Max Bentley led the Maple Leafs in scoring with 21 goals and 41 assists for 62 points, followed by Teeder Kennedy's 61 points, Tod Sloan with 56 and Sid Smith's 51, as all four finished in the league's top ten scorers. Goltender Rollins 1.77 goals against average led the league and won him the 1951 Vezina Trophy.
Rollins won the 1951 Vezina Trophy for Toronto
Oddly, the playoff matchups for the semi-finals saw the #1 Detroit Red Wings paired off against the #3 Montreal Canadiens. That left the #2 Maple Leafs to play the #4 Boston Bruins. Montreal upset Detroit 4 games to 2 and Toronto earned their place in the finals by eliminating the Bruins 4 games to 1.
Game 1 in Toronto went to overtime as the Maple Leafs prevailed by a score of 3-2. The Canadiens evened the series heading back to Montreal with an identical 3-2 victory in Game 2, which also went to overtime.
The Maple Leafs spoiled the Canadiens homecoming in Game 3 with a narrow 2-1 win, which required yet another extra period after the clubs were tied after regulation for the third straight game. Toronto put themselves in the driver's seat in Game 4 with their second win in Montreal by a score of 3-2, this one yet again requiring an extra period after the teams were tied at the end of regulation.
Game 5 took place on this day in 1951 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. Just when it looked like a game would be settled in regulation, the Maple Leafs Sloan evened the score with his second goal of the game with just 32 seconds remaining with Toronto's goaltender Rollins on the bench for an extra attacker to force overtime for the fifth consecutive game.
The overtime took two minutes and 53 seconds as Bill Barilko, a defenseman, moved in from the point and launched himself at the puck, sending it flying over Canadiens goaltender Gerry McNeil as he fell to the ice.
Barilko's goal is considered to be by many the most famous goal in the long history of the Maple Leafs, ending what has become known as the "Sudden Death Series", as each one of the five games required overtime.
Barilko scoring his famous Stanley Cup winning overtime goal
Barilko's goal is considered to be by many the most famous goal in the long history of the Maple Leafs, ending what has become known as the "Sudden Death Series", as each one of the five games required overtime.
Barilko carried off the ice by his jubilant teammates
It would be the final goal Barilko would ever score.
Four months later the 24 year old Barilko and his dentist Henry Hudson would board Hudson's plane headed for Seal River, Quebec on a fishing trip and never return. The plane went down on the flight home and remained undiscovered for eleven years before being found 35 miles off course. The cause of the crash was determined to have been a combination of pilot inexperience, poor weather and overloaded cargo.
After winning the Stanley Cup four times in the previous five years, the Maple Leafs would not win another Stanley Cup while Barilko was missing. They would finally win the Cup again in 1962, the year Barilko was finally found six weeks after the Maple Leafs won the cup.
1950-51 Stanley Cup Champion Toronto Maple Leafs
Barilko's story was chronicled in the song "Fifty Mission Cap" by the Canadian band The Tragically Hip in 1992.
Barilko's #5 is one of only two numbers officially retired by the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Today's featured jersey is a 1950-51 Toronto Maple Leafs Bill Barilko jersey, the one he wore when he scored one of the most famous goals in Maple Leafs history, the overtime game winner of the 1951 Stanley Cup Finals.
This jersey is on display at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This style jersey was worn by the Maple Leafs from 1938 to 1958.
This jersey is on display at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This style jersey was worn by the Maple Leafs from 1938 to 1958.
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