Montreal Juniors vs Soviet Selects, Dec. 1974
Pic One |
Pic Two |
Seeing the two photos above at first glance one may say they are from the same match. Looking closer there are many differences between them suggesting they are from different games. The main difference is the fact that the Junior Canadiens goalie is different, perhaps they shared duties or is it two different games?
Even with a large amount of googling the archives of the Montreal Gazette newspaper and the great site of the Society for International Hockey Research which has jersey numbers for most teams ever, it has proven pretty tough to narrow down which game is which. My best educated guesses are as follows.
I found out that the Soviet Selects played at the Montreal Forum against the Junior Canadiens at least four times between December 1974 and December 1976. What makes it even tougher is that they played within two weeks in early Dec. 1974 and right before Christmas '74. As well the Junior Canadiens were reinforced in each game by either players from other junior teams or by professionals from Montreal Canadiens AHL team, Nova Scotia Voyageurs.
Pic One is from I believe Dec. 9, 1974 when the Soviets lost 4-3. The goaltending for Montreal that day was split by pro fill-in Dave Elenbaas and regular junior goalie Andre LePage, fairly sure the first one is LePage and the second pic is Elenbaas. The fact that the shots are from a nearly identical spot leads me to believe they're from the same match. This is the only game in which Montreal had two goalies play. Elenbaas is oddly wearing #24 as a goalie, a number rarely used by the team that year. It's very conceivable they gave Elenbaas this jersey simply because it was available.
The Montreal Juniors were strengthened by other AHL pro's including #4 Gilles Lupien (unmistakable at 6ft, 6 inches) in the second shot.
Pic Three
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Comments
University Stingers at the time-.team gad some AHL
Players and Mike Bossy-Gilles Lupien-I believe
We lost 5-3?
Don Morris-Don.Morris@sympatico.ca