April 22, 1945, 80 years ago: Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals is played at the Olympia Stadium arena in Detroit. It is set up as a reverse of the 1942 Finals.
That time, the Detroit Red Wings had won the 1st 3 games, but the Toronto Maple Leafs came back to win the next 4, the 1st time any team, in any sport, had done that. The Wings did rebound to win the Cup in 1943. The Montreal Canadiens won it in 1944. This time, with both the Wings and the Leafs having lost a lot of players to the manpower drain of World War II, they still returned to the Finals.
The Leafs won Game 1 in Detroit, 1-0; Game 2 in Detroit, 2-0; and Game 3 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, 1-0. They only needed 4 goals, scored by 4 separate players, because they had a goaltender putting on a show like no one had ever seen.
With regular goalie Walter "Turk" Broda serving in the Canadian Army, the job was given to Frank McCool, a 26-year-old native of Calgary who had never played in the NHL before the 1944-45 season, and had been discharged from the Army as medically unfit to serve, due to the condition that gave him his nickname: "Ulcers."
He won the Calder Trophy as NHL Rookie of the Year, and then shut the Wings out in each of the 1st 3 games. Three shutouts in a single Stanley Cup Finals had never been done before, and has been done only once since, by Martin Brodeur of the New Jersey Devils against the Anaheim Ducks in 2003.
With Game 4 also in Toronto, it looked like a sure thing for the Leafs. But the Wings won, 5-3, scoring more goals than the had in the previous 3 games. That may have rattled McCool, who was noted for being nervous, in spite of his name -- hence, his famed ulcers. He was better in Game 5 in Detroit, but the Wings still won, 2-0.
He was better than that in Game 6, in front of a Toronto crowd expecting to win the Cup. Regulation ended scoreless, with Wings goalie Harry Lumley proving McCool's equal. Ed Bruneteau scored 14:16 into the 1st overtime, and there would be a Game 7, in Detroit. All signs pointed to the Wings reversing the 1942 result, and redeeming themselves for it.
Mel Hill, nicknamed "Sudden Death" for his overtime goals for the Boston Bruins in the 1939 Playoffs, scored 5:38 into the game. The Leafs led, 1-0. There was no scoring in the 2nd period. It looked like the Leafs had it, but Murray Armstrong scored for the Wings at 8:16 of the 3rd period. The Leafs now looked like they just might blow it.
But defenseman Walter "Babe" Pratt, a hero of the New York Rangers' 1940 Stanley Cup win, put the puck past "Apple Cheeks" Lumley with 7:46 left in regulation. McCool and the Leafs hung on for dear life, and were 2-1 winners.
There would be no 3-0 to 4-3 reversal for the Wings. They would also lose in the Finals in 1948 and 1949, also to the Leafs, before winning the Cup in 1950, and starting a quasi-dynasty of 4 Cups in 6 seasons.
With their best players coming back from the War, the Leafs won the Cup again in 1947, 1948, 1949 and 1951. Broda's return meant that McCool only played 22 games in the 1945-46 season, after playing all 50 the season before. He really did have ulcers, and they forced him into retirement. He went back to Calgary and became the publisher of a newspaper. But this was not a good job for a man with ulcers, and he died in 1973, only 54 years old.
The Wings rebuilt, and reached the Stanley Cup Finals every year from 1948 to 1956, winning in 1950, 1952, 1954 and 1955.
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