Clint Malarchuk: the former Nordiques goalie recalls the day that the contentious Montreal-Quebec rivalry turned ugly - The Game I'll Never Forget - Quebec Nordiques

Hockey Digest, Dec, 2003 by Chuck O'Donnell

DURING THE INFAMOUS GOOD Friday Brawl between the Canadiens and us in the 1984 playoffs, the benches emptied, there were fights all over the ice surface, the backup goalies were fighting, the coaches were screaming at each other, and Hunter brother was fighting Hunter brother.

Recently they brought back a bunch of the guys from that--game you know, Chris Nilan, Pat Price, and so on--and held some reunion games in Montreal and Quebec City. I was kind of surprised they would do something like that. I don't know how the games turned out, but I wouldn't be surprised if a couple of the guys wanted to go at it again for old-time's sake.

Back in the 1980s, that rivalry was unbelievable. We hated the Canadiens and I'm sure if you asked them, they hated the Nordiques. Even the cities--Montreal and Quebec City--seemed to hate each other. It was very intense until the day the Nordiques moved to Denver and became the Avalanche.

The excess of media coverage just magnified everything. There was a ton of hockey media in Montreal and Quebec City in those days. Back then, there was a lot of hype, and it just made the rivalry that much more intense. You always bad reporters asking you about the rivalry, magnifying every little word that was said.

Through the years, there were many, many battles between the teams, but it never reached the level it did when we met in 1984, in the finals of the old Adams Division.

The Canadiens entered Game 6 with a chance to eliminate us. The brawling started after the second period. I wasn't even in the game. When the first brawl happened, the benches cleared. The period had just ended and everybody was out there mingling. There were a lot of things going on, a lot of talking and some pushing and shoving. The animosity just kept going up, up, up. And before anyone knew it, everyone just paired off and started fighting. I don't know how long it went on for, but it was awhile.

I remember--they showed this on TV not too long ago--the two linesmen had Jean Hamel and Louis Sleagher. This is at the end of the second period. Sleagher threw an overhand left and caught Hamel flush and knocked him cold. It ended up injuring his eye and I'm not sure he ever came back from that eye injury.

So Richard Sevigny, the Canadiens backup, and I are throwing punches at each other, really going at it. At one point, he's trying to go after Dale Hunter. I told him that Hunter would kill him and he just turned to me and said, "That's not the point." He was just like all the other Canadiens: They all wanted to get Hunter. Even Dale Hunter's brother wanted to fight him. They had Mark Hunter and he eventually became paired off with Dale and he started throwing punches at him. It was brother fighting brother! I don't know if that's ever happened before. It was just a wild scene.

Even the coaches, Jacques Lemaire and Michel Bergeron, began yelling at each other. Those guys hated each other.

When they finally got it all cleared up, the refs sent us to our dressing rooms. When it came time to come out, I remember Dale Hunter saying to me, "Watch my hack." He thought someone was going to jump him while we were warming up.

So when we came out for the third period, that punch by Sleagher and what it did was fuel to the fire. Montreal just wanted revenge. Here's the funny thing: Dale Hunter and I had been ejected, but they didn't tell us between periods. We canoe out for the third period like normal. In those days, you didn't have to go right to the bench, you could skate around and warm up a little bit before play started. We were skating around and then another brawl started.

We were skating around, loosening up, and sure enough Dale got into with, well, I'm not positive who he started with. It ended up being another big brawl. I ended up pairing off with Sevigny, the Canadiens' backup goalie. There were fights going on everywhere. It's kind of scary being on the ice during one of those. You don't know what's going to happen next. You don't know if you're going to get sucker punched or something like that. You're paired off with somebody, and you don't know if someone else is going to come in and make it a two-on-one. It can be frightening.

I don't know how they ended up settling everyone down and breaking up all the fights. It was a mess, but eventually they restored order. There were a lot of ejections. I think 10 guys total were thrown out. I think Peter Stastny ended tip with a broken nose and got kicked out for us and that was a big blow because lie was a big weapon for us. Dale and myself and I think Alain Cote got kicked out. We elided up losing that game and were eliminated.

It was ugly, even though back in those days brawling was more acceptable. You just don't see those things anymore--except maybe in an exhibition game between former Nordiques and Canadiens.

--As told to Chuck O'Donnell

Malarchuk's Career Statistics

Position: Goalie Height: 6'0" Weight: 185 pounds
Born: May 1, 1961, in Grande Prairie, Alberta
Drafted: By Quebec, third round, No. 74 overall, 1981

Season   Team         Games   Mins.      Record     GA   GAA  SO   SV%

1981-82  Quebec           2     120       0-1-1     14  7.00   0  .788
1982-83  Quebec          15     900       8-5-2     71  4.73   0  .863
1983-84  Quebec          23   1,215      10-9-2     80  3.95   0  .865
1985-86  Quebec          46   2,657     26-12-4    142  3.21   4  .895
1986-87  Quebec          54   3,092     18-26-9    175  3.40   1  .884
1987-88  Washington      54   2,926     24-20-4    154  3.16   4  .885
1988-89  Wash./Buff.     49   2,754     19-19-8    154  3.36   2  .893
1989-90  Buffalo         29   1,596     14-11-2     89  3.35   0  .903
1990-91  Buffalo         37   2,131    12-14-10    119  3.35   1  .891
1991-92  Buffalo         29   1,693     10-13-3    102  3.73   0  .887

Totals                  338  19,030  141-130-45  1,100  3.47  12  .885
Playoff totals           15     781       2-9-0     56  4.30   0  .853