Game 221
Canadiens 6, Maple Leafs 2
Sunday, February 24, 1946
Forum de Montréal, Montréal, Québec
Breaking through for a four goal splurge in the third period, the pace-setting Montréal Canadiens turned back the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-2, before a capacity crowd of 13,581 fans here Sunday night, to leave the Leafs on the brink of elimination from the National Hockey League four-team playoffs.
The Toronto loss, coinciding with Detroit’s 4-3 victory over Boston, left the Leafs with the slightest mathematical chance of overtaking the Wings in fourth place.
The Leafs staged a game contest in the first two periods to hold the Canucks 2-2, but the Toronto defence went to pieces in the last frame, leaving goalie Turk Broda without protection.
Montréal sailed in front early in the initial frame when Murph Chamberlain broke away from centre ice, while his teammate, Glen Harmon, was serving a tripping penalty, to catch Turk Broda flatfooted with a low whistling drive, which went sailing between the Toronto goaler’s pads.
Maurice Richard scored in his own spectacular way at the beginning of the second session to lift the Canucks into a 2-0 lead. After weaving around the Toronto defence, Richard drew Broda out of his nets by feinting a shot and shot the disc into an empty goal.
The Leafs staged a rally which paid dividends at this juncture, and knotted the count before the end of the period. Lorne Carr bagged the first goal with a shot from 30 feet out, which went sailing past a maze of legs into the corner of the cage. Syl Apps notched the second on a nice play by Billy Ezinicki, who faked Durnan out of position by feinting a shot and passed the disc to Apps, who pushed it into the unprotected corner of the net.
After Richard had scored his second goal of the night in the opening minute of the final frame, the Canucks went wild, amd Joe Benoit, Elmer Lach and Murph Chamberlain scored in succession, all scores followed ganging attacks in Toronto territory.
Story originally published in The Globe & Mail, February 25, 1946
BOXSCORE
1st Period
TOR PEN – 00:41 – Ezinicki
MTL PEN – 04:02 – Harmon, tripping
MTL SH GOAL – 04:17 – Chamberlain (Reardon)
MTL PEN – 05:00 – Reardon
TOR PEN – 13:46 – Taylor
MTL PEN – 16:55 – Lach
2nd Period
MTL GOAL – 01:02 – Richard (Blake)
TOR GOAL – 13:09 – Carr (Goldham, Stanowski)
MTL PEN – 13:22 – Reardon
TOR PEN – 14:39 – Ezinicki
TOR GOAL – 18:38 – Apps (Ezinicki, Stanowski)
3rd Period
MTL GOAL – 00:59 – Richard (Lach, Blake)
MTL GOAL – 06:49 – Benoit (Fillion, Bouchard)
MTL GOAL – 07:56 – Lach (Richard, Lamoureux)
MTL PEN – 10:16 – Fillion
MTL GOAL – 16:02 – Chamberlain (Peters, Harmon)
GOALTENDERS
MTL – Durnan (W)
TOR – Broda (L)
ROSTERS
MTL – Goaltenders: Bill Durnan. Defence: Butch Bouchard, Glen Harmon, Ken Reardon. Forwards: Joe Benoit, Toe Blake (C), Murph Chamberlain, Bob Fillion, Dutch Hiller, Elmer Lach, Leo Lamoureux, Kenny Mosdell, Buddy O’Connor, Jimmy Peters, Maurice Richard.
TOR – Goaltenders: Turk Broda. Defence: Doug Baldwin, Bob Goldham, Moe Morris, Babe Pratt, Wally Stanowski. Forwards: Syl Apps (C), Gus Bodnar, Lorne Carr, Bob Davidson, Bill Ezinicki, Jackie Hamilton, Nick Metz, Gaye Stewart, Billy Taylor.
TEAM RECORDS
MTL – 24-14-3 (.622)
TOR – 14-21-6 (.415)
ATTENDANCE
13,381
Two Solitudes 