Kingston Frontenacs GameDay December 11, 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
34 KINGSTON FRONTENACS GAMEDAY MAGAZINE