April 23, 1950, 75 years ago: Only twice in the history of the Stanley Cup Finals has a Game 7 gone to overtime. They happened within 4 years of each other, and both were won by the Detroit Red Wings.
The Wings had won the Cup in 1936, 1937 and 1943. In 1946, a rookie named Gordie Howe arrived. The Wings reached the Finals again in 1948 and 1949, but lost both to the Toronto Maple Leafs. In 1950, they got back, and faced the New York Rangers.
There were 3 holdovers from 1943: Center and Captain Sid Abel, defenseman Jack Stewart, and right wing Joe Carveth. Abel centered a line with Howe on right wing and Ted Lindsay on left wing, which became known as "The Production Line," in honor of Detroit's automotive industry. Leonard "Red" Kelly and Marcel Pronovost were young defensemen. And in goal was Harry Lumley. All of these, except for Carveth, would make the Hockey Hall of Fame.
However, the Wings would have to go through the Finals without Howe: During the Semifinals against the Leafs, he attempted to check Ted "Teeder" Kennedy, but missed, and crashed into the boards, breaking bones in his face and putting his life in danger. He recovered, and became perhaps the greatest player the game had ever known, but would not be available for the Finals.
The Rangers had last made the Finals in 1940, which was also their most recent Cup win. They had no holdovers, but they had future Hall-of-Famers in centers Edgar Laprade and Buddy O'Connor, defenseman Allan Stanley, and goaltender Chuck Rayner.
(Two other Ranger players would be elected to the Hall, but in the "Builders" category: Bud Poile, for a long career as an NHL executive, including as the 1st general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers; and Fred Shero, who coached many of the players Poile acquired to the 1974 and 1975 Stanley Cups, and then coached the Rangers to the Finals in 1979.)
But the Rangers had a problem: No home-ice advantage. The biggest annual moneymaker for the Madison Square Garden corporation wasn't the Rangers, or the NBA's New York Knicks. It was the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus, which, in those days, came in April -- when the NBA and Stanley Cup Finals were both held.
At the time, arenas could not be configured to host a circus and a hockey game on the same day. And since the Circus made more money for The Garden than Playoff hockey (which is no longer the case), the Rangers were forced to play their "home games" elsewhere. They ended up playing Games 2 and 3 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, while all the other games of the Finals were played at the Wings' Olympia Stadium.
The Wings won Game 1, 4-1. The Rangers won Game 2, 3-1. The Wings won Game 3, 4-0. The Finals nearly became the Don Raleigh Show: Raleigh scored 8:34 into overtime, to win Game 4 for the Rangers, 4-3; and 1:38 into overtime, to win Game 5, 2-1.
Don Raleigh
But it was not to be. The Wings won Game 6, 5-4. The next night, April 23, the Rangers took a 2-0 lead midway through Game 7, the 2nd goal being scored by Tony Leswick. But Pete Babando got the Wings on the board, and Abel tied the game just 21 seconds later. The teams exchanged goals later in the period, and there were no goals in the 3rd period. So, for the 1st time since the Stanley Cup Finals went to a best-4-out-of-7 format in 1939, its Game 7 went to overtime, 3-3.
The 1st overtime also saw no goals, making this the 1st Stanley Cup Final Game 7 to go to a 2nd overtime. Through the 2021 season, it remains the only one. At the 8:30 mark of the 2nd overtime, Babando backhanded a shot past Rayner, and it was over: Red Wings 4, Rangers 3. Detroit had won the Stanley Cup, and Babando had become the 1st player to win the Cup on a Game 7 goal in overtime.
Babando, approaching his 25th birthday, was born in Braeburn, Pennsylvania, outside Pittsburgh, making him one of the few American-born players in the NHL at the time. But, like the vast majority of the players, he was trained to play in Canada, as he grew up in Timmins, Ontario.
And how did the Wings' organization thank him for his 2 Game 7 goals, including the clincher? They traded him to the Chicago Black Hawks before the next season. (Since James E. Norris owned the Wings and the Chicago Stadium, and his son, James D. Norris, owned the Hawks, they made a lot of deals, especially to get a player one or the other didn't like away from him. And the NHL allowed this arrangement at the time.) After 3 seasons with the Hawks, he was traded to, of all teams, the Rangers. He continued to play professional hockey until 1967, and lived until 2020.
The Wings began a sort-of-dynasty in which they won 4 Cups in 6 seasons. But the Rangers didn't reach the Finals again until 1972. Blowing a 2-goal lead in 1950's Game 7 was the 1st of a long series of Ranger chokes from 1940 onward, until they finally won the Cup again in 1994. Which turned out to be not an ending but an interruption, as they have choked many times since.
Don Raleigh was born in Kenora, Ontario, famous for being the home of the 1907 Stanley Cup Champions, the Kenora Thistles; but lived most of his life in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He played for the Rangers from 1944 to 1956, made 2 All-Star Games, and was named to the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame. He lived until 2012.
The next 3 years, the Knicks would also be hurt by The Garden's circus priority. They had to play Games 3, 4 and 6 of the 1951 NBA Finals at the 69th Regiment Armory, instead of the Garden. They lost Game 7 on the road, losing in overtime to the Rochester Royals. The same thing happened in 1952, when they lost Game 7 to the Minneapolis Lakers. It didn't get that far in 1953: They lost Games 3, 4 and 5 at the Armory, with the Lakers clinching in Game 5.
In 1954, Game 7 scorer Tony Leswick would be with the Wings, and become the 2nd, and so far last, man to score an overtime goal in the Game 7 of a Stanley Cup Finals. Others to score an overtime Cup-clincher:
* In Game 6: Bryan Hextall, 1940 Rangers; Henri Richard, 1966 Montreal Canadiens; Bobby Nystrom, 1980 New York Islanders; Brett Hull, 1999 Dallas Stars; Jason Arnott, 2000 New Jersey Devils; Patrick Kane, 2010 Blackhawks.
* In Game 5: Bill Barilko, 1951 Maple Leafs; Elmer Lach, 1953 Canadiens; Alec Martinez, 2014 Los Angeles Kings.
* In Game 4: Bill Cook, 1933 Rangers (before it was a best-of-7); Harold "Mush" March, 1934 Black Hawks (ditto); Hector "Toe" Blake, 1944 Canadiens; Bobby Orr, 1970 Bruins; Jacques Lemaire, 1977 Canadiens; Uwe Krupp, 1996 Colorado Avalanche.
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