Game 348
Canadiens 3, Maple Leafs 1
Saturday, December 3, 1955
Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario
Glamorizing hard labour as the surest success story, the Montréal Canadiens swept the Maple Leafs into a 3-1 National Hockey League defeat Saturday night.
But for Harry Lumley in the Toronto cage, the humiliation could have been far greater.
The Habitants handcuffed the Leafs with lamprey-like checking that infiltrated deep to blunt the attack. The Leafs aided in their own undoing by neglecting the time-worn truism that the opposition can’t score while on the seat of his pants.
“Busher” Curry, beating a long-prevailing Gardens jinx; “Two-Boom” Geoffrion and Henri “The Pocket Rocket” Richard shot the goals for the league leaders. Billy Harris was the local marksman, putting the Leafs back in the game after they had dropped behind 2-0 in the middle period.
Goalie Jacques Plante, a notorious toque knitter in his spare time, might well have carried on his hobby on the ice. He had the easiest time of any netminder at the Gardens this season.
The Leafs managed 19 shots on goal – to 33 by Montréal – and few of those 19 required more than routine handling.
Story originally published in The Globe & Mail, December 5, 1955
BOXSCORE
1st Period
MTL PEN – 01:39 – Béliveau, interference
TOR PEN – 01:39 – Sloan, roughing
MTL PEN – 01:39 – Johnson, roughing
TOR PEN – 03:55 – Sloan, hooking
MTL PEN – 14:51 – Provost, hooking
TOR PEN – 15:42 – Horton, interference
MTL GOAL – 19:30 – Curry
2nd Period
TOR PEN – 03:55 – Bolton, hooking
MTL PP GOAL – 04:29 – Geoffrion (Harvey)
TOR GOAL – 07:52 – Harris (Smith, Réaume)
MTL PEN – 08:27 – Saint-Laurent, kneeing
MTL PEN – 12:23 – Béliveau, high sticking
TOR PEN – 17:25 – Réaume, holding
TOR PEN – 17:54 – Stewart, delay of game
3rd Period
MTL GOAL – 11:37 – H. Richard (Moore)
MTL PEN – 16:53 – H. Richard, tripping
GOALTENDERS
MTL – Plante (W, 19-20)
TOR – Lumley (L, 30-33)
ROSTERS
MTL – Goaltenders: Jacques Plante. Defence: Doug Harvey, Tom Johnson, Dollard Saint-Laurent, Jean-Guy Talbot. Forwards: Jean Béliveau, Floyd Curry, Bernie Geoffrion, Jack LeClair, Don Marshall, Dickie Moore, Bert Olmstead, Claude Provost, Henri Richard, Maurice Richard.
TOR – Goaltenders: Harry Lumley. Defence: Jack Bionda, Hugh Bolton, Tim Horton, Jim Morrison, Marc Réaume. Forwards: George Armstrong, Earl Balfour, Dick Duff, Gord Hannigan, Billy Harris, Ron Hurst, Gerry James, Rudy Migay, Tod Sloan, Sid Smith (C), Ron Stewart.
TEAM RECORDS
MTL – 14-4-7 (.700)
TOR – 8-13-4 (.400)
Two Solitudes 