Apr. 25, 1964 - The Toronto Maple Leafs shrugged off their injuries and won their third straight Stanley Cup championship tonight at Maple Leaf Gardens, overwhelming the Detroit Red Wings, 4-0, in the seventh game of the NHL final.
With three key players playing with leg injuries frozen with injections of painkillers, the Leafs blasted the Wings in the most decisive game of the series. The six other games were decided by goals in the dying stages, with two of them going to sudden death overtime.
Andy Bathgate gave the Leafs a 1-0 lead early in the first period. The Wings battled gamely in an effort to tie but couldn’t beat 39-year-old Johnny Bower in the Toronto nets. Then the Detroit club ran out of gas, and Dave Keon, Red Kelly, and captain George Armstrong completed the rout with goals in the third period.
Kelly, a former Red Wing great, was outstanding in his 142nd Stanley Cup playoff game — a record — although he was a doubtful starter until the opening whistle because of a severely wrenched knee picked up in the sixth game. With the knee frozen, he played a solid two-way game, especially in keeping Detroit leader Gordie Howe in check. Red was taken to Toronto General Hospital in a wheelchair after the victory, apparently having aggravated the injury late in the game.
Tough-as-nails Bob Baun required a similar needle to deaden the pain of a suspected broken bone in his lower right leg but played a crashing game on Leafs’ defense. His partner, Carl Brewer, also shone, with needles numbing rib and leg injuries.
Armstrong accepted the Stanley Cup from NHL president Clarence Campbell in a center-ice ceremony immediately after the game, as 14,571 roared approval.
Each full-share member of the Leafs receives $4,000 for the victory — $2,000 for winning the Cup and the rest for the club’s third-place finish in the regular season and semifinal victory over the first-place Montreal Canadiens.
Each Detroit player receives $2,750 — $1,000 as a member of the finalist and the rest for finishing fourth and eliminating second-place Chicago in the other semifinal.
The Leafs have won the historic trophy 10 times, second only to the Canadiens, who have won it 13 times — 11 since the formation of the NHL in 1917.
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