TheStatican
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- Mar 14, 2012
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With a new season on the horizon and considering we are coming up to the 30th anniversary of the 1992-93 season I figured now might be a good time to revisit what I firmly believe to be was the greatest goal and point scoring race in NHL history.
Last year's scoring race was undoubtedly one of the best in years, not only were the point totals the highest we've seen in quite some time but the race was unexpectedly tight heading into the final stretch with several players nipping at McDavid heels. Jonathan Huberdeau was even briefly in the lead with a little over one week left in the season though ultimately McDavid would indeed prevail winning his 4th Art Ross. The goal scoring race was just as exciting with Auston Matthew's rare accomplishment of a mid-season 50 in 50 and his pursuit of 60 overall. Witnessing these races made me think back on previous seasons which had dramatic in-season changes and climatic finishes. Inevitably the race that I inexorably always come back to the most was the one that happen exactly 3 decades ago, the scoring race(s) of the 1992-93 season. Individually each race was incredibly climactic but for both to happen in the same year? Absolutely astounding. If your unfamiliar with this season and need a hint about what happened, this was the year that Mario Lemieux made his dramatic mid-season comeback from cancer to win the Art Ross and when a rookie came out of nowhere to smash all-time rookie records. In the end multiple players put up incredible totals and the goal scoring title literally came down to the final day of the season. And with that introduction this story begins...
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Lemieux started off that season like a man on fire, though as impressive as it was in hindsight it was actually only his third best start to a season(after 1988-89 and 1995-96). Lemieux was finally healthy and had finished the previous year on a very strong note; scoring 102 points(31g 71a) in his final 45 games. He following that up by adding another 34 in just 15 playoff games to propel the Pittsburgh Penguins to their second consecutive Stanley Cup and his second consecutive Conn Smyth winning performance.
He wasn't without some strong competition to start the year, however it did not come from his usual rival Wayne Gretzky(for once) who was out to start the year due to a back injury of his own. Instead it came in the form of an American upstart by the name of Pat LaFontaine. In truth to anyone but the most casual fans, LaFontaine was no mere upstart by that time and had already established himself as one of the leagues best players. He finished the previous year on a tear of his own having scored 40 goals and 79 points in his final 45 games, which was actually the most by any player during that period(*Lemieux missed 14 games during that time). He also scored in all 7 games of his teams first round playoff series against the Boston Bruins. Unfortunately even that performance wasn't enough to help his team win as they would painfully lose a close game seven by a score of 2 to 3. None the less entering into the season expectations were very high for him but could he take the next step and actually challenge one of the greatest players of all time for the scoring title? It was a question that fans would not have to wait long that season to see answered.
Aside from the above two there were plenty of other stars who made their scoring prowess known throughout the season; the Yzerman's and Oates of the league and along side them many new and unexpected names would soon emerged from the pack with incredibly strong years of their own. Interestingly enough Lemieux and LaFontaine's strongest competition at the start of the year came from a blast from the past and while it wasn't Gretzky it was someone who had a strong connection to him.
How it started, the scoring race near the end the first month;
As seen above, three players quickly separated themselves from the pack. Lemieux came out of the gate with a historical start setting the modern era record for the longest goal scoring streak to start an NHL season at 12 games. Speculation began that perhaps this would be the year that he would take a run at thesingle season goal scoring mark. Lemieux also scored 2 or more points in 12 consecutive games to start the season, most likely another record - the NHL doesn't currently list any records in that category but Gretzky's longest such streak to start a year was 7 while Lemieux's next best was 6. He finished the month with a 2-goal and 4-point performance against the Blues which surprisingly wasn't enough to get the Penguins the win, though in fairness it was only their first loss of the season. This was Mario's fourth 4-point game of the month, three of which were 5-point games. He also tied his own NHL record(originally set in 1988-99) for the most goals in the month of October with 16. His 36 points were however only good enough to be the second most ever scored in an October, once again after his 88-89 season.
As for the other two, Kevin Stevens naturally benefited significantly from being Lemieux's linemate, however he was talented enough on his own to score in bunches and proved so by potting 4 goals against the Whalers on the 17th only one of which was assisted by Lemieux. LaFontaine for his part held up to the preseason prognostications, if not exceed them having started the year scoring at a Gretzky-like pace. I specifically picked October 30th for the above scoring list as it was LaFontaine's high water mark in terms of ppg for the season at an incredible 2.90! He nearly matched Mario in scoring 2 points in every game except for one, along with three-4 point games and two-5 point games of his own. He would play one more game in October on the 31st and finished with 30 points joining Gretzky & Lemieux in becoming just the third player in NHL history to crack the 30 point mark in the month of October, with Stevens just missing the mark by 1 point. The total's put up by all three still rank amongst the top 10 October performances of all-time;
The numbers above just go to show just how good of a 'starter' Mario was(more on that > HERE).
The scoring race 3 days later at the conclusion of Lemieux's 12-game goals streak Nov 2, 1992;
If your wondering if Denis Savard was that blast from the past I mentioned earlier, 9th in league scoring at the time as seen above, that was not to be the case. Although Savard started off the year strong, now playing with the Canadians, he would go on to only score 31 more points in 51 games after October and then contributed very little to the Canadians eventual Stanley Cup playoff run, gathering a mere 4 points to go along with zero goals in the run.
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On the goal scoring front it was the Lemieux & Stevens show as they sat 1st and 2nd to start the year with 16 & 12 each by the end of October. Two days later they would each score a pair and further pad their lead.
Goal leaders as of Nov 2, 1992;
As we can see from the above leaderboard, European talent was making it presence felt more strongly than ever with a relatively unknown Finnish rookie upstart and a Russian speedster tied for third in goals. Never before had two Europeans placed in the top 10 in goals, never mind four in the top 10 and two in the top 5. Pavel Bure the Russian speedster in question, had already made quite the impression in his rookie season. But this year he took it up to 11, exploding for a 4 goal game just a week into the season against the Jets on the 12th.
Could the Euros maintain their early pace was the question. Tied along with them was an entirely unexpected name and someone who few believed could maintain the same pace. Chris Kontos was known as a streaky player but this year he took that moniker to a whole other level added in large part by a four goal game of his own in the very first game of the season;
He was join by yet another unknown, Dimitri Kvartalnov who had 10 in his first 9 and would continue on that hot streak for a while longer potting 14 in his first 18 games, but lets get back to Kontos. By the 11th Chris shocked the league by having more goals than everyone but Lemieux and was averaging a goal-a-game! His accession into second place was added by an injury to Stevens though, which would ended up costing Stevens 9 games and a shot of keeping up with the leaders.
Goal leaders on Nov 11, 1992;
Inevitably Kontos would of course fall off, scoring just 9 more times in 48 games that season. Unfortunately for him those games turned out to be the last 48 games of his NHL career. Kvartalnov would do a little better and finish the season with 15 in 55, ending with a respectable 30 goals in total. However he too would soon be out of the league lasted just one season longer than Chris.
The other was that blast from the past I mentioned earlier... an old teammate of Gretzky's. No, not Messier who was one of the best scorers of the early 90's but rather Jari Kurri. Just when you thought maybe the original Finnish Flashes best days were behind him, Kurri step up to bat to fill in Gretzky's massive void on the Kings to start the season. Like Recchi, Kurri would have a 6 point game of his own on the 8th against the Sharks and likewise followed it up with a 5-pointer exactly 2 games later, this time against the respectable Canucks. Those games where part of a ridiculous 8-game stretch where he scored 27 points in 8 games along with 11 goals. He scored at least 2 or more points in each game and most certainly did his part in helping the Kings out to a surprising 16-6-1 start. So good was this stretch that only Lemieux had more points in an 8 game span that season.
Kurri's scoring burst propelled him from seemingly out of nowhere(around 20th place) and right into the very thick of the scoring race. By the 12th he even leapfrogged LaFontaine into second place closing a gap of 13 points in just 13 days. He would hold onto that position for a little over two weeks until the 28th. Lemieux's 'slow' November and Kurri's crazy one are both amongst the top 15 Novembers of all time, though both were a far cry from the record for that month; Gretzky's 49 which is also the all-time single month point record.
Kurri's high water mark for ppg on the season was 2.28 reached on the 14th;
This is when Recchi made his move and closed the gap between him and the leaders. Recchi was as far as 14 points behind LaFontaine for second place at one point but came roaring back to tie Pat for third place in scoring on November 28th doing so in just 17 days. Interestingly enough, when he tied him they had the exact same stats; 16-29-45 in 23 games.
Unfortunately Kurri just couldn't sustain his scorching pace. After supplanting LaFontaine for second place and holding that spot for 2 weeks he would fall all the way down to 35th by the end of the season. He scored 46 points in his first 22 games(2.09ppg!), but would score less than that in nearly three times as many games from then on with only 41 in his next 60 (0.68ppg). But all-told he would end the year with a still respectable 87.
Here's a look at the scoring race by November 30th from a different perspective. Instead of to-date totals I've been posting so far, this is a progressive game-by-game chart of the scoring leaders. Each number represents the selected players total after a game played. I only showed Lemieux's(blue), Lafontaine's(yellow) and Kurri's(green) totals so that the chart doesn't become too bogged down with numbers;
But despite LaFontaine, Recchi and Kurri all having impressive months they were still no where near Lemieux. The 18 point gap between Mario and the others is actually the 3rd biggest gap in a scoring race by the end pf the first two months of a season in history and his 65 points also represents the third most points put up by a player by the end of November.
Point projections as of November 30th;
goals-assists-points
94 -116 -210 Lemieux
58 -106 -164 Recchi
75 - 88 - 163 Stevens(in 75 games)
60 - 97 - 158 LaFontaine
54 -104 -158 Kurri
81 - 40 - 121 Bure
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With Stevens out Lemieux continued to lead the way with 29 goals, tallying 13 on the month but he was beating by one player in the month. The Russian Rocket Pavel Bure was now really starting to make his presence felt with a league leading 16 markers in November - tied for 7th most in a single November on the strength of 6 multi-goal games. Bure ended the month with 24 and seemingly emerging as #66's strongest competition for the goal-scoring title.
