Dec. 12 NHL History
1942: The Boston Bruins defeat the Canadiens 3-2 in the first afternoon game in their history. The game’s proceeds are donated to the American Red Cross.
1953: Maurice Richard of the Montreal Canadiens becomes the NHL’s all-time leading scorer with a goal and two assists in a 7-2 victory against the New York Rangers at the Forum.
Richard scores one of Montreal’s three goals in the second period and gets two assists in the third to finish the game with 611 points, one more than injured linemate Elmer Lach, who has held the record since February 1952.
The milestone point comes just over a month after Richard becomes the League’s all-time leader in goals with his 325th, one more than Nels Stewart.
1971: Brad Park becomes the first Rangers defenseman to score three goals in a game. He also has an assist in New York’s 6-1 victory against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Madison Square Garden.
1981: Los Angeles Kings defenseman Ian Turnbull scores four goals in a 7-5 victory against the Vancouver Canucks at the Forum in Inglewood, California. Turnbull is the first Kings defenseman to get a hat trick, but it’s not the biggest scoring night of his NHL career; his four-goal game comes almost five years after he scores five times in one game for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
1986: Mario Lemieux scores four goals (three in the first period) and assists on two others to tie the Penguins’ single-game record with six points in an 8-3 victory against Toronto at the Civic Arena. Lemieux gets the third hat trick of his NHL career before the game is 14 minutes old, then scores again in the second period.
1999: Patrick Roy earns his 424th NHL victory to pass Tony Esposito for third place on the all-time list. He gets the win when Milan Hejduk scores at 1:36 of overtime to give the Colorado Avalanche a 3-2 road victory against the Canucks.
