This Week in Montreal Canadiens History: April 25th – May 1st
By Joshua Rosa
April 29th
Clutch Claude
On this day, the year of our Lord, 1986, the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Hartford Whalers 2-1 in overtime. Mike McPhee scored a shorthanded goal in the first period, and Dave Babych tied it up for the Whalers with just over 2 minutes left in the third of Game 7.
That was when a scrum started behind the Whalers’ net, and Claude Lemieux came up with the puck, all alone, and sniped the puck into the top corner of the net to send Montreal to play the Rangers in the next round.
It was an interesting season for Claude Lemieux, who as a rookie, played just 10 regular season games with 1 goal and 3 points. However, it was a completely different story in the playoffs. In the first round, Lemieux scored 3 goals and 4 points in 3 games against Boston.
Lemieux followed that up with 3 goals in 7 games against the Whalers. Lemieux then scored 3 goals and 6 points in 5 games against the New York Rangers, and the Canadiens won the Stanley Cup against the Calgary Flames, with Lemieux scoring another goal and 2 assists.
Lemieux lead the team in goals for the postseason run with 10, and was below just Mats Naslund in points. Not to mention that his overtime Game 7 goal was the first time that a rookie had scored an overtime goal in a Game 7.
4 of Lemieux’s 10 goals that postseason were game-winners. Lemieux retired with 19 playoff game-winning goals, which ties him with Joe Sakic for the third most playoff game winning goals. The leaders for most playoff game winners are tied with 24, Brett Hull and Wayne Gretzky.