A native of Braeburn, PA, Pete Babando was a pretty solid hockey player for most of his National Hockey League career. However, had he not scored one goal on April 23, 1950, he would most likely have vanished from memory as the years passed. Instead, he is forever immortalized in hockey lore.

You see, on that date, the New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings faced off for the Stanley Cup. It was winner-take-all as the series was tied at three games apiece heading into the deciding 7th game. At the end of regulation time, the score matched the series as the teams were tied 3-3. One of the all-time classic games in NHL history, the game went into overtime but nothing was settled. A second overtime period was needed to decide the Stanley Cup championship.

After surviving a flurry by the Rangers, the Wings headed back up ice into the New York zone. George Gee made a short pass to Babando who fired the puck on the net. Somehow, the puck eluded a screened Ranger goalie Chuck Rayner. The game was over, the Red Wings had won the Stanley Cup. In the process, Pete Babando went from an otherwise unheard of skater to hockey hero.

The Red Wings may have realized that Babando's status was at an all-time high with that goal. In a quest to get a second straight Stanley Cup, Detroit GM peddled the new hero to the Chicago Blackhawks along with Dan Morrison, Al Dewsbury, Harry Lumley and Black Jack Stewart. The Wings got Bob Goldham, Gaye Stewart, Metro Prystai and Sugar Jim Henry in return. It was a big surprise to see the Wings make such drastic changes just a couple months after winning the Cup. It didn't work either, as the Toronto Maple Leafs won the 1951 Cup.

Babando had started his career with the Boston Bruins where he showed some offensive flash, scoring 23 goals in his rookie year and 19 the year later before joining Detroit in the big Bill Quackenbush trade. Babando struggled royally in his only regular season with the Wings, scoring just six times. He, of course, made up for it in the playoffs.

Babando returned to his usual steady production in Chicago. He scored 18 goals and a career high 37 points in his first year with the Blackhawks. But his production slipped to 11 goals the following year. The Hawks were not a very good team during this time, and maybe too many unrealistic expectations were placed on the Stanley Cup hero.

The Hawks sold Babando in 1953 to, of all teams, the New York Rangers where he finished his NHL career scoring four goals and eight points in 29 games. In total, Pete scored 159 points, including 86 goals in 351 regular season games.

Babando's hockey career was far from over, however. The Rangers traded his rights to the Montreal Canadiens who in turn flipped him to the American Hockey League's Buffalo Bisons. Babando played four fine seasons there before heading north to play three seasons in the Ontario Senior League, first in North Bay and later in Whitby. Babando is also well remembered for his scoring exploits in the EHL with the Clinton Comets from 1960 to 1967. The 1962-63 season was particularly memorable. He scored 55 goals and 138 points in 66 games. He added nine goals and 31 points in 13 playoff games; mindboggling stats in those days, even in a low minor league.

Almost a Hero - The Other Side of the Story

In 1950, the Detroit Red Wings defeated the New York Rangers in the second overtime period in the seventh and deciding game of the Stanley Cup Finals. The game is one of hockey's classic matchups, as Detroit's Pete Babando became a hero, scoring in the the second overtime to give the Wings the Cup.

However, what is often forgotten in the recollection of this classic game is that just moments earlier the Rangers had a flurry of chances to score in the Red Wings end. The best chance was off the stick of Dunc Fisher.

Dunc, a second year right winger, sped around an exhausted Black Jack Stewart and faced goalie Harry Lumley on a breakaway. Fisher had Lumley beaten on a low wrist shot, only to ring the puck off the post.

Moments later, Babando scored for Detroit, giving them the win, and the Cup. Had Fisher's shot been an inch over he likely would have scored and he would be a hero forever etched in hockey history. Instead, he is virtually forgotten by newer generations.

Fisher, a 5'7", 170-pound right wing from Regina, Saskatchewan, made his NHL debut in the 1948 playoffs with the Rangers after spending the year with New York's AHL affiliate. He even picked up an assist in his first game. Fisher would play two and a half seasons with the Rangers before being traded to Boston in exchange for Ed Harrison and Zellio Toppazzini.

After a season and a half in Boston, Fisher wasn't producing offensively and the Bruins demoted him to the minors where he would be an AHL All-Star for the next six seasons. His excellence at the AHL level finally earned him a shot at the NHL again in 1958 when the Red Wings traded Don Poile and Hec Lalande to acquire the high scoring minor leaguer. Dunc, however, failed to score in eight appearances and finished his career in the minors.

In 275 NHL games, Dunc Fisher scored 45 goals and 70 assists for 115 points. He appeared in 21 playoff games, scoring four goals and eight points. He was at best an average player at the NHL level. He would have became a hockey legend had he not hit the post in that Stanley Cup Finals. Alas, it was not meant to be, and Pete Babando became the hero.

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