SDU Men's Hockey Team 1946-47

Represented by Brighton MacDougall, Reg Rogers, Allister MacIsaac, and Frank Strain; and Frank MacKinnon and Des Burge in absentia. In addition, several family members of deceased players and coaches were present. They were asked to please stand, at which time Roger Younker thanked them for sharing this evening with us. Citation and plaque presentation by Don MacKenzie, banner presentation by Jack MacDougall

A piece of Island sports history was made on the ice of the Charlottetown Forum on the night of March 12, 1947, when the St. Dunstan’s University Saints captured the Maritime Hockey championship, defeating St. Francis Xavier 8–6.

It was the first time that an Island team had won the Maritime championship in any sport. And it was all the more sweet because St. F. X. was highly favoured among the region’s hockey experts, as they went into the one-game, winner-take-all championship.

However, someone must have forgotten to tell the Saints, because the Island squad came to win. Under the direction of coach Jack Kane, Sr., SDU played the powerful Nova Scotia squad to a 3– 3 tie after one period, before leaping to a 6–3 lead after two.

St. F. X. would storm back in the third to trail 7–6 before St. Dunstan’s sealed the win with less than a minute left, when Reg Rogers fired a 10-footer into the corner of the net, much to the delight of the 3,000 fans jammed into the Forum.

As former team member and newspaper columnist Bill Ledwell wrote in The Evening Patriot many years later, “They declared a rare holiday at Saint Dunstan’s University, the hockey players were told they didn’t have to come home until morning (11:30 p.m. was the deadline then) and wholesale, uninhibited bedlam erupted everywhere.”

Joe Mahar, a rugged winger from Charlottetown, was the hero that night, scoring four goals, but it was unquestionably a team effort as the nucleus of PEI players, combined with a few from Nova Scotia and Quebec, accomplished this “Prince Edward Island first.”