Making History

With Joe Malone and Cyclone Taylor both chasing history, I knew it would be an exciting finish to Season 14. Taylor got the record-setting party started in his team's penultimate game. Facing their bitter rivals, the Bulldogs, the Vics trailed 1-0 in the second half of the second period. Taylor fired a pass to feisty superstar Newsy Lalonde, who glided through the defense to beat Hap Holmes on a clean breakaway. The assist brought Taylor to 40 points. And then the same thing happened again. The Dogs won the ensuing faceoff and tried to dump the puck into the offensive zone, but Taylor snagged it and found Lalonde with another sweet pass. Lalonde skated in and scored again. That second assist brought Taylor up to a record-tying 41 points. The superstar broke his own record with a third-period goal. Although the Vics would go on to lose the game 4-3, Taylor had made history. After the final game of the season (more on that below), Taylor would finish with 44 points. 

And what about Malone and his 19 goals? In their penulatimate game, Malone and the Bearcats faced a Comets team that was deadlocked with the Cats in the standings. With the home-team advantage of the last change, the Comets were able to deploy all their best defensive forwards whenever Malone was on the ice. The star left winger was held to a lone assist in a 2-1 loss that guaranteed the Bearcats -- the defending Creighton Cup champions -- would finish in the fourth and final playoff spot.

As luck would have it, Taylor's team and Malone's team would face each other on the final day of the regular season. Taylor had already broken his own record, but would Malone set a record of his own at the Victorias' expense? Things got off to auspicious start for Phantom Joe when he tallied early in the first period. That goal brought him to 20 on the year -- making him just the second player (after Frank McGee) to reach that milestone. In the third period, Malone lit the lamp again to draw even with McGee. The clock would run out before he could score again, but with 21 goals in 20 games, Malone at least earned a share of the record.