1973: VICTORY -- AND RECKONING
Apr 29, 2005 20:01:13 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Apr 29, 2005 20:01:13 GMT -5
sportsillustrated.cnn.com/hockey/nhl/features/si_stanley_cup/70s/
By Mark Mulvoy
Montreal over Chicago in six games
Conn Smythe winner: Yvan Cournoyer, Montreal
When it was finally over -- after Peter Mahavolich had lost a few dozen face-offs to Stan Mikita, after Valeri Kharlamov watched Ken Dryden and Tony Esposito masquerade as a couple of scared rookie goaltenders from Minsk, after captain Henri Richard of the Montreal Canadiens had skated around Chicago Stadium carrying the Stanley Cup over his shoulder like a gunnysack -- it was impossible to forget the reports of the verbal exchange between Yvan Cournoyer and Jerry Korab just seconds before Cournoyer scored the goal that beat the Black Hawks and won the cup for the Canadiens. As they lined up alongside one another for a face-off early in the third period last Thursday night, the 6' 3", 205-pound Korab, who answers to the name King Kong, loomed over the 5' 7", 172-pound Cournoyer.
"Hey you little frog," Korab snarled, "what are you going to be when you grow up?"
"Something you'll never be," Cournoyer answered. "A goal scorer."
While Korab was thinking that over, Jacques Lemaire stole the puck from him and broke in with Cournoyer ...
Cournoyer eluded Korab without any great difficulty and there he was backhanding Lemaire's rebound past Esposito for the decisive score, his record-setting 15th goal of the playoffs. Next, before the bewildered Black Hawks could recover, Cournoyer neatly set up Marc Tardif for an insurance goal as the Canadiens won the game 6-4 and clinched the cup four games to two. Then the silver-haired, 37-year-old Richard, playing for his 11th cup champion in 18 years, proudly led his mates to a night-long group therapy session with his old friend Piper-Heidsieck.
They said it ...
"All those years," Richard said, "all I ever wanted to do was skate around the ice with the cup. I watched Butch Bouchard skate with it, I watched Maurice, my brother, and I watched Jean Beliveau, too. They told me it was the greatest feeling in the world. Now I know what they meant. But I always thought the cup was very heavy. When I picked it up I couldn't believe it. The thing is lighter than a feather."
Issue date: May 21, 1973
By Mark Mulvoy
Montreal over Chicago in six games
Conn Smythe winner: Yvan Cournoyer, Montreal
When it was finally over -- after Peter Mahavolich had lost a few dozen face-offs to Stan Mikita, after Valeri Kharlamov watched Ken Dryden and Tony Esposito masquerade as a couple of scared rookie goaltenders from Minsk, after captain Henri Richard of the Montreal Canadiens had skated around Chicago Stadium carrying the Stanley Cup over his shoulder like a gunnysack -- it was impossible to forget the reports of the verbal exchange between Yvan Cournoyer and Jerry Korab just seconds before Cournoyer scored the goal that beat the Black Hawks and won the cup for the Canadiens. As they lined up alongside one another for a face-off early in the third period last Thursday night, the 6' 3", 205-pound Korab, who answers to the name King Kong, loomed over the 5' 7", 172-pound Cournoyer.
"Hey you little frog," Korab snarled, "what are you going to be when you grow up?"
"Something you'll never be," Cournoyer answered. "A goal scorer."
While Korab was thinking that over, Jacques Lemaire stole the puck from him and broke in with Cournoyer ...
Cournoyer eluded Korab without any great difficulty and there he was backhanding Lemaire's rebound past Esposito for the decisive score, his record-setting 15th goal of the playoffs. Next, before the bewildered Black Hawks could recover, Cournoyer neatly set up Marc Tardif for an insurance goal as the Canadiens won the game 6-4 and clinched the cup four games to two. Then the silver-haired, 37-year-old Richard, playing for his 11th cup champion in 18 years, proudly led his mates to a night-long group therapy session with his old friend Piper-Heidsieck.
They said it ...
"All those years," Richard said, "all I ever wanted to do was skate around the ice with the cup. I watched Butch Bouchard skate with it, I watched Maurice, my brother, and I watched Jean Beliveau, too. They told me it was the greatest feeling in the world. Now I know what they meant. But I always thought the cup was very heavy. When I picked it up I couldn't believe it. The thing is lighter than a feather."
Issue date: May 21, 1973