1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Game 1 Bruins vs Rangers #7 1971-72 NHL Playoffs Stanley Cup Finals

Description

1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Game 1 Bruins vs Rangers #7 1971-72 NHL Playoffs Stanley Cup Finals Eleven goals in one night at Boston Garden makes for one of the wildest Stanley Cup Final openers ever played, and the 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Game 1 Bruins vs Rangers #7 1971-72 NHL Playoffs Stanley Cup Finals card documents every minute of the Bruins' 6-5 victory on April 30, 1972. The front freezes the crease chaos in full color above the yellow bar reading GAME 1 at Boston and the puck graphic listing BRUINS 6 RANGERS 5, while the reverse delivers one of the great period pieces in hockey card history: a complete bilingual scoring summary in English and French with period-by-period goals, shots on goal and the Boston Garden attendance of 14,995. Ken Hodge's hat trick leads the story, with his three goals coming at 15:48 and 18:14 of the first period and 10:46 of the second, Fred Stanfield, Derek Sanderson and Garnet Bailey also scoring while Jean Ratelle's famous Goal-A-Game Line supplied much of the New York offense through Rod Gilbert and Vic Hadfield. The 1972 Final itself was a cultural event on Broadway, the Rangers' first championship round since 1950 and a chapter in the famous 1940 championship drought that would not end until 1994, while Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito and Johnny Bucyk were busy delivering Boston's second Stanley Cup in three springs. Within the 340-card checklist this is one of just six 1971-72 NHL Playoffs cards seeded into first-series packs, making it a must for set builders. The reverse is the Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual back, English and French game summary rather than a puzzle back, printed on the familiar O-Pee-Chee card stock with the O-Pee-Chee copyright line. corners present nicely with light wear at the upper right and lower left tips and a small whitened fleck at the lower right tip, the top edge shows minor surface chipping while the remaining edges are clean, and centering is slightly favored left at approximately 55/45 left to right and 55/45 top to bottom. No creases, wrinkles or surface marks appear beyond one tiny print speck near the bottom of the photo. With such honest surfaces and only light tip wear, a conservative raw grade of EX-MT 6 is appropriate. Superb for display next to the Hodge action card from the same set. Grade Estimate: EX-MT 6