Dec. 12, 1964 - Henri Richard (pictured) scored his fifth and sixth goals of the season tonight in leading the Canadiens to a 7-1 victory over the New York Rangers at the Montreal Forum.
Montreal goals were also scored by Dave Balon, Gilles Tremblay, Claude Larose, and Ralph Backstrom as the Canadiens ran up their highest scoring total of the season.
The only Ranger goal was scored by Vic Hadfield in the second period.
The Rangers played without Harry Howell, Arnie Brown, and Bob Nevin — out with injuries — and their captain and high scorer, Camille Henry, hurt his right arm when checked along the boards in the first period. Camille spent the rest of the night on the bench.
The Rangers now have allowed 13 goals in their last two games. They lost to Chicago Wednesday, 6-1.
Montreal moved Into first place in the standing, a point ahead of the Red Wings, who lost in Detroit.
Richard, who missed 14 of the Canadiens’ first 15 games, has scored five times in his last eight games to spark the Canadiens during their current streak of six victories in seven games.
Richard’s first goal came on a sharply angled slider along the ice that whipped past Marcel Paille and into the far corner. On his second, he raced in off left wing and faked Paille flat on his face before depositing the puck behind the goalie as he sped by the net.
Emile Francis, the little man who succeeded Muzz Patrick as general manager of the Rangers, seemed to have a premonition of what was coming a few hours before the game.
“We’re getting hit by injuries,” said Francis. “We’re going to be without Howell tonight, and he’s been our leader at the blue line, and we’re not going to have Nevin, who’s been our best forward. We won’t have Arnie Brown either, one of our good rookie defensemen.”
Moving up into the general manager’s spot hasn’t made any radical change in Francis’ life or his work.
“I’ve been living in New York for three years now,” he said. “I was Muzz’s assistant in charge of the farm clubs, and I did a lot of traveling. I’m still doing it. Pat Doyle, the club secretary, takes a lot of the paperwork off my hands. Player personnel is my primary concern.”
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