1934 Stanley Cup Champion Blackhawks In the 1933-34 season, the Black Hawks still were relatively new on the scene. They played their first season in 1926-27 and moved into the Chicago Stadium in 1929. The Hawks had only modest success, losing in the finals to the Canadiens in 1931. Expectations werent high for the 1934 playoffs. The team had finished only two games above .500 and scored a mere 88 goals in 48 games. However, with goalie Chuck Gardiner, scoring wasnt a necessity as the playoffs began. (Photo is Coach Tommy Gorman congratulating Gardiner after an early playoff game) After eliminating the Montreal Maroons in the first round, the Hawks were prohibitive underdogs in the best-of-five finals against the powerful Red Wings. They will play the one team in the league which appeared to exercise some strange power over them, Tribune columnist Charles Bartlett wrote before the series started. Then the Hawks pulled a stunner by winning the first two games on the road, putting them one victory from the Stanley Cup. Detroit rallied to win Game 3 in Chicago. But on April 10, 1934, more than 18,000 fans jammed the Stadium to watch Gardiner stop the Red Wings. Finally, at 30:05 of overtime, Harold Mush March scored to give the Hawks a 1-0 victory and their first title. Bartlett wrote: March, a shrimp of a hocky player who matches his 140 pounds against all the heavyweights in the game, is going home with the most valuable puck in existence this morning. He seized the little black disc out of the Detroit cage last night at the Chicago Stadium after having blazed past Wilfred Cude, the Red Wing goalie, to give Chicago the worlds championship and the Stanley Cup for the first time in their eight-year career. Chicago fans embraced their new champions. But it didnt last long, as tragedy hit the team a couple of months after winning their title. Gardiner, who registered five shutouts during the playoffs, was the star. However, he exhibited erratic behavior during the drive to the title. The mood swings were attributed to nerves. He even was sent to Milwaukee for a day to rest before shutting out the Red Wings. It turns out Gardiner wasnt suffering from nerves. Shortly after returning to his home in Winnipeg, he went into a coma, the victim of a brain tumor. On June 13, just more than two months after leading the Hawks to the title, Gardiner died at 29.
Posted on: Fri, 10 Oct 2014 23:46:34 +0000
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