APRIL 21, 1947
NAHC TEAM RECAPS: BOSTON BEES
With the NAHC season over, let's spend the next seven weeks looking back at the successes and failures for each of the seven big league clubs. To start things off here is a recap of the Boston Bees campaign.
It would be hard to ask for a season to go much better than the 1946-47 campaign went for the Boston Bees. The defending Challenge Cup champions got off to a strong start, winning six straight in November after dropping the season opener to Montreal. The continued along at a solid pace until a 3-3 tie with Chicago on January 28 started a 12-game unbeaten streak in which the Bees elevated to another level and managed to pull ahead of a pesky Chicago Packers club to take control of first place.
MONTHLY RECORD
NOV: 6-2-0 12 points
DEC: 5-4-3 13 points
JAN: 6-3-1 13 points
FEB: 7-0-3 17 points
MAR: 4-3-1 9 points
OVERAL 28-12-8 64 points
3 ahead of second place Chicago
The showing marked the 5th time in the past 7 years the Bees finished with the best regular seaon record in the NAHC but their 64 points was the lowest total of any first place finisher over that stretch.
Bees captain Wilbur Chandler finished second to long-time linemate Tommy Hart in team scoring but Chandler, healthy after missing much of last year with an injury, was named as one of three finalists along with Tommy Burns of Chicago and Toronto's Bobbie Sauer for the McDaniels Trophy, presented to the league's Most Valuable Player. Chandler already owns a pair of them, having won in 1942-43 and 1944-45. The third member of the big Boston line -Waldemar Rupp- finished third in the team scoring parade.
PLAYOFFS
The first place Bees drew the New York Shamrocks in the opening round of the playoffs. The Shamrocks return to post-season play after a 4-year absence to face a battle-tessted Bees club that had won 4 Challenge Cups in the previous six years.
Boston made a statement with a 6-1 pasting of the Shamrocks in the series opener behind a 4-goal, 1 assist effort from Wilbur Chandler and a 32 save performance by Bees netminder Pierre Melancon. The New Yorkers would put up a fight in game two, taking the Bees to overtime before Joe Morey's second goal of the game secured a 5-4 Bees victory. Two nights later the sweep of the best-of-five series would be complete as Melancon stopped all 27 shots he faced in a 2-0 Boston win.
Next up for the Bees was a meeting with the high scoring Chicago Packers, who had disposed of Detroit in 4 games. Like the Bees trio of Chandler, Hart and Rupp the Packers had a dominant first line as well. The problem for Chicago was that top line was beat up as Wes Burns was playing but with a broken jaw while right winger Marty Mahoney was hurt in the Detroit series and would miss the finals. That left just Tommy Burns, Wes's younger brother and the league's top scorer, at full effectiveness.
The series opened in Boston with the Packers in the finals for the first time since 1931. The clubs split a pair of low scoring games to start the season with the Bees taking the opener 2-1 behind a pair of goals from Chandler while Norm Hanson's 20 save shutout evened the series with a 2-0 Chicago victory in game two. The third game was the only blowout of the series as Joe Morey socred 3 times while Tommy Hart had a 5-point night as Boston thumped the Packers 10-2 at Chicago's Lakeside Arena. The Packers rebounded once more, but needed a second overtime period before Moose Vezina beat Melancon with the game winning goal in a 5-4 Packers win.
Tied 2-2 the series returned to Denny Arena for the fifth game and Boston once more received a strong showing from Morey, as the 30 year old scored two more goals in a 4-1 Boston win that saw the Bees outshoot Chicago 42-19. The Packers would put up a fight in game six, not wanting to see Boston parade around the Lakeside Arena with the Cup, but the Bees were just too much for the Packers. Despite Chicago taking a quick 2-0 lead just over 3 minutes into the game, the Bees would win 4-3 behind a pair of Benton Walston goals and claim their second straight Cup. It was also the 7th Cup win in franchise history for the Bees, more than any other team.
OTHER HEADLINES THIS WEEK
- Baseball is back as the opening pitches have been tossed on another season of big league baseball both for FABL and the second year for the 'rebel' Great Western League.
- Boxing promoter Chester Conley confirms that world champion Hector Sawyer will be back in the ring in August, and will face "Irish Pat" Harber at Chicago's Cougars Stadium in his latest title defense.
- For the second year in a row Long Werth of the Miami State Gulls has been named the top collegiate basketball player in the country.
- n estimated 650 are dead and well over 3,000 injured after a chain of explosions virtually razed the Texas City, Tx., situated 10 miles across the bay from Galveston.
Full national sports coverage is available in this week's edition of
THIS WEEK IN FIGMENT BASEBALL.