RI HOCKEY LEGACY

​Kid to the Rescue

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​It bordered on fiction but 3002 people saw it so you must believe it. In November 1953, the Providence Reds beat the defending Calder Cup Champions, Cleveland Barons, with a 17-year-old kid in goal just out of high school at the R.I. Auditorium. With the game only 8 minutes old, the Reds starting goaltender, Harvey Bennett, took a deflected puck to the right eye off teammate Ed Kyrzanowski's stick on a shot by the Barons' Glen Sonmer. After being stitched up by team physician, Dr. James McKendry, Bennett was retired for the night. Norm Desaulniers was called into action to save the Reds. Desaulniers was a 1953 First Team All-State goalie from La Salle Academy and served as the Reds practice goalie all season. He walked into the dressing room with a cut and a mouse under his left eye received playing in a pick-up scrimmage two nights earlier.
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​The Reds gave a masterful display of forechecking and backchecking in providing the kid goalie with strong support. Besides letting in a shorthanded goal in the second period by the Barons' Cal Stevens, a 65-footer outside the Reds blueline, Desaulniers got stronger as the game went on. His Reds mates tallied three times to go up 3-1. Chuck Blair scored a second goal for the Barons but that didn't matter, for Zelio Toppazzini scored ahead of him to seal the 4-2 victory. The ovation for Desaulniers was said to be one of the warmest given to any athlete in years at the Arena. The Reds joined in and the kid, lost among his men, almost toppled to the ice each time one of the players struck him on the back. But weary as he was, his face was wreathed with the big smile of a kid who just couldn't believe that it all was real.
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  • Home
  • Schoolboy
    • 1900s
    • 1910s
    • 1920s
    • 1930s
    • 1940s
    • 1950s
    • 1960s
    • 1970s
    • 1980s
    • 1990s
    • New England Championships
    • All-State >
      • All-State Teams
      • All-State Photos
    • Journal Honor Roll
    • Divisions
  • Schoolboy Stories I
    • Opening Night
    • Schoolboy Polo to Hockey
    • Battle of School Leagues
    • Flying Frenchmen
    • Flying Green Thunderbolt
    • Packed House
    • All Stars at the Garden
    • Big Night for Cougar
    • One, Two, Three Punch
    • Mighty Blue Wave
    • Maroon Between the Pipes
    • Premèire Femelle
    • Arlington Here We Come
  • Schoolboy Stories II
    • New England OT Thrillers
    • Doubleheader at the Park
    • Bay State Battle
    • California Dreamin'
    • Bienvenue a R.I. Montréal
    • Third Time's A Charm
    • The Kids Called Her Coach
    • Dueling Opinions
    • And The Winner Is ...
    • Eight Ways to Sunday
    • Not One But Two!
  • Sr Amateur Teams
    • Providence Hockey Club
    • Richard J. Dennis Post
    • Canadian Club of Rhode Island
    • East Side Hockey Club
    • Providence Club
    • Flying Frenchmen of Woonsocket
    • Rhode Island Marquettes
    • Club Marquette of Woonsocket
    • Sandager Club
    • Dunnes of Cranston
    • P & Q of Woonsocket
    • Providence Chicks
    • Eastern Olympics
    • Cranston Hockey Club
  • Se Amateur Leagues
    • Industrial Hockey League
    • Blackstone Valley Amateur Hockey League
    • Rhode Island Amateur Hockey League
    • Rhode Island Amateur Hockey Association
    • Inter-City Amateur Hockey League
    • CYO Senior Hockey League
    • Rhode Island Senior Hockey League
    • Rhode Island Amateur Hockey Assoc.
    • Rhode Island Amateur Hockey League
    • Old Colony Hockey League
    • Massachusetts Hockey League
  • RI Scarlets
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    • RI Scarlets 1930s
    • RI Scarlets 1940s
    • RI Scarlets 1950s
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  • Did You Know? I
    • Hooray For Hollywood
    • Maryland, My Maryland
    • Across the Pond
    • Goodbye Detroit Hello Prague
    • Fisticuffs in Stockholm
    • The Diamond to the Blueline
    • Little Rhody on the Reds
    • First Dominicans on Ice
    • Brown Finally Plays Harvard
    • Amateurs at the Auditorium
    • Can You Spare a Goalie?
    • In The Army Now
    • Mademoiselles Play Too
  • Did You Know? II
    • East Side Skating Club
    • USA versus RI
    • Down East Hockey
    • Olympic Tune-up
    • Title Quest
    • Anthony's Skating Rink
    • Scout's Honor
    • Putting on the Stripes
    • The Under Card
    • The Great Outdoors
    • Kid to the Rescue
    • The Pride of Chambly Basin
    • The Sharpshooter
    • Tennis anyone?
  • Junior Hockey
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  • Dick Ernst Articles
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