Championship Years (1962-63 and 1963-64)
Following McNab's departure to take over the Vancouver Canucks, the Seals lured coach and general manager Norman "Bud" Poile south from the defending champion Flyers. Poile had won three championships in eight seasons at Edmonton; with the Seals, he would add two more.
Poile's teams generally led the league in penalty minutes, and his 1962-63 Seals fit the mold. Led by hard-nosed players such as Orland Kurtenbach, Larry McNabb, Nick Mickoski and Charlie Burns, the Seals developed a fierce rivalry with the Buckaroos, perennial WHL front-runners. For the next two seasons, Portland-San Francisco games had the atmosphere of a heavyweight title fight, and games between the two routinely attracted crowds of 8,000 or more. The Blades were another rival; Cow Palace crowds loved to hate defenseman "Big Burly Bill Burega."
After finishing 44-25-1 in the 1962-63 regular season, the Seals eliminated Los Angeles in three games in the first round of the playoffs, then outlasted the Buckaroos in seven rugged semifinal contests, taking the seventh and final game 3-1 at Portland.
In the 1963 Lester Patrick Cup finals, the Seals faced the Totems, with all seven games played at the Cow Palace due to scheduling conflicts in Seattle. Trailing 3 games to 1, the Seals came back to win the last three games - the last two in overtime - and captured San Francisco's first pro hockey championship. Kurtenbach scored the Cup-winning goal 4 minutes into overtime of the Seals' 4-3 Game 7 victory.
Even though the WHL contracted in 1963-64 - Edmonton and Calgary both requested a leave of absence following the playoffs - the Seals finished a distant fourth during the regular season behind the Denver Invaders, who had relocated from Spokane. But superb play from forward Al Nicholson and goalie Bob Perreault helped the Seals win the final three games of their first-round playoff series against Portland. The Seals would go on to become the first team to win back-to-back Patrick Cup titles, defeating the Blades in six games in the only all-California final.
Read more about this topic: San Francisco Seals (ice Hockey)
Famous quotes containing the word years:
“I then understood that a man who would have lived but one day could without effort live one hundred years in a prison. He would have enough memories to avoid getting bored.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)