Carl Liscombe

Anticipating the retirement of Herb Lewis and disappointed with the showing of his Stanley Cup champions at the start of the 1937-38 season, manager Jack Adams of Detroit brought up Carl Liscombe from Pittsburgh of the AHL.

Carl was about the same build as Lewis and had many of his attributes, being fast and a smart stickhandler. He led his the team offensively, scoring goals in bunches. In one game in his rookie season he scored three goals in 1 minute and 52 seconds, a record that would stand until Bill Mosienko scored his famous 21 second hat trick in 1951-52. In the same game he dropped the gloves with Red Horner, universally considered hockey's baddest man.

He was on a first place team and Stanley Cup winner in 1942-43 playing on the top line with Syd Howe and Mud Bruneteau. In the playoffs he led the scorers with 6 goals and 8 assists.

The following year was his best individual season when he scored a whopping 36 goals and had 73 points in 50 games in 1943-44. He finished 2nd in NHL goal scoring and 4th in NHL point scoring. In the final game of the playoff series with Boston in the 1944-45 season, he practically won the game single-handedly by scoring 4 goals as the Red Wings won 5-3. The Red Wings would come up short against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Stanley Cup finals, however.

He played one more year with Detroit before Jack Adams let him go. He was to have two phenomenal seasons with Providence of the AHL, as in 1947-48 he rewrote the AHL record book by scoring a whopping 50 goals and 118 points. The following season he scored 55 goals to lead the AHL in goals once again. Both of these years he won the AHL most valuable player award and for a time the AHL leading scorer trophy was named after him.

Liscombe later played senior hockey in the OHA Senior League retiring after the 1953-54 season.