1931 Stanley Cup Finals

The 1931 Stanley Cup Finals was played between the Montreal Canadiens and the Chicago Black Hawks, making their first Stanley Cup Finals appearance. The Canadiens, defending champions, won the series to become the second NHL team to win back-to-back championships. Former player and now coach, Chicago's Dick Irvin, made his Finals coaching debut against the team he would later coach to three Stanley Cup titles.

1931 Stanley Cup Finals
1 2 3 4 5 Total Chicago Black Hawks 1 2 3 2 0 2 Montreal Canadiens 2 1 2 4 2 3
* indicates periods of overtime.
Location(s)	Chicago: Chicago Stadium (1, 2) Montreal: Forum (3–5)
Format	best-of-five
Coaches	Chicago: Dick Irvin Montreal: Cecil Hart
Captains	Chicago: Ty Arbour Montreal: Sylvio Mantha
Dates	April 3–14, 1931
Series-winning goal	Johnny Gagnon (9:59, second)

Game summaries

Over 18,000 fans packed Chicago Stadium for game two to set a record for largest attendance in hockey history to that time. The triple-overtime game three of the series was (at the time) the longest game in Stanley Cup Finals history, and today remains the fourth longest game in Stanley Cup Finals history at 113:50.

Game five

For game five, Foster Hewitt came to Montreal to make the radio broadcast play-by-play and transmission lines carried his broadcast to radio stations across Canada. Interest was so high that Montrealers in the thousands lined up for end zone and standing room tickets. Johnny Gagnon opened the scoring in the second period and Howie Morenz scored an insurance goal in the third period. It ended a nine-game goalless streak for Morenz.[1]

April 3	Montreal Canadiens		2–1		Chicago Black Hawks	Chicago Stadium	Recap
Georges Mantha (3) - 4:50		First period			No scoring
No scoring		Second period			No scoring
Pit Lepine (2) - 2:20		Third period			8:20 - Vic Ripley (2)
George Hainsworth		Goalie stats			Charlie Gardiner

April 5	Montreal Canadiens		1–2	2OT	Chicago Black Hawks	Chicago Stadium	Recap
No scoring		First period			No scoring
No scoring		Second period			11:45 - Stew Adams (2)
Nick Wasnie (3) - 12:10		Third period			No scoring
No scoring		Second overtime period			4:50 - Johnny Gottselig (2)
George Hainsworth		Goalie stats			Charlie Gardiner

April 9	Chicago Black Hawks		3–2	3OT	Montreal Canadiens	Montreal Forum	Recap
No scoring		First period			5:15 - Johnny Gagnon (3)
No scoring		Second period			7:29 - Georges Mantha (5)
Mush March (3) - 16:20 Stew Adams (3) - 17:07		Third period			No scoring
Cy Wentworth (1) - 13:50		Third overtime period			No scoring
Charlie Gardiner		Goalie stats			George Hainsworth

April 11	Chicago Black Hawks		2–4		Montreal Canadiens	Montreal Forum	Recap
Johnny Gottselig (3) - 1:33 Ty Arbour (1) - 13:58		First period			No scoring
No scoring		Second period			4:34 - Johnny Gagnon (4)
No scoring		Third period			4:25 - Johnny Gagnon (5) 10:55 - Pit Lepine (3) 17:25 - Pit Lepine (4)
Charlie Gardiner		Goalie stats			George Hainsworth

April 14	Chicago Black Hawks		0–2		Montreal Canadiens	Montreal Forum	Recap
No scoring		First period			No scoring
No scoring		Second period			9:59 - Johnny Gagnon (6)
No scoring		Third period			15:27 - Howie Morenz (1)
Charlie Gardiner		Goalie stats			George Hainsworth

Montreal won the series 3–2

Montreal Canadiens 1931 Stanley Cup champions

Players

  Centres

• 7 Howie Morenz
• 9 Alfred Pit Lepine

  Wingers

• 4 Aurel Joliat
• 5 Armand Mondou
• 6 Nick Wasnie
• 10 Wildor Larochelle
• 14 Johnny Gagnon
• 16 Gus Rivers
• 11 Bert McCaffrey†^B

  Defencemen

• 2 Sylvio Mantha (captain)
• 3 Marty Burke
• 8 Albert Leduc
• 11 Art Lesieur
• 12 Georges Mantha
• 5 Jean Pusie†^A

  Goaltenders

• 1 George Hainsworth

† Left off the Cup, but qualified to be on it. ^A Played three of five games in the Finals. ^B Played 22 of 44 regular season games.

Coaching and administrative staff

• Louis Athanase David (President), Edouard St. Pere (Vice President)
• Joseph Cattarinich (Vice President/Owner), Amerdee Monte (Director)
• Leo Dandurand (Secretary/Owner), Alphonse Raymond (Director)
• Cecil Hart (Manager-Coach), Georges Richer (Treasurer)
• Fernand Rinfeet (Director), Henry Gray (Director)
• Jules Dugal (Business Manager), Dr. J. A. Corrigan (Team Physician)
• Ed Dulfour (Trainer), Jim McKenna (Asst. Trainer)

Stanley Cup engraving

• Officially, owner Leo Dandurand was the Manager of the Montreal Canadiens from 1921–22 to 1934–35. However, Cecil Hart was engraved on the Stanley Cup in 1930 and 1931, and he is listed on every team picture for those seasons as Manager.
• *-The team physician's first name remains unknown

See also

• 1930–31 NHL season

Notes

1. Jenish (2008), p. 76.

References

• Diamond, Dan (2000). Total Stanley Cup. Toronto: Total Sports Canada. ISBN 978-1-892129-07-9.
• Jenish, D'arcy (2008). The Montreal Canadiens: 100 years of glory. Doubleday Canada. ISBN 978-0-385-66324-3.
• Podnieks, Andrew; Hockey Hall of Fame (2004). Lord Stanley's Cup. Bolton, Ont.: Fenn Pub. pp 12, 50. ISBN 978-1-55168-261-7

Preceded by Montreal Canadiens 1930	Montreal Canadiens Stanley Cup Champions 1931	Succeeded by Toronto Maple Leafs 1932