as I was standing right behind the bench, and was as excited as I have ever been at a hockey game. What happened next counts among my great Chapleau hockey moments.

John Bernier scored to begin the comeback and nine minutes later Yves Gervais narrowed the margin to one goal. Shane Gillham was making outstanding saves but time was running out on the Huskies.

With 48 seconds remaining in regulation time Randy Carroll scored assisted by Tim Morin and John Bernier, and the Huskies remained alive to play overtime.

For 18 minutes, the play was marked by end to end rushes and great performances by both goaltenders.

Then with two minutes remaining "big Michael Tremblay intercepted a clearing pass and scored an unassisted goal." The Huskies won 6-5, and were the NOHA champions.

The Chapleau team had defeated Matheson, Smooth Rock Falls and Englehart to reach the finals. Randy Carroll was mentioned as the "big man" scoring the winner in first game and tying goal in second, but great credit also went to goaltender Shane Gillham. Tim Bernier and John Bernier each collected nine points.

Coaches Jamie Doyle and Mike Tangie had done an incredible job. Jamie had been working in Chapleau when the season started, but was transferred to Sudbury so travelled for games, while Mike was a constant steady hand. Jamie was also playing for the Chapleau Intermediate "A" Huskies.

My sincere thanks to Dan Tebbutt for taking the time to get me information on the series.

Just recently, Dan sent me the following:

""I play hockey with Greg White. He's from the Soo and played for the Rapids in the 60's (in the international Junior 'B' Hockey League) and has shared some stories of playing the Huskies. He recently told me,'Whenever we had a game in Chapleau, we needed three lines. One on the ice, one on the bench and one down in the dressing room thawing out on the steam radiators!' Boy did that bring back some memories. That arena could be awfully cold in the dead of winter."

Happy Easter to all. My email is mj.morris@live.ca

THE TEAM


Chapleau Midget "C" NOHA  Champions 1979. Back row from left: Martin Healey, Shane Gillham, Tim Morin, John Bernier, Robert Serre, Dan Tebbutt, Michael Tremblay, Paul Legros, Geoffrey Hong, Michael Payette, Mike Tangie. Front from left: Marc Trottier, David Freeborn, Yves Gervais, Lorne Riley, Randy Carroll, Gary Chambers, Shawn Russell. Absent coach Jamie Doyle