in the late 1940s, the line of sid abel, gordie howe, and ted lindsey became very important to the team. abel won the hart trophy in 1949, and lindsey won the art ross trophy as scoring champion in 1950. howe then won six hart and six art ross trophies between 1951 and 1963. terry sawchuck was a star goaltender, who ended up with more career shutouts than any other goalie (103). red kelly won the first ever norris trophy as best defence. as a result of having such great players, the red wings won four stanley cups in six years: 1950, 1952, 1954, and 1955. two of these were very close: they were won in overtime of the 7th and deciding game in 1950 (against the new york rangers) and 1954 (against the montreal canadiens). these are the only two times the nhl championship has gone to overtime of game seven.