Game 451
Maple Leafs 6, Canadiens 3
Thursday, January 31, 1963
Forum de Montréal, Montréal, Québec
Red Kelly scored three goals, his third on a penalty shot, to lead the Toronto Maple leafs to a 6-3 win over the Montréal Canadiens here tonight, in a National Hockey League game that provoked great indignation among Forum fans and on the Montréal bench.
A crowd of 15,334, the largest of the season here, several times littered the ice in the third period, but the barrage of garbage didn’t disturb the Leafs. The game was tied 2-2 going into the final 20 minutes, but the Leafs scored four goals in a row before permitting the Canadiens their third goal with little more than a minute to play.
As a result of the win, the Leafs second in six tries on Montréal ice this season, they pulled into second place, two points ahead of the Canadiens and two behind the Chicago Black Hawks.
Referee Ed Powers was derided by fans and the Montréal players. The Canadiens were called for a bench penalty in the second period and Bill Hicke, the Montréal right winger, was given a 10 minute misconduct in the third period for remarks he made to one of the officials.
The Canadiens’ Bernie Geoffrion, playing his first game in almost a month, found it a costly experience. He will be fined $75 for a misconduct penalty and a game misconduct that he was given simultaneously in the third period, as a result of a flamboyant altercation with Toronto defenceman Carl Brewer. Geoffrion also received a roughing minor in the same clash, Brewer a minor and a misconduct.
George Armstrong, Dick Duff and Frank Mahovlich, with his 27th of the season, were scorers for the Leafs. Gilles Tremblay, Dickie Moore and Bobby Rousseau scored for the Canadiens. Tremblay and Moore scored in the first period to give the Canadiens a 2-0 lead.
Powers imposed 12 penalties, eight to Montréal and four to Toronto. In the Canadiens’ total were two misconducts, a game misconduct, and, of course, the penalty shot was an extra. The Leafs, who were never at a numerical disadvantage in the game, had three minors plus the misconduct to Brewer.
Both teams skated at high speed for most of the game, a factor that probably made the officials’ work more difficult. Powers ignored numerous minor offences by both teams, standard conduct for referees.
Kelly executed his penalty shot in the third period to the background of thunderous booing. He skated in slowly from centre ice and, although a left shot, he drove the puck into the lower right corner. The puck bounced back out in front of the net.
The penalty shot was called when Kelly, who had fought his way past the Montréal team near the Canadiens blue line, was jumped on from behind by defenceman Jean-Guy Talbot.
Kelly, the Liberal MP from York West, ignored today’s important sessions on Parliament Hill for this game, which the Leafs’ manager-coach, George Imlach, said was more important than political business. Kelly’s three goals raised his total for the season to 14.
The Geoffrion-Brewer outbreak came shortly after the midway mark of the third period, after some pushing and jostling around the Toronto net. It was only Geoffrion’s third appearance of the game. Suddenly, he and Brewer broke away from a melee of players, moving into the menacing circular dance that hockey players adopt in moments of extreme agitation. Energetic interference by the linesmen kept the players apart. Geoffrion, who was especially angry, was finally herded into the penalty box, but he threatened Brewer as the Toronto player was about to enter. The linesmen had to go to work all over again.
Rubbers, programs and other unidentified objects were hurled at Brewer from the vicinity of the penalty box. Through it all, Geoffrion stood erect in the box, angrily gesturing to Brewer to join him in a fight. But other players and the linesmen blocked the way. Finally, Powers added a game misconduct to Geoffrion’s sentence, and Geoffrion, after exchanging a few more words with the referee, stormed down the corridor into the night.
Gilles Tremblay and Moore gave the Canadiens a 2-0 lead in the first period. Rousseau, in the corner to Toronto goalkeeper Don Simmons’ left, threw a hard pass out of the corner, and Tremblay moved fast to stab the puck in the open side. Moore drove his shot past Simmons from about 10 feet in front.
Kelly scored his first goal on a power play about five minutes later, a long shot that took a peculiar hop past Montréal goalie Jacques Plante.
Kelly scored his second in the second period, a shot that appeared to deflect off a Montréal player’s skate. Plante was so distraught that he broke his stick on the ice. Montréal players though that Leaf Bobby Nevin was in the crease at the time.
The Leafs scored four in a row in the third. Armstrong banged the puck past a prostrate Plante, who had fallen in blocking a shot from Kelly. Duff raced in to score on his own rebound. Kelly added number three with his penalty shot, and Mahovlich shook off J.C. Tremblay and cruised in from left wing to fake Plante out of position before scoring.
Rousseau scored Montréal’s third goal with 64 seconds left in the game from a faceoff in the Leafs’ zone. Jean Béliveau won the draw, and he slid a short pass to Rousseau, who scooped a backhander into the Toronto net.
Story originally published in The Globe & Mail, February 1, 1963
BOXSCORE
1st Period
MTL GOAL – 03:12 – G. Tremblay (Rousseau, Béliveau)
MTL GOAL – 11:43 – Moore (Richard, Hicke)
MTL PEN – 14:56 – Berenson, cross checking
TOR PP GOAL – 14:59 – Kelly (Harris)
2nd Period
TOR PEN – 00:29 – Mahovlich, roughing
MTL PEN – 00:29 – Moore, roughing
TOR GOAL – 10:20 – Kelly (Nevin, Mahovlich)
MTL PEN – 10:20 – team, too many men on the ice
TOR PEN – 18:38 – Shack, high sticking
MTL PEN – 18:38 – Fontinato, high sticking
3rd Period
TOR GOAL – 01:34 – Armstrong (Kelly, Mahovlich)
MTL PEN – 04:18 – Hicke, misconduct
TOR PP GOAL – 06:17 – Duff (Keon)
TOR PEN – 11:58 – Brewer, roughing + misconduct
MTL PEN – 11:58 – Geoffrion, roughing + misconduct + game misconduct
TOR PEN SHOT GOAL – 13:51 – Kelly
TOR GOAL – 16:47 – Mahovlich (Nevin)
MTL GOAL – 18:46 – Rousseau (Béliveau)
GOALTENDERS
TOR – Simmons (W, 24-27)
MTL – Plante (L, 30-36)
ROSTERS
TOR – Goaltenders: Don Simmons. Defence: Bobby Baun, Carl Brewer, Kent Douglas, Tim Horton, Red Kelly, Allan Stanley. Forwards: George Armstrong (C), Dick Duff, Billy Harris, Bronco Horvath, Dave Keon, Ed Litzenberger, Frank Mahovlich, Bob Nevin, Bob Pulford, Eddie Shack.
MTL – Goaltenders: Jacques Plante. Defence: Lou Fontinato, Jean Gauthier, Tom Johnson, Jean-Guy Talbot, J.C. Tremblay. Forwards: Ralph Backstrom, Jean Béliveau (C), Red Berenson, Bernie Geoffrion, Bill Hicke, Don Marshall, Dickie Moore, Claude Provost, Henri Richard, Bobby Rousseau, Gilles Tremblay.
TEAM RECORDS
TOR – 25-17-7 (.582)
MTL – 20-13-15 (.573)
ATTENDANCE
15,334
Two Solitudes 