Lumley holds record for goalies that will stand forever in NHL history

Welcome to NHL Goalie Week. NHL Social is celebrating the goaltending position this week, from Aug. 26 to Sept. 1, reveling in the uniqueness and artistry of the puck-stoppers behind the masks. In that spirit, here is a look by NHL.com’s Dave Stubbs at Harry “Apple Cheeks” Lumley, who will forever hold the record as the League’s youngest goalie.

There are 44 goalies enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame, from Tom Barrasso through Roy “Shrimp” Worters by the alphabet.

Naturally, there are some great nicknames on the list: China Wall, Mr. Zero, Turk, Tony O, Mr. Goalie, Dominator, Hap, Jake the Snake, Tiny, Rat, Gump and the Chicoutimi Cucumber among them.

And then there is Harry “Apple Cheeks” Lumley, so tabbed in the 1940s by a Toronto sportswriter for the goalie’s rosy complexion flushed pink by the cold of the outdoors and the chill of frosty arenas.

All 43 honored NHL goalies and Kim St. Pierre, an enshrined pioneer of the women’s game, have rich histories, quirky stories and fascinating roads to hockey immortality.

Lumley, a 1950 Stanley Cup champion with the Detroit Red Wings and 1954 Vezina Trophy winner with the Toronto Maple Leafs, is no exception.

Harry Lumley poses as a member of the late 1950s Boston Bruins (left), in the twilight of his career, and suiting up during his 1944-45 rookie season with the Detroit Red Wings.

The late native of Owen Sound, Ontario, holds an NHL goaltending record that will last forever based on today’s rule that states a player must be 18 years of age before Sept. 15 of his draft year.

Lumley made his League debut for Detroit at the New York Rangers on Dec. 19, 1943, at age 17 years, 38 days the youngest goalie in NHL history. 

His excellent NHL adventure was setting sail even before he was old enough to vote or legally drink, while he still required permission to cross the border between the U.S. and his native Canada.

Lumley died in London, Ontario, on Sept. 13, 1998 at age 71. His memorial service was held at Owen Sound’s Harry Lumley-Bayshore Community Centre, so named by the city four years earlier as a salute to a favorite son.

Among those in attendance were Maple Leafs legend George Armstrong, a four-time Stanley Cup champion in the 1960s, and Owen Sound native Les Binkley, who in 1967 became the Pittsburgh Penguins’ first No. 1 goalie. Binkley always sought the netminding wisdom of a man he worshiped.

Rookie goalie Harry Lumley (left) and Eddie Bruneteau are hugged by Detroit coach and GM Jack Adams following Game 6 of the 1945 Stanley Cup Final. Lumley’s shutout and Bruneteau’s game-winning goal lifted Detroit to a 1-0 overtime win.

A call-up from Indianapolis of the American Hockey League, Lumley made his historic debut when he took the place of Red Wings regular Normie Smith, whose wartime job in Detroit briefly prevented him from making road trips. 

He made many fine saves, by all accounts, the last-place 2-14-1 Rangers grinding out a surprise 6-2 victory against their listless visitor. But that didn’t cut him any slack from a Detroit Free Press headline writer.

“Lumley Disappoints in Debut as Goalie,” the paper reported of the teenager.

A graduate of Barrie of the Ontario Hockey Association junior league, signed at age 15 by the Red Wings, Lumley would be torched for seven goals at the Chicago Black Hawks three nights after his debut. 

But then he played an airtight third period on emergency loan to the Rangers at Olympia Stadium on Dec. 23, playing the final 20 minutes as a substitute for injured New York starter Ken McAuley.

Chicago Black Hawks goalie Harry Lumley, his nostrils plugged with tissue to protect his broken nose, makes an acrobatic save, captain Jack Stewart rushing to help, during a Feb. 3, 1951 game against Toronto at Maple Leaf Gardens.

Lumley’s perfect performance in the Rangers’ 5-3 win angered Detroit coach Jack Adams, who blustered that “the best Red Wings player tonight wasn’t even wearing a Red Wings uniform.”

Returned to Indianapolis, Lumley was back with Detroit for his 1944-45 rookie season, going 24-10 with three ties, one shutout and a 3.22 goals-against average.

Twice more his name went into the record books, where it remains to this day:

Youngest goalie to record his first win: 18 years, 26 days in a 3-2 road victory against the Rangers on Dec. 7, 1944;

Youngest goalie to record his first shutout: 18 years, 64 days in a 3-0 home-ice triumph against the Maple Leafs on Jan. 14, 1945.

