April 16, 1954: Only twice in the history of the Stanley Cup Finals has a Game 7 gone to overtime. They happened within 4 years of each other, and both were won by the Detroit Red Wings.
The Wings had won the Cup in 1950, when Pete Babando scored in double overtime of Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. They won it again in 1952, becoming the 1st team ever to sweep the 2 rounds of the Playoffs in 8 straight. They still had enough talent to start a future Hall-of-Famer at every position: The Production Line of right wing Gordie Howe and left wing Ted Lindsay had a new center, with Alex Delvecchio replacing the retired Sid Abel; Jack Stewart had retired, but Red Kelly and Marcel Pronovost were on defense; and Terry Sawchuk had succeeded Harry Lumley in goal.
In the Finals, they would face the Montreal Canadiens. Les Habitantes (or the Habs, for short) had lost the Finals to the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1951 and the Wings in '52, but had won the Cup in '53, so they went in as the defending Champions.
Like the Wings, the Canadiens could start a Hall-of-Famer at every position. Right wing Maurice "the Rocket" Richard and center Elmer Lach were left over from the Punch Line of the 1940s, with the now-retired Hector "Toe" Blake on the left. There was also right wing Bernie "Boom-Boom" Geoffrion, left wing Bert Olmstead, and 3 future HOF defensemen: Émile "Butch" Bouchard, Doug Harvey and Tom Johnson. And, finishing their 1st full seasons in Montreal, center Jean Béliveau and goaltender Jacques Plante. However, it was Gerry McNeil, last season's Cup-winning goalie, who would be in the net for Montreal. Both of these teams were loaded.
The 1st 2 games, at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit, were split: The Red Wings won Game 1, 3-1; and the Canadiens won Game 2, by the same score. The action moved to the Montreal Forum, and the Wings won, 5-2 and 2-0. All they had to do was win Game 5 at home, but Ken Mosdell scored at 5:45 of overtime, and the Canadiens stayed alive, 1-0. Back in Montreal, the Habs held home ice, winning 4-1.
Game 7 was set for the Olympia on April 16. Hockey writers tend not to use the expression "Game of the Century" -- though they would do so for a later game at the Montreal Forum, the December 31, 1975 3-3 exhibition-game tie with the Soviet Union's Central Red Army team -- but, given the talent on the ice, and what happened in the game, had it been used for this one, it would have been justified.
Floyd Curry opened the scoring at 9:17 of the 1st period, giving the Canadiens the lead. At 1:17 of the 2nd, Kelly tied it. There was no scoring in the 3rd period, and the game went to overtime.
Boston Bruin fans won't like reading this, but Doug Harvey was doing the kind of things that Bobby Orr would do a generation later, becoming the 1st truly offensive defenseman. The difference was, Harvey was doing it in Canada, and on radio; while Orr did it in America, and on American television, and that's the main reason Orr is considered a contender for the title of the greatest player ever, along with Howe and Wayne Gretzky, and Harvey is not.
Orr won 8 Norris Trophies as the NHL's top defensemen, and 2 Stanley Cups. The Norris wasn't given out for the 1st time until 1954, and Kelly won it, but Harvey won 7 of the next 8, with Johnson winning the other; and won 6 Stanley Cups. Red Storey, an NHL referee at the height of Harvey's career, called him the smartest player in the game: "If he'd been a general, he'd have won every war." (Harvey was not related to the umpire of the same name who was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.)
So it was with some irony that Harvey "scored" the most famous "own goal" in hockey history: At 4:29 of the 1st overtime, Tony Leswick launched a slap shot, and it deflected off Harvey, and past McNeill. There was nothing that either Harvey or McNeil could do, and the Wings were 2-1 winners, and Stanley Cup Champions.
Leswick, 31, was 1 of 3 brothers to play in the NHL, and an uncle of later baseball star Lenny Dykstra. He was just 5-foot-6, but was so tough, he was known as "Tough Tony" and "Mighty Mouse." He played in 6 All-Star Games, was with the Wings when they won the 1952 Cup, and would be with them in 1955, when they won the Cup again. He later coached in the minor leagues, and lived until 2001.
In 1998, The Hockey News ranked Harvey 6th on their list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players. Sadly, he had died in 1989. McNeill wasn't exactly blamed for letting the winning goal in, but Plante, who would rank 13th on The Hockey News' list, was ready, and, with stars like him, Richard, Harvey, Béliveau and Geoffrion, the Canadiens would win 5 straight Stanley Cups from 1956 to 1960. McNeill lived until 2004.
The Red Wings do not yet have a team Hall of Fame, but they do retire numbers. From their 1954 and 1955 Stanley Cups: 1, goaltender Terry Sawchuk; 4, defenseman Leonard "Red" Kelly; 7, left wing Ted Lindsay; 9, right wing Gordie Howe; and 10, center Alex Delvecchio.
Sawchuk, Kelly, Lindsay, Howe, Delvecchio, defenseman Marcel Pronovost, general manager Jack Adams, and broadcaster Budd Lynch have been elected to the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame.
But after the 1955 Cup, changes that were already underway began to affect the Wings. Team owner James E. Norris died in 1952, and his son, Bruce Norris, turned out to be one of the most incompetent owners in NHL history. Head coach Tommy Ivan, who had led the Wings to their 1950, '52 and '54 Cups, left for the Chicago Black Hawks, who were then owned by another wing of the Norris family. Jimmy Skinner became head coach, and led the to the '55 Cup and the '56 Finals.
But Adams retired as GM, and former star center Sid Abel, having succeeded Skinner in 1958 and Adams in 1962, was only able to get them so far, to the Finals in 1961, '63, '64 and '66. From this period, other than those previously mentioned who hung on, or who were traded and later reacquired, the only Michigan Sports Hall of Fame inductees were center Norm Ullman, defenseman Bill Gadsby, and broadcaster Bruce Martyn, who later broadcast with Abel after Lynch became the team's public address announcer.
Things would get worse in the 1970s, as Bruce Norris' stupidity and cheapness led to the team being nicknamed the "Dead Things." Although he did get the Joe Louis Arena built in 1979, moving the Wings from the Northwest Side, which had become a ghetto, to downtown, the best thing he could have done was sell the team, which he finally did, in 1982, to Mike Ilitch.
The only Michigan Sports Hall of Fame inductee from this period was right wing Mickey Redmond, who actually managed to do what Howe, Lindsay, Abel, Delvecchio and Ullman were unable to do: Become the 1st Red Wing to score 50 goals in a season. He later became a renowned broadcaster for them.
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April 16, 1954 was a Friday. Actress Ellen Barkin was born on this day.
The baseball season had begun, but no games were scheduled for this date. Football was out of season. The NBA Championship was won 4 days earlier, when the Minneapolis Lakers won Game 7 of the Finals, beating the Syracuse Nationals, 87-80 at the Minneapolis Auditorium. It was the last game of their dynasty of 6 league titles in 7 seasons (5 in 6 as members of the NBA). It was also the last game before the institution of the 24-second shot clock. That is not a coincidence.
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