Jan. 29, 1964 - The Black Hawks, who have enjoyed outright or shared the luxury of first place in the NHL since Oct. 12, tonight were ousted from the penthouse by the Detroit Red Wings. The Wings scored twice in the final period to effect a 2-2 tie, about which 15,082 Chicago Stadium patrons were unhappy.
Until Ed Joyal tied the game at 1-1 in the 44th minute of toil and rookie Paul Henderson matched the 25th season goal of Stan Mikita with only 6:06 to go, the Red Wings had been having a somewhat unlucky night of it. Earlier, three Detroit shots — by Gordie Howe, Alex Delvecchio, and Floyd Smith — had struck Chicago goal posts. The opening goal by Bobby Hull was his 33rd of the season. It was a thing of beauty to practically everyone save Roger Crozier, Detroit goalie. The Golden Jet let fly with a 60-foot blast at 11:38 of the opening period, and it knocked the goalie down, zipped into the cage, and gave the Hawks a 1-0 lead which they nursed for quite a while. After Joyal spoiled goalie Glenn Hall’s budding shutout to tie it in the third period, the Hawks were deprived of a goal by the officials. Ken Wharram skated around the Wings’ cage and dumped the puck into the net, but the referee ruled the whistle had blown. Then Mikita took a pass from Reg Fleming and fired a shot past Crozier for a short-lived 2-1 Hawk lead. But rookie Henderson beat Hall before the finish and the Hawks were elbowed out of first place by Montreal, who beat Toronto tonight, 2-1.
Hull, who fought Detroit’s John Miszuk (pictured) in the second period, is now six games ahead of his record-tying performance of 1961-62, when he tied the league mark of 50 goals in a season. And Mikita’s goal, coupled with an assist on Hull’s tally, helped him to a four-point edge over Hull in their race for the individual scoring leadership. Stan now has 63 points, Bob 59.
