Playing goalie in the NHL never has been what you would call an easy occupation. But in the days before goalies wore masks, it was -- as Hall of Fame goalie Glenn Hall once described it -- "60 minutes of hell."
Imagine, then, what it must have been like for Chicago Black Hawks goalie Sam LoPresti on the night of March 4, 1941. Facing the Boston Bruins at Boston Garden, the Minnesota product was blitzed with an incredible 83 shots on goal! By comparison, the Bruins goalie that night, Frankie "Mister Zero" Brimsek, faced only 18 shots.
The Bruins attack began with 27 recorded shots in the first period, followed by 33 shots in the middle period and 23 in the third. Remarkably, the rookie kept Chicago in the game well into the third period with the score tied 2-2. Finally, Boston's Eddie Wiseman scored at 17:29 of the third and the Bruins won 3-2.
Bruins forward Johnny Crawford said afterward, "(LoPresti) was good alright ... if he hadn't been good, he wouldn't be alive right now."
Recalling the game well after his retirement, LoPresti explained that it seemed as if the ice was tilted against him.
"We couldn't do much right from the opening face-off; just couldn't move the puck out of our zone," LoPresti remembered. "They were shooting from every angle and I didn't see half the shots. They were bouncing off my pads, chest protector, my arms, my shoulders. I didn't even know where they were coming from. I lost between eight and ten pounds that night. And as for the game-winning goal, Wiseman got it on a rebound near the end of the game."
Had it not been for Uncle Sam's entry into World War II, LoPresti might have enjoyed a long NHL career. But after playing 74 games in two NHL seasons, he joined the United States Navy Armed Guard. It was the naval branch that assigned sailors to man guns on merchant ships delivering supplies to England. LoPresti played
"I thought it would be safer to face the German U-boats in the North Atlantic than vulcanized rubber in North America," LoPresti joked about his enlistment.
As it happened his cargo ship was torpedoed and sunk by a submarine but LoPresti, fortunately, was rescued.
Although he never played in the NHL after hostilities had ended, his son Pete LoPresti also made it to the NHL making them the first father-son goalies in League history. Playing most of his career with the Minnesota North Stars from 1974-81, the younger LoPresti was 43-102 with 20 ties and 4.07 goals-against average.
Unlike his father, Pete LoPresti never faced 83 shots in a game, always wore a mask in goal and never had to be resucued at sea.
