How Lester Patrick Was Chosen To Stop The Montreal Maroons

The reporter covering the 1928 Stanley Cup Final for New York's World-Telegram newspaper was James Burchard. A rollicking, fun sort of fellow happened to be in the dressing room when the goalie puzzle needed a solution. 

"Hey, Lester," shouted the newsman known as Thirsty Jim, "YOU go in there and show these guys how to play goal."

Then, a pause and finally Lester stood up and said "OK, I will." And he did.  

(The reader must remember that it was Rangers hockey beat writer Thirsty Jim Burchard who set the fantastic episode in motion.)

For the rest of the second period and well into the third, the 43-year-old Silver Fox kept the mighty Maroons scoreless. Meanwhile, Bill Cook put New York ahead 1-0 in the third period  but once again Nels Stewart was poisoned again, beating Lester at 12:40 of the third stanza.

Now this peerless hockey melodrama went into sudden death overtime where Montreal goalie Clint Benedict and Lester Patrick each made three saves. Suddenly, Boucher realized that he had THE chance.

"I got around the Montreal defense and managed to get off a shot," Boucher remembered, "and it beat Benedict and the Maroons. Next thing we knew, we were carrying Lester off the ice on our shoulders."

Was this the greatest story ever told? 

The Maven says that it has to be because it's one of a kind and even has a poem  written by the man who started the whole thing – World-Telegram hockey writer Jim Burchard.