Hockey: Eight in Thirteen

Only those who were inside know exactly what testy Coach Hector ("Toe") Blake, 55, said when he barred the doors of the last-place Montreal Canadiens' dressing room Christmas night. But whatever Toe said, his words worked. The Canadiens won 30 of their remaining 41 games and skated away with the National Hockey League's East Division championship. They then wiped out the Boston Bruins (4 games to 0), the Chicago Black Hawks (4-1), and finally the West Division's St. Louis Blues (4-0) to win their eighth Stanley Cup in 13 years.

Not that it was all that easy last week against the Blues, an expansion team that hardly figured to belong on the same ice with the polished Canadiens. St. Louis twice took Montreal into sudden-death overtime. All four games were decided by one goal. In the deciding game, Montreal had to battle back from a 2-1 deficit, and it took a goal by J. C. Tremblay with 8 min. 20 sec. left to give the Canadiens a 3-2 victory and the cup.