STONEY CREEK – The Allan Cup Hockey finals between the Brantford Blast and the Stoney Creek Generals didn’t go exactly the way the Blast wanted, but no one said it was going to be easy.
The Blast dropped Game #1 Saturday night in Stoney Creek, 2-1. In any one goal game, there is always a lot of “if only” moments and for the Blast it was a powerless powerplay. Brantford had seven odd man advantages but could not beat Generals’ Daniel Svedin on any of them.
After falling behind 2-0, after the first 20 minutes of play, Ryan McCarthy put the Blast on the score sheet at 2:10 of the second period. But that would account for all the scoring as Svedin and Anthony Marshall walled up their respective nets from that point on. Svedin stopping 32 of 33 shots and Marshall standing firm on 36 of 38 shots.
It was a good start for the series nonetheless in a fast moving game with several great plays and great saves.
Game #2 of the ACH final is set for this Friday night at 7:30 p.m. at the Brantford and District Civic Centre. Game #3 is in Stoney the next night at the Gateway Ice Centre also at 7:30 p.m.
The winner of this best of seven series will win a birth at the 2016 Allan Cup playoffs this year held in Steinbach,
Manitoba, April 11-16, which puts the best Sr. AAA hockey teams from across Canada head to head for the historic and coveted Allan Cup.
The Blast last won the prize in 2008, the 100th anniversary of the chalice. The Allan Cup was donated in early 1909 by Montreal businessman and Montreal Amateur Athletic Association president Sir H. Montagu Allan to be presented to the amateur champions of Canada. It was originally presented to the Ottawa Cliffsides. The original Cup has been retired to the Hockey Hall of Fame, and a replica is presented to the champions.
The Brantford Alexanders won it in 1977 with current Blast general manager Peter Ham as and important figure as GM of that squad, augmenting his already strong team with a number of retired NHL’ers. They won the final series against the Spokane Flyers. They made it to the Cup finals the following year but lost in 1978 to the Kimberley Dynamiters in B.C.
In 1987, under GM Don Robertson, now GM with the Dundas Real McCoys, the Brantford Motts Clamatos beat the Nelson BC Maple Leafs to bring the Cup back to Brantford.
It wasn’t until 2008 the Allan Cup returned to Brantford after the Brantford Blast defeated the Bentley Alberta Generals in the final at the Civic Centre.
In 2014, the Dundas Real McCoys won it in Dundas by beating the Clarenville Nova Scotia Caribous in double overtime. Ontario has won the Cup 49 times in its history.
Before professionals were allowed to play at the Olympics, it was the Allan Cup Sr. AAA winners who represented Canada on the world stage.
