This Day in Hockey History – May 18, 1986 – Canadiens’ Quick Conquest

The 1985-86 postseason ended in a final matchup between the Montreal Canadiens and the Calgary Flames. The latter had not yet won a Stanley Cup while it had been seven years since the former won four in a row. However, in Game 2 on May 18, 1986, rather than an established veteran, it was a Canadiens rookie who helped turn the series around.

Two days after they won Game 1, Calgary also hosted Game 2 for 16,762 fans. They took the lead at 9:06 of the first period with a goal by John Tonelli. Only 15 seconds into the second period, they scored on a power play. It looked like sixth-place Calgary might not need long to win the Cup over seventh-place Montreal.

That is when the Canadiens staged their comeback. They scored at nearly the same time in the second and third periods, 3:45 and 3:30 (respectively). Having outshot the Flames with 35 shots on goal to 22, they held the tie to the end of regulation.

For the overtime session, Coach Jean Perron started the checking line of Brian Skrudland, Mike McPhee, and Claude Lemieux. As center, rookie Skrudland won the faceoff. McPhee nabbed the loose puck and maneuvered around a defenseman. The two linemates skated down the ice together with only on Flames defenseman, Al MacInnis, in the way.

Skrudland explained, “Everybody thought he [McPhee] was going to shoot. The defenceman thought so. Their goalie (Mike Vernon) thought he was going to shoot. He had me thinking he was going to shoot.” Even McPhee agreed, saying, “I was thinking ‘shoot’ from the moment I got to the puck. Then Brian gave me that little yell.” Just as Vernon lunged to block a shot from McPhee, the wing instead sent a cross-ice pass to Skrudland. “Mike couldn’t have made a nicer play than that,” Skrudland later said. “But leave it to me to almost [mess] it up. I had a wide-open net, the full 4-by-6 to shoot at, but I still managed to bank it in off the post and in.” Directly after the game, Skrudland, commented, “I still hadn’t seen the red light go on, but I knew the puck was in the net and it was just a great feeling. I wouldn’t have predicted this in 1,000 years.”

At only 9 seconds into overtime, Skrudland scored the game-winner for Montreal. Skrudland remarked, “We watched the goal going in, and we smiled and smiled. We smiled so much there wasn’t room for another smile in the room. Down the road, I’ll take a lot of pride in the record, but right now, what I want a lot more is three more wins in this series.”

That goal went down as the fastest overtime playoff goal in NHL history. The previous record, set in 1975 by J.P. Parise of the New York Islanders, took 11 seconds. Not only that, but Skrudland, in his first NHL season, had just scored his very first NHL playoff goal. Prior to that, only Cy Wentworth of the Chicago Blackhawks, back in 1931, had managed to score his first postseason goal in overtime during the Stanley Cup finals.

The Montreal Canadiens proceeded to win the next three games to take home the Stanley Cup yet again. For the final game, on May 24, the series returned to Calgary. Skrudland scored his only other postseason goal to break the 1-1 tie in the second period. Interestingly, Skrudland was traded by Montreal to Calgary in January 1993, while the Canadiens went on to win their next Stanley Cup. After only half a year, he was claimed by Florida in the Expansion Draft. In his second-to-last NHL season, 1998-99, Skrudland earned his only other Stanley Cup, with the Dallas Stars.

Additional Sources:

• Mike Commito, Hockey 365: Daily Stories from the Ice (Toronto: Dundurn, 2018), kindle edition.
• Red Fisher, “Skrudland brings smiles to Habs,” Montreal Gazette, 20 May 1986, p. F1.