Thursday, April 18, 2019

Chapleau Intermediate 'A' Huskies set new record for three goals scored in Northland Intermediate Hockey League in 1977

John Theriault photo
Three goals in 19 seconds!!!!

That's how long it took the Chapleau Intermediate "A" Huskies to score three goals in a game against the Hearst Lumberkings in Northland Intermediate Hockey League play at the Chapleau Memorial Arena in November 1977.

The Chapleau Sentinel  reported that the Huskies "exploded" for three goals late in the second period. League officials confirmed later that the three goals in 19 seconds smashed the previous league record of three in 27 seconds.

The Sentinel reported that the record setting performance was started by Ron Larcher with 3:17 left to play in the second period "when he scored a power play goal assisted by Dave McMillan and Jamie Doyle.

"Following a line change Paul Scheer took an excellent pass from Pat Swanson and beat Hearst netminder Simon Charbonneau just 12 seconds later.

"From the centre ice faceoff Pat Swanson took a pass from Bill Scheer and an easy shot from the left side dribbled past Charbonneau seven seconds after Paul Scheer's goal to set the record..."

The first place Huskies with Doug Prusky in his first year as coach, went on to defeat the Lumberkings 10-2.
Ron Larcher, (left) Bill Scheer  a John Theriault photo

They had to settle for a 7-5 win in a second game Sunday afternoon at the memorial arena.

At the time the Huskies were in first place with 11 wins and two ties with Calvert GMs and Kapuskasing As in second and third place respectively. The Huskies had an eight point lead in the standings.

Bill Scheer was the leading scorer with 25 goals and 21 assists followed by Pat Swanson with 14 goals and 25 assists and Paul Scheer with seven goals and 23 assists.  

In the second weekend encounter  Jamie Doyle notched two goals while singles went to Bill Scheer, Pat Swanson, Ted Swanson and Ron Larcher got singles.

Despite the team's success in early season play the Sentinel writer noted that the Huskies "seem to play just as well as required to win a hockey game which can't be faulted considering their record this season. However, they will have to watch for lapses during the second half of the season."  The lapse actually occurred in the playoffs when they were defeated in the semi finals by their archrivals the Timmins North Stars in six games, for the third consecutive year.

They finally defeated Timmins in the 1978-79 semi finals.

A couple of other notes from the article said that David McAdam and Glen Cappellani shared goaltending duties while Jamie Doyle "gave a fine exhibition of penalty killing Sunday which was described by one fan as "poetry in motion'.

I was the manager of the Huskies in the 1977-78 season and don't recall that we celebrated any more than usual when this league record was set. I found this article while going through old files.

A quick Google search indicates  that in the National Hockey League it appears that Bill Mosienko may hold the record for fastest three goals by one player at 21 seconds in a game between Chicago Blackhawks and New York Rangers in 1952. The fastest by a team may have been around 15 seconds so the Huskies were close!!  If anyone has further information, please email me at mj.morris@live.ca