Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 10, 1993 TAG: 9306100052
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MONTREAL LENGTH: Medium
The Montreal Canadiens, the most decorated franchise in professional sports history, skated away with their 24th Stanley Cup, beating the Los Angeles Kings 4-1 on Wednesday night to win the best-of-seven finals in five games.
"We haven't had a big team. The word was out: `Hit them,' " said Jacques Demers, the Canadiens' first-year coach. "We are like a boxer who didn't want to go down. The more they knocked us down, the more we got off the canvas."
Patrick Roy usually was the one picking them up.
A rookie goaltending sensation when the Canadiens last took the NHL title in 1986, Roy became a certified `hero - the first Montreal player to win the Conn Smythe Trophy twice as postseason MVP.
"Patrick was sensational, extraordinary, spectacular," Demers said. "To win the Stanley Cup, you've got to have a great goalie and Patrick Roy was outstanding, dominating. I came here believing he was among the best goalies. And I come out of this believing he's the best."
The best player hockey has ever known, Wayne Gretzky, said afterward that he was thinking about retiring.
"That's what I've got to seriously talk about the next week," the NHL's all-time scoring leader said. "I said to my wife before the playoffs started that I always wanted to go out on a high. It could have been higher, but I think I played well.
"It just might be time for a new challenge. I always said I want to go out of this game without someone pushing me out."
Roy felt he might be pushed out of Montreal if he didn't perform well in the playoffs.
Rebounding from a difficult season filled with trade rumors, Roy went 16-4 with a 2.13 goals-against average while playing all but 18 minutes of the postseason. He won 16 of 18 games after losing the first two to Quebec.
"If we lost to Quebec, it would have been a bad summer and probably Patrick Roy would be part of a trade," Roy said. "I don't want to be traded. I want to be part of the Canadiens."
He was the main reason Montreal set an NHL postseason record with 10 consecutive overtime victories - including Games 2, 3 and 4 of the finals - stopping all 58 shots he faced during a 96-minute, 39-second OT shutout string.
Roy capped the Canadiens' 34th finals appearance in rather routine fashion, making 18 saves.
John LeClair, who scored the overtime winners in the previous two games, had two assists, and Paul DiPietro scored twice as Montreal became the only sports franchise with at least one title in every decade since the 1910s.
"In the dressing room, we look at all those faces" on the wall of honor, DiPietro said. "If that doesn't get you going, nothing will."
Gretzky, the captain of four Stanley Cup winners with Edmonton before being dealt to Los Angeles in 1988, made Hollywood hockey an event by taking the Kings to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time in their 26-year history.
But though he reaffirmed his greatness by leading all postseason scorers with 40 points - including a goal and three assists in the Kings' 4-1 victory in the opener against Montreal - he couldn't make the clutch play in any of the three overtimes and failed to get a single shot in the desperation situation that was Game 5.
"I came to LA and it had a lot more to it than hockey," said Gretzky, 32. "I came here to help sell L.A. on hockey and to help turn this organization around. I think I've fulfilled all my obligations."
Gretzky, who missed the first 39 games of the season with a back injury, said he felt healthy throughout the playoffs and insisted his retirement talk has nothing to do with reports he was unhappy with his contract and with the city of Los Angeles.
"Bruce already put a blank piece of paper in front of me and told me to fill in the numbers," he said, referring to owner Bruce McNall. "And I don't want to play anywhere else. If there is a perfect place in the National Hockey League for me . . . it's L A."
Keywords:
HOCKEY
by CNB