In the Game 1 third period game thread, I posed the following question: "has any team ever won the Cup without needing to win one of their games in overtime?" Let's find out, shall we?

 

A few caveats:

 

• I stopped at 1927 because that became the first of many years that only NHL teams would compete for the Stanley Cup.

 

• As great as my sources are (see at the end of the post), the information is currently incomplete. I figured I would post it now and see if anyone else can find sources with boxscore or any other information about individual playoff games for the missing years, 1927-1938 and 1940-1952 (inclusive). For the missing years, I pulled the information on Stanley-Cup-clinching overtime goals from Wikipedia.

 

• From 1975-1979, all the teams needed 12 wins to win the Cup but only because they bypassed the best-of-three series. Otherwise, in some sense, you could say they needed 14 wins.

 

 

And finally, the list. Bold indicates the team we're looking for: a team that won the Cup without getting any of the needed wins in overtime. Italics indicate a team that clinched the Cup with an overtime goal. The format is year: champion; number of wins in overtime/ total wins needed to get the Cup

 

2010: Chicago Blackhawks:  3/16

2009: Pittsburgh Penguins 3/16

2008: Detroit Red Wings 1/16

2007: Anaheim Ducks 4/16

2006: Carolina Hurricanes 4/16

2004: Tampa Bay Lightning 3/16

2003: New Jersey Devils 4/16

2002: Detroit Red Wings 2/16

2001: Colorado Avalanche 3/16

2000: New Jersey Devils 1/16

1999: Dallas Stars 4/16

1998: Detroit Red Wings 2/16

1997: Detroit Red Wings 3/16

1996: Colorado Avalanche 5/16

1995: New Jersey Devils 2/16

1994: New York Rangers 2/16

1993: Montreal Canadiens 10/16*

1992: Pittsburgh Penguins 2/16

1991: Pittsburgh Penguins 2/16

1990: Edmonton Oliers 3/16

1989: Calgary Flames 3/16

1988: Edmonton Oilers 2/16

1987: Edmonton Oilers 2/16

1986: Montreal Canadiens 3/15

1985: Edmonton Oilers 2/15

1984: Edmonton Oilers 1/15

1983: New York Islanders 0/15**

1982: New York Islanders 4/15

1981: New York Islanders 1/15

1980: New York Islanders 6/15

1979: Montreal Canadiens 4/12 (14)

1978: Montreal Canadiens 1/12 (14)

1977: Montreal Canadiens 1/12 (14)

1976: Montreal Canadiens 0/12 (14)

1975: Philadelphia Flyers 2/12 (14)

1974: Philadelphia Flyers 2/12

1973: Montreal Canadiens 1/12

1972: Boston Bruins 0/12 (12)

1971: Montreal Canadiens 0/12 (12)

1970: Boston Bruins 1/12

1969: Montreal Canadiens 3/12

1968: Montreal Canadiens 3/12

1967: Toronto Maple Leafs 1/8

1966: Montreal Canadiens 1/8

1965: Montreal Canadiens 1/8

1964: Toronto Maple Leafs 1/8

1963: Toronto Maple Leafs 0/8

1962: Toronto Maple Leafs 1/8

1961: Chicago Blackhawks 1/8

1960: Montreal Canadiens 1/8

1959: Montreal Canadiens 0/8

1958: Montreal Canadiens 2/8

1957: Montreal Canadiens 1/8

1956: Montreal Canadiens 0/8

1955: Detroit Red Wings 0/8

1954: Detroit Red Wings 2/8

1953: Montreal Canadiens 1/8

1952: Detroit Red Wings

1951: Toronto Maple Leafs at least 4/8***

1950: Detroit Red Wing

1949: Toronto Maple Leafs

1948: Toronto Maple Leafs

1947: Toronto Maple Leafs

1946: Montreal Canadiens

1945: Toronto Maple Leafs

1944: Montreal Canadiens

1943: Detroit Red Wings

1942: Toronto Maple Leafs

1941: Boston Bruins

1940: New York Rangers

1939: Boston Bruins 0/8

1938: Chicago Blackhawks

1937: Detroit Red Wings

1936: Detroit Red Wings

1935: Montreal Maroons

1934: Chicago Blackhawks

1933: New York Rangers

1932: Toronto Maple Leafs

1931: Montreal Canadiens

1930: Montreal Canadiens

1929: Boston Bruins

1928: New York Rangers

1927: Ottawa Senators

 

*1993 Canadiens: far and away the most OT wins en route to the Cup

**1983 Islanders: they made the research easy. EVERY SINGLE WIN WAS BY MORE THAN ONE GOAL.

***1951 Maple Leafs: so the NHL Network commercials were actually useful. It was the one about Bill Barilko: The narrator mentioned that every single game in the Finals with the Montreal Canadiens went to overtime. So that means the 1951 Maple Leafs needed at least 4 OT wins, but I don’t have information for the first round.

 

“The information used herein was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by The Hockey Summary Project. For more information about the Hockey Summary Project please visit:

http://hsp.flyershistory.com

or

http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/hockey_summary_project/”

 

I used extensive boxscore information from the Hockey Summary Project to tell me which wins needed overtime. HSP is trying to collect any and all boxscores from any and all NHL games in history—regular season and playoffs--and their archive extends as far back as pre-NHL up to 1918. That site is a very valuable resource. All other information, unless otherwise noted, is from Wikipedia. Corrections and other information always welcome: Let’s make this a group effort! And finally, GO RED WINGS!