Blackhawks/Bruins Finals Notes

Likely, though far from certainly, the Chicago Blackhawks’ three overtime win in game one of the Stanley Cup Finals augurs well for them.

Certainly history is on their side. This is the first Blackhawks vs (Boston) Bruins final. However, the final’s history of both teams points to game one winners taking the Stanley Cup.

Additionally, the game one winner has gone up (2-0) in the last five Bruins’ finals, each time against the Bruins, as Boston has now lost six straight final’s openers.

The Bruins are in their 19th Stanley Cup Final (they are 6-12) and only twice, in the previous 18, has the game one loser won the series. The first time was in 1974  when the Bruins won the series opener (their last final’s opener win) on Bobby Orr’s late goal but lost the series in six games to the Philadelphia Flyers.

The key game in that series was the Flyers’ win at Boston in game two. In that game,  Andre “Moose” Dupont had a late tying goal before the great Bobby Clarke won the game in overtime.

Two years ago, the Bruins down (2-0) in the finals to the Vancouver Canucks, rallied to win the series in seven games, hoisting their first Stanley Cup in 39 years.

The last six Chicago Blackhawks’ finals have stood at (2-0) which “Chi” hopes is the case after tonight’s game two in Chicago, where the Blackhawks are (10-1) this post season. Four of those were vs Chicago while two, including the 2010 finals, when Chicago won their first title in 49 years, were (2-0) in the Blackhawks’ favor.

The Blackhawks are in their 12th finals series (they are 4-7 going into this one) and only in 1971, when Chicago was up two games to none, but lost in seven games to the Montreal Canadiens, did the game one winner not win the final’s series. The great Henri Richard had the tying and winning goals for Montreal in game seven.

Bobby Orr

Andre Moose Dupont

Bobby Clarke

Henri Richard