THIS DATE IN NHL HISTORY: May 5
1966: Henri Richard‘s only playoff overtime goal of his career is a Stanley Cup winner.
Richard puts the puck into the net 2:20 into OT to give the Montreal Canadiens a 3-2 victory against the Detroit Red Wings in Game 6 of the Final for their second straight Stanley Cup.
After the Canadiens lose the first two games of the series at home, they win Games 3 and 4 at Olympia Stadium and roll to a 5-1 victory at the Forum in Game 5.
The Canadiens lead 2-1 after two periods, but Floyd Smith forces overtime when he beats Gump Worsley midway through the third. But Richard, who hasn’t scored a goal in the 1966 playoffs to that point, wins the Cup for the Canadiens when he’s knocked down and slides into the net with the puck underneath him.
Though his team doesn’t win the Cup, Detroit goaltender Roger Crozier wins the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.
1972: Boston’s Bobby Orr became the first player in NHL history to win the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s MVP for three-straight seasons, which is even more impressive since he was a defenseman, a position rarely glorified. And because that wasn’t enough, he also became the first player to win the Norris Trophy for five-straight years. Although, Gretzky would blow him out of the water by winning an earth-shattering eighth-straight Hart Trophies (1979-87…and he’d win his record ninth in the 1988-89 season). But Orr still had the Norris Trophy, and he’d eventually win eight-straight, the longest streak of all time for that award and his eight is most total of all time.
1974: The Philadelphia Flyers edge the New York Rangers 4-3 in Game 7 of the Semifinals, becoming the first post-1967 expansion team to win a playoff series against an Original Six team. Gary Dornhoefer’s second goal of the game with less than 11 minutes remaining in the third period proves to be the game-winner for the Flyers, who go on to beat the Boston Bruins and win the Stanley Cup.
1981: The New York Islanders complete a four-game sweep of the archrival Rangers in the Semifinals with a 5-2 win at Madison Square Garden. Mike Bossy scores twice in the first period to break Reggie Leach’s single-season NHL record with his 81st goal in the regular season and playoffs combined.
1985: Peter Stastny scores at 6:20 of overtime to give the Quebec Nordiques a 2-1 victory against the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 1 of the Wales Conference Final at the Spectrum. It’s the second straight game in which Stastny scores the overtime winner; his goal at 2:22 of Game 7 in Quebec’s 3-2 victory against the Montreal Canadiens three days earlier wins their conference semifinal series.
2000: Joe Sakic scores a power-play goal for his 100th career playoff point, and the Colorado Avalanche eliminate the Detroit Red Wings with a 4-2 win in Game 5 of the Western Conference Semifinals at Pepsi Center. Sakic opens the scoring with a power-play goal at 2:46 of the second period, and goals by Stephane Yelle, Peter Forsberg and Shjon Podein help Avalanche advance.
2010: Dustin Byfuglien scores three goals in the Chicago Blackhawks’ 5-2 victory against the Vancouver Canucks in Game 3 of the Western Conference Semifinals at GM Place. Byfuglien scores once in each period, completing his hat trick at 13:58 of the third period. He is the first Chicago player to score three or more goals in a road playoff game since Bobby Hull in Game 4 of the Quarterfinals at the Pittsburgh Civic Center in 1972.
2013: Rookie Jean-Gabriel Pageau scores the first three playoff goals of his career in the Ottawa Senators’ 6-1 win against the visiting Montreal Canadiens in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals. Pageau, 20, becomes the fifth player in the expansion era to have a playoff hat trick before his 21st birthday. The others to do so since 1968: Wayne Gretzky (two playoff hat tricks at age 20, 1981), Peter Zezel (age 20, 1986), Patrick Kane (age 20, 2009) and Sean Couturier (age 19, 2012).
