After languishing in fifth place for much of the season, the New York Rangers ran roughshod over the League for the final month of the season, going 7-1-3 in their final eleven games (outscoring their opposition 54-23) to vault over the Black Hawks and grab the final spot in the playoffs. The Maple Leafs fell just short in their pursuit of Montréal for the top spot, despite going unbeaten in their last four and 7-3-2 in their final twelve. In their head-to-head meetings, Toronto won six games to New York's five and outscored the Rangers 51 to 43, suggesting a closer matchup than would the standings at first glance . . .
Johnny Wilson scored a playoff hat trick against his former teammates as the Rangers stunned the Leafs on their home ice. Wilson, who was dealt with Pat Hannigan from Toronto to New York on 7 November (after playing only three games for the Leafs) in exchange for Eddie Shack, scored fifteen goals in 56 games for his new team and started the series with a goal after five minutes. The Leafs almost immediately found themselves two men short but Dave Keon scored a short-handed goal after they had killed off the first penalty, and Bob Pulford put them ahead three minutes later. A back-and-forth-period continued to oscillate when Wilson was hauled down from behind by Larry Hillman at 14:40 and awarded a penalty shot, which he caromed into the goal off the left post; two minutes after that Camille Henry, the hottest scorer in the NHL over the final month of the season, stuffed the puck under Cesare Maniago to give New York a breathless 3-2 lead at the first intermission. The game was significantly less eventful in the middle period, but the Rangers continued their skein of ruthless finishing - Andy Bathgate made it 4-2 when he tipped home Bill Gadsby's shot at 9:43 and Wilson finished his trick with a one-timer off a Johns pass from the left face-off dot in the final two minutes of the period to make it a three-goal New York lead with one period left. Observers at rinkside expected the visitors to look to kill off the clock and the game, but the third period became a frenetic exchange of shots on goal that had somehow yielded no scoring as the game entered its final three minutes. But it almost fell apart for the Rangers as the clock ticked down - Bob Nevin scored with just under three minutes to go to get the crowd interested again, and Tom Horton followed that with another just twenty-five seconds later. Out of the blue, it was a one-goal game with more than two minutes left; Maniago left the net for the extra attacker for the final minute, but Toronto couldn't find the tying goal. New York 5, Toronto 4. [box] [stats]
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| Johnny Wilson stung his old mates three times in NY's upset win |
Toronto got goals from five different players as they pulled away from New York in the second half of the game to win a must-have game at Maple Leaf Gardens. It was a scoreless game for the first twenty minutes - nearly - before the teams hit paydirt twice in the final fifteen seconds of the first period. Allan Stanley drove one in from the point for Toronto at 19:46, but New York won the face-off and moved straight into the Leafs zone where Pat Hannigan - the other recent former Ranger - zipped a shot past Cesare Maniago with a single second left on the scoreboard clock. But Hannigan's goal was the last real highlight for the Rangers, as Toronto began to seize control of the game - first came increased possession and then the goals started to follow. John MacMillan made it 2-1 for the Leafs eight minutes into the second (set up by Eddie Shack, the last voice to be heard from the November trade) and Frank Mahovlich scored Toronto's third a few minutes before the second break. Tim Horton and Bob Nevin added goals in the first half of the final period to put it away for good before Floyd Smith redeemed a consolation prize for New York at the end. Toronto 5, New York 2. [box] [stats]
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| Tim Horton delivers one of his two hits, to go with two points and two blocked shots |
