Montreal Canadiens win Stanley Cup
The 1931 Stanley Cup Finals was played between between the Montreal Canadiens and the Chicago Black Hawks, making their first Stanley Cup final appearance.
The Canadiens, defending champions won the series to become the second NHL team to repeat as champion. Former player and now coach, Chicago's Dick Irvin, made his Finals coaching debut against the team he would later coach to three Stanley Cup titles.
Over 18,000 fans packed Chicago Stadium for game two to set a record for largest attendance in hockey history to that time. Triple overtime game three of the series was (at the time) the longest game in Stanley Cup final history, and today remains the fourth longest game in Stanley Cup final history at 113:50.
[edit]Game five
For game five, Foster Hewitt came to Montreal to make the radio broadcast play-by-play and transmission lines carried his broadcast to radio stations across Canada. Interest was so high that Montrealers in the thousands lined up for end zone and standing room tickets. Johnny Gagnon opened the scoring in the second period and Howie Morenz scored an insurance goal in the third period. It ended a nine-game goalless streak for Morenz.[1]
After winning their respective divisions, the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins met in a best of five series to decide who would advance to the Stanley Cup final. It took all five games, but the Canadiens won the series, winning each of their three games in overtime. Elsewhere, the New York Rangers beat the Maroons of Montreal in a two game total goal series, while Chicago earned a victory over the Maple Leafs with an overtime goal in the second of their two games. Facing the Rangers in the semi-final, Chicago shut out New York in both games of their two game total goal series to win entrance to the Stanley Cup final. Game one between the Canadiens and Black Hawks was won by Montreal in overtime. The second game of the best of five series went to Chicago?again, in overtime. Game three also went into overtime, with Chicago emerging with the victory. Montreal fought back and won the next two contests (in regulation time) to earn the Stanley Cup. It was the second straight Cup celebration for the Canadiens.
The 1930–31 Montreal Canadiens season was the team's 22nd season. The Montreal Canadiens beat the Chicago Black Hawks three games to two in a best-of-five Stanley Cup final for their second consecutive Cup win and fourth in team history.
The Canadiens, by placing first, received a bye to the semi-finals where they met the Boston Bruins, who had won the American Division. The Canadiens took the best-of-five series three games to two to advance to the final.
