Edmonton Oilers Heritage Website

Edmonton fans barely knew Andy Moog when the Oilers named him their starting goalie for their first-rou

nd playoff series against the heavily favoured Montréal Canadiens. After all, Moog had only played seven National Hockey League (NHL) games of major-league hockey, and all that season.

By the time that series was over, Moog had become a household name in Edmonton. He outplayed Canadiens net minder Richard Sevigny in every game of the series and was a major reason why the Oilers swept the Canadiens in three short games.

Moog had impressed scouts with a successful run in goal for the Billings Bighorns of the Western Hockey League (WHL). Moog managed to distinguish himself despite playing on a team that was near the bottom of the WHL standings. The Oilers drafted him in the seventh round of 1980 draft and assigned him to their farm club in Wichita. There, Moog showed good skill and earned a few games with the Oilers lineup. When the post-season came, coach and general manager Glen Sather decided to go with the rookie in goal. The Oilers lost to the defending champions New York Islanders in a tough six-game series after the Montreal upset, but Moog believed he had done enough to establish himself as the prime candidate for the number-one job in 1981-82.

Instead, the Oilers gave the starting role to rookie Grant Fuhr, and Moog spent much of the 1981-82 campaign in the minors. After the Oilers’ first-round playoff loss in 1982, Sather decided he would platoon his two star goalies. For the next two seasons, Fuhr and Moog split regular season and playoff playing time. When the Oilers took their first Stanley Cup in 1984, Fuhr started the series by shutting out the Islanders, but Moog won the deciding game in Edmonton.

After the team’s first Cup, Sather changed the arrangement. The pair would still split regular season games, but when it came to the playoffs, Fuhr would be in net. Moog would win two more Cups with the team, in ’85 and ’87, but he spent those finals on the bench.

Frustrated, Moog gave Sather an ultimatum: more playing time, or else. In 1987, he left the team and joined the Canadian national team. As he did with the Oilers, Moog found himself in a platoon situation with Team Canada. Even though Moog won all four of his starts at the 1988 Calgary Olympics, the team did not medal because it fared poorly—with a 1-2-1 record—in Sean Burke’s four starts.

After the Olympics, Moog got his wish of becoming a full-time NHL starting goalie. The Oilers sent him to Boston, and he began a solid run as the team’s number-one goalie. He would later play for Dallas, and would finish his career playing for the Canadiens in the 1997-98 season. At the end of his career, Moog finished with a solid 372-209-88 record and 68 playoff wins.

Even though Moog was no longer an Oiler, he would go on to play some major games in the team’s history. As a Bruin, he would lead his team to two Stanley Cup finals against the Oilers in 1988 and 1990, losing both times. As a member of the Dallas Stars in 1997, he would become part of one of the most heated rivalries in the modern NHL.

Moog also allowed two of the most historic goals in Oilers’ history. He allowed Petr Klima’s famous triple-OT winner in Game 1 of the 1990 Stanley Cup final at the Boston Garden. The second came as a Dallas Star, where he was the victim of Todd Marchant’s famous Game 7 overtime goal that gave the Oilers a 1997 series win over Dallas. The Marchant goal would be Edmonton’s most famous first-round upset victory since Moog backstopped the Oilers to the 1981 upset of the Canadiens.