This Day in Hockey History – March 16, 1947 – Aiding and A-Hitting

The March 16th games of 1947 were all about making playoffs. In New York, the Rangers failed to make playoffs when they lost to the Montreal Canadiens, who became the NHL champs for the fourth straight season. It took over 15 minutes to finish the final half minute of their game thanks to the largest donnybrook ever experienced at Madison Square Garden. Meanwhile, in Chicago, the Detroit Red Wings secured a playoff berth when Billy Taylor set an NHL record with seven assists in one game.

New York

Madison Square Garden held a capacity crowd of 15,925 that night. The Rangers and Canadiens were tied at 3-3 until Jimmy Peters scored at 16:29 of the third period. With playoffs on the line and a fat prize purse coming to the Canadiens if they took first place, the Rangers pulled goalie Chuck Rayner in a desperate (and unsuccessful) attempt to steal the victory.

The two teams had carried over tensions from the night before in Montreal when the Canadiens shutout the Rangers 1-0. With the entire game played rough, Coach Dick Irvin claimed, “They were out to get Richard and Reardon in order to ruin them for the playoffs.” Indeed, the two Habs had already fought New York’s Bill Juzda and Bryan Hextall midway through.

With just 31 seconds remaining in the game, the real dust up began. The New York Daily News reported, “Canadiens started a player riot which churned the rink into a fight arena for a dozen all-out battles. Sticks and fists flew, spectators joined the brawl and it finally took a corp of gendarmes and as many ushers to finally bring order out of the chaos.” Meanwhile, the Montreal Gazette claimed the Canadiens “had to battle with fists and sticks against the Rangers and some of their more irate supporters.” Calling the game, WHN sportscaster Bert Lee could only repeat, “It’s a riot! It’s a riot! It’s a riot!” The New York Times agreed that it was “the grandest mass riot in the local history of the NHL.” 

Everyone pointed to Kenny Reardon as the original victim. The defenseman was hogging the puck to run out the time when he became a pinball checked by Bryan Hextall and slashed by Cal Gardner’s stick. Blood gushed from Reardon’s mouth, who later said, “My upper lip felt as if it had been sawed off my face.” Reardon had already had trouble with New Yorkers. He explained, “Dick Irvin, our coach, had bawled me out for losing the puck and the game last time we were in New York.” What’s more, he realized, “I couldn’t afford a fight in that last minute. I wanted to stay out of trouble.”

The cut would need 10 or 14 stiches, so Dr. Vincent Nardiello collected Reardon from the ice to return to the locker room. As they passed the Rangers’ bench, both the players and their fans chirped Reardon. The trigger was one spectator yelling, “Reardon, I’ve been waiting a long time for you to get it. You louse.” As the defenseman recalled, “That did it. I swung my stick at him and missed. Then a cop grabbed me from behind and I fell.” That was the end of Reardon’s story. “I was the guy who started the fight, but I never got to see it. Right after the cop knocked me down, I got up and walked to the clinic. I didn’t find out about the riot until the game was over and the guys came into the room all cut up.”

When Reardon went down, the Rangers jumped up to see, and Irvin overreacted. He told the Canadiens, “Get the hell over there and help Kenny!” As hockey historian Stan Fischler described it, the “Flying Frenchmen poured over the boards like GIs at Normandy.” The Gazette noted, “Players of both teams rushed to the scene and the battle was converted into guerilla warfare, players fighting all over the ice and in the aisles with fists and sticks and the fans edging into it.” For example, Captain Emile Bouchard hit the heckler over the head with his stick in retribution for Reardon.

On the ice, the biggest fights involved goalie Bill Durnan being knocked over by Billy Moe, Maurice Richard breaking his stick on Bill Juzda’s head only for Juzda to tackle him in return, Bouchard stealing Hextall’s stick and then punching him out, and Hal Laycoe and Leo Lamoureux tiring each other out. Then, both with sticks raised, Moe went after Bouchard and Juzda broke Buddy O’Connor’s jaw. As Coach Frank Boucher tried to break up the fighting, Ken Mosdell swung at Edgar Laprade and then chased Boucher.

The fighting lasted 15 to 25 minutes. The New York Sun called it an “endless fight,” pointing out that “No sooner was one group of players quieted down than another would start at it again.” Referee George Hayes recalled, “There were so many going on it was impossible to keep track of them all.” They counted a total of 15 distinct fights.

Just as Hayes was handing out 10-minute misconduct penalties to Richard and Juzda, Murph Chamberlain started things up again, only to be hit by Joe Cooper and sent “orbiting over the sideboards and into the seats.” Finally, the game resumed to finish the last half minute. But just as the buzzer sounded, Ab DeMarco went after Mosdell while Tony Leswick aimed for Bill Durnan. The police finally broke up all the fighting even as the crowd egged them on. The Rangers took solace in coming out of the fight without casualties, but the Canadiens came out of the game with first place.    

Bench-clearing brawls certainly did not end with this one incident. In fact, exactly eight years later, Canadiens’ superstar Maurice Richard was suspended after participating in a stick fight at Boston Garden. The following day, March 17, 1955, the city of Montreal rioted at the Forum in protest. As for Madison Square Garden, it hosted another riot involving players and fans on December 23, 1979. The visiting Bruins climbed into the stands after a fan grabbed one of their sticks.

Chicago

Meanwhile, back on March 16, 1947, Chicago Stadium hosted a crowd of 17,071. The visiting Detroit Red Wings started the night with a hat trick by left winger Roy Conacher. He would score again in the final seconds of the second period. As his center, Taylor assisted on every one of these goals. While he was at it, Taylor also leant a hand to their captain, Sid Abel. With these five assists, the Red Wings led 7-2.

The third period began with Ted Lindsay completing a hat trick. Then Detroit and Chicago alternated goals. Taylor assisted on the next two for his team, Jack Stewart’s at 5:57 and Eddie Bruneteau’s at 15:06. Thanks to Taylor’s playmaking, the Red Wings won 10-6, clinching a playoff spot.

Taylor had spent five seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs (who won the Stanley Cup over the Canadiens in 1947) before being traded to Detroit. Before the 1947-48 season began, he was on his way to the Boston Bruins. However, just one month after he was traded to the Rangers, on March 9, 1948, NHL President Clarence Campbell suspended Taylor for life. Although Taylor protested his innocence, the NHL had proof that he and Don Gallinger had gambled against the Bruins while playing for them. He was not reinstated until 1970.

Despite the disgraceful halt to his career, Taylor held the record for most assists in one game until Wayne Gretzky thrice matched it in the 1980s. 

Additional Sources:

• Gene Ward, “Canadiens Win, 4-3; Rangers Bow in Riot,” New York Daily News, 17 March 1947, p. 37.
• “Canadiens Win Fourth Straight N.H.L. Crown by Beating N.Y., 4-3,” Montreal Gazette, 17 March 1947, pp. 18-19.
• https://www.msgnetworks.com/2017/04/19/the-classic-garden-riot-between-the-rangers-habs/
• https://thehockeynews.com/news/article/rangers-and-canadiens-had-the-greatest-fight-of-all-time
• “Wings Win; Near Playoffs,” Detroit Free Press, 17 March 1947, pp. 1 and 10.
• https://www.hockey-reference.com/leagues/NHL_1947.html