It’s been almost 70 years since a Senior A club last represented Canada in Winter Olympic men’s hockey competition.
Before the Olympics were open to professionals (although the former Soviet Union teams were amateur in name only), Canada regularly sent its Allan Cup Sr. A national championship team to the Winter Games. That included clubs like the Winnipeg Falcons, Toronto Granites, Whitby Dunlops and Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen.
The Dutchmen, in fact, would be the last-ever Canadian Sr. A club to wear the red maple leaf in Olympic competition. They won the silver medal at the 1960 Winter Games in Squaw Valley, California where the original U.S. ‘Miracle on Ice’ took place.
(EDITOR’S NOTE: The Belleville McFarlands, who won the Allan Cup in 1958, won the right to represent Canada in a non-Olympic year, 1959, winning gold at the world championships in Prague.)
Twenty years before the famous 1980 USA ‘Miracle on Ice’ team won an unlikely gold medal in Lake Placid with a lineup of apple-cheeked college kids, the Americans captured the country’s first-ever Olympic hockey title in Squaw Valley. The Dutchmen, with former McFarlands defenceman Moe Benoit in the lineup, were runners-up with the Soviets settling for bronze.
Following the ’60 Olympics, the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association — forerunner to Hockey Canada — opted to drop the regular routine of sending Sr. A club teams to the Winter Games. Instead, the CAHA created a National Team program.
The program was founded in 1963 by Canadian hockey legend Father David Bauer and the first true National Team — all amateurs, college players or reinstated professionals — made its Olympic debut at the ’64 Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria. The plucky Canadians finished in a tie with the Czechoslovaks and lost the bronze on goals-differential.
That marked the first time since the inaugural tournament in 1920 that a Canadian club did not medal in hockey at the Winter Olympics.
Following the 1968 Winter Games in Grenoble, France — where Canada claimed bronze — the CAHA pulled out of Olympic hockey competition in a dispute with the IIHF over professionalism and eligibility. The IIHF objected to ex-pros playing for Canada even though it was an open secret that the Soviets were paid to play for the USSR team as ‘members’ of the Red Army.
Eventually, the Olympics were open to professionals — including NHLers — and Canada ended a 50-year gold-medal drought in Salt Lake City in 2002. Prior to that, in 1952 in Norway, the Edmonton Mercurys were the last Sr. A hockey club to win Winter Games gold for Canada.
NEED TO KNOW: The 1948 Winter Olympic Games hockey champions representing Canada in St. Moritz, Switzerland were the RCAF Flyers. The Flyers lineup included Orville “Red” Gravelle of Trenton.
SR. A PLAYOFFS
Speaking of Sr. A hockey, the Deseronto Bulldogs and Tweed Oil Kings both swept their best-of-three preliminary round playoff series in the Western Conference of the Northern Premier Hockey League and have advanced to the quarterfinals.
Bulldogs, who finished atop the four-team Highlands Division at the conclusion of the 2025-26 regular season schedule (14-4-2) dispatched the PEC Royals in two straight games while Tweed took care of the Westport Lumberjacks 2-0 in its opening-round affair.
Deseronto now squares off against the Durham Hawks in a best-of-five quarterfinal series with Game 1 Saturday in Deseronto at 7 p.m.
Tweed takes on the Western Conference regular season champion Smiths Falls Rideaus in a tough second-round set with Game 1 Saturday at Smiths Falls at 7:30 p.m. Game 2 goes Sunday in Tweed at 2:30 p.m.
Smiths Falls boasted the best record in the conference at 18-1-1 as they coasted to the pennant in the Heritage Division. Oil Kings were runners-up in the four-team group with a 12-7-1 slate.
Royals were 4-15-1 in their expansion season in the NPHL, finishing last in the Highlands Division.
Meanwhile, Deseronto sharpshooter Luc Brown finished second in conference scoring at the conclusion of the regular campaign with 50 points in 15 games, including 21 goals. His Bulldogs teammate, goaltender Aaron Young, finished third among conference netminders with a .923 save percentage.
Tweed blueliner Jakob Brahaney topped all conference defencemen in scoring with 36 points in 19 games (nine goals, 27 assists).
In the Eastern Conference, the Manotick Mariners finished the regular grind first overall with a record of 18-and-2. The perennial powerhouse North Dundas Rockets were close behind at 17-and-3.
BULLDOGS TURN 50
The Belleville Bulldogs Rugby Football Club turns 50 this year and have several celebratory events planned for July, including a Hall of Fame dinner.
Formed in 1976 with just one 15-player senior men’s side, the Bulldogs now field two senior men’s squads, senior women, Masters, numerous junior sides and a thriving minis program.
Visit the club’s website or Facebook page for details on this year’s anniversary weekend.
