Great footage !
This was the second time a Swedish national team played against a Canadian team.
A whole bunch of Canadians had played in Sweden before, but had mostly played for various
English teams, like Oxford for example.
In 1927, a really good Victoria Hockey Club (from Montreal) visited Sweden and made a huge impression.
They had ex-NHL-er Dave Campbell and future NHL'ers Earl Robertson and Joe Lamb on their roster.
That was the only time before Saskatoon came to Sweden that a Canadian team had played there.
United States had an All-Star team from Boston visiting two years in a row in 1931 and 1932.
Also worth noting is that the guy who scored the only goal in this game was Jim Dewey and not Bert Scharfe as the Canadian (and Swedish) newspapers wrote. Some other foreign newspapers got it right though (i.e. Prager Tagblatt). Dewey and Rogers (who assisted on the goal) were originally not supposed to play on the same line, so maybe reporters got confused.
At the time of the goal, # 5 Bert Scharfe, # 9 Jim Dewey and # 12 Ab Rogers formed a line.
Four days later Saskatoon won 5-2 against Sweden. It was Saskatoon's fourth game in five days on their Swedish tour, winning them all.
From my files on this game:
14.01.34 Stockholm (Östermalms IP) (Friendly Game) 3x15 min
Sweden – Saskatoon Quakers 0:1 (0:1, 0:0, 0:0)
Attendance: 5000 (Sold out)
Referee: Henning Stenberg (Sweden)
0-1 Jim Dewey (Ab Rogers)
Sweden: (Announced before the game)
Goalie: # 1 Curt „Suggan“ Sucksdorff (IK Göta) (Herman Carlson (AIK)
Defencemen: # 4 Carl „Calle Aber“ Abrahamsson (Södertälje SK) – # 3 Erik „Tattarn“ Lindgren (Djurgårdens IF)
Line 1: # 7 Erik „Jerka“ Burman (IK Göta) – # 6 Gustaf „Lulle“ Johansson (IK Göta) – # 5 Torsten Jöhncke (IK Göta)
Line 2: # 10 Lennart „Joe“ Hellman (Hammarby IF) - # 9 Wilhelm „Mulle“ Petersén (AIK) - # 8 Tycho Bohman (AIK)
Saskatoon: (Announced before the game)
Goalie: # 1 Cosford „Cooney“ Wood
Defencemen: # 8 Pete Dewar - # 3 Harold „Hobb“ Wilson
Line 1: # 7 Les Bird – # 9 James „Jim“ Dewey - # 2 Albert „Ab“ Walsh
Line 2: # 12 Albert „Ab“ Rogers - # 4 Raymond „Ray“ Watkins - # 5 Bert Scharfe
Substitutes: # 6 Ronald „Quick“ Silver, # 11 Elmer Piper, # 10 Clifford „Cliff“ Lake
Summary
5000 had gathered at Östermalms IP to see the Canadian visitors, including Prince Gustav Adolf (the father of the current King). It was a difficult game for both teams, as the condition of the ice was really poor. The fearless goalie Cooney Wood became somewhat of a crowd favorite. The season before (1932/33), he managed to keep a clean sheet for 418 straight minutes.
The puck got stuck in the slushy ice all the time. The players tried to do the best of the situation, but the newspapers described it as a "parody of hockey" as the puck glided poorly on the ice.
Among the Swedish players it was Joe Hellman that became the darling of the crowd with his excellent skating, despite the not so ideal ice conditions. Calle Abrahamsson, Erik Lindgren and Jim Dewey were the other players that stood out in the game. Abrahamsson seemed to thrive on the "wet ice". As usual, he body-checked anyone in sight, sending a lot of the Canadians into a horizontal position.
The only goal of the game came a few minutes into the first period when Ab Rogers sent a backhand pass from his right flank to the center, where Jim Dewey picked it up and forced the puck into the net.
The referee Henning Stenberg did not have to penalize any of of the players, as both teams played within the rules at all times.
The Swedish goalie Curt Sucksdorff commented after the game: “ The goal was scored from an offside position *, even the Canadians agree on that. Had the ice been in better condition than we would have lost by a wider margin, maybe even by double digits. From the small sample that we saw, we could see that these Canadians are better than the ones that have previously been in Sweden. It's going to be fun to see them at Ispalatset."
* It was no offside on the play
