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In the worst kind of goalie battle, the opponents seemingly competed for letting in the most shots. By the end of Game 5 of the 1973 Stanley Cup finals, on May 8, goalies Tony Esposito and Ken Dryden found themselves with save percentages of .774 and .724, respectively as the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Montreal Canadiens 8-7.

The two goalies were pretty evenly matched in their careers. Esposito earned the Calder Memorial Trophy in 1969-70, his first year with Chicago. Dryden earned the same in 1971-72, his second with Montreal. The Blackhawks goalie thrice earned the Vezina Trophy, while the Canadiens goalie earned it five times. Of the eight years Dryden tended goal for Montreal, they won the Stanley Cup championships six times. Esposito had played one season for Montreal and then fifteen with Chicago, so he played almost 500 more games than his counterpart. Esposito’s career save percentage was .906 compared to Dryden’s .922. Dryden entered the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983, and Esposito followed five years later.

They faced each other in the finals of 1973. Game 5 took place at Montreal’s Forum. By that time, the Canadiens led the series 3-1, so they were motivated to win this game and hoist the Cup before the home crowd of 18,950. The Blackhawks needed to win to keep the series going and catch up.

For the majority of the game, the teams traded goals. Montreal’s Frank Mahovlich scored early in the first period, but Chicago’s Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita answered. Frank assisted his brother, Pete Mahovlich, in closing out the period. Frank said afterward, “I can’t believe it. I’ve never seen a crazy game like that in all my life. There’s just not any explanation in the world for it.” Meanwhile, Chicago coach Billy Reay noted, “Everybody worked like hell and we had a little more balance.”

The craziest part came in the second period. Montreal’s Claude Larose scored in the first 37 seconds and again at 4:23. Between his goals, Chicago’s Dave Kryskow tallied at 3:10. At 6:21, Mikita potted his second goal of the night. Montreal’s Yvan Cournoyer countered at 7:09. After pausing for over four minutes, Chicago came roaring back with three unanswered goals. Jim Pappin scored two of them, and Mikita assisted on the last two. After the game, Montreal coach Scotty Bowman commented, “I have never seen anything like it. I have no explanation for it at all.”

At the top of the third, Montreal’s Serge Savard narrowed the gap. At 4:04, Lou Angotti potted the eighth and final goal for Chicago. In the latter half of the period, captain Henri Richard, assisted by Frank Mahovlich, valiantly attempted to tie the game. However, that turned out to be the seventh and final Montreal goal. Richard admitted, “I’m terribly disappointed. I thought we could tie it up, there was still eight minutes to go, but we just seemed to run out of steam.” His teammate, defenseman Larry Robinson, said, “I have never been as disappointed in my life. I was making goofs out there that I haven’t made since I was in junior.”

Both goalies seemed equally hard on themselves. They had each faced 30 shots on goal, even though Dryden was pulled with less than a minute remaining. The Montreal Gazette said he had been “beaten more often than any Canadiens goaltender within memory.” Dryden said, “The goals started to come, and it just kept escalating.” Meanwhile, Esposito commented, “You hate to let in goals in the playoffs. Everytime one goes in with this much on the line you know you are letting down 18 other guys and making it that much harder to catch up.”

Coach Reay attributed their win to matching Montreal by using four lines. He commented to the press, “I notice that everybody wrote us off again. And we came back again. All season long this team has been coming up with the big game when we needed the big game, and they did it again.” His counterpart, Bowman, merely commented, “I’ve learned now to expect anything.”

Having scored 15 goals total, the two opponents set a record for the most ever scored in a playoff game. The previous record of 13 had stood since 1936. Coach Reay exclaimed, “But God, the score was amazing. Not only don’t I remember anything like it in the playoffs before, I don’t remember anything like it in the regular season before either.” Furthermore, the eight-goal second period also set a record at the time for most goals in one playoff period.

As Angotti realized, “What this all means is that we all have to go back to Chicago and play another hockey game.” Despite Chicago forcing a Game 6, they could not hold back the Montreal tide any further. The Canadiens won 6-4, taking home their second Stanley Cup in three years.

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