A Great Game by Stephen J. Harper Page B

onto the ice surface. He was arrested, but, when later ascertained to be a Toronto supporter, he was promptly released.
    The Torontos recovered from their early-game jitters to become increasingly confident. With eight minutes left, the Professionals had pulled ahead 9–8. However, having let the game completely open up, they could not keep pace with the Wanderers’ offence and eventually fellaway by a count of 12–10. Charlie Liffiton, eager to show the Montrealers he still had it, was the best Toronto player, with five goals. But Ernie Russell, with an incredible nine for the Redbands, had sunk the local team.
    There were differing opinions on what the game said about the Queen City club. Strengthened by Berlin forward Ezra Dumart, no one doubted that the Torontos had played well. Conversely, analysts pointed to Wanderer injuries, the soft ice, the small surface and an off night by Montreal goalie William Milton “Riley” Hern to suggest the visitors had perhaps done just enough to win. Subsequent events indicate that, in truth, the local pros were not that bad a team.
    This midseason photo is the sole known picture of the first pro lineup. Goaltender Mark Tooze is the only regular who is absent.
    By the time the Wanderers arrived in Toronto, the OHA stomping grounds, amateur hockey’s last bastion, had become home to no fewer than five professional hockey clubs. The latest was out of Belleville, still smarting from the Reddy McMillan fiasco. Guelph and Berlin wereclearly the strongest, so that is where the Montreal gang headed next on their road trip.
    The other Ontario pro games bore a strong resemblance to the Toronto affair. In Guelph, the visitors from Montreal had to come from behind to beat the Royals 5–3. In Berlin, however, they could not pull off the same feat for a third time and were edged out 9–8 by the Dutchmen.
    It all proved a good warmup for the Wanderers. They took the Stanley Cup back from the Thistles less than two weeks later.
    These games had shown, in a nutshell, that the new Ontario professional teams could hold their own against the club that reigned as champions of the Dominion. The message they took from it was undeniable: they might themselves challenge for the Stanley Cup.
    All things considered, the first professional hockey season in Toronto had been a fair success. The Professionals probably did not make money, and their record was only 2–5–1, but they had become the club of choice for a good chunk of local fans. As far as the city’s dreams of a first Stanley Cup were concerned, the Torontos were also the only choice.
    To make this go, however, Miln needed more than a handful of exhibition games at Mutual. Next year, his Toronto Professionals would have to be in a league, for which he already had a franchise. But, the best-laid plans notwithstanding, that league would not be the International Hockey League.

• CHAPTER SEVEN •
T HE P ROS ON THE M ARCH
    The Ontario Professional Hockey League Is Formed

    All the hockey world is laughing at a so-called professional hockey league that can only get players that real professional leagues don’t want. It’s not a professional league at all. It’s a disqualified amateurs’ league. 1
    â€” Toronto Telegram
    As 1907 progressed, Alexander Miln was putting together the next phase of his plan: a shot at the Stanley Cup for his Toronto Professionals. We can only guess, however, as to what he was thinking about developments in the sports world around him. There can be no question that he was acutely aware of them. This was the era of the Athletic War, a vicious power struggle between elites in Montreal and Toronto over control of the country’s amateur sports, not just hockey. Miln’s team was operating in the epicentre of amateur purism, Toronto, and in the backyard of its most zealous advocate, John Ross Robertson’s OHA.
    It is hard to exaggerate the incongruities and