Maple Leafs Comeback For The Ages; Just Like They Did 86 Years Ago

                                                

                                                               Pep Kelly

This has been a helluva Qualifying Round for the Toronto Maple Leafs. One day after they blew a 3-0 lead to Columbus, the Leafs, on the brink of elimination, turned the tables. Starting the comeback with under four minutes remaining, this was the latest a team had ever erased a 3-0 deficit in an elimination game since 1936. The previous record was when the very same Maple Leafs came back from 3-0 with just under seven minutes left in their season.

On April 9, 1936, Toronto was down two games to one against the Detroit Red Wings in the Stanley Cup Final. Back then, the Final was a best-of-five affair. In Game Three at Maple Leaf Gardens, the Leafs faced a 3-0 deficit with 8:45 remaining in the 3rd period. Detroit goals by Ralph Bowman, Mud Bruneteau and Syd Howe gave the Wings a seemingly insurmountable lead and their first ever Stanley Cup.

Joe Primeau put Toronto on the board with 6:51 to play, then Pep Kelly made it 3-2 two minutes later. With only 41 seconds remaining, Kelly once again bulged the twine behind Normie Smith to tie the game at 3. Buzz Boll completed the amazing comeback 30 seconds into Overtime, potting his 7th goal in 8 playoff games.

Andy Lytle of The Toronto Daily Star described the affair in the following day's paper; "While Kelly and Boll were the clinching instruments, it was the dauntless spirit displayed by all of the Leafs that finally brought them victory over as grim and courageous a crew as they will ever encounter." Lytle wrote of the mood in the building when the home team was down by three late in the game, it describes perfectly what Leaf fans of the current year felt late in Game Four, "...the immense crowd that watched and the greater crowd that listened (on the radio of course) must have abandoned all hope. Not so Smythe and Irvin. 'We'll send four men up and we'll change them every minute.' they said as the third period began. 'Let's see if they can take that and stand it.' Well, we saw that they couldn't...There were Wings and Leafs strewn all over the ice during this major offensive that reversed  the hockey picture entirely. The scene almost baffles description as the Leafs raged ever in and in and the Wings strove with passion and every ounce of fighting strength they possessed to keep them out." Sounds a lot like Game Four in 2020. 

Lytle concluded his eloquent depiction of the events; "The Leafs can win tonight and go back into Detroit for the decisive battle. Or they can lose tonight and still retain the full measure of our respect and admiration. Nothing finer than the fight they put up Thursday night is conceivable. You can exhaust superlatives describing the sheer grandeur of it and still not do it full justice. For the Leaf drive came just as all hope had fled. It came at such a time and in such striking manner that it may , indeed, have shattered the Wings' morale as it frustrated their Stanley Cup hopes. What we do know at the moment is that the dice finally came up seven for Leafs. 'Only a bunch of screw balls could do it.' Red Horner confided last night." Pure poetry if you ask me, and it all sounds like it could describe the 2020 Game Four comeback as well.

As for the Detroit perspective, Bob Murphy of The Detroit Times wrote of the comeback/collapse in a slightly exaggerated style, "Then something happened. The dam broke. The woods caught fire. Volcanic eruptions, floods and plague broke out. Cyclones were ripping and cutting swaths down the ice. And not a single lifeboat was in sight." 

Of course, Detroit would go on to win Game Four by a score of 3-2, earning the franchises' first Stanley Cup. The Leafs of today and their legion of fans hope the miraculous comeback is followed by different results in 2020.

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