Red Berenson, called up from the Quebec Aces of the American Hockey League just 20 hours earlier, scored the winning goal and added two assists to lead the Montreal Canadiens to a 6-4 win over the New York Rangers last night. In the other two National Hockey League games, Chicago handed Toronto their second successive loss with a 5-3 beating of the Maple Leafs and Detroit handled Boston 5-2.
Habs trailed by two
After a scoreless first period, Montreal trailed early in the second frame as the Rangers jumped out to a 2-0 lead on goals by Jean Ratelle and John Brenneman. Those two New York markers awakened a Montreal team that seemed moribund at best through a lacklustre first. Berenson, Canadiens’ only industrious forward up to that point in the game, set up Bobby Rousseau to get Montreal on the board before Dick Duff pulled Montreal even late in the period.
The third stanza was just as wild as the second. Montreal grabbed a 3-2 lead on Ralph Backstrom’s 21st of the season, again on a setup from Berenson, just before the eight-minute mark. The Rangers refused to lie down, with Ratelle scoring his second of the game 34 seconds later to knot the score once again.
Jean Beliveau put the visitors up 4-3 about four minutes later with his 350th career goal. Two minutes after that, Berenson scored what would prove to be the winner, giving the Habs a lead which they would not relinquish.
Berenson’s goal came on a feed from Backstrom. The likeable redhead outraced two Rangers before cutting around Blueshirt defenceman Jim Nielson.
Berenson described his goal:
“He had hold on me but not enough to keep me from shooting. The goalie moved a bit for a shot to the far side and the puck went through his legs from my backhand. I was glad to get that goal because I missed a couple earlier in the game.”
With just over four minutes to play, Bob Nevin drew the New Yorkers to within one, but that would be as close as they would get. J.C. Tremblay added an insurance tally in the final minute with an empty-netter to make the final score 6-4.
Neither goalkeeper, Charlie Hodge of Montreal, nor Marcel Paille of Rangers, was at his best. Both were guilty of giving up some soft goals. Montreal outshot New York 40-26.
Leafs blow two-goal lead
The Toronto Maple Leafs, staggering down the stretch towards the finish line of the 1964-65 NHL season, dropped their second straight game this weekend in their loss at Chicago.
After Pierre Pilote had given the Hawks an early 1-0 lead, the Leafs scored three straight to end the first period up by two goals. Chicago took over the play in the middle frame and were never in danger after that.
Stan Mikita scored the tying and winning goals for the Black Hawks, giving him 28 on the season. Red Hay and Camille Henry also found the ranger for the home side.
Kent Douglas, Frank Mahovlich and Red Kelly replied for the Leafs. Mahovlich played centre in this game, with Kelly lining up on the left side of that line.
The best example of how listless the Leafs’ performance was can be found in Hay’s goal, a power play marker. Defenceman Douglas broke his stick while play was in the Toronto zone and was unable to get to the bench for a replacement twig. Normally in such circumstances, a forward will give the defenceman his cue, and get to the bench for a new one. No one bothered to help Douglas out on this occasion.
Making a bad situation even worse, referee Art Skov called a delayed penalty on Toronto, prompting goalie Glenn Hall of the Hawks to race to the bench to be replaced by a sixth attacker. The strain of six skaters against four, and one of them with no stick was just too much. Hay found himself with the disk in front of the Leaf net with both Douglas and goalie Terry Sawchuk prone on the ice. He had all the time he needed to lift the puck over them into the cage for an easy one.
Howe hurt in Wing win
Paul Henderson, who had not scored in his previous 21 games, fired a pair of goals to lead the Detroit Red Wings to their win over the Bruins in Boston. However, the victory may have been a costly one for Detroit, as Gordie Howe left the game in the second period with a right leg injury and did not return.
Other Red Wing scorers were Doug Barkley, Alex Delvecchio and Ronnie Murphy. Murphy appeared to have scored a second goal when his quick shot apparently went through the netting. The Wings protested vehemently, and referee Vern Buffey inspected the Boston goal’s stringwork. Buffey found a hole in the net, but the protest was to no avail and the apparent goal was not counted. Arena staff repaired the netting as a livid Red Wing coach Sid Abel continue to berate Buffey over the lost tally. The Wings were nursing a 2-1 lead at the time.
Ab McDonald and Eddie Westfall replied for the Bruins. McDonald’s goal was his third in as many games.
Detroit defenceman Al Langlois, playing his best hockey of the season lately, assisted on Barkley’s and Henderson’s first-period goals.
The Red Wings outshot the Bruins 34-25.
