To say the Montreal Canadiens were ready for the 1979 playoffs is a huge understatement.
Based on their regular season record of 52-17-11 in 80 games, the Habs were prepared to defend their Stanley Cup championship from the previous year. Only the New York Islanders with 116 points topped the Canadiens point total of 115.
Montreal had a powerful offence that scored 337 goals, second best for the 1978-79 season, but on defence, the goaltending tandem of Ken Dryden and Bunny Larocque led the league with the fewest goals against - 204 - and were honoured with the Vezina Trophy.
The Canadiens sweep of the Toronto Maple Leafs in the quarter-finals was especially sweet for Ken Dryden.
When Montreal bounced the Leafs in game four, the 5-4 victory on April 22, 1979, was Dryden's 72nd win in NHL playoff competition. The new playoff King moved passed former Montreal legend, Jacques Plante, to earn top spot in the win column.
The win didn't come easy, as the Leafs fought back from a 4 goal deficit to force sudden death overtime.
And sudden death for Toronto came at the 4:14 mark of the first overtime period.
The game-winning goal was scored by defenceman Larry Robinson on the power play with Tiger Williams in the penalty box. Frank Orr of the Toronto Star wrote, "Leafs had killed 1.24 of the two minutes when Robinson drove a slap-shot from the blueline through a screen of players in front of Leaf goalie Paul Harrison to complete the sweep."
Jacques Plante earned his 71st playoff win on April 28, 1970, in game five of the St. Louis Blues semi-final series against the Pittsburgh Penguins. As a result of Plante blanking the Penguins 5-0, he became the all-time leader in NHL playoff shutouts with 14. Plante shared the previous record of 13 with former Toronto Maple Leaf goalie Turk Broda.
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