1991 Stanley Cup Final

Paths to the Finals

Minnesota defeated the first-place overall Chicago Blackhawks 4–2, the second-place overall St. Louis Blues 4–2, and the defending Cup champion Edmonton Oilers 4–1 to advance to the Finals. The North Stars became the first American team and first Norris Division team to win the Campbell Conference since the league re-aligned the divisions and adopted a divisional-based playoff format in 1981.

Pittsburgh defeated the New Jersey Devils 4–3, the Washington Capitals 4–1 and the Boston Bruins 4–2.

Game summaries

Pittsburgh centre Mario Lemieux, despite missing a game due to a back injury, recorded 12 points in 5 games to lead all scorers and won the Conn Smythe Trophy.

Lemieux scored one of the most famous goals in NHL history during the second period of game two. Receiving the puck in the Penguins' end of the ice, Lemieux skated solo into the North Stars' zone facing two defensemen (Shawn Chambers and Neil Wilkinson) as well as goaltender Jon Casey. Lemieux skirted the puck through the legs of Chambers, skated around him, baited goaltender Casey to commit left (Lemieux's right), then switched the puck to his backhand side and slid the puck into the net (before crashing into the net himself). A brief video of the goal has since been featured on Stanley Cup promotional advertisements by the NHL.

Schedule and results

|1-1-1 =Neal Broten (7) – 06:32 Ulf Dahlen (1) – 09:49 |1-1-2 =03:45 – Ulf Samuelsson (2) |1-2-1 =Marc Bureau (3) – sh – 06:53 Neal Broten (8) – 17:01 |1-2-2 =03:54 – sh – Mario Lemieux (12) 07:43 – pp – Scott Young (1) |1-3-1 =Bobby Smith (7) – 01:39 |1-3-2 =10:35 – Joe Mullen (6) |goalie1-1 =Jon Casey 34 saves / 38 shots |goalie1-2 =Tom Barrasso 24 saves / 29 shots

|2-1-1 =No scoring |2-1-2 =14:26 – sh – Bob Errey (4) 19:10 – pp – Kevin Stevens (14) |2-2-1 =Mike Modano (7) – pp – 00:55 |2-2-2 =15:04 – Mario Lemieux (13) 16:32 – Kevin Stevens (15) |2-3-1 =No scoring |2-3-2 =No scoring |goalie2-1 =Jon Casey 27 saves / 31 shots |goalie2-2 =Tom Barrasso 39 saves / 40 shots

|3-1-1 =No scoring |3-1-2 =No scoring |3-2-1 =07:21 – Dave Gagner (9) 07:54 – Bobby Smith (8) |3-2-2 =No scoring |3-3-1 =02:09 – Gaetan Duchesne (2) |3-3-2 =Phil Bourque (5) – 01:23 |goalie3-1 =Jon Casey 29 saves / 30 shots |goalie3-2 =Tom Barrasso 30 saves / 33 shots

|4-1-1 =18:22 – Dave Gagner (10) |4-1-2 =Kevin Stevens (16) – 00:58 Ron Francis (5) – 02:36 Mario Lemieux (14) – 02:58 |4-2-1 =13:10 – pp – Brian Propp (8) 18:25 – pp – Mike Modano (8) |4-2-2 =Bryan Trottier (3) – 09:55 |4-3-1 =No scoring |4-3-2 =Phil Bourque (6) – 19:45 |goalie4-1 =Jon Casey 19 saves / 23 shots |goalie4-2 =Tom Barrasso 35 saves / 38 shots

|5-1-1 =Neal Broten (9) – sh – 14:52 |5-1-2 =05:36 – pp – Mario Lemieux (15) 10:08 – pp – Kevin Stevens (17) 11:45 – Mark Recchi (9) 13:41 – Mark Recchi (10) |5-2-1 =Dave Gagner (11) – sh – 06:54 |5-2-2 =16:26 – Ron Francis (6) |5-3-1 =Ulf Dahlen (2) – 01:36 Dave Gagner (12) – 07:42 |5-3-2 =18:21 – Troy Loney (2) |goalie5-1 =Brian Hayward 16 saves / 18 shots Jon Casey 9 saves / 13 shots |goalie5-2 =Frank Pietrangelo 15 saves / 18 shots Tom Barrasso 6 saves / 7 shots

|6-1-1 =No scoring |6-1-2 =02:00 – pp – Ulf Samuelsson (3) 12:19 – sh – Mario Lemieux (16) 13:14 – pp – Joe Mullen (7) |6-2-1 =No scoring |6-2-2 =13:15 – Bob Errey (5) 14:28 – Ron Francis (7) 18:44 – Joe Mullen |6-3-1 =No scoring |6-3-2 =01:29 – Jim Paek (1) 13:45 – pp – Larry Murphy (5) |goalie6-1 =Jon Casey 13 saves / 17 shots Brian Hayward 7 saves / 11 shots |goalie6-2 =Tom Barrasso 39 saves / 39 shots

Team rosters

Years indicated in boldface under the "Finals appearance" column signify that the player won the Stanley Cup in the given year.

