The best-of-three 1927 Memorial Cup final series would be played in Toronto, at Arena Gardens. It would be the first one to feature two Ontario teams.

Poor ice conditions in their home arena had forced the Port Arthur West Ends — their fans preferred Westies — to travel to Winnipeg to meet the Regina Pats in the Abbott Cup’s two-game, total-goal final.

Regina won the opener, 2-1, but the West Ends took Game 2, 4-1, for a 5-3 aggregate victory.

Meanwhile, the Owen Sound Greys beat the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association, 5-1, in a sudden-death game played March 17 in Toronto.

The Memorial Cup final opened on March 25 at Arena Gardens in Toronto, with the Greys winning, 5-4, in what was described as a “thrilling, nerve-wracking game. . . . The losers gave a rare display of courageous playing by coming from behind on three occasions to tie the score and by battling the Greys to a standstill in the closing minutes of the game, when they fought desperately to again even matters up.”

Owen Sound’s Harold (Shrimp) McDougall scored the only goal of the first period.

Port Arthur tied it early in the first period on Cliff Barton’s goal, only to have Hillis (Paddy) Paddon give the Greys the lead a few minutes later. However, Jack McKay’s goal pulled the Westies into a tie before the period ended.

Martin Lauder scored twice in the opening minutes of the third period to give Owen Sound a two-goal edge. But Port Arthur roared back and tied it on goals by ‘Red’ Cross and Edward Monohan, before Lauder won it with 4:30 to play.

The series ended on March 28 with Owen Sound posting a 5-3 victory after 10 minutes of overtime before about 8,000 fans. The Greys outscored the Westies 3-1 in the extra session. The teams were tied 1-1 after one period, Owen Sound led 2-1 after two, and it was 2-2 after three.

McDougall struck for four goals for the Greys, including two in overtime. Paddon had Owen Sound’s other goal, the first score of overtime. Friday, Gross and Barton replied for Port Arthur.

McDougall was credited with the Memorial Cup-winning goal at 4:45 of the overtime period. It came off the rebound of a shot by Lauder.

The referee in both games was Lou Marsh, a legendary sports writer after whom Canada’s male athlete-of-the-year award is named.

1927 Owen Sound Greys:

Johnny “Red” Beattie, Benny Grant, John Grant, Martin Lauder, Jack Markle, Harold “Shrimp” McDougall, Alvin Moore, Hillis “Paddy” Paddon, H. Smith, A. Bennett (manager), Father J. Spratt and Bill Hancock (coach).

NHL: Beattie had the longest NHL tenure among the 1927 Greys playing parts of nine seasons mostly with the Boston Bruins.