Born in Niagara Falls, Ontario, on a Monday of this date in 1916, Nick Damore did yeoman’s work as a minor-league goaltender in a career that spanned three decades and more than 700 games. He made just one appearance in the NHL, in the winter of 1942, when Boston’s defending Stanley Cup champions summoned him from the AHL’s Hershey Bears for Sunday-night duty at the Garden against the Montreal Canadiens. The night before, in Montreal, the Bruins’ 26-year-old mainstay Frank Brimsek appeared in his 194^th consecutive game, holding Canadiens to a 2-2 tie that overtime couldn’t settle. It was in the last minute of the extra frame that night that Brimsek dove for the puck as Montreal’s Murph Chamberlain swung his stick. Brimsek snagged the former, but with a cost: the latter cut and fractured his nose.

Brimsek finished the game, but ceded the net the following night to 25-year-old Damore. Bruins’ captain Dit Clapper was displeased that Damore played in his maroon-coloured Hershey hockey pants, but otherwise the operation was a success. Damore’s teammates ran up a 5-0 lead before Montreal managed to answer back. Toe Blake, Johnny Quilty, and Buddy O’Connor all ended up beating him on the night, which ended as a 7-3 Bruins’ win. “Pudgy Nicky Damore,” the Boston Globe’s Gerry Moore blithely dubbed him for his trouble. Two nights later, “Frigid Frank Brimsek” was back in the Bruins’ net, freezing out the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs in a goalless tie.

(Image: Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection)