Americans enjoyed Cinderella season with playoff series win against Rangers

Legendary hockey reporter Stan Fischler writes a weekly scrapbook for NHL.com. Fischler, known as "The Hockey Maven," shares his humor and insight with readers each Wednesday.

This week he zeroes in on one of the most colorful but oft-losing teams in NHL history, the New York Americans (also known as the Amerks). They enjoyed the 1937-38 season, which included a Stanley Cup Playoff series win and the longest game in Gotham's hockey history -- enough playing time for five regulation NHL games.

It was their last hurrah.

If ever there was a hard-luck franchise, it would have to be the New York Americans.

Originally owned by bootlegger "Big Bill" Dwyer, the Amerks' claims to fame included being the first NHL team in New York City as well as being the zany franchise that turned The Big Apple into a hockey hotbed.

The Americans wore flamboyant, star-spangled jerseys, matching in color their behavior both on and off the ice. They never won the Stanley Cup and -- in their 16-year existence -- never finished first. Yet, they did enjoy one Cinderella season in 1937-38 with the biggest Stanley Cup Playoff victory in franchise history.

Their rivalry with the New York Rangers -- they shared Madison Square Garden -- was epic. What's more it featured the Amerks' flamboyant former defenseman Mervyn "Red" Dutton, who controlled the team after his retirement following the 1935-36 season. Like the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers in baseball, the rivalry ran along geographic lines.

"We had fans mostly from Brooklyn," Dutton explained, "while the Rangers had the hotsy-totsy ones from New York."

One of those avid Amerks boosters in 1937-38 was 15-year-old Ben Olan, who would grow up to run hockey coverage at The Associated Press for more than a decade. An Elmer Ferguson Award-winner, Olan once explained to me that to root for the Americans you had to love underdogs and dislike the "hotsy-totsy" Rangers.

"One thing made Amerks fans like me happy," Olan said. "All we wanted was to beat the Rangers in the playoffs. Beating them meant so much because they always had it over the Americans."

What made the rivalry so keen was the fact that the Madison Square Garden-owned Rangers had been artistically superior to the Americans from the very start. In 1928, while the Amerks were floundering near the bottom of the League, the Rangers won the Stanley Cup in only their second year in existence -- and did it again in 1933.

By that time, the Amerks had traded for Dutton, the tough son of a Canadian construction magnate. A World War I hero, Dutton had a red mane and the temper to go with it.

"He also earned a piece of the team," wrote Canadian historian Ty Di Lello, "when he bailed out owner Bill Dwyer for $20,000 worth of player salaries. And in 1935-36, Red became player-manager of the Americans. "

"That's when I fell in love with them," recalled Olan, who was 12 at the time. "Dutton gave us hope that better things were ahead -- and he made them happen."

It wasn't easy. For one thing, Dutton had to pay the Garden a stiff annual rental fee while the Rangers paid nothing. Plus, the Great Depression made it tough to draw cash-starved fans.

"We were always short of money," Dutton said. "Many was the day when I'd look up at the sky and pray it wouldn't rain so we'd have a good crowd and could pay the salaries. I wanted the club to be able to pay the bills on its own."

Despite his problems, Dutton wheeled and dealed so that by the fall of 1937 he had a lineup that could favorably compete with the Rangers. One of his finds, forward Dave "Sweeny" Schriner, eventually would be voted to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

"What made me so proud," Dutton said, "was that I signed Schriner to his first pro contract. I brought him in along with Art Chapman and Lorne Carr and together they made one of the greatest lines in hockey."

Dutton also gambled by signing future Hall of Famers who many in the NHL believed were over the hill. They included ex-Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Hap Day and former Rangers defenseman Ching Johnson. In addition, Dutton persuaded another old-time scoring ace, Nels "Old Poison" Stewart, to join the team.

The venerable additions helped the Amerks finish 19-18-11, second in the four-team Canadian Division. What made it even more exciting was that Dutton's oft-mocked sextet would face the high-falootin' Rangers in the opening playoff round.

"This playoff was the biggest sports hit in town with fans lining up outside the Garden the morning of the opening game," Olan remembered. "I was too young to go so I listened to the games on the radio."

The Rangers were favored but Dutton's patchwork lineup, a blend of aged future Hall of Famers and talented youngsters, startled Big Apple sports fans by taking the best-of-3 opener 2-1 in two overtimes. The Rangers rebounded, winning the second game 4-3 This set the stage for the climactic finale March 27, 1938, before 16,340 fans, the largest Garden crowd of the season.

The Rangers jumped to a 2-0 lead, but the Amerks rallied on goals by Carr and Stewart. That sent the game into never-ending overtimes.

Writing in Sports Life Magazine, editor Bruce Jacobs suggested that it was more like a Hollywood thriller.

"The contest couldn't have been more adaptable to drama, had a script been written in advance by (prize-winning producer) Alfred Hitchcock," Jacobs enthused.

The game began at 8:30 p.m. ET and took four overtimes. It was the longest hockey game ever played in New York and ended at close to 1:30 a.m. There were many near goals, but goalies Dave Kerr (Rangers) and Earl Robertson (Amerks) were equal to the tasks.

"Surprisingly few fans departed by midnight even though it appeared that the game would go on indefinitely," Jacobs said. "Here and there spectators rushed out to the lobby refreshment stands, which finally ran out of food, but most of the huge crowd was on hand when the end came."

Olan had fallen asleep while listening to the play-by-play broadcast. When he awakened the next morning, he neither had no idea who won nor what he missed.

In the third overtime, each team almost broke the tie. First, Amerks defenseman Joe Jerwa hit the post behind Kerr, but the puck caromed harmlessly to the side boards.

Then, Rangers sharpshooter Cecil Dillon broke free but Robertson "took it off his pads," according to one newspaper report.

"The two teams came tearing out for the fourth extra session and took up where they stopped in the third," Jacobs said. "It was slam-bang hockey, and at the 40-second mark Lorne Carr smashed through."

"I intercepted the puck from Lynn Patrick," said Carr in "The Game I'll Never Forget: 100 Hockey Stars' Stories," written by Chris McDonell, "and my first instinct was to shoot, and my shot beat Kerr, giving us the win and the series but we were too exhausted to celebrate the victory."

Apart from the joyous Carr, Dutton appeared to be the happiest guy in the Garden. He later confessed, "That was the greatest thrill I ever got in hockey. The Rangers had a high-priced team then and beating them was like winning the Stanley Cup to us."

Upon awakening, Olan still didn't know who won. His heart throbbing, he rushed to his local newsstand.

"I was a nervous wreck as I picked up the Daily News," he remembered. "I feared the worst as I slowly -- very, very slowly -- reached the sports section."

Then, a pause: "I finally turned the page until I saw the headline: "AMERKS BEAT...and I nearly cried."

A good 20 years later, when Olan as hockey editor recounted the story to me in his Associated Press office, he darn near wept for joy once again!