The Right Place at the Right Time

This news, if you can call it that 49 years later... was reported in three paragraphs of the March 8, 1971 edition of the Montreal Gazette, on the fourth page of the sports section, tucked beneath a collegiate hockey playoff roundup and beside the Old Country soccer standings.

"Habs bring Dryden up," the brief was headlined, reporting the import of the goaltender from the Montreal Canadiens' American Hockey League team, the Montreal Voyageurs.

Famously, in his third NHL game, Dryden would face his brother Dave, in net for the Buffalo Sabres - at the Forum.

It wasn't planned, at least not by MacNeil. Sabres coach Punch Imlach saw the history to be made, brothers never having played at opposite ends of an NHL rink, so he started Dave Dryden, hoping MacNeil would start Ken.

But MacNeil stuck with Vachon, prompting Imlach to yank Dave two minutes into the game and replace him with Joe Daley.

The Canadiens were ahead 2-0 in the second period when Vachon took a shot roughly between the thighs and the belt and was unable to continue. In came Ken Dryden, and Imlach immediately made his switch to Dave.

"I thought starting the brothers right off the bat would be a helluva deal for the crowd," the Sabres coach said later. "But MacNeil didn't want to give the fans a run for their money until he had to."

With their father, Murray, watching his sons at both ends of the ice, Dave was beaten on an 85-foot shot by Jacques Lemaire.

"Not very good," Ken said, describing how he felt when he saw his own team go ahead 3-0 on that shot.

But Dave settled down, making 17 saves while allowing two more the rest of the way. The Sabres rallied to make it 3-2 midway in the third before the Canadiens scored twice for their 5-2 win, Ken making 13 saves on 15 shots.

The brothers shook hands at center ice as they left the rink. History had been made, though Ken Dryden has forever said he'd have been happier had the siblings left their head-to-head duels on their backyard boyhood rink.

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Growing up, I was never much of a sports fan, and only once in my life did I ever attend a hockey game at the Montreal Forum... but that one game happened to be this particular one with the Dryden brothers. 

The Oddblock Station Agent