1960-61 NHL Replay - week ending 26 November 1960

The Rangers and Bruins go back-to-back and the League-pacing Canadiens make a Thanksgiving swing through the Midwest (making some history as they went) . . .

20 November 1960 - Toronto (8) at Boston (1)

A reasonably competitive game disintegrated in a shower of Maple Leaf goals as Toronto scored five times in the third period to bury Boston at North Station. Toronto had been the better team through the first forty minutes, but the game had had its back-and-forth moments; two Leaf goals in the first were answered by Leo Labine's score midway in the second before Frank Mahovlich restored the two-goal lead with a short-handed goal four minutes before the second intermission. The game looked fairly safe for the visitors, but there was at least a modicum of tension. That evaporated when Mahovlich and Dave Keon beat Bruce Gamble in the first two minutes of the final period, and the Bruins collapsed to allow three more goals before the final horn gave them a merciful respite. Toronto's five goals in the final frame out-counted Boston's four shots. Mahovlich's first hat trick of the season was driven by Red Kelly's three assists, and Billy Harris also scored twice. Johnny Bucyk and Charlie Burns (four SOG each) were the only two Bruins who appeared to realize that a game was being played. [box] [stats]

Frank Mahovlich carries the puck to a hat trick against overmatched Boston

20 November 1960 - Montréal (9) at Chicago (0)

The Black Hawks were dealt the worst home loss of their long history, and one of their biggest defeats of all-time, when the Canadiens rode five first-period scores to a humiliating 9-0 pasting in front of a shocked Chicago Stadium crowd. The defeat eclipsed a trio of 7-0 home losses to the Red Wings in the early 50s, and threatened historic 11-goal defeats at Montreal (1954) and Toronto (1946). The game started quietly enough, with no scoring for five minutes although the Canadiens were controlling play, but Jean Beliveau''s goal at 5:14 opened the floodgates; Doug Harvey and Bill Hicke made it 3-0 fifty-seven seconds apart midway through the period, and "Boom Boom" Geoffrion scored twice in nineteen seconds in the final minute of the period to put an exclamation point on a dominant twenty minutes of hockey. While the pace slackened over the course of the remainder of the game, the dominance did not - Marcel Bonin (five points) scored in the second, and Geoffrion finished off his trick with one of Montréal's three final-period goals. Jacques Plante, on the other hand, was hardly troubled and only had to stop nineteen Chicago shots to cinch the shutout. [box] [stats]

Marcel Bonin prepares to pounce on Dickie Moore's rebound

20 November 1960 - Detroit (2) at New York (2)

A nip-and-tuck affair ended with honors even as Andy Bathgate tied the score for the Rangers midway through the second period and the clubs battled on for thirty scoreless minutes. Johnny Wilson gave his new club the lead on the power play at 15:01 of the first, but that edge lasted only eighty seconds before Allan Johnson tipped home a Pete Goegan shot to end the opening period at 1-1. It was the Wings' turn to nose in front when Norm Ullman scored right out of the intermission, but Bathgate redirected Brian Cullen's pass past Hank Bassen at 9:17 to knot the score once again. Neither side could get the upper hand all evening, neither team managing to get more than two shots more than its opponent in any period, and the final third of the game was wound down without another goal as both Bassen and Gump Worsley were on their games. Wilson (6 SOG) and Bathgate (5) were the most active New Yorkers, while Ullman and Gordie Howe (5 each) were the pick of the Wings. [box] [stats]

Johnny Wilson nets the first goal of the game for New York

23 November 1960 - Boston (0) at New York (2)

The Rangers outskated, and eventually outscored, the Bruins at Madison Square Garden despite not taking full advantage of the many chances they were given by the visitors. A nineteen-shot first period yielded zero goals for New York, and a second period that was more to Boston's liking also failed to put any marks on the scoresheet. The home club once again turned up the pressure in the third period and Andy Bathgate finally broke through at 9:21 to end the drought and give the Rangers the lead. Despite a sizable shot discrepancy, however, it was not comfortable for New York until, with eight minutes left, they finally cashed in on the man advantage - on their eighth power-play of the game - with Willie O'Ree watching from the box after a cross-check, Andy Hebenton one-timed Camille Henry's pass behind Bruce Gamble for the insurance required to make the last few minutes tension-free. Gump Worsley stopped all twenty-three Bruin shots and Bathgate and Dean Prentice each fired seven pucks at Gamble's net. [box] [stats]

