Home > Hockey > Stanley Cup History > Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Chicago Blackhawks 1961 62

Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Chicago Blackhawks 1961-62

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. NHL, the National Hockey League is a premier professional North American Sports League played in indoor stadiums.

In 1961-62 for Stanley Cup the match played between two teams such as Toronto Maple Leafs and Chicago Blackhawks. In that Toronto Maple Leafs won the Cup finally. G. Punch Imlach played role of coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs team. For the second consecutive year, the Canadiens bowed out to the Blackhawks in six games in the semifinals. Montreal took a two-game lead, but the Blackhawks swept the final four contests, setting up a finals matchup with Toronto, which outlasted the New York Rangers in the other semifinal.

The Blackhawks entered the finals determined to defend their title. But after Bobby Hull's power-play goal gave Chicago an early lead in Game 1, a suffocating Toronto defense held Hull off the board for the rest of the game, and the Leafs prevailed 4-1. Toronto then jumped out to a 2-0 series lead with a tightly fought 3-2 win in which George Armstrong scored the winning goal in the final minutes. Chicago limited Toronto to a single goal in the next two games, evening the series with 3-0 and 4-1 wins.

Hull's goal mark of the third frame broke the stalemate and elicited a barrage of celebratory debris from the fans. Play stopped while the ice was cleared, allowing the Leafs time to regroup. Toronto's Bob Nevin tied it less than two minutes later, and then Dick Duff put the Hawks on ice for good with a wrist-shot past Hall. The Leafs clinched their first Stanley Cup Championship since 1951 with a 2-1 victory.

Back to Stanley Cup History