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NHL '94 "Game of the Night" Habs vs Kings "1993 Stanley Cup Finals Rematch" A Nail Biter!

The 1993 Stanley Cup Finals was the championship series of the National Hockey League's (NHL) 1992–93 season, and the culmination of the 1993 Stanley Cup playoffs. It was contested between the Los Angeles Kings and the Montreal Canadiens. It was the first appearance in the Final for the Kings and the first appearance since the 1920 Stanley Cup Finals for a team based on the west coast of the United States. It was also the 34th appearance for Montreal, their first since the 1989 Stanley Cup Finals. The Canadiens won the series four games to one to win the team's 24th Stanley Cup. The year 1993 was the 100th anniversary of the first awarding of the Stanley Cup in 1893, and the first Finals to start in the month of June. To date, the 1993 Canadiens are the last Stanley Cup championship team to be composed solely of North American-born players, and the last Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup. The series is remembered for Kings defenceman Marty McSorley's penalty late in the third period of game two for using an illegal stick, in what proved to be the turning point in the 1993 Cup Finals. When McSorley entered the penalty box, Los Angeles held a 1–0 series lead, and a 2–1 score in the contest. The Canadiens then went on to score the equalizer on the ensuing power play, won game two in overtime, and then defeated the Kings in the next three games to win the Cup. From the moment that McSorley was called for the penalty, the Kings failed to win another postseason game for the remainder of the 20th century, losing all the remaining games of the Finals, failing to qualify for the playoffs in five of the next seven seasons, and being swept out in the first round the other two times. Their next postseason win did not come until 2001, against the Detroit Red Wings. Meanwhile, the Canadiens did not appear in the Stanley Cup Finals again until 2021. The 1993 Montreal Stanley Cup riot occurred in Montreal after the Montreal Canadiens won their 24th Stanley Cup. People poured into the streets of the city and some began to commit acts of vandalism and violence while the Canadiens were celebrating inside the Montreal Forum. In the epicentre of the riot on Saint Catherine Street, stores were looted and police cruisers were set ablaze. The riot caused $2.5 million in damage, $4.14 million in 2021 dollars. At the high point of the riot 980 officers were dispatched and they made 115 arrests. The police reported 47 police cars damaged, 8 of those 47 cars were completely destroyed. Rioters were arrested after they broke windows, looted stores and set fires. Some of the rioters were suspected of planning to loot stores using the Canadiens' victory celebration as a decoy. 168 were injured, including 49 police officers. Due to the Kings being the Canadiens' opponents, most of the Los Angeles news media, including the Los Angeles Times and the Daily News, also covered the riot; Times staff writer Helene Elliott was pressed into service as a news reporter minutes after the riot began. Television In Canada, the series was televised in English on the CBC and in French on SRC. In the United States, the series was broadcast on ESPN. This was the ESPN's first Cup Finals coverage since 1988. However, ESPN was blacked out in the Los Angeles market because of Prime Ticket's local rights to the Kings games. The Canadiens lost in the first round to the Boston Bruins in seven games. The Canadiens wouldn't return to the finals again until 2021, when they lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning in five games. The Kings, however, would miss the playoffs the next season. The Kings would not return to the Stanley Cup Finals until 2012, when they defeated the New Jersey Devils, in six games.