1951–52 NHL season

National Hockey League season

Sports season

1951–52 NHL season

League| National Hockey League
Sport| Ice hockey
Duration| October 11, 1951 – April 15, 1952
Number of games| 70
Number of teams| 6
Regular season
Season champion| Detroit Red Wings
Season MVP| Gordie Howe (Red Wings)
Top scorer| Gordie Howe (Red Wings)
Stanley Cup
Champions| Detroit Red Wings
Runners-up| Montreal Canadiens
NHL seasons

← 1950–51

1952–53 →

The 1951–52 NHL season was the 35th season of the National Hockey League. Six teams played 70 games each. The Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup by sweeping the Montreal Canadiens four games to none.

## League business

[edit]

A long-standing feud between Boston president Weston Adams and general manager Art Ross ended on October 12, 1951, when Adams sold his stock in Boston Garden to Walter Brown.[citation needed]

The Chicago Black Hawks, who had made the mammoth nine player deal the previous season, now decided to make the largest cash deal for players to this time by paying $75,000 for Jim McFadden, George Gee, Jimmy Peters, Clare Martin, Clare Raglan and Max McNab.[citation needed]

The NHL and the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) agreed to a January 15 deadline for professional teams to call up players from the CAHA's Major Series of senior ice hockey. The agreement gave the NHL a source of emergency replacement players, and prevented teams in Canada from losing players during the Alexander Cup playoffs.[1]

### Rule changes

[edit]

The league mandated that home teams would now wear a basic white uniform, while road teams will wear coloured uniforms. Before then, teams would often play with colored jerseys against each other, and with Television being in black white at the time, this helped viewers at home identify the two teams clearly.[citation needed]

The goal crease is enlarged from 3 ft × 7 ft (0.91 m × 2.13 m) to 4 ft × 8 ft (1.2 m × 2.4 m). The faceoff circles are expanded from a 10-foot (3.0 m) radius to a 15-foot (4.6 m) radius.[2]

## Regular season

[edit]

Conn Smythe offered $10,000 for anyone who found Bill Barilko, missing since August 26. Barilko and Dr. Henry Hudson had left Rupert House on James Bay in the doctor's light plane for Timmins, Ontario, after a weekend fishing trip and had not been found.

For the fourth straight season, the Detroit Red Wings finished first overall in the National Hockey League.

### Highlights

[edit]

On November 25 in Chicago, Chicago goalie Harry Lumley hurt a knee. At age 46, trainer Moe Roberts, who played his first game in the NHL for Boston in 1925–26, played the third period in goal for Chicago and did not yield a goal.[3] Roberts would stand as the oldest person to ever play an NHL game until Gordie Howe returned to the NHL at age 51 in 1979.[4]

Chicago was not drawing well and so they decided to experiment with afternoon games. It worked, as the largest crowd of the season, 13,600 fans, showed up for a January 20 game in which Chicago lost to Toronto 3–1.

Elmer Lach night was held March 8 at the Forum in Montreal as the Canadiens tied Chicago 4–4. 14,452 fans were on hand to see Lach presented with a car, rowboat, TV set, deep-freeze chest, bedroom and dining room suites, a refrigerator and many other articles.

On the last night of the season, March 23, 1952, with nothing at stake at Madison Square Garden, 3,254 fans saw Chicago's Bill Mosienko score the fastest hat trick in NHL history, 3 goals in 21 seconds. Lorne Anderson was the goaltender who gave up the goals to Chicago. Gus Bodnar also set a record with the fastest three assists in NHL history as he assisted on all three goals Mosienko scored. Chicago beat the New York Rangers 7–6.[3]

### Final standings

[edit]

National Hockey League[5]

