This Day in Hockey History – April 30, 1986 – Oilers Missed a Spot

Apr 30, 2019

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With good reason, everyone always talks about how amazing the Edmonton Oilers played during the 1980s. However, even the best team with the best players can have an off game or series. For the Oilers, they only missed capturing the Stanley Cup twice between the 1983-84 and 1989-90 seasons. One of those misses came on April 30, 1986, when they failed to advance out of the Smythe Division semi-finals.

The Oilers looked poised to three-peat when they won the first President’s Trophy with 119 points (56-17-7). They swept the Vancouver Canucks (3-0) during the Smythe Division semi-finals. For the Division finals, Edmonton would play the Calgary Flames, who had swept the Winnipeg Jets. Calgary had come in second to Edmonton at the end of the regular season, finishing 30 points behind (40-31-9).

Throughout the semi-finals, the teams in the “Battle of Alberta” alternated winning. Calgary took the lead only for Edmonton to tie up the series each time. That left them to play Game 7 on April 30 before 17,498 fans at Edmonton’s Northlands Coliseum. As they had all series, the Flames took the lead but the Oilers tied up (2-2) with a Mark Messier goal in the last minute of the second period. “They played us dead even,” said Oilers coach Glen Sather. “It’s just too bad to end the way it did.”

Only about five minutes into the third period, defenseman Steve Smith made perhaps the worst mistake of his career. It was his 23rd birthday, so the press commented about how he really “blew out the candles on the Oilers’ even younger Stanley Cup dynasty.” His attempt to send a cross-ice pass deflected off the back of goalie Grant Fuhr’s skate. Smith had inadvertently scored on his own team. That goal ended up being the game-winner credited to Perry Berezin, the Flames forward who had the puck before Smith. The Oilers spent the rest of the period trying to make up for the fluke but had no luck. The game ended in Calgary’s 3-2 victory.

The Flames went on to pass the St. Louis Blues (4-3) in the conference finals only to lose the Stanley Cup finals to the Montreal Canadiens (4-1). For the Oilers, 1986 was a blip in their winningest decade. Having won the Stanley Cup in 1984 and 1985, they went on to win the championships of 1987, 1988, and 1990.