The Boston Bruins lost more than a hockey game last night in Montreal when they dropped a 2-1 decision to the Canadiens.  Forward Bobby Leiter was lost to the team for about three months with a badly broken arm. In the other NHL game, the Toronto Maple Leafs were jeered lustily by Maple Leaf Gardens fans as they put on a lacklustre  performance in a 4-1 loss to the New York Rangers.

Pocket Rocket gets his 200th

At Montreal, Henri Richard was the scoring star for the Habs as he scored his 200th National Hockey League goal and set up the game-winner.  The victory ended a three-game losing streak for the Canadiens.

Henri Richard netted his 200th career goal.

After a scoreless first period, Richard scored his milestone marker early in the second to open the scoring, his second goal in only three games played this season.  He appears to be fully recovered from the groin injury that had him sidelined for most of this season, playing a dominating game at both ends of the ice.  The goal came on a pretty set up by Dave Balon.  Henri got to within five feet of Boston goalkeeper Eddie Johnston at which point he made a quick deke to fake Johnson out of position and deposit the puck into the unguarded left side of the cage.

The Bruins evened things up only a couple of minutes later on Tommy Williams’ first goal of the season.  It was a power play marker, coming while John Ferguson was off for cross-checking.  Charlie Hodge had made a great save on Johnny Bucyk but Williams knocked home the rebound.

J.C. Tremblay scored the winner early in the final frame, with help from Bobby Rousseau and Richard.  Tremblay beat Johnston with a point shot that caught the far corner.

Leiter’s injury has been diagnosed as a double fracture of the left arm.  He was injured when he received a hard body check from Montreal winger Jim Roberts.  Leiter crashed heavily into the boards as a result of the collision.

Bobby Leiter: out 3 months with double fracture of arm.

Montreal outshot Boston 40-23.

Leafs lay an egg

In Toronto, the Rangers employed strong forechecking and some bruising blue-line work by Jimmy Neilson and Harry Howell to completely neutralize any ideas the Leafs had of generating an attack.

Bob Pulford gave Leafs fans some false hope when he scored only 1:37 into the game off a Ron Stewart rebound.  It was all down hill for Toronto from there.

Camille Henry, who always seems to come up big against Toronto, fired a pair of goals to pace the New York attack.  His first goal came shortly after Pulford’s marker to tie the game.  He then scored the winner, helped by Phil Goyette’s second assist and some smart play by rookie Rod Seiling.

Camille Henry scored two for Rangers.

Seiling put the Rangers up by a couple early in the second, beating Terry Sawchuk with a screened shot from well out.  Goyette rounded out the scoring with a power play goal in the third.

Throughout the game, the Leafs heard the hoots of derision from their  fans.  At times Toronto seemed as frustrated as the over 14,000 paying customers, and they took 11 of the 18 penalties handed out by referee Bill Friday.

On the few occasions when the Leafs did manage to get something dangerous going on offence, Ranger netminder Jacques Plante was more than up to the task.  He was particularly sharp against Ron Ellis and Red Kelly in the third.  Former Leafs Bob Nevin and Dick Duff were especially strong in penalty-killing roles for the Rangers.

AHL: Hot Hershey trumps Aces

The red-hot Hershey Bears waltzed into Quebec City last night and dealt the Quebec Aces a severe beating, blasting the Aces 6-2. Keith McCreary fired a pair of goals for the Bears to lead the way, with singles coming off the sticks of Pete Conacher, Barry Ashbee, Murray Balfour and Bruce Cline.  Guy Gendron and Red Berenson replied for Quebec.

Keith McCreary

Rochester Americans outlasted the Pittsburgh Hornets 8-5.  Young Peter Stemkowski paced the Rochester attack with two tallies.  Singles were scored by Dick Gamble, Bronco Horvath, Ed Litzenberger, Stan Smrke, Terry Clancy and Norm Armstrong.  Ron Harris, Teddy Hampson, Andre Pronovost, Irv Spencer and Warren Godfrey had the Hornets goals.

In Springfield, Buffalo Bisons goaltender Denis DeJordy was flawless, making 34 saves en route to a 1-0 shut out win over the Indians.  Jerry Melnyk scored the contest’s only goal with less than three minutes to play in the third period. It came off a back hand shot from about 12 feet that beat Springfield goaler Jacques Caron over his left shoulder.

Author information

Rick Cole

Video Analyst at Stathletes Inc.

Retired police detective, involved in hockey at all levels for over 50 years. Member of Society for International Hockey Research and presently a video analyst for the leader in advanced hockey analytics (we work exclusively for 2 NHL clubs, and provide advice on an ad hoc basis to many other clients). Currently the Assistant General Manager for the Pelham Pirates of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League. Previously owned the Faceoff computer hockey simulation and also provided all player ratings for the EA Sports series of NHL computer games from the late 90's into the mid 2000's.

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