The Good Friday Massacre, (French: ),
was a second-round playoff match-up during the 1984 NHL Playoffs. The game occurred on Good Friday

Good Friday

Good Friday , is a religious holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. The holiday is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday, and may coincide with the Jewish observance of...

, April 20, 1984 in Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, Quebec, Canada, between the Quebec Nordiques

Quebec Nordiques

The Quebec Nordiques were a professional ice hockey team based in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The Nordiques played in the World Hockey Association and the National Hockey League...

 and the Montreal Canadiens

Montreal Canadiens

The Montreal Canadiens are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The club is officially known as ...

. After a number of fights, a bench-clearing brawl

Bench-clearing brawl

A bench-clearing brawl, sometimes known as a basebrawl or a rhubarb, is a form of ritualistic fighting that occurs in sports, most notably baseball and ice hockey, in which every player on both teams leave their dugouts, bullpens, or benches and charge the playing area in order to fight one...

 broke out at the end of the second period. When the teams returned to ice for the third period, a second brawl broke out between the teams, including players who had already been ejected from the game but had not been notified prior to their return to the ice. The officials had to be summoned to the rink to restore order.

A total of 252 penalty minutes were incurred and 10 players were ejected. The altercations included the Canadiens' Mario Tremblay

Mario Tremblay

Mario Tremblay is a former professional ice hockey player and former coach in the National Hockey League...

 smashing the nose of the Nordiques' Peter Stastny

Peter Stastny

Peter Šťastný , also known colloquially as "Peter the Great" and "Stosh", is a retired Slovak professional ice hockey player who played in the National Hockey League from 1980 to 1995. During his time with the Quebec Nordiques, Stastny became a Canadian citizen. Since 2004, he has also served as a...

, and Louis Sleigher

Louis Sleigher

Louis Sleigher is a retired professional ice hockey player who played 62 games in the World Hockey Association and 194 games in the National Hockey League. He played for the Quebec Nordiques and Boston Bruins...

 knocking Jean Hamel

Jean Hamel

Jean P. Hamel is a retired professional ice hockey player who played 699 games in the National Hockey League. He played for the St. Louis Blues, Detroit Red Wings, Quebec Nordiques, and Montreal Canadiens....

unconscious by hitting him in the eye. Hamel managed to return for training camp in the autumn of 1984, but sustained another eye injury in Montreal's last pre-season game, prompting him to retire.

Eventually, the Canadiens defeated the Nordiques that night by a score of 5-3, thereby winning the series 4 games to 2.