June 9 NHL History
1970: The Buffalo Sabres win a lottery with the Vancouver Canucks to see which of the incoming expansion franchises will pick first in the amateur, waiver and expansion drafts. The Sabres win the first pick and two days later in the amateur draft (now the NHL Draft) select center Gilbert Perreault, who remains their all-time leader in games played, goals, assists and points.
1971: Jean Beliveau announces his retirement from the NHL. It comes less than a month after he becomes a 10-time Stanley Cup winner when the Montreal Canadiens rally to defeat the Chicago Blackhawks 3-2 in Game 7 of the Final. At age 39, Beliveau has six goals and 22 points (including a League-leading 16 assists) in 20 Stanley Cup Playoff games.
1984: The Pittsburgh Penguins select Mario Lemieux with the No. 1 pick of the 1984 NHL Draft. Lemieux scores a goal on his first shift in the NHL, captains the Penguins to two Stanley Cup championships and finishes his NHL career with 1,723 points (690 goals, 1,033 assists) in 915 games. He wins the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 1991 and 1992, when the Penguins win the Stanley Cup.
1994: The Vancouver Canucks defeat the New York Rangers 6-3 in Game 5 of the Final at Madison Square Garden, preventing the Rangers from clinching their first Stanley Cup championship since 1940. The Canucks lead 1-0 entering the third period and stretch their advantage to 3-0 before the Rangers tie it with three goals in less than six minutes. But defenseman Dave Babych puts the Canucks ahead 4-3 just 29 seconds after Mark Messier’s tying goal and the Canucks score twice more to match a Final record with five goals in a period. Pavel Bure scores twice for Vancouver, which pushes the series to a sixth game.
2001: Ray Bourque goes out a winner when the Colorado Avalanche defeat the New Jersey Devils 3-1 in Game 7 of the Final at Pepsi Center. Alex Tanguay scores twice and goaltender Patrick Roy makes 25 saves, allowing only a power-play goal by Petr Sykora midway through the second period. Captain Joe Sakic receives the Cup from NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, then immediately hands it to Bourque, who finishes his 22-year NHL career by winning his first championship in his final game.
2003: Goaltender Martin Brodeur sets a one-year playoff record with his seventh shutout and ties another mark with his third in the Final, helping the Devils defeat the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim 3-0 in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final at Continental Airlines Arena for their third championship in nine seasons. It’s New Jersey’s 12th home win of the 2003 Stanley Cup Playoffs, setting another single-season record. Rookie Mike Rupp is the unlikely offensive star. Rupp, playing in the fourth postseason game of his NHL career, scores the Cup-winning goal and assists on the other two, each by Jeff Friesen, against Anaheim goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who becomes the fifth player from the losing team in the Final to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.
2010: The Chicago Blackhawks end their 49-year Stanley Cup drought, though for a few seconds, Patrick Kane is the only one who knows it.
Kane scores 4:06 into overtime to give the Blackhawks a 4-3 victory against the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 6 of the Final at Wachovia Center, wrapping up Chicago’s first championship since 1961. Kane’s shot zips past Flyers goaltender Michael Leighton and goes into and out of the net quickly. He celebrates but play continues until the next whistle, when a video review shows that Blackhawks did, in fact, score the Cup-winning goal.
“I don’t think any of us actually knew it went it,” forward Troy Brouwer said. “We just followed the flow. [Kane] started celebrating, so we figured it must have gone in.”
Chicago captain Jonathan Toews wins the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.
