The finalists playing for the Stanley Cup in the 1927-1928 hockey season were the New York Rangers and the Montreal Maroons. The Rangers were coached by silver-haired Lester Patrick, one of the great names in hockey history.
The second game of that series provided one of hockey’s greatest thrills. With four minutes of the first period gone, Nels Stewart of the Maroons grabbed the puck and fired a shot on goal. In those days masks for goalies were still unknown. The puck hit goalie Lorne Chabot over the eye. He fell to the ice unconscious.
The Rangers did not have a substitute goalie. However, a couple of goalies were in the stands as spectators. One was Alex Connell of the Ottawa Senators. He was one of the best in the National Hockey League. The other was Hugh McCormick, who played in the Canadian Pro League. Patrick went to Montreal manager Eddie Gerard and asked permission to use one of them in Chabot’s place.
Gerard realized he had a chance to take the Stanley Cup because the Rangers had no backup goalie. He refused permission. In desperation, Patrick put on Chabot’s gear himself.
In was a gamble. Patrick was 44 years old and had not played hockey for years. Once before he had tried his hand at goaltending with fair results. Now there was no one else he could call on to defend the net. There were still 16 minutes left in the first period, plus all of the second and third periods.
The rest of the Rangers did their best to defend coach Patrick. When the Maroons did get close enough for a shot, somehow Patrick managed to block it. It was a 0-0 tie, until New York’s Bill Cook scored to make it 1-0.
Patrick couldn’t shut down the Maroons forever. With six minutes left to play, Nels Stewart pounced on a rebound and slammed it into the net to tie the score. The game went into overtime.
Coach Patrick ached all over, but the cheering fans made him feel a little better somehow. At the seven-minute mark of overtime, Frankie Boucher split the Maroon defense, faked out the Maroon goalie, and scored the winning marker.
It had been an unbelievable performance by the old man. While Patrick was on the ice, the Maroons had taken 18 shots on goal and he had blocked 17 of them.
From The Giant Book of More Strange But True Sports Stories by Howard Liss. Illustrations by Joe Mathieu.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1928_Stanley_Cup_Finals
According to Wikipedia, before Patrick went onto the ice he told his players “Boys, don’t let an old man down,” which really fired them up. Patrick also became–and remains–the oldest player to play in the Stanley Cup finals.