1989 Stanley Cup playoffs

The 1989 Stanley Cup playoffs, the playoff tournament of the National Hockey League (NHL) began on April 5, after the conclusion of the 1988–89 NHL season. This was the final year that all of the Division Semifinals began with teams playing the first four games in a span of five days. The playoffs concluded on May 25 with the champion Calgary Flames defeating the Montreal Canadiens 4–2 to win the Stanley Cup Finals four games to two.

It remains the last time that the Cup Finals was contested between two Canadian hockey teams. Montreal finished the regular season with 115 points, only two behind the league leader Calgary. They had last faced each other in 1986, with Montreal winning in five games. Calgary was only the second opposing team in NHL history to win a Stanley Cup at the Montreal Forum (the New York Rangers defeated the Montreal Maroons in 1928) and the first and only to do so against the Canadiens. Flames defenceman Al MacInnis won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, while Lanny McDonald, who ended the regular season with exactly 500 goals, got his name on the Cup in his last NHL game. Flames co-owner Sonia Scurfield became the first Canadian woman to have her name inscribed on the Stanley Cup.

Wayne Gretzky and the Los Angeles Kings met the defending champion Oilers in the first round. The Kings defeated the defending Stanley Cup champions after falling behind 3–1. However, they were swept by the eventual champion Calgary Flames in four games the next round.

Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Ron Hextall became the first goaltender to actually score a goal in the playoffs, a shorthanded, empty-net goal in Game 5 of the Patrick Division Semifinal against the Washington Capitals. One round later, Mario Lemieux equaled four NHL-records (most goals in a game, most goals in a period, most points in a game, and most points in a period) by scoring five goals and eight points in a 10–7 Pittsburgh win in game five of the Patrick Division Finals. Hextall then made headlines in the Wales Conference Finals, attacking Montreal's Chris Chelios in the late stages of Game 6 as retribution for Chelios' unpenalized hit on Flyers forward Brian Propp in game one. Hextall received a 12-game suspension at the start of the 1989–90 season for his actions.

Former Flyers head coach Mike Keenan led Chicago to the Campbell Conference finals in his first year behind the bench. The Blackhawks had 66 points, the fewest points of any playoff team this season, yet they upset first place Detroit and then St. Louis before losing to Calgary.^[1][2]