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1961 Stanley Cup Finals
1 2 3 4 5 6 Total Chicago Black Hawks 3 1 3 1 6 5 4 Detroit Red Wings 2 3 1 2 3 1 2
Location(s)	Chicago: Chicago Stadium (1, 3, 5) Detroit: Olympia Stadium (2, 4, 6)
Coaches	Chicago: Rudy Pilous Detroit: Sid Abel
Captains	Chicago: Ed Litzenberger Detroit: Gordie Howe
Dates	April 6–16, 1961
Series-winning goal	Ab McDonald (18:49, second, G6)
Hall of Famers	Black Hawks: Al Arbour (1996, builder) Glenn Hall (1975) Bill Hay (2015, builder) Bobby Hull (1983) Stan Mikita (1983) Pierre Pilote (1975) Red Wings: Alex Delvecchio (1977) Gordie Howe (1972) Marcel Pronovost (1978) Terry Sawchuk (1971) Norm Ullman (1982) Coaches: Sid Abel (1969, player) Rudy Pilous (1985)
← 1960 Stanley Cup Finals 1962 →

The 1961 Stanley Cup Finals was the championship series of the National Hockey League's (NHL) 1960–61 season, and the culmination of the 1961 Stanley Cup playoffs. It was contested between the Detroit Red Wings and the Chicago Black Hawks. Chicago was making its first Finals appearance since 1944, and Detroit its first appearance since 1956; both had lost to the Montreal Canadiens in those previous appearances. The Black Hawks won the best-of-seven series, four games to two, to win their third Stanley Cup, their first since 1938. This was the last time Chicago won the Cup until 2010, a 49-year drought.

This was the only title not won by the Canadiens, Red Wings or Toronto Maple Leafs during the Original Six era, and the only title won by a U.S. team between 1955 and 1970.

Detroit defeated Toronto in five games and Chicago upset Montreal, the record five-time defending champion, in six, setting up the first all-American-team Finals since 1950, when the Wings beat the New York Rangers in a seven-game series.

Two future Hockey Hall of Fame members, Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita, made their first Stanley Cup appearances. Hull scored two goals in the first game, including the winner, and Mikita scored the winner in game five.^[1]

This was the only Stanley Cup championship in the 1960s not to be won by either the Toronto Maple Leafs or the Montreal Canadiens^[1] or feature either team.

April 6	Detroit Red Wings		2–3		Chicago Black Hawks	Chicago Stadium	Recap
No scoring		First period			9:39 - pp - Bobby Hull (3) 10:10 - Kenny Wharram (2) 13:15 - Bobby Hull (4)
Len Lunde (2) - pp - 16:14		Second period			No scoring
Al Johnson (2) - 19:18		Third period			No scoring
Terry Sawchuck, Hank Bassen		Goalie stats			Glenn Hall

April 8	Chicago Black Hawks		1–3		Detroit Red Wings	Olympia Stadium	Recap
No scoring		First period			8:10 - Howie Young (2) 17:39 - pp - Alex Delvecchio (2)
Pierre Pilote (2) - 00:41		Second period			No scoring
No scoring		Third period			19:22 - Alex Delvecchio (3)
Glenn Hall		Goalie stats			Hank Bassen

April 10	Detroit Red Wings		1–3		Chicago Black Hawks	Chicago Stadium	Recap
No scoring		First period			No scoring
No scoring		Second period			11:54 - Stan Mikita (4) 14:19 - Ron Murphy (1) 18:16 - Murray Balfour (3)
Gordie Howe (4) - 9:28		Third period			No scoring
Hank Bassen		Goalie stats			Glenn Hall

April 12	Chicago Black Hawks		1–2		Detroit Red Wings	Olympia Stadium	Recap
No scoring		First period			No scoring
Bill Hay (2) - 7:34		Second period			8:48 - pp - Alex Delvecchio (4)
No scoring		Third period			13:10 - Bruce MacGregor (1)
Glenn Hall		Goalie stats			Terry Sawchuck

April 14	Detroit Red Wings		3–6		Chicago Black Hawks	Chicago Stadium	Recap
Leo Labine (3) - 2:14 Howie Glover (1) - pp - 15:35		First period			9:36 - Murray Balfour (4) 10:04 - Ron Murphy (2)
Vic Stasiuk (2) - 18:49		Second period			16:25 - Murray Balfour (5)
No scoring		Third period			2:51 - pp - Stan Mikita (5) 7:02 - Pierre Pilote (3) 13:27 - Stan Mikita (6)
Terry Sawchuck		Goalie stats			Glenn Hall

April 16	Chicago Black Hawks		5–1		Detroit Red Wings	Olympia Stadium	Recap
No scoring		First period			15:24 - pp - Parker MacDonald (1)
Reg Fleming (1) - sh - 6:45 Ab McDonald (2) - 18:49		Second period			No scoring
Eric Nesterenko (2) - 00:57 Jack Evans (1) - 6:27 Kenny Wharram (3) - 18:00		Third period			No scoring
Glenn Hall		Goalie stats			Hank Bassen

Chicago won series 4–2

The 1961 Stanley Cup was presented to Black Hawks captain Ed Litzenberger by NHL President Clarence Campbell following the Black Hawks 5–1 win over the Red Wings in game six.

The following Black Hawks players and staff had their names engraved on the Stanley Cup

1960–61 Chicago Black Hawks

• Allan Roy Edwards was engraved as Allan R. Edwards. He never played for Chicago. Roy Edwards first NHL game was during the 1967–68 season with Detroit.
• Denis DeJordy first NHL game was during the 1962–63 season, when he replaced Glenn Hall. This ended Hall's record of 502 consecutive complete games.
• Ronald Robert Murphy was engraved as Robert Murphy.
• Tod Aloysius Martin Sloan was engraved as Martin A. Sloan. He was engraved on the cup as Tod Sloan in 1951 with Toronto.
• Stan Mikita was born in Slovakia, but moved to Canada as young child. He was the first Slovakia born player to win the Stanley Cup.
• Wayne Hillman and Wayne Hicks both played in the last game of the Stanley Cup Finals game 6. So they qualified to be on the Stanley Cup. It was only game they played for Chicago that season. They spend the rest of the season in the minors.
• Captain Ed Litzenberger missed games 1 with an injury, so Ronald Chico Maki was dressed in his place. Maki's name was included on the Stanley Cup for dressing for 1 game in the Finals, even though he did not get any ice time, and Maki played his first regular season NHL game during the 1961–62 season.

The 1961 Stanley Cup Finals were almost not televised in Canada at all. At that time, the CBC only had rights to the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs' games; home games only during the season and all games in the playoffs. However, with both the Canadiens and Maple Leafs eliminated in the semi-finals, the CBC's worst nightmare became reality. The CBC had to conceive a way to carry the Finals between the Chicago Black Hawks and Detroit Red Wings or face public revolt. According to lore, the CBC found a way to link their Windsor viewers as having a vested interest in the Finals with the across the river Red Wings. Thus, CBC was able to carry the series after inking special contracts with the Red Wings and Black Hawks as a service to the Windsor market. From Windsor, CBC linked the signal to Toronto and they relayed the coverage Dominion-wide. From there, Canadians were able to see the Finals with nary a glitch in the coverage.

• 1960–61 NHL season

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

Preceded by Montreal Canadiens 1960

Chicago Black Hawks Stanley Cup Champions 1961

Succeeded by Toronto Maple Leafs 1962