1931 Stanley Cup Finals



The 1931 Stanley Cup Finals was played between between the Montreal Canadiens and the Chicago Black Hawks, making their first Stanley Cup final appearance. The Canadiens, defending champions won the series to become the second NHL team to repeat as champion. 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.

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

Montreal Canadiens vs. Chicago Black Hawks Montreal wins best-of-five series 3–2.

Montreal Canadiens 1931 Stanley Cup Champions
Roster


 * goaltenders
 * 1 George Hainsworth
 * defence
 * 2 Sylvio Mantha (captain)
 * 3 Marty Burke
 * 8 Albert Leduc
 * 11 Art Lesieur
 * 12 Georges Mantha
 * 8 Jean Pusie† A
 * centers
 * 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
 * non-players
 * Louis Athanase David (president)
 * Joseph Cattarinich (vice president/owner),
 * Leo Dandurand (secretary/owner)
 * Cecil Hart (manager-coach),
 * Edouard St. Pere (vice president), Georges Richer (treasurer),
 * Fernand Rinfeet, Amerdee Monte Juce, Alphonse Raymond, Henry Gray (directors),
 * Ed Dulfour (trainer), Jim McKenna (ass’t trainer),
 * Dr. J. A. Corrigan (team physician), Jules Dugal (business manager).

† Left off the cup, but qualified to be on it. A Played 3 games in finals. B Played 22 of 44 regular season games.
 * player-notes

engraving-notes
 * 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.