The 1970 Boston Bruins get all the credit and fame — but the 1972 Black and Gold bunch wasn’t bad themselves.
Monday marks the 48th anniversary of the ’72 Bruins winning the Stanley Cup, their second championship in three years. The far more heralded 1970 club was celebrated over the weekend, 50 years after winning the Cup on Bobby Orr’s historic game-winning goal.
Two years later, though, Orr and his crew were back for another deep postseason run that included a first-round dismissal of the Toronto Maple Leafs followed by (another) sweep of the St. Louis Blues.
That set up a Stanley Cup Final showdown with the New York Rangers and one of the best lines in hockey history: the GAG (goal a game) line. The trio of Jean Ratelle, Rod Gilbert and Vic Hadfield finished third, fourth and fifth in league scoring that season and looked to provide an enormous test for the Bruins.
It turned out to be a tremendous series, with four of the six games being decided by one goal. However, the two teams returned to Madison Square Garden on May 11, 1972, and that’s where the Bruins turned in their best game of the series. Boston blanked the Rangers 3-0, and it was Bobby Orr scoring the Bruins’ first goal, giving him the distinction of scoring two Stanley Cup-winning goals. Gerry Cheevers turned in a shutout, and Wayne Cashman scored a pair of goals as Boston rolled to the Cup victory.
Once again, Orr was named Conn Smythe Winner after scoring five goals and adding 19 assists while playing stellar defense despite dealing with nagging knee pain. Just like he did in 1970, Orr also would go on to win the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenseman and the Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player.
The 1972 Bruins had the distinction of being the last B’s team to win the Stanley Cup before the 2011 team broke through with a dramatic Game 7 win almost a decade ago.
