The Edmonton Flyers—Finally, The Allan Cup

The Flames and Oilers would not meet in a National Hockey League for another 30 years, but in 1947 there existed real on-ice animosity between Calgary and Edmonton.

The Calgary Stampeders, the heated Western Canada Senior Hockey League rival of the Edmonton Flyers, became the first Alberta club to win the Allan Cup in 1946, and, to rub it in to northern Alberta hockey fans, the Stamps won the trophy at the Edmonton Gardens.

With Calgary taking another League title in 1946-47, the Flyers found themselves under the kind of pressure usually not placed on an amateur side. Edmonton hockey fans wanted to turn the tables on their neighbours to the south—and nothing less than an Allan Cup title in Alberta’s capital would do.

The Flyers entered the 1947-48 season with a goaltender that all of Western Canada was talking about. Saskatchewan native Al Rollins was being heavily scouted by NHL teams; unlike most of his teammates who had settled into senior hockey, the 21-year-old goalie was using his time with the Flyers as a stepping stone to the NHL. He would go on to an outstanding NHL career which saw him win a Stanley Cup and Vezina Trophy with the 1950-51 Toronto Maple Leafs and the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player in 1954 as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks.

With veteran star Louis Holmes—who would go on to coach the Edmonton Mercurys to Olympic gold in 1952—and high-octane winger Andy Clovechok, the Flyers were a formidable force. This time, the Flyers took the WCSHL title with ease, and behind Rollins’ strong netminding, defeated both the 1939 World Champion Trail Smoke Eaters and the Winnipeg Red Flyers to get to the Allan Cup final. The city’s hockey fans were in a frenzy—the Flyers were just one series away from evening the score with those dreaded Stampeders.

The best-of-seven series against the Eastern champion Ottawa Senators would see games spread all across the West. The Flyers took control of the series with a 6-2 Game 1 in Regina; going home to Edmonton Gardens for Game 2, the Flyers looked solid for a quick two-game lead.

But the Sens roared back, shocking the sold-out crowd at the Edmonton Gardens with a 3-2 win and followed it up with a 2-1 win in Vancouver. The Flyers returned to the Gardens realizing that they were in a must-win situation; Rollins responded with shutout goaltending and the Flyers’ offence exploded for a 7-0 laugher of a win. With the series tied two games apiece, the scene shifted to Calgary, where over 5,300 Stampeders fans crammed into the Victoria Arena for the chance to boo the Flyers and cheer the Senators on. Flyers players were outraged that an Alberta crowd could be so nasty to their de facto home team—after all, weren’t the Flyers representing all of Western Canada?

In the end, the boo-birds only served to motivate the Flyers. Edmonton skated to a pair of 5-3 victories in Games 5 and 6, with Clovechok getting a key hat trick in the deciding game. Finally, the Allan Cup had come to Edmonton. And just as Calgary had paraded the Cup in Edmonton two years before, the Flyers would enjoy the oh-so-sweet sensation of celebrating the Allan Cup fans in front of the fans who hated them so much.

The Flyers returned to a heroes’ welcome the likes of no Edmonton sports team had seen before. Over 60,000 fans attended a parade in the team’s honour. The Flyers had become Edmonton’s true hockey heroes—and defenceman Gordon Watt was so moved, he decided to name his newborn son Allan in honour of the trophy. Allan Watt would later go on to work for both the Canadian Football League’s Edmonton Eskimos and the Oilers.

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