Vic Hadfield Legendary Moments No. 9: Overtime Heroics

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Vic Hadfield describes himself this way: "I am a Ranger through and through."
He was the captain of the Rangers in the 1970s, the first 50-goal scorer in the history of the franchise, the ultimate teammate - and on Dec. 2, his No. 11 will take its place among the Rangers legends in the Garden rafters.
NYRangers.com will present 11 of the great moments of Hadfield's career, 11 snapshots of the Blueshirts' legendary left winger, 11 for No. 11 - counting down to the celebration of Vic Hadfield Night presented by Budweiser before the Blueshirts take on the Winnipeg Jets on Dec. 2 at Madison Square Garden.
It is one of the most celebrated goals in one of the most famous games in Rangers history: Pete Stemkowski's triple-overtime winner in Game 6 of the 1971 NHL semifinal, beating the Black Hawks, 3-2 at Madison Square Garden, and forcing a Game 7 in Chicago three nights later.
Even if you remember that goal, you may have forgotten how the game reached the extra sessions in the first place, that Vic Hadfield set up both Blueshirts scores in regulation time - one by each of his GAG Linemates - including Jean Ratelle's late equalizer that sent the do-or-die game long into the night.
If those details have slipped your memory, don't worry, you are not alone.
"You know what? I forgot I had two assists in that game," Hadfield told NYRangers.com when the subject of the game came up. "I'm being honest with you: The thing I remember about that game - the only thing I ever cared about - was that Stemmer scored and we won and we got to keep playing."
Ever the ultimate teammate, Hadfield added, "Any personal goals that we were able to achieve, or pats on the back, they didn't mean anything because we were all in this to win."

The Rangers did a lot of winning during the 1970-71 season, finishing with a 49-18-11 record, good for 109 points, second-most in the NHL to the defending champion Bruins. After dispatching the Maple Leafs in six games in the playoffs' opening round, the Rangers lost Game 5 of the semifinal at Chicago Stadium on Bobby Hull's overtime goal, and came back to Madison Square Garden for Game 6 on April 29, 1971, facing elimination.
Less than two minutes into the second period, they trailed 2-0 on goals by Dennis Hull and Chico Maki. "We stayed together, we supported each other, we helped each other," Hadfield said. "Somebody made a mistake, forget it. A line goes out and doesn't have a particularly good shift, we're all there to greet 'em and tell 'em, 'That's one shift, don't worry about it. We'll pick you up. We're going to all win together, or we're going to all lose together.'"
Just before the second period was out, Hadfield took a lead pass from Brad Park down to the right circle, where he dropped it for Rod Gilbert for a slapshot that beat Tony Esposito and cut the Chicago lead in half. And as the third period wore on with the Rangers needing a goal to keep their season alive, Hadfield took the puck at his own blue line and raced up the left wing into Chicago ice, finding Ratelle cutting through the middle for the game-tying goal. The assist was Hadfield's 12th point of the 1971 playoffs, a new Rangers record.
And so the game went into overtime. And then a second overtime. There were oxygen tanks in the Rangers' dressing room at the fifth intermission. It became, and remains, the third-longest game in Madison Square Garden history and the longest since 1938.
"At the time the adrenaline would be flowing pretty high," Hadfield said. "Nobody is going to get the call and say, 'Geez I'm tired, I can't go out.' It just pumps you right up."
Early in the third OT, Ted Irvine chased down a long slapper from Tim Horton and fired from above the goal line off Esposito's pad. Stemkowski came barreling to the spot to bang in the rebound, sparking a Garden celebration at 11:58 p.m., some 4½ hours after the opening faceoff.
"I visualize how everybody felt when we won," Hadfield said. "It was a tremendous effort, and we were fully confident that we were going to pull it out if we all stuck together and worked together. It turned out to be Stemmer. We'll never forget it - and if we do, Stemmer will probably remind us."
READ MORE: Vic Hadfield Legendary Moments No. 10: Battle With Montreal