1979: Too Many Men On The Ice

The year is 1979. The Montreal Canadiens defeat a very solid Rangers team from New York to capture their 4th consecutive Stanley Cup. Guy Lafleur and Jacques Lemaire both score 23 points to lead the league in scoring, while defensive specialist extraordinaire Bob Gainey won the Conn Smythe trophy as playoff MVP.

This would be the final Stanley Cup not only for this Canadiens dynasty, but for great playoff warriors Jacques Lemaire and Ken Dryden. In 11 season Lemaire won 8 Stanley Cups, thanks in large part to his playoff totals of 61-78-149 in 145 post-season contests. Dryden concluded his 8 year career with 6 Stanley Cups, an 80-32 playoff win-loss record and a lifetime 2.40 GAA.

History tends to better remember Montreal's semi-finals matchup with the Boston Bruins, largely because of an incident with Boston coach and future star of Hockey Night In Canada Don Cherry.

Montreal always beat Boston in the playoffs, but things were different heading into the third period of game 7 in this semi-final. The Bruins held a 3-1 lead. Montreal battled back to knot the score at 3, only to have Boston's Rick Middleton score a devastating goal with only 3:59 left in the game.

But the ghosts of the Montreal Forum must have magically appeared again, as Cherry's Bruins were called for the undisciplined Too Many Men penalty late in the game. Guy Lafleur would score the overtime forcing goal. Yvon Lambert would score the game winning goal midway through the first overtime period.