And there was one other noteworthy goal-scoring achievement that happened this month. In a game against the Kings on Nov 13, Dave Andreychuk tied the NHL record for powerplay goals in a single game with 4;
Lemieux had the most points for the 3rd straight month in a row matching his October total with 36 points, the 7th most in a December. He had four 4-point games and also recorded the highest single game point total for the year with the season's only 7 point game on the 5th against the Sharks. He reached the 100 point mark with a shorthanded goal in the first period against the Leafs on New Years Eve. It took him only 38 games to reach the century mark, a mark which had only been reach quicker 3 times previously, once by Lemieux himself in '89 (36 games) and twice by Gretzky in '84 & '85 (34 & 35 games).
This time no one was in Mario's orbit points-wise for the month. Oates was a distant second with 25 but ppg-wise the difference was massive; 3.00 to 1.79. Oates did however manage to catch LaFontaine for second place by the 29t,h both having 62 apiece, though LaFontaine would soon pull ahead again thereafter. Either way, both of them were a massive 37 points behind Mario - Before new years! It was looking more and more like #66 had clinched the Ross already. No player had ever won the Art Ross by more than 35 points other than Gretzky, Lemieux was projecting to win it by 77 which would be just 2 points off Gretzky's record for the largest margin of victory, this in a year when eight players were projecting to score 130+ points.
There was another notable scoring accomplishment that concluded that month. On December 10th in a game against the Kings Mats Sundin scored a point in his 30th consecutive game - just the 5th 30+ game point streak in NHL history. In fact the streak had very nearly ended at 26. In his 27th game he was held without a point until very late in the 3rd when he scored a goal that sent the game into overtime with just 26 seconds left. The streak would finally end on the 12th, oddly enough in a game where his team scored 8 goals. Nonetheless it was and remains, tied for the 4th longest point streak in NHL history and the longest by anyone other than Gretzky or Lemieux. It is also the second longest streak from the start of a season in NHL history.
Sundin truly was a model of consistency that year, despite ending up far behind him on the point list he scored a point in the exact same number of games as LaFontaine did; 68 in total. Only Oates and Turgeon scored in more games overall, both having the most in a season by anyone other than Gretzky. But Mat's actually scored points in a higher percentage of games then the two, only Lemieux had a higher percentage of games with points.
Most games with points;
70 of 84 .833 - Oates
70 of 83 .843 - Pierre Turgeon
68 of 80 .850 - Sundin
68 of 84 .809 - LaFontaine
68 of 84 .809 - Recchi
67 of 84 .798 - Selanne
66 of 83 .795 - Gilmour
64 of 80 .800 - Tocchet
63 in 77 .818 - Mogilny
54 of 60 .900 - Lemieux
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As for the Retro-Rocket chase, Bure was the Russian player who had originally been drawing everyone's attention with his goal scoring prowess but this month it was another more enigmatic Russian who would mesmerize the hockey world.
Alexander Mogilny was quietly putting up impressive numbers working alongside Pat LaFontaine and veteran Dave Andreychuk in Buffalo. By December all three were on pace for 60 goals, this despite Mogilny having missed 6 games near the start of the season. Had Andreychuk not been traded later in the year to Toronto there was a reasonable chance that the Sabers might have joined the Oilers of the 80's as the only teams with three 50-goals scorers in the same year. In hindsight Mogilny's breakthrough should not have been as big of a surprise as it was at the time. The mercurial 23-year-old Russian had finished the previous year on a huge roll playing along side the talented LaFontaine. He ended the 91-92 season with 36 goals and 73 points in 48 games, totals which would have won him the Rocket and Ross in either of the league's strike shortened 48-game years. But his offensive outburst may have gone somewhat unnoticed as those totals were just the 14th most during that specific time span. That's because he had missed 10 games during that stretch due to a different kind of outburst... having been suspended for slapping an official. On a per-game basis during that period he ranked much higher; 6th in the league. By all means he was essentially one of the top 10 forwards in game at the time.
Mogilny started off December slowly with one goal in his first three games but then his month turned into something bordering on the fantastical. He scored a hat trick against the Burins on the 9th and followed it up with a pair against the Whalers before going scoreless in the second of a back-to-back against the Whalers. But that would be the last time he was held off the scoresheet that month. What followed was an absolute monster of a 8-game goal scoring streak that included 5 consecutive multi goal games - three of which were hat tricks. The final totals were just absurd; 16 goals during an 8 game goal scoring streak and 21 goals in 11 games. He finished the month with 17 goals, tied for 5th most in a December. But if not for the fact that the last two games of his streak, in which he scored 5 goals, were in January he would've had the most goals in a December, or any month ever for that matter. Within a one month period from Dec 9th to Jan 8th he scored 23 goals. The NHL record for goals in a single month is 20 and the most goals in any one month period is 28 which would actually occur later in the year(hinting at what is yet to come) This output surpassed the best short term goal scoring outbursts of nearly every single goal scoring legend including; Maurice Richard, Bobby Hull, Phil Esposito, Steve Yzerman, Brett Hull, Cam Neely, Teemu Selänne, Jaromir Jagr and yes, even Alex Ovechkin. The only ones who have ever exceeded this short-term goal scoring extravaganza were Gretzky and Lemieux. Bossy & Kurri also previously equaled, but didn't exceed, his goal scoring outburst in some length of games.
The end result of Mogilny's goal scoring binge vs the leagues other 5 best goal scorers, cumulative totals by team games;
Keep in mind Mogilny had also missed 6 games to start the season, not playing in team games 3 to 8, meaning he had 38 in just 34 games. He most likely would have already been in the low 40 goal range if not for that. On Dec 8th Mogilny was 15 goals behind Lemieux and 7 behind Bure for second. By Jan 3rd, a mere 26 days later he was only a single goal behind Lemieux and 6 ahead of Bure for second.
He had nearly double the goal scoring output of his close peers and so prodigious was his pace that he even bested Lemieux in points by one during that span; 27 to 26.
One last interesting tidbit about December 1992, the rookie I mention who rocketed on to the scene was none other than... Rob Gaudreau himself(Rob who?) Rob was actually second in goals scored that month putting up an impressive 14(in only 12 games!) including two hat tricks. All while playing for one of the worst teams in the league, the expansion Sharks. Sadly for Rob he disappeared just as quickly, after scoring those 14 goals He would score just 1 in his next 15. Rob did finish the year at a more reasonable pace with 8 in 31 for a total of 23. Unfortunately his brief flirtation with NHL superstardom lasted for just those 3 and half weeks. While he managed to stay in the league longer than Kontos or Kvartalnov it wasn't by much, as he too would be gone for good just three seasons later.
The scoring race on New Years day 1993;
Point projections as of January 1st;
goals-assists-points
80 -140 -220 Lemieux(83 games)
54 - 98 - 152 LaFontaine
75 - 68 - 143 Stevens(75 games)
50 - 93 - 143 Oates
54 - 86 - 140 Recchi
47 - 83 - 130 Turgeon
53 - 75 - 128 Sundin
38 - 91 - 128 Kurri
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With the Art Ross seemingly turning into a blowout the excitement turned towards the goal scoring chase which had turned into quite the race thanks to Mogilny's offensive explosion. As mentioned before, by the end of his streak on the 4th he had closed the gap to a single goal;
While Mogilny & Lemieux chased history, many others were also enjoying their best seasons. Luc Robitaille for instance was on pace to score over 60 goals, buoyed by Kurri's strong start. Luc however continued to score consistently long after the old Finnish flash cooled off, he potted about 10 goals a month - 9, 11 and 10 goals in each of the first three and would quietly continue working at that pace the rest of the way. Meanwhile the new Finnish flash Teemu Selanne was beginning to warm up and was on pace for what would be a rookie record 65 goals, handily surpassing the old record of 53 set by Mike Bossy in 1977-78 but the best was of course still yet to come from him...
Midseason goal projections;
90 Mogilny(in 77 games)
83 Lemieux(in 83 games)
75 Bure
73 Stevens(in 75 games)
65 Selanne
65 Robitaille
Unfortunately that season took a depressing turn soon thereafter and Mario's aspirations for setting history would come to a sudden halt that January as soon he would have far more serious things to worry about. Lemieux had only played in the first period of a game against the Bruins on January 5th before leaving due to a reemergence of his back pain issues. Entering that game he was scoring at a 2.67 point per game rate, a pace that would have allowed him to challenge Gretzky's records. He was advised by team doctors to take some time off to rest his back. It's unknown exactly how many games this would have cost him but it could have been as much as a couple of weeks. Luckily the Penguin's were going through a light part of their schedule at the time. Even if he was out for a two+ weeks the Pens were only scheduled to play in 6 games from January 6th through to the 21st. If he returned on that date that would have him playing in 77 games. Extrapolating out his seasonal paces this would have given him 88 goals, 117 assists and 205 points. Certainly this time off alone would have made Lemieux's pursuit of Gretzky's single season records of 92 goals and 215 points quite difficult, with his original advantage of 4 extra games being negated and then some. But on the other hand Lemieux did have a proclivity to return from breaks in play rejuvenated scoring at rates even higher than before an injury. During the previous season he missed 7 games from Jan 28th to Feb 15, likewise due to his back problems. But upon his return his pace post-injury dramatically improved. Pre-injury he was at 1.90ppg(80 in 42) but afterwards? He was at 2.32ppg(51 in 22). And as we saw later on his pace would also increased this season after returning; 2.67ppg vs 2.80ppg. There's little doubt in my mind that this break would have likewise benefited Lemieux and that he would have still mounted some kind of challenge towards the records upon his return, but of course that's not what happened.
On January 8th, 1993 he had a lymph node removed from a lump on his neck and on January 12th the Penguins shocked the hockey world by announcing that Mario had cancer after the test results came back. Mario himself then held a press conference on the 15th and publicly revealed that he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. At the time he was given a 90% to 95% probability that he would be cured, with a 5% to 10% chance that he would not. At the age of 27 in the very prime of his career, Mario Lemieux faced a slim but still very real possibility of death.
