After ousting Quebec, the Canadiens met the Buffalo Sabres and the overtime magic continued. Damphousse's third-period goal got Montreal the win in Game 1 against the Sabres and Carbonneau scored in overtime of Game 2 to put the Canadiens up 2-0. Dionne scored at 8:28 of overtime in Game 3 with assists from Brisebois and Bellows to give the Canadiens a 3-0 edge. Odelein, Damphousse and Haller scored in Game 4 before Muller got the winner at 11:38 of overtime, giving Montreal a sweep over Grant Fuhr and the Sabres.

Next up was the Eastern Conference Finals and the New York Islanders. LeClair had two goals and Dionne and Bellows scored on Glenn Healy to beat the Islanders, 4-1, in Game 1. In Game 2, overtime returned. This time it was Lebeau's turn to step up with two goals, including the slap shot winner at 6:21 of the second overtime. In Game 3, Montreal again needed an extra session to get a 2-1 win. After two straight OT losses, the Islanders roared back in front of a sold-out Nassau Coliseum crowd to get a 4-1 victory in Game 4. It didn't take long for the Canadiens to grab the lead in Game 5, as Muller beat Healy 58 seconds into the contest. Keane put the Habs up 2-0 near the end of the first period and Damphousse, Daigneault and Bellows added to the Canadiens' total, catapulting Montreal to a 5-2 win over New York and berth in the Stanley Cup Finals.

The Canadiens were in the Finals for the second time in four years and third in seven seasons. They beat Calgary in 1986 and lost to the Flames in 1989, the first time a rival had won the Stanley Cup in a deciding game at the Forum. Standing in their way in the 1993 Finals were Wayne Gretzky and the Los Angeles Kings. Gretzky was gunning for his fifth Stanley Cup in nine years.

"The Great One" put on a clinic in Game 1, a 4-1 Kings' triumph at the Montreal Forum. Gretzky and Alexei Zhitnik set up Luc Robitaille's power-play goal at 3:03 of the first period. Ronan answered for Montreal late in the first, only to be followed up by Robitaille's second power-play goal of the game at 17:41 of the second period. Gretzky and Tony Granato assisted on Jari Kurri's goal early in the third period and Gretzky finished with an open-net score.

Carbonneau and Demers huddled after the game and they decided Carbonneau's line with Ronan and Brunet would be on the ice whenever Gretzky was on, with Desjardins on defense. That might help against Gretzky but it presented another strategic problem.

"Our job was to close down the other team's top line," Ronan said. "But you want your best guys out there for offense so there were times Muller's line was out there."

"What Wayne did in the first game was single-handedly beat us," said Carbonneau, three times the winner of the Selke Trophy as the NHL's best defensive forward. "All my career, that was what I did (defense) and I took pride in shutting down opposing players."

At the end of a Hall of Fame career as one of the NHL's great offensive centers, Savard was playing left wing on Carbonneau's checking line, alternating with Brunet until he got hurt.

Desjardins scored the opener in Game 2 but Dave Taylor scored a shorthanded goal in the second period and set up Pat Conacher for a score midway through the third period. With 1:45 remaining and trailing 2-1, Demers asked referee Kerry Fraser to check Marty McSorley's stick for an illegal curve. McSorley was penalized and Demers pulled Roy to give the Canadiens -- 0-for-32 on the power play and 0-for-11 already in the Finals -- a 6-on-4 advantage. Desjardins scored on a seeing-eye slap shot 32 seconds later and ended the game 51 seconds into overtime with a dart through Kelly Hrudey's five-hole for the first Stanley Cup Finals hat trick by a defenseman.

There was a feeling the McSorley penalty was the turning point and that was reinforced when the Canadiens opened a 3-0 lead in Game 3 in Los Angeles. But the Kings came roaring back on goals by Robitaille, Granato and Gretzky. But Montreal came out on top when LeClair lifted a wrister over three fallen Kings in the crease, including Hrudey, just 34 seconds into overtime.

After winning 10 straight overtime games, Mario Roberge and the Canadiens enjoyed the luxury of a 4-1 clinching victory in the last Stanley Cup celebrated in the Montreal Forum.

In Game 4, Muller and Damphousse gave the Canadiens a 2-0 lead, but second-period goals from Mike Donnelly and McSorley tied it. Well into overtime, Robitaille fired a shot that Roy covered as Tomas Sandstrom crashed the crease. Roy with his glove firmly on the puck, looked up at Sandstrom and gave him "the wink," a little signal to show him and the Kings who was in control.

"Always Sandstrom is in my crease, bothering me, hitting at me when I have the puck," Roy said after his team won the game 3-2 in OT. "When I made the save on Robitaille, Sandstrom hit me. So I winked. I wanted to show him I'd be tough. That I was in control."

"You see that clip a lot and it brings back a lot of memories," Ronan said. "Patrick was a confident goalie and he had thick skin. That was part of his focus. That's how he maintains his focus, by expressing his competitiveness. His great strength was that he always wanted to outperform the other team's goaltender. With 'the wink,' he took it to another level. He had a competitive spirit second to nobody's."

Di Pietro scored late in the first period of Game 5 and McSorley answered early in the second for LA to tie the game. But that's all the scoring the Kings would do in the last game of '93 Finals, as Muller got his 10th goal of the playoffs a little more than a minute later and Lebeau scored midway through the period to give the Canadiens a 3-1 lead. Di Pietro finished out the scoring when he got his second of the game midway through the third period to give Montreal a three-goal cushion.

After winning 10 straight overtime games, the Canadiens enjoyed the luxury of a 4-1 clinching victory in the last Stanley Cup celebrated in the Montreal Forum.

"Everyone was a hero," Damphousse said. "We had eight guys score those 10 overtime goals. We rolled four lines and we knew our goaltender would make the big saves. We were underdogs throughout but when you look back at the players we had and the good careers that so many have gone on to, we had a pretty good team."