It’s a moment almost all Detroit Red Wings fans remember. The night Detroit embarrassed the Colorado Avalanche en route to the Stanley Cup Final. An already heated series by the most intense rivalry in professional sports made even more so by the skill level of both teams.
After a scare for the Red Wings after Game 5, going down 3 games to 2, Detroit managed to rally and force a game 7 with the Avalanche. Everyone expected a reasonably close game, as the rest of the series had been. Boy, would they be shocked, much to the delight of Detroit fans everywhere.
The Red Wings opened the scoring at 1:56 into the first period, just six seconds after a faceoff in the Colorado end, and they didn’t look back from there. Before the game’s conclusion, the Red Wings would score six more times to shut out the Avalanche 7 – 0 heading into the Stanley Cup Finals.
The sweetest part of the victory was the fact that Patrick Roy was the goaltender in the net for Colorado, a target of much ire of the Red Wings fan base.
Here is a video of that game, which happened on this day 20 years ago!
On this day 20 years ago, the @DetroitRedWings beat the Colorado Avalanche 7-0 in Game 7 of the 2002 WCF, chasing Patrick Roy in the process.
The Red Wings went on to win the Cup that season. One of the greatest Game 7 performances in sports history. #LGRW pic.twitter.com/ix7nykWzYe
— Winged Wheel Podcast (@WingedWheelPod) May 31, 2022
The 2002 Red Wings team was arguably one of the most star-studded teams ever assembled in the NHL, thanks to the lack of a salary cap at the time. They currently have nine Hall of Famers from that 2002 roster; 10 if you include then-head coach Scotty Bowman.
The Detroit Red Wings won 3 Stanley Cups from 1997 to 2002, a dynasty we’ll likely never see again in the salary cap era.
