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Montreal Canadiens vs. Boston Bruins 1945-46

NHL, the National Hockey League is a premier professional North American Sports League played in indoor stadiums. It’s divided into two conferences, each comprising of three divisions of ice hockey teams. The league was established in 1917 in Montreal, Quebec and it is composed of 30 teams out of which 24 teams are based in U.S. and 6 in Canada. They have a regular season and playoffs leading to the Stanley Cup, which is the NHL Championship final.

The Stanley Cup is one of the most-recognized symbols in North American sports. It is the championship trophy of the NHL, National Hockey League which is won by one of the teams that have qualified for the championship finals after playing a series of playoff matches. It is the only trophy in professional sports that has the name of the winning players, coaches, management, and club staff engraved upon it. The Cup winners keep it until the new champion is crowned.

With World War II ending, many teams got back players who had served, but that didn't necessarily translate to improved fortunes for several clubs. War veterans had a difficult time returning to their previous form. The Canadiens flourished during the war, as several of their top stars hadn't gone to war. Thus, they had no transitional struggles as other teams did that were welcoming back players. The Canadiens didn't dominate the regular season quite as they had in the past couple of years but they did have the league's best record 28-17-5. The Habs rode their dominating Punch Line to success.

In the playoffs, Montreal didn't allow a repeat of 1945, when they were shocked by Toronto. The Canadiens blasted Chicago in four games to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals. Montreal outscored Chicago 26-7 in the series. The Bruins also advanced to the finals, a 4-1 series win over Detroit. Montreal won game 1 on an overtime goal by Maurice Richard made the difference to the team. Game 2 was much of the same, as Montreal again won in overtime by Jim Peter’s goal. The Canadiens took a 3-0 series lead after winning game 3, but Boston staved off elimination by winning on a overtime goal by the Terry Reardon. Montreal snuffed out any false hope by blasting the Bruins in game 5 to win the Stanley Cup.

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