1986 Stanley Cup Final

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

Brian Skrudland'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.

|1-1-1 =Mats Naslund (6) – pp – 06:04 |1-1-2 =12:08 – John Tonelli (6) 19:11 – Jim Peplinski (5) |1-2-1 =No scoring |1-2-2 =No scoring |1-3-1 =Chris Chelios (2) – 17:56 |1-3-2 =02:14 – sh – Dan Quinn (8) 03:33 – Lanny McDonald (10) 19:35 – en – Doug Risebrough (7) |goalie1-1 =Patrick Roy 25 saves / 29 shots |goalie1-2 =Mike Vernon 22 saves / 24 shots

|2-1-1 =No scoring |2-1-2 =09:06 – John Tonelli (7) |2-2-1 =Gaston Gingras (1) – 03:45 |2-2-2 =00:15 – Paul Reinhart (5) – pp |2-3-1 =David Maley (1) – 03:30 |2-3-2 =No scoring |2-4-1 =Brian Skrudland (1) – 00:09 |2-4-2 =No scoring |goalie2-1 =Patrick Roy 20 saves / 22 shots |goalie2-2 =Mike Vernon 32 saves / 35 shots

|3-1-1 =06:50 – Mats Naslund (7) 18:25 – Bobby Smith (6) 19:17 – pp – Mats Naslund (8) 19:33 – Bob Gainey (5) |3-1-2 =Joe Mullen (11) – pp – 05:45 Joel Otto (5) – pp – 17:59 |3-2-1 =19:22 – Kjell Dahlin (2) |3-2-2 =Lanny McDonald (11) – pp – 07:13 |3-3-1 =No scoring |3-3-2 =No scoring |goalie3-1 =Patrick Roy 23 saves / 26 shots |goalie3-2 =Mike Vernon 12 saves / 16 shots. Rejean Lemelin 12 saves / 13 shots

|4-1-1 =No scoring |4-1-2 =No scoring |4-2-1 =No scoring |4-2-2 =No scoring |4-3-1 =11:10 – Claude Lemieux (10) |4-3-2 =No scoring |goalie4-1 =Patrick Roy 15 saves / 15 shots |goalie4-2 =Mike Vernon 23 saves / 24 shots

|5-1-1 =Gaston Gingras (2) – pp – 06:53 |5-1-2 =No scoring |5-2-1 =Brian Skrudland (2) – 10:49 |5-2-2 =07:17 – Steve Bozek (1) |5-3-1 =Rick Green (1) – 10:11 Bobby Smith (7) – 10:30 |5-3-2 =16:46 – Steve Bozek (2) 19:14 – Joe Mullen (12) |goalie5-1 =Patrick Roy 30 saves / 33 shots |goalie5-2 =Mike Vernon 29 saves / 33 shots

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

Stanley Cup engraving

The 1986 Stanley Cup was presented to Canadiens captain Bob Gainey by NHL President John Ziegler following the Canadiens 4–3 win over the Flames in game five.

The following Canadiens players and staff had their names engraved on the Stanley Cup

1985–86 Montreal Canadiens centres=*15 Bobby Smith

• 21 Guy Carbonneau
• 27 Lucien DeBlois
• 35 Mike McPhee
• 39 Brian Skrudland*
• 11 Ryan Walter
• 12 Serge Boisvert*
• 14 Mario Tremblay (A)
• 20 Kjell Dahlin
• 23 Bob Gainey (Captain)
• 26 Mats Naslund (A)
• 28 Steve Rooney
• 30 Chris Nilan
• 32 Claude Lemieux
• 44 Stephane Richer*
• 17 Craig Ludwig
• 18 Tom Kurvers
• 19 Larry Robinson (A)
• 24 Chris Chelios
• 25 Petr Svoboda
• 29 Gaston Gingras*
• 31 John Kordic*
• 38 Mike Lalor*
• 33 Patrick Roy* |non-players=
• Ronald Corey (President), Serge Savard* (Vice President/General Manager)
• Jean Perron (Head Coach), Jacques Laperriere (Ass't Coach)
• Jean Beliveau (Sr. Vice President-Director of Cooperate Affairs), François-Xavier Seigneur (Vice President-Marketing), Fred Steer(Vice President-Finance-Administration)
• Jacques Lemaire (Ass't General Manager/director of player personnel), Andre Boudrias (Ass't General Manager/Director of Scouting), Claude Ruel (Director of Player Development)
• Yvon Belanger (Athletic Therapist), Gaetan Lefebvre (Ass't Athletic Therapist)
• Eddy Palchak (Trainer), Sylvain Toupin (Ass't Trainer) |player-notes=
• • Won the Calder Cup as American Hockey League (AHL) Championship in 1985 with Sherbrooke Canadiens. |engraving-notes=
• Tom Kurvers missed the end of the regular season, and all of the playoffs injured. His name was included on the Stanley Cup because he played 62 regular-seasons games for Montreal.
• Mario Tremblay played only 56 regular-season games. He missed the rest of the season and all the playoffs due to injury. Tremblay still played enough games to qualify for his name to be on the Stanley Cup.
• Four names were not engraved on the Stanley Cup but included in the team picture. #37 Steve Penney was dressed for 30 games, played 18. #36 Sergio Momesso played 24 regular-season games. Both players missed the rest of the season injured. They were not given injury exemption and included on the Stanley Cup.
• #22 Randy Bucyk played 17 regular-season games and two playoff games, and did not play in the Final. He did not qualify to appear on the Stanley Cup. Also won Calder Cup in 1985.
• Morgan McCammon was included on the Cup with Montreal in 1979 as a Director. It is a tradition that the Chairman of the Board name is engraved on the Stanley Cup, but Montreal did not submit McCammon's for engravement on the Stanley Cup, but gave him a second Stanley Cup ring.
• Sr. Vice President of Operations Gerry Gundman was also left off the Stanley Cup.
• Starting in 1985–86 season, each NHL team was required to list two alternate captains (along with the team captain) for each game. Some teams may have more than two alternates, but only two can be marked with an 'A' per game.
• The Montreal Canadiens played 10 rookies on their squad during the Playoffs: Stephane Richer, Brian Skrudland, Mike Lalor, Patrick Roy, Steve Rooney, John Kordic, Claude Lemieux, David Maley, Kjell Dahlin and Randy Bucyk. Three other rookies played in regular season but not during the Playoffs: Sergio Momesso, Shayne Corson and Dominic Campedelli. In addition, the Canadiens only made 1 trade from Kent Carlson (played 2 games for Montreal) to St. Louis for Graham Herring (never played in the NHL), and 5th round pic on January 31, 1986. All other team's lineup changes were through their minor league team AHL Sherbrooke Canadiens.
• Jean Perron was the 12th NHL rookie coach to win the Stanley Cup. Perron was also the last rookie coach to win the Stanley Cup, who coached the winning team for the whole season. (See 2009 Stanley Cup Final for the last rookie coach to win the Stanley Cup.) |

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 were 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 them to the rest of the country. CBC then had 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 separate 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.

This was the first of three consecutive seasons that ESPN televised the Stanley Cup Final in the United States.

References

before = Edmonton Oilers 1985 | after = Edmonton Oilers 1987 | title = Montreal Canadiens Stanley Cup champions | years = 1986|

Notes

References

1. (September 23, 1983). "Playoff format changes made". The Ottawa Citizen.
2. [https://nationalpost.com/Riots+black+Montreal/464332/story.html nationalpost.com]{{dead link. (October 2025)