* v
* t
* e

|  | GP | W | L | T | GF | GA | DIFF | Pts

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1 | Detroit Red Wings | 70 | 44 | 14 | 12 | 215 | 133 | +82 | 100
2 | Montreal Canadiens | 70 | 34 | 26 | 10 | 195 | 164 | +31 | 78
3 | Toronto Maple Leafs | 70 | 29 | 25 | 16 | 168 | 157 | +11 | 74
4 | Boston Bruins | 70 | 25 | 29 | 16 | 162 | 176 | −14 | 66
5 | New York Rangers | 70 | 23 | 34 | 13 | 192 | 219 | −27 | 59
6 | Chicago Black Hawks | 70 | 17 | 44 | 9 | 158 | 241 | −83 | 43

## Playoffs

[edit]

Detroit finished 8–0, sweeping the defending Stanley Cup champions Toronto (the first time in NHL history the cup champs were swept in the first round) and Montreal, the first time a team had gone undefeated in the playoffs since the 1934–35 Montreal Maroons. The Wings scored 24 goals in the playoffs, compared to a combined five goals for their opponents. Detroit goaltender Terry Sawchuk never allowed a goal on home ice during the playoffs.[3]

### Playoff bracket

[edit]

The top four teams in the league qualified for the playoffs. In the semifinals, the first-place team played the third-place team, while the second-place team faced the fourth-place team, with the winners advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals. In both rounds, teams competed in a best-of-seven series (scores in the bracket indicate the number of games won in each best-of-seven series).

| Semifinals | | | Stanley Cup Finals |

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|  |  |  | | |  |  |  |
| 1 | Detroit | 4 | |
| 3 | Toronto | 0 |
| | 1 | Detroit | 4 |
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| | | 2 | Montreal | 0 |
| 2 | Montreal | 4 |

| 4 | Boston | 3 |

### Semifinals

[edit]

#### (1) Detroit Red Wings vs. (3) Toronto Maple Leafs

[edit]

March 25  | Toronto Maple Leafs  |  | 0–3 |  | Detroit Red Wings | Olympia Stadium | Recap |

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No scoring | First period | 13:35 – Red Kelly (1)
No scoring | Second period | No scoring
No scoring | Third period | 02:59 – pp – Sid Abel (1)
14:21 – Johnny Wilson (1)
Al Rollins | Goalie stats | Terry Sawchuck
March 27  | Toronto Maple Leafs  |  | 0–1 |  | Detroit Red Wings | Olympia Stadium | Recap |

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No scoring | First period | 15:33 – pp – Johnny Wilson (2)
No scoring | Second period | No scoring
No scoring | Third period | No scoring
Al Rollins | Goalie stats | Terry Sawchuck
March 29  | Detroit Red Wings |  | 6–2 |  | Toronto Maple Leafs  | Maple Leaf Gardens | Recap |

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Marty Pavelich (1) – 10:56
Ted Lindsay (1) – pp – 16:57  | First period | 11:16 – Joe Klukay (1)
Johnny Wilson (3) – 02:10
Leo Reise Jr. (1) – 05:22  | Second period | 12:20 – Max Bentley (1)
Johnny Wilson (4) – 00:48
Benny Woit (1) – 08:47  | Third period | No scoring
Terry Sawchuck | Goalie stats | Al Rollins
April 1  | Detroit Red Wings |  | 3–1 |  | Toronto Maple Leafs  | Maple Leaf Gardens | Recap |

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Ted Lindsay (2) – pp – 04:35
Tony Leswick (1) – pp – 09:32  | First period | 02:56 – Harry Watson (1)
Sid Abel (2) – 04:52  | Second period | No scoring
No scoring | Third period | No scoring
Terry Sawchuck | Goalie stats | Al Rollins
Detroit won series 4–0 |

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#### (2) Montreal Canadiens vs. (4) Boston Bruins

[edit]

March 25  | Boston Bruins  |  | 1–5 |  | Montreal Canadiens | Forum de Montréal | Recap |

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No scoring | First period | 05:45 – Maurice Richard (1)
Pentti Lund (1) – 06:27  | Second period | 00:30 – Dickie Moore (1)
14:16 – Maurice Richard (2)
No scoring | Third period | 03:09 – Billy Reay (1)
19:24 – Floyd Curry (1)
Jim Henry | Goalie stats | Gerry McNeil
March 27  | Boston Bruins  |  | 0–4 |  | Montreal Canadiens | Forum de Montréal | Recap |

