Format best-of-five Champion Montreal Canadiens | Dates April 3–14, 1931 Start date April 3, 1931 | |
Location(s) Chicago (Chicago Stadium) (1,2)
Montreal (Forum) (3,4,5) Coaches Chicago: Dick Irvin
Montreal: Cecil Hart Captains Chicago: Ty Arbour
Montreal: Sylvio Mantha Series-winning goal Johnny Gagnon (9:59, second) Similar 1924 Stanley Cup Finals, 1959 Stanley Cup Finals, 1960 Stanley Cup Finals, 1969 Stanley Cup Finals, 1944 Stanley Cup Finals | ||
The 1931 Stanley Cup Finals was played between the Montreal Canadiens and the Chicago Black Hawks, making their first Stanley Cup Finals 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.
Contents
The series
Over 18,000 fans packed Chicago Stadium for game two to set a record for largest attendance in hockey history to that time. The triple-overtime game three of the series was (at the time) the longest game in Stanley Cup Finals history, and today remains the fourth longest game in Stanley Cup Finals history at 113:50.
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.
Montreal Canadiens vs. Chicago Black Hawks
Montreal wins best-of-five series 3–2.
Roster
† Left off the Cup, but qualified to be on it. A Played three of five games in the Finals. B Played 22 of 44 regular season games.