Canadiens Beat Golden Knights to Advance to the Stanley Cup Finals

The Montreal Canadiens came into the Stanley Cup Playoffs as the lowest seeded team, with a regular season record of 24-21-11. Montreal almost didn’t make it out of the 1st round; trailing 3 games to 1, the Canadiens rallied with three straight victories over the Toronto Maple Leafs to advance to the next round, where they pulled a surprising four game sweep over the Winnipeg Jets, to win the all Canada North Division in this year’s Covid revamped divisions.

Next up in the quest for the Cup: the Vegas Golden Knights in a semifinal round. Vegas tied for the best regular season record in the NHL and won Game 1 of the series 4-1. The Canadiens then took the next two by identical 3-2 scores, before Vegas evened the series at 2-2 with a win in Game 4. The crucial Game 5 was in Vegas, and the Canadiens put themselves in the driver’s seat with a dominating 4-1 victory on the road, and giving them a chance to win the series at home.

Which is precisely what they did. Artturi Lehkonen scored 1:39 into overtime giving Montreal a 3-2 victory and continue the Canadiens’ improbable run to the Stanley Cup Finals.

This will be Montreal’s 1st time in the Finals since 1993, when the Canadiens beat the Los Angeles Kings in five games to win the Stanley Cup. Montreal is one of the Original Six NHL teams, and has won the most Stanley Cups (24). That 1993 championship is the last one that a Canadian team has won, which seems impossible to believe. Just five teams from Canada have made the Finals since then, the last being the Vancouver Canucks in 2011, who lost to the Boston Bruins in seven games.

Montreal will play the winner of the Tampa Bay Lightning—New York Islanders series in the Finals.