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Home > Hockey > Hockey Hall of Famers > Alex Connell
Alex Connell
NHL, the National Hockey League is a premier professional North American Sports League played in indoor stadiums. It’s divided into two conferences, each comprising of three divisions of ice hockey teams.
Alex Connell was born 8 February 1902, in Ottawa, Ontario and died 10 May 1958. Like most young men of his day Alex was known as the Ottawa Fireman Connell excelled at many sports. He was a catcher in the Interprovincial League, played lacrosse for the Eastern Canadian champion Ottawa team in the 1920's, and played football with Saint Brigid's of the Ottawa City League.
Amazingly, this future Hockey Hall of Famer entered hockey almost by accident. Connell proved to be a quick study and joined the Kingston Frontenac Juniors of the Ontario Hockey Association in 1917 before moving to the Ottawa City League in 1919. He played along with Ottawa Saint Brigid's in 1920 to 21. Connell turned professional with the Ottawa Senators for 1924 to 25 and backstopped Ottawa to the Stanley Cup in 1926 to 27. The following season saw him established the National Hockey League record for longest shutout sequence of 461:29 by recording six consecutive shutouts, from January 31 to February 18, 1928. His record stands to this day and may never be broken.
Connell followed up by returning to the game full-time and won his second Stanley Cup as a member of the Montreal Maroons in 1935. Maroons manager and coach, Tommy Gorman, called Connell's performance in the 1935 playoffs the greatest goalkeeping performance in the history of hockey.
The Maroons, who were underdogs in the best-of-five series, won in three straight games. Connell again announced his retirement and did not play in the 1935 to 36 season but returned to active duty with the English Montrealers for 27 games the following year before retiring for good. Alex Connell passed away just two weeks after his election to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1958.
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