The 1987 Stanley Cup Final was the championship series of the National Hockey League's (NHL) 1986–87 season, and the culmination of the Stanley Cup playoffs. It was contested between the Edmonton Oilers and the Philadelphia Flyers in a rematch of the Final. Despite blowing a 3–1 series lead, the Oilers defeated the Flyers in seven games – the first seven-game Final since – for their third Stanley Cup victory.
This was the sixth of nine consecutive Finals contested by a team from Western Canada, the fifth of eight consecutive Finals contested by a team from Alberta (the Oilers appeared in six, the Calgary Flames in two), and the fourth of five consecutive Finals to end with the Cup presentation on Alberta ice (the Oilers won four times, the Montreal Canadiens once). Game 7 of this series was played on May 31, which at the time was the latest finishing date for an NHL season. The record would be broken five years later when that series ended on June 1.
Paths to the Final
For the third straight year, the Edmonton Oilers and Philadelphia Flyers finished the regular season with the two best records in the NHL. (In , the Flyers were first in NHL standings and the Oilers second; in both and , the positions were reversed.) While the Oilers' success came from their vaunted offense, the Flyers relied on grit, defensive play, and solid goaltending from Vezina Trophy winner Ron Hextall.
The Oilers cruised into the Final with relative ease, losing only two games in the process. They beat the Los Angeles Kings in five games, swept the Winnipeg Jets, and then beat the Detroit Red Wings in five to win the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl for the fourth time in five years. The Flyers, meanwhile, had a much harder road. It took them six games to knock off the New York Rangers, went the full seven against the New York Islanders, and then beat Montreal, the reigning champion, in six to claim their second Prince of Wales Trophy in three years.
Game summaries The Oilers and Flyers met in the Final for the second time in three years. This time, Edmonton was the regular-season champion with 50 wins and 106 points, and Philadelphia was second with 46 wins and 100 points.
This was a rematch of the 1985 Stanley Cup Final, where the Oilers beat the Flyers in five games. Unlike the 1985 Final, this series went to seven games. Edmonton took the first two games at home, then split in Philadelphia. However, the Flyers won the next two games, one in Edmonton and one back in Philadelphia by one goal, to force a deciding seventh game. Edmonton won game seven to earn its third Stanley Cup in four seasons.
During the Stanley Cup presentation, Oilers captain Wayne Gretzky would give the Cup to Steve Smith, who one year earlier scored on his own net a goal that led to their downfall against the Calgary Flames, their in-province rivals, in the Smythe Division Final. Ron Hextall would receive the Conn Smythe Trophy for his efforts.
For the first time in the Final, both starting goalies, Hextall and Grant Fuhr, wore the full fiberglass cage mask which is now required across almost all levels of competitive hockey. Fuhr wore the original face-hugging fiberglass mask in his three previous Final appearances before switching to the full cage in the 1985–86 season. Patrick Roy was the second goalie to wear the full cage in the Final when he backstopped the Montreal Canadiens to victory vs. the Calgary Flames the previous year; the first was Gilles Meloche of the Minnesota North Stars in 1981.
Many people consider this to be one of the greatest Stanley Cup Finals of all time.
