The 1989-90 Stanley Cup Finals featured the Boston Bruins (Top seed in Wales Conference) and the Edmonton Oilers (2nd seed in Campbell conference), who had the MVP of the season in Mark Messier. This was the first time that the Oilers would be in the finals without Wayne Gretzky.
After a tough first round for both of these teams where they narrowly escaped into the second round (winning in 7) the Bruins and the Oilers then easily made it into the Stanley Cup Finals.
After a grueling matchup on night one which saw the game go into triple overtime with the Oilers winning 3-2 in Boston, game two turned out to be a little different with the same result.
The Oilers took an early 2-0 lead in the first game after two periods and the game seemed like it was out of reach for the Bruins, even though they were out shooting the Oilers. Then, in the third period the tides started turning and the Bruins shots finally started to find the back of the net. About four minutes into the third period Ray Bourque scored the first goal for the Bruins of assists by Neely and Hawgood, this cut the deficit in half with almost ¾ of a period to play.
Things then started to look bleak for the Bruins, less than two minutes to go on their home ice and they were still trailing 2-1 with a chance to go down 1-0 in the series. That is when things started to get interesting, with a minute and a half to go Bourque scored his second goal of the period, assisted by Neely and Hawgood, to tie the game up. The tie game ended up going into 3OT and turned out to be the longest game in Stanley Cup Finals history, a good way to start the series.
In addition to the game being the longest in Final history the game was also delayed about 25 minutes due to a power outage.
Almost another whole game later, in length of time, the Oilers finally ended up winning 55:13 into overtime, with five minutes remaining in the third overtime. The game overall ended up lasting five hours and 32 minutes and it ended in a heartbreaking loss for the Bruins. The Bruins went down 1-0 at home in the series and would need to win the next game to regain some momentum.
Going into game two three days later the Bruins knew they needed a win to stay in the series, the Oilers (specifically Kurri) had a different idea.
At 29 years old Kurri was one of the best playmakers in the game for the Oilers. In 10 seasons in the NHL Kurri surpassed 100 points six times. After the season was over Kurri started to see a bit of a dip in his production, but when it mattered the most the production was there.
The Oilers started the game off strong in the first period, taking an early 2-0 lead halfway into the period with Kurri scoring the second goal. The Bruins did end up striking back before the end of the period with the third goal of the series from Ray Bourque, at the end of one the score was Oilers 2, Bruins 1.
About three minutes into the second period the Bruins evened the score up with a goal from Hawgood. That would be the beginning of the end for the Bruins. Less than two minutes later Kurri scored his second goal of the day to give the Oilers a 3-2 lead.
The Oilers would go on to score three more goals in that period with less than five minutes remaining with Kurri assisting on two of those goals giving him four points in the game (2P, 2A).
With a 6-2 the Oilers had the game in their control, and it would have taken a miracle for the Bruins to come back. At the end though the Bruins were not able to anything in the third and with about 12 minutes remaining in the game Kurri notched his third goal of the game to earn himself a hat trick and tie the record for most points in a Stanley Cup Finals game with 5.
Before Kurri scored five points in the finals, six other players accomplished the same feat, the last being in 1944 by Toe Blake. Interestingly enough five of the six times a player has scored five points in a Stanley Cup Final up to that point occurred between 1942 and 1944.
Kurri became the seventh player to join the prestigious list, joining: Frank Foyston (1919), Eddie Bush (1942), Syl Apps (1942), Don Metz (1942), Sid Abel (1943), and Toe Blake (1944).
The Oilers would go on to lose the next game back in Edmonton for a 2-1 series lead, but then would end up winning the next two game to come home with another Stanley Cup trophy, their fifth and most recent championship.