Hockey’s biggest blowouts

The Boston Bruins battled back into the Stanley Cup final with a stunning 8-1 win on home ice Monday night in Game 3 against the Vancouver Canucks.

It’s the third time the Bruins have scored eight goals against an opponent in the 2010-2011 season.

It’s also one of fewer than 20 Stanley Cup Final games to have a differential of five or more goals since 1927.

Here are some others:

In 1936, the Detroit Red Wings steamrolled over the Toronto Maple Leafs in a 9-4 victory in Game 3 of the NHL finals, going on to win the best-of-five series and their first Stanley Cup.

The 1942 best-of-seven series between the Leafs and the Red Wings was a close one. After three games, the Red Wings looked poised to clinch the series but pair of back-to-back victories by the Leafs, including a spectacular 9-3 win in Game 5 of the series, helped propel the Leafs to their fourth Stanley Cup.

That historic series was the NHL’s first to got to Game 7.

The 1947 series between the Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens was the first all-Canadian NHL final in over a decade. The Canadiens kicked off the series with a 6-0 victory, but the team couldn’t keep it together long enough to fend off the Leafs, who went on to take the series and the Cup in four games.

The following year, the Leafs won their second consecutive Stanley Cup with a four-game sweep over the Red Wings. The series ended with the Leafs’ 7-2 win before the home crowd.

In 1953, the Canadiens beat the Bruins 7-3 in Game 4 of their series, hammering the final nail in the coffin to win the Cup in their third consecutive finals appearance.

The Red Wings beat the Canadiens 7-1 in the second game of their 1955 Stanley Cup series. The Canadians fought back with 6-5 and 5-3 victories in Games 3 and 4. It wasn’t enough to clinch the series. The Canadiens handed Detroit their fourth Stanley Cup in six seasons.

Ten years later, the Wings faced the Canadiens again. It was déjà vu for Detroit as they endured a six goal shellacking in Game 5 of the series, losing 6-0 in that game as Montreal went on to win the Cup.

In 1973, the Canadiens toppled the Black Hawks 8-3 in Game One of the Cup final. The Habs suffered a pair of devastating losses, 7-4 in Game 3 and 8-7 in Game 5, but kept the momentum going to beat the Hawks with four victories in the best-of-seven series.

The 1980 Stanley Cup match-up between the New York Islanders and the Philadelphia Flyers was a high-scoring series. The Flyers set the tone with a 8-3 win in the second game, though the Islanders would eventually rally back to win their first Stanley Cup.

The Edmonton Oilers hammered the Islanders with three back-to-back victories, including a pair of 7-2 consecutive wins, becoming Stanley Cup champions in 1984.

A year later, the Oilers would do it again, beating the Flyers with four consecutive victories and a sweet 8-3 home ice win in Game 5.

In 1990, the Oilers toppled the Bruins 7-2 in Game 2, fending off Boston in four games to one for their fifth Cup win in seven years.

The Pittsburgh Penguins crushed the Minnesota North Stars 8-0 in Game 6 of their 1991 matchup. The Penguins won the Cup that year, the first U.S. franchise to do so since 1983.

The Colorado Avalanche beat the Florida Panthers 8-1 in Game 2 of the 1996 finals going on to win the series in a four-game sweep.

The Red Wings’ 6-1 win in Game 3 of 1997 finals crushed the Flyers’ confidence. Detroit took the Cup in a four straight games.

The New Jersey Devils staved off a 5-0 loss in Game 1 of their 2001 series with Colorado, forcing the series to seven games. The Avalanche went on to win their second Stanley Cup.

The Carolina Hurricanes battered the Oilers 5-1 and 5-0 in games 1 and 2 of the 2006 finals. The Oilers rallied back with a pair of wins in games 5 and 6, but Hurricanes prevailed, winning their first Stanley Cup.

The Red Wings snapped Pittsburgh’s two-game winning streak in the 2009 Finals with a 5-0 win in Game 5, but Sidney Crosby’s Penguins came back to win it in seven. About eight million viewers tuned in for that game, the most-watched NHL game in the U.S. since the 1973 finals.