On January 5, 1912, the first professional hockey game ever played in Vancouver took place.
An estimated 5,000 spectators were on hand at the Patrick brothers’ newly built hockey arena, located at the northwest corner of Denman and Georgia streets in Vancouver’s West End. They watched the Vancouver Millionaires decisively defeat the New Westminster Royals 8-3 in a Pacific Coast Hockey Association game.
Future Hockey Hall of Famers played in the game
Future Hockey Hall of Famer Edouard ‘Newsy’ Lalonde scored the first-ever professional hockey goal in Vancouver’s history just one minute into the game on a brilliant solo rush.
Lalonde and Si Griffis each scored twice for maroon-and-white-clad Vancouver, while Ernie ‘Moose’ Johnson and Harry Hyland each scored once for New Westminster wearing orange and black uniforms. All four later ended up in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Tickets ranged from $2 for box seats to 50 cents for general admission. One of the earliest electric scoreboards was used for the first time to display the time elapsed during play. Square boxes for 5, 10, 15, 17, 18, 19, and 20 minutes would light up with a single light bulb as play moved along each period, allowing spectators to follow how much time remained.
Denman Arena had Canada's first artificial ice surface
Known simply as ‘The Arena’ at first—because there were no others in the city—and later popularly as the Denman Arena, the building seated 10,500 people. At that time it was the largest indoor ice arena in Canada and the second largest in North America after New York's second Madison Square Garden.
After selling their father’s lumber operation in Nelson, Lester and Frank Patrick constructed the brick and wood arena for $226,000, complete with Canada's first artificial ice surface. To offset some of the arena costs, the Patricks used the arena’s ice-making plant to create blocks of ice for sale to Vancouverites for home use in their ice boxes, commonly used to keep food cool in the days before electric refrigerators.
The Denman Arena remained home to the Vancouver Millionaires for the next 15 years, including the 1914-15 season when the Millionaires led by Fred ‘Cyclone’ Taylor, hockey’s first superstar, won Vancouver’s first and to date only Stanley Cup championship.
The arena was also home to many other indoor sports and events until 1936 when a fire burnt the building to the ground hours after a boxing match involving former world heavyweight champion Max Baer was held there.
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