Two NHLers have reached the 50-goal plateau on the same night fourteen times with three of those happening in the same game. On two occasions Pittsburgh Penguin teammates scored their 50th goals of the season in the same game: on March 21, 1993 Mario Lemieux and Kevin Stevens scored in a 6-4 victory over Edmonton and on Feb. 23, 1996 Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr duplicated the feat in a 5-4 victory over Hartford. In a 9-5 Dallas victory over St. Louis, the Blues’ Brendan Shanahan and the Stars’ Mike Modano became the only opposition players to score their 50th goals of the season in the same game.
THE PUCK STOPS HERE
Phoenix netminder Nikolai Khabibulin earned career victory 117 Saturday as the Coyotes downed the Avalanche 4-1 in Denver. The victory made the “Bulin Wall” the all-time franchise leader moving past Bob Essensa. Other victory leaders for the franchise that began play during the 1979-80 season as the Winnipeg Jets include: Brian Hayward (63), Doug Soetaert (50), Daniel Berthiaume (50) and Eldon “Pokey” Reddick (41).
CANUCK-L-HEADS
Recently departed Mike Keenan had a short stint as the 14th head coach in Canucks history. Coaching Vancouver for 108 games leaves “Iron Mike” with the fifth shortest tenure for bench bosses in the club’s 29 year history and the 13th sub-.500 bench boss. Pat Quinn (.554) is the only Vancouver coach with a record better than .500. Below are the Canucks shortest tenured coaches:
Coach Games Wins Losses Ties Win Pct.
Bill Laforge 20 4 14 2 .250
Bill McCreary 41 9 25 7 .305
Vic Stasuik 78 22 47 9 .340
Tom Renney 101 39 53 9 .431
Mike Keenan 108 36 54 18 .417
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FULL CIRCLE
Sabres left winger Randy Cunneyworth scored his first goal of the season in a 5-2 victory over the Canadiens in Buffalo Thursday. The Cunneyworth goal was his first as a Sabre since Nov. 15, 1981, representing the most time between goals by a player for one team in league history. After beginning his NHL career with the Sabres this journeyman made stops in Rochester (AHL), Pittsburgh, Winnipeg, Hartford, Chicago and Ottawa before returning to Buffalo this season. %%
