Some new names but same old Habs
Chicago…. stormy, windy, swashbuckling Chicago was not the ideal ending to Canadiens' odyssey, but . . . it'll do.
They would have preferred a Stanley Cup win in Montreal, before their own people, but the Habs blew that chance on Tuesday and were not at all interested in coming back to Montreal for a seventh game Sunday.
“If we'd lost this one;” Scotty Bowman said later, “that would have given them two in a row in this series, with the seventh coming up, and home ice wouldn't have made much difference. It doesn't seem to any more.”
Winning means $6,000 per Canadien. They got $15,000 apiece for the playoffs and the Hawks got $10,000. In addition, both clubs led their divisions, so they got $4,000 a man for that.
Give Yvan Coumoyer another $1,500. for winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and he has stashed $20,500 since the schedule ended. Cournoyer, a compact little flyer they call The Roadrunner because of his “beep beep” speed and style, scored 15 goals in these playoffs … a Stanley Cup record. Frank Mahovlich set the old mark of 14 in 1971.
Also, Cournoyer scored the winner last night, and so there can be only feeble argument against his selection as the most valuable.
Yet, the selection of Henri Richard would not have been badly misplaced either. Henri got the game-winning goals in the tough Philadelphia series, and got perhaps the biggest Montreal goal last night.
GAVE HABS A LIFT
Both coaches agreed Henri's goal in the last minute of the third period might have been the most important one of the night. The Hawks controlled the first period. After winning in Montreal, they were buoyed and confident, and where everyone had written them off, now they were starting to wonder whether the inevitable really was.
Canadiens didn't have a shot on the Chicago net for the first five minutes of the game and halfway through the period Pit Martin got the* first of his three goals, Stan Mikita put him in perfectly. Martin broke through the defence, outdistanced Savard and Mikita put it right on his stick. Martin got his second with Roberts in the penalty box for tripping Angotti, and Pappin set him up this time, stealing the puck from Savard, and again, Martin whipped it high into the net on Dryden's glove side … two good shots … two strong goals.
The Hawks deserved their 2-0 margin but in the last minute of the period, Henri Richard got what Billy Reay called a gift goal. Frank Mahovlich got the puck over to Henri and he fired low. The puck tipped Whitey Stapleton's stick enough to change direction, and went into the low comer.
A goal in the last minute of a period has a demoralizing effect on the victimized team, and a commensurately elevating impact on the scorers. That seemed particularly applicable this time because the Hawks had enjoyed a margin and were fuA* value for a two-goal edge. And suddenly, they're only one goal up.
The Canadiens came out at their full trot in the second period and Rejean Houle, who didn't have a great series, was back to his energetic self to help promote the tying goal. He checked Pit Martin In the Chicago end, put the puck back to Jacques Laperriere and Laperrier uncorked a low drive. Pete Mahovlich deflected it and it was tied.
