1942 Miracle Maple Leafs (National Hockey League)

The 1942 Miracle Maple Leafs

Of all the three major professional North American sports leagues, no team has ever come back from being down three games to none in a championship series except for the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs.

The 2004 Boston Red Sox came back from 3-0 in the Al Championship Series to defeat the New York Yankees and sweep the St. Louis Cardinals to win their first World Series since 1918. The 1951 New York Knicks were down 3-0 in the NBA Finals against the Rochester Royals but lost in game 7. The Denver Nuggets came back against the Utah Jazz after being down 3-0 in the 1994 Western Conference Semifinals and lost in game 7. The Portland Trail Blazers came back from a 3-0 deficit to lose to the Dallas Mavericks in game 7 of the 2003 Western Conference First Round.

In other leagues, teams have come back from a 3-0 deficit, most notably Dukla Trencin of the Slovak Extrliga, who accomplished the feat twice, first in 2008 in the Quarterfinals against Martin and again in the Quarterfinals against Slovan Bratislava.

Since 1942, several teams have come back from being down 3-0 in a series in the NHL. The next time it happened was with the 1975 New York Islanders, who fell behind 3-0 in games to the Pittsburgh Penguins in their second-round matchup before defeating the Penguins in Game 7, 1-0 on a late third-period goal by Ed Westfall, in the next round the Islanders had the Philadelphia Flyers right where they wanted them, trailing the best of seven series 3-0 in games, the Islanders nearly pulled off a second consecutive playoff miracle coming back to tie the series at three games apiece before succumbing to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Flyers in game 7.

The 2009-10 Philadelphia Flyers turned the trick defeating the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference Semifinals best of seven after trailing 3-0 in the series. The 2013-14 Los Angeles Kings came back in the Western Conference First Round to eliminate the San Jose Sharks after falling behind 3-0 in games.

To this day, only the 1942 Miracle Maple Leafs have accomplished the comeback in the championship series. After defeating the Detroit Red Wings to win the 1942 Stanley Cup, the two teams met again in the Stanley Cup final in 1945. This time the Red Wings were down 3-0 in the series and managed to come back to tie the series at three before bowing out by a score of 2-1 in game 7. The series was a low-scoring affair, with five of the seven games being shut-outs, one of them in overtime (game six). Every game of the Stanley Cup Final that year was 1-0, or 2-0 except for game four which Detroit won 5-3, and game seven which Toronto clinched the cup by a 2-1 margin.

Hall of Famer Turk Broda backstopped the 1942 Miracle Maple Leafs; Broda would play in all 48 regular-season games for the Leafs, winning 28, losing 18, and tying 3 while earning 6 shutouts. The Leaf’s blueline boasted 21 point man Bucko McDonald with tough guy Rudolph Kampman, registering 67 penalty minutes on the blueline. Upfront, the team was led by captain Syl Apps (41 points), rugged sniper Gordie Drillon (23 goals), and set up man Billy Taylor (26 assists). Behind the bench was coach Hap Day with Conn Smythe as General manager.

The Maple Leafs started the 1941-42 season strong, winning 14 of their first 19 games, but later would slump, winning only 4 of 14 games they began to lose ground to the New York Rangers and the Boston Bruins, by seasons end, the Leafs finished in second place three points behind the Rangers and 1 point ahead of the Bruins.

Playoffs

In the first round, The Maple Leafs met the New York Rangers and defeated the league’s number one team in the regular season in six games. Detroit finished in fifth place overall and advanced to the Stanley Cup final by defeating the Montreal Canadians and the Boston Bruins.

In the Finals, the Red Wings defeated the Maple Leafs by scores of (3-2), (4-2), and (5-2) before the Maple Leafs stormed back. The Leafs would go on to win the next four games by scores of (4-3), (9-3), (3-0) and closing out the series with a 3-1 win on home ice to capture the franchises fourth Stanley Cup and first in ten years while earning the moniker “The 1942 Miracle Maple Leafs”, and a place in the history books.