Game 495
Canadiens 7, Maple Leafs 2
Wednesday, March 16, 1966
Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario
The Montréal Canadiens scored early and shed blood late in the process of humiliating the Toronto Maple Leafs 7-2 last night.
The Canadiens led 1-0 after nine seconds of play and 2-0 after 40 seconds. For the final 59 minutes and 20 seconds they confirmed this early superiority, although their scoring pace slackened somewhat.
Hostile feelings prevailed for most of the game, but the bloodletting didn’t occur until Kent Douglas and Jon Ferguson fell to the ice locked in combat with 17 seconds to go.
When they were finally separated, the ice and the front of Ferguson’s white uniform were liberally splattered with blood – his own.
A fight had also marked second period play, with Orland Kurtenbach and Ted Harris exchanging blows in a fairly harmless no-decision bout.
Although the Leafs gained no worse than a stalemate in the fighting, they were scandalously outplayed on the hockey front. The Canadiens dazzled the home side with a large edge in skating, hustle and finesse.
Jean Béliveau enjoyed one of his most fruitful nights of the season, accumulating five points on two goals, his 25th and 26th, and three assists.
The five pushed Béliveau to within two points of a career total of 1,000 scoring points.
The injury hex hit the Leafs in the goalkeeping section again. Bruce Gamble left the ice at 15:18 of the second period with what was described first as a pulled hamstring muscle and later a pulled ligament.
The Canadiens led 6-2 at the time, so it didn’t affect the outcome.
Johnny Bower replaced Gamble and yielded the only goal of the third period, a deflection by Dave Balon of Noel Price’s shot from the left point.
Bobby Rousseau with his 26th goal and Gilles Tremblay with his 24th gave Montréal their early 2-0 lead on the first two shots of the game.
Claude Larose made it 3-0 at 16:37, and 30 seconds later Ron Ellis collected his 17th with a quick wrist shot.
The four second-period goals were scored in a span of 65 seconds. Béliveau got two of them and Ralph Backstrom counted his 18th for Montréal.
Dave Keon’s 22nd of the season came 20 seconds after Béliveau’s first goal and 23 seconds before his second. Mahovlich launched the shot, which bounced off Keon’s thigh past Gump Worsley.
Referee Vern Buffey gave the Leafs 10 of the 18 penalties he assessed, which seemed a fair apportionment.
Shortly before he left the game, Gamble had made two excellent saves at Béliveau’s expense. On one of them he pulled something in his thigh. He became the fourth goalie to be injured in Toronto service this season, following Bower, Terry Sawchuk and Gary Smith.
In eight games, Gamble had scored four shutouts and yielded 18 goals in the other four.
No one seemed quite certain what caused the Douglas-Ferguson brawl at the end. Play was swinging down the other side of the ice and away from them when they tangled.
Ferguson, who required four stitches to close a gash above his nose, said Douglas inflicted the wound with his stick.
“I said ‘what the hell did you do that for you —‘,” Ferguson reported later, “and then he pitch-forked me.”
When he became fully aware of the blood he was losing, Ferguson tried to get back at Douglas and drew a loud cheer from the crowd of 14,996 when he fell while trying to avoid linesman Neil Armstrong. When Montréal goalie Gump Worsley tried to pacify him, Ferguson thrust him away angrily, before allowing himself to be led to the hospital room for the stitch work.
Story originally published in The Globe & Mail, March 17, 1966
BOXSCORE
1st Period
MTL GOAL – 00:09 – Rousseau (Harris, Béliveau)
MTL GOAL – 00:40 – G. Tremblay (Provost, Béliveau)
TOR PEN – 05:55 – Stemkowki, holding
TOR PEN – 09:21 – Pronovost, tripping
MTL PEN – 12:48 – Harris, interference
MTL GOAL – 16:37 – Larose (Balon)
TOR GOAL – 17:07 – Ellis (Stemkowski)
TOR PEN – 18:17 – Horton, roughing
MTL PEN – 18:17 – Larose, roughing
2nd Period
TOR PEN – 03:10 – Douglas, interference
MTL PP GOAL – 05:00 – Béliveau (Rousseau, Duff)
TOR GOAL – 05:20 – Keon (Mahovlich, Horton)
MTL GOAL – 05:43 – Béliveau (G. Tremblay, Provost)
MTL GOAL – 06:05 – Backstrom (Larose)
MTL PEN – 08:14 – Harris, fighting major
TOR PEN – 08:14 – Kurtenbach, fighting major
TOR PEN – 08:36 – Baun, holding
3rd Period
MTL PEN – 09:43 – Larose, hooking
MTL GOAL – 12:11 – Balon (Price, Béliveau)
TOR PEN – 13:03 – Baun, charging
MTL PEN – 19:43 – Ferguson, fighting major
TOR PEN – 19:43 – Douglas, fighting major
MTL PEN – 19:43 – Larose, roughing
TOR PEN – 19:43 – Boyer, roughing
TOR PEN – 20:00 – Stemkowski, high sticking
GOALTENDERS
MTL – Worsley (W, 28-30)
TOR – Gamble (L, 22-28), Bower (10-11)
SHOTS ON GOAL
MTL – 16+14+9 = 39
TOR – 7+10+13 = 30
ROSTERS
MTL – Goaltenders: Charlie Hodge, Gump Worsley. Defence: Terry Harper, Ted Harris, Noel Price, Jim Roberts, J.C. Tremblay. Forwards: Ralph Backstrom, Dave Balon, Jean Béliveau (C), Yvan Cournoyer, Dick Duff, John Ferguson, Claude Larose, Claude Provost, Henri Richard, Bobby Rousseau, Gilles Tremblay.
TOR – Goaltenders: Johnny Bower, Bruce Gamble. Defence: Bobby Baun, Kent Douglas, Larry Hillman, Tim Horton, Red Kelly, Marcel Pronovost. Forwards: George Armstrong (C), Wally Boyer, Ron Ellis, Dave Keon, Orland Kurtenbach, Frank Mahovlich, Bob Pulford, Brit Selby, Eddie Shack, Pete Stemkowski.
TEAM RECORDS
MTL – 35-19-8 (.629)
TOR – 30-22-9 (.566)
ATTENDANCE
14,996
Two Solitudes 