The last Canadian team in the National Hockey League to make an appearance in the Stanley Cup Final was the Vancouver Canucks in 2011, when they lost to the Boston Bruins in a seven-game series.
It has been 28 years since a Canadian team last won the Stanley Cup, dating back to the 1993 Montreal Canadiens when they captured their 23rd Stanley Cup title with a five-game series win over Wayne Gretzky the Los Angeles Kings.
Fast-forward to the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs, and the Canadiens are just one win away from making their long-awaited return to the Final.
Montreal currently leads its Stanley Cup Semifinals series with the Vegas Golden Knights, 3-2, thanks to a 4-1 win on Tuesday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was the Canadiens' second win on the road in this series after capturing Game 2 back on June 16.
Before Tuesday night's game, the Golden Knights elected to turn back to Marc-Andre Fleury in goal after Robin Lehner had helped backstop Vegas to a 2-1 overtime win in Montreal to even the series at 2-2. That decision may have backfired for the Golden Knights in Game 5.
The Canadiens opened the scoring 8:45 into the first period as forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi pounced on a juicy rebound left by Fleury after he stopped Josh Anderson on a breakaway.
Veteran forward Eric Staal ended up with the game-winning goal for Montreal just six-and-a-half minutes into the second period. The 36-year-old fired a wrist shot over the left shoulder of Fleury after a beautiful setup by teammate, Nick Suzuki.
A little more than three minutes later, the Canadiens extended their lead to 3-0 when Suzuki forced a turnover in the neutral zone, which sprung forwards Corey Perry and Cole Caufield in for a scoring chance. Instead of taking a shot on Fleury, Perry was able to thread a nice backhand pass to an open Caufield, who wasted little time to get his shot off and earn his third goal of the playoffs.
Former Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty helped the Golden Knights get on the board early in the third period with his fifth goal of the playoffs, but Suzuki would pick up his third point of the night with an empty-net goal with just 1:06 remaining in regulation.
Carey Price put up a great performance for Montreal in goal, turning aside 26 of 27 shots faced from the Golden Knights. The 33-year-old goaltender has performed at a Conn Smythe Trophy level this postseason with an 11-5 record, a 2.02 goals-against average, a .933 save percentage and one shutout.
With a win on Thursday night back in Montreal, it would be the sixth time since 1993 where a Canadian team will play in the Stanley Cup Final. The Canucks (1994, 2011), Calgary Flames (2004), Edmonton Oilers (2006) and Ottawa Senators (2007) all made it to the Final, but came just short of winning.
Game 6 of this series on Thursday is set for 8 p.m. ET at the Bell Centre.
The winner of this series will move on to face the winner of the series between the Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Islanders in the other Stanley Cup Semifinals matchup. Tampa Bay currently leads the series, 3-2, with a chance to wrap up their best-of-seven series on Wednesday night on Long Island.
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