Vees are the champions
EDITOR’S NOTE: In recognition of Canada’s 150th anniversary, The Herald is reprinting historic stories from the South Okanagan focusing on the biggest news story of each year.
KREFELD, Germany, (BUP) March 6, 1955 — Canada’s Cinderella kids, the Penticton Vees, did it. And they did it in convincing manner ñ wresting the title of world amateur hockey champions from the Russians here Sunday with surprising ease.
“Pravda” may write a different story to this one, but one thing is certain, the Russian journal cannot hide the score 5-0, and the Russians are lucky it was not 10-0, a score which would have been a better indication of the superiority of the Vees.
Actually, the Canadians won the world title a week ago Saturday when, in a typical Vee comeback, they defeated the Czechoslovak national team 5-3.
The Czechoslovaks were the team to beat in this tournament, not the Russians.
LIKE CLOCKWORK It took the Vees about two minutes to size up the Russian style of play and for about that length of time the more than 10,000 fans saw something of the vaunted Russian hockey machine. It worked like clockwork and it also busted up like the works of a clock under a sledge hammer when the Vees cut loose.
A wobbly wrist, hurt again on the boards, kept playing coach Grant Warwick sitting out most of the game but the dynamic Vees mentor masterminded the show, throwing a bewildering combination of lines against the Russians.
Russian ace Bobrov was checked to a standstill and never did look dangerous. Darling of the pro-Canadian crowd was Ivan McLelland, who chalked up his third shutout of the tournament.
The Vees’ star spangled goalie wasn’t kept busy as a solid four-man defence, George McAvoy, Jack Taggart, Hal Tarala, and Kev Conway were decidedly hostile to Russian intrusion over their blueline, but when the Russians did get through there was McLelland, degrees cooler than the ice he was standing on with his reflexes lightning fast.
Opportunity knocked for the Russians when the Vees collected a total of six penalties to the Russians’ one and for the last minute of the game the Vees played with two men in the sin bin. The Russians did try, but McLelland took what heart they had left out of them with a great stop that drew thunderous applause from the fans.
NO MATCH The Canadians had been warned many times that the Russians were in superb condition, that they skated like the wind and laid down perfect passes. That, as far as it applied to this game, was also so much wind. The Russians couldn’t match the Vees in any of those departments.
Where some of the Canadians got their stamina from, stuffed up with colds, this writer doesn’t know, but the Vees, as usual, when the chips were down, came through.
The Vees’ second goal, a driving play by the Jack McIntyre, Bill and Grant Warwick line, seemed to break the Russians’ will to fight as the puck, driven out by Bill, catapulted off a Russian defenceman and into the net.
Other than that break, the Canadian goals were clean cut and an answer to the question “have the Canadians lost hockey skill through too much bodily contact in the game?”
The fans, including 2,000 Canadian and RCAF personnel, welcomed the Vees with a roof-lifting roar as they skated onto the ice. They looked like champions, skating easy and confidently. Up in the press gallery, it was the tower of Babel.
Nine nations were broadcasting, three were televising and there were five newsreel cameras.