Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup Finals 4-3
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | T | |
| (4) DET | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| (3) TOR | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
There were several contributing factors to the result that allowed the Toronto Maple Leafs to lift Lord Stanley's cup for the eleventh time. Firstly, the Leafs jumped out to a 3-0 lead with barely seven minutes played despite the Wings outshooting the home team 15-11 in the first period. The second major factor was special teams. Detroit were 0-for-5 on the powerplay with four consecutive opportunities with the man-advantage and almost two full minutes of 5-on-3 before the first intermission.
But surely the most important reason that Toronto won out in the end was Johnny Bower who earned his third shutout of the postseason, all of them coming after a defeat. He won all five games that came after a loss this postseason, and in the other two bounceback efforts he conceded just twice against Chicago in the deciding game six and only allowed the one goal against Detroit in game five.
Frank Mahovlich had a slow start to the playoffs as Chicago were able to keep the top Leafs' top line pretty quiet, but he has since gone on to score six times in the Finals with his last of the year coming only two minutes into game seven. The Toronto third line has also had a good posteseason - Duff - Litzenberger - Stewart combining for six goals and fourteen points; Dick Duff scoring his first since game one of the round.
Another area the Maple Leafs have pride in is offensive output from the blueline. With Carl Brewer, who is more renowned for his physical play than anything else, scoring his third of the postseason, the Toronto defence has managed six goals and a mammoth thirty-four points. Compare that with Detroit who managed to hit the net four times as part of their twenty-one points.
The game was not over heading into the second period. Detroit registered the first fourteen shots on goal after the interval, ultimately outshooting the Leafs 21-6; 36-17 through two periods. After a wealth of penalties, with Detroit to their credit not losing their cool until late in the game, Bob Pulford finished off the scoring early in the third period to round out the team effort with all three lines contributing to tonight's scoring.
SCORING SUMMARY
1st Period
2:00 TOR Mahovlich (7) Armstrong, Horton
6:31 TOR Duff (3) Litzenberger, Stewart
7:04 TOR Brewer (3) Mahovlich
3rd Period
3:24 TOR Pulford (4) Stanley, Harris
POWERPLAY
DET 0/5
TOR 0/3
SAVES
DET Sawchuk 35/39
TOR Bower 47/47
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