The Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame will be hosting the members of the 1973-74 Regina Pats hockey club on Saturday, March 23 at 1 p.m. to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the team’s Memorial Cup championship season.
Eighteen members of the Pats will be at the Hall of Fame to meet fans and reminisce about their championship season.
The afternoon will begin at 1 p.m. with a hot stove panel discussion with three members of the team and then from 1:30-2:30 p.m., fans are invited to meet the players and get a complimentary copy of the 1974 Pats team photo signed by the team. Admission to the event is free.
The 1973-74 Pats team was inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame in 1980.
The Pats overcame an early 3-0 deficit to beat the Quebec Remparts 7-4 in the Memorial Cup final in Calgary. That victory ended a 44-year Memorial Cup drought for the storied junior hockey team.
Regina swept the Calgary Centennials 4-0 to win the Western Canadian Hockey League title. They needed six games to get past the Saskatoon Blades and Swift Current Broncos in the first two rounds of the playoffs.
The Pats also experienced some international competition when they went to Sweden to play in the Ahearne Cup in mid-December. There they played against top teams from Sweden, Finland, the United Kingdom, and Dynamo Moscow from the Soviet Union. They returned a better team and posted a 26-6-4 record in league play after coming home.
Goalie Ed Staniowski was named the WCHL’s Most Valuable Player for that season. He and Clark Gillies have both been inducted into the Hall of Fame as individuals. They are two of the nine members of the ’74 Pats who went on to play in the National Hockey League.
Head coach Bob Turner won five Stanley Cups with the Montreal Canadiens and was also inducted into the Sask. Sports Hall of Fame as an individual in 1994.