NHL ’94 “Game of the Night” Nords vs Habs “1985 Adams Division Final, Game 7”

Peter Stastny scored in overtime of game seven of the 1985 Canadiens–Nordiques playoff series for Quebec.
In eight games between the teams during the 1984–85 season, the Canadiens lost only once, posting six victories. The 1985 playoffs saw the Canadiens and Nordiques face each other in the postseason for the third time in four years. The Nordiques won the first and third games in overtime and jumped out to a 3–2 lead after winning Game 5 in Montreal, 5–1. The Canadiens responded with a 5–2 win in Quebec City in the sixth game, sending the series to a decisive game seven back in Montreal. After regulation play ended with the score tied 2–2, the game entered overtime. Peter Stastny scored for the Nordiques at 2:22 of the extra period, giving the Nordiques the game and the series.
The teams did not meet in the 1986 playoffs, as the Nordiques lost to the Hartford Whalers in the first round, while the Canadiens won the Stanley Cup. In 1987, however, Montreal and Quebec had their fourth playoff matchup. The Nordiques won the first two games in the Montreal Forum, before the Canadiens evened the series with a pair of wins in Quebec City. Game four was decided in overtime, and featured a pregame fight. Montreal won game five at home, though not without controversy. With the score tied 2–2 late in the third period, Alain Cote scored what appeared to be the go-ahead goal for the Nordiques, only to see it waved off due to offsetting penalties on both teams. Ryan Walter netted the game-winner for the Canadiens 14 seconds later. Quebec coach Michel Bergeron called his team’s loss “a crime”, saying “No one wants to let us win.” One attorney in Quebec City offered to help the Nordiques challenge the final result of the game, which the team decided against. The Nordiques won game six at home, but the Canadiens won the deciding game seven 5–3, scoring all of their goals in the second period.
In the 1993 playoffs, the Canadiens and Nordiques met in the opening round. The Nordiques took a 2–0 lead in the series, but Montreal won four straight games after that to capture the series. Three of the six games went to overtime; the Canadiens won two of those, including game five in Quebec City, which gave them the lead in the series. A 6–2 victory in Game 6 clinched the series for the Canadiens, who later won the Stanley Cup. The rivalry came to an end following the 1994–95 season, when the Nordiques relocated to Denver, Colorado, and became the Colorado Avalanche.
However, the rivalry never completely died out. In 2002, the Avalanche held an exhibition game against the Canadiens in Quebec City. When Joe Sakic, a former Nordique, entered the arena with the Nordique blue, the fans gave him a thundering ovation. He said that “you’re not going to find a better hockey city. It was really moving. There are no words.” In 2010, La série Montréal-Québec, a TVA television series featuring games between amateur teams from the two cities, premiered.
Both of the teams in the rivalry were based in the province of Quebec. Montreal is the province’s largest city, while Quebec City is its capital. One Nordiques employee said of the disparity between the size of the two cities, “Quebec City has always had a relationship of frustration with Montreal. This rivalry is the first time that Montreal and Quebec City can compete head to head in one event.” Michael Farber wrote that hostility towards the Canadiens in Quebec City dated back to the team’s signing of Jean Beliveau, who previously played with the Quebec Aces. According to the Canadian Press, the Battle of Quebec also matched teams with opposite backgrounds. The Canadiens were a traditionally strong team, while the Nordiques were relatively new to the NHL during their playoff series in the mid-1980s. Stastny said of the rivalry, “It’s like two camps, each representing something, you’re not just playing for your team, you’re playing for your half-a-million supporters and they’re playing for their one or two million supporters.”
The teams took on political symbolism during the rivalry. The Canadiens were seen by some as reflective of those in favour of keeping the province as part of Canada, while the Nordiques were seen as a symbol of Quebec independence. The Nordiques gained a large francophone fan base in Quebec, and their uniforms contained the colours and crest from the province’s flag. One early-1980s survey by the La Presse newspaper found that, outside of east Montreal, support for the Canadiens and Nordiques tended to mirror where support existed for the Quebec Liberal Party and Parti Québécois, respectively.