Toronto goalie Harry Lumley makes a kick save during a 1950s game at Maple Leaf Gardens.

If Lumley’s 1944-45 regular season intrigued observers, he dazzled everyone on hockey’s grandest stage in the postseason; he played each of Detroit’s 14 Stanley Cup Playoff games, all the way to a 2-1 loss to Toronto in Game 7 of the Final. The first teenager to play goal in a Final, he registered 2-0 and 1-0 shutouts in Games 5 and 6 -- the second in overtime -- against the Maple Leafs to force a seventh game.

Lumley backstopped the Red Wings to the Final three more times during the next five seasons, winning the Cup for the only time in 1950. He went 8-6 that championship postseason with three shutouts, a sterling goals-against average of 1.85 and a double-overtime Game 7 Cup-clinching win against the Rangers.

But with future legend Terry Sawchuk emerging in the wings, Adams traded Lumley to Chicago as part of a nine-player deal July 13, 1950. Predictably, his statistics sagged on a team to which defense was a nasty rumor, going 29-85 with 19 ties during two seasons before he was traded to Toronto for a four-season run with the marginally better Maple Leafs.

Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Harry Lumley in a 1950s team portrait.

Lumley found his form with his new team, the fifth of six so-called Original Six clubs for which he’d play, Boston to be his final NHL stop between 1957-60.

In Toronto, despite the Maple Leafs missing the playoffs his first season before being eliminated by Detroit in the semifinals the next three straight, the veteran enjoyed his best individual seasons, winning the Vezina Trophy for his League-leading 1.86 GAA in 1953-54.

Lumley’s 13 shutouts that season established a modern-era goaltending record that stood until Chicago’s Tony Esposito had 15 during his landmark 1969-70 rookie season, a record which still stands.

Lumley was on the move again in the summer of 1956, sold with forward Eric Nesterenko to the Black Hawks. But Lumley, probably still nursing the bruises he had absorbed in Chicago’s shooting gallery, refused to sign and played instead with Buffalo of the American Hockey League for most of the following two seasons.

Harry Lumley of the Toronto Maple Leafs poses for a portrait with the Vezina Trophy which he won for the NHL’s lowest goals-against average during the 1953-54 NHL season.

The Bruins, with injury problems, repatriated him in 1957, Lumley playing out his NHL string with Boston to finish his career with a record of 330-329 with 142 ties, a 2.74 GAA and 71 shutouts (tied for 13th all-time) spanning three decades.

Three times he led the NHL in shutouts, twice he was first in wins, twice had the best goals-against average.

A three-time All-Star, Lumley suffered no fools near his goal crease, wielding his heavy lumber like the lacrosse stick he expertly handled during offseason games in Owen Sound.

Indeed, Maple Leafs coach Hap Day threatened to fine Lumley $25 every time he laid his stick on an encroaching opponent, but assistant coach King Clancy loved the goalie’s rough edge, secretly reimbursing him every dollar he was fined.

For his value to five teams and his often-excellent play against long odds, Lumley was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1980, fellow goalie Gump Worsley a member of that class as well.

Harry Lumley of the Toronto Maple Leafs receives his meal from a nurse in his hospital bed in a corridor at East Toronto General Hospital on Jan. 23, 1956. Lumley sustained torn thigh muscles the night before during a game at Detroit’s Olympia Stadium.

Lumley had retired to a successful business career in Owen Sound, part owner of an auto dealership and a standardbred racing stable. He played senior hockey for the Collingwood Shipbuilders for six years after having hung up his NHL pads, coaching the Owen Sound seniors for a short spell too.

His election to the Hall of Fame, he said during his 1980 induction, was a huge surprise.

“I was having lunch at home in June when I heard on the radio that I’d been named to the Hall,” Lumley told late, legendary Toronto Star hockey writer Frank Orr. “I was so thrilled, that I couldn’t finish my lunch.

“Sure, it’s something you think about occasionally but when it came, it was a great feeling to know that somebody remembered that you could play a little.”

Six and a half decades after his final game, it’s clear that trailblazing Apple Cheeks had a bushel of talent, and he could play a lot.

Top photo: Toronto’s Harry Lumley poses for a 1950s action portrait at Maple Leaf Gardens.