Gump Worsley denies Don McKenney on his way to the shutout win

24 November 1960 - New York (8) at Boston (6)

After struggling to create chances the night before in Manhattan, the Rangers and Bruins brought a quite different show on the road to Boston twenty-four hours later. A fourteen-goal scoring spree wasn't decided until New York scored twice in a minute-and-a-half late in the third period to finally secure an eventful two points and a clean sweep of the home-and-home. Boston got off the mark first, as Willie O'Ree scored just two minutes after the opemning faceoff, but Don Johns answered at 3:43 and the track meet was underway. Dean Prentice scored to give NY the lead and 11:21 and then stole the puck cleanly after the ensuing face-off and went in alone to beat Bruce Gamble again for a 3-1 Ranger lead at the break. When Andy Bathgate pulled a similar stunt in the middle of the second, scoring at 8:41 and then again at 9:21. the Rangers had built a 5-1 lead and it looked as if a laugher was on the cards. But the Bs scored twice (Boivin, Stasiuk) in the remainder of the middle period to give them some hope headed into the third down by just two. Twice in the first half of the final period they got that margin down to a single goal on power-play scores (BOS was 2-for-5 with the extra man, while the NYR didn't enjoy a single man-advantage situation) but, with the score 6-5, Prentice struck again at 14:26 and Bill Gadsby followed him up with a slapper at 15:55 and that was enough; Orval Tessier's late goal simply added to the offensive statistics. The fourteen goals came on only 44 shots in what was not a proud evening for the netminders, and Bathgate and Prentice enjoyed five-point nights while Bruin defensemen Doug Mohns (three points) and Boivin (two points, three hits) had productive games from the blue line. [box] [stats]

Andy Bathgate celebrates a five-point game against Boston

24 November 1960 - Toronto (1) at Chicago (0)

It took fifty-four minutes of tussling before a goal was finally scored, and it was the Maple Leafs that got the late score to win a defensive battle in Chicago. The teams seemed to have decided before the game started that they were going to play the game close to the vest, and a scoreless first period just reinforced that decision. The middle twenty minutes were almost completely devoid of drama, the clubs combining for only eight attempts at goal, and two of the best goalies in the NHL went into the third period looking for both the win and the whitewash. The Black Hawks seemed to realize they were in danger of dropping valuable points at home, and ramped up their attack a bit in the last twenty minutes, but Johnny Bower was standing tall for Toronto and with just under six minutes to go, an innocuous looking passage of neutral zone play decided the game. Bert Olmstead chipped a puck off the right-wing boards from center ice and the rolling puck got behind the Hawks defense right where Ron Stewart was rushing over the blue line; he skated down the right channel and found the trailing Bob Pulford for a wrist shot the beat Glenn Hall over the blocker for the game's only goal and a Leafs win. Pulford also had two hits and two minor penalties, while Reg Fleming stayed out of the box for once and logged four shots on goal and a hit. [box] [stats]

Bob Pulford is denied by Glenn Hall, but would later solve him for the game-winner

24 November 1960 - Montréal (3) at Detroit (2)

The Red Wings played the high-flying Canadiens to a virtual standstill at the Olympia, but Jean Beliveau's unassisted goal midway in the second period proved to be a bridge too far to prevent the visitors from getting full points. It looked like another high-powered Montréal offensive performance was coming when Bill Hicke and Dickie Moore both scored inside the game's first four minutes, but Detroit managed to staunch the bleeding and then got half of that deficit back when Norm Ullman scored with about two minutes to go in the first period. The game opened up dramatically in the second, with more than thirty shots recorded as pucks flew at the two nets, but only one score would result when Beliveau picked the pocket of Marc Reaume and walked in on Hank Bassen to score off the backhand. Ullman cut it back to a one-goal game again three minutes into the final period, but Montréal checked the Wings tightly all period and Jacques Plante was more than good enough to handle the handful of pucks that made it through the defence. Alex Delvecchio and Gordie Howe took ten shots between them with nothing to show for it. [box] [stats]

