April 22nd 1962 - Toronto Maple Leafs beat Chicago Blackhawks, 4 games to 2
The 1961-62 season ended with the defending Stanley Cup Champion Blackhawks in 3rd place behind the 1st place Canadiens and the Maple Leafs. The Canadiens had run away with the regular season title amassing 98 points. With 2 of the top 5 scorers for the season in Hull and Mikita the Blackhawks looked like they had a good chance to defend their cup, but they had to get past the mighty Canadiens to make it to the finals again. They surprised Montreal and won their semi final series 4 games to 2 and were now facing the Toronto Maple Leafs who dispatched the New York Rangers 4-2 in their series.
The Leafs had last been in the finals in 1959 and 60 but lost both years to the Canadiens who were putting together 5 straight Stanley Cup titles.
Toronto opened the Finals at home and took both games from the Hawks 4-1 and 3-2. When the series moved to Chicago the Hawks returned the favor and tied the series at 2 with wins of 3-0 and 4-1.
When the series was back at the Maple Leaf Gardens for game 5, it was all Leafs in an 8-4 victory but the Hawks looked to tie it up back at home for game 6 but the Maple Leafs pulled the stunner winning game 6 2-1 as Dick Duff netted the series winner at 14:14 of the 3rd period.
This was the first Stanley Cup for the Leafs since 1949. This would be the first of 3 consecutive Stanley Cup titles for the Maple Leafs, winning again in 1963 and 1964 over the Detroit Redwings.
The bright spot for the Hawks was Stan Mikita won broke Gordie Howe's 1955 playoff record of 20 points by getting 21 points.
The Blackhawks would return to the finals again in 1965 but fall short 4 games to 3 to the powerhouse Canadiens.
No comments:
Post a Comment