Minnesota North Stars

Note: Neal Broten served as the North Stars acting team captain during the 1991 Stanley Cup playoffs. Curt Giles, who was injured late in the season and played in only 10 playoff games, missing the entire finals, is listed as the official team captain.

Pittsburgh Penguins

Stanley Cup engraving

The 1991 Stanley Cup was presented to Penguins captain Mario Lemieux by NHL President John Ziegler following the Penguins 8–0 win over the North Stars in game six.

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

1990–91 Pittsburgh Penguins

• 10 Barry Pederson †

• 15 Randy Gilhen

• 19 Bryan Trottier (A)

• 38 Jiri Hrdina

• 66 Mario Lemieux (Captain)

• 8 Mark Recchi

• 12 Bob Errey (A)

• 16 Jay Caufield ‡

• 24 Troy Loney

• 25 Kevin Stevens

• 29 Phil Bourque

• 34 Scott Young*

• 68 Jaromir Jagr

• 3 Grant Jennings

• 5 Ulf Samuelsson

• 22 Paul Stanton

• 23 Randy Hillier (A)

• 28 Gordie Roberts

• 32 Peter Taglianetti

• 55 Larry Murphy

• 77 Paul Coffey (A)

• 40 Frank Pietrangelo

• 1 Wendell Young |player-notes=

• • Played both centre and wing.

• † Did not play or dress in the Final.

• ‡ Did not play in the Final. Name engraved on Stanley Cup despite not officially qualifying. |non-players=

• Edward J. DeBartolo Sr. (Chairman/Owner)

• Marie Denise DeBartolo York (President/Owner)

• Paul Martha (Vice President-General Council), Craig Patrick (Vice President/General Manager)

• William Scotty Bowman (Director of Player Development-Recruitment), Bob Johnson (Head Coach)

• Rick Kehoe (Asst. Coach), Rick Paterson (Asst. Coach), Barry Smith (Asst. Coach)

• Gilles Meloche (Goaltending Coach/Scout)

• Steve Latin (Equipment Manager), Charles "Skip" Thayer (Trainer)

• John Welday (Strength-Conditioning Coach), Greg Malone (Head Scout)}}

Engraving notes

• #16 Jay Caufield (RW) played in only 23 games. His name was engraved on the Stanley Cup because he spent the whole season with Pittsburgh.
• Pierre McGuire, Les Binkley, John Gill, Charlie Hodge, Ralph Cox were with the team as scouts in 1990–91, but names were not included on the Stanley Cup that year. All five of these scouts were awarded Stanley Cup rings.
• Randy Gilhen was the first German-born player to win the Stanley Cup, but grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
• Jim Paek was the first Korean-born hockey player to both play in the NHL, and have his name engraved on the Stanley Cup.
• Barry Pederson did not play a single game in the 1991 playoffs, but he qualified to get his name on the Stanley Cup and get a Stanley Cup ring because he played 46 games during the season.
• Pittsburgh filled the last spot on the bottom ring. The larger rings were filled a year early then planned. See 1965 Stanley Cup Final and 1992 Stanley Cup Final.

Player notes

• The players listed below were on the roster, but did not qualify to be included on the Stanley Cup.
  • Gord Dineen (D) – 9 regular season games
  • #20 Jamie Leach (RW) – 7 regular season games
  • #18 Ken Priestlay (C) – 2 regular season games
  • #27 Gilbert Delorme (D) – missed the whole season due to a car accident in the offseason.
  • #30 Bruce Racine (G) – was called up from the minors to serve as back-up to Frank Pietrangelo. He was dressed for the last two games of round one, and first two games of round two. Both Wendell Young (who missed first three rounds due to injury), and Tom Barrasso (missed four games due to injury) were unable to play. Racine's name was left off the Stanley Cup, because he had not played in the NHL - in fact, Racine has never played for Pittsburgh. His only NHL experience came in 1995-96 for the St. Louis Blues.
• Dineen, Leach, and Priestlay spent most of the regular season in the minors. Racine spent the entire regular season in the minors. Delorme missed the entire season due to injury.

Broadcasting

In Canada, the series was televised in English on the CBC and in French on SRC.

In the United States, the series aired nationally on SportsChannel America. However, SportsChannel America's national coverage was blacked out in the Minnesota and Pittsburgh areas due to the local rights to North Stars and Penguins games in those respective TV markets. In Minnesota, KMSP-TV aired games one, two and five while the Midwest Sports Channel had games three, four, and six. In Pittsburgh, KBL televised games one, two and five while KDKA aired games three, four, and six. Had there been a game seven, it would have aired on KMSP-TV in Minnesota and KBL in Pittsburgh respectively.

Notes

References

before = Edmonton Oilers 1990 | after = Pittsburgh Penguins 1992 | title = Pittsburgh Penguins Stanley Cup champions | years = 1991|

References

1. Giles did not play in any games in the finals. [[Neal Broten]] served as acting captain