To say the NHL came into its own in the 1920s is to bid for the No. 1 understatement on the league’s century-long chronicle.
The soon-to-be singular circuit of major-league hockey in North America had toddled through December 1917 and the last two full years of the 1910s. Fast-forward a full decade, and it stood alone in its class. It had won seven of the final eight Stanley Cup Finals against PCHA or WCHL teams. And it saw its first smattering of U.S.-based franchises arise, with two winning a Cup by decade’s end.
In the first half of the decidedly two-faced 1920s, Ontario teams propped up NHL pride. They routinely bested their Montreal rivals in best-of-three or two-game, total-goal playoff sets, then conquered the best in a best-of-five Stanley Cup Final.
By the decade’s latter phases, civic bragging rights were a common secondary stake in the playoffs. But the Cup, now the go-to synonym for NHL championship trophy, remained the natural objective.
From total-goal squeakers to best-of-five series comebacks, here are the NHL’s 10 most compelling playoff matchups of its breakout decade.
10. 1920 Stanley Cup Final
The PCHA champion Seattle Metropolitans nearly surmounted a 2-0 deficit against the Ottawa Senators in an Ontario-hosted final. After mustering two goals over back-to-back losses in Ottawa, Seattle won its third straight full-blooded away games.
By extending the series to Game 4, they shuffled to the neutral Mutual Street Arena in Toronto. There they pulled even with a 5-2 eruption, putting them in a position to nearly polish a then-unprecedented rally.
The key word in those first two paragraphs, however, is nearly. An anticlimactic clincher saw the Sens rout the Mets, 6-1, on their third attempt to close the series.
9. 1922 Stanley Cup Final
As with the Ottawa-Seattle matchup two years prior, Mutual Street Arena saw a comparatively boring finish to a compelling series.
In this case, the first team to face elimination finished its comeback. The host Toronto St. Patricks had lost Games 1 and 3 to the visiting Vancouver Millionaries. In between, they effectively averted a three-game sweep by taking Game 2 in overtime.
But Toronto recuperated to the tune of 6-0 and 5-1 romps in the fourth and fifth fixtures.
8. 1923 O’Brien Cup Final
Before the Cup became the NHL’s and the NHL’s alone, the O’Brien trophy symbolized the league’s supremacy. Its holder would either go directly to the Stanley Cup Final or a play-in series.
In 1923, the Canadiens and Senators waged a two-game, total-goal bout to determine Vancouver’s play-in opponent. Ottawa raised a 2-0 upper hand with a road win at Mount Royal Arena. But closing out the Habs on home ice in the second game proved more dramatic than Game 1 may have suggested.
With late strikes from Aurel Joliat and Billy Boucher, Montreal pulled even, 2-2, at Game 2’s first intermission. Canadiens goaltender Georges Vezina would then stretch his carry-over shutout streak to 54 minutes and five seconds. But Cy Denneny rekindled Ottawa’s scoring touch in the closing frame, giving the Sens and their crowd the 3-2 aggregate victory.
7. 1922 O’Brien Cup Final
Following the same format as the aforementioned 1923 Montreal-Ottawa series, Toronto took a 5-4 seesaw at home in Game 1. The St. Patricks would only need to tie or outscore the Senators back in Ottawa to end their provincial rivals’ two-year Stanley Cup reign.
A little insurance in Game 2 could have eased the anxiety for Toronto rooters, but it never came. On the other hand, the Sens never drew the 5-5 knot they sought before their home crowd. The 5-4 difference held up, and the St. Pats went on to beat Vancouver for the Cup.
6-5. 1929 Stanley Cup semifinals
Both Boston’s sweep of the Canadiens and the Rangers’ sweep of Toronto saw every game decided by one goal. But only the Maple Leafs pushed their eventual conquerors to overtime.
Toronto struck early on its home ice in Game 2, then preserved the deadlock long after New York retorted. Frank Boucher would eventually break them, though, at 2:05 of the extra session.
4. 1927 Montreal Canadiens vs. Montreal Maroons
This two-game total-goal series was the only one in the 1927 tournament decided by a single strike.
After the intramural rivals tied, 1-1, in Game 1, a subsequent scoreless 60-minute deadlock prompted overtime. The Habs’ Howie Morenz ended the bonus round at the 12:05 mark.
3. 1929 NY Rangers vs. NY Americans
Yet another two-game, total-goal intramural battle spilled into sudden death. This one followed a pair of 0-0 regulation results, and took nearly two extra stanzas to settle.
With 10 seconds separating the teams from a third overtime, Rangers winger Butch Keeling finally beat Americans netminder Roy Worters.
2. 1921 Stanley Cup Final
The Millionaires hosted this full best-of-five bid for NHL-PCHA bragging rights. By the midway point of Game 2, though, a fourth or fifth contest looked less than likely.
Following a 3-1 win in the opener, Vancouver opened an identical advantage to start the second match. But that would be the last of the multi-goal leads for either team. And it wasn’t even enough to push Ottawa to the brink of a sweep that night.
The Senators stormed back for a 4-3 tiumph, squaring the series at a game apiece. Upon taking the lead after Game 3, they missed their first clinching opportunity by dropping the second of two consecutive 3-2 decisions.
In the resultant rubber match, the hosts led at the end of the first period. But Ottawa’s Jack Darragh found the equalizer in the middle frame, then the decider in the third stanza. With that, the Sens completed their third come-from-behind game victory on enemy property to win the series.
1. 1928 Stanley Cup Final
The best-of-five championship series went the distance, yet Rangers saw no action in their own building. In the first of several circus conflicts at Madison Square Garden through the years, they were relegated to the road.
Accordingly, the opposing Montreal Maroons had the backing of the Forum throngs in all five games. Yet after sandwiching a pair of 2-0 shutouts around a 2-1 setback, they had a hard time shutting the door.
By that point, the Blueshirts had already verified their elasticity. That Game 2 victory went to coach-turned-backup goalie Lester Patrick, who spelled the injured Lorne Chabot in a pinch.
Chabot returned for Game 4 five nights later, and laid a critical 1-0 goose egg. Then he stretched his shutout streak long enough for New York to open its first multi-goal lead of the series with 4:44 left in Game 5.
Merlyn Phillips spoiled Chabot’s shutout bid two minutes later. But the 2-1 squeaker held up, giving the Rangers the first Cup for any U.S.-based NHL franchise.
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