1986 Stanley Cup

The 1986 Stanley Cup Finals was the championship series of the National Hockey League's (NHL) 1985–86 season, and the culmination of the 1986 Stanley Cup playoffs. It was contested between the Campbell Conference champion Calgary Flames and the Wales Conference champion Montreal Canadiens. The Canadiens won the best-of-seven series, four games to one, to win their 23rd Stanley Cup, and their 17th in their last 18 Finals appearances dating back to .

It was the first all-Canadian Finals since Montreal lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs in , the last year of the Original Six era. This would be the fourth of eight consecutive Finals contested by a team from Alberta (the Edmonton Oilers appeared in six, the Flames in two), and the third of five consecutive Finals to end with the Cup presentation on Alberta ice (the Oilers won four, the Canadiens one). This was the only time between and that neither the Oilers (four wins) nor the New York Islanders (four wins) won the Stanley Cup.

Although this was the first ever postseason meeting between the two teams, it was not the first Montreal-Calgary Finals. The first Finals between teams from Montreal and Calgary took place in when the Canadiens defeated the Western Canada Hockey League champion Calgary Tigers. The Canadiens and Flames met again in a rematch in , with Calgary winning in six games.

The format reverted to the 2-2-1-1-1 format that had been in use since the re-alignment which followed the . The previous four Finals had used a 2-3-2 format, although only the latter two of those Finals lasted five games.

Paths to the Finals

Calgary defeated the Winnipeg Jets 3–0, the defending champion and in-province rival Edmonton Oilers 4–3, and the St. Louis Blues 4–3 to advance to the final.

Montreal defeated rival Boston Bruins 3–0, the Hartford Whalers 4–3, and the New York Rangers 4–1 to make it to the final.

Game summaries

Brian Skrudland's game-winning goal in game two ended the shortest overtime in NHL playoff history, at a mere nine seconds. Montreal rookie goaltender Patrick Roy was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP.

Team rosters

Years indicated in boldface under the "Finals appearance" column signify that the player won the Stanley Cup in the given year.

Calgary Flames

Montreal Canadiens

Stanley Cup engraving

The 1986 Stanley Cup was presented to Canadiens captain Bob Gainey by NHL President John Ziegler following the Canadiens 4–3 win over the Flames in game five.

The following Canadiens players and staff had their names engraved on the Stanley Cup

1985–86 Montreal Canadiens

Riot

Some 5,000 jubilant Montreal fans celebrating the Canadiens' Stanley Cup win over the Calgary Flames rampaged through the city's downtown, causing over worth of damage.https://nationalpost.com/Riots+black+Montreal/464332/story.html

Broadcasting

In Canada, this was the second and final year that the English-language rights of the Cup Finals was shared between CBC and CTV. For games one and two, CBC only had the rights to air them locally in Montreal and Calgary, while CTV broadcast it to the rest of the country. CBC would then have the exclusive rights to televise games three, four and five nationally. Had the series gone to a seventh game, then both CBC and CTV would have simultaneously televised it while using their own production facilities and crews. After the season, CTV pulled the plug on their two-year-long venture with the NHL, and their rights package was eventually given to the Global-Canwest consortium.

In the United States, this was the first of three consecutive seasons that ESPN televised the Cup Finals.

See also

* List of Stanley Cup champions
* 1985–86 NHL season

References

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Notes

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