Following this shocking turn of events Lemieux was expected to missed 10 of the final 12 weeks while he received life-saving radiation treatments. Providing all went well he was expected to return in time at least for the last few weeks of the season and then the playoffs. The question was how well would he perform considering the side effects of the treatment; which were commonly nausea, weight loss and fatigue. As for the scoring race, 104 points was most certainly not going cut it to win the title. The last time such a figure was enough was more than 25 years before and no less than 25 players were projected to exceed this total. Even if he returned before the end of the season it just didn't seem realistic to expect him to continue to produced at a 2.67 ppg pace. Thus not only was his shot at the record kaputz but it seemed as though yet another scoring title and possibly goal-scoring title had slipped through his fingers yet again. I say yet again because he was also leading the league in points in 1989-90, two-thirds of the way through the season when he could no longer continue to play due to a deteriorating back condition(a herniated disc) that almost certainly cost him the scoring title. Gretzky ended up winning it that season with 142 points, meaning Lemieux only needed to score at a one point per game pace in his final 22 games to win it with 143.
A chart of the top six point leaders puts a good perspective on Mario's dominance up to his last game on the 5th;
And so with Mario out it looked like this was FINALLY going to be the year that the Art Ross was going to be won by someone other than Gretzky or Lemieux for the first time in 13 years. Speaking of Gretzky, there was at least some positive news for the NHL that month...
As one legend left the game another would make his return to it. Gretzky played his first game of the season on January 6th just one day after Lemieux had left his game against Boston and five days before the shocking cancer diagnosis announcement. In his first game back in over 8 months, # 99 grabbed 2 assists against the Lighting. However it would take Gretzky a while yet before he returned to form as he scored only 19 points in his first 18 games back with just 2 goals, both of which came in his second game back. Yup, he went 16 games without scoring a goal, which would end up being the second longest scoreless streak of his entire career and by far the longest up to that point in time. Previously he had gone no more than 9 games without potting at least one. The Great one would of course pick things up as he always did, something I will touch upon later and this in turn would set the stage for one of his best playoff performances yet.
As for those chasing the leader, in Mario's absence Oates and LaFontaine would both continue on their own prodigious paces. As mentioned before, Oates drew even with LaFontaine for second place on December 29th. Lafontaine would then pull ahead again after starting the new year on another hot streak. He quickly increased the gap between him and Oates to 12 points in just 12 days on the strength of 5 consecutive multi point games which included a 5 and 4 point game. But Oates was not about to let LaFontaine get away from him in the now open for grabs race for the Art Ross as he too caught fire towards the end of January, dropping three 4-point games of his own in that stretch. He once again managed to closed the gap between him and Lafontaine, this time to a single point by the 31st and in turn lead all players in January with an impressive 28 points.
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When it came to lighting the net up Mogilny would cool off, but only just barely. Buoyed by those 5 goals in the first two games of the month he would have 4 more multi-goal games and finished the month with 16, one more than Brett Hull who had a blistering month of his own potting 15 in January on the strength of 5 multi-goal games. These totals are tied for the 8th & 14th most in a single January. Entering into the season everybody and their uncles were expecting the Golden Brett to be one of the top contenders if not the odds-on favorite to win the goal-scoring title. After all he was just coming off 3-consecutive 70+ goals seasons which won him the title in each of those years quite handily. To everyone's shock he was well off the pace to start the year, banging in only 7 in his first 18 games, which at the time was actually the worst start of his entire career. Thankfully the Brett of old sprang back to life and he turned on the jets scoring at almost a goal a game pace with 29 in 33 from mid-November until the end of January, the second most in the league during this period.
As for the others; Bure, Selanne and Stevens all also managed well enough that month to not let the gap between them and Mogilny become too insurmountable which would turn out to be hugely important for one of them later... Reflecting back on the season it was interesting to see that it was actually Bure who was Mogilny's closest competition this far into the year and it would stay that way until the very end of February.
Scoring race as of Feb 3rd 1993;
Point projections as of February 3rd;
148 Oates
147 LaFontaine
132 Turgeon
132 Mogilny
129 Recchi
127 Stevens
122 Selanne
122 Bure
116 Yzerman
104? Lemieux
In terms of scoring for the month a veteran, by hockey standards, lead the way. Steve Yzerman, the savvy 10-year Red Wing veteran recorded 27 points in just 12 games. This was the month where Yzerman first started to make his presence really felt on the leaderboards and would climb up the ranks. He was aided by three 4-point games, two of which were 5-pointers and had one of the hottest streaks of the year when he tallied 20 points in a 6 game span from the 3rd to the 17th. The only hotter point streaks that year were Kurri's early season explosion and three streaks by Lemieux. Yzerman would ultimately finished the year with an impressive 13 four point games, second only to Mario's 15 and still tied with Bossy for the most in a season by anyone other than Gretzky or Lemieux.
Not to be outdone, LaFontaine nearly matched Yzerman's pace with 22 pts in 10 gms thanks in large part to a season high 6 point game against the Jets on the 10th. On that night Lafontaine became the second player to hit the 100 point milestone for the year with his final point, assisting on what would be Mogilny's 4th goal of the night. Two weeks later he would have a 5 point game on the 24th in a showdown with Yzerman's Wings, who had four points of his own, helping the Sabers ultimately prevail in a 10 to 7 shootout. Besides being a dramatic confrontation between with two of the best players in the league this was the game where LaFontaine finally surpassed Lemieux from points in the season. He had entered the night with 104 after having gone scoreless in his previous two - the first time all year he had been held off the score sheet twice in a row. He had actually tied Mario 10 days ago on the 14th after having taken 17 more games to get to 104. Was the stress of trying to pass a living legend getting to him? Well safe to say he dispelled that thought early on that night by assisting on a goal by Mogilny(who else of course?) for point number 105. By the end of the night he had separated himself quite nicely from that '104' figure and was now sitting at 109, five ahead of Mario and eight more than Oates, his nearest active rival for the crown. Several players would hit the 100-point milestone that month and many more would soon follow suit in early March.
The first 10 players to hit 100;
Game number/Date/Player/100 point season number
38 December 31st(1992) - Mario Lemieux(8)
55 February 10th - Pat LaFontaine(2)
58 February 14th - Adam Oates(3)
64 February 24th - Steve Yzerman(6)
62 February 28th - Pierre Turgeon(2)
64 March 3rd - Doug Gilmore(2)
58 March 5th - Alexander Mogilny(1)
66 March 7th - Mark Recchi(2)
68 March 9th - Teemu Selanne(1)
69 March 15th - Luc Robitalle(4)
In comparison here were the first 5 players to hit the 100 mark this past season;
67 March 30th - Connor McDavid
70 April 14th - Leon Draisaitl
70 April 5th - Jonathan Huberdeau
73 April 12th - Johnny Gaudreau
69 April 15th - Auston Matthews
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There's also another reason why I chose February 3rd as the cut off date for the February chart. It wasn't just the day Oates briefly supplanted LaFontaine, but more significantly it was the day when a certain magical if not mythical milestone was achieved.
Alexander Mogilny had ended the month of January with 49 goals. Annnnd yes you guessed it, on February 3rd in a game against the Whalers he was the first player to hit the 50th goal mark, scoring with less than 30 seconds remaining in the third which won the game for the Sabers, 3-2. Without a doubt 50 goals on it's own is a noteworthy achievement but that's not the magical mark I'm talking about. What made Mogilny's mark truly special was that he achieved it in less than 50 games. Unfortunately the NHL does not recognize it as an "official" 50-in-50 accomplishment. Mogilny scored his 50th goal in his 46th game, however this was his team's 53rd game and as we all know from this past year in order to qualify as an official 50-in-50 achievement it needs to be done within the teams first 50 games. Nonetheless, while I can't speak for others to me this does not lessen the impressive level of scoring prowess Mogilny achieved that year in any way, shape or form. Up to that point it was just the 10th time in NHL history that anyone had scored 50 in their first 50 games(8 official, 2 unofficial). A certain somebody would later join him that year in the "unofficial category" and the mark has only been done twice more in the last 30 seasons, both in the "unofficial" category. For more on that topic and other scoring achievements see here;
thestatican.wordpress.com
Goal leaders as of Feb 3rd;
Goal projections from Feb 3rd;
84 Mogilny(in 77 games)
70 Bure
68 Stevens(in 75 games)
65 Selanne
57 Robitaille
39+? Lemieux
But Mogilny wasn't done there, oh no he continued to POUR. IT. ON. Two games later, the night Lafontine hit 100 he had that aforementioned four goal game against the Jets. Following this game he was kept relatively in check over his next four with just a 2-goal performance against the shorthanded Pens before exploding again for another 4 goal game against the Wings on the 24th, his second 4 goal game of the month.
The fourth goal of that game gave him 60 on the year, making him the first to reach the mark and he did it in just 53 games and 59 team games. Which makes it an official "60-in-60" achievement although the NHL doesn't really make note of such a mark. This was also his 7th hat trick of the year which was by far the most by anyone that year. He wouldn't have anymore hat tricks the rest of the way but this number still ties him for the 6th most hat tricks in a single season. He concluded the month by adding 3 more goals over the course of two games against the Canadians and lead the league in goals for the third month in a row with 14. Just from watching the video below you can see how much of an unstoppable force he was at this point, the man was just buzzing around, through everyone and anyone;
As for his nearest rivals, Bure would find himself mired on a prolonged scoring slump notching only 5 goals in February and 9 total over a 25-game span through to early March which would ultimately cost him any chance of competing for the title. Selanne wasn't fairing much better... that is until the final day of February. That was the day Selanne would essential declare that he would be the one to challenge Mogilny's for goal-scoring supremacy in 1992-93. First he leapt over Bure into second place with a 4 goal effort against the North Stars. The hat trick goal was a particularly special one as with it Selanne became the second player to hit 50 on the year and just the 3rd rookie in NHL history to reach the mark, not to mention the fastest ever. Oddly enough Bossy was quicker to 20 goals; 22 to 27 and 40 goals; 49 to 52. While Selanne was quicker to 30 goals; 38 to 42 and 50 goals; 63 to 69. From then on the flood gates would open and many others would soon follow Selanne in the 50-goal club.
