North Bay - Ontario: The Canadian Army (CA) has been part of many well-known historical milestones, but you are likely not aware of its role as a catalyst in the creation of the National Hockey League (NHL). A CA Reservist and a Royal Canadian Air Force officer have teamed up to spread this remarkable story and mark the 100th anniversary of the Army-generated hockey team that had a brief but memorable (for reasons good and not) run in the National Hockey Association (NHA), a precursor to today's NHL.

The story begins in 1916. Conscription had yet to be instituted and Canadian military officials had begun an intensive recruitment effort to mitigate the already high human cost of the First World War, as demonstrated at Ypres, Belgium in the spring of 1915. This was our young nation's first major engagement of the war and fully one-third of the Canadians who fought there were either killed, wounded or missing in the aftermath. The town of North Bay, Ontario had already contributed the 97th Regiment (today's Algonquin Regiment) to the war effort. Three additional units the 159th, 228th, and 256th Battalions – were subsequently raised from the Northeast Ontario region, and the 228th would be given a unique mission: put together a hockey team to play in the NHA and serve as a marketing tool to drive recruitment. Army officials began to recruit a slate of players both amateur and professional, including George McNamara, a Hockey Hall of Fame member who had played in the 1914 Stanley Cup final with the NHA Toronto Blueshirts. These ringers had technically enlisted but were assured they would not be expected to join the fight in Europe.

Also part of the NHA were the Montreal Canadiens, the Montreal Wanderers, the Ottawa Senators, and the Quebec Bulldogs.

The 228th (Northern Fusiliers), clad in their khaki jerseys, took to the ice at the start of the NHA's 1916-17 season and made a strong impression immediately, scoring 40 goals and allowing just 20 goals against them in their first 10 games. By the time the country rang in 1917, the 228th was in first place.

Chief Warrant Officer Kent Griffiths first heard the story three years ago when he became Regimental Sergeant Major of the Algonquin Regiment.

The commanding officer was telling me stories about the regiment and one of them was that we had an NHL hockey team at one point, he recalled. And I thought, I doubt that, because I would've heard of it. And he said, Maybe it wasn't the NHL. Maybe it was the predecessor to the NHL. So I did a little research and sure enough he was absolutely right. And that was the story of the 228th Battalion.

CWO Griffiths did not undertake any further research until earlier this year, when he was contacted by Captain Doug Newman, Heritage Officer for the Royal Canadian Air Force's 22 Wing, also based in North Bay. Capt Newman proposed they delve further into the story and mark the team's centenary by sharing the story more widely.

Capt Newman discovered the 228th story in the process of researching soldiers from the North Bay area who had been killed in the World Wars.

I looked here, there, and everywhere for information about the team but even the Algonquin Regiment had next to nothing, he said. So I basically made it my little mission to go out and find information about this.

CWO Griffiths said records from the time suggest that, while fans were excited by the prospect of this new team, it does not seem to have been particularly successful in attracting new recruits.

I think fans were really excited, he said. A lot of it had to do with the characters they had recruited. They had people like Dennis McNamara of the Toronto Blueshirts, who was already famous for getting into a fist fight with a referee. I have no actual statistics, but when you compare it to the other overseas battalions it wasn't really that powerful a recruiting tool.

Not long after taking the ice, the 228th's remarkable performance would be overshadowed by both the war and controversy at home.