1945 Stanley Cup Finals

1945 Stanley Cup Finals
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Total Toronto Maple Leafs 1 2 1 3 0 0* 2 4 Detroit Red Wings 0 0 0 5 2 1* 1 3
* – Denotes overtime period(s)
Location(s)	Detroit: Olympia Stadium (1, 2, 5, 7) Toronto: Maple Leaf Gardens (3, 4, 6)
Coaches	Toronto: Hap Day Detroit: Jack Adams
Captains	Toronto: Bob Davidson Detroit: Sid Abel
Dates	April 6–22, 1945
Series-winning goal	Babe Pratt (12:14, third)
Hall of Famers	Maple Leafs: Ted Kennedy (1966) Babe Pratt (1966) Sweeney Schriner (1962) Red Wings: Syd Howe (1965) Ted Lindsay (1966) Harry Lumley (1980) Bill Quackenbush (1976) Earl Seibert (1963) Coaches: Jack Adams (1959, player) Hap Day (1961, player)
← 1944 Stanley Cup Finals 1946 →

The 1945 Stanley Cup Finals was a best-of-seven series between the Detroit Red Wings and the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Maple Leafs once again defeated the Red Wings in seven games, despite leading 3–0 in a situation similar to 1942. This was the last Finals until 2024 where a team forced a seventh game after being down 3–0.

Toronto beat the defending champion Montreal Canadiens in six games to advance to the Finals. Detroit defeated the Boston Bruins in seven games to reach the Finals.

This was the first Stanley Cup Finals in NHL history where both teams started rookie goaltenders. Harry Lumley, who had become the youngest goaltender to play in the league the previous year, was in the Wings' net, while Frank McCool substituted for regular Maple Leafs netminder Turk Broda, who was in Europe with the Canadian army at the time.

In the first three games, which were low-scoring goaltenders' duels, McCool did not allow the Wings a single goal, the first time one team shut out the other for the first three games in Stanley Cup Finals history. In addition, Toronto now stood one win away from sweeping Detroit, as the Red Wings' Mud Bruneteau noted after game three. The last time the two teams had met in the Finals, in 1942, Toronto had beaten Detroit—after going down three games to none, becoming the first professional sports team in North America to win a playoff round in such a fashion. Fittingly enough, the Red Wings did the coming back this time, as their offense finally caught fire.

In game four, the Maple Leafs had a chance to win the Cup on Maple Leaf Gardens ice, but the Red Wings got on the board for the first time in the series when Flash Hollett opened the scoring 8:35 into the game, ending McCool's shutout streak at 193:09 (dating back to the semifinals against Montreal). Four other Detroit players, including rookie Ted Lindsay (who scored what transpired to be the game-winner at 3:20 of the third period), scored to overcome Ted Kennedy's hat trick.

Games five and six were Lumley's time to shine, shutting out the Leafs, including an overtime shutout in the sixth game, and extending the Finals. The series returned to Detroit for a seventh game, the Wings hoping to avenge their "choking" against the Leafs in 1942.

Toronto coach Hap Day almost had to eat his words of a few years back when he said of the Leafs' 1942 comeback from being down 3–0 in games, "There will never be another experience like this." Babe Pratt, however, scored the winning goal in a 2–1 victory that saved the Maple Leafs from being the victim of a great comeback win by the Red Wings. Lumley left the ice almost immediately after the end of the game, but a Detroit Olympia crowd chant of "We want Lumley!" brought him back. Lumley would go on to a Hockey Hall of Fame career. and McCool played just 22 more games in the NHL, as Broda returned to the Leafs in January 1946.^[1]

April 6	Toronto Maple Leafs		1–0		Detroit Red Wings	Olympia Stadium	Recap
Sweeney Schriner (3) - 13:56		First period			No scoring
No scoring		Second period			No scoring
No scoring		Third period			No scoring
Frank McCool		Goalie stats			Harry Lumley

April 8	Toronto Maple Leafs		2–0		Detroit Red Wings	Olympia Stadium	Recap
No scoring		First period			No scoring
Ted Kennedy (4) - 13:04		Second period			No scoring
Moe Morris (3) - 12:03		Third period			No scoring
Frank McCool		Goalie stats			Harry Lumley

April 12	Detroit Red Wings		0–1		Toronto Maple Leafs	Maple Leaf Gardens	Recap
No scoring		First period			No scoring
No scoring		Second period			No scoring
No scoring		Third period			3:01 - Gus Bodnar (3)
Harry Lumley		Goalie stats			Frank McCool

April 14	Detroit Red Wings		5–3		Toronto Maple Leafs	Maple Leaf Gardens	Recap
Flash Hollett (2) - pp - 8:35		First period			9:19 - Ted Kennedy (5) 11:44 - pp - Ted Kennedy (6)
Murray Armstrong (3) - 9:20		Second period			10:21 - Ted Kennedy (7)
Eddie Bruneteau (4) - sh - 1:11 Ted Lindsay (2) - 3:20 Joe Carveth (4) - 17:38		Third period			No scoring
Harry Lumley		Goalie stats			Frank McCool

April 19	Toronto Maple Leafs		0–2		Detroit Red Wings	Olympia Stadium	Recap
No scoring		First period			No scoring
No scoring		Second period			No scoring
No scoring		Third period			8:21 - Flash Hollett (3) 16:16 - Joe Carveth (5)
Frank McCool		Goalie stats			Harry Lumley

April 21	Detroit Red Wings		1–0	OT	Toronto Maple Leafs	Maple Leaf Gardens	Recap
No scoring		First period			No scoring
No scoring		Second period			No scoring
No scoring		Third period			No scoring
Eddie Bruneteau (5) - 14:16		First overtime period			No scoring
Harry Lumley		Goalie stats			Frank McCool

April 22	Toronto Maple Leafs		2–1		Detroit Red Wings	Olympia Stadium	Recap
Mel Hill (2) - 5:38		First period			No scoring
No scoring		Second period			No scoring
Babe Pratt (2) - pp - 12:14		Third period			8:16 - Murray Armstrong (4)
Frank McCool		Goalie stats			Harry Lumley

Toronto won series 4–3

The 1945 Stanley Cup was presented to Maple Leafs captain Bob Davidson by NHL President Red Dutton following the Maple Leafs 2–1 win over the Red Wings in game seven.

The following Maple Leafs players and staff had their names engraved on the Stanley Cup

1944–45 Toronto Maple Leafs

• 1944–45 NHL season

• Diamond, Dan (2000). Total Stanley Cup. Toronto: Total Sports Canada. ISBN 978-1-892129-07-9.
• Podnieks, Andrew; Hockey Hall of Fame (2004). Lord Stanley's Cup. Bolton, Ont.: Fenn Pub. pp 12, 50. ISBN 978-1-55168-261-7
• "All-Time NHL Results".

Preceded by Montreal Canadiens 1944

Toronto Maple Leafs Stanley Cup Champions 1945

Succeeded by Montreal Canadiens 1946