The Chicago Black Hawks moved into sole possession of first place in the National Hockey League standings last night. The Hawks ripped the New York Rangers in one of three NHL games. Montreal edged Detroit 4-3 and Toronto and Boston tied 4-4 in the other contests.
Hull Out a Week
The Hawks had no trouble handling the Rangers, even though superstar Bobby Hull was missing from their lineup. Hull will be out for at least a week with sprained knee ligaments, an injury he sustained Saturday against Montreal.
The Rangers’ injury list grew by two last night as well. Veteran defenseman Harry Howell injured his back while rookie forward Garry Peters re-injured an ankle. Both could be out for the Rangers’ next game Wednesday at home to the Black Hawks.
The win for Chicago puts them alone in first place, one point ahead of Detroit and Montreal, who are tied for second.
Rookie referee Bruce Hood had a rough night, at least as far as the Rangers were concerned. Hood disallowed two Blueshirt goals in the third period, infuriating New York coach and general manager Emile Francis.
The first disputed tally was less than a minute into the period. Vic Hadfield fired a bullet shot that beat Chicago goalie Glenn Hall. The puck appeared to hit the post and bounce back into play. Hood whistled the play dead and pointed to Hadfield, signalling a goal. An enraged Hall charged the rookie ref and pointed to the goal judged, who had not activated the red light. Hall had to be restrained by team mates.
Hood conferred with linesmen Matt Pavlich and Neil Armstrong, both experienced officials. They convinced him to reverse the call, and he disallowed the goal.
Later in the period, Rangers Don Marshall fired a puck from close range at the Chicago goal. This time the goal judge did flash the red light and Rangers felt they had scored. Hood intervened, over ruled the goal judge and for the second time in the period, disallowed the goal.
By now, Francis was nearly apoplectic. He opened the gate by the bench and tossed a towel onto the ice. He then ventured onto the ice surface himself, knelt on the towel and pressed his hands together in supplication. Hood was not impressed.
Chico Maki led the Chicago attack with two goals. Singles came off the sticks of Ken Wharram, Doug Mohns, Bill Hay and Eric Nesterenko. Marshall ruined Hall’s bid for a shutout.
Gilles Tremblay Nets Winner for Habs
Gilles Tremblay scored the game-winning goal in the first minute of the third period to give the Montreal Canadiens a 4-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings at the Olympia in Detroit. The win puts Canadiens in a tie with the Red Wings for second place, a point behind the Chicago Black Hawks. However, Montreal has two games in hand over both Detroit and Chicago.
Montreal jumped out to an early 2-0 lead. Claude Provost scored both the goals in the first 5:14 of the game. He now has 14 on the season. Alex Delvecchio got Detroit on the board about three minutes after Provost’s second goal with his 23rd.
Gordie Howe tied things up in the second for the Wings with his 23rd, only to see John Ferguson put Montreal back in front by one. Ron Murphy brought the Wings even again at 13:11 of the second, to make the score 3-3 going to the third.
Tremblay scored the winner 35 seconds into the final frame. He took a pass from Provost and broke into the Detroit zone. He deked Detroit blueliner Bill Gadsby and scored on a 40-foot snap shot. Tremblay described the play:
“Gadsby expected me to go inside, but I shoved the puck through his legs. The shot wasn’t hard but I got it away quick and Crozier just got a piece of it.”
Johnston Stops Leafs with Bare Hand
Boston Bruins goalie Ed Johnston managed a tie against the Leafs with, as the saying goes, with his bare hands last night. Quite literally.
The Boston netminder lost his catching glove in a scramble late in the game and was forced to stop a Ron Ellis shot with his unprotected left hand. The shot, a try off a rebound from Frank Mahovlich, wasn’t a wicked blast and Johnston escaped injury.
Ellis said after the game “He made a good save but I didn’t get enough stick on the puck.”
Toronto goalie Terry Sawchuk also had a close injury call. After the game he was nursing a cut and bruised lower lip, and he credited his mask with averting disaster. He was injured when he tangled with Bruins’ Johnny McKenzie in a scramble at the Leafs goal in the first period.
“I got his skate in the mouth. It stunned me for a moment but the mask saved me from being seriously injured.”
Both goaltenders played well in a wide open contest that produced many scoring opportunities for both teams.
Ellis led the Toronto attack with two goals. Mahovlich and Orland Kurtenbach had the others. Boston goals were scored by Tommy Williams, Gilles Marotte, John Bucyk and Dean Prentice. For the rookie defenseman Marotte, it was his first NHL goal. He beat Sawchuk with a blazing slap shot through a screen from the blue line.
Punch Says NHL Sold Vancouver Out
In the opinion of Toronto Maple Leafs general manager-coach Punch Imlach, the city of Vancouver was sold out in the expansion plan unveiled by the NHL this week.
“Fans out there have been supporting Leafs and Canadiens on television for years, but were denied a chance to have their own big-league club.
“Television is the answer to Vancouver’s rejection. Montreal and Toronto would have had to share their TV with Vancouver if they’d let Vancouver in. Better to split the loot two ways, I guess, instead of three.”
One can’t blame Imlach for being upset at Vancouver’s exclusion. It’s widely speculated that he would have joined Foster Hewitt with a new Vancouver team. He has two years left on his Toronto contract.
Meanwhile, newspaper publisher Max Bell, who headed up a rival Vancouver group with Frank McMahon before withdrawing several weeks before the expansion meetings says he doesn’t believe they would have had any better luck obtaining the NHL franchise.
Bell says he shares the belief that the NHL governors had their minds made up well before last week’s meetings in New York.
Juckes: Canada a ‘Hockey Slave Farm’
Gordon Juckes, secretary-manager of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association, had some harsh words for the governors of the National Hockey League this weekend. He said that the league’s expansion to six cities in the United States will reduce Canada to the role of a “gigantic hockey slave farm.”
Juckes was speaking at the Western Canada Senior Hockey League all-star luncheon. He levelled a 35-minute blast at the NHL. He said that NHL expansion was the “final sellout” of Canadian hockey as a sport by the professionals.
“With that announcement went any idea that professional hockey gives a damn about our sport – except as a moneymaker for a chosen few.
“And in their greed they evidently don’t care that their expansion plans carry with them the very seeds of death for hockey and their own plans.
“It’s our league, our trophy, our game. But they have finally admitted that none of these things mean anything to the owners, except as a means of hoodwinking the Canadian public, getting our support in developing players for them for nothing and building up publicity and gates to their greater profit.
“The money-barons of the NHL and their equally avaricious new associates have relegated Canada to the role of a gigantic hockey slave farm. We are now only to be the gold coast of hockey.”
Notes:
- Billy Dea’s American Hockey League consecutive game streak ended this weekend. The Buffalo Bisons forward sat out Saturday night after playing in 548 straight contests.
- Toronto brought up Duane Rupp from Rochester and he played quite well as the fifth defenseman.
- Leafs Punch Imlach says he is going to attend the World Hockey Championship tournament in Yugoslavia in March.
- NHL executives are interested in seeing how the NFL plans to stock the Atlanta Falcons, the new football expansion team.