The 1966 Stanley Cup Finals was the championship series of the National Hockey League's (NHL) 1965–66 season, and the culmination of the 1966 Stanley Cup playoffs. It was contested by the Detroit Red Wings and the defending champion Montreal Canadiens. The Canadiens won the best-of-seven series, four games to two, to win the Stanley Cup for the seventh time in eleven years.
| 1966 Stanley Cup Finals | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| * indicates periods of overtime. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Location(s) | Montreal: Montreal Forum (1, 2, 5) Detroit: Olympia Stadium (3, 4, 6) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coaches | Montreal: Toe Blake Detroit: Sid Abel | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Captains | Montreal: Jean Beliveau Detroit: Alex Delvecchio | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dates | April 24 – May 5, 1966 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| MVP | Roger Crozier (Red Wings) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series-winning goal | Henri Richard (2:20, OT, G6) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hall of Famers | Canadiens: Jean Beliveau (1972) Yvan Cournoyer (1982) Dick Duff (2006) Jacques Laperriere (1987; did not play) Henri Richard (1979) Gump Worsley (1980) Red Wings: Andy Bathgate (1978) Leo Boivin (1986) Alex Delvecchio (1977) Bill Gadsby (1970) Gordie Howe (1972) Norm Ullman (1982) Coaches: Sid Abel (1969, player) Toe Blake (1966, player) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Paths to the Finals edit
Montreal defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 4–0 to advance to the finals, and Detroit defeated the Chicago Black Hawks 4–2.
Game summaries edit
With this series, Toe Blake had coached the Canadiens to seven Cups in eleven years. Henri Richard, a member of all seven championship teams, would score the series winner in game six in overtime. Two minutes into the extra period, Richard broke in on Red Wing goalie Roger Crozier, lost his footing on the newly resurfaced ice as he cut across the goalmouth, and sprawled into Crozier. The puck went in, and even though Crozier and the Wings protested that Richard had pushed the puck in with his hand, the goal stood. His brilliant play in goal, even in defeat, earned Crozier the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the playoffs, becoming the first player to win the award as a member of the losing team.
| April 24 | Detroit Red Wings | 3–2 | Montreal Canadiens | Montreal Forum | Recap | |||
| Floyd Smith (3) - 13:25 | First period | No scoring | ||||||
| Bill Gadsby (1) - 5:14 | Second period | 4:23 - Ralph Backstrom (2) | ||||||
| Paul Henderson (3) - 2:14 | Third period | 2:36 - Terry Harper (2) | ||||||
| Roger Crozier | Goalie stats | Gump Worsley | ||||||
| April 26 | Detroit Red Wings | 5–2 | Montreal Canadiens | Montreal Forum | Recap | |||
| Andy Bathgate (6) - pp - 18:39 | First period | 6:55 - pp - J.C. Tremblay (2) | ||||||
| No scoring | Second period | No scoring | ||||||
| Bruce MacGregor (1) - 1:51 Ab McDonald (1) - 2:45 Floyd Smith (4) - 12:28 Dean Prentice (5) - 16:25 | Third period | 12:00 - Yvan Cournoyer (1) | ||||||
| Roger Crozier | Goalie stats | Gump Worsley | ||||||
| April 28 | Montreal Canadiens | 4–2 | Detroit Red Wings | Olympia Stadium | Recap | |||
| Dave Balon (1) - 15:40 Jean Beliveau (3) - 19:12 | First period | 4:20 - Norm Ullman (3) | ||||||
| No scoring | Second period | No scoring | ||||||
| Gilles Tremblay (3) - 1:45 Gilles Tremblay (4) - pp - 3:21 | Third period | 19:59 - Gordie Howe (4) | ||||||
| Gump Worsley | Goalie stats | Roger Crozier | ||||||
| May 1 | Montreal Canadiens | 2–1 | Detroit Red Wings | Olympia Stadium | Recap | |||
| No scoring | First period | No scoring | ||||||
| Jean Beliveau (4) - pp - 19:51 | Second period | 11:24 - Norm Ullman (4) | ||||||
| Ralph Backstrom (3) - 13:37 | Third period | No scoring | ||||||
| Gump Worsley | Goalie stats | Roger Crozier, Hank Bassen | ||||||
| May 3 | Detroit Red Wings | 1–5 | Montreal Canadiens | Montreal Forum | Recap | |||
| No scoring | First period | 1:06 - Claude Provost (2) 19:21 - pp - Yvan Cournoyer (2) | ||||||
| Norm Ullman (5) - 14:22 | Second period | 1:05 - Dave Balon (2) 11:22 - Bobby Rousseau (4) | ||||||
| No scoring | Third period | 5:31 - Dick Duff (2) | ||||||
| Roger Crozier | Goalie stats | Gump Worsley | ||||||
| May 5 | Montreal Canadiens | 3–2 | OT | Detroit Red Wings | Olympia Stadium | Recap | ||
| Jean Beliveau (5) - 9:08 | First period | No scoring | ||||||
| Leon Rochefort (1) - 10:11 | Second period | 11:55 - pp - Norm Ullman (6) | ||||||
| No scoring | Third period | 10:30 - Floyd Smith (5) | ||||||
| Henri Richard (1) - 2:20 | First overtime period | No scoring | ||||||
| Gump Worsley | Goalie stats | Roger Crozier | ||||||
| Montreal won series 4–2 | |
Stanley Cup engraving edit
The 1966 Stanley Cup was presented to Canadiens captain Jean Beliveau by NHL President Clarence Campbell following the Canadiens 3–2 win over the Red Wings in game six.
