On This Date in Sports April 10, 1934: Mush March and Chuck Gardiner Lift Cup For Chicago
In collaboration with the Sportsecyclopedia.com
Chuck Gardiner who provided stellar goaltending all season, blanks the Detroit Red Wings 1-0 as Mush March scores the game-winner in double overtime to lead the Chicago Black Hawks to the first Stanley Cup Championship. Gardiner the first goalie to captain his team to the Stanley Cup. Sadly, Chuck Gardiner would die just two months later as the result of a brain hemorrhage at the age of 29.
Charlie “Chuck” Gardiner was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on December 31, 1904. When he was seven his family immigrated to Canada settling into a working-class neighborhood in Winnipeg. Young Charlie was forced to work at the age of 12 after his father was killed and his brother severely sickened by a gas attack during World War I. While working at a local hardware store, he began to play recreational sports with his coworkers. A gifted baseball player, Gardiner took to hockey with the passion of someone born in Canada. Though he did not learn how to skate until he was eight, which left him often chosen to be the team’s goalie. Eventually, he would go onto to play Junior Hockey with the Winnipeg Tigers. Steadily improving overtime, Chuck Gardiner eventually played professionally for the Winnipeg Maroons.
After two seasons with the Winnipeg Maroons, Chuck Gardiner got his chance to play in the National Hockey League when he was signed by the Chicago Black Hawks. Life in the NHL was hard at first as Gardiner struggled with the second year team, posting a record of 6-32-2. However, as he learned more and more about the game, the Black Hawks began to improve in front of him. In 1931, Gardiner led Chicago to its first appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals, which they would lose to the Montreal Canadiens 3-2. The following season saw Chuck Gardiner win the Vezina Trophy with a 1.85 Goals Against Average.
The 1932/33 season was filled with disappointment as the Black Hawks missed the playoffs and Chuck Gardiner struggled with a prolonged tonsil infection. Named captain before the 1933/34 season, Gardiner continued to fight through chronic illness. Trying to keep his illness private, Gardiner would deny any problems when questioned by Tommy Gorman the coach and General Manager of the Chicago Black Hawks. The Black Hawks posted a 20-17-11 record in 1934, finishing second in the American Division as Gardiner won the Vezina Trophy as the league’s best goalie with a 1.63 GAA.
In the playoffs, Black Hawks defeated the Montreal Canadiens in dramatic fashion in the first round as Mush March scored in overtime to win a total-goal two-game series 4-3. Next up was the Montreal Maroons, who they beat 6-2 under a similar format. In the opener, Chicago blanked Montreal 3-0 as Chuck Gardiner played through a 102-degree fever.
The Detroit Red Wings were a rising NHL power in 1934, posting a 24-14-10 record under Jack Adams, they had the best record in the American Division. After beating the Toronto Maple Leafs in a best-of-five series 3-2, they found themselves in an All-American Stanley Cup Finals against the Chicago Black Hawks. While a viral infection ran through his body, Chuck Gardiner was doing all he could to lift the Black Hawks, in the opener he matched childhood friend Wilf Cude save for save as the game went into double overtime tied 1-1, with Lionel Conacher scoring for Chicago and Herbie Lewis scoring for Detroit. Eventual Paul Thompson would score in double overtime to give the Black Hawks a 2-1 at the Olympia in Detroit.
In Game 2, Gardiner was strong again as the game tied 1-1 heading into the third period. The Hawks had gotten a goal from Rosario Couture in the first, while Lewis again scored for Detroit. This time there would be no need for overtime as the Black Hawks scored three times in the third to win the game 4-1, and take a 2-0 leading in the best of five series. Doc Rommes, Art Coulter and Johnny Gottselig were the third-period goal scorers for Chicago.
Game 3 saw the Black Hawks looked for the sweep at home, but it was all Red Wings as they won the game 5-2. The following game at Chicago Stadium would be a different story. Chuck Gardiner who battled headaches and often had black spots appearing in his vision was as good as can be in Game 4, as the game was scoreless at the end of regulation. The game remained tied through the first overtime and into the second, when for the second time in the postseason Mush March played hero, scoring the cup winner at 10:05 of double overtime.
On June 13th, the illness that had bothered Chuck Gardiner for two years would claim his life as the infection which reached his kidneys and began to spread through his body, eventually causing a brain hemorrhage. In 1945, Chuck Gardiner would be one of the inaugural members of the Hockey Hall of Fame.