1972 NHL Playoffs
1st Round
East Division
Toronto vs Montreal
Toronto jumps out to a 2-0 lead, flashing their offensive muscle, scoring 10 goals in the two wins. They win game three on the road to take a 3-0 series lead.
Montreal does not go quietly into the night. The
Habs win game four by one, and get a 4 goal third period in a game 5 comeback win.
Don Awrey scores in overtime of game six to send this series to 7. Tied at one in the third,
Jean Ratelle gets the winning goal with 5 mins remaining.
Toronto survives in 7!
New York vs Boston
On the road, the
Bruins surprise the
Rangers with two wins. Facing adversity,
Bernie Parent gets his
Rangers back in the series. He does not allow the
Bruins to score on their home ice!
Andy Brown turns the tables in game 5, shutting out the
Rangers.
Parent records his third shut out of the series in game 6. Two notes... If
Boston scores, they win. The road team is 6-0 in the series. Game 7 from MSG sees both those trends end.
Boston scores first, but it’s all
Rangers after that.
Pete Mahovlich scores twice.
Rangers win 4-1 to take the series in 7!
West Division
Chicago vs Philadelphia
Already down a game, the
Flyers get a goal from
Steve Vickers at the 17:45 mark of the third, and another goal from
Michael Briere at the 19:17 mark to steal game two, 4-3! Both teams then split the
Philly hosted games of the series.
Ken Dryden then shut the door to his net, allowing just one goal in the next 2 games.
Blackhawks win the series in 6!
Pittsburgh vs Minnesota
After the
Penguins dominate the first two games, the
North Stars responded with a wonderful effort, getting a 4-0 win in the third game. That was the highlight of the series for the
North Stars, as
Pittsburgh won the next two games easily to win the series in 5!
Semi Finals
E1 Toronto vs W2 Pittsburgh
The
Penguins are huge underdogs in this series, but for 10 minutes, they are toe to toe with
Toronto. Then
Norm Ferguson scored. 10 seconds later
Rick Ley scored. 90 seconds later
JP Parise scored. Four minutes later
JP Parise scored again. 4-0
Toronto after one, and a 7-2 final.
Bobby Hull scores twice in the first period of game two, and
Toronto leads by that margin after a period. The
Pens get outplayed badly, but are held in the game by goalie
Doug Favell. He ends up stopping 59 shots. Down by one,
Marcel Dionne ties it midway through the third to force overtime. The
Leafs win it 33 seconds in, off the stick of
Jean-Guy Lagace! 3-2 Toronto.
Lagace is the game two overtime hero!
The
Penguins showed some fight back home, taking a lead into the third period of game three. Unfortunately for them, they could not hold that lead as
Bobby Hull and
JP Parise erased it on back to back shifts.
Pierre Jarry added a insurance marker.
Toronto wins 6-4. The
Leafs stepped on the neck in game 4, ending this series as quickly as possible. They scored 34 seconds in. Led 3-0 after a period, and repeated the game one scoreline, winning 7-2.
Toronto sweeps
Pittsburgh.
W1 Chicago vs E2 New York
Bernie Parent continues his fantastic play, earning his fourth shut out, with a series opening 2-0
Rangers win. This playoffs is a coming out party for
Bernie!
Chicago gets 2 third period goals from
Mike Corrigan and
Rod Gilbert to tie the series with a 3-1 win in game two.
Rod Gilbert, and underrated star in Chicago!
Parent is back at it in game three. He makes 24 saves, while
Nick Libett scored twice. 5-0
Rangers take the series lead. I don’t believe this, game four sees
Parent make 44 saves, again allowing no goals!!
Bill Fairbairn scored twice. The
Rangers win it 4-0!
Bernie Parent is becoming a star before our eyes!
Parent now has 6 shutouts in these playoffs. One more will eliminate the
Blackhawks.
Andre Lacroix makes sure
Parent won’t earn another zero in game 5, scoring early for
Chicago. The two teams battled to a 2-2 draw, needing another period. It took 10 mins, but
Tracy Pratt, a journeyman defenseman, with 9 career goals, finds space behind
Parent to win it for
Chicago! They stay alive, 3-2. In game 6,
Parent was not on his game, and neither was
Ken Dryden, the
Blackhawks goalie.
NY led 2-1 after a period, but that lead vanished quickly in the 2nd.
Rod Gilbert scored a few seconds following the opening faceoff, and
Mike Corrigan gave
Chicago the lead. The teams exchanged goals in the third, but with only 42 combined shots on net, 8 goals are scored, and the Blackhawks win 5-3. Bad goaltending tonight. We need a game 7!
Pratt is the hero of game 5!
Syl Apps Jr opens the scoring for
NY, but
JC Tremblay ties it right away. Before the first period ends,
Al Hamilton gives the
Rangers a 2-1 lead. Rookie
Larry Robinson ties it for
Chicago in the 2nd, meaning the two teams now have a period to play for the right to go to the finals..
With
Chicago controlling the play,
Gary Croteau is rewarded with the go ahead goal, while
Tracy Pratt scores an insurance marker. The
Rangers finish with just 15 shots on net.
New York goes 1-7 in games
Bernie Parent didn’t record a shutout. 4-2
Chicago eliminates
NY!