A long, exhausting and entertaining night of hockey ended in the fourth minute of extra time when Floyd Smith's overtime goal gave the Rangers a lead in the Series which they had almost managed to give away just ten minutes earlier. The first period saw Toronto carry their late-game momentum into MSG, as they scored three times (two from Frank Mahovlich) to grab a two-goal edge at the intermission. But the second stanza was all New York - while the weight of play was roughly level, it was the Rangers doing the scoring. Camille Henry and George Armstrong traded goals in the first three minutes, and then the game (or, at least, the goal-scoring) quieted down for about ten minutes before the home team buried Johnny Bowere under a three-goal outburst in the span of about five minutes. Harry Howell scored at 14:00 to make it a 4-3 game, and Ted Hampson tied the scores just thirty-three seconds later when Don Johns backhanded a loose puck out of the neutral zone and the checking-line forward took the roundel in stride as he crossed the blue line and zipped it over the glove of Bower for a 5-4 Rangers lead. Surely the two clubs couldn't keep up the pace of the first forty minutes (nine goals from fifty shots on goal) over the next twenty, but they tried; with the officials pocketing their whistles there was more clutch-and-grab, but the goals kept coming nonetheless. Bill Gadsby (four points, +5) gave the Broadway boys a two-goal lead at 4:24, and they kept that distance safe until the game had moved into its final ten minutes. An innocuous-looking shot by Bob Pulford from the top of the left circle found its way past Marcel Paille at 12:07, and the loss of Gump Worsley to a torn muscle late in the season began to look as if it was coming back to haunt NY when Paille was beaten again, this time by Larry Regan with eighty seconds left and Gadsby in the box for a highly inopportune hooking call. Sixty minutes and seventy-two shots had failed to separate the two teams thus far, so on they went to sudden-death overtime. The Rangers controlled the first few minutes of the OT, and Smith punctuated a spell of extended possession in the offensive zone with a wrister that squeezed under the blocker arm of Bower and trickled over the line at 3:20 of the extra period to put New York up by two games to one. New York 7, Toronto 6 (OT). [box] [stats]
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| Bill Gadsby had a goal and three assists from the back line for New York |
Once again Toronto followed a nail-biting defeat with a convincing victory, as five different Leafs recorded goals and Johnny Bower swept aside 28 of 29 Ranger shots. In a contrast to the game of two evenings past, a hotly-contested opening period (hot enough to earn Dick Duff a misconduct) saw just a single goal, as Ron Stewart put the Leafs on the scoreboard first by slapping a diagonal pass from Tim Horton onto the top shelf of Marcel Paille's goal at 14:25. This minor setback seemed to put the Rangers into a tailspin, however, as the Maple LEafs dominated the second period - New York could barely get the puck out of their own end for long stretches while the visitors were scoring three times. Eddie Shack, Bob Nevin and Red Kelly registered goals that made the game a 4-0 affair through two periods and kept the Manhattan crowd largely sitting on its hands. Duff got a fifth for Toronto - before getting dinged for unsportsmanlike conduct as he continued a game-long running feud with Harry Howell that cost him 14 minutes of ice time spent in the box - and Howell himself got a late score for the Rangers to spoil Bower's bid for the whitewash. Toronto 5, New York 1. [box] [stats]
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| Bob Nevin led the Toronto attack with a goal and an assist |
The Series returned to the corner of Carlton and Church Streets and, once again, followed the pattern of alternating high-scoring games that favored the Rangers - three second-period goals gave them a two-goal lead and Marcel Paille made 33 stops as New York held on for the win and once again took a one-game lead in the best-of-seven. The home team were controlling play in the first period, but Tim Horton's early grab of Dean Prentice was caught by the zebras and Andy Hebenton turned the power play into a 1-0 Ranger lead at 5:20 for the only score of the period. The second period would not be so sedate - John MacMillan tied the game within the first minute, and the teams would exchange goals twice in the first ten minutes with Earl Ingarfield and Andy Bathgate (PPG) getting the goals for New York and Bob Pulford the second for Toronto. The back-and-forth was broken when Floyd Smith followed Bathgate ninety seconds later to make it a 4-2 NY lead with twenty minutes to play. Pulford scored again at 1:39 to tighten it back up to a single score, but Camille Henry's goal at 12:43 gave the visitors the breathing space they needed to survive a late score by Bob Nevin. Henry had a goal and an assist on four shots as the Rangers moved to the edge of a Finals place despite being outshot 37-22. New York 5, Toronto 4. [box] [stats]
