This Week in Canadiens History: April 4th – April 11th
By Joshua Rosa
April 9th
Robinson Breaks Potvin’s Record
On this day, the year of our Lord 1989, the Montreal Canadiens played against the Hartford Whalers in the Adams Division Semi-Final. The first period had an astonishing 18 penalties called, but the Montreal Canadiens would prevail thanks to Russ Courtnall’s overtime goal to give the Habs a 4-3 win.
However, with Larry Robinson playing that game, he passed Denis Potvin with Robinson’s 186th Stanley Cup playoff game played. Robinson would retire with 227 playoff games played, just behind Chris Chelios, Nicklas Lidstrom, Patrick Roy, Mark Messier, Claude Lemieux, Scott Stevens and Guy Carbonneau.
The Longest Stanley Cup Final Game
On April 9th, 1931, the Montreal Canadiens and the Chicago Blackhawks met for the third game of their Stanley Cup Final, after the teams split the first two games, both with scores of 2-1. But the two overtime Game 2 was just a preview of the marathon of Game 3.
The Canadiens held a 2-0 lead with 5 minutes left to go in the game, before Mush March and Stew Adams tied the game and it headed into overtime. And then it headed into second overtime. And then it headed into the third overtime period.
It was in the third extra period where Cy Wentworth scored 13:50 into the period to give the Chicago Blackhawks the win in the longest Stanley Cup Final game ever up until that point. The Canadiens would go on to win the Cup in a thrilling 5 game series.
That record would be broken by the Edmonton Oilers and the Boston Bruins, who in 1990, played 55:13 of extra time before Petr Klima scored for the Edmonton Oilers. It remains the longest Stanley Cup Final game ever played, although a Dallas Stars Buffalo Sabres game in 1999 missed the record by just 22 seconds.