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It was a packed house at Dey’s Arena on January 16, 1905. Some 2000 spectators came out to watch the second game of the Stanley Cup finals. The game featured the Dawson City Nuggets who had challenged the reigning Stanley Cup champions, the Ottawa Silver Sevens.

Sponsored by Klondike entrepreneur Joseph Whiteside Boyle, the Nuggets consisted of miners during the dying days of the Yukon Gold Rush. To get to Ottawa, they travelled by dog-sled or bicycle from Dawson City to Whitehorse, a train from Whitehorse to Skagway, Alaska, a steamer ship to Vancouver and finally another train from Vancouver to Ottawa for a total of 6,400 kms. They arrived two days before the first game on January 11, 1905 and, having been exhausted from their journey, asked that it be postponed for a couple more days. However, the Ottawa team refused their request.^[1]

In the first game, the Nuggets lost with a score of 9-2. This second game proved a greater disaster for the team as the Silver Seven’s went on to win with a score of 23-2, to this day still the largest margin for any Stanley Cup game. Ottawa’s star player, Frank “One Eyed” McGee, nephew of Thomas D’Arcy McGee, scored a staggering 14 goals in the game, 8 consecutive goals in less than nine minutes. As the series was best of 3, Ottawa had won the Stanley Cup.^[2]

After the game, Ottawa hosted a banquet for Dawson City at the Ottawa Amateur Athletic Association clubhouse. During the banquet, the players celebrated with many drinks. Later in the night, as one story puts it, the Ottawa players stumbled out into the streets with the cup and some of them got the idea that they could drop-kick it across the Rideau Canal. However, the cup did not make it across but landed on the Canal which was fortunately frozen at the time (after all it was the middle of January). None of the players made any attempt to retrieve the cup and continued to celebrate into the night. The cup remained there until the next morning when one of the players recovered it.^[1]

For a re-enactment game 92 years later in 1997, the Dawson City hockey team travelled the same route on the same modes of transportation (except between Whitehorse and Skagway as the train no longer runs). This time their game was against the Ottawa Senators. They fared slightly better than their 1905 counterparts but still lost 18-0. Oh, and also this time, no one tried to kick the Stanley Cup across the canal.^[1][3]

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