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| 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