This Day in Hockey History – April 21, 1951 – Barilko’s Parting Shot

As the last goal Bill Barilko ever made, at least it was a big one. On April 21, 1951, with the Stanley Cup on the line, Barilko won it for the Toronto Maple Leafs in overtime. Tragically, just four months later he went missing in a plane crash.

During the 1950-51 season, the Maple Leafs finished second (with 95 points). In the semi-finals, after having had to halt a tied game due to curfew, they eliminated the Boston Bruins 4-1-1. Meanwhile, the Montreal Canadiens had placed third (with just 65 points) but had somehow managed to defeat the 101-point Detroit Red Wings. Later, Coach Dick Irvin would claim, “Those first two long overtime games against the Red Wings took a lot out of our guys, and the Leafs had a fairly easy time with Boston. That may be the difference.” However, throughout the regular season, Toronto held a 10-2-2 record in matchups with Montreal.

Every single game of the Stanley Cup Finals went into overtime. In Game 1, Toronto’s Sid Smith got the game-winner. Habs’ star Maurice Richard settled Game 2. For Game 3, it was Toronto captain Ted Kennedy with the victory. His teammate Harry Watson won them Game 4. For all of the Leafs, this would be their only overtime goals.

Game 5 was played at Maple Leaf Gardens for 14,577. The home team aimed to win the Cup while the visitors wanted the chance to make a comeback. Even as the Leafs outshot the Habs 42 to 19, goalie Gerry McNeil mostly held them off.

In fact, Montreal led in the score, though each time, they were matched by Toronto. At 8:56 of the second period, the first goal was scored with the “Richard special” as The Rocket easily got around defenseman Jim Thomson. Just over three minutes later, winger Tod Sloan answered. Within the first five minutes of the next period, Montreal’s rookie forward Paul Meger scored with a backhand on a rebound. As the clock ticked down, the Canadiens thought they might have it.

With a minute and a half to go, Coach Joe Primeau pulled Al Rollins, who came back for another faceoff then left the net again. According to the Ottawa recap, “Center Ted Kennedy got the puck back to Max Bentley from a faceoff at the Montreal end. The little center took a dipsy-doodle course across the ice and then let drive. The puck got to Sloan, standing at the side of the goal and he flicked it in.” With only 32 seconds remaining, Sloan had knotted the score again. Ecstatic fans tossed all kinds of papers, so the ice had to be cleared before finishing.

“The Leafs pressed from the first second of the overtime,” noted the Gazette. It only took 2:53 until the play that ended it all. The recap continued, “Then big Harry Watson grabbed a rolling puck and passed to [Howie] Meeker, who went around the back of Canadiens’ net. Bill Barilko came rushing in to take Meeker’s passout and drilled a [diving 15-foot] shot that landed high in a corner of the rigging.” The “burly, blonde Toronto defenceman” had netted himself and the Maple Leafs their fourth championship in five seasons. It was also the franchise’s ninth title, then the most of any NHL team.

In celebration, the players left the bench to swarm Barilko and raise Coach Primeau on their shoulders. Primeau had now added the Stanley Cup to his collection, having led teams to the Memorial Cup for the Canadian junior title (St. Michael’s College) and the Allan Cup for the Canadian senior title (Toronto Marlboros). Manager Conn Smythe came out onto the ice. With this seventh championship since he headed the Leafs, he matched Tommy Gorman’s record for most as a manager.

That was the last happy ending for 24-year-old Barilko, who had now won four Stanley Cup championships in his mere five years in the NHL and with the Leafs. On Friday, August 24, Barilko and his friend (dentist Dr. Henry Hudson) flew off in a two-seater Fairchild 24 pontoon plane from South Porcupine (near their hometown of Timmins, Ontario). They had gone on fishing trip at a lake north of Seal River (500m north of Timmins, close to James Bay) and planned to return Monday.

On Sunday, August 26, the two fishermen had “last reported at far-north Rupert House at 4 pm.” That was the last anyone heard from them. At the time they went missing, Hudson’s wife said he’d been flying five or six years and went every nice weekend. “As far as I’m concerned, they are not missing. They’re out of gas and down on some lake. My husband is a very careful pilot and bad weather or lack of gas may have forced him down.”

With “reports that a small plane crashed in the area,” within two days, six planes began searching for them, but “electrical storm as darkness fell grounded the searchers.” Soon enough, seven RCAF planes took up “Operation Barilko,” searching east and north of Timmins.

By the end of September, the men and their plane had not been found. The banquet scheduled for September 28 meant to honor the Leafs was “cancelled out of respect for Defenceman Bill Barilko, missing nearly a month on a far-north aerial fishing trip.” At that point, Smythe talked about the team’s sad losses. “Little hope is held for the safety of Barilko. Also, since last season, we have lost through death our chief scout, Squib walker, and J.P. Bickell, a director of the Maple Leaf Gardens who, as first president, played a major part in raising funds to erect the building.”

Eleven years later, on June 1, 1962, a roving helicopter from the Ontario department of lands and forests spotted wreckage in barren bushland about 40 miles north of Cochrane, Ontario. As suspected, on June 6 it was confirmed that they had found the two skeletons “amidst the smashed wreckage of their plane, which apparently caught fire in plunging to the ground 45 air miles north of” Cochrane “a few miles east of the Ontario Northland Railway.” They could clearly see “CF-FXT,” part of plane’s registration number. The Toronto Maple Leafs, who had not won the championship since Barilko’s overtime goal, had just taken home the Stanley Cup on April 22, 1962.

Additional Sources:

• Mike Commito, Hockey 365: Daily Stories from the Ice (Toronto: Dundurn, 2018), kindle edition.
• Hockey Chronicle: Year-by-Year History of the National Hockey League (Lincolnwood, Ill.: Publications International, Ltd., 2006), 196-201.
• https://www.nhl.com/gamecenter/mtl-vs-tor/1951/04/21/1950030215#game=1950030215,game_state=final
• Dink Carroll, “Playing the Field” and “Leafs Nip Canadiens 3-2 in Overtime to Take Stanley Cup; Bill Barilko Scores Winner Despite McNeil’s Brilliance,” Montreal Gazette, 23 April 1951, p. 22.
• “Bill Barilko Breaks Up Stanley Cup Struggle,” Ottawa Evening Citizen, 23 April 1951, p. 17.
• “Search Shifts,” Ottawa Evening Citizen, 29 Aug. 1951, p. 1.
• “Resume Hunt For Barilko,” Ottawa Evening Citizen, 30 Aug. 1951, p. 1.
• “Leafs Pay Respect to Barilko,” Ottawa Evening Citizen, 21 Sept. 1951, p. 37.
• “Shift Area of Barilko Hunt,” Ottawa Evening Citizen, 26 Sept. 1951, p. 5.
• “Lost Hockey Star’s Plane Discovered?” Ottawa Citizen, 2 June 1962, p. 1.
• “Barilko’s Aircraft Identified,” Ottawa Citizen, 7 June 1962, p. 12.