Dec. 26 NHL History
1923: Howie Morenz scores his first NHL goal in the Montreal Canadiens’ 3-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators. Morenz finishes his first season with 13 goals in 24 games and scores 271 in 550 games. He is among the earliest inductees to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
1976: Johnny Bucyk scores his 545th NHL goal, moving him past Maurice Richard on the all-time list, in the Boston Bruins’ 6-3 win against the Cleveland Barons at Boston Garden. Bucyk moves into fourth place behind Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull and Phil Esposito.
1996: Sergei Fedorov scores all five of the Detroit Red Wings’ goals, the last one at 2:39 of overtime, in a 5-4 victory against the Washington Capitals at Joe Louis Arena.
After scoring twice in the third period to tie the game 4-4, Fedorov takes a pass from Vladimir Konstantinov and beats goalie Jim Carey with a wrist shot for the win.
The overtime goal makes Fedorov the first player in NHL history to score all the goals for his team in a game when at least five are scored.
1991: The New York Rangers stage the biggest comeback in their history when they turn a 6-1 deficit into an 8-6 victory against the Washington Capitals. Washington delights the home crowd by scoring five consecutive goals to take a 6-1 lead late in the first period. But John Ogrodnick makes it 6-2 when he scores with :00.1 remaining in the period. Joe Kocur scores the only goal of the second and the Rangers catch and pass the Capitals by scoring five times in the third. Mike Gartner‘s goal with just under eight minutes remaining puts the Rangers ahead 7-6 and Sergei Nemchinov puts the game away with an empty-net goal.
On the same night, Joe Mullen scores four goals for the second consecutive game, helping the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 12-1 victory against the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs. Mullen’s four-goal game overshadows big nights by his linemates: Mario Lemieux finishes with seven points (two goals, five assists) and Kevin Stevens has six (two goals, four assists).
1993: Two years after helping to start the Rangers’ historic comeback against Washington, Gartner becomes the sixth NHL player to score 600 goals in New York’s 8-3 victory against the New Jersey Devils at Madison Square Garden. Goal No. 600 comes when he beats Devils goaltender Chris Terreri 6:16 into the third period; he gets a head start toward No. 700 when he scores again 67 seconds later.
2001: Patrick Roy of the Colorado Avalanche becomes the first goaltender in NHL history to reach 500 wins. Roy also earns his 59th shutout by making 31 saves in the Avalanche’s 2-0 victory at the Dallas Stars.
