The 1969 Stanley Cup Finals was the championship series of the National Hockey League's (NHL) 1968–69 season, and the culmination of the 1969 Stanley Cup playoffs. It was contested between the defending champion Montreal Canadiens and the St. Louis Blues, a rematch of the previous year's finals. As they did in the previous matchup, the Canadiens won the series in four games.
| 1969 Stanley Cup Finals | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Location(s) | Montreal: Montreal Forum (1, 2) St. Louis: St. Louis Arena (3, 4) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Coaches | St. Louis: Scotty Bowman Montreal: Claude Ruel | ||||||||||||||||||
| Captains | St. Louis: Al Arbour Montreal: Jean Beliveau | ||||||||||||||||||
| Dates | April 27 – May 4, 1969 | ||||||||||||||||||
| MVP | Serge Savard (Canadiens) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Series-winning goal | John Ferguson (3:02, third, G4) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Hall of Famers | Blues: Al Arbour (1996, builder) Glenn Hall (1975) Doug Harvey (1973; did not play) Jacques Plante (1978) Canadiens: Jean Beliveau (1972) Yvan Cournoyer (1982) Dick Duff (2006) Tony Esposito (1988) Jacques Laperriere (1987) Jacques Lemaire (1984) Henri Richard (1979) Serge Savard (1986) Rogie Vachon (2016) Gump Worsley (1980; did not play) Coaches: Scotty Bowman (1991) | ||||||||||||||||||
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Paths to the Finals
Montreal defeated the New York Rangers 4–0 and the Boston Bruins 4–2 to advance to the finals.
St. Louis defeated the Philadelphia Flyers and Los Angeles Kings in four games each.
Game summaries
This was the second playoff series between these two teams. Their only previous meeting came in the previous year's Stanley Cup Finals. In this year's six-game regular season series, there were five wins for Montreal and one tie.
Claude Ruel became the eleventh rookie coach to win the Stanley Cup. Montreal goaltender Rogie Vachon limited St. Louis to three goals in four games. In the process, he earned his first career playoff shutout.
| April 27 | St. Louis Blues | 1–3 | Montreal Canadiens | Montreal Forum | Recap | |||
| Frank St. Marseille (3) - 18:24 | First period | 3:39 - pp - Dick Duff (3) 4:17 - sh - Bobby Rousseau (3) | ||||||
| No scoring | Second period | No scoring | ||||||
| No scoring | Third period | 19:46 - John Ferguson (3) | ||||||
| Jacques Plante | Goalie stats | Rogie Vachon | ||||||
| April 29 | St. Louis Blues | 1–3 | Montreal Canadiens | Montreal Forum | Recap | |||
| No scoring | First period | 17:26 - Ralph Backstrom (3) | ||||||
| No scoring | Second period | 9:07 - pp - Dick Duff (4) 14:11 - Yvan Cournoyer (4) | ||||||
| Larry Keenan (4) - pp - 9:20 | Third period | No scoring | ||||||
| Glenn Hall | Goalie stats | Rogie Vachon | ||||||
| May 1 | Montreal Canadiens | 4–0 | St. Louis Blues | St. Louis Arena | Recap | |||
| Serge Savard (4) - 12:34 | First period | No scoring | ||||||
| Jacques Lemaire (4) - 9:16 Dick Duff (5) - 13:38 | Second period | No scoring | ||||||
| Dick Duff (6) - pp - 18:35 | Third period | No scoring | ||||||
| Rogie Vachon | Goalie stats | Jacques Plante | ||||||
| May 4 | Montreal Canadiens | 2–1 | St. Louis Blues | St. Louis Arena | Recap | |||
| No scoring | First period | No scoring | ||||||
| No scoring | Second period | 10:50 - Terry Gray (3) | ||||||
| Ted Harris (1) - 00:42 John Ferguson (4) - 3:02 | Third period | No scoring | ||||||
| Rogie Vachon | Goalie stats | Glenn Hall | ||||||
| Montreal won series 4–0 | |
Stanley Cup engraving
The 1969 Stanley Cup was presented to Canadiens captain Jean Beliveau by NHL President Clarence Campbell following the Canadiens 2–1 win over the Blues in game four.
The following Canadiens players and staff had their names engraved on the Stanley Cup
1968–69 Montreal Canadiens
Players
- 4 Jean Beliveau (Captain)
- 6 Ralph Backstrom
- 16 Henri Richard (A)
- 23 Christian Bordeleau
- 25 Jacques Lemaire
- 5 Gilles Tremblay
- 8 Dick Duff
- 12 Yvan Cournoyer
- 14 Claude Provost (A)
- 15 Bobby Rousseau
- 20-21 Lucien Grenier
- 22 John Ferguson Sr.
- 24 Mickey Redmond
- 2 Jacques Laperriere
- 3 Jean-Claude J. C. Tremblay
- 10 Edward Ted Harris
- 17 Larry Hillman
- 18 Serge Savard
- 19 Terry Harper
- 30 Rogatien Vachon
- 1 Lorne Gump Worsley
- 1-29 Tony Esposito
Coaching and administrative staff
- J. David Molson (President/Owner), William Molson (Vice President/Owner)
- Peter Molson (Vice President/Owner), Sam Pollock (Vice President/General Manager)
- Claude Ruel (Head Coach)
- Larry Albut (Trainer), Eddy Palchak (Asst. Trainer)
- Floyd Curry (Asst. General Manager)^
Stanley Cup engraving
- Anthony "Tony" Esposito's name was misspelled on the Replica Stanley Cup created in 1992–93 as P. FSPOSITO instead of A. ESPOSITO.
- Claude Ruel was the 10th NHL rookie coach to win the Stanley Cup.
- &-Gilles Tremblay missed the playoffs with a career-ending injury. His name was still included in the Stanley Cup.
- &-Lucien Grenier played 2 semi-final games, but his name was left off the Stanley Cup even though he qualified to be engraved on it because was regular member of the team.
Won 4 Stanley Cups in 5 Years with Montreal 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969
Ralph Backstrom, Jean Beliveau, Yvan Cournoyer, Dick Duff, John Ferguson, Terry Harper, Ted Harris, Jacques Laperriere, Claude Provost, Henri Richard, Bobby Rousseau, Gilles Tremblay, Jean-Claude Tremblay, Gump Worsley (14 players), David Molson, Sam Pollock, Larry Aubut (3 non-players).
See also
Notes
References
- Diamond, Dan, ed. (2000). Total Stanley Cup. NHL.
- Podnieks, Andrew; Hockey Hall of Fame (2004). Lord Stanley's Cup. Triumph Books. ISBN 978-1-55168-261-7.