Dec. 17, 1964 - Third‐period goals by John Ferguson and Jacques LaPerriere (pictured) gave the Montreal Canadiens a 2‐2 deadlock with the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight at the Montreal Forum.
LaPerriere, who got his fourth goal of the season, said it was his first NHL tally on a backhander.
“When you are in so deep, it’s time to shoot,” said Jacques. “So, I tried the backhand and hoped for the best.”
The tie, before a crowd of 14,410, assured the Canadiens of remaining in first place as second‐place Detroit lost to Boston. It was costly, however, because the Canadiens lost Gilles Tremblay, a wing, late in the final period when he was checked into the boards by Ron Ellis and suffered a broken right leg. Tremblay, who celebrated his 29th birthday today, was carried from the ice on a stretcher and rushed to the hospital.
Club physiotherapist Bill Head later revealed the seriousness of the injury.
“There’s a definite break in the right leg, but we won’t know how bad until X-rays are taken,” he said.
Toward the end of tonight’s game, Toronto goalie Johnny Bower had to make a great toe save from Henri Richard to preserve the tie for Toronto. However, Leafs coach Punch Imlach thought his team deserved to win on the night’s play.
“This is the best we’ve skated here and the first time in a month that I’ve had both Bobby Pulford and [Frank] Mahovlich against the Canadiens. But it was quite a hockey game.”
Imlach was high on the two-way effort of young Ellis and made a point of claiming that the injury to Tremblay was an accident.
Canadiens coach Toe Blake may have thought otherwise, as did the crowd who jeered referee Bill Friday for his tendency to let things go in the rough contest. The Habs drew five of the nine minor penalties.
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