The Oilers and Flyers met in the Final for the second time in three years. This time, Edmonton was the regular-season champion with 50 wins and 106 points, and Philadelphia was second with 46 wins and 100 points. This was a rematch of the
1985 Stanley Cup Final, where the Oilers beat the Flyers in five games. Unlike the 1985 Final, this series went to seven games. Edmonton took the first two games at home, then split in Philadelphia. However, the Flyers won the next two games, one in Edmonton and one back in Philadelphia by one goal, to force a deciding seventh game. Edmonton won game seven to earn its third Stanley Cup in four seasons. During the Stanley Cup presentation, Oilers captain
Wayne Gretzky would give the Cup to
Steve Smith, who one year earlier scored on his own net a goal that led to their downfall against the
Calgary Flames, their
in-province rivals, in the
Smythe Division Final. Ron Hextall would receive the Conn Smythe Trophy for his efforts. For the first time in the Final, both starting goalies, Hextall and
Grant Fuhr, wore the full fiberglass cage mask which is now required across almost all levels of competitive hockey. Fuhr wore the original face-hugging fiberglass mask in his three previous Final appearances before switching to the full cage in the 1985–86 season.
Patrick Roy was the second goalie to wear the full cage in the Final when he backstopped the
Montreal Canadiens to victory vs. the
Calgary Flames the previous year; the first was
Gilles Meloche of the
Minnesota North Stars in
1981. Many people consider this to be one of the greatest Stanley Cup Finals of all time.
Game one With the game tied at 1–1 after 40 minutes of play, the Oilers won thanks to third-period goals by
Glenn Anderson,
Paul Coffey, and
Jari Kurri. Gretzky registered a goal and an assist in the onslaught as part of a 4–2 win. The Flyers outshot Edmonton 31–26.
Game two This time, the Flyers led 2–1 after two periods. Despite matching the Oilers line for line and speed for speed, Edmonton burned Philly with a third-period goal, then on the game-winner by Kurri, who took advantage of some disorganized defensive play by the Flyers in overtime to score the game-winning goal with a wide-open chance in a 3–2
overtime victory.
Game three Looking to take a commanding 3–0 series lead, Edmonton came out firing, taking a 2–0 lead after one period on goals by
Mark Messier and Coffey, then stretching it to 3–0 on Anderson's fluke breakaway goal 1:49 into the second. With their backs against the wall, the Flyers began a comeback on second-period goals by
Murray Craven and
Peter Zezel. Early in the third, tallies 17 seconds apart by
Scott Mellanby and
Brad McCrimmon tied the game, then put the Flyers ahead 4–3. For the remainder of the period, the Flyers gamely kept the Oilers' potent offense at bay until
Brian Propp's empty-net goal sealed a 5–3 win. Until this point, no team had ever rebounded from a 3–0 deficit to win a game in the Final, and the Flyers won their first-ever playoff game after yielding a game's first three goals.
Game four The momentum from game three did not carry over for Philadelphia. Gretzky notched three assists as the Oilers won, 4–1, and took a three games to one series lead. In a relatively sedate affair, the most shocking event came when Flyers goaltender Ron Hextall viciously chopped his stick across the back of the legs of Edmonton's
Kent Nilsson in the third period when trailing 4–1. Hextall was apparently incensed that Anderson and other Oilers had cruised through the goal crease untouched and unpenalized during the game, and took out his frustration on the last Oiler he happened to see skate by. Hextall's actions caused Nilsson no injury, but Hextall would be suspended for the first eight games of the season.
Game five Edmonton's newspapers had published plans for a future victory parade that day, and the Oilers tried to make those plans come to fruition when they beat Hextall for two quick first-period goals. Although the Flyers got one back and trailed 2–1 after one period, Hextall let Edmonton's third goal of the game, a tip-in by
Marty McSorley with nearly two minutes gone in the second slip between his arm and body; time was growing short. Facing the end of their season, the Flyers clawed back and tied the game 3–3 on goals by
Doug Crossman and
Pelle Eklund. With almost six minutes played in the third, Propp fed
Rick Tocchet in the slot for the go-ahead score. Hextall and the Flyers' defence clamped down on the Oilers the rest of the way and the series came back to Philadelphia.
Game six With a chance to close out the series without the pressure of home ice, Edmonton took a 2–0 lead against a hesitant Flyers club on a disputed goal by
Kevin Lowe and a stuffer by checking winger
Kevin McClelland. The Oilers took control of the game in all aspects, outshooting Philly 15–5 in the opening 20 minutes. The Flyers had little chance until
Lindsay Carson managed to thread a puck through
Grant Fuhr's pads a little more than seven minutes into the second period. The Oilers kept the pressure on, and carried play into the third period. However, Anderson's careless high-sticking penalty with eight minutes left in regulation led to Propp's electric game-tying goal, snapping a shot high into the left corner of the net. Eighty-four seconds later, little-used Flyer defenceman
J. J. Daigneault stepped up to a dying puck inside the Oilers' blue line, and cranked the puck just inside the right post to give the Flyers a 3–2 advantage. Daigneault's goal stirred the Spectrum crowd to a frenzy providing what has been called the loudest moment in that arena's history, and the game is often nicknamed
"The Night the Spectrum Shook". The only threat to that lead came with ten seconds left, when Mark Messier picked off Hextall's attempted clear, broke in, and took one shot into Hextall's pads and a second over the top of the net.
Mark Howe knocked down a last-ditch Oiler effort at the buzzer, and the Final headed to a seventh game for the first time since .
Game seven Two unusual occurrences marked the opening of the game, which marked the first game 7 since 1971: the Flyers were awarded a two-man advantage one minute into the contest, and scored the first goal of the game for the first time in the Final. Craven banked a shot off Fuhr's skate only 1:41 into the game for a 1–0 Philadelphia lead. The Oilers came back six minutes later when Messier finished off a 3-on-1 with a backhander to tie the game. Kurri delivered a huge blow to Flyers victory hopes when he beat Hextall with quick wrist shot off a Gretzky pass at 14:59 into the second period, giving the Oilers a one-goal cushion. Edmonton dominated the second and third periods of the game, controlling the flow with their speed, maintaining puck possession such that they allowed the Flyers only 6 shots on goal in the middle 20 minutes and a mere 2 shots in the third, while scoring one goal each in the second (on 13 shots) and third (on 12 shots) periods, including an insurance goal on Anderson's 30-footer up the middle with 2:24 left in the game. Philadelphia's Hextall, who had 40 saves in game seven, was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs MVP despite Edmonton's victory. His feat was the fourth time a Conn Smythe winner came from a losing team. He was preceded by
Roger Crozier, goaltender with the Detroit Red Wings in ,
St. Louis Blues goalie
Glenn Hall in , and Flyers right wing
Reggie Leach in .
Jean-Sebastien Giguere, also a goalie, would later become the playoff MVP with the Final-losing
Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. This is the most recent game seven in the Final to have a lead change, and the most recent to have a game-tying goal until
2024. All nine games seven played since then (
1994,
2001,
2003,
2004,
2006,
2009,
2011,
2019, and
2024) had neither, aside from the aforementioned 2024 Final which had a game-tying goal. This was also the last time that the champs would skate off with the Cup after winning the trophy. When the Oilers repeated the next year, they started the tradition in which everyone gathered around with the Cup in a team photo. ==Broadcasting==