All players to hit 50 on the year;
Game number/Date/Player/50 goal season number
46 February 3th - Alexander Mogilny(1) *team game 53
63 February 28th - Teemu Selanne(1)
63 March 1st - Pavel Bure(1)
70 March 10th - Steve Yzerman(5)
69 March 15th - Luc Robitalle(3)
73 March 20th - Brett Hull(4)
48 March 21st - Mario Lemieux(4) *team game 72
62 March 21st - Kevin Stevens(2) *team game 72
72 March 23rd - Dave Andreychuk(1)
75 March 28th - Pat LaFontaine(2)
76 April 1st - Mark Recchi(1)
75 April 2nd - Pierre Turgeon(1)
71 April 15th - Brendan Shanahan *team game 84
84 April 15th - Jeremy Roenick(2)
In comparison the 50-goal scorers of the 2021-22 season;
62 March 31st - Auston Matthews - fewest number of games to hit 50 since Lemieux & Jagr in 1995-96
70 April 3rd - Leon Draisaitl
74 April 12th - Chris Kreider
75 April 20th - Alex Ovechkin
Scoring race as of March 1st 1993;
Point projections as of March 1st;
155 LaFontaine
137 Oates
135 Turgeon
135 Mogilny
132 Gimour
129 Recchi
127 Yzerman
121 Selanne
104...? Lemieux
And then on March 2nd, 1993 it happened. This was the day Mario Lemieux returned to the sport and began his epic comeback.
The story of Lemieux's return is pretty well known so I won't rehash it in too much detail but this article sums it up rather nicely I'd say. I like this verse in particular; "This was about a superstar who underwent one last radiation treatment in the morning and scored his 40th goal in the evening." Never before had a Penguins player received cheers from fans of their arch rivals the Flyers, but that night the cheers rained down on Lemieux like never before in Philadelphia.
Although the Penguins would ultimately lose the game Mario did his part by scoring a goal and adding an assist to get within 10 of Lafontaine. However in his first week back he was not without his struggles, as he only managed to record a single assist in his next two games. At this point despite his successful return to action it was by no means seen as a given that he could chase down LaFontaine for the scoring title. Based on his play in his first few games back it appeared as though he had lost a little bit of a step and it would probably take him a while to get his feet back under him. Meanwhile over in Buffalo, Lafontaine showed no signs of slowing down and would pad his lead with a huge week; scoring 3 goals and adding 6 assists for 9 points in 3 games. He completed the week with a 5-point effort against the Nordiques, at the time his league leading sixth 5-point game of the season - still the most ever in a season by anyone not named Lemieux or Gretzky. This put him a whopping 18 points ahead of Lemieux with just over a month to go and 17 games left to play in the season - 125 vs 107. Even if Lemieux continued to produce at his current seasonal pace, he was no longer projected to surpass LaFontaine;
LaFontaine - 125 points in 67 games = 157 in 84
Lemieux - 107 points in 43 games = 149 in 60
Secondly Lafontaine was by now not the only player Mario had to contend with. Oates had also(finally) jumped ahead of him on March 4th, followed by Yzerman on the 7th and Turgeon on the 9th. Mario was actually sitting in 5th place in the scoring race on March 11th. Perhaps seeing his name drop down the leaderboard motivated Mario, because that was when he made his move. On that night the Pens would play against Gretzky's Kings, it would be the first and only time the two would play against each other that season. The Kings were on a bit of a role as the Great One had shaken off his early season rust and was coming into the game scorching hot having scored the most points in the NHL over the previous 3 weeks. The game was close and went into overtime where the Pens would ultimately win it on a goal by Jagr. Gretzky had a goal and an assist but Mario bested him with 4 points, notching a goal and 3 assists. With that he would put Turgeon in his rearview mirror for the remainder of the season and temporarily tie Oates for 3rd place at 111 apiece.
Yzerman and Oates would climb ahead of him again in the following days dropping him back to 4th place though largely because the Pens only played in one game over the course of the next week. Lafontaine meanwhile played in 3 games during that time, the scheduling was a little strange in 1992-93 and while he didn't exactly light it up, by the evening of the 18th he was still a considerable 16 points ahead of Mario with less than a month left in the season. With the pressure on and the clock ticking if Lemieux wanted to make a run for the scoring title it was now or never. That night the Pens would play their long time division rivals, the Capitals and this would be the night that Lemieux proved he was truly back, basically declaring enough is ENOUGH!(NSFW), everybody strap in I'm about to make a play for the scoring title.
The Penguins won that game 7 to 5 on the strength of a 4 goal, 6 point effort by Lemieux. It was the beginning of what is arguably the most prodigious goal scoring streak in NHL history. By the end of the night he went from 4th place in the scoring race to tied for 2nd, now 10 points back of the leader. Two nights later the Pens would play their other division arch-rivals, the Philadelphia Flyers. They proceeded to blow the Flyers out of the building by a 9 to 3 score, winning their fifth in a row. And Mario? As if the other night wasn't enough to prove that he was back he once again scored 4 goals. This was just the fifth(and last) time in NHL history that a player had two consecutive 4-goal games. The others being Joe Malone in 1917-18, Wayne Gretzky in 1981-82 and 1983-84 and somewhat surprisingly Joe Mullen in 1991-92. Surely it was then that Sabers fans knew their star was in trouble.
Lafontaine scored 3 points that night himself but it barely even registered, Lemieux had just cut a 16 point lead in half in just two games. With Mario doing his best Man on Fire impression, how much of a chance did Pat have to hold him off with 13 games still left in the season? What LaFontaine needed to do was go on a tear of his own. He had put up two impressive 13 game stretches already that year, scoring 33 and 31 points in them and he even had a better one the year prior with 34 in 13. Essentially that was what it was going to take at for him to hold off Super Mario. If he could manage to score say 30 points, a tall order to be sure but clearly not an impossible one for him, that would have given him 161 on the year. Mario would have to average 3 points a game the rest of the way(which he just about did) to beat him with 162. And considering how things ended up that would indeed have been just enough.
Things started promisingly enough for Pat with Lemieux potting just a goal on March 21st, although it was still a very special night for him, more on that in the goal section below. Lafontaine notched 3 points on the 22nd which put him back up 10 again with 12 games to go; 134 to 124. But Le Magnifique just could not be stopped, he scored 5 points for the third time in four games on the 23rd while Lafontaine would go scoreless in his next game the following night. And just like that the lead was cut in half again; 134 to 129, with 11 to go. If Saber fans were nervous before, they were truly sweating buckets at this point, Mario was coming after their star like a freight train with no brakes. LaFontaine would offer them some hope on the 25th by grabbing 3 points on the night. But Lemieux just kept pouring it on and on and on, racking up 4 that same night and quickly followed that up with 3 in his next game on the 27th. That brought the lead down to a single point 137 to 136. Almost mercifully they would not have to wait long for the dagger to come, for it would arrive the very next day.
Both would play on the 28th with LaFontaine scoring his 50th goal of the season against the Senators at the end of the first period. It was undoubtedly a jubilant moment for the American superstar but the celebrations would not last long as Lemieux would grab three points against the Capitals, helping the Penguins win their 10th game in a row and reclaiming the scoring race lead for the first time in 6 weeks; 138 to 139. In the span of just 16 days and 9 games Lemieux had done it. He had come back not only from cancer but from a deficit as large as 19 points and he made it look easy. It was akin to a grown man playing with a child, he had just outscored LaFontaine by a ridiculous 32 to 13 point margin.
It wasn't as if LaFontaine was playing poorly during that time either, Pat had averaged a more than respectable 1.63ppg, which was only slightly below his seasonal average of 1.84 It's just at Lemieux was operating on an entirely different level, if not planet. Certainly no one could have faulted LaFontaine for the effort he put forth especially considering March was actually his second best scoring month of the year; with 28 points he was tied with Yzerman and Gretzky for the second most points in the league that month. Clearly Mario did not catch up to him because he was slumping. No, it was just because Mario was a freaking insane scoring machine. The only question left now that Mario had caught him was did he have any more fight left in him at all? The answer to that was actually yes.
LaFontaine would go scoreless on the 30th while Mario grabbed two more points padding his lead to 3. But Pat would come back with a big game of his own on the final day of the month against the Devils, recording 4 points. This put the tenacious LaFontaine back on top of the race; 142 to 141. For a moment there was a brief flicker of hope in Buffalo and with just 7 games left in the season(for both), Pat seemingly still had a fighting chance. Had he kept it up for a little bit longer and held off #66 it would have made for quite the underdog story. Perhaps his opponent had exhausted himself chasing the Sabers star down so fast and furiously, he had just come back from cancer treatments afterall. But unfortunately for LaFontaine that couldn't have been farther from the truth.
True, Lemieux had lost the scoring lead on the final day of the month but by all measures if he had played that day he probably wouldn't have. He and the Penguins were in the middle of one of the greatest stretches of play by a team and a player the NHL had ever seen. Despite starting off the month slowly with just 3 points in his first 3 games Mario notched 34 points in his next 10 games to finish the month with 37. This is tied for the second most ever scored in any March, but had the highest ppg rate at 2.85 and he was by no means done.
It seems I have run out of space, part 2 continues the story below.
Last year's scoring race was undoubtedly one of the best in years, not only were the point totals the highest we've seen in quite some time but the race was unexpectedly tight heading into the final stretch with several players nipping at McDavid heels. Jonathan Huberdeau was even briefly in the lead with a little over one week left in the season though ultimately McDavid would indeed prevail winning his 4th Art Ross. The goal scoring race was just as exciting with Auston Matthew's rare accomplishment of a mid-season 50 in 50 and his pursuit of 60 overall. Witnessing these races made me think back on previous seasons which had dramatic in-season changes and climatic finishes. Inevitably the race that I inexorably always come back to the most was the one that happen exactly 3 decades ago, the scoring race(s) of the 1992-93 season. Individually each race was incredibly climactic but for both to happen in the same year? Absolutely astounding. If your unfamiliar with this season and need a hint about what happened, this was the year that Mario Lemieux made his dramatic mid-season comeback from cancer to win the Art Ross and when a rookie came out of nowhere to smash all-time rookie records. In the end multiple players put up incredible totals and the goal scoring title literally came down to the final day of the season. And with that introduction this story begins...
