1995 Stanley Cup playoffs


The 1995 Stanley Cup playoffs, the playoff tournament of the National Hockey League was played between May 6 and June 24, 1995. The 1994–95 NHL regular season was shortened to 48 games, and the playoffs pushed to a later date, due to a lockout. The sixteen teams that qualified, eight from each conference, played best-of-seven series for the conference quarterfinals, semifinals and championships, and then the conference champions played a best-of-seven series for the Stanley Cup. In the Final, the New Jersey Devils swept the favored Detroit Red Wings in four games to win their first championship.
This was the only time Patrick Roy missed the playoffs in his career. His team, the Montreal Canadiens, missed the playoffs for the first time since 1970. The Canadiens and the Ottawa Senators missed the playoffs this year. Montreal and Ottawa would not miss the playoffs in the same year again until 2016, when all Canadian teams missed the playoffs. The Quebec Nordiques played their last playoff series during this time. They would move to Denver, Colorado during the summer. For the first time since 1980, no league semifinal/conference final games were played in Canada.

Playoff seeds

The following teams qualified for the playoffs:

Eastern Conference

  1. Quebec Nordiques, Northeast Division champions, Eastern Conference regular season champions – 65 points
  2. Philadelphia Flyers, Atlantic Division champions – 60 points
  3. Pittsburgh Penguins – 61 points
  4. Boston Bruins – 57 points
  5. New Jersey Devils – 52 points
  6. Washington Capitals – 52 points
  7. Buffalo Sabres – 51 points
  8. New York Rangers – 47 points

    Western Conference

  9. Detroit Red Wings, Central Division champions, Western Conference regular season champions, Presidents' Trophy winners – 70 points
  10. Calgary Flames, Pacific Division champions – 55 points
  11. St. Louis Blues – 61 points
  12. Chicago Blackhawks – 53 points
  13. Toronto Maple Leafs – 50 points
  14. Vancouver Canucks – 48 points
  15. San Jose Sharks – 42 points
  16. Dallas Stars – 42 points

    Playoff bracket

Conference Quarterfinals

Eastern Conference Quarterfinals

(1) Quebec Nordiques vs. (8) New York Rangers

This was the final playoff series played by the Quebec Nordiques, as they would move to Denver, Colorado to become the Colorado Avalanche the next season.

(2) Philadelphia Flyers vs. (7) Buffalo Sabres

Game four was the last playoff game at Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

(3) Pittsburgh Penguins vs. (6) Washington Capitals

With their win in Game 7, the Pens became the first team to have two 3-1 comebacks in playoff series against the same team.

(4) Boston Bruins vs. (5) New Jersey Devils

Game five was the last game played in the Boston Garden.

Western Conference Quarterfinals

(1) Detroit Red Wings vs. (8) Dallas Stars

(2) Calgary Flames vs. (7) San Jose Sharks

The series had extremely high offensive output. Calgary set an NHL record by scoring 35 goals, the most by any team in a 7 game series, but lost in double overtime in Game 7. The 35 goals is also the highest number of goals ever scored by a team that lost a series in NHL history. A total of 61 goals were scored in the series, the highest total between both teams in a 7 game series in NHL history.

(3) St. Louis Blues vs. (6) Vancouver Canucks

(4) Chicago Blackhawks vs. (5) Toronto Maple Leafs

Conference Semifinals

Eastern Conference Semifinals

(2) Philadelphia Flyers vs. (8) New York Rangers

(3) Pittsburgh Penguins vs. (5) New Jersey Devils

Western Conference Semifinals

(1) Detroit Red Wings vs. (7) San Jose Sharks

(4) Chicago Blackhawks vs. (6) Vancouver Canucks

Game four was the last game played in the Pacific Coliseum.

