1995 Stanley Cup Finals
The 1995 Stanley Cup Finals was the championship series of the National Hockey League's (NHL) 1994–95 season, and the culmination of the 1995 Stanley Cup playoffs. It was contested by the Eastern Conference champion New Jersey Devils and the Western Conference champion Detroit Red Wings. The Devils swept the series four games to none to win their first Stanley Cup championship in franchise history in their 21st season. They became the sixth team to earn a championship after joining the league in 1967 or later. This was the first of nine consecutive Finals to feature only American-based franchises. It was the Devils franchise's first appearance in the Finals, while Detroit returned to the Finals for the first time since 1966 (and had not won since 1955; both of those appearances had been against the Montreal Canadiens). It was the first of four consecutive sweeps in the finals. This is also the first time in both the NHL and NBA history where both finals involved the first-seeded team being swept.
| 1995 Stanley Cup Finals | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||
| Location(s) | East Rutherford: Brendan Byrne Arena (3, 4) Detroit: Joe Louis Arena (1, 2) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Coaches | New Jersey: Jacques Lemaire Detroit: Scotty Bowman | ||||||||||||||||||
| Captains | New Jersey: Scott Stevens Detroit: Steve Yzerman | ||||||||||||||||||
| National anthems | New Jersey: Unknown Detroit: Karen Newman | ||||||||||||||||||
| Referees | Bill McCreary (1, 4) Terry Gregson (2) Kerry Fraser (3) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Dates | June 17–24, 1995 | ||||||||||||||||||
| MVP | Claude Lemieux (Devils) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Series-winning goal | Neal Broten (7:56, second, G4) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Hall of Famers | Devils: Martin Brodeur (2018) Scott Niedermayer (2013) Scott Stevens (2007) Red Wings: Dino Ciccarelli (2010) Paul Coffey (2004) Sergei Fedorov (2015) Viacheslav Fetisov (2001) Mark Howe (2011) Nicklas Lidstrom (2015) Mike Vernon (2023) Steve Yzerman (2009) Coaches: Scotty Bowman (1991) Jacques Lemaire (1984, player) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Networks | Canada: (English): CBC (French): SRC United States: (English): Fox (1, 4), ESPN (2–3) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | (CBC) Bob Cole and Harry Neale (SRC) Claude Quenneville and Gilles Tremblay (Fox) Mike Emrick and John Davidson (ESPN) Gary Thorne and Bill Clement | ||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
Despite the fact that the regular season was cut short by the owners' lockout, both the season and the Finals were saved at the eleventh hour – this was the latest date that the Stanley Cup was awarded. This record was later matched in 2013 and then broken by the COVID-19 pandemic affected 2019–20 NHL season. The fifth seeded Devils held the record as the lowest seeded team to win the Stanley Cup until the Los Angeles Kings broke the record in 2012. Their regular season winning percentage was also the lowest for a Cup winner since the 1966–67 Toronto Maple Leafs.
This was the first Cup Finals since 1980 to be played entirely within one time zone.