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Lemieux started off that season like a man on fire, though as impressive as it was in hindsight it was actually only his third best start to a season(after 1988-89 and 1995-96). Lemieux was finally healthy and had finished the previous year on a very strong note; scoring 102 points(31g 71a) in his final 45 games. He following that up by adding another 34 in just 15 playoff games to propel the Pittsburgh Penguins to their second consecutive Stanley Cup and his second consecutive Conn Smyth winning performance.
He wasn't without some strong competition to start the year, however it did not come from his usual rival Wayne Gretzky(for once) who was out to start the year due to a back injury of his own. Instead it came in the form of an American upstart by the name of Pat LaFontaine. In truth to anyone but the most casual fans, LaFontaine was no mere upstart by that time and had already established himself as one of the leagues best players. He finished the previous year on a tear of his own having scored 40 goals and 79 points in his final 45 games, which was actually the most by any player during that period(*Lemieux missed 14 games during that time). He also scored in all 7 games of his teams first round playoff series against the Boston Bruins. Unfortunately even that performance wasn't enough to help his team win as they would painfully lose a close game seven by a score of 2 to 3. None the less entering into the season expectations were very high for him but could he take the next step and actually challenge one of the greatest players of all time for the scoring title? It was a question that fans would not have to wait long that season to see answered.
Aside from the above two there were plenty of other stars who made their scoring prowess known throughout the season; the Yzerman's and Oates of the league and along side them many new and unexpected names would soon emerged from the pack with incredibly strong years of their own. Interestingly enough Lemieux and LaFontaine's strongest competition at the start of the year came from a blast from the past and while it wasn't Gretzky it was someone who had a strong connection to him.
OCTOBER 1992
How it started, the scoring race near the end the first month;
As seen above, three players quickly separated themselves from the pack. Lemieux came out of the gate with a historical start setting the modern era record for the longest goal scoring streak to start an NHL season at 12 games. Speculation began that perhaps this would be the year that he would take a run at thesingle season goal scoring mark. Lemieux also scored 2 or more points in 12 consecutive games to start the season, most likely another record - the NHL doesn't currently list any records in that category but Gretzky's longest such streak to start a year was 7 while Lemieux's next best was 6. He finished the month with a 2-goal and 4-point performance against the Blues which surprisingly wasn't enough to get the Penguins the win, though in fairness it was only their first loss of the season. This was Mario's fourth 4-point game of the month, three of which were 5-point games. He also tied his own NHL record(originally set in 1988-99) for the most goals in the month of October with 16. His 36 points were however only good enough to be the second most ever scored in an October, once again after his 88-89 season.
As for the other two, Kevin Stevens naturally benefited significantly from being Lemieux's linemate, however he was talented enough on his own to score in bunches and proved so by potting 4 goals against the Whalers on the 17th only one of which was assisted by Lemieux. LaFontaine for his part held up to the preseason prognostications, if not exceed them having started the year scoring at a Gretzky-like pace. I specifically picked October 30th for the above scoring list as it was LaFontaine's high water mark in terms of ppg for the season at an incredible 2.90! He nearly matched Mario in scoring 2 points in every game except for one, along with three-4 point games and two-5 point games of his own. He would play one more game in October on the 31st and finished with 30 points joining Gretzky & Lemieux in becoming just the third player in NHL history to crack the 30 point mark in the month of October, with Stevens just missing the mark by 1 point. The total's put up by all three still rank amongst the top 10 October performances of all-time;
The numbers above just go to show just how good of a 'starter' Mario was(more on that > HERE).
The scoring race 3 days later at the conclusion of Lemieux's 12-game goals streak Nov 2, 1992;
If your wondering if Denis Savard was that blast from the past I mentioned earlier, 9th in league scoring at the time as seen above, that was not to be the case. Although Savard started off the year strong, now playing with the Canadians, he would go on to only score 31 more points in 51 games after October and then contributed very little to the Canadians eventual Stanley Cup playoff run, gathering a mere 4 points to go along with zero goals in the run.
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On the goal scoring front it was the Lemieux & Stevens show as they sat 1st and 2nd to start the year with 16 & 12 each by the end of October. Two days later they would each score a pair and further pad their lead.
Goal leaders as of Nov 2, 1992;
As we can see from the above leaderboard, European talent was making it presence felt more strongly than ever with a relatively unknown Finnish rookie upstart and a Russian speedster tied for third in goals. Never before had two Europeans placed in the top 10 in goals, never mind four in the top 10 and two in the top 5. Pavel Bure the Russian speedster in question, had already made quite the impression in his rookie season. But this year he took it up to 11, exploding for a 4 goal game just a week into the season against the Jets on the 12th.
Could the Euros maintain their early pace was the question. Tied along with them was an entirely unexpected name and someone who few believed could maintain the same pace. Chris Kontos was known as a streaky player but this year he took that moniker to a whole other level added in large part by a four goal game of his own in the very first game of the season;
He was join by yet another unknown, Dimitri Kvartalnov who had 10 in his first 9 and would continue on that hot streak for a while longer potting 14 in his first 18 games, but lets get back to Kontos. By the 11th Chris shocked the league by having more goals than everyone but Lemieux and was averaging a goal-a-game! His accession into second place was added by an injury to Stevens though, which would ended up costing Stevens 9 games and a shot of keeping up with the leaders.
Goal leaders on Nov 11, 1992;
Inevitably Kontos would of course fall off, scoring just 9 more times in 48 games that season. Unfortunately for him those games turned out to be the last 48 games of his NHL career. Kvartalnov would do a little better and finish the season with 15 in 55, ending with a respectable 30 goals in total. However he too would soon be out of the league lasted just one season longer than Chris.
NOVEMBER 1992
With Stevens sidelined for most of the month Lemieux slowed down a little in November gathering a pedestrian(by his standards) 29 points. Despite that it was still good enough to be the most that anyone in the league had that month, however two other players arguably had stronger months. One was a former teammate of Lemieux's in the prime of his career; Mark Recchi, who registered a 6 point game on the 11th against the Islanders and would add another 5-pointer just 2 games later against the expansion Senators. He finished the month with an impressive 25 points in just 10 games. It was Recchi's best month in an impressive but relatively unheralded year in which he set the single season point record for the Flyers that still stands today.The other was that blast from the past I mentioned earlier... an old teammate of Gretzky's. No, not Messier who was one of the best scorers of the early 90's but rather Jari Kurri. Just when you thought maybe the original Finnish Flashes best days were behind him, Kurri step up to bat to fill in Gretzky's massive void on the Kings to start the season. Like Recchi, Kurri would have a 6 point game of his own on the 8th against the Sharks and likewise followed it up with a 5-pointer exactly 2 games later, this time against the respectable Canucks. Those games where part of a ridiculous 8-game stretch where he scored 27 points in 8 games along with 11 goals. He scored at least 2 or more points in each game and most certainly did his part in helping the Kings out to a surprising 16-6-1 start. So good was this stretch that only Lemieux had more points in an 8 game span that season.
Kurri's scoring burst propelled him from seemingly out of nowhere(around 20th place) and right into the very thick of the scoring race. By the 12th he even leapfrogged LaFontaine into second place closing a gap of 13 points in just 13 days. He would hold onto that position for a little over two weeks until the 28th. Lemieux's 'slow' November and Kurri's crazy one are both amongst the top 15 Novembers of all time, though both were a far cry from the record for that month; Gretzky's 49 which is also the all-time single month point record.
Kurri's high water mark for ppg on the season was 2.28 reached on the 14th;
This is when Recchi made his move and closed the gap between him and the leaders. Recchi was as far as 14 points behind LaFontaine for second place at one point but came roaring back to tie Pat for third place in scoring on November 28th doing so in just 17 days. Interestingly enough, when he tied him they had the exact same stats; 16-29-45 in 23 games.
Unfortunately Kurri just couldn't sustain his scorching pace. After supplanting LaFontaine for second place and holding that spot for 2 weeks he would fall all the way down to 35th by the end of the season. He scored 46 points in his first 22 games(2.09ppg!), but would score less than that in nearly three times as many games from then on with only 41 in his next 60 (0.68ppg). But all-told he would end the year with a still respectable 87.
Here's a look at the scoring race by November 30th from a different perspective. Instead of to-date totals I've been posting so far, this is a progressive game-by-game chart of the scoring leaders. Each number represents the selected players total after a game played. I only showed Lemieux's(blue), Lafontaine's(yellow) and Kurri's(green) totals so that the chart doesn't become too bogged down with numbers;
But despite LaFontaine, Recchi and Kurri all having impressive months they were still no where near Lemieux. The 18 point gap between Mario and the others is actually the 3rd biggest gap in a scoring race by the end pf the first two months of a season in history and his 65 points also represents the third most points put up by a player by the end of November.
Point projections as of November 30th;
goals-assists-points
94 -116 -210 Lemieux
58 -106 -164 Recchi
75 - 88 - 163 Stevens(in 75 games)
60 - 97 - 158 LaFontaine
54 -104 -158 Kurri
81 - 40 - 121 Bure
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With Stevens out Lemieux continued to lead the way with 29 goals, tallying 13 on the month but he was beating by one player in the month. The Russian Rocket Pavel Bure was now really starting to make his presence felt with a league leading 16 markers in November - tied for 7th most in a single November on the strength of 6 multi-goal games. Bure ended the month with 24 and seemingly emerging as #66's strongest competition for the goal-scoring title.
And there was one other noteworthy goal-scoring achievement that happened this month. In a game against the Kings on Nov 13, Dave Andreychuk tied the NHL record for powerplay goals in a single game with 4;
DECEMBER 1992
December saw the reemergence of Lemieux's brilliance as well as one of the most incredible goal-scoring stretches of all-time by a relatively unknown talent that approach and matched(over some spans) Gretzky-like extremes. While another rookie rocketed on the scene, one not named Selanne, only to disappear just as quickly.Lemieux had the most points for the 3rd straight month in a row matching his October total with 36 points, the 7th most in a December. He had four 4-point games and also recorded the highest single game point total for the year with the season's only 7 point game on the 5th against the Sharks. He reached the 100 point mark with a shorthanded goal in the first period against the Leafs on New Years Eve. It took him only 38 games to reach the century mark, a mark which had only been reach quicker 3 times previously, once by Lemieux himself in '89 (36 games) and twice by Gretzky in '84 & '85 (34 & 35 games).