Jacques Plante kicks out a Gordie Howe shot en route to a narrow win

26 November 1960 - Chicago (4) at Montréal (7)

Glenn Hall did his best to withstand a 46-shot Canadiens attack but, in the end, third-period goals from Doug Harvey, Jean Beliveau and Bernie Geoffrion were too much for the Hawks to overcome. There were three goals scored in each of the first two periods, and in both cases two of them were credited to Montréal. That 4-2 Canadiens lead only last ninety seconds into the final frame, as Bobby Hull scored on the power play, but Harvey answered with his second just twenty seconds later and Beliveau got his pair at 8:16 to make it 6-3 before the clubs traded goals in the final minutes. Harvey and Geoffrion each had seven shots, and Hicke six, to nearly equal the Black Hawks' team total and League scoring leader Beliveau racked up another five points. [box] [stats]

Just another (five-point) evening at the office for Jean Beliveau

26 November 1960 - Detroit (4) at Toronto (3)

The Red Wings scored twice in the third period to charge from behind and stun the Maple Leafs in their own backyard. The visitors got off to a great start when they scored twice in the first three minutes of the game, Alex Delvecchio scoring on the first rush of the game and Howie Glover ripping one past Johnny Bower at 3:19. But the home team took the punch and came back - Frank Mahovlich scored at 11:28 of the first, and Allan Stanley at 7:00 of the second to bring them all the way back to a tie with more than half the game still to play. When Bob Pulford beat Hank Bassen with three minutes to go in the period all signs were pointing up for the Leafs, who had the lead, the momentum, and had held Detroit to just 16 shots in forty minutes. But the third period would be a different story; while Bassen was holding down the Detroit end the Wings gradually built up the pressure and broke through to tie the game with six minutes to go when Warren Godfrey drove one home from the point. Now it was Toronto who were back on their heels, and they managed to hold out until the final possession of the game when Gordie Howe (3 points, 7 SOG) powered to the front of the net and slid the puck under Bower with thirteen seconds on the clock. [box] [stats]

Gordie Howe overcomes a horde of Leaf defenders to score the late winner

Standings as of 26 November 1960

Team	GP	W	L	T	PTS	Pct	GF	GA
Montreal Canadiens	22	14	4	4	32	0.727	103	63
Toronto Maple Leafs	22	14	8	0	28	0.636	68	58
Detroit Red Wings	23	9	11	3	21	0.457	53	56
New York Rangers	21	8	10	3	19	0.452	64	80
Chicago Black Hawks	22	8	11	3	19	0.432	58	63
Boston Bruins	22	5	14	3	13	0.295	51	84

League Leaders

Goals	Team	G
Beliveau, Jean	Montreal	20
Geoffrion, Bernie	Montreal	18
Moore, Dickie	Montreal	18
Keon, Dave	Toronto	12
Mahovlich, Frank	Toronto	12

Assists	Team	A
Beliveau, Jean	Montreal	29
Geoffrion, Bernie	Montreal	24
Harvey, Doug	Montreal	20
Moore, Dickie	Montreal	20
Delvecchio, Alex	Detroit	19

Points	Team	PTS
Beliveau, Jean	Montreal	49
Geoffrion, Bernie	Montreal	42
Moore, Dickie	Montreal	38
Delvecchio, Alex	Detroit	29
Ullman, Norm	Detroit	25

Penalty Minutes	Team	PIM
Fleming, Reggie	Chicago	67
Richard, Henri	Montreal	63
Talbot, Jean-Guy	Montreal	48
Balfour, Murray	Chicago	39
Hillman, Larry	Toronto	36
Mohns, Doug	Boston	36

Plus/Minus	Team	+/-
Beliveau, Jean	Montreal	40
Geoffrion, Bernie	Montreal	34
Langlois, Albert	Montreal	30
Johnson, Tom	Montreal	29
Moore, Dickie	Montreal	29

Goals-Against Average	Team	GAA
Sawchuk, Terry	Detroit	2.28
Bassen, Hank	Detroit	2.51
Plante, Jacques	Montreal	2.81
Hall, Glenn	Chicago	2.84
Bower, Johnny	Toronto	2.87

Save Percentage	Team	PCT
Bassen, Hank	Detroit	0.919
Sawchuk, Terry	Detroit	0.919
Plante, Jacques	Montreal	0.904
Hall, Glenn	Chicago	0.903
Bower, Johnny	Toronto	0.900

(Boxscores and stats from the BlueLynx hockey spreadsheet.)