Rangers coach Lester Patrick plays goalie and leads Rangers to OT win
On April 7, 1928 – 1928: In the second period of the second game of the best-of-five Stanley Cup finals, Montreal Maroons wing Nelson Stewart’s blistering shot strikes New York Rangers goalie Lorne Chabot in the left eye. Chabot is severely injured, and he is taken to a Montreal hospital.
With no spare goalie on the roster, Rangers coach Lester Patrick puts himself between the pipes after the Maroons refuse to allow the Rangers to use an NHL goalie who happened to be in the stands at the Montreal Forum. Patrick is 44 and long since retired. And while he did play some goal as a youth, most of his career was as a defenseman.
But Patrick stands up the challenge, saving 18 of the 19 shots the Maroons fire at him. The only goal he allows is scored by Stewart, with 5:40 left in the third period, and sends the game into overtime. After Patrick staves off two attacks by Montreal in OT, Frank Boucher’s goal gives the Rangers a 2-1 victory and ties the series at one game each.
With Chabot out, the Rangers will sign Joe Miller, goalie for the last-place New York Americans, for the rest of the series. The Rangers will win two of the next three games, with Miller allowing just three goals, to take the Stanley Cup.
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