Game 346
Canadiens 3, Maple Leafs 3
Thursday, November 3, 1955
Forum de Montréal, Montréal, Québec
A goal by Ron Stewart with eight seconds of playing time remaining gave the Toronto Maple Leafs a 3-3 tie with the league leading Montréal Canadiens in a National Hockey League game here tonight.
The tie, the Leafs’ fifth consecutive without a defeat (four wins and a tie) ensured the Leafs of second place, three points behind the Canadiens.
It was also a milestone for the Leafs in that it marked the first time this season they have been able to earn a point on the road. In five previous out of town appearances, they dropped all five, three by shutouts.
The Leafs were deserving of at least a tie tonight and, with a little more accurate shooting, they might have won. The Canadiens, as usual, didn’t let any scoring opportunities pass.
The Leafs, checking with rare industry and skating strongly on the attack, didn’t trail until the three quarter mark of the third period, when Bernie Geoffrion scored the second of his two goals.
Geoffrion, who was injured in the first game of the season here with the Leafs after Leaf defenceman Larry Cahan bounced him into the boards, returned to the Habs lineup tonight, and last season’s leading scorer observed the occasion with two goals, both in the third period.
He regained some measure of self-esteem on his first goal when he eluded Cahan and rifled a hard shot from a difficult angle, as they say about field goals, across Harry Lumley into the far side of the net.
Cahan was so enraged by his faux pas that he smashed his stick on the ice and hurled the broken portion away. That exuberance earned him a 10 minute misconduct.
Tod Sloan, for the third time this season, scored two goals for the Leafs, his eighth and ninth of the season. That performance sent him into the lead among NHL goalscorers.
Geoffrion scored his second goal at the 15 minute mark, rapping in one of his patented smoke shots after picking up a short pass from Dickie Moore to send the Canadiens ahead 3-2.
The highly partisan crowd of 13,801, convinced that this was the winner, started drifting toward the exits, but paused when Moore drew a penalty for spearing at 19:29.
Leafs coach King Clancy yanked goalie Harry Lumley and, for a change, this debatable strategy paid off. Defenceman Jimmy Morrison, again a standout for the Leafs, lobbed a shot ahead from the blue line and Stewart, standing in front of the crease, trapped the puck and lifted it past Jacques Plante.
Sloan sent the Leafs ahead in the first period, finishing off a play with George Armstrong and Dick Duff. Floyd Curry evened it for the Canadiens while both teams were shorthanded.
Sloan sent the Leafs ahead early in the second. He picked up a pass from Jimmy Thomson, shook off Hab defenceman Doug Harvey, and cruised in close before firing a shot from in front of Plante into the opposite side of the net.
Both goalies, Lumley of the Leafs and Plante of the Canadiens, made fine saves throughout the game to keep the score down.
Story originally published in The Globe & Mail, November 4, 1955
BOXSCORE
1st Period
TOR PEN – 02:38 – Morrison, charging
TOR GOAL – 06:15 – Sloan (Armstrong, Duff)
MTL PEN – 08:00 – Moore, slashing
MTL PEN – 12:13 – Béliveau, roughing
TOR PEN – 12:13 – Cahan, roughing
MTL GOAL – 14:14 – Curry (Saint-Laurent, LeClair)
2nd Period
MTL PEN – 00:30 – Johnson, tripping
TOR GOAL – 05:48 – Sloan (Armstrong, Thomson)
MTL PEN – 07:01 – Olmstead, spearing
TOR PEN – 09:57 – Sloan, slashing + misconduct
MTL PEN – 16:53 – Johnson, elbowing
3rd Period
MTL PEN – 06:23 – M. Richard, tripping
MTL GOAL – 10:45 – Geoffrion (Béliveau, Olmstead)
TOR PEN – 10:45 – Cahan, misconduct
TOR PEN – 13:40 – Horton, tripping
MTL PEN – 14:39 – Béliveau, roughing
TOR PEN – 14:39 – Thomson, interference
MTL PP GOAL – 15:00 – Geoffrion (Olmstead, Moore)
TOR PEN – 15:50 – Morrison, roughing
MTL PEN – 15:50 – M. Richard, roughing
MTL PEN – 19:29 – Moore, spearing
TOR PP GOAL – 19:52 – Stewart (Migay, Morrison)
GOALTENDERS
MTL – Plante (T, 19-22)
TOR – Lumley (T, 26-29)
SHOTS ON GOAL
MTL – 6+11+12 = 29
TOR – 5+7+10 = 22
ROSTERS
MTL – Goaltenders: Jacques Plante. Defence: Butch Bouchard (C), Doug Harvey, Tom Johnson, Dollard Saint-Laurent. Forwards: Jean Béliveau, Floyd Curry, Dick Gamble, Bernie Geoffrion, Jack LeClair, Don Marshall, Dickie Moore, Kenny Mosdell, Bert Olmstead, Claude Provost, Henri Richard, Maurice Richard.
TOR – Goaltenders: Harry Lumley. Defence: Hugh Bolton, Larry Cahan, Tim Horton, Jim Morrison, Jimmy Thomson. Forwards: George Armstrong, Earl Balfour, Dick Duff, Billy Harris, Joe Klukay, Willie Marshall, Rudy Migay, Eric Nesterenko, Tod Sloan, Sid Smith (C), Ron Stewart.
TEAM RECORDS
MTL – 6-3-3 (.625)
TOR – 5-5-2 (.500)
ATTENDANCE
13,801
Two Solitudes 