Game 207
Canadiens 4, Maple Leafs 1
Sunday, November 26, 1944
Forum de Montréal, Montréal, Québec
The Montréal Canadiens made their fourth game of the season against the Toronto Maple Leafs a winning one Sunday night, when they came through with a 4-1 victory for a capacity crowd of more than 12,000.
With the win, the Canucks reassumed the league leadership, and gained partial revenge for the three defeats the Leafs had pinned on them previously, including Saturday night’s 2-0 shutout in Toronto.
Despite the four goals that got by him – two of them in the dying minutes when the Leafs were a man short – Frank McCool was the individual star of the game, turning back the Canadiens time and again as they kept up an almost steady pressure throughout the game.
The Leafs, with Sweeney Schriner and Lorne Carr missing, dressed only 12 men for the game against the Canadiens’ 14.
McCool turned aside everything in the first period, but the Canadiens finally got the range early in the second. Maurice Richard started things with the first of the three goals he accounted for during the evening, with Elmer Lach and Toe Blake in on the ganging play. Fern Gauthier made it 2-0 two minutes later, after Butch Bouchard had taken the puck from behind his own goal across the Toronto line before laying a perfect pass on Gauthier’s stick.
Nick Metz kept the Leafs in the running early in the third when his sudden snap shot from 15 out caught Durnan unprepared. The Leafs remained a threat until the final two minutes, but Richard sewed up the game then with two quick ones while Reg Hamilton was serving a penalty. The Leafs drew six of the game’s eight penalties.
Story originally published in The Globe & Mail, November 27, 1944
BOXSCORE
1st Period
TOR PEN – 01:12 – Johnstone
2nd Period
MTL GOAL – 01:26 – Richard (Lach, Blake)
MTL GOAL – 03:45 – Gauthier (Bouchard)
MTL PEN – 13:10 – Bouchard
TOR PEN – 17:20 – Metz
3rd Period
MTL PEN – 00:47 – Richard
TOR PEN – 00:47 – Johnstone
TOR GOAL – 01:52 – Metz
TOR PEN – 07:08 – O’Neill
TOR PEN – 12:08 – Hamilton
TOR PEN – 18:08 – Hamilton
MTL PP GOAL – 18:36 – Richard (Blake, Lach)
MTL PP GOAL – 19:56 – Richard (Blake, Eddolls)
GOALTENDERS
MTL – Durnan (W)
TOR – McCool (L)
ROSTERS
MTL – Goaltenders: Bill Durnan. Defence: Butch Bouchard, Frank Eddolls, Wilf Field, Glen Harmon. Forwards: Toe Blake (C), Murph Chamberlain, Bob Fillion, Fern Gauthier, Ray Getliffe, Elmer Lach, Fern Majeau, Buddy O’Connor, Maurice Richard.
TOR – Goaltenders: Frank McCool. Defence: Pete Backor, Reg Hamilton, Ross Johnstone, Babe Pratt. Forwards: Gus Bodnar, Bob Davidson (C), Mel Hill, Ted Kennedy, Jack McLean, Nick Metz, Tom O’Neill.
TEAM RECORDS
MTL – 9-3-1 (.731)
TOR – 9-4-0 (.692)
Two Solitudes 