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No scoring | First period | 04:01 – Ken Mosdell (1)
09:49 – pp – Bernie Geoffrion (1)
No scoring | Second period | 13:39 – Bernie Geoffrion (2)
No scoring | Third period | 17:14 – Bernie Geoffrion (3)
Jim Henry | Goalie stats | Gerry McNeil
March 30  | Montreal Canadiens  |  | 1–4 |  | Boston Bruins | Boston Garden | Recap |

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No scoring | First period | No scoring
No scoring | Second period | 02:05 – Hal Laycoe (1)
02:38 – Dave Creighton (1)
03:07 – Ed Sandford (1)
Floyd Curry (2) – 15:24  | Third period | 06:14 – Fleming MacKell (1)
Gerry McNeil | Goalie stats | Jim Henry
April 1  | Montreal Canadiens  |  | 2–3 |  | Boston Bruins | Boston Garden | Recap |

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No scoring | First period | 09:53 – Real Chevrefils (1)
Floyd Curry (3) – pp – 19:46  | Second period | 06:55 – Milt Schmidt (1)
Floyd Curry (4) – 06:48  | Third period | 14:37 – Fleming MacKell (2)
Gerry McNeil | Goalie stats | Jim Henry
April 3  | Boston Bruins |  | 1–0 |  | Montreal Canadiens  | Forum de Montréal | Recap |

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No scoring | First period | No scoring
No scoring | Second period | No scoring
Jack McIntyre (1) – 03:30  | Third period | No scoring
Jim Henry | Goalie stats | Gerry McNeil
April 6  | Montreal Canadiens |  | 3–2 | 2OT | Boston Bruins  | Boston Garden | Recap |

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No scoring | First period | 02:53 – Milt Schmidt (2)
11:44 – Dave Creighton (2)
Eddie Mazur (1) – 04:53  | Second period | No scoring
Maurice Richard (3) – 11:05  | Third period | No scoring
Paul Masnick (1) – 07:49  | Second overtime period | No scoring
Gerry McNeil | Goalie stats | Jim Henry
April 8  | Boston Bruins  |  | 1–3 |  | Montreal Canadiens | Forum de Montréal | Recap |

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Ed Sandford (2) – 12:25  | First period | 04:25 – Eddie Mazur (2)
No scoring | Second period | No scoring
No scoring | Third period | 16:19 – Maurice Richard (4)
19:26 – en – Billy Reay (2)
Jim Henry | Goalie stats | Gerry McNeil
Montreal won series 4–3 |

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### Stanley Cup Finals

[edit]

Main article: 1952 Stanley Cup Finals

April 10  | Detroit Red Wings |  | 3–1 |  | Montreal Canadiens  | Forum de Montréal | Recap |

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No scoring | First period | No scoring
Tony Leswick (2) – 03:27  | Second period | No scoring
Tony Leswick (3) – 07:59
Ted Lindsay (3) – en – 19:44  | Third period | 11:01 – Tom Johnson (1)
Terry Sawchuck | Goalie stats | Gerry McNeil
April 12  | Detroit Red Wings |  | 2–1 |  | Montreal Canadiens  | Forum de Montréal | Recap |

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Marty Pavelich (2) – 16:09  | First period | 18:37 – pp – Elmer Lach (1)
Ted Lindsay (4) – pp – 00:43  | Second period | No scoring
No scoring | Third period | No scoring
Terry Sawchuck | Goalie stats | Gerry McNeil
April 13  | Montreal Canadiens  |  | 0–3 |  | Detroit Red Wings | Olympia Stadium | Recap |

