Nitzy's Hockey Den

This great photo showed up on my twitter timeline recently courtesy of the great  @Super70sSports .  No info was given other than what is obvious to the viewer, Gordie Howe and his Houston Aeros are playing the Edmonton Oilers in WHA action. Most good vinatge hockey fans will know that #3 and captain of the Oilers is Al Hamilton, but what year was this photo from? Two simple pieces of information narrow down the year. Gordie Howe returned to hockey with the Aeros for the 1973/74 season and the Oilers logo switched from blue to orange lettering in 1974/75 (thanks to whauniforms.com ). Now we can confirm that Oilers goalie in the pic is Chris Worthy who shared duties mainly with Jack Norris in 73/74. Worthy went 11-12-1 with a 3.80 GAA. Hamilton ended up a Second Team All-Star this season with 14 goals and 59 points. Howe of course returned with a bang this season scoring 100 points. He was named First Team All-Star and won the WHA's MVP. Determining the exact date for

L to R: Ted Kennedy, Reg Hamilton, Mel Hill, Frank McCool, Elmer Lach, Bob Davidson These terrific photos come from the Toronto Archives website and are all dated March 27, 1945. This was the date of the fourth game of the Stanley Cup semifinals won in overtime by Toronto 4-3. In 1944/45, Montreal had put together one of the greatest regular seasons in NHL history by collecting 80 points over the 50 game schedule. This of course was also the year in which Maurice Richard scored 50 goals in 50 games. Toronto had trudged along to 52 points, barely over the .500 mark to finish third place.  The Leafs had won the first two games of the series in Montreal by scores of 1-0 and 3-2 before losing game three at Maple Leaf Gardens by 4-1. After taking a three games to one series lead in this one Montreal bounced back big time winning game five by 10-3 back in The Forum. Toronto closed out the series with a 3-2 win at home in game six.  The Habs started with a flurry in game four with