This Day in Hockey History – April 2, 1939 – Hill Reaches Summit in Sudden Death

(Photo: Hendrik Seis [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons)

At the end of the 1938-39 season, the NHL-leading Boston Bruins came into the playoff series against second-place New York Rangers with a regular-season record of 74 (compared to 58 for the Rangers). The playoffs began just two days after the regular season ended on March 19. For the rest of March and through April 2, 1939, rookie right winger Mel Hill earned the nickname “Sudden Death.”

Hill had attended training with the Rangers, but Lester Patrick dismissed him. Instead, he signed with the Bruins in October 1937 and played six regular-season games (scoring two goals). The following season, he notched ten goals in 46 games. However, his teammate, rookie goalie Frank Brimsek, received most of the attention throughout the season, culminating with earning the Calder Memorial Trophy and Vezina Trophy.

Right from the beginning of the series, Hill made the Rangers regret setting him loose. At Madison Square Garden on March 21, the teams were tied 1-1 when the clock ran out. Finally, after 59 minutes and 25 seconds of overtime, center Bill Cowley set up Hill for the game-winning goal. From this point, his teammates began calling him “old Sudden Death.” Back at Boston Garden on March 23, the score was tied at 2-2, until Hill put another puck from Cowley into the net at 8:24 of the overtime session.

After the Bruins won the March 26th game 4-1, they looked sure to continue on to the finals. However, the Rangers rallied to win the next three games. Returning to New York, they won 2-1 on March 28. The Boston game on March 30 also went into overtime, but the Rangers came out on top, 2-1. For the last New York game, on April 1, the Rangers won 3-1. That meant that the teams were tied, having won three games each, after having three of the six games dip into overtime.

The seventh and decisive game of the series took place on April 2 back at Boston Garden, which completely sold out. With 16,981 paying spectators but likely over 17,000 inside, the crowd broke Boston’s record for largest attendance. This was the third time in that series alone that the record had been broken. They got more than they paid for when the game stretched from 8:30 p.m. until 12:40 in the morning, 108 minutes in total. The late plane and trains back to New York were held especially for these spectators.

Both teams scored only once in regulation. At 15:52 of the second period, Ray Getliffe scored for the Bruins. Less than two minutes later, at 17:45, Murray Patrick tied up for the Rangers. Brimsek and his counterpart, Bert Gardiner, maintained the score for the remainder of regulation. During the first 20-minute overtime session, the Bruins kept firing on Gardiner while the Rangers only managed one shot on goal. Then the ice had to be completely resurfaced, which took about half an hour. Throughout the second overtime, the chances appeared pretty even. The game stretched into a third overtime session. Brimsek had 27 saves to Gardiner’s 49.

Exactly eight minutes into the third overtime, “Bill Cowley recovering a wild shot of Roy Conacher’s [fed] Hill a perfect pass.” Hill described the play saying, “Bill (Cowley) gave me a perfect pass. I had plenty of time and was in close. Gardiner made the first move, opening his legs, and I just smacked it through. I had to take plenty of time to make it good because I would have been awfully mad with myself if I had missed.” The Cowley-Hill one-two had done it a third time, winning the game and series for Boston.

According to the Boston Globe, “The scene following Hill’s goal last night almost beggars description.” Still, the paper tried to set the scene. “Ten-inch salutes were exploding all over the ice. Hill was torn almost limb from limb by his mates. The crowd was frantic, littering the ice with hats, coats, umbrellas and everything they could throw. Fans were dancing in the aisles, kissing each other, whooping like Indians at the release from their long pent-up emotions, with sheer relief from the agony of putting their hearts through a ringer for four solid hours.” Afterwards, Hill joked “that he took more of a beating from his teammates coming off the ice than he did in the entire game.” Security had a tough time clearing his path to the locker room. There, Getliffe thanked Hill. “Nice work, Mel, and thanks for the birthday present. I turned 25 after midnight and was wondering whether my present was going to be good or bad.”

Hill had won the game with overtime goals in three of the seven that series. He remains the only NHL player to have triple overtime winners in one playoff series.

The Bruins went on to play the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Stanley Cup finals. It was only the fourth time the Bruins had even reached that level (having lost to Ottawa in 1927, defeated the Rangers in 1929, and lost to the Montreal Canadiens in 1930). Between April 6 and April 16, 1939, the Bruins proceeded to defeat the Leafs by winning four of five games. Thanks in good part to Cowley and Hill, the Bruins took home the Stanley Cup. The two were still on the team when the Bruins won again in 1941. That June, Boston traded Hill to Brooklyn, and when they dispersed in 1942, Hill was transferred to Toronto. He won his third and final Cup with the Leafs in 1945.

 Additional Sources:

• Mike Commito, Hockey 365: Daily Stories from the Ice (Toronto: Dundurn, 2018), kindle edition.
• Brian McFarlane, Brian McFarlane’s History of Hockey (Champaign, Ill.: Sports Publishing Inc., c1997), 44-45.
• Victor O. Jones wrote an open letter to Hill concluding, “And now perhaps you understand why I rate your goal of last night as perhaps the most valuable which has ever been recorded in hockey.”
• Victor O. Jones, “Bruins Take Playoff Final, 2-1,” Boston Globe, 3 April 1939, pp. 1 and 5.
• “What About It,” “Cracked Ice,” and “‘Cowley Gave Me Perfect Pass,’ Says Hero Hill,” Boston Globe, 3 April 1939, p. 8.
• Gene Ward, “Bruins Gain Finals, 2 to 1,” “Bruins, Rangers Tied Up In ‘Battle of Boston,’” and “Rangers Beat Bruins – to Boston Garden,” New York Daily News, 3 April 1939, pp. 38-41.
• Joe Haggerty, “‘Overtime’ Hill Boston’s Hero,” New York Daily News, 3 April 1939, p. 39.