This time no one was in Mario's orbit points-wise for the month. Oates was a distant second with 25 but ppg-wise the difference was massive; 3.00 to 1.79. Oates did however manage to catch LaFontaine for second place by the 29t,h both having 62 apiece, though LaFontaine would soon pull ahead again thereafter. Either way, both of them were a massive 37 points behind Mario - Before new years! It was looking more and more like #66 had clinched the Ross already. No player had ever won the Art Ross by more than 35 points other than Gretzky, Lemieux was projecting to win it by 77 which would be just 2 points off Gretzky's record for the largest margin of victory, this in a year when eight players were projecting to score 130+ points.
There was another notable scoring accomplishment that concluded that month. On December 10th in a game against the Kings Mats Sundin scored a point in his 30th consecutive game - just the 5th 30+ game point streak in NHL history. In fact the streak had very nearly ended at 26. In his 27th game he was held without a point until very late in the 3rd when he scored a goal that sent the game into overtime with just 26 seconds left. The streak would finally end on the 12th, oddly enough in a game where his team scored 8 goals. Nonetheless it was and remains, tied for the 4th longest point streak in NHL history and the longest by anyone other than Gretzky or Lemieux. It is also the second longest streak from the start of a season in NHL history.
Sundin truly was a model of consistency that year, despite ending up far behind him on the point list he scored a point in the exact same number of games as LaFontaine did; 68 in total. Only Oates and Turgeon scored in more games overall, both having the most in a season by anyone other than Gretzky. But Mat's actually scored points in a higher percentage of games then the two, only Lemieux had a higher percentage of games with points.
Most games with points;
70 of 84 .833 - Oates
70 of 83 .843 - Pierre Turgeon
68 of 80 .850 - Sundin
68 of 84 .809 - LaFontaine
68 of 84 .809 - Recchi
67 of 84 .798 - Selanne
66 of 83 .795 - Gilmour
64 of 80 .800 - Tocchet
63 in 77 .818 - Mogilny
54 of 60 .900 - Lemieux
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As for the Retro-Rocket chase, Bure was the Russian player who had originally been drawing everyone's attention with his goal scoring prowess but this month it was another more enigmatic Russian who would mesmerize the hockey world.
Alexander Mogilny was quietly putting up impressive numbers working alongside Pat LaFontaine and veteran Dave Andreychuk in Buffalo. By December all three were on pace for 60 goals, this despite Mogilny having missed 6 games near the start of the season. Had Andreychuk not been traded later in the year to Toronto there was a reasonable chance that the Sabers might have joined the Oilers of the 80's as the only teams with three 50-goals scorers in the same year. In hindsight Mogilny's breakthrough should not have been as big of a surprise as it was at the time. The mercurial 23-year-old Russian had finished the previous year on a huge roll playing along side the talented LaFontaine. He ended the 91-92 season with 36 goals and 73 points in 48 games, totals which would have won him the Rocket and Ross in either of the league's strike shortened 48-game years. But his offensive outburst may have gone somewhat unnoticed as those totals were just the 14th most during that specific time span. That's because he had missed 10 games during that stretch due to a different kind of outburst... having been suspended for slapping an official. On a per-game basis during that period he ranked much higher; 6th in the league. By all means he was essentially one of the top 10 forwards in game at the time.
Mogilny started off December slowly with one goal in his first three games but then his month turned into something bordering on the fantastical. He scored a hat trick against the Burins on the 9th and followed it up with a pair against the Whalers before going scoreless in the second of a back-to-back against the Whalers. But that would be the last time he was held off the scoresheet that month. What followed was an absolute monster of a 8-game goal scoring streak that included 5 consecutive multi goal games - three of which were hat tricks. The final totals were just absurd; 16 goals during an 8 game goal scoring streak and 21 goals in 11 games. He finished the month with 17 goals, tied for 5th most in a December. But if not for the fact that the last two games of his streak, in which he scored 5 goals, were in January he would've had the most goals in a December, or any month ever for that matter. Within a one month period from Dec 9th to Jan 8th he scored 23 goals. The NHL record for goals in a single month is 20 and the most goals in any one month period is 28 which would actually occur later in the year(hinting at what is yet to come) This output surpassed the best short term goal scoring outbursts of nearly every single goal scoring legend including; Maurice Richard, Bobby Hull, Phil Esposito, Steve Yzerman, Brett Hull, Cam Neely, Teemu Selänne, Jaromir Jagr and yes, even Alex Ovechkin. The only ones who have ever exceeded this short-term goal scoring extravaganza were Gretzky and Lemieux. Bossy & Kurri also previously equaled, but didn't exceed, his goal scoring outburst in some length of games.
The end result of Mogilny's goal scoring binge vs the leagues other 5 best goal scorers, cumulative totals by team games;
Keep in mind Mogilny had also missed 6 games to start the season, not playing in team games 3 to 8, meaning he had 38 in just 34 games. He most likely would have already been in the low 40 goal range if not for that. On Dec 8th Mogilny was 15 goals behind Lemieux and 7 behind Bure for second. By Jan 3rd, a mere 26 days later he was only a single goal behind Lemieux and 6 ahead of Bure for second.
He had nearly double the goal scoring output of his close peers and so prodigious was his pace that he even bested Lemieux in points by one during that span; 27 to 26.
One last interesting tidbit about December 1992, the rookie I mention who rocketed on to the scene was none other than... Rob Gaudreau himself(Rob who?) Rob was actually second in goals scored that month putting up an impressive 14(in only 12 games!) including two hat tricks. All while playing for one of the worst teams in the league, the expansion Sharks. Sadly for Rob he disappeared just as quickly, after scoring those 14 goals He would score just 1 in his next 15. Rob did finish the year at a more reasonable pace with 8 in 31 for a total of 23. Unfortunately his brief flirtation with NHL superstardom lasted for just those 3 and half weeks. While he managed to stay in the league longer than Kontos or Kvartalnov it wasn't by much, as he too would be gone for good just three seasons later.
JANUARY 1993
By New Years eve 1993 Lemieux was absolutely crushing the competition in the scoring race, his next closest peers had less than two-thirds of his point total in what was an extremely strong year overall for top line players. While his goal scoring had fallen off somewhat and the chatter about chasing down that particular record subsided his points production was still at near historical levels and he had only missed a single game to this point(vs the Kings on Dec 3rd). Talk of a 200-point season and possibly chasing down Gretzky's single season point record continued. LaFontaine meanwhile slow down from his own impressive early season pace but he was still playing at a very high level along side Mogilny. He too had a good chance of rivaling an unofficial record; Yzerman's 155 - the most points by anyone other than Gretzky or Lemieux. Oates meanwhile had vaulted himself over Recchi and Kurri and firmly into the #3 spot on the heels of his strong December. While Sundin rose up to the #4 spot thanks to that impressive 30-game scoring streak.The scoring race on New Years day 1993;
Point projections as of January 1st;
goals-assists-points
80 -140 -220 Lemieux(83 games)
54 - 98 - 152 LaFontaine
75 - 68 - 143 Stevens(75 games)
50 - 93 - 143 Oates
54 - 86 - 140 Recchi
47 - 83 - 130 Turgeon
53 - 75 - 128 Sundin
38 - 91 - 128 Kurri
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With the Art Ross seemingly turning into a blowout the excitement turned towards the goal scoring chase which had turned into quite the race thanks to Mogilny's offensive explosion. As mentioned before, by the end of his streak on the 4th he had closed the gap to a single goal;
While Mogilny & Lemieux chased history, many others were also enjoying their best seasons. Luc Robitaille for instance was on pace to score over 60 goals, buoyed by Kurri's strong start. Luc however continued to score consistently long after the old Finnish flash cooled off, he potted about 10 goals a month - 9, 11 and 10 goals in each of the first three and would quietly continue working at that pace the rest of the way. Meanwhile the new Finnish flash Teemu Selanne was beginning to warm up and was on pace for what would be a rookie record 65 goals, handily surpassing the old record of 53 set by Mike Bossy in 1977-78 but the best was of course still yet to come from him...
Midseason goal projections;
90 Mogilny(in 77 games)
83 Lemieux(in 83 games)
75 Bure
73 Stevens(in 75 games)
65 Selanne
65 Robitaille
Unfortunately that season took a depressing turn soon thereafter and Mario's aspirations for setting history would come to a sudden halt that January as soon he would have far more serious things to worry about. Lemieux had only played in the first period of a game against the Bruins on January 5th before leaving due to a reemergence of his back pain issues. Entering that game he was scoring at a 2.67 point per game rate, a pace that would have allowed him to challenge Gretzky's records. He was advised by team doctors to take some time off to rest his back. It's unknown exactly how many games this would have cost him but it could have been as much as a couple of weeks. Luckily the Penguin's were going through a light part of their schedule at the time. Even if he was out for a two+ weeks the Pens were only scheduled to play in 6 games from January 6th through to the 21st. If he returned on that date that would have him playing in 77 games. Extrapolating out his seasonal paces this would have given him 88 goals, 117 assists and 205 points. Certainly this time off alone would have made Lemieux's pursuit of Gretzky's single season records of 92 goals and 215 points quite difficult, with his original advantage of 4 extra games being negated and then some. But on the other hand Lemieux did have a proclivity to return from breaks in play rejuvenated scoring at rates even higher than before an injury. During the previous season he missed 7 games from Jan 28th to Feb 15, likewise due to his back problems. But upon his return his pace post-injury dramatically improved. Pre-injury he was at 1.90ppg(80 in 42) but afterwards? He was at 2.32ppg(51 in 22). And as we saw later on his pace would also increased this season after returning; 2.67ppg vs 2.80ppg. There's little doubt in my mind that this break would have likewise benefited Lemieux and that he would have still mounted some kind of challenge towards the records upon his return, but of course that's not what happened.
