News and notes from the hockey world on  this day, fifty years ago.

AHL season faces off

The American Hockey League dropped the puck on their 1964-65 season last night with a pair of contests.  In Baltimore, the visiting Quebec Aces blanked the Baltimore Clippers 4-0, while in Providence, RI, the Reds doubled the Pittsburgh Hornets, 4-2.

Bill Sutherland led the way for the Aces with a pair of goals.  Keke Mortson and Guy Rousseau each scored once .  Gump Worsley turned aside 29 Baltimore drives to record the shut out.  Marcel Pelletier manned the nets for the Clippers.

Bill Sutherland – 2 goals for Quebed

Yves Locas was the scoring hero for Providence in their win over Pittsburgh, scoring two goals.  Len Ronson and Jimmy Bartlett rounded out the scoring for the Reds.

The Western Hockey League also kicked off their season in Los Angeles, California.  The Blades  blasted the Victoria Maple Leafs by a score of 7-3.  Brian Smith’s two goals topped the list of scorers for Los Angeles.

Lottery tickets seized

In Montreal last night, the Quebec Provincial Police morality squad seized more than one million hockey pool tickets from a private home near Ville d’Auteuil.  Two women and a man will be arraigned in court today.

A gas explosion badly damaged the Dayton, Ohio arena yesterday.  A maintenance man was injured but about a dozen other workers escaped unscathed.  The building is a new arena which was slated to open on October 19.  The damage is estimated at $300,000.

Apparently the maintenance worker was drilling a hole when gas that had leaked from a furnace line ignited.  The blast blew the man through the wall and part of the building’s room fell on him.  His condition was unknown at press time.

Two new NHL trophies

The NHL board of governors approved the awarding of two new trophies for the 1964-65 season yesterday.

The Lester Patrick trophy will be awarded for outstanding service to hockey in the United States.  All officers, coaches and executives of the four U.S. NHL clubs will be eligible.

Lester Patrick – NHL names a trophy in his honour

The Toronto Maple Leafs have donated the Conn Smythe Trophy to the National Hockey League, to be awarded to the outstanding player in the Stanley Cup playoffs each season.  In addition to the hardware, the winning player will receive $1000.  The governors will be the selection committee for the trophy, which will be awarded immediately following the deciding game of the final series.

Red Wings – Habs trade scuttled

Going into training camp, it appeared that the Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Canadiens were finally going to consummate the long rumoured trade that would send goaltender Lorne (Gump) Worsley to the Wings.  Both clubs apparently wanted to see the roly-poly netminder perform in camp before signing off on the deal.  Worsley had a good camp, so Wings’ GM Sid Abel revisited talks with Sam Pollock, his Montreal counterpart in an effort to complete the transaction.

Gump Worsley – won’t be going to Detroit, for now.

Pollock, however, decided against sending Worsley to the Motor City after watching last year’s first string goalie, Charlie Hodge, perform poorly throughout camp.  So the deal was called off, assuring Pollock a viable Plan B if Hodge continues to struggle.

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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This article was originally published at The Hockey Writers