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No scoring | First period | 04:31 – pp – Gordie Howe (1)
No scoring | Second period | 09:13 – Ted Lindsay (5)
No scoring | Third period | 06:54 – Gordie Howe (2)
Gerry McNeil | Goalie stats | Terry Sawchuck
April 15  | Montreal Canadiens  |  | 0–3 |  | Detroit Red Wings | Olympia Stadium | Recap |

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No scoring | First period | 06:50 – pp – Metro Prystai (1)
No scoring | Second period | 19:39 – Glen Skov (1)
No scoring | Third period | 07:35 – Metro Prystai (2)
Gerry McNeil | Goalie stats | Terry Sawchuck
Detroit won series 4–0 |

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## Awards

[edit]

Award winners  Prince of Wales Trophy:
(Regular season champion) | Detroit Red Wings

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Art Ross Trophy:
(Top scorer) | Gordie Howe, Detroit Red Wings
Calder Memorial Trophy:
(Best first-year player) | Bernie Geoffrion, Montreal Canadiens
Hart Trophy:
(Most valuable player) | Gordie Howe, Detroit Red Wings
Lady Byng Memorial Trophy:
(Excellence and sportsmanship) | Sid Smith, Toronto Maple Leafs
Vezina Trophy:
(Goaltender of team with best goals-against average) | Terry Sawchuk, Detroit Red Wings
All-Star teams  First team |   Position   | Second team

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Terry Sawchuk, Detroit Red Wings | G | Jim Henry, Boston Bruins
Red Kelly, Detroit Red Wings | D | Hy Buller, New York Rangers
Doug Harvey, Montreal Canadiens | D  | Jimmy Thomson, Toronto Maple Leafs
Elmer Lach, Montreal Canadiens | C | Milt Schmidt, Boston Bruins
Gordie Howe, Detroit Red Wings | RW | Maurice Richard, Montreal Canadiens
Ted Lindsay, Detroit Red Wings | LW | Sid Smith, Toronto Maple Leafs

## Player statistics

[edit]

### Scoring leaders

[edit]

Note: GP = Games played, G = Goals, A = Assists, PTS = Points, PIM = Penalties in minutes

Player  | Team  | GP  | G  | A  | PTS  | PIM

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Gordie Howe | Detroit Red Wings | 70 | 47 | 39 | 86 | 78
Ted Lindsay | Detroit Red Wings | 70 | 30 | 39 | 69 | 123
Elmer Lach | Montreal Canadiens | 70 | 15 | 50 | 65 | 36
Don Raleigh | New York Rangers | 70 | 19 | 42 | 61 | 14
Sid Smith | Toronto Maple Leafs | 70 | 27 | 30 | 57 | 6
Bernie Geoffrion | Montreal Canadiens | 67 | 30 | 24 | 54 | 66
Bill Mosienko | Chicago Black Hawks | 70 | 31 | 22 | 53 | 10
Sid Abel | Detroit Red Wings | 62 | 17 | 36 | 53 | 32
Ted Kennedy | Toronto Maple Leafs | 70 | 19 | 33 | 52 | 33
Milt Schmidt | Boston Bruins | 69 | 21 | 29 | 50 | 57

Source: NHL[6]

### Leading goaltenders

[edit]

Note: GP = Games played; Min = Minutes played; GA = Goals against; GAA = Goals against average; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; SO = Shutouts

Player  | Team  | GP  | MIN  | GA  | GAA  | W  | L  | T  | SO

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Terry Sawchuk | Detroit Red Wings | 70 | 4200 | 133 | 1.90 | 44 | 14 | 12 | 12
Al Rollins | Toronto Maple Leafs | 70 | 4170 | 154 | 2.22 | 29 | 24 | 16 | 5
Gerry McNeil | Montreal Canadiens | 70 | 4200 | 164 | 2.34 | 34 | 26 | 10 | 5
Jim Henry | Boston Bruins | 70 | 4200 | 176 | 2.51 | 25 | 29 | 16 | 7
Chuck Rayner | New York Rangers | 53 | 3180 | 159 | 3.00 | 18 | 25 | 10 | 2
Emile Francis | New York Rangers | 14 | 840 | 42 | 3.00 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 0

