Curt Brackenbury: NHL Enforcer Honed His Craft In The NAHL

Tough guy Curt Brackenbury played most of his second year of pro hockey in the North American Hockey League with the John Brophy coached Long Island Cougars. It served as a bit of transformation in his game after providing more of an offensive role in 1972-73 with the Jersey Devils of the EHL. His penalty minutes ballooned from just 66 with the Devils in 1972-73 to the fifth highest in the NAHL in 1973-74.

Curt Brackenbury – NAHL

Brackenbury played in the NAHL for just the 1973-74 season, the first in the league’s four year history. With the Long Island Cougars, Curt played 45 regular season games, scoring eight goals and assisting on 20 for 28 points while sitting 194 minutes in the penalty box. His 194 PIM placed him fifth in the NAHL, 91 behind fourth place Bill Goldthorpe of the Syracuse Blazers and a whopping 177 behind the league leader, Nick Fotiu of the Cape Cod Cubs.

Over 17 Lockhart Cup playoff games, Brackenbury added five goals and an assist while spending nine minutes short of an hour in the sin bin. The Cougars reached the Lockhart Cup finals before being swept by Goldthorpe and the Syracuse Blazers.

The 1973-74 season was not exclusive to the NAHL for Curt. He played in 13 games with the Des Moines Capitols in the IHL, along with four games for the Chicago Cougars in the World Hockey Association.

Curt Brackenbury – Pro Hockey

Brackenbury played pro hockey from 1972-73 to 1982-83 in the EHL, IHL, NAHL, WHA, SHL, NHL and CHL. As mentioned, his pro career started with a different role than what the rest of his career would quickly evolve into. With the Jersey Devils, he scored 17 goals and assisted on 27 for 44 points over 68 games. He sat just 66 minutes in the box.

After his year with the Long Island Cougars, Curt followed John Brophy to the SHL and the Hampton Gulls for the 1974-75 season. Soon after, he was a regular in the WHA. Between 1973-74 and 1978-79, Brackenbury played 265 regular season games in the World Hockey Association with the Cougars, Minnesota Fighting Saints and Quebec Nordiques. He scored 41 and totalled 91 points while accumulating 753 PIM.

In the Avco World Trophy playoffs, Curt played an impressive 48 games, adding 14 points and 161 PIM. In 1976-77, he helped the Quebec Nordiques to the finals against the Winnipeg Jets. Quebec won the championship with the series going the full seven games.

In 1975-76, Curt’s year was split between the financially crippled Minnesota Fighting Saints and the Nordiques. His combined 365 PIM over 74 regular season games led the WHA.

When the WHA ceased after the 1978-79 season, Brackenbury played his first games in the National Hockey League with Quebec. Between 1979-80 and 1982-83, Curt played in 141 NHL regular season games with the Nordiques, Edmonton Oilers and St. Louis Blues. He appeared in just two Stanley Cup playoff games, both with the Oilers.

In Curt’s final year of pro hockey, he appeared in just six games with the Blues. Brackenbury finished up the 1982-83 season in the Central Hockey League with the Salt Lake Golden Eagles, playing in 44 games.

Long Island Cougars

Long Island Cougars

The Long Island Cougars played in the North American Hockey League for the first two seasons of the league’s existence, 1973-74 and 1974-75. The team was affiliated with the Chicago Cougars of the World Hockey Association.

The Long Island hockey franchise originated as the Long Island Ducks in the Eastern Hockey League in 1959-60. With the demise of the EHL after 1972-73, the Ducks carried on in the NAHL. The team played out of the Long Island Arena in Commack, New York. The arena sat 4,000 and was only home the Ducks / Cougars franchise ever knew. Long Island Arena was closed in 1996.

1973-74

The Cougars were coached in their first year by EHL legend and future NHL coach John Brophy. Long Island placed third in the seven team NAHL during the regular season with 73 points over 74 games. The Cougars finished 39 points behind the first place Syracuse Blazers.

