Kingston Frontenacs GameDay December 4, 2015

Some 42 years ago the Ontario
Hockey Association granted Kingston
a franchise and started a five-decade
love affair between the Limestone City
and its junior hockey team.
The origin of the Kingston
Canadians is somewhat confusing. In
the late 60’s and early 70’s the Montreal
Junior Canadians was a powerhouse
team in what was then called Major
Junior Hockey under the banner of the
Ontario Hockey Association.
In 1972, in an effort to avoid legal
action from the newly formed Quebec
Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL)
the Junior Canadians were allowed to
suspend team operations for a year in
order to make the transition from the
OHA into the QMJHL. In the “Q”, a new
team emerged dubbed the Montreal
Bleu, Blanc et Rouge. Most of the
Junior Canadians moved with them
and that opened the door for Kingston
to begin operations the following year.
The brand new Kingston franchise
was born and began play in the 1973-
1974 season using the “Canadians”
moniker and the colours of their
Montreal namesakes, but the team
had no other connection to the Junior
Canadians. In essence the Kingston
Canadians were an expansion
franchise with new ownership and
new players. They experienced all
the growing pains associated with
their rookie status in that first season,
managing just 20 wins and finishing
well out of playoff contention.
In season two with promising
youngsters like future Stanley Cup
winner Ken Linesman and future
NHLers Tony McKegney and Mike
Crombeen, they took the eventual
Memorial Cup Champion Toronto
Marlboroughs to an 8th and deciding
game.
Those were the days when each
playoff series was decided by the
first team to reach 9 points. In that
final game with the teams tied at 8
points each and the game tied 1-1,
sniper Mark Napier wristed a shot
by the Canadian’s goaltender but the
puck appeared to hit the post. Michel
Blais, a defensemen for that Kingston
team was on the ice for what many
Kingstonians still remember as a
“phantom” goal.
“I watched the shot hit the post,”
recalled Blais. “It definitely didn’t go in,
Napier didn’t even raise his hands, but
the goal judge put the light on and they
ended up calling it a goal. We should
have won that game and then who
knows what would have happened.”
For many hockey fans in the
Limestone City, that watershed moment
when the upstart sophomore franchise
took the vaunted Marlboroughs to
the very edge of defeat stands as a
turning point. The Canadians would
go on to make the playoffs for the
next seven seasons in a row. Along
the way the franchise would celebrate
34 KINGSTON FRONTENACS GAMEDAY MAGAZINE