1960-61 NHL Replay - week ending 12 November 1960

A home-and-home set between the Wings and Rangers, while the Black Hawks and Toronto tangle twice while looking to gain ground in their chase of the Canadiens . . .

6 November 1960 - Chicago (2) at Boston (3)

The Bruins scored three second-period goals and Don Simmons made twenty saves to earn Boston a one-goal win over the Black Hawks at the Garden. It was a tightly-checked game throughout, with Boston's three-goal second the only period in which either team accumulated ten SOG in a period, and the first twenty minutes passed with no scoring and no power play chances for either team. The second period came to life when Jerry Toppazzini struck on a counter-attack at 3:47 to open the scoring; three minutes later, with Al Arbour in the box and the Bs looking to press their advantage, Ron Murphy scored a shortie and the game was well and truly on. At the midway mark of the period, Gerry Ouellette poked home the rebound of a Vic Stasiuk shot to put the Bruins back in front and with three minutes left to go the Hawks got careless and Jack Evans and Moose Vasko found themselves headed to the bin within thirty seconds of each other. Just ten seconds into the resulting 5-on-3, Charlie Burns beat Glenn Hall from Stasiuk's pass and the home team had been presented with a two-goal lead heading into the final period. Simmons held that up for most of the duration, but Eric Nesterenko broke through at 15:33 and a nervy five minutes followed for the Boston bench and crowd; Chicago pulled the goalie for the final hundred seconds but Simmons and his defence held firm. Bobby Hull went home empty despite five shots, and Burns and Ouellette led the Bruins with four each. [box] [stats]

Charlie Burns' PP goal sealed the win for Boston

6 November 1960 - New York (2) at Detroit (4)

The Red Wings outscored the Rangers in a crazy third period that saw them eventually earn a two-goal win at home. Len Lunde's goal nine minutes into the game had put Detroit out front and this had still been the lone tally, on nearly thirty total shots, when the teams returned to the Olympia ice to start the final period. But that was to change drastically in the final twenty minutes. A high-stick by Ken Schinkel gave Detroit a PP opportunity five minutes in, and Allan Johnson converted from Murray Oliver to make it 2-0 for the home team. The Rangers were not done quite yet, however, as their fourth line struck twice in a thirty-second span to tie the game, Brian Cullen scoring both goals with assists from Eddie Shack as trade rumors continued to swirl around the young Ranger winger. But the Wings would have the last laugh courtesy of an outburst of their own - Pete Goegan and Howie Glover scored forty-six seconds apart just a minute and a half after Cullen's brace and that was more than New York could survive. [box] [stats]

[Late the following evening, Shack was traded to Toronto in exchange for two wingers - veteran Johnny Wilson and 24 year-old former Western Hockey League All-Star Pat Hannigan.]

Brian Cullen scores twice in a losing cause for NY

9 November 1960 - Toronto (2) at Chicago (0)

Johnny Bower stopped all 26 Chicago shots and new Maple Leaf Eddie Shack jumped right into his new sweater with the game-winning goal. On his first shift with Toronto, skating on the fourth line alongside Billy Harris and first-line pivot Red Kelly, Shack bullied his way to the front of the net and tipped Kelly's saucer pass through Glenn Hall's five-hole at 3:29 to give the Leafs a lead they really didn't earn with their first-period play. But Bower kept them in front by turning away twelve Chicago shots, and they looked much more fluid in the second period. When Moose Vasko got the extra two minutes out of a dust-up with Larry Hillman with two minutes to go in the period, Toronto capitalized with the power-play goal from Ron Stewart to double their lead with twenty minutes to play. Bower only had to face seven shots in that time, as the Leaf defence held a firm grip on proceedings, and he was up to the task on all seven as he earned the shutout win. It was a physical night at the Stadium as there were nearly 60 PIMs in the contest, including two misconducts, and three Hawks (Fleming, Hull, McDonald) each placed three hits. [box] [stats]

Johnny Bower denies Stan Mikita for one of his 26 saves

9 November 1960 - Detroit (1) at New York (3)

Gump Worsley and the Ranger defence held Detroit scoreless for fifty-seven minutes and used forty shots of their own to skate past Detroit and earn a split of their Sunday-Wednesday series. The visiting Wings dominated the first period, outshooting New York 14-8, but the Rangers balanced things out in the second and neither team could put a puck into the net past Worsley or Hank Bassen. Whatever Alf Pike said to the Rangers in the dressing room before the final period, however, ought to be bottled and sold as the home team came onto the ice and ran roughshod over the visitors. They buried Bassen under twenty-one shots in twenty minutes, and three of those hit the strings; Dean Prentice broke the scoreless tie at 2:43, and Andy Bathgate scored (on Prentice's assist) at 11:34 to give NY a two-goal lead. After Gordie Howe scored with three minutes left while Johnny Wilson was serving out a tripping call, there was potential for some drama, but Bathgate beat Bassen again at 19:18 to secure the deserved win for the Rangers. Lou Fontinato was a physical presence all evening with four hits and two blocked shots. [box] [stats]

Lou Fontinato puts Gordie Howe into the boards for one of his four hits

10 November 1960 - Detroit (0) at Boston (3)

After the first forty games of the season saw only two shutouts, the second in as many nights happened in Boston as Don Simmons recorded his League-best second whitewash to lead the Bruins to a win over the Wings. Jim Bartlett got the Bs off to a positive start when he scored 5:47 into the game, but it was still nip-and-tuck at 1-0 headed into the third with both Simmons and Hank Bassen on top form. But Pete Goegan's tripping penalty six minutes into the final period opened a crack for Boston, who have suddenly become a handful when playing at the Boston Garden, to seize firm control of the game. Charlie Burns (six shots) obliged with a shot from near the right wall that deflected home off of a skate in front of Bassen and Simmons had a second score with which to work. When Doug Mohns erased the potential drama of a Bob Armstrong penalty with five minutes to go by scoring short-handed from Burns' helper, the Bs were in the clear and Simmons finished off his 31-save virtuoso performance. The Wings' top line came out of the evening with nothing despite twelve shots at Simmons and Fern Flaman had three hits for Boston. [box] [stats]

