New York Islanders rookie center Tim Connolly scored the overtime winner in a 5-4 victory over Tampa Bay on Feb. 10. By doing so, Connolly became only the fifth 18-year-old to score an overtime goal in the NHL since regular-season overtime was reinstated during the 1983-84 season. Below are the five youngest overtime goal-scorers:
%% %%
%% Player Team Date Years Months Days
Steve Yzerman Detroit 10/26/83 18 5 7
Chris Gratton Tampa Bay 01/19/94 18 6 4
Jeff Friesen San Jose 03/28/95 18 6 23
Brian Lawton Minnesota 03/26/84 18 8 26
Tim Connolly NY Islanders 02/10/00 19 9 3
%%
UP, UP AND AWAY
Florida Panthers right wing Pavel Bure and his brother Valeri of the Calgary Flames currently lead their respective teams in scoring. Should each player finish the season as his team’s scoring leader, it would mark just the third brother combination in NHL history to do so in the same season. During the 1970-71 season Dennis Hextall (21-31-52) led all California Golden Seals while brother Bryan Jr. (16-32-48) was Pittsburgh’s scoring leader. In 1982-83, Neal Broten (32-45-77) led the Minnesota North Stars and Aaron Broten (16-39-55) finished on top in New Jersey.
BUSY MONTH
The New York Rangers played eight overtime games in December, matching the modern-era NHL record for most overtime games in a month. The only other NHL teams to reach overtime eight times in a month are: Boston in December 1984, Florida in February 1997 and Pittsburgh in March 1999.
NORTH STAR
Dallas center Mike Modano scored his team-leading 26th goal of the year Sunday in Denver leaving him just 5 goals shy of becoming the all-time franchise goal scoring leader. Modano, who earlier this month passed Dino Ciccarelli, joined Brian Bellows as the only two players in Stars history to record 10, 20-goal seasons. The Stars all-time goal scoring leaders are: Bellows (342 goals), Modano (337), Ciccarelli (332), Neal Broten (274) and Bill Goldsworthy (267).
SETTING HIS SIGHTS
New Jersey netminder Martin Brodeur led all NHL goaltenders in victories with 34 (34-11-7) through Sunday. With 23 games remaining Brodeur is on pace to smash the NHL single-season wins record of 47, established by the Philadelphia Flyers’ Bernie Parent in 1973-74. Parent won 44 games the following season, a win total only he and Terry Sawchuk (1950-51 and 1951-52) have accomplished.
