This Week in Canadiens History: April 12th to April 17th
By Joshua Rosa
April 16th
Marvelous Montreal and Bad Boston
On this day, the years of our Lord 1953 and 1957, the Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins to win the Stanley Cup.
In 1953, Jacques Plante started as the Canadiens’ goaltender, but after the teams split the first two games, Dick Irvin decided to switch to backup goalie Gerry MacNeil. MacNeil posted a shutout in his first game of the series, and a shutout in a tense Game 5.
The Bruins and Habs played a tight 5th game, with the Bruins fighting to stay alive after being pummeled 7-3 to go down 3-1. The game was scoreless after 60 minutes, but Elmer Lach scored just over a minute into overtime as the Canadiens’ faithful showered the ice with everything and anything in celebration.
But with every Stanley Cup engraving, especially early in the NHL’s history, there were some spelling mistakes. Eddie Maruz was spelled EDDIE MARUZE, but at least his name was spelled correctly later. Gaston Bettez had it worse, with his name being spelled GOSTON BETTES.
Jacques Plante played the whole Stanley Cup Final in 1957, and held the Bruins to just 6 goals, 4 from Fleming Mackell. Plante recorded 2 shutouts in the series, and the Canadiens won 5-1 in Game 5 on April 16th.