Mar. 31, 1964 - Outplayed for 57 minutes but trailing by only one goal, the never-say-die Montreal Canadiens capitalized on two big Toronto miscues tonight and scored a dramatic 3-2 victory over the Maple Leafs before 14,436, the largest crowd of the season at Maple Leaf Gardens, for a 2-1 lead in the Stanley Cup semifinals.
Henri Richard, the diminutive center who hadn’t scored a goal for so long that he couldn’t remember when, saved the game from overtime with the winning tally when there were only 35 seconds left to play. It came just 2:10 after defenseman Jean-Claude Tremblay had tied the score with his first playoff goal in four NHL seasons.
Both of the goals were gifts from the Leafs.
Tremblay got the equalizer when he intercepted Red Kelly’s pass just inside the Toronto zone and shot through a maze of players past goalie Johnny Bower.
Allan Stanley made the miscue that set up Richard for a free skate to the goal mouth, when the Hab center intercepted Stanley’s pass at the Leaf blue line. “I could hardly believe it when Stanley put the puck onto my stick,” Richard said afterward.
Montreal coach Toe Blake admitted after the game that the Canadiens had stolen this victory, adding: “But we are not giving it back to them. We will take it and the Stanley Cup too, if we have to win all the games this way.”
It was a heartbreaker for the Leafs, who deserved victory on the night’s overall play. They were in full command of the game through most of the first two periods and should have been ahead by a much higher margin than 2-1 when the roof fell in.
“There’s no joy in Mudville tonight,” sighed Toronto coach Punch Imlach. “They didn’t win the game, we gave it to them. But what can you say? My two best players in the first two periods, Kelly and Stanley, each made goofs in the final minutes, and it cost us the game.”
For Bob Pulford, the defeat was especially hard to swallow. He scored two goals, and it was also his 28th birthday.
“I thought it was going to be a birthday to remember. It was, but not because I got two goals — because we lost like that.”
Imlach summed up the situation. “We won a game in Montreal earlier in the series. Now, we have to do it again.”