The following Canadiens players and staff had their names engraved on the Stanley Cup
1965–66 Montreal Canadiens
Players
- 4 Jean Beliveau (Captain)
- 6 Ralph Backstrom
- 16 Henri Richard (A)
- 2 Jacques Laperriere
- 3 Jean-Claude J. C. Tremblay
- 10 Edward Ted Harris
- 17 Jean-Guy Talbot (A)
- 19 Terry Harper
- 23 Noel Price
- 30 Lorne Gump Worsley
- 1 Charlie Hodge
Coaching and administrative staff
- Hartland Molson (Chairman/owner), J. David Molson (President)
- Sam Pollock (Vice President/Manager), Hector Toe Blake (Coach)
- Andy Galley (Trainer), Larry Albut (Asst. Trainer)
Stanley Cup engravings edit
- Montreal Canadiens name was misspelt MONTREAL CANADIENE. This mistake was later corrected on the Replica Cup created in 1992–93.
Broadcasting edit
In 1966, NBC became the first[1] television network in the United States to air a national broadcast of a Stanley Cup Playoff game. The network provided coverage of four Sunday afternoon playoff games[2][3] during the 1965–66 postseason.[4] On April 10[5] and April 17,[6] NBC aired semifinal games between the Chicago Black Hawks and the Detroit Red Wings. On April 24[7] and May 1,[8] NBC aired Games 1 and 4[9] of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Montreal Canadiens and the Detroit Red Wings. Win Elliot served as the play-by-play man while Bill Mazer served as the color commentator for the games.[10]
NBC's coverage of the 1966 Stanley Cup Finals marked the first time that hockey games were broadcast on network television in color.[11] The CBC would follow suit the following year. NBC's Stanley Cup coverage preempted a sports anthology series called NBC Sports in Action, hosted by Jim Simpson and Bill Cullen, who were between-periods co-hosts for the Stanley Cup broadcasts.
Aftermath edit
The next season, the Red Wings finished a distant fifth, 24 points out of the playoffs, marking the beginning of a 20 year slump known as the "Dead Wings" era. The Red Wings only made the playoffs four times in the next 20 years between 1967 and 1986, and would not return to the Stanley Cup Finals again until 1995, where they were swept by the New Jersey Devils.
The Canadiens would return to the Stanley Cup Finals the next season, but lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs in six games. However, the Canadiens would eventually become a dynasty, winning the Stanley Cup in 1968, 1969, 1971, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, and 1979.
See also edit
Notes edit
- ^ "Stanley Cup Hockey Playoffs on Today". Hartford Courant. April 10, 1966. p. 3G.
- ^ "NBC May Televise Stanley Cup Play". Hartford Courant. Associated Press. February 27, 1966. p. 6C.
- ^ "NHL Near Deal for TV of Cup Games". Chicago Tribune. February 27, 1966. p. C1.
- ^ "NBC Makes Plans to TV Stanley Cup Playoffs". Los Angeles Times. February 28, 1966. p. B6.
- ^ Don Page (April 9, 1966). "Let's Ear It for Transistor Man". Los Angeles Times. p. D2.
- ^ "More Than Feelings Hurting—As Black Hawks Limp Back Home". Hartford Courant. Associated Press. April 16, 1966. p. 20.
- ^ "TV News Notes". Chicago Tribune. April 24, 1966. p. IND_A17.
- ^ "NBC to Carry Stanley Cup Games on TV". Chicago Tribune. March 29, 1966. p. C1.
- ^ Bob Gates (April 29, 1966). "Abel's 'switcheroo' works". The Christian Science Monitor. p. 7.
- ^ Stan Issacs (January 19, 1990). "TV SPORTS Hockey Gets Network – for a Day". Newsday. p. 137.
- ^ Ted Damata (April 10, 1966). "Black Hawks in Colorful Color". Chicago Tribune. p. C1.
References edit
- "All-Time NHL Results".
- Diamond, Dan, ed. (2000). Total Stanley Cup. NHL.
- Podnieks, Andrew; Hockey Hall of Fame (2004). Lord Stanley's Cup. Triumph Books. ISBN 978-1-55168-261-7.