Game one
With the game tied at 1–1 after 40 minutes of play, the Oilers won thanks to third-period goals by Glenn Anderson, Paul Coffey, and Jari Kurri. Gretzky registered a goal and an assist in the onslaught as part of a 4–2 win. The Flyers outshot Edmonton 31–26. Scoring summary Period Team Goal Assist(s) Time Score 1st EDM Wayne Gretzky (4) Jari Kurri (7) and Kevin Lowe (4) 15:06 1–0 EDM 2nd PHI Brian Propp (9) Rick Tocchet (7) and Pelle Eklund (14) 15:06 1–1 3rd EDM Glenn Anderson (11) Mark Messier (14) 00:48 2–1 EDM EDM Paul Coffey (2) Wayne Gretzky (21) and Dave Hunter (3) 07:09 3–1 EDM EDM Jari Kurri (11) Mark Messier (15) and Paul Coffey (5) 09:11 4–1 EDM PHI Rick Tocchet (9) Brad Marsh (3) and Pelle Eklund (15) 10:18 4–2 EDM Penalty summary Period Team Player Penalty Time PIM 1st PHI Bench (served by Don Nachbaur) Too many men on the ice 04:21 2:00 EDM Kelly Buchberger Fighting – major 17:42 5:00 PHI Dave Brown Fighting – major 17:42 5:00 2nd EDM Mike Krushelnyski Interference 03:57 2:00 PHI Brad McCrimmon Interference 17:56 2:00 3rd EDM Kevin Lowe Slashing 13:21 2:00 PHI Rick Tocchet Slashing 13:21 2:00 Shots by period Team 1 2 3 Total 10 10 11 31 10 8 8 26
Game two
This time, the Flyers led 2–1 after two periods. Despite matching the Oilers line for line and speed for speed, Edmonton burned Philly with a third-period goal, then on the game-winner by Kurri, who took advantage of some disorganized defensive play by the Flyers in overtime to score the game-winning goal with a wide-open chance in a 3–2 overtime victory. Scoring summary Period Team Goal Assist(s) Time Score 1st None 2nd EDM Wayne Gretzky (5) – pp Jari Kurri (8) and Paul Coffey (6) 00:45 1–0 EDM PHI Derrick Smith (6) Scott Mellanby (4) and Ron Sutter (4) 13:20 1–1 PHI Brian Propp (10) Rick Tocchet (8) and Brad McCrimmon (5) 16:23 2–1 PHI 3rd EDM Glenn Anderson (12) Randy Gregg (5) 11:40 2–2 3rd EDM Jari Kurri (12) Paul Coffey (7) and Wayne Gretzky (22) 06:50 3–2 EDM Penalty summary Period Team Player Penalty Time PIM 1st PHI Dave Brown Holding 02:38 2:00 EDM Paul Coffey Holding 08:38 2:00 PHI Derrick Smith Cross-checking 16:58 2:00 PHI Bench (served by Lindsay Carson) Too many men on the ice 19:52 2:00 PHI Brad McCrimmon Holding 20:00 2:00 2nd EDM Craig MacTavish Interference 02:59 2:00 EDM Steve Smith Roughing 06:21 2:00 PHI Kjell Samuelsson Slashing 06:21 2:00 EDM Paul Coffey Roughing 09:08 2:00 PHI Scott Mellanby Roughing 09:08 2:00 EDM Steve Smith Holding 10:37 2:00 EDM Marty McSorley Roughing 19:25 2:00 PHI Rick Tocchet Roughing 19:25 2:00 3rd PHI Doug Crossman Holding 12:17 2:00 EDM Jari Kurri Holding 16:30 2:00 OT EDM Glenn Anderson Slashing 03:16 2:00 PHI Murray Craven Holding 03:16 2:00 Shots by period Team 1 2 3 OT Total 15 12 5 2 34 9 7 15 3 34
Game three
Looking to take a commanding 3–0 series lead, Edmonton came out firing, taking a 2–0 lead after one period on goals by Mark Messier and Coffey, then stretching it to 3–0 on Anderson's fluke breakaway goal 1:49 into the second.
With their backs against the wall, the Flyers began a comeback on second-period goals by Murray Craven and Peter Zezel. Early in the third, tallies 17 seconds apart by Scott Mellanby and Brad McCrimmon tied the game, then put the Flyers ahead 4–3. For the remainder of the period, the Flyers gamely kept the Oilers' potent offense at bay until Brian Propp's empty-net goal sealed a 5–3 win.