Conference Finals

Eastern Conference Final

(2) Philadelphia Flyers vs. (5) New Jersey Devils

This was the second playoff series between these two teams, with Philadelphia winning the only previous meeting in two games. They last met in the 1978 Preliminary Round where Philadelphia swept the Colorado Rockies. This was the third conference final appearance for New Jersey and the second consecutive appearance after losing to the New York Rangers in seven games the year before. Philadelphia made their fourth conference final appearance and first since losing to Montreal in six games in 1989.
New Jersey handed Philadelphia their first two playoff home losses of the season winning 4-1 in game one and 5-2 in game two and they outshot the Flyers 28-21 and 24-20 respectively. In game three Philadelphia played with a sense of urgency. Trailing 2–1 the Flyers tied the game on Rod Brind'Amour's goal with 6:03 to go in regulation. They went on to win the game 3–2 on captain Eric Lindros' goal at 4:19 of the first overtime period. Playing with their newfound confidence the Flyers won game four by a score of 4–2 despite being outshot 34–19, Flyers goaltender Ron Hextall made 32 saves. In game five the Devils took a 2–1 lead into the second period which ended up scoreless. The Flyers tied the game on Kevin Dineen's second goal of the game at 3:13 of the third period. The Devils almost regained the lead on Stephane Richer's breakaway shot that hit the crossbar with less than four minutes to go in regulation. Then with less than a minute remaining Devils forward Claude Lemieux picked up the puck on a backcheck in the New Jersey zone and skated up the ice, once over the Flyers' blue line Lemieux fired a slap shot that beat Hextall on his blocker side. The goal silenced the Spectrum crowd and gave New Jersey a 3–2 lead with just 44.2 seconds to play. The Devils hung on to win the game 3–2.
In game six Philadelphia opened the scoring on Jim Montgomery's goal at 4:05 of the first period. The Devils calmly utilized the neutral-zone trap to shut down the Flyers' offense while their forwards took advantage. Stephane Richer tied the game with a power play goal at 10:25 and Brian Rolston put the Devils up 2–1 with a goal at 18:15. The scored remained 2–1 for New Jersey until midway through the second period. After a blocked shot by Devils defenceman Shawn Chambers led to a three on one rush for New Jersey, Randy McKay scored his seventh goal of the postseason. The Devils made it 4–1 at 10:11 of the third period when Bobby Carpenter passed the puck past Flyers defenceman Karl Dykhuis up to Claude Lemieux at center ice who went in on a breakaway and scored his league leading eleventh goal of the playoffs. The Flyers fought back as Mikael Renberg scored on the power play at 16:29 to cut the Devils' lead to 4–2 but New Jersey held on to the lead and went on to win the game and series, advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in team history.

Western Conference Final

(1) Detroit Red Wings vs. (4) Chicago Blackhawks

This was the fourteenth playoff series between these two teams, with Chicago winning eight of the thirteen previous series. They last met in the 1992 Division Final where Chicago swept Detroit in four games. This was the seventh conference final appearance for Chicago and first since 1992 where the Blackhawks swept Edmonton in four games. Detroit made their third conference final appearance and first since losing to Edmonton in five games in 1988.
Game one of the series at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit saw a goaltending battle between Ed Belfour and Mike Vernon. The two teams skated to a 1–1 tie after regulation before Nicklas Lidstrom scored the game-winning goal for Detroit at 1:01 of the first overtime period. It was the first overtime playoff game that Detroit had won at home since 1960. In game two Chicago led by a score of 2–1 after two periods on goals by Chris Chelios and Tony Amonte. In the third period, Detroit kept pressing and eventually tied the game on Doug Brown's goal. Kris Draper scored the winner for Detroit with just 1:45 remaining in regulation. In game three of the series at the United Center, Detroit led 3–2 going into the third period. Jeff Shantz scored at 8:33 to tie the game for Chicago. The game went to double overtime where Vladimir Konstantinov scored the game-winner for Detroit at 9:25. The win gave the Red Wings a commanding 3–0 series lead. The Blackhawks responded to the urgency and came out flying in game four as Denis Savard and Joe Murphy both scored twice and captain Dirk Graham had a goal to give Chicago a dominating 5–0 lead after 40 minutes. Detroit scored twice in the third period on goals by Kris Draper and Ray Sheppard as the Blackhawks went on to win the game 5–2. In game five Chicago jumped out to a 1–0 lead on Denis Savard's power play goal at 10:18 of the first period. Detroit then tied the game on Steve Yzerman's goal at 11:36 of the second. After a scoreless third period the game went into double overtime where Vyacheslav Kozlov scored at 2:25 to give the Red Wings a 2–1 win and a series clinching victory.

Stanley Cup Finals

Detroit made their nineteenth appearance in the Finals, and first since 1966 where they lost in six games to Montreal. New Jersey made their first appearance in the Finals, in their 21st season. Detroit last won the Stanley Cup in 1955. The Devils would blanket the Red Wings with defence to win their first Stanley Cup title.

Playoff statistics

Skaters

These are the top ten skaters based on points.
PlayerTeam
Sergei FedorovDetroit Red Wings1771724+136
Stephane RicherNew Jersey Devils1961521+92
Neal BrotenNew Jersey Devils2071219+136
Ron FrancisPittsburgh Penguins1261319+34
Denis SavardChicago Blackhawks1671118+1210
Paul CoffeyDetroit Red Wings1861218+410
John MacLeanNew Jersey Devils2051318+814
Claude LemieuxNew Jersey Devils2013316+1220
Vyacheslav KozlovDetroit Red Wings189716+1210
Nicklas LidstromDetroit Red Wings1841216+48

Goaltenders

This is a combined table of the top five goaltenders based on goals against average and the top five goaltenders based on save percentage, with at least 420 minutes played. The table is sorted by GAA, and the criteria for inclusion are bolded.
PlayerTeam
New Jersey Devils20164463341.67.9273 1221:58
Chicago Blackhawks1697479372.19.9231 1013:38
Detroit Red Wings18126370412.31.8891 1063:17
Philadelphia Flyers15105437422.81.9040 896:41
Toronto Maple Leafs734253202.83.9211 423:41