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| Camille Henry scores the insurance goal on a wrap-around |
This time around, the territorial advantage paid off for the Leafs as New York couldn't find the ranger on their rare opportunities and Toronto won on a third-period goal from Allan Stanley. It was the visitors, though, who got off to the better start as Red Sullivan beat Johnny Bower stick-side with a high drive after about six minutes and the Rangers were carrying the play to Toronto at the start. But the Leafs gradually settled into the game, got even at 7:55 when Johnny Wilson's hooking penalty freed up Frank Mahovlich for a power-play goal, and took the lead at 12:48 when Ron Stewart intercepted Lou Fontinato's clearance at the blue line and walked in to blast the puck past Marcel Paille's flashing glove. New York saw less and less of the puck as the game wore on, but they tied the game regardless after Andy Hebenton scored midway through the middle period, and Paille stopped all twelve Toronto shots to put the Rangers twenty minutes away and one goal away from a Finals berth with the crowd at MSG in full voice. That goal wouldn't come, however, as they could manage just four shots on Bower in the final stanza and it was Stanley who got the game winner - George Armstrong set up Bob Pulford in the left circle and Paille kicked his shot clear, but the rebound came right to the Leafs defenseman crashing the net towards the back post and he flicked the puck over the sprawling Paille at 6:35. Pulford led all skaters with three hits, and the NY defence was vulnerable down the Toronto left as Mahovlich and Dick Duff led with five shots apiece. There will be a winner-take-all Game Seven in Toronto, and New York will have to find a new approach as they have been outshot 77-45 over the past two games. Toronto 3, New York 2. [box] [stats]
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| Allan Stanley's goal early in the third was the difference |
With the season on the line, who would crack first? The flow of the Series thus far suggested that New York would be looking to force a wide-open game while the Leafs would be happy to possess the puck and lean on Johnny Bower, and it looked as if the visitors were having their way in the early going - the clubs combined for 25 first-period shots, but none of those found the twine and New York had wasted man-advantage chances on a pair of Carl Brewer penalties. The second period was more to the Leafs' liking, as the end-to-end play slowed down, and Bower looked impenetrable. The same could have been said for Paille as well, until Frank Mahovlich tapped in a gorgeous feed from Red Kelly at 10:20 to break the seal on the New York net. Forced now to think about pressing forward, the Rangers were caught out four minutes later when Eddie Shack slipped behind his former teammates on a line change, collected Tim Horton's pass, and deked Paille to the ice before lifting the puck over his pads and into the back of the net. The visitors were now down by a pair, with twenty minutes left, despite having improved upon their poor share of the puck control from the previous two games - they needed a goal, and they needed it quickly. The "quickly" part did indeed happen, but at the wrong end of the ice as Dave Keon scored for Toronto only forty-five seconds after the restart to make it 3-0; even Andy Bathgate's goal at 4:42 to finally puncture Bower's force field didn't provide hope for long, as Mahovlich answered that with his League-leading sixth of the playoffs less than four minutes later and Toronto was cruising into its third-consecutive Stanley Cup Finals. Red Kelly had three assists, hitting his stride in his fourth game back after a three-week injury absence, as did Tim Horton. Toronto 5, New York 1. [box] [stats]
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| A healthy Red Kelly (three assists) made all the difference for the Leafs |
New York had an absolutely incredible run over the last month, and was on the brink of carrying that all the way into the Finals, but they ran headlong into two of the immovable objects in the League - Frank Mahovlich had thirty shots on goal in the Series, potting six of them, along with three assists, four hits and a +8, while Johnny Bower stopped 52 of 55 New York shots (0.945 save percentage) in Toronto's final two games on the brink of elimination.
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