This Day in Hockey History – February 23, 1972 – Bruins with the Big Bounce Back

Traditionally there is the “three-goal lead curse” in hockey. So many teams who have achieved such a lead have eased up the pressure on the competition only to discover that the opposition comes back to not only tie the game but sometimes win it. However, when a team fell behind by five goals the winner of the game was a foregone conclusion. And so, as Craig Patrick put the Oakland Golden Seals up 6-1 at 8:53 of the second period of their game in Oakland against the Boston Bruins, everyone assumed that the Golden Seals would take the win on February 23, 1972.

Perhaps what made the game even more interesting was that earlier in the day, before the game, the Boston Bruins and the Golden Seals had made a trade that saw the players involved suiting up for their new teams that night. The trade saw defenseman Carol Vadnais and forward Don O’Donoghue don the Spoked-B sweater, while right wing Reggie Leach along with defensemen Rick Smith and Bob Stewart would enjoy the warm weather in California.

For Vadnais, who had begun his career with the Montreal Canadiens, he was thrilled to be joining the Bruins organization.

“Why shouldn’t I be happy? Going to the Bruins means the playoffs. It means the chance to win the Stanley Cup. It means I’ll be able to learn a little bit more about this game because I’ll be playing with the best, Mr. Bobby Orr,” Vadnais told the press.

As the game got underway though, it looked more like Oakland was the all-powerful team.

Before a sell-out crowd of 10,492 at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Arena, the Golden Seals were well on their way to a win.

Oakland got on the board just 2:51 into the first period from defenseman Dick Redmond, who tallied his sixth goal of the season, with assists from Wayne Carleton and Bert Marshall. Redman put the Golden Seals up 2-0, unassisted at 13:22 of the first before Fred Stanfield got one back for the Bruins at 17:37, assisted by John “Pie” McKenzie, who garnered his 39th apple. However, with just eight seconds remaining in the opening period, Gary Croteau restored the two-goal lead for Oakland.

The second period picked up where the first had ended—with the Golden Seals finding the twine behind Eddie Johnson, who was in his tenth season as netminder for Boston. First Carleton got his 14th of the season at 3:58. Croteau followed that up with his seventh on the year and his second of the game at 7:34. Patrick, who would spend eight years in the NHL before moving on to serve as assistant GM and assistant coach under Herb Brooks for Team USA when they went on their fabled “Miracle on Ice” run to the gold medal in 1980, gave his Golden Seals a five-goal lead at 8:53 of the second. And it looked like all the Oakland team needed to do was play just a bit more smart hockey and then enjoy the win.

Wayne Cashman gave the Bruins their second goal of the game at 14:36 of the second, assisted by Orr and Mike Walton. With 2:45 left in the middle stanza, Stanfield, also assisted by Orr, scored his second of the game and cut Oakland’s lead to three.

As Oakland Tribune sports writer John Porter described, “The big player trade was yesterday, but the big play trade happened sometime in the middle of the second period last night. That’s when the Oakland Seals, who revealed 30 minutes of their best hockey this season, skated aside and let the Boston Bruins do likewise for the remaining half hour.”

“I told [the Bruins] only that I thought we had a shot at winning. I told them we started to take over late in the second period and we could win,” shared head coach Tom Johnson after the game.

Whatever he said, it had the desired effect. The Bruins went on a scoring tear, not only tying the game up but getting the go-ahead goal and a spare, all in the third. Yes, they scored five goals in the third period to take the win.

“The Bruins needed a five-goal third period to win the game—and the ringleaders in the burst were Bobby Orr, of course, Phil Esposito, of course, and Freddy Stanfield,” wrote Boston Globe staffer Francis Rosa.

Despite being denied by Golden Seals goalie, Gilles Meloche, when he was awarded the first ever penalty shot taken on a Seals’ goaltender, Stanfield would get his first NHL career hat trick when he put his third goal away, assisted by Orr and Don Awrey at 5:59 of the third. However, before he got his third of the game and 20th on the season, Orr popped his 28th on net assisted by Ed Westfall. For his part, Esposito tallied the tying and game-winning goals—his 53rd and 54th of the season.

Esposito’s game-tying goal was described by the Globe’s Rosa as “a thing of beauty.”

“He had passed to Westfall going over the blue line. The puck was a little behind Westfall and Eddie pushed it with his skate to get it on his stick. Then Westfall passed across in front to Esposito at the left corner of the net. He had to lift the puck to get it past a defender. It was about a foot off the ice and Esposito directed it in with the blade of his stick while the puck was in the air,” wrote Rosa.

For good measure, Derek Sanderson—assisted by Westfall and Orr—gave the Bruins their eighth of the game with just 14 seconds remaining in the third period.

“It was just brutal. We were checking well, then …,” said Redmond of his team’s collapse. John Porter of the Oakland Tribune finished that thought for Redmond. “Then the Seals Kiddie Korps let its inexperience slip into view.”

With their 8-6 win on the night, the Boston Bruins became the first team in NHL history to come back from a five-goal deficit and win the game.

As for Vadnais? While his play wasn’t outstanding in that first game as a Bruin, he would indeed go on to win a Stanley Cup that post season with the Boston Bruins.

Additional Sources:

• Francis Rosa, “Seals do quick fade, Bruins decide to play,” Boston Evening Globe (Boston, Massachusetts), Thursday, February 24, 1972, p. 29.
• John Porter, “Seals Play Giveaway, 5-Goal Lead Blown” Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California), p.  F35, F37