The Engleson Files

“I want to compile the best Barkerville has to offer and put them up against the best there is in hockey today. There is no doubt in my mind our boys here in Barkerville can go to Montreal and bring this cup back.” The Montreal Victorias were one of early hockey’s first dynasties, winning the Stanley Cup five times between 1893 and 1898, and, attempting to take the cup away from them was going to be an extremely tall order – but that did not sway Bain, in fact, it only made him more determined.

Now in his early sixties, Bain still had the same fire and passion for hockey as he did all those years ago on the Rideau Canal, and he meticulously molded the first ever “all-star elite” Barkerville Goldpanners into championship form. Then finally, on January 22nd, 1899, the Goldpanners set a trail to Montreal to play for Lord Stanley’s Dominion Challenge Cup. The team’s five week journey saw them travel by stagecoach down to New Westminster and then across Canada on the newly created Canadian Pacific Railway. But, tragically, just outside of Yale, the fate of the Goldpanners Stanley Cup run was changed forever. Inflicted with a dreaded bout of tuberculosis for quite some time (but never telling anyone), Bain’s lungs finally gave out and he died at the age of sixty-two. “We have lost our coach, mentor and father,” expressed a tearful “Newsy” Lacroix, “but we have to continue our journey – our goal isn’t done yet.”

So it was with weary bones and heavy hearts the Goldpanners set path to Montreal to play the powerhouse Victorias. Bain’s last words to his team were, “do this for me and for Barkerville.” And that they did. Once in Montreal, the Goldpanners played hard for the opening half of the first match, and were only trailing 3-1 at halftime. But in the second half all hell broke loose, with a stick swinging duel between Barkerville’s “Sureshot” Kennedy and Montreal’s Alf Moore, earning them each a fifteen minute banishment to cool down. That incident seemed to rattle the Goldpanners and when the match was over, Barkerville was on the wrong end of a 9-4 loss; and Game 2 was much the same losing 5-2 in a tough, hard fought battle. “We played as hard as we could for each other, for the people of Barkerville, and, for William Bain,” exclaimed Goldpanners goaltender Willy Drapeau. Though the Goldpanners were unsentimentally defeated by Montreal, their epic quest and desire to capture Lord Stanley’s silver chalice forged a legacy of greatness that has remained with this franchise a century later - the Goldpanners officially entered hockey’s ultimate lore.