Game 149
Maple Leafs 3, Canadiens 0
Thursday, February 3, 1938
Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario
Coming back to form with a remarkable bang, the Toronto Maple Leafs blanked the speedy Montréal Canadiens by 3 to 0 here tonight in a thrilling and hard played game before 11,266 overjoyed fans.
The Leafs tightened up all along the line, and clipped the Flying Frenchmen’s wings with bodychecks that were peddled out right through the contest. The win increased the Leafs’ lead over the Canadiens to four points at the top of the NHL’s International Section.
Buzz Boll scored the first and most important goal on a solo dash, when each team had a man in the penalty ho late in the second period. Then, when the Canadiens finally opened up in search of the equalizer in the last five minutes of the final period, the Leafs ran in two more. Murphy Chamberlain got goal number two on a short backhander, after taking Pep Kelly’s pass. Busher Jackson got in the clear with Bill Thoms’ pass to ring up the third counter, when he had goaler Cude at his mercy. Cude played a brilliant game to hold the hard charging and also hard checking Leafs down to a 3 to 0 score.
When the new line of Jackson, Thoms and Boll could get going, Horner staged the Leafs’ first effective rush. Jackson and Haynes went to the penalty box on successive plays. Cude made a brilliant save of Metz’s backhander during the five man skirmishing.
Then a Hamilton from Apps attack almost clicked. Play was pretty cautious so far, but the Leafs were working in much closer.
Davidson and Gagnon got into a bit of a scrap, and were thumbed off with minor penalties. Babe Siebert gave the fans their first scare, when he nabbed his own rebound off the end boards and almost beat Broda.
Action had slowed down at the halfway mark, but the Leafs all seemed to do their share of bodychecking the speedy visitors. Davidson seemed to be fitting in better on his new line than was Jackson on his. The crowd had grown to around 11,000.
A line of Armstrong, Metz and Kelly made a fine showing just before Busher Jackson’s line came on to provide a big thrill, when the Busher’s circling bid for a goal was thwarted by Cude’s fast dive. Kampman took a penalty about twenty seconds before the goalless period ended.
A sparkling rush by Kelly that forced Cude to make an almost equally sparkling save featured the Leafs’ defensive stand until Kampman returned early in the second period.
Cude did the splits near a goalpost to cheat Jackson and his linemates. The Canadiens were doing mighty little boring in against the heavy Toronto checking.
The Leafs were losing passes or shooting wide as they pressed the play more and more. Finally, Boll was put right in with Thoms’ pass, but the Buzzer failed to beat Cude’s slideout. Then Fowler pulled off two sensational end-to-end rushes that brought the fans to their feet. The Leafs were having a wide edge in the play, but were not making it show on the scoreboard.
Kelly and Haynes got into a fistic tilt on the boards, and after considerable general rumpus, they were put in the box with major penalties. That slowed up the action, and it was with both surprise and pleasure that the crowd saw Buzz Boll cruise down on a solo sortie and wiggle his way through to beat goaler Cude cleanly at 18:35 while each team was shorthanded.
Kelly and Haynes returned soon after the start of the third period, and the Leafs had Cude sprawled in his goalmouth more than once. Pestered by bodychecking all along the line, the Frenchmen were not able to put on much pressure. Instead, they appeared to be waiting for a break.
A great Apps and Drillon rush just failed to cash when Cude robbed Apps by a well-timed dive. A few minutes later, Apps shot over the net when he had Cude almost at his mercy.
The Canadiens drove back on one specially dangerous attack, but Broda slid out to spoil Desilet’s shot. Right after that, the Habitants staged more rushes, and the pace got much hotter.
With just over five minutes to go, Horner was penalized for hoisting Blake. But the Leafs literally battled tooth and nail to hold the fort. Horner had not been back long before Murph Chamberlain sunk a short backhander after taking Kelly’s pass at 16:29.
When the Canadiens opened up after that, Thoms’ pass put Jackson in the clear, and the Busher waltzed in close to plant a terrific uppercut shot behind Cude.
Drillon broke away with only Cude to beat, but failed to do it.
Story originally published in The Globe & Mail, February 4, 1938
BOXSCORE
1st Period
TOR PEN – 02:38 – Jackson
MTL PEN – 02:51 – Haynes
MTL PEN – 07:43 – Gagnon
TOR PEN – 07:43 – Davidson
TOR PEN – 19:41 – Kampman
2nd Period
MTL PEN – 15:41 – Haynes, major
TOR PEN – 15:41 – Kelly, major
TOR GOAL – 18:34 – Boll (Thoms)
3rd Period
TOR PEN – 13:55 – Horner
TOR GOAL – 16:29 – Chamberlain (Kelly)
TOR GOAL – 17:30 – Jackson (Thoms)
GOALTENDERS
TOR – Broda (W + SO)
MTL – Cude (L)
ROSTERS
TOR – Goaltenders: Turk Broda. Defence: Jimmy Fowler, Reg Hamilton, Red Horner, Bingo Kampman. Forwards: Syl Apps, Murray Armstrong, Buzz Boll, Murph Chamberlain, Bob Davidson, Gordie Drillon, Busher Jackson, Pep Kelly, Nick Metz, Bill Thoms.
MTL – Goaltenders: Wilf Cude. Defence: Marty Burke, Walter Buswell, Red Goupille, Georges Mantha. Forwards: Toe Blake, Tony Demers, Joffre Desilets, Polly Drouin, Johnny Gagnon, Paul Haynes, Aurèle Joliat, Pit Lépine, Rod Lorrain, Babe Siebert (C).
TEAM RECORDS
TOR – 15-8-7 (.617)
MTL – 13-11-7 (.532)
ATTENDANCE
11,266
Two Solitudes 