Game 402
Canadiens 3, Maple Leafs 0
Thursday, November 12, 1959
Forum de Montréal, Montréal, Québec
The Montréal Canadiens, who should be awarded first place by acclamation before many more National Hockey League games, blanked the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-0 in another exhibition of class here tonight.
This merely happened to be the 11th consecutive game the Canadiens have gone without a loss. In that stretch they have won eight and tied three, and it was quite obvious in this game that they are habitual winners.
The Leafs were not greatly outplayed. They probably had more scoring opportunities than the Canadiens. But the Leafs did not have the same devastating marksmanship, and at times, luck, as the Canadiens.
Leafs goalkeeper Johnny Bower, for instance, swept the first goal of the game into his own net early in the first period. It was subsequently credited to Phil Goyette, but he made amends later by scoring a legitimate one – in the second period. Dickie Moore scored the Canadiens third goal in the third period.
Bower, despite this one aberration, played a mighty useful game for the Leafs from his customary praying mantis position. He threw in a couple of saves that no goalkeeper would be expected to make normally.
This was the first shutout of the season for Jacques Plante, the Canadiens’ roving goalkeeper, who played the entire game with a handsome fibreglass mask, which showed his profile to best advantage.
The loss dropped the Leafs back into a tie for third place. The Detroit Red Wings moved into second place as a result of their win over the Boston Bruins.
Goyette received credit for his first goal early in the first period. Bower stopped a shot from André Pronovost, but in his anxiety to clear he swept the puck into the net. Goyette was loitering near, peering intently, and he was nominated as the scorer.
Goyette scored again in the second period, by inclining his stick and deflecting Pronovost’s shot from the left point past Bower. Then, in the third period, Henri Richard tossed a pass out from behind the Leafs net, Moore picked up the puck and lashed a backhander past Bower from six feet out.
Story originally published in The Globe & Mail, November 13, 1959
BOXSCORE
1st Period
MTL GOAL – 04:23 – Goyette (Provost, Pronovost)
TOR PEN – 14:54 – Brewer, holding
2nd Period
MTL PEN – 02:16 – Béliveau, tripping
MTL PEN – 13:57 – Moore, holding
MTL GOAL – 19:23 – Goyette (Provost, Pronovost)
3rd Period
TOR PEN – 00:40 – Pulford, interference
MTL GOAL – 09:21 – Moore (H. Richard, Johnson)
TOR PEN – 18:56 – Olmstead, roughing
MTL PEN – 18:56 – Pronovost, roughing
GOALTENDERS
MTL – Plante (W + SO, 33-33)
TOR – Bower (L, 37-40)
ROSTERS
MTL – Goaltenders: Jacques Plante. Defence: Doug Harvey, Tom Johnson, Albert Langlois, Jean-Guy Talbot. Forwards: Ralph Backstrom, Jean Béliveau, Marcel Bonin, Bernie Geoffrion, Phil Goyette, Bill Hicke, Don Marshall, Ab McDonald, Dickie Moore, André Pronovost, Claude Provost, Henri Richard, Maurice Richard (C).
TOR – Goaltenders: Johnny Bower. Defence: Bobby Baun, Carl Brewer, Tim Horton, Marc Réaume, Allan Stanley. Forwards: George Armstrong (C), Dick Duff, Gerry Ehman, Ted Hampson, Billy Harris, Frank Mahovlich, Bert Olmstead, Bob Pulford, Larry Regan, Ron Stewart, Johnny Wilson.
TEAM RECORDS
MTL – 10-2-4 (.750)
TOR – 7-4-3 (.607)
ATTENDANCE
14,296
Two Solitudes 