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Hockey DayPEI hockey was all the rage in 1965 with St. Dunstan's

By Tim Wharnsby

Posted: Thursday, February 9, 2012 | 11:35 AM

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Canada's best female golfer ever was a rink rat when she was little. Lorie Kane's dad, Jack, coached for years, including a 1965 St. Dunstan's team that is still remembered fondly. (Hunter Martin/Getty Images) Canada's best female golfer ever was a rink rat when she was little. Lorie Kane's dad, Jack, coached for years, including a 1965 St. Dunstan's team that is still remembered fondly. (Hunter Martin/Getty Images)

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The St. Dunstan's Saints warmed hearts in P.E.I. in a cold rink in 1965, coached by Jack Kane Jr., father of Canada's best ever female golfer.
The annual Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada will celebrate Prince Edward Island on Saturday. The land of Anne of Green Gables, potatoes and Stompin' Tom Connors may be the smallest province in Canada, but its hockey tradition is rich and full of characters. From visits by St. Dunstan's University to the national championship to NHL success from pioneers like Forbes Kennedy Billy MacMillan and Errol Thompson to current NHLers Mark Flood, Adam McQuaid and Brad Richards, PEI has a proud hockey past. Richards celebrated the Stanley Cup with the locals in 2004 after his Tampa Bay Lightning won the NHL championship. McQuaid followed suite seven summers later with his victorious Boston Bruins. This week cbcsports.ca senior hockey writer Tim Wharnsby will compile a series of stories on PEI hockey. This instalment takes at St. Dunstan's championship season in 1965.

CHARLOTTETOWN -- The scene was wild on the old St. Dunstan's College campus 57 years ago.

Including the priests, who watched the St. Dunstan's Saints from behind the chicken wire barrier in one end, about 1,800 fans crammed into what many feel was the coldest rink ever. It certainly was the most frigid barn on Prince Edward Island.

But the Saints warmed everyone's hockey heart in 1965. St. Dunstan's hockey team was the little engine that could. The Saints surprised everyone but themselves, chugging all the way to the national final in Winnipeg that year.

"To date, it probably was the biggest hockey season in the history of the Island," opined Bill MacMillan, one of the Saints all stars back then. "Prince Edward Islanders love to support a winning team and I guess you could say we gave them a lot to cheer for."

The old St. Dunstan's barn is gone now. It was replaced in the late 1980s. St. Dunstan's itself closed its doors in 1969 and became part of the University of Prince Edward Island. But the memory of the remarkable Saints season lives on.

"It was a big deal," said Jack Kane Jr., who coached the Saints that year. "The premier, back in the day [Walter Shaw], was there when we won the conference. Our rink always was full. It's part of our history. It's something you remember the rest of your life."

You may recognize the surname Kane and its connection to PEI. He and his wife Marilyn have four daughters. The second youngest is four-time LPGA Tour winner Lorie Kane. As a child she would tag along to hockey games that Jack coached, but long before then Jack got the hockey bug from his father in the same manner.

Jack Sr. was born in Montreal, but made a name for himself playing for the old Hamilton Tigers. He led the Ontario Hockey Association in scoring and helped the Tigers advance to the 1931 Allan Cup final against Winnipeg.

He later wound up playing senior hockey on Prince Edward Island for the Abegweits and after his playing days concluded he coached St. Dunstan's to its first Maritime conference crown in 1947.

Eighteen years later, Jack Jr., an accomplished senior player himself, was St. Dunstan's coach, when the Saints started the season 9-0 en route to a 10-1 season to win the Maritime conference for the second time in school history. Their only loss in league play was to St. Thomas University on the final weekend of the regular season.

There were no playoffs back then. Just an extremely competitive regular season. Best record won the championship, and that was St. Dunstan's in 1965.

The Saints travelled to Winnipeg for the national championships that year. On the strength of solid goaltending from George MacNeill, on a less than an ideal Winnipeg Arena ice surface, the Saints came from behind to beat Sir George Williams 3-1. Gord Whitlock, Mike Kelly and MacMillan, the Saints MVP who won his second Maritime scoring race with a then record 22 goals and 41 points.

In the final against the bigger host team from the University of Manitoba, St. Dunstan's fell behind 6-0 and settled for a 9-2 loss.

"The Kanes never have paid attention to winning. It burns me more to remember the losses," Jack Kane said. "Having said that, it was a difficult chore just to get out of own conference."

MacMillan and Mulligan were first team all stars, while Whitlock was named to the second team. From that team four players went on to later coach UPEI in captain Vince Mulligan, Jack Hynes, Kelly and MacMillan, who guided the school to its last conference title in 1990-91.

Here is a glance at Kane's roster from that championship season for the Saints: MacMillan, Mulligan, Whitlock, Kelly, Denis DeCarufel, Andre Gelinas, Mike Harley, Hynes, Glen Hughes, Arthur LeClair, Rex McCarville, George MacMillan, MacNeill, George Monaghan, Derrel Pollock, Maurice Roy, and Yvon St. Armand. Jim Levy was the team manager and Dave McConnell was the trainer. (Source: UPEI.ca)

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