On January 8th, 1993 he had a lymph node removed from a lump on his neck and on January 12th the Penguins shocked the hockey world by announcing that Mario had cancer after the test results came back. Mario himself then held a press conference on the 15th and publicly revealed that he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. At the time he was given a 90% to 95% probability that he would be cured, with a 5% to 10% chance that he would not. At the age of 27 in the very prime of his career, Mario Lemieux faced a slim but still very real possibility of death.
Following this shocking turn of events Lemieux was expected to missed 10 of the final 12 weeks while he received life-saving radiation treatments. Providing all went well he was expected to return in time at least for the last few weeks of the season and then the playoffs. The question was how well would he perform considering the side effects of the treatment; which were commonly nausea, weight loss and fatigue. As for the scoring race, 104 points was most certainly not going cut it to win the title. The last time such a figure was enough was more than 25 years before and no less than 25 players were projected to exceed this total. Even if he returned before the end of the season it just didn't seem realistic to expect him to continue to produced at a 2.67 ppg pace. Thus not only was his shot at the record kaputz but it seemed as though yet another scoring title and possibly goal-scoring title had slipped through his fingers yet again. I say yet again because he was also leading the league in points in 1989-90, two-thirds of the way through the season when he could no longer continue to play due to a deteriorating back condition(a herniated disc) that almost certainly cost him the scoring title. Gretzky ended up winning it that season with 142 points, meaning Lemieux only needed to score at a one point per game pace in his final 22 games to win it with 143.
A chart of the top six point leaders puts a good perspective on Mario's dominance up to his last game on the 5th;
And so with Mario out it looked like this was FINALLY going to be the year that the Art Ross was going to be won by someone other than Gretzky or Lemieux for the first time in 13 years. Speaking of Gretzky, there was at least some positive news for the NHL that month...
As one legend left the game another would make his return to it. Gretzky played his first game of the season on January 6th just one day after Lemieux had left his game against Boston and five days before the shocking cancer diagnosis announcement. In his first game back in over 8 months, # 99 grabbed 2 assists against the Lighting. However it would take Gretzky a while yet before he returned to form as he scored only 19 points in his first 18 games back with just 2 goals, both of which came in his second game back. Yup, he went 16 games without scoring a goal, which would end up being the second longest scoreless streak of his entire career and by far the longest up to that point in time. Previously he had gone no more than 9 games without potting at least one. The Great one would of course pick things up as he always did, something I will touch upon later and this in turn would set the stage for one of his best playoff performances yet.
As for those chasing the leader, in Mario's absence Oates and LaFontaine would both continue on their own prodigious paces. As mentioned before, Oates drew even with LaFontaine for second place on December 29th. Lafontaine would then pull ahead again after starting the new year on another hot streak. He quickly increased the gap between him and Oates to 12 points in just 12 days on the strength of 5 consecutive multi point games which included a 5 and 4 point game. But Oates was not about to let LaFontaine get away from him in the now open for grabs race for the Art Ross as he too caught fire towards the end of January, dropping three 4-point games of his own in that stretch. He once again managed to closed the gap between him and Lafontaine, this time to a single point by the 31st and in turn lead all players in January with an impressive 28 points.
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When it came to lighting the net up Mogilny would cool off, but only just barely. Buoyed by those 5 goals in the first two games of the month he would have 4 more multi-goal games and finished the month with 16, one more than Brett Hull who had a blistering month of his own potting 15 in January on the strength of 5 multi-goal games. These totals are tied for the 8th & 14th most in a single January. Entering into the season everybody and their uncles were expecting the Golden Brett to be one of the top contenders if not the odds-on favorite to win the goal-scoring title. After all he was just coming off 3-consecutive 70+ goals seasons which won him the title in each of those years quite handily. To everyone's shock he was well off the pace to start the year, banging in only 7 in his first 18 games, which at the time was actually the worst start of his entire career. Thankfully the Brett of old sprang back to life and he turned on the jets scoring at almost a goal a game pace with 29 in 33 from mid-November until the end of January, the second most in the league during this period.
As for the others; Bure, Selanne and Stevens all also managed well enough that month to not let the gap between them and Mogilny become too insurmountable which would turn out to be hugely important for one of them later... Reflecting back on the season it was interesting to see that it was actually Bure who was Mogilny's closest competition this far into the year and it would stay that way until the very end of February.
FEBRUARY 1993
Oates would briefly surpass Lafontaine for second place in the scoring race once more in early February, placing him just 9 points back of a sidelined Lemieux who had only just started receiving cancer treatments at the time, but Oates would not hold on to this position for long.Scoring race as of Feb 3rd 1993;
Point projections as of February 3rd;
148 Oates
147 LaFontaine
132 Turgeon
132 Mogilny
129 Recchi
127 Stevens
122 Selanne
122 Bure
116 Yzerman
104? Lemieux
In terms of scoring for the month a veteran, by hockey standards, lead the way. Steve Yzerman, the savvy 10-year Red Wing veteran recorded 27 points in just 12 games. This was the month where Yzerman first started to make his presence really felt on the leaderboards and would climb up the ranks. He was aided by three 4-point games, two of which were 5-pointers and had one of the hottest streaks of the year when he tallied 20 points in a 6 game span from the 3rd to the 17th. The only hotter point streaks that year were Kurri's early season explosion and three streaks by Lemieux. Yzerman would ultimately finished the year with an impressive 13 four point games, second only to Mario's 15 and still tied with Bossy for the most in a season by anyone other than Gretzky or Lemieux.
Not to be outdone, LaFontaine nearly matched Yzerman's pace with 22 pts in 10 gms thanks in large part to a season high 6 point game against the Jets on the 10th. On that night Lafontaine became the second player to hit the 100 point milestone for the year with his final point, assisting on what would be Mogilny's 4th goal of the night. Two weeks later he would have a 5 point game on the 24th in a showdown with Yzerman's Wings, who had four points of his own, helping the Sabers ultimately prevail in a 10 to 7 shootout. Besides being a dramatic confrontation between with two of the best players in the league this was the game where LaFontaine finally surpassed Lemieux from points in the season. He had entered the night with 104 after having gone scoreless in his previous two - the first time all year he had been held off the score sheet twice in a row. He had actually tied Mario 10 days ago on the 14th after having taken 17 more games to get to 104. Was the stress of trying to pass a living legend getting to him? Well safe to say he dispelled that thought early on that night by assisting on a goal by Mogilny(who else of course?) for point number 105. By the end of the night he had separated himself quite nicely from that '104' figure and was now sitting at 109, five ahead of Mario and eight more than Oates, his nearest active rival for the crown. Several players would hit the 100-point milestone that month and many more would soon follow suit in early March.
The first 10 players to hit 100;
Game number/Date/Player/100 point season number
38 December 31st(1992) - Mario Lemieux(8)
55 February 10th - Pat LaFontaine(2)
58 February 14th - Adam Oates(3)
64 February 24th - Steve Yzerman(6)
62 February 28th - Pierre Turgeon(2)
64 March 3rd - Doug Gilmore(2)
58 March 5th - Alexander Mogilny(1)
66 March 7th - Mark Recchi(2)
68 March 9th - Teemu Selanne(1)
69 March 15th - Luc Robitalle(4)
In comparison here were the first 5 players to hit the 100 mark this past season;
67 March 30th - Connor McDavid
70 April 14th - Leon Draisaitl
70 April 5th - Jonathan Huberdeau
73 April 12th - Johnny Gaudreau
69 April 15th - Auston Matthews
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There's also another reason why I chose February 3rd as the cut off date for the February chart. It wasn't just the day Oates briefly supplanted LaFontaine, but more significantly it was the day when a certain magical if not mythical milestone was achieved.
Alexander Mogilny had ended the month of January with 49 goals. Annnnd yes you guessed it, on February 3rd in a game against the Whalers he was the first player to hit the 50th goal mark, scoring with less than 30 seconds remaining in the third which won the game for the Sabers, 3-2. Without a doubt 50 goals on it's own is a noteworthy achievement but that's not the magical mark I'm talking about. What made Mogilny's mark truly special was that he achieved it in less than 50 games. Unfortunately the NHL does not recognize it as an "official" 50-in-50 accomplishment. Mogilny scored his 50th goal in his 46th game, however this was his team's 53rd game and as we all know from this past year in order to qualify as an official 50-in-50 achievement it needs to be done within the teams first 50 games. Nonetheless, while I can't speak for others to me this does not lessen the impressive level of scoring prowess Mogilny achieved that year in any way, shape or form. Up to that point it was just the 10th time in NHL history that anyone had scored 50 in their first 50 games(8 official, 2 unofficial). A certain somebody would later join him that year in the "unofficial category" and the mark has only been done twice more in the last 30 seasons, both in the "unofficial" category. For more on that topic and other scoring achievements see here;
50 goals in 50 games – all stats relating to the achievement
The NHL officially only recognizes the 50 goals in 50 games achievement if it is done from the start of a season and also within the teams first 50 games. But it is also recognized as an unofficial…
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Goal leaders as of Feb 3rd;
Goal projections from Feb 3rd;
84 Mogilny(in 77 games)
70 Bure
68 Stevens(in 75 games)
65 Selanne
57 Robitaille
39+? Lemieux
But Mogilny wasn't done there, oh no he continued to POUR. IT. ON. Two games later, the night Lafontine hit 100 he had that aforementioned four goal game against the Jets. Following this game he was kept relatively in check over his next four with just a 2-goal performance against the shorthanded Pens before exploding again for another 4 goal game against the Wings on the 24th, his second 4 goal game of the month.
The fourth goal of that game gave him 60 on the year, making him the first to reach the mark and he did it in just 53 games and 59 team games. Which makes it an official "60-in-60" achievement although the NHL doesn't really make note of such a mark. This was also his 7th hat trick of the year which was by far the most by anyone that year. He wouldn't have anymore hat tricks the rest of the way but this number still ties him for the 6th most hat tricks in a single season. He concluded the month by adding 3 more goals over the course of two games against the Canadians and lead the league in goals for the third month in a row with 14. Just from watching the video below you can see how much of an unstoppable force he was at this point, the man was just buzzing around, through everyone and anyone;
As for his nearest rivals, Bure would find himself mired on a prolonged scoring slump notching only 5 goals in February and 9 total over a 25-game span through to early March which would ultimately cost him any chance of competing for the title. Selanne wasn't fairing much better... that is until the final day of February. That was the day Selanne would essential declare that he would be the one to challenge Mogilny's for goal-scoring supremacy in 1992-93. First he leapt over Bure into second place with a 4 goal effort against the North Stars. The hat trick goal was a particularly special one as with it Selanne became the second player to hit 50 on the year and just the 3rd rookie in NHL history to reach the mark, not to mention the fastest ever. Oddly enough Bossy was quicker to 20 goals; 22 to 27 and 40 goals; 49 to 52. While Selanne was quicker to 30 goals; 38 to 42 and 50 goals; 63 to 69. From then on the flood gates would open and many others would soon follow Selanne in the 50-goal club.