Until this point, no team had ever rebounded from a 3–0 deficit to win a game in the Final, and the Flyers won their first-ever playoff game after yielding a game's first three goals. Scoring summary Period Team Goal Assist(s) Time Score 1st EDM Mark Messier (11) – sh Craig MacTavish (8) 04:14 1–0 EDM EDM Paul Coffey (3) Wayne Gretzky (23) and Jari Kurri (9) 19:51 2–0 EDM 2nd EDM Glenn Anderson (13) – pp Mark Messier (16) and Paul Coffey (8) 01:49 3–0 EDM PHI Murray Craven (2) – pp Rick Tocchet (9) and Ron Sutter (5) 09:04 3–1 EDM PHI Peter Zezel (3) – pp Unassisted 15:20 3–2 EDM 3rd PHI Scott Mellanby (5) Mark Howe (10) and Ron Sutter (6) 04:37 3–3 PHI Brad McCrimmon (2) Scott Mellanby (5) and Ron Sutter (7) 04:54 4–3 PHI PHI Brian Propp (11) – en Kjell Samuelsson (4) and Peter Zezel (10) 19:26 5–3 PHI Penalty summary 1st EDM Dave Hunter Roughing 02:36 2:00 PHI Daryl Stanley Slashing 09:47 2:00 EDM Mike Krushelnyski Holding 14:04 2:00 PHI Derrick Smith Roughing 17:36 2:00 2nd PHI Ron Hextall Interference 01:12 2:00 EDM Bench (served by Esa Tikkanen) Too many men on the ice 07:58 2:00 EDM Reijo Ruotsalainen Holding 11:23 2:00 EDM Esa Tikkanen Slashing 14:54 2:00 PHI Ron Sutter High-sticking 17:49 2:00 3rd EDM Marty McSorley Roughing 19:59 2:00 PHI Dave Brown Roughing 19:59 2:00 PHI Ron Sutter Slashing 19:59 2:00 Shots by period Team 1 2 3 Total 8 10 10 28 11 14 11 36
Game four
The momentum from game three did not carry over for Philadelphia. Gretzky notched three assists as the Oilers won, 4–1, and took a three games to one series lead. In a relatively sedate affair, the most shocking event came when Flyers goaltender Ron Hextall viciously chopped his stick across the back of the legs of Edmonton's Kent Nilsson in the third period when trailing 4–1. Hextall was apparently incensed that Anderson and other Oilers had cruised through the goal crease untouched and unpenalized during the game, and took out his frustration on the last Oiler he happened to see skate by. Hextall's actions caused Nilsson no injury, but Hextall would be suspended for the first eight games of the season. Scoring summary Period Team Goal Assist(s) Time Score 1st EDM Jari Kurri (13) Wayne Gretzky (24) 05:53 1–0 EDM EDM Kevin Lowe (1) – sh Wayne Gretzky (25) 18:44 2–0 EDM 2nd PHI Brad McCrimmon (3) – pp Wayne Gretzky (26) 08:17 2–1 EDM EDM Randy Gregg (3) – pp Pelle Eklund (16) and Brian Propp (12) 12:31 3–1 EDM 3rd EDM Mike Krushelnyski (3) Unassisted 04:17 4–1 EDM Penalty summary Period Team Player Penalty Time PIM 1st EDM Esa Tikkanen Roughing 01:16 2:00 PHI Derrick Smith Roughing 01:16 2:00 EDM Kevin Lowe High-sticking 03:32 2:00 PHI Brad McCrimmon Hooking 09:35 2:00 EDM Craig MacTavish Holding 12:42 2:00 EDM Mark Messier Cross-checking 17:28 2:00 2nd EDM Wayne Gretzky Hooking 06:34 2:00 PHI Kjell Samuelsson Interference 10:38 2:00 PHI Peter Zezel Tripping 13:59 2:00 EDM Paul Coffey Roughing 19:45 2:00 PHI Rick Tocchet Roughing 19:45 2:00 3rd EDM Glenn Anderson Cross-checking 01:01 2:00 PHI Ron Hextall Misconduct 04:31 10:00 EDM Charlie Huddy Misconduct 07:39 10:00 PHI Rick Tocchet Misconduct 07:39 10:00 PHI Ron Hextall Slashing – major 08:50 5:00 Shots by period Team 1 2 3 Total 8 10 11 29 8 11 9 28
Game five
Edmonton's newspapers had published plans for a future victory parade that day, and the Oilers tried to make those plans come to fruition when they beat Hextall for two quick first-period goals. Although the Flyers got one back and trailed 2–1 after one period, Hextall let Edmonton's third goal of the game, a tip-in by Marty McSorley with nearly two minutes gone in the second slip between his arm and body; time was growing short.
Facing the end of their season, the Flyers clawed back and tied the game 3–3 on goals by Doug Crossman and Pelle Eklund. With almost six minutes played in the third, Propp fed Rick Tocchet in the slot for the go-ahead score. Hextall and the Flyers' defence clamped down on the Oilers the rest of the way and the series came back to Philadelphia.