Only the Bruins, Boston’s National Hockey League team, have failed to win their championship, but that could change over the next two weeks when they square off against Vancouver in the Stanley Cup final.

It has been 39 years since the Bruins won ice hockey’s most coveted prize and 21 since they made the final, but for a city that endured 86 years of frustration between titles for the Red Sox the wait will have been worth it.

“We haven’t (been in the final) for a long time as an organization,” said Boston winger Nathan Horton. “But this year is all that matters.

“Hopefully we can win it for ourselves, win it for our fans, and for the history of the Boston Bruins.”

Horton has played a key role in getting the Bruins to the final, scoring the Game Seven winner in the first round of the playoffs against Montreal and the Game Seven winner in the Eastern Conference final against Tampa Bay.

But while his clutch goals have made the headlines, it is the workmanlike approach of the Bruins squad that has got them where they are and endeared them to the Massachusetts faithful.

They are not as flashy as some other teams but what they lack in glitz they make up for in grit and graft, grinding their way out of low-scoring games.

Guarded by an almost impenetrable defense, led by their towering Slovakian captain Zdeno Chara and acrobatic goalminder Tim Thomas, they are a team with unwavering self-belief and will to win.

“Our ambition is to go and win the Stanley Cup,” the team’s long-time owner Jeremy Jacobs told reporters.

“There is a common bond now that exists between everybody. You really build an organization, and I say a hockey organization, a player organization.

“The athletes are all committed to a central point, and that is a wonderful thing to see and a wonderful place to be.”

The Bruins lean run over the past 21 years belies their standing in the game. Founded in 1924, they are one of the Original Six and boast a bulging trophy cabinet, having won the Stanley Cup five times as well 23 divisional titles and three Conference Championships.

They won the Northeast Division this season and were ranked third overall in the Eastern Conference, behind Washington and Philadelphia, but made it through the playoffs the hard way.

They needed seven games to defeat bitter rivals Montreal and another seven to beat Tampa Bay. In between, they hammered Philadelphia 4-0, avenging their defeat at the same stage last year when they became just the third NHL team to lose a series after winning the first three games.

“It feels great to know we’re going to the Stanley Cup finals but we still have a way to go.”