On the night of Monday, December 28th, the Amesbury Maples hockey organization opened its seventh season with a first-game battle against the visiting Hampton Town Hockey Team. The 1931-32 season opener was held at the Lemoine Memorial Rink behind the original St. Jeans Baptiste Club on Friend Street, with the Maples skating around Hampton for the 12-1 victory. Maples forwards Archie Clouteir and Chewy Williams provided the Amesbury offense, scoring six goals each.
This was a great start to the year, as the Amesbury Maples were coming off an 18-2-1 record in the 1930-31 winter season, ending as Essex County Champions with first-year Manager William Trottier and Head Coach Wilbrod Picard. That year, the Maples organization first appeared in the New England Amateur Athletic Union (NEAAU) tournament held in the spring of 1931 at the Providence, Rhode Island Auditorium. That spring, the Maple team lost to the West Point AC team out of Nashua, New Hampshire, in the semi-finals.
After beating Hampton on this day over 92 years ago, the Maples would finish another solid season with a record of 17-4-1. Amesbury won another Essex County Championship, good enough for another invite to the NEAAU spring tournament back in Providence, Rhode Island, in the spring of 1932. With the management of Trottier and the line orchestrating effort of coach Picard, this Maples team was building a dynasty in the 1930s, the most successful decade in the organization’s history.
It’s no myth that the Amesbury, Massachusetts, area produced some of the best hockey players in New England. With the successful High School programs and adult Maples hockey teams, many players thrived here to have amazing hockey careers living and working in our community.
One of the stronger positions when it comes to developing and building a winning team came from the last line of defense, and that was goaltending. Whether it was past netminders such as John Reddy, Earl Ryan, Wilfred Stuart, Arthur Gaudet, Raymond Roy, or Dick Dupere, everything in the crease started with the tremendous playing style of Raoul “Chiefie” Lemoine.
( Photo Credit: 1926 Amesbury High School Yearbook / Amesbury Town Library )
Raoul was born in Amesbury in 1908 and was a multi-sport athlete in his adolescence. Lemoine played baseball, football, and ice hockey in his high school career, excelling at all three sports activities. Raoul started his Amesbury High School playing days as a sophomore and played defense and forward.
During Lemoine’s senior year at AHS, the athletic council added ice hockey as a major sport and played their home games at Patten’s Pond on the mobile rink located near Main Street. The Amesbury team went 4-2-1 in their first official season as a recognized high school sport. Below are the results from the Amesbury High School hockey team’s 1925-26 regular season.
Amesbury 0 – Swampscott 4
Amesbury 0 – Essex Aggies 1
Amesbury 2 – Manning 1
Amesbury 9 – Portsmouth 0
Amesbury 1 – Manning 0
Amesbury 1 – Portsmouth 1
Amesbury 3 – Portsmouth 0
( Photo Credit: 1926 Amesbury High School Yearbook )
Former Amesbury Maples hockey player Albert “Albie” Roy was the driving force in making the Amesbury High School hockey program an actual thing in the late 1920s. Roy believed developing the next best Maples players should come from younger men learning the game in the local school system. In 1940 Albie Roy was awarded a medal from the Northeast Amateur Athletic Union for promoting the game of hockey among boys of high school age. Roy was one of the pioneers of hockey development in the town of Amesbury back in the day. He would often drive around in his pickup truck, giving rides to the Amesbury Park ponds for a day of teaching the game to kids when the weather and ice were suitable.
Although Lemoine played either defense or forward during his Amesbury High School years, Raoul was determined to make the higher Amesbury Maples team. With the adult Amesbury sexlet already fully staffed with defenseman and forwards, Lemoine saw his opportunity to make the team but with an unusual hockey career-changing decision. Raoul went in goal after the departure of netminder Issie Lassard and used his former high school baseball playing days to not only be strong on his feet but also seemingly fit to react to fast situations with his hands.
( Photo Credit: Amesbury News 1924-25 )
After graduating from Amesbury High in 1926, Lemoine joined the Amesbury Maples full time and would start the organization’s cornerstone of building a winning team from the goal out. In Raoul’s first campaign with the Maples club, the netminder went 2-2-1 in the short regular season as outdoor ice here in our New England location was tough to manage. Below is the 1926-27 regular season schedule in Raoul Lemoine’s Maples rookie season.
Amesbury Maples 0 – Biddle & Smart Company 3
Amesbury Maples 3 – Biddle & Smart Plant Five 2
Amesbury Maples 1 – Biddle & Smart Plant Three 0
Amesbury Maples 0 – Amesbury High School 2
Amesbury Maples 6 – Biddle & Smart Plant Three 2
Although the 1926-27 season wasn’t a winning campaign, Maples Owners and General Managers Armand Hudon and Emilien “Mickey” Jutras believed in the young netminding of Lemoine and decided to stick with him for another year. As a backup in case Raoul didn’t make the Maples team, they could always fall back on the efforts of Albie Roy to man the nets. Roy’s efforts on the ice were better seen as a forward or defenseman, but that “break glass in case of emergency” backup was always available when needed.
In Lemoine’s second season with the Maples (1927-28), he and the rest of his teammates moved on from the mobile rink set up during the winters at Pattens Pond to a little more sustainable ice over in the old “cow fields” at the bottom of Aubin Street on the old ground of the Biddle and Smart Carriage and Sleigh company. The Maples would call the sheet of ice home for three seasons on the Biddle & Smart sheet of ice.
In my research, it’s rumored that the Biddle & Smart company struggled during the Great Depression and cut back on funding for the rink on their property. Another rumor I’ve heard was that the Biddle & Smart Company was so bitter at Hudon and Jutras for scouting their players and signing them from the local manufacturing shops but also because they assembled a team with the talent to beat all their affiliated factory teams.
( Photo Credit: Amesbury News 1925-26 )
After seemingly getting booted from the lower Aubin Street Biddle & Smart location, the Franco American Social Club, the St. Jean Baptiste of Amesbury, came calling with the available property for Maples home games. Maples players, alongside local Amesbury volunteers, constructed a new rink 150 feet by 85 feet. Among the amazing volunteer’s Maples Teammates Eddie Nichols, Albie Roy, Everett Picard, Harold “Fuzzy” Thurston, Aurel Picard, Tom “Ike” Wall, Chewie Williams, John Reddy, and the young upcoming Maples Legend Hercule “Archie” Cloutier were all part in the blood sweat and tears to get a home sheet ready for the forthcoming 1930-31 winter season.
Lemoine, teammates, and Amesbury residents put in a solid effort to get the new home rink of the Amesbury Maples done just in time at the new location to make ice. Behind the original St. Jean’s Club, it was very tight quarters but enough room to play competitive hockey via the standards of that timeframe. The first year of this new outdoor hockey facility would also come at a tragic loss to one of the Amesbury Maples own.
After having a successful 1930-31 regular season, tragedy struck the Maples organization in the middle of the year. In a “pickup” game or practice session on the Friend Street sheet of ice, goaltender Lemoine took a deflected puck to the face. Raoul went to the Amesbury Hospital to seek attention for his injury. While at the Amesbury Hospital, Lemoine got stitches to patch up his one-inch gash near his eye. Raoul would have a life-threatening setback while being in the care of hospital attendees. Lemoine’s injury happened on January 8th, 1931, and he stayed at the Amesbury Hospital facility until his death on January 17th.
After the passing of Raoul, founding members and athletic town officials named the outdoor facility the Lemoine Memorial rink and would be at the Friend Street location up to the 1947-48 winter season. In 1951 Raoul “Chiefie” Lemoine’s name was honored with an award given to the most valuable Amesbury High School hockey player each year.