In the Lockhart Cup playoffs, Long Island went 4-3 in the opening round, which was played in a round robin format. This set up a semi-final matchup with the Cape Cod Cubs. The Cougars beat the Cubs four games to two to earn a berth in the final series against Syracuse. The Blazers easily handled Brophy’s troops in a four game sweep. Syracuse outscored Long Island 27-5 in the series.

During the regular season, the Cougars were led offensively by Lorne Rombough. Lorne played 68 games, scoring 50 goals and assisting on 42 for 92 points. He was one of just four players with 50 or more goals in the NAHL that season. His 92 points placed him tenth in the league’s scoring race.

1974-75

The Cougars weakened in their second year in the NAHL. Long Island finished seventh in the eight team league with 63 points in 74 games. John Brophy was gone as head coach and in his place was Ron Racette. Racette was an outstanding junior coach in the QMJHL during the 1970’s, taking both the Cornwall Royals and Quebec Remparts to the President’s Cup finals.

Despite their low ranking going into the post-season, Long Island came up big in the quarter-finals with a three to one upset of the Philadelphia Firebirds. In the semi-finals, the Cougars came close to another upset when their series with the Binghamton Dusters went the full seven games. Binghamton came out on top, winning four games. However, the Dusters outscored Long Island by a close margin, 24-22. Two of the games needed overtime to decide a winner.

Offensively, the Cougars were led by Dave Walter. Playing in just 62 games, Walter scored 38 goals and assisted on 42 for 80 points. NAHL superstar Joe Hardy played four games with the club while spending most of his season in the WHA with the Chicago Cougars, Indianapolis Racers and San Diego Mariners. The following year, with the Beauce Jaros, Hardy would set NAHL records with 148 assists and 208 points. He became the first professional hockey player to surpass 200 points in a season.

Larry Mavety: NAHL Bridges the Gap Between Pro Player and OHL Head Coach

Larry Mavety played in the North American Hockey League for parts of three seasons from 1974-75 to 1976-77. The high scoring defenseman got around the league, playing for three different clubs over his three years, intermingled with play in the World Hockey Association.

NAHL

Mavety played just four games in the NAHL during the 1974-75 season with the Long Island Cougars. He spent the bulk of his time with Chicago Cougars in the WHA. In 1975-76, he split his NAHL season between the Erie Blades and Binghamton Dusters. In his, and the league’s, final year, Larry played entirely for the Dusters. In 59 games on the blue line, he scored 16 goals and assisted on 51 for 67 points.

Pro Hockey

Larry Mavety played pro hockey from 1963-64 to 1976-77 in the IHL, WHL, WHA and NAHL. In his rookie year, 1963-64, with the Toledo Blades, he helped win the IHL championship. The Blades finished first out of the league’s seven teams during the regular season. In the post season, Toledo met the Fort Wayne Komets in the finals. Although the Komets outscored the Blades 26-24, Toledo won the series in six games.

Two years later, Mavety won another IHL championship, this time with the Port Huron Flags. During the regular season, Port Huron finished down in third place in the six team league. The Flags met the Dayton Gems in the finals and won four games to one.

Larry’s pinnacle season in the IHL came in 1966-67 when he was awarded the Governor’s Trophy on a less than stellar Port Huron Flags team. The Governor’s Trophy was handed out to the IHL’s top defenseman. Later is was renamed the Larry D. Gordon Trophy. Mavety finished the season with 25 goals and 48 assists for 73 points in 71 games. The Flags did not qualify for the post season, finishing fifth in the seven team league.

Although he never played in the National Hockey League, Mavety played 248 regular season games of major league hockey in the World Hockey Association between 1972-73 and 1976-77.  He did a bit of moving around, playing for the Los Angeles Sharks, Philadelphia Blazers, Chicago Cougars, Toronto Toros, Ottawa Civics and Indianapolis Racers. He played 18 playoff games in 1973-74 as the Chicago Cougars reached the Avco Cup finals before being swept by the Houston Aeros.

