1971 Stanley Cup Finals


The 1971 Stanley Cup Finals was the championship series of the National Hockey League's 1970–71 season, and the culmination of the 1971 Stanley Cup playoffs. It was contested between the Chicago Black Hawks and the Montreal Canadiens. The Black Hawks made their first appearance in the finals since 1965, while the Canadiens had last played in and won the finals in 1969. The Canadiens won the series, four games to three.

Paths to the Finals

The playoff system changed this year to allow cross-over between the divisions during the playoffs.
Chicago defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 4–0 and the New York Rangers 4–3 to advance to the final.
Montreal defeated the defending champion Boston Bruins 4–3 and the Minnesota North Stars 4–2. This set up the first "Original Six" finals since the 1967 final.

Game summaries

Brothers Frank and Peter Mahovlich starred for the Canadiens, scoring nine goals in the seven-game final series. Ken Dryden debuted for the Canadiens, while this was Jean Beliveau's last Final appearance. He ended his career with ten championships. This would be only the second time that the road team would win a game seven in Finals history. The only previous time it happened was when the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Detroit Red Wings 2–1 in game seven in the 1945 Stanley Cup Finals in Detroit. Montreal also won the series despite losing the first two games on the road; neither of these feats would happen again until 2009, when the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Red Wings in game seven by the same 2–1 score after losing the first two games to the Red Wings. The next seven-game Stanley Cup Finals would not occur until the 1987 Stanley Cup Finals with the Edmonton Oilers and the Philadelphia Flyers.
DateVisitorsScoreHomeScoreNotes
May 4Montreal1Chicago2OT
May 6Montreal3Chicago5
May 9Chicago2Montreal 4
May 11Chicago2Montreal 5
May 13Montreal0Chicago2
May 16Chicago3Montreal 4
May 18Montreal3Chicago2

Montreal wins the series 4–3.

Game one

Game two

Game three

Game four

Game five

Game six

Game seven

Coaching controversies

Both clubs would suffer public controversies regarding coaching performances, specifically accusations of mishandling star players during the series.
Chicago head coach Billy Reay would be attacked in the media by Hawks star forward Bobby Hull for his excessive employment of two little used forwards, Lou Angotti and Eric Nesterenko, as well as the injured defenseman Keith Magnuson in game seven. With a 2–0 Blackhawks lead, both Hull and Hawks star center Stan Mikita were left on the bench for extended periods in favor of Angotti and Nesterenko, including two four-on-four situations. The wide open matchup should have favored the frustrated Hull, who had been successfully shadowed in the series by Canadiens rookie Rejean Houle. The first two Canadien goals were tallied with the two backliners on the ice and the hobbled Magnuson was beaten one on one by speedy Montreal center Henri Richard for the ultimate game winner.
The Canadiens suffered their own coaching controversy earlier in the series when head coach Al MacNeil benched alternate captain Henri Richard in game five. Following the 2-0 loss, Richard ripped MacNeil in the media calling him incompetent and "the worst coach I ever played for." Accusation of favoring English-speaking players plagued MacNeil and turned the public against him. Following death threats, MacNeil and his family were assigned body guards for the final home game in Montreal. Even the eventual series victory wouldn't be enough to save MacNeil's job. He was replaced as head coach by Scotty Bowman soon after the finals.

Montreal Canadiens 1971 Stanley Cup champions