Canucks Penalty Box, 1948


The Vancouver Public Library recently released some terrific old hockey photos online, the one above  was titled simply Vancouver Canucks vs Skyhawks Hockey Fight, April 14, 1948. It shows some heated action in the penalty box, but does not name any of the players pictured. The Skyhawks were the San Diego entry in the old Pacific Coast Hockey League.
Checking the Society for International Hockey Research Database, the bleeding #10 of SanDiego is identified as Arley Carlson. Left-Winger Carlson was 24 years old at the time in his fifth professional season. In 1947/48 he posted 12 goals, 41 points in 43 games for the Skyhawks. Carlson was born in Virginia, Minnesota and would go on to star with the amateur Rochester (Minnesota) Mustangs for seven years. Virgina, Minnesota is also the hometown of Jeff, Jack and Steve Carlson of the movie Slap Shot fame. From what I can find,  although his age would fit, Arley Carlson is not the father of the movie brothers, but the odds are he is related to them.
To the right hand of Carlson is another Skyhawk identified through the SIHR photo database as Stan Warecki. The 22 year-old Warecki potted 37 goals in 47/48, second on San Diego and his 16 goals in 14 playoff games topped the league.
The Canuck player in the penalty being addressed by Carlson is a little harder to identify, seeing as he is facing away from the camera. However, on the front of his sweater is a partially obscured number that can appears to be either 2,3,8 or 9. Defenceman Chuck Millman wore #2 and is pictured below. 

#3 on the Canucks that season was ex-NHLer Mac Colville, shown below. His hair and jaw-line don't seem to match the player in the photo.
Another possibility is #8 Bob Ballance, shown next. He could quite well be the player facing Carlson in the photo. The Canucks #9 that year belonged to Bernie Bathgate, but he didn't play in the playoffs that season. The player must be either Millman or Ballance.
A look at hockeydb.com shows the Canucks and Skyhawks both finished third in their divisions in 1947/48. San Diego had 67 points in the 66 games finishing nine behind first place L.A. Monarchs while Vancouver's 71 points were 16 in arrears of Seattle Ironman. Vancouver knocked off Tacoma and Seattle before reaching the final, San Diego had beaten San Francisco and Fresno in the Southern Division.  The teams split the first two games in San Diego each winning by a 3-2 score. Back in Vancouver, the Canucks found their scoring legs, winning game three 7-5 on April 12, 1948 and 7-6 on April 15. This photo must be from that April 15 match and simply mis-labelled. The following day, in Game five, Vancouver would take the championship with a 7-3 victory.



Comments

Keith C said…
Arley Carlson is my Father and I'm not surprised to see him in a penalty box photo. He never shied away from a fight. Jeff, Jack and Steve are not related to him. Lots of relatives in Northern Minnesota, but not these three. Keith.
April 3, 2020 at 7:46 PM
Nitzy said…
Hi Keith, Thanks for the info. Great photo of your father. Thanks for clarifying that you Carlson's are not related to Jeff, Jack and Steve.
Chris
April 5, 2020 at 10:22 AM
Aaron said…
Hi - great post, thanks for sharing.

A couple points:

- This game was indeed played on April 14th, with newspaper accounts likely dated to Sunday, April 15th. Here's a clipping from that following day:
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/57418567/

- The gentleman sharing the box with Arley Carlson is almost certainly my great uncle, Maurice Vaillancourt. You can see the top of his brow/head only. Maurice ("Mike") had quite a penchant for game misconducts and possibly came to the aid of Carlson, but more likely started things. He once knocked Gordie Howe out of a hockey game with a stick to the head (I have the clipping), so was not stranger to the rough stuff; That said, he also led the PCHL (Southern Division) in scoring the year this photo was taken.

- It appears this scene occurred in the second period and the other Canuck involved in the fight with Carlson was Eddie Shamlock, seen in the foreground. Shamlock would go on to be a long-time Canucks trainer through the 1960s-70s.

August 18th would have marked Maurice Vaillancourt's 100th birthday. I never met him but my father has lots of memories. Thanks for sharing this photo/story again.

Cheers,
Aaron
August 15, 2020 at 5:09 PM
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