OHL Coach and Executive

In 1979-80, the OMJHL (now the Ontario Hockey League) expanded to include the Belleville Bulls. Larry Mavety was the franchise’s first head coach. He stood behind the bench in Belleville from 1979-80 to 1996-97, with exception of 1988-89 and 1989-90 when he moved down the road to Kingston. The Bulls achieved playoff success in 1985-86, reaching the Robertson Cup finals before bowing out to the Guelph Platers.

In 1997-98, Larry again made his move to Kingston, this time for good. He was head coach of the Kingston Frontenacs from 1997-98 to 2002-03 before moving to the head office. In 2007-08 and 2008-09, he returned to the bench on an interim basis. Mavety is currently a special advisor to the club.

 

Joe Hardy: First Pro 200 Point Season

Jocelyn ‘Joe’ Hardy was one of the greatest to play in the NAHL. Wayne Gretzky is widely known as the first NHL player to achieve the 200 point plateau in a single season. A little known bit of hockey trivia is that Joe Hardy was the first professional player to reach 200 points and beyond in one regular season.

With the Beauce Jaros in 1975-76, Handy scored 60 goals and assisted on 148 for an incredible 208 points in just 72 games. Of course, the 148 assists and 208 points will always remain as NAHL records. Making this even more incredible is the fact that Joe also acted as the team’s head coach for the 1975-76 season. He led the Jaros to a first overall finish in the ten team league. Beauce reached the Lockhart Cup finals before losing to the Philadelphia Firebirds in six games.

Hardy played parts of three seasons in the NAHL from 1974-75 to 1976-77, appearing with the Long Island Cougars, Beauce Jaros and Binghamton Dusters. His pro career lasted from 1966-67 to 1977-78 with stops in six different leagues, including the NHL and WHA.

As the NAHL and the WHA went hand in hand, it’s not surprising that Hardy played 210 games in the Rebel League between 1972-73 and 1974-75. He was a regular with the Cleveland Crusaders in 1972-73, the World Hockey Association’s inaugural season. The following season, he saw 77 games with the Chicago Cougars. He split the 1974-75 season between the Cougars, Indianapolis Racers and San Diego Mariners.

Joe had stints in the National Hockey League in 1969-70 and 1970-71, playing a total of 63 games. In 1969-70, he played 23 games for the Oakland Seals, with an additional four games in the Stanley Cup playoffs. He also appeared in 46 games with the Providence Reds that year. The following year, he played 40 games with the same NHL franchise, although they were now known as the California Golden Seals.

In his final professional hockey season, 1977-78, Hardy played for the Binghamton Dusters, a franchise that made the move to the AHL with the demise of the NAHL. He finished first in the league with 63 assists and seventh in the league with 87 points. Joe returned the following season as head coach of the Dusters for one season.

His coaching career was resurrected in 1987-88 in the QMJHL. He coached the Shawinigan Cataractes for four years and the Beauport Harfangs for one.

 

Season	Team	Lge	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
1966-67	New Haven Blades	EHL	72	28	51	79	77
1969-70	Providence Reds	AHL	46	11	27	38	44
1969-70	Oakland Seals	NHL	23	5	4	9	20
1969-70	Seattle Totems	WHL	--	--	--	--	--
1970-71	California Golden Seals	NHL	40	4	10	14	31
1971-72	Nova Scotia Voyageurs	AHL	65	18	42	60	105
1972-73	Cleveland Crusaders	WHA	72	17	33	50	80
1973-74	Chicago Cougars	WHA	77	24	35	59	55
1974-75	Long Island Cougars	NAHL	4	1	2	3	2
1974-75	Chicago Cougars	WHA	17	1	6	7	8
1974-75	Indianapolis Racers	WHA	32	2	17	19	36
1974-75	San Diego Mariners	WHA	12	2	3	5	22
1975-76	Beauce Jaros	NAHL	72	60	148	208	98
1976-77	Beauce Jaros	NAHL	22	7	36	43	30
1976-77	Broome County Dusters	NAHL	28	22	28	50	19
1977-78	Binghamton Dusters	AHL	73	24	63	87	56
	NHL Totals		63	9	14	23	51
	WHA Totals		210	46	94	140	201