The Detroit Red Wings have won more Stanley Cups than any other team, by a landslide. Their first championship happened before World War 2. Their 1953 win featured many Red Wings greats, like Nicklas Lidstrom and Gordie Howe (who has a literal bridge named after him).
But perhaps the most memorable part of their season was something that few people talk about, a hockey game against an opponent so fearsome that players were afraid to face them. It was a matchup you won’t find in any record books, but one that made for one of the oddest matches in NHL history- the time these legendary Red Wings played at a prison against the Marquette State Prison Pirates.
Michigan History Center
Michigan History CenterRed Wings vs Pirates, 1953
Detroit is known as “Hockey Town”, but about 70 years ago, “Hockey Town” was moved up to Marquette for one of the strangest stories in NHL history. Now, hockey isn’t exactly foreign to the Upper Peninsula (considering the place is frozen and snowy half the year). But the UP had never seen a match like the one where convicted felons faced the best players in the world.
The prison built its own hockey rink to host the team. The Pirates and Red Wings match was, by all accounts, very lopsided. By the end of the first period, the Wings had sent the Pirates to Davy Jones’ locker, with a reported score of 18-0. Considering the game was practically over before it started, the teams started swapping players.
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This uncanny matchup also holds the title of the NHL’s first outdoor game. It was just a scrimmage, but it did still result in the Red Wings being awarded the Doniker trophy, made from a galvanized steel toilet bucket.
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