By Brian Handley - The Patriot Ledger - 6/14/1975
Photo courtesy of Tom Wersderfer
BOSTON — Remember the ’67 Red Sox?
Well, the Boston Bolts did an updated score of the Cardiac Kids’ Impossible Dream soundtrack at Boston Garden last night.
The Bolts put it all together in the third period last night and with their 5,022 fans voicing approval came a clutch home run, er goal, from pulling it out.
In the end it was the Montreal Quebecois 15, B’s 14. A goal with 19 seconds to play by Bill Nunn gave Montreal the win, but couldn’t take the excitement from the fans.
While the fans enjoyed, the Bolts labored and were disappointed by game’s end.
“I thought it was a lousy game,” said Bill Squire. “We beat ourselves. We were throwing the ball all over the place. Loose balls and bad passes killed us. I thought we played poorly the whole way and shouldn’t have been in it at the end.”
In it they were, though.
Photo courtesy of Tom Wersderfer
Montreal led 10-8 going into the final 20 minutes and scored the first goal of the third period. The Bolts suddenly clicked at 5:05 of the period and things started to go their way.
First Squire scored then Dave Johnston fumbled a break away pass from Taki Vohalis but hacked his way out of a crowd with the ball and put it in an open net.
“Davie’s goal was a big lift,” said Bolts’ brain trust Larry Ferguson. “We had the momentum going then. A goal like that shows everything was going our way. I thought that was going uto carry us to the win.”
Montreal thought otherwise. The Quebecois kept Boston at bay matching the Bolts goal for goal.
Ivan Thompson made all the Bolts’ mistakes seem unimportant at 19:34 when he found the upper corner of the Montreal net for a 14-14 tie with just 26 seconds showing on the clock.
“It was a good goal,” Thompson said. “Brian (his brother) drew two men to him and just popped it over to me. I knew Evans (Montreal’s goal keep Dave) was weak on the top corners so I put it there.”
Photo courtesy of Tom Wersderfer
While Ivan could play through it nonchalantly later, such was not the scene on the green floor at 19:34. The Bolts bench emptied and everything was right with the world and box lacrosse in Boston.
The Montreal Express put a chill in the Bostonians off the faceoff.
Bill Squire, who Ferguson lauds as the “best faceoff man in the league” drew the ball to the Bolts’ end and three waiting green jerseys. Somehow a white shirt came up with the ball and Montreal had the game.
“I think we might have been thinking overtime too much and not concentrating on the last seconds,” Ivan Thompson said. “They should never had gotten loose for that last goal.”
“I don’t understand it,” Joe McCrea said. “We blew it. They should never have gotten a goal like that last one. They’d never get another one like that if they tried all season. We had three men back there and they only had two, yet they got the ball. It was a mental let down all around. Five seconds is enough time to score a goal and yet we weren’t concentrating.”
Photo courtesy of Tom Wersderfer
In general, it was not a good night for the Bolts. The northerners kept Boston on ice most of the way.
Boston led 4-3 after the first period, but the second period belonged to Montreal. The Quebecois outscored the home team 7-4 in the period. Bad passing handcuffed Boston.
“There were a lot of throwaways that cost us,” Ferguson said. “We had 12 in the first period and it got worse from there. We had three breakaways that we missed on, and all that combined to decide the game.
“If we had a little better luck on any one of those breaks it could have been a different ball game,” Ferguson went on.
“I thought we gave too much away,” Duffy McCarthy said. “We should have had a two or three goal lead. They scored goals in the last seconds of play in the second and third periods. Those are goals that should never have been scored.
“I don’t think we played all that bad. We missed far too many passes and gave the ball away too much,” McCarthy said. “It could easily have been a different game.
Though the players may not have thought much of the game, you couldn’t convince the fans.
Boston’s goals were scored by Ivan Thompson 3, brother Brian and McCarthy 2, and goals by Chris Hall, Chuck Li, Bill Squire, Larry Bell, Johnston, Vohalis and John Allen…
Montreal goalie Evans made 41 saves. His Boston counterpart Ted Gernaey made 19… The Bolts’ newest acquisition, 6-0, 205-pound defenseman Charlie Marlowe was credited with one assist and had two shorts on net… The Bolts now are myred in fifth place with a 7-12-1 record. Montreal is tied in first with Maryland with a 12-9 record.
