1986 Stanley Cup Finals


The 1986 Stanley Cup Finals was the championship series of the National Hockey League's 1985–86 season, and the culmination of the 1986 Stanley Cup playoffs. It was contested between the Calgary Flames and the Montreal Canadiens. The Canadiens would win 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, and the third of five consecutive Finals to end with the Cup presentation on Alberta ice. This was the only time between and that neither the Oilers nor the New York Islanders won the Stanley Cup.
Although this was the first ever postseason meeting between the two teams, it was not the first Montreal-Calgary Final. The first Final 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 would get a rematch in, with Calgary winning in six 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

'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

Montreal Canadiens – 1986 Stanley Cup champions

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.

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.