This Day in Hockey History – May 24, 1988 – Bruins Blackout

Twice in one postseason the Boston Bruins saw the lights go out before lights out came on their Stanley Cup dreams. During Game 1 of the Division Finals, held April 18, 1988, Montreal experienced a blackout. Fortunately, the generator at the Forum allowed the game to continue. That was the only game the Bruins lost that series as they came back to win the next four. Having defeated the Canadiens, the Bruins then surpassed the New Jersey Devils (4-3). For the Stanley Cup finals, the Bruins took on the Edmonton Oilers’ dynasty. In Game 4, on May 24, Boston Garden experienced a power failure. This time, the game did not continue.

Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals took place before a crowd of 14,451 packed into a humid Boston Garden. From the opening faceoff, as fog hovered over the ice, the Oilers took control. Mark Messier passed to Glenn Anderson, who scored “with a short backhander inside the right post.” The goal came at just ten seconds into the game as the fastest ever in NHL finals.

Towards the end of the first period, Edmonton scored again, but Boston followed a minute and a half later. At 6:12 of the second period, Boston caught up, and about a minute and a half later they took the lead. The trouble started just as Edmonton’s Craig Simpson tied up the game.

At 9:31 pm, with only 3:23 remaining in the second period, Joel Perlmutter’s announcement cut off as he said, “Edmonton goal scored by…” The power had gone out when a Boston & Maine electrical switch blew. The Bruins’ publicity director, Nate Greenberg, explained that a 4,000-volt switch had blown on Accalon Way (a side street outside the Garden) “thus burning out the main lines of power.” According to General Manager Harry Sinden, this was not the fault of the 60-year-old Garden. “We had a transformer blow up or whatever it did, and that was because of high humidity and the thunderstorms we had today.”

Garden president Larry Moulter had had his staff test the generator and emergency protocol after the blackout in Montreal the month earlier. The auxiliary generator had enough power to light the way to the exits, but it would only last about 20 minutes. After testing, they had “bought all new flashlights and issued them as soon as possible to all the ushers,” said Moulter. “We were prepared for it. Unfortunately, it happened.”

Because of the 20-minute limit, the public had to evacuate the Garden. “We don’t know what the problem is,” began Moulter. “But we have to evacuate the building in 20 minutes before the generator goes. We’ve got to get these people out of here.” Sinden helped relay the message to the fans, “You gotta get out of here. This whole place could go dark in five minutes.” Some 14-year-old kids chanted back, “Hell no, we won’t go.” Still, the crowd exited in a “surprisingly orderly procession.”

Meanwhile, the players retreated to their darkened locker rooms. Bruins assistant coach John Cunniff told the press, “We went into the locker room and we had to find a flashlight just to see. Then we got a TV camera light, and that worked better. Everyone was just sitting there, waiting for information. It seemed to be a long time before we got information.” His counterpart, Oilers associate coach John Muckler, said, “We had one TV camera light, and then when the batteries started to go, we got another one. The players sat for a few minutes in their uniforms, but then they switched to sweats. Then we waited.”

The lights came back up at 10:07 pm. Gerry Helper, an NHL spokesman, said, “The lights are back on, but we think they are too weak to work.” Sinden explained, “First of all, we’re not sure the power will last. They’ve Band-Aided the problem, and it would probably have been fixed by (today), but there’s no guarantee.” Greensberg was more straightforward. “The only guarantee we have is that the game will not be played tonight.”

Finally, at 10:15, NHL President John Ziegler met with both general managers to decide what to do about the game. He then announced, “The bylaws governed what we did. The bylaws state if a game is altered for any reason, we resume play with the next scheduled game at the scheduled location.” He meant that this game would only count for statistics. Game 4 would start over again but at Edmonton on the scheduled date for Game 5, May 26. If needed, Game 5 would be played at Boston on May 28, Game 6 at Edmonton on May 30, and Game 7 at Boston on June 2.

The Oilers had already won three games. Who knows how Game 4 might have ended had the Garden’s lights remained on. With the series back at Edmonton, the Bruins lost a fourth game and thus the finals. The Edmonton Oilers won their fourth Stanley Cup championship in five seasons. Of the playoffs as a whole, Sinden exclaimed, “It’s just crazy. We’ve had two power outages and a referee outage.”

Additional Sources:

• Bob Morrissey, “First star at Canadiens game: Forum’s 100-tonne generator,” Montreal Gazette, 19 April 1988, p. 1.
• Leigh Montville, “Bruins-Oilers postponed as Garden goes dark,” Boston Globe, 25 May 1988, pp. 1 and 60.
• Jackie MacMullan, “It’s lights out on Bruins game,” Boston Globe, 25 May 1988, pp. 53 and 58.
• Kevin Paul Dupont, “Non-game mystifies players,” Boston Globe, 25 May 1988, pp. 53 and 60.
• Kevin Paul Dupont, “In the dark, Garden crowd hits the street,” Boston Globe, 25 May 1988, p. 58.
• Francis Rosa, “Bruins 3, Oiler 3 – then the blackout,” Boston Globe, 25 May 1988, p. 59.