Russia downs Canada, wins world title again
The undefeated Russian team once again are world champions. They cemented their crown with a convincing 4-1 win over Canada yesterday in Tampere Finland. The loss relegated Canada to fourth place.
The Russians, who went 7-0 in this tournament, have lost only one game in the past three years in world championship play. Russia had clinched the title on Saturday when they downed Czechoslovakia 3-1.
The loss for Canada marked the first time that a Canadian team has lost three games in a world or Olympic championship tourney. While Canadian teams finished 4th at the 1963 worlds, and the 1964 Olympics, they did so with better records.
Losing by a 4-1 margin to the Russians actually represented a bit of a rebound game for the Canadians, who had been drubbed 8-0 by the Czechs in their previous match. Goalie Don Collins played well for Canada in a losing cause. However, it must be noted that with the title well in hand already, the Russians were not interested in engaging in any activity that might put any of their stars at risk and basically cruised through this one.
Gary Dineen was the lone Canadian goal-getter in this game. The Russians outshot the Canadians 33-31 and played just well enough to record the victory.
World All-stars
Czech goalie Vladimir Dzurilla was named the tournament’s top goaltender. Dzurilla allowed only six goals in 10 periods in the tourney and pitched one shutout. Judged best forward was Vyacheslav Starshinov of the Soviet Union, while best defenceman was Czech Frantisek Tikal.
The All-star team consists of Dzurilla in goal, Tikal and Alexandr Ragulin of Russia on defence, with forwards Konstantin Loktev and Alexandr Almetov of Russia, and Jaroslav Jirik of Czechoslovakia. Top forward Starshinov was curiously not named to the squad.
AHL pennant to Rochester
The Rochester Americans clinched their first American Hockey League pennant in nine years last night with a 4-2 win over Pittsburgh Hornets. Dick Gamble scored his 39th and 40th goals of the season to lead the Amerks. Red Armstrong and Stan Smrke had the other Rochester goals. Claude Laforge and Duke Harris replied for Pittsburgh.
In another AHL game last night, the Buffalo Bisons borrowed goalkeeper Dave Dryden from the Galt Hornets of the OHA Senior A league to replace the injured Ed Chadwick. Dryden came up with a fine performance, making 22 saves as Buffalo blanked the Cleveland Barons 3-0. Jack Stanfield, Len Lunde and Pat Hannigan were the Buffalo marksmen.
The other AHL game saw the Baltimore Clippers whip the Hershey Bears 5-1. Ulf Sterner fired two goals to lead the Clippers. Hershey goalie Claude Dufour was injured in the third period and replaced by Andre Gill.
OHA playoffs
Jr. Habs even series
The Montreal Junior Canadiens, led by a hat-trick from Christian Bordeleau, evened their series with the Toronto Marlboros with a 5-3 win at Maple Leaf Gardens yesterday. Each team has now won a game, with one contest being tied.
Other Montreal scorers were Lucien Grenier and Robin Burns. Finding the range for Toronto were Gerry Meehan, Ray Winterstein and Neil Clarke.
Montreal goalie Fern Rivard, held chiefly responsible by coach Scotty Bowman for their last loss, was the Junior Habs’ best player. He was spectacular between the pipes, and denied the Marlies at least three sure third-period goals.
Bowman, who earlier had said he was going to replace Rivard in goal, was happy that he changed his mind.
“I told him this was his last chance, and he heeded the warning, and am I glad I changed my mind!”
Bowman believes his team will win this series.
“The Marlies can be had. We proved we can absorb physical punishment although we’re a much smaller team. They didn’t intimidate us.
“Now the series becomes a best-of-five and we have the extra game on home ice.”
Toronto coach Jim Gregory said his team lacked desire in this one. He wrote the word DESIRE across the game’s stat sheet.
“That’s the whole story of this series – they’ve got it and we haven’t. My guys don’t realize they could be out of this by the weekend. We’ve only played one period of good hockey in three games.”
Peterborough leads St. Catharines 3-1
Peterborough Petes took a 3-1 series lead over the St. Catharines Black Hawks with two weekend wins. They downed the Hawks 3-2 on Saturday, and took Sunday’s game 5-2.
Mickey Redmond, Danny Grant and Andre Lacroix handled the Petes’ scoring on Saturday. Sharpshooter Kenny Hodge had both Black Hawk goals.
Grant fired a pair for the Petes on Sunday. Lacroix, Jim Paterson and Leo Thiffault notched singletons. Brian MacDonald and Gary MacMillan replied for St. Catharines.
