Parent's goalie mask mysteriously disappeared during 1971 playoffs, resurfaced 35 years later

Legendary hockey reporter Stan Fischler writes a weekly scrapbook for NHL.com. Fischler, known as "The Hockey Maven," shares his humor and insight with readers each Wednesday.

This week recalls an incident involving Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Bernie Parent's mask, which disappeared late in Game 2 of the 1971 NHL Quarterfinals against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Mysteriously, it showed up at a 2006 sports memorabilia auction and again in 2012.

The opening round of the 1971 Stanley Cup Playoffs between the New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs started off nasty and got even more truculent after Toronto forward Billy MacMillan knocked New York defenseman Brad Park temporarily unconscious with a hard check in Game 1.

"But it was in the second contest when the fireworks really started," wrote George Grimm in his Rangers oral history, "We Did Everything But Win."

"Game 2 began chippy and got worse as it went along, especially late in the third period."

The Maple Leafs were ahead 4-1 when a line brawl erupted that included Park and Toronto forward Darryl Sittler, who burst out of the penalty box to join the fracas. Historian Stephen Smith, author of "Puckstruck: Distracted, Delighted and Distressed by Canada's Hockey Obsession," recalled "the foolery that followed."

"(Maple Leafs goalie) Bernie Parent made his way into the melee where he briefly got an arm on Vic Hadfield of the Rangers," Smith wrote.

Said Hadfield: "Bernie jumped me from behind. Then I saw his mask sitting there, so I just threw it into the stands."

Search parties, including New York City police officers, combed Madison Square Garden for Parent's missing face protector. Meanwhile, like a pail in a fire bucket brigade, the mask was passed from fan to fan up from the expensive seats to the last row of the arena.

"Exuberance among the 17,250 fanatics chanted 'DON'T GIVE IT BACK'" wrote Globe and Mail columnist Dick Beddoes.

Grimm, who attended the game, recently said, "This was New York. Maybe in polite Toronto the fans would have given it back, but on this night at the Garden it was long gone."

A final plea for the mask's return by Rangers public address announcer and team secretary Pat Doyle was greeted with Bronx cheers as the face protector completely disappeared from view. By the time referee Lloyd Gilmour restored order there was another problem, Parent failed to bring a replacement mask.

Furthermore, Parent firmly declared, "I won't continue in the game without one!"

With less than five minutes left in the game, Maple Leafs coach John McLellan replaced Parent with veteran Jacques Plante. It was an ironic move since Plante was the goalie who designed and wore the first goalie mask at the old Garden on Nov. 1, 1959. He finished the game wearing his mask and Toronto won 4-1, tying the best-of-7 series 1-1.

Just in time for Game 3, Parent obtained a new mask from Plante's factory near Montreal and won 3-1, but it would be his last victory in the series. He lost the next two games and then was given the hook by McLellan. Plante returned for Game 6, but the Rangers prevailed 2-1, winning the series on Bob Nevin's goal 9:07 into overtime.

That, however, failed to solve the key question: Where was Bernie's missing mask?

"Every high school in New York had at least one kid who claimed to have the mask," chuckled former Rangers radio play-by-play broadcaster Howie Rose, "but nobody did."

One rumor suggested that the mask secretly was returned to the Rangers office, firmly ensconced in a shoebox, but that turned out to be fake news and for decades Parent's face protector remained missing in action.

Then it happened: the mask suddenly reappeared as unexpectedly as it had disappeared.

"It resurfaced at a 2006 sports memorabilia auction," wrote Greg Wyshynski for Yahoo! Sports on June 7, 2012, "and then again in 2012, when an anonymous buyer snagged the mask and decided to reunite Parent with it."

Frank Seravalli, then with The Philadelphia Inquirer, reported the day before that the buyer had Parent and his agent authenticate the mask, which Parent did. Although Parent had since switched to a different mask style, he recognized the "two customized pieces of adhesive he had inserted himself."

He tried it on. It fit perfectly.

"The first thing I wanted to do," quipped Parent, "was to phone Hadfield and say, 'Thanks!" Meanwhile, the memorabilia buyer, who requested anonymity, said he would keep the mask until he died and then would have his family posthumously donate it to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

"I always had wondered what happened to the mask. Then, after all these years it showed up."

Then, a pause:

"Life is full of surprises!"