The top three National Hockey League teams you think of when it comes to dynasties all won Stanley Cups on this date. Today is also the anniversary of the most memorable playoff game that never happened. Let’s begin our daily trip back in time to enjoy all the best moments May 24 has given us over the years.
A Long Island Dynasty Begins
We have written quite a bit about the New York Islanders over the past few weeks. When you win four straight Stanley Cups, you will have a lot of memories during April and May.
On May 24, 1980, the biggest memory of them all happened when the Islanders beat the Philadelphia Flyers 5-4 in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final. Bobby Nystrom scored seven minutes into overtime to give the Islanders their first championship in franchise history. Lorne Henning caused the biggest turnover of his career and got the puck over to John Tonelli. With the Flyers focused on Tonelli, Nystrom cut to the net and scored the Cup-clinching goal.
The Flyers were the team to beat, heading into the 1980 Stanley Cup playoffs as they finished the regular season with 116 points. They also set an NHL record with a stretch of 35 straight games without a loss, winning 25 and tying in the other 10.
Islanders’ forward Bryan Trottier won the Conn Smythe Trophy for being the postseason’s most valuable player. He had 12 goals and 29 points in 21 games. He was the first of four different Conn Smythe winners for the Islanders during their early 1980s dynasty.
Boston Hates the Edmonton Oilers
The Oilers and Boston Bruins played a pair of Stanley Cup Final games on this date, in 1988 and again in 1990. The first meeting, on May 24, 1988, was one of the most memorable games in playoff history, which officially never happened.
With less than four minutes to play in the second period of Game 4, and seconds after the Oilers tied the game at 3-3, the Boston Garden went black. When it became clear that the power cannot be restored, league president John Zeigler announced that the game would have to be replayed, yet the scoring totals would still count.
The suspended game never needed to be made up as the Oilers won the next game, in Edmonton, to complete a four-game sweep and win the Stanley Cup.
The Oilers were back in the Boston Garden on May 24, 1990, for Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Bruins. Glenn Anderson, Craig Simpson, Steve Smith, and Joe Murphy all scored in a 4-1 victory to give the Oilers their fifth championship in the last seven seasons. Goaltender Bill Ranford, a former Bruin, won the Conn Smythe Trophy.
A Special Date in Vancouver
The Vancouver Canucks have made it to three Stanley Cup Finals in their franchise history. Two of those three trips were booked on this date. On May 24, 1994, they beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3, in double-overtime, in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final. The Maple Leafs held a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes, but the Canucks stormed back to tie the game. Greg Adams scored 14 seconds into the second overtime to send the Canucks back to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 1982.
They would not return to the championship series again until May 24, 2011, and they did it again with another double-overtime victory. This time, they knocked off the San Jose Sharks in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final. After Ryan Kesler tied the game with 13.2 seconds left in regulation, defenseman Kevin Bieksa won the game off a crazy bounce off the glass, 10 minutes into the second overtime.
A Pair of Pittsburgh Penguins Playoff Wins
On May 24, 2013, James Neal scored a hat trick in the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 6-2 win over the Ottawa Senators in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. The victory advanced the Penguins into the Eastern Conference Final, and it was their first series-clinching win on home ice since 2009.
Three years later, the Penguins beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Final. The win forced a seventh and final game back in Pittsburgh, which the Penguins eventually won. The Penguins took a 3-0 lead into the final frame before Brian Boyle made things interesting with a pair of early third-period goals. Brian Rust and Nick Bonino added insurance goals in the final two minutes of play.
Odds & Ends
On May 24, 1966, Montreal Canadiens defenseman Jacques Laperriere was named the winner of the Norris Trophy as the league’s best defenseman in the 1965-66 season. This was the one, and only Norris Trophy won by Laperriere won in his Hall of Fame career. He is one of six Canadiens’ defenders to win the prestigious award.
The Bruins fired head coach Don Cherry on May 24, 1979, after five seasons behind the bench. He won 231 games during his time in Boston, taking the Bruins to back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals in 1978 and 1979. He won the Jack Adams Award for being voted the NHL’s best coach for the 1975-76 season.
Mike Keenan received his first NHL coaching job on May 24, 1984, when he was named the new head coach of the Flyers, replacing Bob McCammon.
Keenan was behind the Flyers bench on May 24, 1987, when the Flyers set a new NHL record by playing in their 23rd playoff game of the year. Unfortunately, they suffered a 4-1 loss to the visiting Oilers in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final, with Wayne Gretzky picking up three assists.
Going back to May 24, 1986, the Canadiens beat the Calgary Flames 4-3 in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final. Bobby Smith scored the game-winning goal as Montreal won the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1979. Rookie goaltender Patrick Roy is awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy.
On May 24, 1989, the New York Rangers fired Phil Esposito as both their general manager and coach. Neil Smith was later named their new general manager, and Roger Neilson took over behind the bench.
Roy recorded his third shutout of the 1997 playoffs and the 11th of his career, as the Colorado Avalanche beat the Detroit Red Wings 6-0 on May 24, 1997, in Game 5 of the Western Conference Semifinals. Valeri Kamensky picked up four assists in the blowout victory.
On that same date, the Maple Leafs fired general manager Cliff Fletcher. He was replaced two months later by Canadiens Hall of Fame goaltender Ken Dryden.
Finally, on May 24, 2000, the New Jersey Devils beat the visiting Flyers in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Final to force a seventh and final game. Claude Lemieux scored the 80th playoff goal of his career, while Alexander Mogilny scored his first career postseason game-winning goal.
On May 24, 2021, rookie Ilya Sorokin became the first Islanders goaltender to win his first three playoff games as he made 48 saves in a 3-2 double-overtime win over the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 5 of their first-round series. Veteran defenceman Kris Letang also played his 141st playoff game, passing Jaromir Jagr for third-most postseason games played in Penguins’ history.
Speaking of rookie goaltenders, on the same night down in Florida, Spencer Knight won his playoff debut to become the second-youngest to do so in NHL history at 20 years, 35 days old. Don Beaupre is still the youngest at 19 years, 202 days when he did it with the Minnesota North Stars in 1981. He also became the youngest since Tom Barrasso (20 years, 14 days) to win a postseason game with his team facing elimination. On the forward side, Jonathan Huberdeau passed Robert Svehla for the most playoff assists in franchise history when he recorded the second assist on Patric Hornqvist’s goal in the third period and his 10 points in the series became a franchise record in the process.
Moving over to the Western Conference, the Winnipeg Jets swept the Edmonton Oilers on this day in 2021 for the first time in their history when Kyle Connor scored in triple-overtime to come away with a 4-3 victory. On the Oilers’ side, Darnell Nurse recorded the most ice-time (62:07) by an Edmonton player since 1997-98, when ice-time was first officially tracked.
Finally, Cam Talbot pulled his team from the brink of elimination at the hands of the Vegas Golden Knights when he made 38 saves in what became a 4-2 win. The 38 saves were the second-most by a Wild goaltender facing elimination. Kirill Kaprizov also scored his first postseason goal to become the third Wild rookie to score when facing elimination, joining Nico Sturm and Erik Haula in the feat.
Happy Birthday to You
May 24 is the birth date of 29 players who have skated in the NHL at one time or another. The most notable of the bunch are Pat Verbeek (58), Kris Draper (51), Guillaume Latendresse (35), Artem Anisimov (34), Mattias Ekholm (32), Cody Eakin (31), Pius Suter (26), Brendan Menell (25) along with the late Lionel Conacher and Bruce Gamble.
*Originally constructed by Greg Boysen and updated by Matthew Zator