New York Rangers flashback: A 12-goal night at Madison Square Garden in 1971
The New York Rangers celebrated Thanksgiving a few days early in 1971.
Four days before Turkey Day, the Rangers dined on a banquet of Golden Seals – specifically, the California Golden Seals, who brought their green-and-gold sweaters and white skates to Madison Square Garden for a Sunday night visit and left on the wrong end of what is still the biggest offensive explosion in Rangers history. The Rangers ran the Golden Seals out of the Garden and down into the subway tunnels below Penn Station that night, setting team records that still stand by flattening California 12-1.
How bad was it? Seals goalie Gilles Meloche, then a rookie playing in his 13th NHL game, left the ice in tears at 11:03 of the third period after allowing the Rangers’ ninth goal – the first of rookie forward Pierre Jarry’s NHL career. Jarry needed only eight seconds to get his second goal, beating Meloche’s replacement, Lyle Carter, on a breakaway at 11:11. Jarry’s two goals in eight seconds are still a Rangers record.
With the full house of 17,250 screaming “more,” Carter allowed two more goals before the final buzzer mercifully ended a game that saw the Rangers outshoot California 52-16 — including 21-3 in the third period, when they scored eight goals, tying an NHL record set by the Detroit Red Wings against the World War II-weakened Rangers in 1944. Their 15 assists in the final period set an NHL record.
Jarry wasn’t the only Rangers skater to have a memorable night. Center Jean Ratelle scored on each of his first four shots. Prized rookie Gene Carr, recently acquired from the St. Louis Blues, scored twice and had two assists in his Garden debut — coach Emile Francis had planned to spot the flashy forward (“I don’t want too much pressure on him too soon”), but he got a regular shift because Bobby Rousseau was out with an ankle injury. Third-line left wing Ted Irvine scored twice and had an assist, and the defense pair of Jim Neilson (two assists) and Rod Seiling (three assists) each finished plus-7.
The only disappointment came when Golden Seals forward Norm Ferguson beat Gilles Villemure at 17:53 of the second period to spoil his shutout bid. Ferguson’s goal cut the Rangers lead to 4-1, setting the stage for the record-setting third period. Few fans thought the puck went over the goal line, but the replay shown to the limited cable TV audience at the time clearly showed the on-ice call of “goal” was correct.
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Rangers flashback: A 12-goal night at MSG
The Rangers had a bit more incentive to win than they might have had otherwise because their 14-game unbeaten streak had ended the night before with a 4-1 loss to the Minnesota North Stars at Met Center. They were also catching the Golden Seals playing the finale of a seven-game road trip.
New York killed an early 5-on-3 disadvantage before Ratelle opened the scoring at 4:11, then assisted on Vic Hadfield’s goal at 14:59 to make it 2-0. Goals by Irvine and Ratelle in the second period bumped the lead to 4-0 before Ferguson got California on the board.
As if furious with the Golden Seals for daring to break up Villemure’s shutout, the Rangers came out flying in the third period. Villemure might have been the loneliest man in the Garden during the final 20 minutes – all of the action was at the other end of the ice.
Ratelle completed his hat trick 41 seconds into the period, and Irvine got his second of the night at 1:56. With the Garden crowd now roaring, sensing that history was going to be made, Ratelle scored his fourth of the night at 3:40 and Carr made it 8-0 at 6:44.
Jarry’s first goal sent Meloche (who went on to finish with 270 NHL wins) to the bench in tears; his second put the Rangers into double figures for just the fifth time since entering the NHL in 1926 and the first since they defeated Detroit 10-5 on March 29, 1967.
Jarry also did something that had never been done before and hasn’t been accomplished since: He scored twice in eight seconds against two different goalies. Alas, that was the highlight of his time in New York; he scored just once more before being traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Feb. 20, 1972.
But they weren’t finished yet. Carr’s long blond hair was flying as he scored the Rangers’ lone power-play goal of the night at 12:37, and Bill Fairbairn beat Carter with 36 seconds left for goal No. 12. The only thing that stopped the onslaught was the fact that time ran out.
Jarry and Villemure said they “feel sorry for the poor goalie.”
On any other night, Ratelle’s four-goal night would have been the big news. But this was anything but an average night.
“If you score four,” Ratelle told the media, “it’s better than three — but it’s not as good as five.”
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