Cole Caufield’s extraordinary season will finish in the NHL Stanley Cup Final

Montreal’s Cole Caufield scores past Vegas’ Robin Lehner during the second period in Game 6 of an NHL Stanley Cup semifinal series Thursday in Montreal.

PAUL CHIASSON, CANADIAN PRESS

The list of comparables for Cole Caufield keeps getting shorter.

The length of the season for the former University of Wisconsin men’s hockey star gets keeps getting longer.

Caufield will play in the Stanley Cup Final just over three months after finishing a Hobey Baker Award-winning season for the Badgers. His fourth goal of the series put the Montreal Canadiens ahead in the second period of a 3-2 overtime victory against the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday.

Caufield will be the fifth player to skate for an NCAA team and appear in the Stanley Cup Final in the same season. Two of the first four also played for the Badgers. The list:

• Neal Broten, 1981, Minnesota and Minnesota North Stars (also a Hobey winner).

• David Maley, 1986, UW and Montreal.

• Brett Hull, 1986, Minnesota Duluth and Calgary.

• John Byce, 1990, UW and Boston.

Former University of Wisconsin men’s hockey player Cole Caufield shares his feeling after the Montreal Canadiens advanced to the Stanley Cup Final with a 3-2 overtime victory against the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday, June 24, 2021. Video courtesy Montreal Canadiens.

Caufield, 20 years and 173 days, was the second-youngest player to score for Montreal in a potential series-clinching game. Hall-of-Famer Henri Richard was 20 years, 27 days when he scored twice in the 1956 semifinals.