Oct. 28, 1964 - Shooting and skating is still the name of the game. So, the Canadiens came up with a tremendous effort against the weak Toronto defense tonight to whip the Leafs, 5-2, before 14,006 fans at Maple Leaf Gardens.
It was the Habs’ third straight road victory, combined with three ties at home and left them the only unbeaten team in the NHL.
Claude Larose, the 22-year-old forward, made another big bid to stick as a right winger when he scored two goals. Ralph Backstrom (left), skating like a demon throughout the game, tallied once and set up another by linemate Claude Provost. Bobby Rousseau came up with his best performance of the early campaign with a goal and an assist.
Rousseau scored one of the best goals of the game when he shot from the blueline and beat Johnny Bower high on the left side. It appeared that ageless Johnny got a piece of it, but Terry Sawchuk, the other Toronto goalie, knew otherwise.
“Johnny didn’t have a chance on that one,” said Sawchuk. “It was one of Rousseau’s better shots.”
The entire Toronto defense corps was listless. Possibly, they left a lot of their hockey at Chicago in a tough 3-2 win over the Hawks Tuesday.
Nevertheless, Charlie Hodge came up with a steady effort, and coach Toe Blake lauded the little goalie for two fine saves early in the third period, when the score was only 3-2.
“We were lucky that Charlie made those two big stops, or it might have been a different game,” said Blake.
The coach rated it his team’s “best skating game” so far. Still, only two forward lines appeared to be going well — Backstrom, Provost, and Dave Balon and the trio of Rousseau, Larose, and Gilles Tremblay, who showed signs of coming out of his slump.
Jean Beliveau and his mates couldn’t get untracked, and Blake used three right wingers, Yvan Cournoyer, Bill Hicke, and Jim Roberts, along with portsider John Ferguson.
“Roberts is a stronger checker than Cournoyer, so I decided to stick with him after we took the lead,” said Blake.
Referee Vern Buffey called 19 penalties, including a misconduct to Toronto rearguard Kent Douglas and a bench penalty against the Canadiens after they banged their sticks about a disputed goal by Jean Beliveau in the second period.
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