1960-61 NHL Replay - week ending 5 November 1960

A couple of top-of-the-table matchups highlight the first week of November . . .

30 October 1960 - Montréal (4) at Boston (4)

Don McKenney’s goal at 14:25 of the third period lifted Boston into a tie with Montréal at the Boston Garden. A game-opener from Doug Mohns five minutes in gave Boston the lead, but this was erased by the end of the period on scores by Bill Hicke and Bernie Geoffrion (PPG). The Canadiens appeared to take control of the game in the middle twenty minutes, when goals from Dickie Moore and Geoffrion sandwiched a Charlie Burns goal to give the visitors a 4-2 lead. But Mohns cut the MTL lead in half with less than three minutes to go in the period and gave the Bs a fighting chance in the third. The Canadiens didn’t sit back on the road in the final period, but their pressure failed to pay off; with just under six minutes left, McKenny slid home a Jerry Toppazzini pass from close range to tie the game and Don Simmons (30 saves) held tight over the final moments. [box] [stats]

Don McKenney rescues the point for Boston

30 October 1960 - Chicago (3) at Detroit (1)

Chicago scored three times in the first period and Glenn Hall saved 32 of 33 Detroit shots to make those early scores stand up. Murray Balfour got the visitors off to a quick start with a goal at 4:39 off of a Bobby Hull feed, and Hull got his own marker six minutes later to make the score 2-0. Kenny Wharram added a third at 16:18 and it looked like the Hawks might run away and hide, but Detroit got that last one back in just twenty-four seconds when Norm Ullman put them on the board with a snapshot fron the slot. After their productive opening period the Black Hawks must have felt that they’d done enough, because their offence dried up after that - just eleven shots in the final forty minutes, as Detroit looked to find a way around Hall at least two more times. There was no way to be found, however, as the Chicago netminder parried everything the Wings tossed in his direction over the final two periods in a fairly non-physical evening that featured only twelve hits and eight penalty minutes. [box] [stats]

Glenn Hall was a wall, with 32 saves

30 October 1960 - Toronto (7) at New York (3)

Toronto blitzed the Rangers with four third-period goals to turn a nip-and-tuck game into a one-sided finish. A dizzying first twenty minutes saw five goals ripple the twine, New York getting scores from Ted Hampson and Camille Henry while the Leafs got goals from Bob Nevin, Gerry Ehman and Dick Duff, the last of which gave them a 3-2 lead at the end of the first. Exhaustion then ruled the day in the second as the puck spent most of the period in the neutral zone and TOR had barely more shots than they had scored goals in the first. But they opened the third with a Frank Mahovlich goal and, after Red Sullivan had pulled New York back to within one, the Leafs slammed the door with two goals in sixty-four seconds. Bob Nevin finished off a man-advantage possession at 10:01 and then Dave Keon jammed a loose puck past a reeling Jack McCartan at 11:05 to make it a 6-3 game. Mahovlich scored a second less than two minutes from the end, and he and Nevin finished with four points each. [box] [stats] 

Frank Mahovlich had two goals and two assists

2 November 1960 - New York (3) at Chicago (3)

Gump Worsley made 35 saves and Dean Prentice’s second goal of the game earned New York a tie in Chicago. The clubs skated to a 2-2 deadlock in the first period, Eric Nesterenko and Kenny Wharram scoring for the Hawks around goals from Prentice and Andy Bathgate. Chicago put fifteen pucks at Worsley in the second, but couldn’t find a chink in his armor until Bill Hay scored at 8:37 of the third period. Prentice (three points, +3), however, scored his second just three minutes later to knot the score once again, and the game would end that way. [box] [stats]

Dean Prentice starts and ends the scoring for New York

2 November 1960 - Boston (2) at Toronto (6)

Three unanswered second-period goals buried the Bs in Toronto. The visitors had proved spunky in the opening period, scoring twice and getting to within 3-2 when Leo Boivin connected on the power play with only forty-two seconds to go in the period. But they were overwhelmed by the Leafs in the second stanza, as Toronto totaled thirteen shots and put three of those behind Don Simmons - Ron Stewart less than a minute after the break, Bob Pulford (his second) at 13:28, and a punctuation mark from Tim Horton with twenty-two seconds left. Pulford, Stewart and Bert Olmstead had four points apiece and top d-pair Bob Baun and Allan Stanley were each +4 for the evening. [box] [stats]

Bob Pulford bags a pair against the Bs

3 November 1960 - Boston (3) at Detroit (6)

Boston’s road woes deepened as they lost for the sixth time in eight away games, as Norm Ullman scored twice to lead Detroit’s six-goal attack. The Bruins, who have yet to win away from the Boston Garden, fell behind early on Gary Aldcorn’s goal inside of three minutes but bounced back when Doug Mohns scored with the man advantage at 8:40. Less than three minutes after that, however, Ullman put away a slick pass from Gordie Howe and the Red Wings would not trail again. A PPG from Alex Delvecchio early in the second created some space and Parker MacDonald padded that with a fourth Wings tally at 12:10. Even though a power-play goal from Don McKenny made it a two-goal game early in the third, that slim hope was short-lived; Ulllman bagged his brace a minute later, and Howie Glover put it away by making it 6-2 at 14:18. Bob Armstrong spent nineteen minutes in the penalty box for Boston (already short-handed on the back line with the absence of Leo Boivin) thanks to two minors, a straight misconduct, and a pugilistic endeavor with Gerry Odrowski. Marcel Pronovost had three hits and two blocked shots to anchor the Detroit defence. [box] [stats]

