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Bruins Top Rangers at Boston Garden on Prentice’s Heroics

Dec. 7, 1963 - A former Ranger wing, Dean Prentice (pictured), scored two goals late in the final period tonight before 12,121 at Boston Garden to give the Bruins an 8-6 victory over New York. Two Rangers, Earl Ingarfield and Rod Gilbert, were hospitalized with injuries. The incident that felled Ingarfield occurred toward the end of the second period. Hit with a legal body check by Boston defenseman Eddie Westfall, Earl hit his head on the glass boards. Ingarfield remained on the ice for some time before he was helped to the first aid room. When he failed to regain consciousness, Dr. Ronald Adams, Bruins team physician, ordered the player to Massachusetts General Hospital for observation. Ingarfield was still dressed in his game uniform when he was removed from the Garden by ambulance. Doctors decided to hold him in the hospital for 48 hours. In the same sequence, Gilbert was cut between the eyes on an accidental swipe of Murray Oliver’s stick in a scramble around the net. Gilbert was treated in the emergency room of Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital for a bruise to the left eye, but he was not detained. The Bruins’ goal total was the highest by a team this season, while the 14-goal two-team total was also a season high. Johnny Bucyk of the Bruins had a goal and four assists for five points. Prentice’s scores of the final period shattered a 6-6 tie that had existed from the 11:35 mark, when Jim Neilson of the Rangers scored his first goal of the season. The other Ranger goals were scored by Gilbert, Andy Bathgate, Val Fonteyne, and Phil Goyette. During the game, the customers got quite restless at times during a two-way display which placed very little emphasis on back-checking or defense. One box seat spectator vented his displeasure by heaving his chair out on the ice in the general direction of the Boston bench. But after Prentice’s heroics, all was forgiven. The faithful were cheering just as though the Bruins had walked off with the Stanley Cup.

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