Villemure cherishes Vezina win with Giacomin, Rangers 50 years later

Gilles Villemure can remember every detail, a moment from a half-century ago locked away forever.

The final seconds were ticking down on the New York Rangers' 6-0 win against the Detroit Red Wings at Madison Square Garden in the final game of the 1970-71 regular season.
Not since Dave Kerr in 1939-40 had a Rangers goalie won the Vezina Trophy, from 1927-81 awarded annually to the goalie(s) having played a minimum of 25 games for the team allowing the fewest regular-season goals.
Now at the final siren on April 4, 1971, Villemure stood on the end of the Rangers bench and greeted fellow goalie Eddie Giacomin, who rushed across the ice into his embrace.

Goalies Eddie Giacomin and Gilles Villemure in an O-Pee-Chee card celebrating their 1970-71 Vezina Trophy win, the New York Rangers' first since 1939-40.
"Eddie raised my arm, I looked at him and hollered, 'Eddie, we've got it!' " Villemure said recently. "It had been a long, hard year and now, here we were -- Vezina Trophy winners."
Giacomin had been the No. 1 goalie that 78-game season, going 27-10-7 with a 2.16 goals-against average, .922 save percentage and eight shutouts. But Villemure had been given a healthy share of the net, going 22-8-4, 2.30, .919 and four shutouts in 34 games.
Viewing themselves as business partners more than No. 1 and No. 2 goalies, and used as such by coach Emile Francis, they would allow 177 goals, seven fewer than Tony Esposito, Gerry Desjardins, Gilles Meloche and Ken Brown of the Chicago Black Hawks.
The Rangers finished the season as the second-best team in NHL, their 109 points trailing the East Division-winning Boston Bruins (121), two better than West Division-champion Chicago.

Gilles Villemure in the 1960s with the New York Rangers and during his final season with the 1976-77 Chicago Black Hawks.
A six-game Stanley Cup Playoffs Quarterfinal victory against the Toronto Maple Leafs put New York into a Semifinal against Chicago, but they lost to the Black Hawks in seven games.
The real heartbreak would come the next season, when the Rangers advanced to the 1972 Cup Final against the Bruins, only to lose in six games. Villemure played in the final two games of the series, stepping in when Giacomin went down with injury; he won Game 5 in Boston, 3-2, then lost a 3-0 clincher in New York.
The 1970-71 season was Villemure's first of five full for the Rangers, having played 13 games from 1963-69 on various call-ups from the minors. He became Giacomin's stablemate after Terry Sawchuk, in the twilight of his legendary career, died following the 1970 season.
Villemure's NHL career would go through 1976-77, his final two seasons seeing him play 21 games for Chicago. He and Giacomin would leave the Rangers the same week, Villemure traded to the Black Hawks on Oct. 28, 1975, Giacomin waived on Oct. 31, claimed by the Detroit Red Wings.
Standardbred driver Gilles Villemure in the winner's circle at a Quebec racetrack in June 1968.
Along the way, Villemure became an enthusiastic and accomplished horseman at Yonkers and Roosevelt in New York and the Meadowlands in New Jersey. Standardbreds had been a huge part of his life since his youth in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, inducted into his hometown's hall of fame in 2002.
Villemure was walking trotters and pacers at 10 years old, training to drive them by 14 and racing by 16. He would continue in the sport full time for a decade after his 1977 NHL retirement and he jokes that he probably enjoyed more success on Quebec harness tracks than playing goal in a Montreal Forum net against the Canadiens.
(And he'd be right: he often went to the winner's circle at Montreal's Blue Bonnets Raceway but went 0-6 with one tie at the Forum with the Rangers, 0-1 with the Black Hawks.)
Villemure loves relating stories about his unpaved road to the NHL, a superb minor-leaguer who was property of the Rangers from the day in his teens when he jumped on a scout's offer that included a $100 signing bonus.

Gilles Villemure in an early Rangers portrait, and walking onto Madison Square Garden ice for the Feb. 25, 2018 retirement of teammate Jean Ratelle's No. 19 jersey.
He bounced from Vancouver to Baltimore and then to Buffalo, with whom he won the American Hockey League 1970 Calder Cup championship and was voted the AHL's most valuable player in 1969 and 1970.
By the time he arrived full-time with the Rangers in 1970, he was wearing the iconic mask that made him look, depending on your viewpoint, like a sad, wide-eyed dog, a whiskerless cat, or Ernie, the happy-go-lucky Sesame Street muppet. Common sense dictated the mask, Villemure having suffered a variety of serious injuries diving barefaced into pileups.
But they were all just flesh wounds compared to the challenges that the 80-year-old has stared down the past two-plus years. He has battled cancer and the aggressive treatment of it; today he's in remission. Last winter, still recovering from that, he and his wife, Bernadette, each contracted COVID-19; they're clear of the coronavirus today.
Gilles Villemure poses for a photographer in 2011, holding his iconic mask
Villemure, who lives on Long Island, had attended the Feb. 25, 2018 Garden retirement of teammate Jean Ratelle's No. 19 jersey, he but was diagnosed with cancer that autumn. Rangers alumni on Garden ice that Dec. 2, assembled for the retirement of Vic Hadfield's No. 11, publicly expressed their thoughts and prayers for a plucky goalie and popular teammate who couldn't join them. Privately, many were gravely concerned for his health.
"I was sick for a little while, but I feel better now," Villemure said.
He's happier to talk about hockey than his health, appreciating the wishes of friends, teammates and fans, enjoying every Rangers game on TV and sending good wishes to Henrik Lundqvist, the 2012 Vezina Trophy winner as voted by NHL GMs.
Lundqvist, for 15 years the face of Rangers goaltending who now is a member of the Washington Capitals, continues to recover from the open-heart surgery he had in early January.

"I played golf in 2013 with Henrik in a Rangers event and we talked a lot," Villemure said. "He's a heck of a nice guy. And a much better golfer than me."
His home is decorated with many photos of his playing days, from the 1960s through his NHL career. And as he continues to heal during these extraordinary times, Villemure is thinking wistfully about a return to Madison Square Garden to see his former team in action.
"I'll say this about Rangers fans - they never forget you," he said. "Once you're in their hearts, you're there forever. And it goes both ways."
Photos: HHoF Images/KSKS Sports Collectibles/Gilles Villemure/New York Rangers/Dave Stubbs