Norm Ullman scored twice against the Bruins

3 November 1960 - Toronto (2) at Montréal (5)

An anticipated battle at the top of the standings became anti-climactic when the Canadiens scored five times in the first two periods and to skate the Leafs right out of the Forum. The opening period was fairly even in terms of shots, but Montréal’s went in the net and Toronto’s did not. Dickie Moore and Bobby Rousseau scored two minutes apart early in the period, and then Moore cashed in again five minutes later to put the Maple Leafs back on their heels. The second period was much more lopsided on the ice, as MTL launched 17 of the 22 shots on goal, and added two more goals (Beliveau, Provost) to make it 5-0 before Toronto at least avoided the whitewash on a Red Kelly goal four minutes into the final period. Moore and Beliveau had ten shots between them, while Dic Duff (two points, six SOG) was the lone bright spot in a disappointing performance under the bright lights for Toronto. [box] [stats]

Dickie Moore scored twice in the opneing period

5 November 1960 - Chicago (1) at Montréal (3)

Having heard the reports from Montreal’s demolition of the Leafs just two nights earlier, the Black Hawks came ready to play in their chance to close the gap to the top of the  table. Pierre Pilote was dishing out punishment (four hits) in an effort to stifle the Canadiens high-flying offence, and this was successful in terms of holding Montréal’s top line to a single goal. Unfortunately for Chicago, the supporting cast for the home team did their work, as Don Marshall opened the scoring, Henri Richard closed it, and Jaques Plante stopped all but one of the Hawk’s 32 shots. Ron Murphy scored the only Chicago goal, and Murray Balfour skated his legs off with six shots to lead all skaters as well as a hit.

Don Marshall gets the Habs on the board

5 November 1960 - New York (5) at Toronto (4)

New York scored twice in the final five minutes of the game to get the last laugh, and the two points, from a see-saw contest in Toronto. After a scoreless first period in which the Rangers dominated from start to finish, yet failed to finish in front of goal, the second period was full of back-and-forth action. Each club scored in the first ten minutes, and then Bert Olmstead and Andy Bathgate swapped scores in the next six to make it 2-2, but Bill Gadsby followed Bathgate’s score forty-four seconds later with a drive home from Brian Cullen’s pass and the Rangers took a 3-2 lead into the final period. Lou Fontinato, however, had been caught roughing in the last second of the period, and that cost NY as Frank Mahovlich scored a power-play goal in the first thirty seconds of the third to level matters. It got worse for the visitors when Carl Brewer scored for the Leafs at 7:18 and the Blueshirts were now chasing a game they had only recently led. Bathgate got the tying goal at 15:24 and, in the final minute, Gadsby got his second as well to rescue the Rangers and send the leafs to their second bitterly disappointing loss in a row. [box] [stats]

Andy Bathgate scored twice, including the game-tying goal

Standings as of 5 November 1960

Team	GP	W	L	T	PTS	Pct	GF	GA
Montreal Canadiens	15	8	3	4	20	0.667	61	46
Toronto Maple Leafs	14	8	6	0	16	0.571	32	31
Chicago Black Hawks	13	6	5	2	14	0.538	34	27
New York Rangers	13	5	6	2	12	0.462	43	51
Detroit Red Wings	12	5	6	1	11	0.458	31	27
Boston Bruins	13	2	8	3	7	0.269	28	51

League Leaders

Goals	Team	G
Moore, Dickie	Montreal	13
Beliveau, Jean	Montreal	12
Geoffrion, Bernie	Montreal	10
Keon, Dave	Toronto	8
Three tied with		7

Assists	Team	A
Beliveau, Jean	Montreal	19
Geoffrion, Bernie	Montreal	18
Moore, Dickie	Montreal	17
Harvey, Doug	Montreal	13
Three tied with		11

Points	Team	PTS
Beliveau, Jean	Montreal	31
Moore, Dickie	Montreal	30
Geoffrion, Bernie	Montreal	28
Delvecchio, Alex	Detroit	17
Ullman, Norm	Detroit	16

Penalty Minutes	Team	PIM
Richard, Henri	Montreal	42
Talbot, Jean-Guy	Montreal	34
Armstrong, Bob	Boston	32
Fleming, Reggie	Chicago	23
Bonin, Marcel	Montreal	22

Plus/Minus	Team	+/-
Beliveau, Jean	Montreal	22
Moore, Dickie	Montreal	22
Geoffrion, Bernie	Montreal	20
Langlois, Albert	Montreal	19
Johnson, Tom	Montreal	13

Goals-Against Average	Team	GAA
Sawchuk, Terry	Detroit	2.31
Hall, Glenn	Chicago	2.56
Worsley, Gump	New York	3.01
Plante, Jacques	Montreal	3.07
Bower, Johnny	Toronto	3.29

Save Percentage	Team	PCT
Sawchuk, Terry	Detroit	0.915
Hall, Glenn	Chicago	0.908
Worsley, Gump	New York	0.903
Plante, Jacques	Montreal	0.900
Bower, Johnny	Toronto	0.885

(Boxscores and stats from the BlueLynx hockey spreadsheet.)