Gump Worsley made it a fruitless weekend for the Chicago Black Hawks and Bobby Hull. Worsley was unbeatable as the Montreal Canadiens shut out the Hawks 1-0 last night in Chicago.
Toronto downed the Boston Bruins 5-3 in one of the other two National Hockey League games played last night. In the other match, the Detroit Red Wings and New York Rangers skated to a 1-1 tie.
Worsley Masterful
Worsley was masterful in his goalkeeping dominance of the Black Hawks in their own rink. He was backed up by a flawless defensive game by the Canadiens, who checked with a fervour reminiscent of the best Stanley Cup final games.
Worsley’s best moments came in the second period when he made spectacular saves on Phil Esposito and Kenny Wharram on point-blank chances. He also made a game-saving stops on Esposito and Hull with 29 seconds left in the third period. He made a seemingly impossible save on the big Chicago centre before Hull got hold of the puck and blasted a 40-footer that the Montreal netminder somehow got in front of.
Claude Larose, who had been benched in Saturday’s 7-2 win over Detroit, was Montreal’s best offensive player. He was the only scorer of the game when he converted a pretty pass from behind the net by Ralph Backstrom exactly at the half-way mark of the match.
The capacity crowd in Chicago Stadium, announced at 16,666 but easily over 20,000, were there to see The Golden Jet notch his 51st goal of the season. The Canadiens threw a blanket over the Chicago offence and Hull was unable to beat Worsley, despite several good opportunities.
Gamble Shutout String Ends
Bruce Gamble finally gave up a goal last night. In fact, he gave up three. But the Toronto Maple Leafs scored five times to give Gamble his fourth straight game without a loss as the Maple Leaf goaltender.
Gamble finally surrendered a goal after 171 minutes and 54 seconds of shutting out the opposition. Boston’s John McKenzie was the player who finally beat Gamble, and that was at 16:18 of the second period with Toronto ahead 4-0.
Gamble is essentially the fourth-string netminder for Toronto. He’s only seeing action because of injuries to Terry Sawchuk, Johnny Bower and Gary Smith. However, his play over the past four games has thrust him directly into the Leaf goalkeeping picture. If he can continue the fine work he’s put in so far, it will be very difficult for Punch Imlach to send him back to Tulsa.
The Leafs grabbed a 2-0 first-period lead in this one. Frank Mahovlich opened the scoring at 13:10. Allan Stanley made it 2-0 in the final minute of the opening frame.
Dick Gamble, called up from Rochester of the American Hockey League to replace injured Brit Selby scored early in the second to put the Leafs up by three. Dick Gamble, by the way, is not related to Bruce. George Armstrong made it 4-0 at the 4:30 mark.
The Bruins got back in the game when McKenzie scored, followed only seven seconds later by Tommy Williams to make the score 4-2 for Toronto. Larry Hillman restored the three-goal margin just over a minute later to make the score 5-2 after 40 minutes of play.
That’s the way it remained until the Bruins scored the final goal of the night with less than a minute left in the game. The Bruins’ fine rookie defenseman Gilles Marotte scored an unassisted goal at 19:09 to make the final score 5-3. Marotte found the net on a power play with a long screened shot from the blue line on which Gamble never moved.
Toronto now has a seven-game unbeaten streak. And present in the Boston Garden capacity crowd was Bruce Gamble’s former employer Eddie Shore. Shore was on hand to witness for himself whether the hot streak being enjoyed by the portly goalkeeper he had traded away was just a product of unwarranted hype or whether he really was the latest Leaf saviour.
Shore weighed in with his opinion to Toronto Star reporter Red Burnett:
“That fellow played it big in the first 10 minutes or so until the Leafs got settled away. He didn’t have a chance on the first two goals that beat him, but played that last one a little too nonchalantly. That was one of his failings when he was here with Boston.”
Punch Imlach was happy with his team’s play, especially the performances of the bench and depth players:
“Considering it was our sixth game in eight nights, our fellows played well. And, it points up the depth of our bench. We won without Johnny Bower, Terry Sawchuk, Marcel Pronovost and Brit Selby. The replacement have been more than adequate.”
Former Mate Stings Rangers
The slumping Detroit Red Wings garnered a much-needed point in last night’s 1-1 tie with the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. And it was a former Ranger who provided the only Detroit goal.
Dean Prentice scored at the eight-second mark of the third period to erase a 1-0 Ranger lead. Wings’ Gordie Howe set up the play. He beat New York defenseman Harry Howell to a bouncing loose puck. Blueshirts goalie Cesare Maniago stopped Howe’s chance, but Prentice was there to lift the rebound over him and into the net.
Earl Ingarfield was the Ranger marksman. He scored at 10:48 of the first period after taking a nice pass from Billy Hicke. Hicke had retrieved the puck after Rod Seiling had dumped Howe at centre ice.
The contest featured quite a goaltending duel between Maniago and Detroit’s Roger Crozier. Maniago made 37 saves, including breakaway saves on Val Fonteyne and Bruce MacGregor in the second period. Crozier was unbeatable after the Ingarfield tally, and ended up with 25 saves on the night.
Canadians Rout Finns
The Canadian national hockey team dominated the Finnish squad as they trampled the Finns 9-1 in the third game of the World Hockey Championships.
Seth Martin returned to the nets for Canada after sitting out Saturday’s game against Poland. He, like Ken Broderick the night before, had an easy night. Canada outshot the Finns 43-16.
George Faulkner and Fran Huck led the way for the Canadians with two goals each. Other scorers were Billy MacMillan, Paul Conlin, Ray Cadieux, playing coach Jackie McLeod and Roger Bourbonnais.
Petes Win OHA Title
The Ontario Hockey Association Junior A Series season came to an end Sunday night. The Peterborough Petes had locked up first place thanks to a 1-1 tie with the Montreal Junior Canadiens Saturday in Montreal.
The Baby Habs claimed second-place with a 7-3 win over slumping Oshawa Sunday evening. The Generals had ensured their fourth-place finish with a 4-3 win over third-place Niagara Falls on Saturday.
In other season-ending games yesterday, Niagara Falls came back to hammer Kitchener 6-2 while Toronto took Peterborough 7-4 in a pair of games that had no bearing on the final standings.
Montreal’s win over Oshawa came with a rookie goalie making his first Junior A start. Kelly Orr was in goal for the Generals, playing behind his more famous cousin Bobby Orr, who plays for Oshawa.
Michel Lapalme score three times to lead the Junior Canadiens. The goalkeeper Orr had a bit of a rough game against the swift Baby Habs. Defenseman Orr was held to one assist.
Jim Keon and Gerry Meehan each scored two goals to lead Toronto over Peterborough. Joe Johnston fired three for Peterborough.
Niagara Falls’ win over Kitchener was led by four Junior B call-ups. Phil Roberto scored twice while fellow recruits Ross Webley and Ross Gray had singles. The fourth Junior B player was goalie Bruce Durno.