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No matter who won the Stanley Cup in 1996, it was going to be a first. The finals pitted the Colorado Avalanche against the Florida Panthers. Both teams played in the finals for the first time, which was the only time that had happened since the NHL’s inaugural year. The former had just relocated at the beginning of the season, and the latter wrapped up their third season. In Game 4, held on June 10, 1996, the Colorado Avalanche swept up the Cup.

The road to the Stanley Cup essentially began with the Nordiques’ final season in Quebec, a half season thanks to a lockout. According to their captain, Joe Sakic, “I have to go back to our last year in Quebec. We had a real strong team. We finished first but we lost in the first round (of the playoffs) [to Detroit]. But we had a strong core. Getting Sandis Ozolinsh on the back end for the powerplay and acquiring Claude Lemieux, who had just won the Conn Smythe (Trophy) the year before, really helped the team.” The summer of 1995, the franchise moved to Colorado.

The Avalanche finished their inaugural regular season leading the Pacific Division with 104 points (47-25-10). Meanwhile, the Panthers’ 92 points (41-31-10) only gave them third in the Atlantic Division and seventh in the NHL rankings. By defeating the Vancouver Canucks in the quarter-finals, Colorado had won the franchise’s first playoff series since 1987. They went on to defeat the Chicago Blackhawks and then the first-place, heavily-favored Detroit Red Wings. The latter series launched a bitter rivalry thanks to Lemieux’s injury-causing hit on Kris Draper. All three series required six games for Colorado to advance. Florida’s series took progressively longer as they worked their way through the Boston Bruins (4-1), Philadelphia Flyers (4-2), and Pittsburgh Penguins (4-3).

All but one of the four games played between Colorado and Florida during the finals remained close. The series began with two games in Colorado that ended 3-1 and 8-1. Upon moving to Florida, the series ended with scores of 3-2 and 1-0. For Game 4, Miami Arena sold out with 14,703. Over in Denver, fans went to McNichols Arena to watch the game on the big-screen with televised feed.

The final game turned out to be a goaltender battle. Back in December, Colorado took Patrick Roy in a trade that he had demanded of the Montreal Canadiens management after a humiliating game. According to defenseman Adam Foote, “We were able to create a core of players that could play a long time together and we won a couple of Cups, but we wouldn’t have got there without a guy like (Patrick) Roy. I loved playing in Quebec City and they treated me great there but I’m not sure that the Roy trade would have happened if we had still been in Quebec.” In the other net, John Vanbiesbrouck, was the first player drafted when the Panthers joined the NHL in 1993. His captain, Brian Skrudland, remarked, “I said to Johnny after the game, if he wasn’t so good we could have been out of here three hours ago. This was just a classic matchup between two great goalies. They’re the reason why these two teams were here.” Roy made 63 saves, and Vanbiesbrouck blocked 55 shots. Throughout the series, Roy only allowed four goals in 151 shots to give him a save percentage of .974. Vanbiesbrouck had allowed 15 goals, and his postseason save percentage was .932.

With 44 seconds remaining in regulation, Panthers fans mistakenly thought Ray Sheppard had scored and threw plastic and rubber rats on the ice in celebration (as had been their custom throughout the playoffs). Play had to be stopped to wait for the ice clearing. Commissioner Gary Bettman chided them. “It’s not good that fans get used to throwing things on the ice.”

None of them knew then that it would take three overtime sessions for any goal scoring. It was just after 1 am (11 am for those watching in Denver), at 4:31 of triple-overtime, when the game finally ended. It was the longest game to end 1-0 since 1936. “An immense game, an epic,” Vanbiesbrouck called it. “It seems like we played games 4, 5 and 6 right here.” After nearly five hours in real time and 104:31 on the clock, the 119th shot of the game went in the net. Uwe Krupp, who had been injured most of the regular season, scored unassisted on a slap shot from the point. He said afterwards, “The obvious play is just to get it to the net. I leaned on it and got a little extra juice on it.” With that, he became the first German-born player to have his name on the Stanley Cup.

The Cup was presented to Colorado Captain Joe Sakic. Throughout the playoffs, he had scored 18 goals, just one less than the record (held by Reg Leach and Jari Kurri from 1976 and 1985, respectively). Six of them were game-winners, a new record. Obviously, he led the scoring with his 34 points. For these accomplishments, he received the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. Sakic commented, “I’ll always remember this moment for the rest of my life.” Surprisingly, he was the only player from the Avalanche or the Panthers to win any of the awards that season.

Despite their loss, the coaches of both teams had pride for the Panthers. Marc Crawford, the third-youngest coach to win the Cup, said, “It was a Florida Panther-style game. [The Panthers] were an incredible story this year, and obviously hockey is in good hands here.” Of his team, Coach Doug MacLean, remarked, “I’m disappointed but I’m really proud of the players and the whole organization. A first-year coach couldn’t ask for any more.”

With the win, Colorado Governor Roy Romer won a bushel of oranges from his bet with Florida’s governor. And the Avalanche became the first Denver-based professional sports team to win a championship. One neighborhood even rioted in celebration, forcing the police to disperse the large crowd.

By the numbers, the 1995-96 Stanley Cup finals certainly held significance. The Panthers making the finals in their third season makes them the fifth-fastest. The fastest four included the first finals after the formation of the NHL and the first finals after the 1967 expansion in which the playoff system guaranteed a new team would play. Otherwise, the New York Rangers had made the 1928 finals in their second season, and the Vegas Golden Knights made it in their first in 2018. 

As for the Avalanche, they were the seventh expansion team and second former-WHA franchise to win the championship. At that point, only two other teams had ever won after relocating, the Calgary Flames (former Atlanta Flames) and the New Jersey Devils (former Colorado Rockies). Since then, the Dallas Stars (former Minnesota North Stars) and the Caroline Hurricanes (former Hartford Whalers) have won. However, the Avalanche remains the only franchise to win the very year of relocation.

Additional Sources:
In her personal history, Kyle Hurst hated her toe picks and wanted to skate on a hockey team like her brother. With age comes wisdom, and realizing how poorly she skates, she now much prefers watching the professionals. Writing about history for her day job, Kyle enjoys combining her two loves by writing hockey history. She still hates toe picks.

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