Red Wings celebrate 25th anniversary of the 1997 Stanley Cup
Twenty-five fast facts on the Red Wings' historic championship run
This Is Hockeytown – 1997 Stanley Cup
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Red Wings' historic achievement, let's look back at 25 fast facts from that special 1996-97 season:
- Detroit won an NHL-record 62 games the season prior (1995-96).
- Forward Sergei Fedorov scored all five Detroit goals in a 5-4 win over the Washington Capitals on Dec. 26, 1996 at Joe Louis Arena. With his last tally at 2:39 of overtime, he became the first player in NHL history to score every goal for his team in a contest where at least five were scored.
Video: Retro Recap: Fedorov scores all 5 goals - Coach Scotty Bowman, who won six Stanley Cup titles with the Montreal Canadiens and Pittsburgh Penguins before coming to Detroit, notched his 1,000th victory with a 6-5 overtime win at Pittsburgh on Feb. 8, 1997. - February was arguably the Red Wings' best month of the regular season, as they finished with an 8-2-3 record. - Detroit's longest regular-season winning streak was three games, a feat it accomplished on three separate occasions. - Following a physical postseason series the previous year, tensions between the Red Wings and Colorado Avalanche reached a new high in a regular-season game on March 26, 1997, later dubbed Fight Night at The Joe. Nine different fights broke out, which ended tied, 5-5, after regulation. Forward Darren McCarty scored the game-winning goal in overtime, erupting an energetic Joe Louis Arena crowd.
Video: "Fight Night At The Joe" on March 26, 1997 - Captain Steve Yzerman, forward Brendan Shanahan and defenseman Slava Fetisov all represented the Red Wings at the 1997 NHL All-Star Game at San Jose Arena. - The Red Wings finished the regular season with a 38-26-18 record in 1996-97, good for second place in the Central Division and third in the Western Conference. - The Wings outscored their opponents by a margin of 253-197 in the regular season. - Goalies Chris Osgood, Mike Vernon and Kevin Hodson split time between the posts during the regular season. Osgood shouldered a majority of the workload, posting a 23-13-9 record and a 2.30 goals-against average in 45 starts. - The Red Wings collected 94 points in 1996-97, trailing only the Flyers (103), New Jersey Devils (104), Dallas Stars (104) and Avalanche (107) for most in the NHL. - Forward Mathieu Dandenault (20 years old) was the youngest player on the team while Fetisov (38 years old) was the oldest. - Detroit had the league's seventh-best power play percentage (17.9) in the regular season and the 11th-best percentage (14.5) in the postseason. - Shanahan led the Red Wings in regular-season goals (46) and postseason goals (nine). - Detroit goalies combined for seven regular-season shutouts, two more than the NHL average (five) in 1996-97. - The 1997 Stanley Cup Final between the Flyers and Red Wings was played in a single time zone. It marked just the second time since 1980 that the Final was held in a single time zone, with the 1995 Stanley Cup Final between Detroit and New Jersey being the other occurrence. - McCarty, who had 19 goals during the regular season, scored on a second-period breakaway in Game 4 of the 1997 Stanley Cup Final to put Detroit ahead, 2-0. His goal went on to become the game-winner in a 2-1 victory.
Video: Joe Moment: McCarty scores Stanley Cup Game 4 winner - Defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov was the runner-up for the James Norris Memorial Trophy in 1996-97, awarded annually to the NHL's best defenseman. Konstantinov led Detroit with a plus-38 plus-minus rating in 77 games while setting career-highs in assists (33) and points (38). - Detroit finished with a postseason record of 16-4. - The 1996-97 Red Wings had the second-best attendance in the league, averaging 19,978 fans per game. - Vernon won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Most Valuable Player in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Detroit netminder posted a 16-4 postseason record, a 1.76 goals-against average and a .927 save percentage in 20 games. - The Red Wings averaged 3.09 goals-per-game in the regular season. - Detroit beat the St. Louis Blues in six games in the Western Conference Quarterfinals, swept the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in four games in the Conference Semifinals and edged the Avalanche in six games in the Conference Finals before their four-game sweep over Philadelphia in the Stanley Cup Final. - Fedorov recorded a team-leading 12 assists in 20 postseason games. - Detroit surrendered three goals or more in just three postseason contests in 1997.
