NHL Heritage Classic

C M Y K I S S U E # 3 WINNIPEG FREE PRESS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2016 I T ' S A C A N A D I A N T H I N G , E H ? 3 C M Y K Winter is Coming... ISSUE #3 OF 5 The Avco Cup (above), Kraft Dinner of champions (right) and team memorabilia (below) are in the 60 Years of Pro Hockey in Winnipeg exhibit. PHOTOS BY DARCY FINLEY KEEPING THE FAITH W e're going into overtime to celebrate Manitoba's hockey heritage, with five special inserts to kick off the season. As the Winnipeg Jets prepare to host the Tim Hortons NHL Heritage Classic and alumni game, our third insert looks to artists, academics and curators who keep memories of past hockey greats alive. Meet us back here as the celebration continues on Oct. 20. After all, it's a Canadian thing, eh? LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE GIRLS T he sixth annual World Girls' Hockey Weekend, Oct. 7 - 9, shines a spotlight on the fastest-growing sport in Canada, with events from coast to coast — and in dozens of countries around the world. Hosted by the International Ice Hockey Federation and Hockey Canada, the weekend is aimed at introducing girls and women to hockey, and celebrating the players who are already making their mark on the game. In past years, thousands of participants in Australia, Morocco, Greece, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Sweden, Japan and many other countries have taken part in the weekend, with tournaments, development camps and special events. Visit www.iihf.com or www. hockeycanada.ca/femalehockey to learn more. A Feast for Fans TREASURES ON DISPLAY IN NEW HOCKEY EXHIBIT T he stars are in alignment for a special celebration at the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and Museum. New exhibit 60 Years of Pro Hockey in Winnipeg, presented by the Winnipeg Jets, will display a wealth of treasures from museum and private collections from mid-October until the spring of 2017. The exhibit embraces teams of the past and present, just as the Tim Hortons NHL Heritage Classic unites old and new with a regular-season outdoor game on Oct. 23 and an alumni game on Oct. 22. The city's professional legacy begins with the Winnipeg Warriors — the first hockey team to play in the Winnipeg Arena on Maroons Road in the 1950s and early '60s. Hall of Fame and Museum executive director Rick Brownlee says the team was loaded with home-grown talent, led by ex-NHL players including Billy Mosienko, Eddie (Spider) Mazur and Freddy (The Fog) Shero, who later went on to coach the Philadelphia Flyers to two Stanley Cups (in 1974 and 1975). Winnipeg Jets 2.0, the IHL and AHL Manitoba Moose and WHA Jets are well represented and, naturally, there are plenty of artifacts from the last team to play at the Winnipeg Arena, the NHL Winnipeg Jets 1.0. "In addition to the jerseys, trophies and artifacts that are in our own collection — which is fairly extensive thanks to the generosity of the Jets Goals for Kids Foundation and the Shenkarow family — we've got some private collectors that have loaned us their Jets jerseys and some of these other things. So things that normally are sitting in someone's basement that the public never sees will be on display," Brownlee says. There are game-worn jerseys from the WHA Jets Hot Line — Anders Hedberg, Bobby Hull and Ulf Nilsson, who will be the first inductees into the Winnipeg Jets Hall of Fame on Oct. 20 — a Winnipeg Warriors jersey and game program, kitschy memorabilia like a foam finger, a Jets toothbrush and even a Kraft Dinner box featuring Jets 1.0 star Alexei Zhamnov. "If you're a Jets fan this is going to be an endless buffet of things to look at," Brownlee says. That buffet includes the original Avco Cup the Jets carried off the ice in 1979 and the Molson Cup, awarded to players who earned the most three-star player of the game honours during each season. Plans for the Pro Hockey exhibit have been in the works for some time, and having the Winnipeg Jets onboard to sponsor it allows for a large-scale show, which will be on the move during the Heritage Classic week. Along with displays at the Hall of Fame gala luncheon, the Avco Cup will be at Investors Group Field for both outdoor games. "We did win three Avco Cups and were in the final five times out of seven years in the existence of the WHA, so that Jets team — and especially in the mid-'70s with Anders, Ulf and Bobby — that was a dominant team that I think would have contended for the Stanley Cup if they were allowed to play in the NHL," Brownlee says. "The team was basically torn apart so that it didn't embarrass the league when they finally let them in 1979." A local team hasn't brought home the Stanley Cup since the Winnipeg Victorias were champs more than a century ago, but where there's new life, there's new hope. "We'll have to wait until this version of the Jets does that for us," Brownlee says. The city's professional legacy begins with the Winnipeg Warriors — the first hockey team to play in the Winnipeg Arena on Maroons Road in the 1950s and early '60s.

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