The 1997 Stanley Cup Finals was the championship series of the National Hockey League’s (NHL) 1996–97 season, and the culmination of the 1997 Stanley Cup playoffs. It was contested by the Detroit Red Wings and the Philadelphia Flyers. The Red Wings made the Finals for the second time in three years, while the Flyers were making their first appearance in a decade. The Red Wings swept the Flyers to win the Stanley Cup for the eighth time in franchise history and for the first time since 1955, ending what was the longest Stanley Cup drought in the league at that time.
The Red Wings were the last team to win the Cup without home ice advantage in the Finals and with fewer than 100 points earned during the regular season until 2009.
Philadelphia Flyers
Philadelphia rose to the top on the back of a 17-game unbeaten streak in December and January, and despite losing the Atlantic Division title to New Jersey, had a relatively easy time with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Sabres in the first two rounds. The Flyers arrived into the Stanley Cup Finals having beaten their perennial rivals, the New York Rangers, in a memorable five-game Eastern Conference Final series. Eric Lindros and Wayne Gretzky each recorded a hat trick in the set, but the size, strength and discipline of Philadelphia (particularly the Legion of Doom line) trumped the veteran savvy of the Blueshirts.
Detroit Red Wings
For Detroit there was the departure of several players whom head coach Scotty Bowman blamed for their loss to Colorado a year prior, including trading away Paul Coffey to get star Brendan Shanahan. Detroit won 38 games in the regular season, in contrast to the record-setting 62 win season the previous year, making them the dark horse in the Western Conference as the third seed behind the Dallas Stars and the Presidents’ Trophy winner Colorado Avalanche. In the playoffs, the Wings dispatched a fractured St. Louis Blues team in six games, and a surprising Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in a sweep to reach the Western Conference finals for the third straight season. In a rematch of last year’s Western Finals, the Red Wings upset the defending Stanley Cup champion Avalanche in six brutal games to earn their second trip to the Stanley Cup Finals in three years.
This is the first time that these two teams met in the postseason.
Game 1
May 31 Detroit Red Wings 4–2 Philadelphia Flyers CoreStates Center Recap
Game 1 in Philadelphia took place exactly ten years to the day after the Flyers’ emotional seventh-game loss to the Edmonton Oilers in the 1987 Finals. Detroit never trailed in the game: they led 2–1 after the first period, 3–2 after the second, and Steve Yzerman scored the fourth goal 56 seconds into the third period. Sergei Fedorov scored the winner and was named the game’s first star.
Scoring summary
Period Team Goal Assist(s) Time Score
1st DET Kirk Maltby (4) – sh Kris Draper (4) 06:38 1–0 DET
PHI Rod Brind’Amour (11) – pp Eric Lindros (13), Janne Niinimaa (10) 07:37 1–1
DET Joe Kocur (1) Unassisted 15:56 2–1 DET
2nd DET Sergei Fedorov (6) Larry Murphy (7), Darren McCarty (3) 11:41 3–1 DET
PHI John LeClair (8) Mikael Renberg (6), Eric Lindros (14) 17:11 3–2 DET
3rd DET Steve Yzerman (5) Larry Murphy (8) 00:56 4–2 DET
Penalty summary
Period Team Player Penalty Time PIM
1st DET Tomas Sandstrom High-sticking 05:50 2:00
DET Viacheslav Fetisov Interference 11:26 2:00
PHI Trent Klatt Interference 17:09 2:00
DET Joe Kocur Interference 19:42 2:00
2nd PHI Daniel Lacroix Interference 05:48 2:00
DET Sergei Fedorov Tripping 07:08 2:00
DET Viacheslav Fetisov Interference 15:07 2:00
PHI Trent Klatt Charging 17:45 2:00
3rd PHI Petr Svoboda Cross-checking 06:27 2:00
PHI Eric Lindros Roughing 17:48 2:00
Shots by period
Team 1 2 3 Total
DET 8 12 10 30
PHI 10 9 9 28
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