Sanderson gives his side of ‘The Goal’ on 54th anniversary of Orr’s memorable score

“It was a lie,” he admits now. “I’d scored goals off the face-off, shooting almost before the puck touched the ice. You’re pretty close to the goalie, so if you don’t hit him, it might be going in. So Giacomin came out and told Walter, ‘Watch him, he’ll try to shoot.’ ”

Sanderson exchanged words with Giacomin, then just missed his quick shot off the draw before racing in behind the Rangers net, where he was flattened by defenseman Arnie Brown. 

“Walter and Billy (Fairbairn) were very close, I think they were both (upset) with me,” Sanderson recalled. “I’m run into the boards and I see everybody coming. I throw an elbow at Arnie, I’m down, Keystone Kops, nobody’s punching because you can’t get loose. I snuck out the side. I got into a fight with Arnie, then Dave Balon.”

Sanderson was assessed a double major for fighting, a misconduct and game misconduct 91 seconds into the game. He was still unlacing his skates when singer Paul Anka wandered into the unpoliced dressing room and parked himself beside the banished Bruin.

“I see him and say, ‘Hey, Paul, what’s going on?’ ” Sanderson said. “Paul’s like, ‘What did Giacomin say?’ and I told him, ‘He said the entire Rangers team was paid to maim me.’ In comes the press later and I told them what I’d told Paul. They jumped all over it and ever since, I’ve not been able to beat that story down.”