1950–51 Toronto Maple Leafs season



The 1950–51 Toronto Maple Leafs season was Toronto's 34th season in the NHL. The Maple Leafs finished 2nd in the league and won the 1951 Stanley Cup Finals over the Montreal Canadiens 4 games to 1. The 1951 Finals is famous for Bill Barilko scoring the winning goal in overtime and all five games being decided in overtime.

Toronto Maple Leafs 4, Boston Bruins 1 (One tie)
Having last met in the 1949 Semi-finals, the Leafs dispatched the Bruins again by a 4-1 series score with one game ending in a tie, the last playoff tie in NHL history.

Game 1 at Maple Leaf Gardens saw two rookie goalies play their first career playoff game. The Bruins Jack Gelineau would record his only career playoff shutout in Game 1 while the Leafs Al Rollins had a fantastic regular season and won the Vezina Trophy. Game 1 wouldn't turn out well for Rollins who gave up a goal to Lorne Ferguson at 14:48 of the first period. Less than two minutes later, Rollins was knocked out of the series after a collision with the Bruins Pete Horeck. Veteran goalie Turk Broda, who'd retire the next season, stepped in for Rollins. Broda gave up a goal early in the third period to Woody Dumart and Gelineau stopped all 24 Leaf shots for a 2-0 win.

Game 2 at Toronto was a rough affair that had a very strange ending. After Bill Barilko put the Leafs up 1-0, he'd become involved in several incidents. The second period saw seven fights break out and Barilko received a game misconduct for a hit on Dunc Fisher that resulted in Fisher leaving the game on a stretcher. Johnny Peirson tied the game up at the 9:26 of the second. The game went scoreless in the third, resulting in overtime. The first OT period was also scoreless and it was 11:45pm on a Saturday night. The city of Toronto had a curfew law that prohibited professional sporting events from occurring on Sunday. As a result, the game ended after one overtime period and was declared a draw. The game is not officially counted in NHL game registers though the statistics in the game are. In OT, Johnny Peirson suffered a broken cheek and was lost for the remainder of the series.

Game 3 at Boston Garden saw the 36 year old Broda play brilliantly and shut the Bruins out. Cal Gardner opened the scoring at 3:02 of the second period on a solo rush. Stopped in front of the Bruins net by Bill Quackenbush and Murray Henderson, he managed to get off a shot as he was falling that eluded Gelineau. Fern Flaman got revenge for the Bruins trading him with a Power play goal on a point shot at 13:11. Max Bentley added a goal in the third period and the series was tied.

Game 4 at Boston saw the Leafs outlast the Bruins who opened the scoring at 7:50 of the first period with Dunc Fisher's only point of the series. The Leafs Sid Smith evened the score on the power play with the Bruins Bill Ezinicki in the box. Max Bentley put the Leafs up for good two minutes later. Barilko's second of the series in the third period finished a 3-1 win and a 2-1-1 series lead for the Leafs.

Game 5 at Toronto was held after a three day layoff. With Gord Henry replacing Jack Gelineau in the Bruins net, the Leafs dominated the ailing Bruins with two goals by Joe Klukay (including one shorthanded), Fleming Mackell and Ted Kennedy before Bill Ezinicki scored a consolation goal for the Bruins.

Game 6 at Boston saw the Leafs win the series with a 6-0 whitewashing of the Bruins with Gord Henry again in net. Klukay scored twice with individual markers by Kennedy, Mackell, Sid Smith and Tod Sloan. The Leafs took the series 4-1-1.

Toronto Maple Leafs 4, Montreal Canadiens 1
Every game went into overtime in this series. Bill Barilko scored the Cup-winning goal, his last goal in the NHL as he would die in a plane crash during the summer.

Regular Season

 * Scoring
 * Goaltending

Playoffs

 * Scoring
 * Goaltending

Awards and Records

 * Vezina Trophy: Al Rollins
 * Ted Kennedy, Center, NHL Second Team All-Star
 * Sid Smith, Left Wing, NHL Second Team All-Star
 * Jimmy Thomson, Defense, NHL Second Team All-Star

1951 Toronto Maple Leafs
Turk Broda, Al Rollins, Jimmy Thomson, Gus Mortson, Bill Barilko, Bill Juzda, Fern Flaman, Hugh Bolton, Ted Kennedy (captain), Sid Smith, Tod Sloan, Cal Gardner, Howie Meeker, Harry Watson, Max Bentley, Joe Klukay, Danny Lewicki, Ray Timgren, Fleming Mackell, Johnny McCormack, Bob Hassard, Conn Smythe (manager), Joe Primeau (coach), Tim Daly (trainer)

Video
Highlights of Game 5 of the Finals including goals by Richard, the game tying goal with 32 seconds left by Tod Sloan and the overtime winner by Bill Barilko.