Canadiens win Game 5 to take their 24th Cup
Late Red Fisher’s post-game column remains a tribute to a great team
It has been 25 years since the Montreal Canadiens won the Stanley Cup. Since May 26, we have been retracing the Habs’ route to victory with articles from the Montreal Gazette archives. Today is the anniversary of their last Cup win. This article has been abridged from its original length.
Date: June 9, 1993
Original headline: THAT WINNING HAB-IT; Canadiens claim their 24th title for Stanley Cup’s 100th birthday
This infernally long season was over, and there was Kirk Muller, crying beautiful tears, and talking about what this Stanley Cup victory was all about.
“It’s not the name on the Cup,” he said after this 4-1 victory locked up the Stanley Cup final in five games against the Los Angeles Kings. “It’s not the ring.
“What it is,” he said, “is somewhere down the road ... next week, next year ... 20 years from now ... somebody will look at you and tell you you’re a winner.”
It had nothing to do with the second-period goal he scored last night, which eventually proved to be the winner. It had everything to do with the leadership he showed from Game 1 in the regular season — up to and including last night.
So now it was over and there were the Canadiens, Muller among them, hoisting the Stanley Cup toward the 23 banners hanging in places of honour above them.
After 84 regular-season games, the Cup had landed in Montreal in the Canadiens’ 20th playoff game — and is there anything better to celebrate — at least for a little while?
And there was what they had played for all these months: the Cup being handed to Guy Carbonneau and then to Denis Savard, who was kept out of the last four games with a broken foot. Then, it’s Mike Keane hoisting it, followed by Mathieu Schneider. Eric Desjardins ... Brian Bellows ... Patrick Roy!
Ah, Patrick: isn’t that where all of this starts?
Roy was what most of these 20 playoff games were all about — which is why he takes home the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the playoffs.
It’s Roy, and last night it also was Paul DiPietro, the game’s first star with two goals. It was Muller and Stephan Lebeau, who provided the Canadiens with a 3-1 lead after the first two periods against a plucky, but tiring Los Angeles team.
It was John LeClair, who assisted on the DiPietro and Lebeau goals — before and after Marty McSorley scored the only Kings goal early in the second period.
It was the Canadiens, as a team, which held the normally explosive Kings to 14 shots in the first two periods — only 19 in the game — none by Wayne Gretzky.
What it was, without question, was the Canadiens’ best game of the playoffs. It was domination from start to finish. It was the way winners have to play to win. It was why they won.
The Canadiens got the only goal of the first period — but only barely.
In other words, there’s Roy ... again ... when he’s needed.
He was there less than a minute into the game for a stop on Tony Granato. He was there again on Luc Robitaille during a power-play situation.
There were opportunities on both sides, but what the first period was about, mostly, was speed. Both teams gathered their legs beneath them and went for it — the Kings to stay alive and, of course, the Canadiens to put away the season.
This was a night when the best players from both teams came to play — starting with Roy and Kelly Hrudey. Yet it was DiPietro who scored the only goal with fewer than five minutes remaining shortly after Granato had returned from serving a tripping penalty.
The big play was made by LeClair, the hero of the previous two games in Los Angeles, where he had scored overtime goals in 4-3 and 3-2 victories. This time, his big contribution came when he used his size to crush defenceman Tim Watters with a bodycheck near the Los Angeles circle. From there, Gary Leeman slipped the puck to DiPietro, who was to score yet another in the third period.
That was one — and seconds later, Vincent Damphousse was in a delightful position to add another when he swept in alone on Hrudey. The Los Angeles goaltender stopped him. Or how about Guy Carbonneau hitting the post with a one-timer less than two minutes into the second period.
These things happen, right? What also almost always happens when one team fritters away opportunities is that the opposition puts one on the board on its first real chance. So there’s McSorley lofting a rising shot which somehow managed to elude Roy — but only after it struck one post, then the other, fell below the line and out.
In a perfect world, the playoffs’ most valuable player probably would have liked another crack at the McSorley shot. On the other hand, who’s complaining when it’s becoming increasingly clear, despite the fears and tears, that this series would not go beyond this night.
This one, you should know, had speed and aggressiveness and unflinching work by both sides. It had soaring emotions — all of which Lebeau, Keane and LeClair delivered for the goal which provided the Canadiens with a 3-1 margin.
The Canadiens, as a team did it all.
No. 24.