Hockey heroes starred in two world wars

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World War I and World War II produced heroes galore. More than one of them had connections to hockey.
One of the most memorable was future Hockey Hall of Famer Red Dutton. After surviving World War I, Dutton went on to become a star defenseman with the New York Americans, and later their coach and general manager. He was named NHL president during World War II following the death of Frank Calder.
Dutton played in the NHL after he survived a close call in April 1917. While fighting in France with the Canadian armed forces, Dutton was with a seven-man platoon when a German shell exploded, killing all six of his mates. His right leg was badly injured. "My leg almost was blown off and the medics wanted to amputate," he said, "but I talked them out of it. In time, they cured my injury and I eventually made it to the NHL."

Another hero was longtime Toronto Maple Leafs owner Conn Smythe. After serving in World War I, Smythe, then nearly 45, founded and led an artillery battery comprised of journalists and other sportsmen in 1941. Smythe was badly injured in the summer of 1944 when the Germans bombed an ammunition depot, but he survived and returned home in time to see his Maple Leafs to win the Stanley Cup in 1945. However, the injuries forced him to walk with a limp for the rest of his life.
The right wing on Smythe's 1946-47 Cup winners, Howie Meeker, survived a grenade blast that almost killed him. Not only did Meeker galvanize the Maple Leafs to an upset victory against the heavily favored Montreal Canadiens in the 1947 Final, he did it after winning the Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year.

But when it came to heroism beyond the call of duty, few could match a player who was less known than almost all others -- but no less courageous.
Harry "Hard Rock" Torgerson starred on defense for the New York Stock Exchange Brokers, who played in Metropolitan League games at Madison Square Garden. Torgerson enlisted in the Marines shortly after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and soon became one of the greatest U.S. heroes in the Battle of Guadalcanal, one of the war's major turning points.
Torgerson's actions were pivotal in the victory.
After several significant defeats in 1942, Americans longed for a morale-building triumph in the Pacific. To achieve it, U.S. Marines first had to invade Gavutu and breach its defenses, which were honeycombed with caves and tunnels harboring enemy gunners.
According to author and war correspondent Richard Tregaskis, an eyewitness, "The outstanding hero was Captain Torgerson." In his book "Guadalcanal Diary," Tregaskis detailed how Torgerson blasted at least 50 enemy caves with homemade dynamite bombs. "His method was to tie 30 sticks of dynamite together, run to the cave mouth while four of his men covered it with rifles and submachine guns, light the fuse, shove the TNT in amongst the Japanese and run like hell," Tregaskis wrote.
Torgerson used 20 cases of dynamite while dodging enemy bullets as best he could. "A grazing bullet struck his rear end," Tregaskis reported, "but that didn't stop his pyrotechnic campaign."
Torgerson's commanding officer, Capt. George R. Stallings, gasped in awe when Torgerson attached a five-gallon can of gasoline to one of his homemade bombs.
"I wanted to make it better," he said, though his invention nearly backfired.
"That bomb went off with a great roar, knocked Torgerson down and blasted away most of his pants -- as well as blowing in the roof of a Japanese dugout," Tregaskis wrote.
But the battle was far from over, as were Torgerson's heroics. In September, the Japanese launched a major attack that raged along what became known as Bloody Ridge. If the Japanese forces succeeded, they would overrun the American-held airbase, Henderson Field, and push the Marines into the sea. It was at this point Torgerson won a Silver Star for gallantry in action and a Purple Heart.
According to Michael S. Smith, author of "Bloody Ridge: The Battle That Saved Guadalcanal," the Japanese aimed to penetrate the Marines' left flank, which had been left unguarded. Torgerson rushed to the gap and repulsed a bayonet charge with heavy losses for the enemy. The Japanese tried again two hours later, but with Torgerson's help they were beaten back with, as he put it, "the liberal use of grenades." The Marines finally took Guadalcanal, turning the tide of the war in the South Pacific in the Allies' favor.
Torgerson returned to New York after the war ended in 1945 and resumed his hockey career. His former team, the Stock Brokers, had been transformed into the Brooklyn Arma Torpedoes because the Arma factory in Brooklyn produced torpedoes for the U.S. Navy during the war and sponsored the team that continued playing after it ended.
I remember watching Torgerson manning the Torpedoes defense at Madison Square Garden in the mid-1940s. Nor was he the only hero on the club's roster.
"Our lineup," Torgerson said, "was loaded with former GIs."
That I remember, but none could boast that he twice helped turn the tide in the Pacific like "Hard Rock Harry."