Dave Babych (b. May 23, 1961), who played 19 seasons in the NHL as a defenseman, celebrates his 51st birthday this week. We'll take a few moments here to salute him.Dave Babych never won a Stanley Cup, but came close in 1994 with the Vancouver Canucks. He also scored a big goal in the fifth game of the '94 Finals against the Rangers, helping the Canucks win that one 6-3 to extend the series. Vancouver won the following game, before losing the seventh game by a goal at Madison Square Garden.
But Babych's goal in Game Five certainly was one of the biggest goals of his career. The Canucks had gone up 3-0 in the third period, only to see the Rangers score three goals in just under six minutes to tie the game, sending the Garden to a frenzy. Just 29 seconds after Mark Messier had tied it for the Rangers, though, Babych scored to give Vancouver the lead for good. He jumped into the rush and buried a pass from Pavel Bure past Mike Richter for the game-winner.
The '94 Finals wasn't the only time he came close, as his '86 Hartford Whalers was one goal away from advancing to the Wales Conference Finals. Babych also scored a big goal in that year's playoffs.
As he recalled years later: "In 1986, I was traded to the Hartford Whalers from the Winnipeg Jets, and we barely made the playoffs. Then we beat the Quebec Nordiques in the first round. In the second round, we took the Montreal Canadiens to Game 7. We were trailing 2-1 with about three minutes left when I took a slap shot from just inside the blue line that deflected off Patrick Roy's glove and went into the net. We were thinking that maybe it was our year to beat the Canadiens, but we eventually lost in overtime." [1]
Here's a clip of the '94 goal, courtesy this YouTube video uploaded by savoytruffle:
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[1] "The Game I'll Never Forget," 2002.
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