Legendary broadcaster Jim Robson still has the notebook he used during the game between the Vancouver Canucks and the New York Islanders on Feb. 2, 1974.
In it, he recorded that Dave Dunn and Gerry O’Flaherty scored for the Canucks; John McCauley was the referee and the three stars were O’Flaherty along with the Islanders’ Bob Nystrom and Denis Potvin.
One thing he did not make note of: the three streakers who stormed the ice at the Pacific Coliseum.
“Nowhere does it say anything about streakers,” Robson said as he held the notebook more than 40 years later. “I’m so dull, if it wasn’t hockey-related, I didn’t write it down.”
Of course, many of the fans in attendance that night — not to mention the national TV audience watching the game on Hockey Night in Canada — remember nothing about the mediocre mid-season NHL tilt other than the three women who ran onto the ice during the game wearing nothing but a smile.
Former Canucks defenceman Tracy Pratt said the players were stunned to see the three employees of the Penthouse Night Club pass by their bench, adding that the streakers brought “an awful lot of entertainment to a very mediocre first period of hockey.”
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Robson, however, seems to think the streakers weren’t a surprise to everyone at the Coliseum.
“Mysteriously, the gate was neatly left open just past the bench so they could run off the ice.” he said.
Then there’s the fact that photographer Bill Cunningham happened to be in perfect position to capture photos of the streakers.
Former Canucks public relations director Greg Douglas is cagey about the details of that day but said someone at the stadium was in on the plan to get the women on the ice.
“They all came in floor-length fur coats and nothing on but runners,” he said of the streakers.
Douglas said he was not behind the stunt although he was there when it all went down.
“I do recall being downstairs because I heard something was up and I saw the fur coats being shed,” he said. “How could I stop it?”
The original plan was to have the streakers hit the ice during a stoppage in play. But it didn’t quite work out that way and the three young women traipsed onto the ice as the game was in play, something that caught the attention of NHL officials who quickly wanted to find out what was going on.
“In those days, we didn’t have cellular phones or text messages,” Douglas said. “It was the old telex machine and that thing started humming and that was coming from the league office saying, ‘Stop this madness. Who’s responsible for this?'”
Canucks coach and GM Phil Maloney took the streaking in stride, but the opposing coach wasn’t too thrilled.
“Al Arbour, who is coaching the Islanders, went crazy,” Douglas said. “The game ended in a 2-2 tie and I’m surprised he didn’t put that game under protest because of the stoppage of play while the streakers were on the ice.”
Douglas said the team didn’t receive much blowback from the incident and many look back on the stunt fondly.
“There weren’t that many complaints from fans or parents,” he said. “In those days it was sort of the thing. But it was on national TV on a Saturday afternoon. That was not in very good taste.”
– With files from Squire Barnes
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