Source: NHL[7]

## Coaches

[edit]

* Boston Bruins: Lynn Patrick
* Chicago Black Hawks: Ebbie Goodfellow
* Detroit Red Wings: Tommy Ivan
* Montreal Canadiens: Dick Irvin
* New York Rangers: Bill Cook
* Toronto Maple Leafs: Joe Primeau

## Debuts

[edit]

The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1951–52 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):

* Leo Labine, Boston Bruins
* Real Chevrefils, Boston Bruins
* Kenny Wharram, Chicago Black Hawks
* Don Marshall, Montreal Canadiens
* Dickie Moore, Montreal Canadiens
* Wally Hergesheimer, New York Rangers
* Eric Nesterenko, Toronto Maple Leafs
* Leo Boivin, Toronto Maple Leafs

## Last games

[edit]

The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1951–52 (listed with their last team):

* Bobby Bauer, Boston Bruins
* Roy Conacher, Chicago Black Hawks
* Jack Stewart, Chicago Black Hawks
* Bep Guidolin, Chicago Black Hawks
* Turk Broda, Toronto Maple Leafs
* Bill Juzda, Toronto Maple Leafs

## See also

[edit]

* 1951–52 NHL transactions
* List of Stanley Cup champions
* 5th National Hockey League All-Star Game
* National Hockey League All-Star Game
* Ice hockey at the 1952 Winter Olympics
* 1951 in sports
* 1952 in sports

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Puck Chiefs Come To An Agreement". Winnipeg Free Press. Winnipeg, Manitoba. May 27, 1952. p. 16.
2. ^ Fischler et al. 2003, p. 202.
3. ^ a b c Dryden 2000, p. 54.
4. ^ Goaltending Legends: Maurice "Moe" Roberts
5. ^ "1951–1952 Division Standings Standings - NHL.com - Standings". National Hockey League.
6. ^ Dinger 2011, p. 148.
7. ^ "1951–1952 – Regular Season – Goalie – Skater Season Stats Leaders – Points – NHL.com – Stats". nhl.com. Retrieved January 16, 2012.

## Sources

[edit]

* Diamond, Dan, ed. (1994). Years of glory, 1942–1967: the National Hockey League's official book of the six-team era. Toronto, ON: McClelland and Stewart. ISBN 0-7710-2817-2.
* Diamond, Dan, ed. (2000). Total Hockey. Total Sports. ISBN 1-892129-85-X.
* Dinger, Ralph, ed. (2011). The National Hockey League Official Guide & Record Book 2012. Toronto, ON: Dan Diamond & Associates. ISBN 978-1-894801-22-5.
* Dryden, Steve, ed. (2000). Century of hockey. Toronto, ON: McClelland & Stewart Ltd. ISBN 0-7710-4179-9.
* Fischler, Stan; Fischler, Shirley; Hughes, Morgan; Romain, Joseph; Duplacey, James (2003). The Hockey Chronicle: Year-by-Year History of the National Hockey League. Lincolnwood, Illinois: Publications International Inc. ISBN 0-7853-9624-1.
* McFarlane, Brian (1973). The Story of the National Hockey League. New York: Pagurian Press. ISBN 0-684-13424-1.

## External links

[edit]

* Hockey Database
* NHL.com

* v
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NHL seasons

1910s|

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2000s|

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2010s|

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2020s|

|  2020–21 |  2021–22 |  2022–23 |  2023–24 |  2024–25 |  2025–26 |  |  |  |

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The 2004–05 season was not played due to a lockout.

* v
* t
* e

1951–52 NHL season

Teams|

* Boston
* Chicago
* Detroit
* Montreal
* New York
* Toronto

See also|

* All-Star Game
* Stanley Cup Finals

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template
*[GP]: Games played
*[W]: Wins
*[L]: Losses
*[T]: Ties
*[GF]: Goals for
*[GA]: Goals against
*[DIFF]: Goal Differential
*[Pts]: Points