In the early 1880s a group of Montrealers created the earliest ice hockey teams. They began to hold a yearly tournament, for which the winners received a specially made medal. Those tournaments are now accepted as the pre-Stanley Cup origins of modern ice hockey.
The game for the year 1886, however, is missing from the list of the Montreal tournaments. Not known until very recently, that "missing" game was played in Burlington, Vermont. This game is acknowledged today as the first international ice hockey tournament.
In 1886 a pandemic in Montreal suspended the yearly Winter Carnival. The Burlington Coasting Club was hosting its Winter Carnival, and the Montreal teams were invited to have their tournament on the waterfront. The game was held February 26 at the Central Vermont Railroad Wharf, where the ice was even.
The broach for the medals awarded bears the BCC of the coasting club, and two crossed hockey sticks. Below them is the Square puck that was in use in the early years of the sport. You can see the medal today at the Vermont Historical Society in Montpelier.
Today a bilingual historical marker at the waterfront honors the game loved by Vermonters and Québécois alike.
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