Canadiens vs Nordiques: 38 Years Ago – The Good Friday Massacre

After a long delay the players finally went to their respective dressing rooms. But the third period would start off just like the second ended.

During the warmup, Guy Carbonneau and Larry Robinson would both go after Louis Sleigher, who had returned to the ice despite having gotten ejected, while a family brawl also broke out between brothers Dale and Mark Hunter. The referees had to be rushed out to the ice in order to stop the brawl.

Bruce Hood, the head official, had lost complete control of the game. He even forgot to log in the official penalties at the end of the second period, which led to the confusion of who was still in the game or not. Hood ended up retiring at the end of the playoffs but we can draw our conclusions as to how his retirement came to be.

The third period was all Canadiens. After Michel Goulet scored a powerplay goal at 2 minutes of the 3rd period to make it 2-0, the Habs decided to play hockey.

The Canadiens would score 5 consecutive goals in the third thanks to two from Steve Shutt as well as goals from Rick Green, John Chabot and Guy Carbonneau. Wilf Paiement would score with 3:10 left in the period but the Canadiens held on and won the game 5-3 and the series in six games.

Ironically, only Michel Goulet got a penalty in the third period, getting called for tripping.

Michael Farber of the Montreal Gazette wrote at the time “Forum Brawl Disgraced Game” and went as far as saying that the “players desecrated the sport.”