Red Wings Top Black Hawks in Chicago

Mar. 3, 1965 - The Red Wings rocketed themselves into the first-place picture tonight with a playoff-style 2-0 victory over the Black Hawks in Chicago.

Floyd Smith’s second-period deflection and Norm Ullman’s clinching empty-netter plus Roger Crozier’s outstanding netminding resulted in Detroit’s first victory of the season in cavernous Chicago Stadium. And it came in their seventh and final regular season game there.

The victory jumped the Wings into a second-place tie with the Montreal Canadiens and left them only three points behind the league-leading hawks, who have played three more games than the Wings.

Tonight, Wing boss Sid Abel went back to the strategy he employed successfully in the playoffs in Chicago last season and, to some degree, during the Wings’ last visit.

It consisted of dropping his center back in the defensive zone to act as a roving third defenseman.

Alex Delvecchio and Ullman were the “rovers” and, although Chicago had the play edge in the first 20 minutes, the Hawks didn’t get on the scoreboard.

With Chicago’s Stan Mikita serving time for holding in the second period, Ullmann passed out from behind the Hawk net to Delvecchio at the blue line and Delvecchio slapped it.

Floyd Smith, standing to goalie Glenn Hall’s right, got his stick on it to tip it into the far corner of the net.

Ullman’s clincher was his 28th goal of the season, matching his previous NHL best in 1960-61.

The Hawks, who fired 30 times at Crozier, yanked Hall with 45 seconds left but couldn’t get a shot on goal, and Gordie Howe narrowly missed on a long shot at the Hawk cage.

Crozier’s shutout was his sixth of the season and is tops in the league.

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