The rather novel and unfortunate plight of the Florida Panthers, who had to deal with two injured goaltenders in their March 3 game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, gives us an opportunity to reflect on such quirky goaltending situations in the history of the Maple Leafs organization.
One of the least-known wacky goalie situations comes from the last time the Leafs won the Stanley Cup. On May 2, 1967, Terry Sawchuk started in goal for Game 6 of the Cup final against the Montreal Canadiens. Johnny Bower was his backup and he had won Games 2 and 3 of that series with stellar performances.
Unknown to the general public – and more importantly to the Montreal Canadiens – Bower had injured his groin warming up prior to Game 4. Leafs GM and coach Punch Imlach had intended to ride the great play of Bower, but was forced to turn to Sawchuk for the rest of the series. Though Bower sat on the bench as the backup goaltender, Al Smith was also fully dressed in the Leaf dressing room and would have been the only healthy alternative.
“If Terry had been hurt, Bower would have re-injured his groin on the way to the net and the kid would have come out of hiding,” Imlach said later.
The other two situations I remember were with the Maple Leafs’ top minor league affiliate:
One was on Feb. 10, 1983 as the St. Catharines Saints were set to battle the Adirondack Red Wings in a regular season American Hockey League tilt. That afternoon, AHL president Jack Butterfield ruled on some disciplinary measures including a suspension to goaltender Bob Parent for his actions in their previous game. This left the Saints with just one healthy goaltender in Vincent Tremblay. Saints coach Doug Carpenter, for reasons he nor anybody else understood, chose to list forward Normand Aubin as the backup goaltender.
Of course, 13 minutes into the game, the unthinkable happened: Tremblay got hurt and had to leave the game. A surprised and courageous Aubin donned the goaltending equipment and played in net for the final 47 minutes of the game. He had coke bottle glasses and wasn’t the most flexible of players – he was more known for his worth ethic.
Tremblay only let in three goals through the remainder of the game as the Saints lost 5-2. On two occasions he just fell to the ice while play was going on in the other end. Though the Saints lost, Aubin earned the admiration of the hockey world and was named co-AHL Player of the Week.
The other occurred on Saturday Nov. 28, 1981 as the Leafs were playing host to the Buffalo Sabres. Toronto was scheduled to play in Detroit the next night, while their top minor league team, the Cincinnati Tigers of the Central Hockey League (also coached by Doug Carpenter) had a home game on the Sunday. Leaf goaltender Vincent Tremblay (yes the same one) was injured during the Buffalo game, so the team called up Bob Parent (yes the same one) from Cincinnati to join the Leafs for their game in Detroit to backup Michel “Bunny” Larocque.
An additional problem surfaced as the only other goaltender in Cincinnati, Curt Ridley, suffered an injury so he was only healthy enough to play backup for the Tigers. Another Leaf goaltender in a lesser minor league was also injured. The Leaf organization had to find a goaltender who would not only join their farm team in Cincinnati the next night, but also start the game.
Remember, this was before the era of cellphones. While the Leaf game against the Buffalo Sabres was being played at Maple Leaf Gardens, general manager Gerry McNamara was calling anyone and everyone he could think of in hopes of locating a desperately needed backstop. One call was made to Dave Kentner who ran the Georgetown Raiders, a senior hockey team. Kentner suggested a young man named Doug Dragasevich.
Incredibly, Kentner was able to track down Dragesvich at a local restaurant, where he was eating with his Georgetown teammates. Two hours later, Dragasevich was at the Toronto Airport and joined the Maple Leafs for their charter to Detroit. The next morning, he was booked on a flight from Detroit to Cincinnati. I can remember his look of disbelief on that Toronto-to-Detroit charter as he led this surreal dream of being on a flight with his favourite hockey team.
I was hoping he wouldn’t get shelled that night. In an unbelievable tale, he only allowed a single goal as Cincinnati won and Dragesvich “retired” with a lifetime 1.00 goals-against average and .967 save percentage. Teammate (and now coach of the Anaheim Ducks) Bruce Boudreau marvelled at how well Dragesvich played, but also at how incredibly fortunate he was, since about four or five shots hit the post or crossbar.
So, unlike the result for the Florida Panthers Tuesday night, these three quirky goalie situations in Leafs history all ended rather well: once they hoisted the Stanley Cup; once the player was named AHL Player of the Week; and once a man got to live out a childhood dream!
