The Night Three Maple Leafs Defencemen Became Goalies

On March 15, 1932, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins produced one of the strangest two minutes in NHL history.

The unusual situation began when Toronto goaltender Lorne Chabot was penalized. Under NHL rules at the time, goaltenders served their own penalties. With Chabot sent to the penalty box, the Maple Leafs had to place a skater in the net until his two-minute sentence expired.

Toronto lost the game 6–2, but the score was almost secondary to the remarkable sight of three Maple Leafs defencemen—including future Hall of Famer King Clancy—taking turns as a goalie.

Red Horner was the first man selected. The rugged defenceman had never played goal, and Boston’s Marty Barry quickly scored against him. The Toronto coach replaced Horner with Alex Levinsky.

BANG Barry scored again.

King Clancy, the vet, had had enough and, having previously tended goal on an emergency basis, booted Levinsky from the crease. This past experience didn’t help Clancy; he also let in a third goal.

Boston had scored three times against three different emergency Leafs goaltenders on 1 PP.

The game stats sheet gave Horner, Levinsky, and Clancy official NHL goaltending appearances. For this reason, I decided to add the Clancy, Horner, and Levinsky rookie cards to the archive.

Clancy’s rookie card is his 1923–24 V145-1 William Paterson card #3. The small, sepia-toned Canadian issue has a blank back and identifies Clancy with the Ottawa Senators. Being in the HOF, his rookie card is an extremely difficult hockey card to lock down. Clancy was already famous for his versatility—he reportedly became the first NHL player to play all six positions, including goal, during a 1923 game. His appearance in net against Boston was therefore not his first emergency assignment.

Horner and Levinsky rookie cards appear in a couple of 1933 hockey sets. I chose the O-Pee-Chee 1933 set to collect for them. Horner appears on card #10, while Levinsky follows directly behind him at #11.

It wasn’t until 1965 that NHL teams were required to sign a backup goalie, so situations like these, although uncommon, were a thing of the past… well, until the 2000s, when an accountant and a Zamboni driver made NHL appearances. But that’s a story for another BLOG.