1992-1993 Playoffs
This was the team of Doug Gilmour, Wendell Clark, Glen Anderson, Dave Andreychuk and Potvin.
In Round 1, Leafs beat Red Wings 4 games to 3. Leafs came back after losing the first two games.
In Round 2, Leafs beat St. Louis also 4 games to 3.
Round 3 vs LA Kings
The winner of this series was to play Montreal in the Stanley Cup finals. Toronto had the home game advantage.
You must watch the video below, just to see the hockey hair of Barry Melrose, the LA coach. What a horror show !
Game 1 in Toronto Leafs win 4 1
Game 2 in Toronto LA wins 3 2
Game 3 in LA LA wins 4 2
Game 4 in LA Leafs win 4 2
Game 5 in Toronto Leafs win 3 2 in OT
This puts Leafs up 3 games to 2 with the series headed back to LA for game 6
Game 6 in LA LA wins 5 4 in OT
The big issue in game 6, in OT yet, was the failure of the one referee to call a high sticking penalty on Gretzky, which if called, would have resulted in Gretzky being tossed from the game. A minute later, Gretzky scores and the game is over. Huge miss.
Kerry Fraser, the referee, did later admit that he blew the call:
After the game, the NHL’s director of officiating Brian Lewis came into the referee’s room and said, “Good job tonight, guys.” We really thought we got it right. There weren’t all the slow-motion cameras like they have today. It wasn’t until the next day that I saw another angle of the play on television. You could clearly see Gretzky high-sticking Gilmour.
That was quite big of him, actually, to admit it. Gretzky never did own up.
Game 7
Hence game 7 in Toronto for the series winner. Apart from the usual sell out crowd at MLG, there were 40,000 people watching the game at the Skydome. (as it then was) Harry Neal and Bob Cole announcing the game were simply fabulous. This was one of the most exciting games in recent, well, in the last 30 years or so.
Early in the third period, the score was tied 3-3.
With less than 4 minutes left, Kings’ journeyman Mike Donnelly scored on a rebound to make it 4 3.
This is at 1:43 of the clip below.
Shortly after this goal, Gretzky, coming around from behind the net, banked a shot off the skate of defenceman Dave Ellett, to make it 5 3. This one was, as admitted by Gretzky, a total fluke. (1:44 below)
Leafs scored to make it 5 4 with one minute left. (1:47). A great game but, alas, in vain. It could have, should have, been a Montreal Leafs final. Hard to imagine.