January 7:

A busy Saturday evening in the National Hockey League with five games on tap. Canadiens, Black Hawks and Blues took wins while Leafs and Bruins, Flyers and Penguins skated to ties.

Bruins 3 Maple Leafs 3

The Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs battled to a 3-3 tie in a very entertaining game at Maple Leaf Gardens. Three times the Maple Leafs took one-goal leads, with the Bruins battleing back each time. Five of the game’s six goals were scored in a wild second period.

Mike Walton gave Toronto a 1-0 first-period lead with his first of two goals.

Ed Westfall tied it up for Boston early in the second at 4:08, only to have Walton connect for his second two minutes and 20 seconds later. That lead was short-lived as Bruins defenceman Ted Green tied it at 2-2 a few minutes later.

Frank Mahovlich scored his 11^th of the year at 13:34 to give the Leafs their final lead of the night. Bobby Orr came back to tie for the Bruins about two and a half minutes later and that closed out the night’s scoring,

Both goalkeepers, Johnny Bower of Toronto and Boston’s Gerry Cheevers were outstanding. Bower’s best save was on Orr  when he blew past the Toronto defence for a point-blank shot at Bower late in the third.

Orr, by the way, showed why he is “the next big thing” in hockey. He was all over the ice, effective at both ends. He played almost the entire third period.

Boston’s Eddie Shack, formerly a crowd favourite in Toronto, was booed lustily by the crowd of over 16,000 all night. It was a typical Shack performance. He ran at anything wearing blue and earned the ire of the crowd and the Maple Leafs for taking a particularly brutal run at Toronto’s Dave Keon. Keon was momentarily dazed by the check, but returned to form after a brief respite on the bench.

While Shack wasn’t penalized for that transgression, he had to deal with Leafs’ Tim Horton, who decided the hit was worthy of some frontier justice. Both players received roughing minors, while Horton was tagged with an extra two minutes for charging.

Walton’s goals give him a total of 23 on the season. Nineteen of those have been scored at home, with 10 coming on the power play. Each goal means more cash in the swift centre’s pocket – he earns a $100 bonus for every goal he scores above 20 for the season.

Canadiens 5 Rangers 2

Claude Provost’s short-handed goal in the second period snapped a 1-1 tie  and gave Montreal Canadiens the boost they needed to claim a 5-2 win over the New York Rangers at The Forum in Montreal.

With the score tied 1-1 in the second period, Provost, Montreal’s ace penalty-killer, stole the puck from Rangers Rod Gilbert and skated in alone to beat New York goalkeeper Eddie Giacomin to give the Habs the 2-1 lead.

Montreal’s fans were so excited by Provost’s spectacular effort they pounded on the side glass hard enough to cause a pane to shatter into a thousand or so pieces.

The play lifted the Canadiens from their so-so play of the early part of the game and they went on to dominate the visitors and claim the 5-2 win.

Rookie Jacques Lemaire scored twice for Montreal, with Dick Duff and Ralph Backstrom adding one each. Gilbert and Ron Stewart connected for New York.

Lemaire is seeing regular duty thanks to another injury to veteran Henri Richard. The Pocket Rocket suffered his fourth knee injury of the season (two to each knee) early in the game.

The rare afternoon game in The Forum was televised on the CBS television network in the United States.

Black Hawks 6 Red Wings 2

The Chicago Black Hawks encountered very little resistance in dispensing with the Detroit Red Wings last night at Chicago Stadium. The Hawks chased rookie Red Wings goalie Roy Edwards after 20 minutes en route to a 6-2 pounding of the Detroiters.

Stan Mikita paced the Chicago attack with two goals. Other home side marksmen were Dennis and Bobby Hull, Doug Mohns and Pit Martin. Alex Delvecchio and Jimmy Peters had the Wings tallies.

Chicago scored three times in the first 13:09 of the game to put this one away early. Sid Abel, Detroit’s general manager-coach who sits in the press box  while Baz Bastien runs the bench, apparently sent word to Bastien after the third Hawks score to lift Edwards and replace him with backup goalie George Gardner. The message wasn’t delivered until the end of the first period, but no further damage was done while Edwards remained between the pipes.

Gardner faced 31 shots after coming in at the start of the second period. He surrendered three goals, but must be credited with keeping the score somewhat respectable. Chicago dominated the last two periods, especially the third, and could easily have run their total into double figures.

The Chicago victory, coupled with Boston’s 3-3 tie at Toronto leaves the Black Hawks one point ahead of the Bruins in first place in the Eastern Division.

Flyers 2 Penguins 2

Andy Bathgate’s  15th goal of the season at 10:08 of the third period lifted the hometown Pittsburgh Penguins into a 2-2 tie with the Philadelphia Flyers last night at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

Art Stratton scored in the first period with just over two minutes left to put the Pens up 1-0. Lou Angotti netted the second period’s only marker to tie it up for the Flyers at 1-1.

Brit Selby put the visitors ahead by one at 5:12 of the third, setting the stage for Bathgate’s big goal at the half-way mark of the final frame.

Doug Favell was easily the star of the game. The Philadelphia netminder was brilliant as Pittsburgh outshot Philadelphia 34-16 on the night. He was especially strong in the opening frame, when the Penguins dominated, stopping 13 shots while his counterpart in the Pittsburgh goal, Les Binkley, had to handle only four Flyers drives.

Favell saved his best stop of the night for the final seconds of the game. Bathgate fired a blazer through a screen of several players at what he thought was a wide-open corner of the net. Favell, however, kicked out his skate to turn aside the shot to save the tie.

 Blues 2 Kings 1

The Los Angeles Kings dropped their seventh consecutive game last night at St. Louis. The Kings gave it a good try but great goalkeeping by the Blues’ Glenn Hall enabled the home team to eke out a 2-1 win over the luckless Kings.

Red Berenson was the scoring hero for St. Louis. He fired the winning goal at 8:41 of the third period. Berenson netted his own rebound after Kings goalie Terry Sawchuk had made a series of great stops during a scramble at the Los Angeles goal mouth.

Don McKenney had given the Blues a 1-0 lead with a goal in the first period. Gord Labossiere evened the score for Los Angeles in the second. It was his first goal in 13 games.

Veteran netminders Hall and Sawchuk put on a goalkeeping clinic for the 7,186 that were on hand at the St. Louis Arena.