Don Simmons records his second clean sheet of the campaign

10 November 1960 - New York (1) at Montréal (5)

The Canadiens skated rings around the Rangers at the Forum, piling up 48 shots against an overmatched Jack McCartan. Seventeen of those shots came in the opening period, and McCartan parried all but two of them - "Boom Boom" Geoffrion's snapshot at 14:30, followed by a back-breaking 25-foot short-handed goal by Jean-Guy Talbot two minutes later. New York leveled the ice a bit in the second, but couldn't beat Jacques Plante while League scoring leader Jean Beliveau was making it 3-0 at 15:36. The third period was a track meet, with the teams combining for 36 shots, but Montréal made the difference happen at the finishing end by putting a pair more past the Olympian to run up a five-goal bulge before Plante was finally blemished by NY new boy Johnny Wilson (seven SOG) at 13:20. Andy Bathgate handed out three hits on an off offensive night, while Beliveau and Albert Langlois (G, A, hit) each sent seven pucks in McCartan's direction. [box] [stats]

Jean-Guy Talbot's short-handed portended doom for the Rangers

12 November 1960 - Detroit (1) at Montréal (4)

Montréal continued to look unbeatable at the Forum these days, as they steamrolled Detroit to solidify their spot at the top of the standings. The Canadiens outshot the Wings 31-9 in the first two periods while skating out to a 3-1 lead, Detroit only getting on the board when Gordie Howe scored on the power play with a single second remaining on the clock in the second period. The home team got goals in the first ten minutes from Dickie Moore and Bill Hicke, and Ralph Backstrom made it 3-0 at 9:38 of the middle period. The tempo of the game diminished significantly in the third, and Hicke got his second at 12:38 with some help from Claude Provost's pass. Stay-at-home defenseman Tom Johnson had nine shots for Montréal, while Howe missed a golden chance at a second goal when Jacques Plante denied him on a third-period penalty shot. [box] [stats]

Bill Hicke's two goals lead the Canadiens to a dominant win

12 November 1960 - Chicago (1) at Toronto (3)

Chicago came into Toronto really needing a win, after dropping two points at home to the Leafs earlier in the week, but they certainly didn't play with the urgency one would have expected. They only got thirteen pucks on Johnny Bower in the first forty minutes, and by the end of that spell they were already looking up out of a three-goal-deep hole. After thirty minutes of scoreless but fairly one-sided hockey, the Leafs rode special teams play to their first two goals, Dave Keon getting his third SHG of the young season with Allan Stanley in the box and Frank Mahovlich getting a power-play marker less than five minutes later while Al Arbour was cooling his heels and contemplating a career in management. In the final minute of the period Keon scored again, this time without the benefit of being a man down, and the outcome was essentially decided. Ron Murphy did get one back for the Hawks to avoid the shutout, but 26 minutes in penalties and a zero-point night from their top line were indicative of how things went for the visitors. [box] [stats]

More short-handed wizardry from Dave Keon

Standings as of 12 November 1960

Team	GP	W	L	T	PTS	Pct	GF	GA
Montreal Canadiens	17	10	3	4	24	0.706	70	48
Toronto Maple Leafs	16	10	6	0	20	0.625	56	47
Chicago Black Hawks	16	6	8	2	14	0.438	44	42
New York Rangers	16	6	8	2	14	0.438	49	61
Detroit Red Wings	16	6	9	1	13	0.406	37	39
Boston Bruins	15	4	8	3	11	0.367	34	53

League Leaders

Goals	Team	G
Moore, Dickie	Montreal	14
Beliveau, Jean	Montreal	13
Geoffrion, Bernie	Montreal	11
Keon, Dave	Toronto	10
Mohns, Doug	Boston	8
Murphy, Ron	Chicago	8

Assists	Team	A
Beliveau, Jean	Montreal	20
Geoffrion, Bernie	Montreal	19
Moore, Dickie	Montreal	17
Harvey, Doug	Montreal	15
Delvecchio, Alex	Detroit	13

Points	Team	PTS
Beliveau, Jean	Montreal	33
Moore, Dickie	Montreal	31
Geoffrion, Bernie	Montreal	30
Delvecchio, Alex	Detroit	19
Three tied with		17

Penalty Minutes	Team	PIM
Richard, Henri	Montreal	46
Armstrong, Bob	Boston	34
Talbot, Jean-Guy	Montreal	34
Balfour, Murray	Chicago	28
Fleming, Reggie	Chicago	27

Plus/Minus	Team	+/-
Beliveau, Jean	Montreal	26
Moore, Dickie	Montreal	25
Langlois, Albert	Montreal	23
Geoffrion, Bernie	Montreal	22
Johnson, Tom	Montreal	18

Goals-Against Average	Team	GAA
Sawchuk, Terry	Detroit	2.31
Bassen, Hank	Detroit	2.50
Hall, Glenn	Chicago	2.58
Worsley, Gump	New York	2.81
Plante, Jacques	Montreal	2.82

Save Percentage	Team	PCT
Bassen, Hank	Detroit	0.918
Sawchuk, Terry	Detroit	0.915
Worsley, Gump	New York	0.909
Hall, Glenn	Chicago	0.908
Plante, Jacques	Montreal	0.906

(Boxscores and stats from the BlueLynx hockey spreadsheet.)