Lumley Secures Edmonton's First Cup
1984 Stanley Cup Finals, Game 5, May 9, 1984.
Edmonton 5, New York Islanders 2

Dave Lumley will not go to the Hall of Fame, but he did have a solid nine-year NHL career with the Oilers, Hartford Whalers and Montréal Canadiens, which saw him register 98 goals and 258 career points.

Lumley was a key role player with the Oilers’ teams that won Stanley Cups in 1984 and 1985.  He will always remember the role he played in helping the team secure its first-ever championship at the then-named Northlands Coliseum.

The Oilers faced the New York Islanders in the 1984 final. The Islanders were winners of four straight Cups and featured future Hall of Fame players like defenceman Denis Potvin, goalie Billy Smith and scoring sensations Bryan Trottier and Mike Bossy. The Islanders swept a young Oilers team in the Cup finals the year before, and many of the experts predicted that the Islanders were going to make it five Cups in a row.

The Oilers were determined to avenge the loss, and proceeded to win three of the first four games.  Their opportunity to clinch the cup came with a win on home ice in Game 5. That game, the Oilers jumped out to a four-goal lead, and the city already started to celebrate. However, late in the third period, a young American phenom by the name of Pat LaFontaine—named to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2003—scored two goals in 13 seconds to make things nervous for the Edmontonians.

"Most of us were thinking ‘what if?’ What if LaFontaine could get another two quick goals on us?" recalled Lumley. "We knew that he couldn’t get three more, but he was playing so well it might be possible that he could tie the game."

The comeback fears were not to be. In the last minute of the game, Lumley cleared the puck out of the Edmonton zone, past the pressing Islanders’ forwards, and into the empty net Smith had vacated in lieu of an extra attacker. He scored the Cup-clinching goal.

While mobbed by teammates, Lumley feared going back to bench, where coach Glen Sather waited. Lumley had actually made a poor decision, clearing the puck before he got to centre ice. Had the puck missed the net—which would have been the likely scenario—the icing call would have put the face-off deep in the Oilers zone and given the Islanders another chance for an attack.

"The crowd was in a frenzy, the Islanders were in our zone and they had the extra man," said Lumley. "I just turned and fired the puck. Yes, I was happy when it crossed the line. Because if it would have missed the net it would have been icing and the face-off would have come back in our end. Then, I would have had to go back to the bench and Slats would have been all over me."

While Lumley scored many of his goals with a goaltender guarding the net, the goal he scored into an empty net is the most special of all.

 "We were pretty confident we had won, but the empty-netter just confirmed it. It was the thrill of winning the first Cup. I don’t understand players who say that winning their second or third Cup is as good as the first one. The first one is best."

And what did Lumley think of that upstart young team with which he won the Stanley Cup?

"You had a whole bunch of guys who grew up together… It was like putting 20 kids in a candy store."

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