All players to hit 50 on the year;
Game number/Date/Player/50 goal season number
46 February 3th - Alexander Mogilny(1) *team game 53
63 February 28th - Teemu Selanne(1)
63 March 1st - Pavel Bure(1)
70 March 10th - Steve Yzerman(5)
69 March 15th - Luc Robitalle(3)
73 March 20th - Brett Hull(4)
48 March 21st - Mario Lemieux(4) *team game 72
62 March 21st - Kevin Stevens(2) *team game 72
72 March 23rd - Dave Andreychuk(1)
75 March 28th - Pat LaFontaine(2)
76 April 1st - Mark Recchi(1)
75 April 2nd - Pierre Turgeon(1)
71 April 15th - Brendan Shanahan *team game 84
84 April 15th - Jeremy Roenick(2)
In comparison the 50-goal scorers of the 2021-22 season;
62 March 31st - Auston Matthews - fewest number of games to hit 50 since Lemieux & Jagr in 1995-96
70 April 3rd - Leon Draisaitl
74 April 12th - Chris Kreider
75 April 20th - Alex Ovechkin
MARCH 1993
Here's when things started to get really interesting. By early March it was known that Mario's treatment was progressing well but no one knew exactly when he might make his return. LaFontaine had opened up a sizable lead in the scoring race in the meanwhile. He was now 12 points clear of Lemieux by the start of the month, 116 to 104. Incredibly the American was still the only player ahead of him, this despite Mario not having played a single game in almost two months! Truly a testament to #66's dominance that season. Sabers fans were positively gleaming at the prospect of having their two superstars win both the point and goal scoring titles for the first time in team history and both in the same year to boot. With only a month and a half left in the season it was starting to look like a distinct possibility. LaFontaine was projecting to tie Yzerman's none-Gretzky/Lemieux unofficial single season points record of 155, not only thanks to his huge start but also by remaining incredibly consistent throughout the year; he lead the league in scoring during Mario's absence.Scoring race as of March 1st 1993;
Point projections as of March 1st;
155 LaFontaine
137 Oates
135 Turgeon
135 Mogilny
132 Gimour
129 Recchi
127 Yzerman
121 Selanne
104...? Lemieux
And then on March 2nd, 1993 it happened. This was the day Mario Lemieux returned to the sport and began his epic comeback.
The story of Lemieux's return is pretty well known so I won't rehash it in too much detail but this article sums it up rather nicely I'd say. I like this verse in particular; "This was about a superstar who underwent one last radiation treatment in the morning and scored his 40th goal in the evening." Never before had a Penguins player received cheers from fans of their arch rivals the Flyers, but that night the cheers rained down on Lemieux like never before in Philadelphia.
Although the Penguins would ultimately lose the game Mario did his part by scoring a goal and adding an assist to get within 10 of Lafontaine. However in his first week back he was not without his struggles, as he only managed to record a single assist in his next two games. At this point despite his successful return to action it was by no means seen as a given that he could chase down LaFontaine for the scoring title. Based on his play in his first few games back it appeared as though he had lost a little bit of a step and it would probably take him a while to get his feet back under him. Meanwhile over in Buffalo, Lafontaine showed no signs of slowing down and would pad his lead with a huge week; scoring 3 goals and adding 6 assists for 9 points in 3 games. He completed the week with a 5-point effort against the Nordiques, at the time his league leading sixth 5-point game of the season - still the most ever in a season by anyone not named Lemieux or Gretzky. This put him a whopping 18 points ahead of Lemieux with just over a month to go and 17 games left to play in the season - 125 vs 107. Even if Lemieux continued to produce at his current seasonal pace, he was no longer projected to surpass LaFontaine;
LaFontaine - 125 points in 67 games = 157 in 84
Lemieux - 107 points in 43 games = 149 in 60
Secondly Lafontaine was by now not the only player Mario had to contend with. Oates had also(finally) jumped ahead of him on March 4th, followed by Yzerman on the 7th and Turgeon on the 9th. Mario was actually sitting in 5th place in the scoring race on March 11th. Perhaps seeing his name drop down the leaderboard motivated Mario, because that was when he made his move. On that night the Pens would play against Gretzky's Kings, it would be the first and only time the two would play against each other that season. The Kings were on a bit of a role as the Great One had shaken off his early season rust and was coming into the game scorching hot having scored the most points in the NHL over the previous 3 weeks. The game was close and went into overtime where the Pens would ultimately win it on a goal by Jagr. Gretzky had a goal and an assist but Mario bested him with 4 points, notching a goal and 3 assists. With that he would put Turgeon in his rearview mirror for the remainder of the season and temporarily tie Oates for 3rd place at 111 apiece.
Yzerman and Oates would climb ahead of him again in the following days dropping him back to 4th place though largely because the Pens only played in one game over the course of the next week. Lafontaine meanwhile played in 3 games during that time, the scheduling was a little strange in 1992-93 and while he didn't exactly light it up, by the evening of the 18th he was still a considerable 16 points ahead of Mario with less than a month left in the season. With the pressure on and the clock ticking if Lemieux wanted to make a run for the scoring title it was now or never. That night the Pens would play their long time division rivals, the Capitals and this would be the night that Lemieux proved he was truly back, basically declaring enough is ENOUGH!(NSFW), everybody strap in I'm about to make a play for the scoring title.
The Penguins won that game 7 to 5 on the strength of a 4 goal, 6 point effort by Lemieux. It was the beginning of what is arguably the most prodigious goal scoring streak in NHL history. By the end of the night he went from 4th place in the scoring race to tied for 2nd, now 10 points back of the leader. Two nights later the Pens would play their other division arch-rivals, the Philadelphia Flyers. They proceeded to blow the Flyers out of the building by a 9 to 3 score, winning their fifth in a row. And Mario? As if the other night wasn't enough to prove that he was back he once again scored 4 goals. This was just the fifth(and last) time in NHL history that a player had two consecutive 4-goal games. The others being Joe Malone in 1917-18, Wayne Gretzky in 1981-82 and 1983-84 and somewhat surprisingly Joe Mullen in 1991-92. Surely it was then that Sabers fans knew their star was in trouble.
Lafontaine scored 3 points that night himself but it barely even registered, Lemieux had just cut a 16 point lead in half in just two games. With Mario doing his best Man on Fire impression, how much of a chance did Pat have to hold him off with 13 games still left in the season? What LaFontaine needed to do was go on a tear of his own. He had put up two impressive 13 game stretches already that year, scoring 33 and 31 points in them and he even had a better one the year prior with 34 in 13. Essentially that was what it was going to take at for him to hold off Super Mario. If he could manage to score say 30 points, a tall order to be sure but clearly not an impossible one for him, that would have given him 161 on the year. Mario would have to average 3 points a game the rest of the way(which he just about did) to beat him with 162. And considering how things ended up that would indeed have been just enough.
Things started promisingly enough for Pat with Lemieux potting just a goal on March 21st, although it was still a very special night for him, more on that in the goal section below. Lafontaine notched 3 points on the 22nd which put him back up 10 again with 12 games to go; 134 to 124. But Le Magnifique just could not be stopped, he scored 5 points for the third time in four games on the 23rd while Lafontaine would go scoreless in his next game the following night. And just like that the lead was cut in half again; 134 to 129, with 11 to go. If Saber fans were nervous before, they were truly sweating buckets at this point, Mario was coming after their star like a freight train with no brakes. LaFontaine would offer them some hope on the 25th by grabbing 3 points on the night. But Lemieux just kept pouring it on and on and on, racking up 4 that same night and quickly followed that up with 3 in his next game on the 27th. That brought the lead down to a single point 137 to 136. Almost mercifully they would not have to wait long for the dagger to come, for it would arrive the very next day.
Both would play on the 28th with LaFontaine scoring his 50th goal of the season against the Senators at the end of the first period. It was undoubtedly a jubilant moment for the American superstar but the celebrations would not last long as Lemieux would grab three points against the Capitals, helping the Penguins win their 10th game in a row and reclaiming the scoring race lead for the first time in 6 weeks; 138 to 139. In the span of just 16 days and 9 games Lemieux had done it. He had come back not only from cancer but from a deficit as large as 19 points and he made it look easy. It was akin to a grown man playing with a child, he had just outscored LaFontaine by a ridiculous 32 to 13 point margin.
It wasn't as if LaFontaine was playing poorly during that time either, Pat had averaged a more than respectable 1.63ppg, which was only slightly below his seasonal average of 1.84 It's just at Lemieux was operating on an entirely different level, if not planet. Certainly no one could have faulted LaFontaine for the effort he put forth especially considering March was actually his second best scoring month of the year; with 28 points he was tied with Yzerman and Gretzky for the second most points in the league that month. Clearly Mario did not catch up to him because he was slumping. No, it was just because Mario was a freaking insane scoring machine. The only question left now that Mario had caught him was did he have any more fight left in him at all? The answer to that was actually yes.
LaFontaine would go scoreless on the 30th while Mario grabbed two more points padding his lead to 3. But Pat would come back with a big game of his own on the final day of the month against the Devils, recording 4 points. This put the tenacious LaFontaine back on top of the race; 142 to 141. For a moment there was a brief flicker of hope in Buffalo and with just 7 games left in the season(for both), Pat seemingly still had a fighting chance. Had he kept it up for a little bit longer and held off #66 it would have made for quite the underdog story. Perhaps his opponent had exhausted himself chasing the Sabers star down so fast and furiously, he had just come back from cancer treatments afterall. But unfortunately for LaFontaine that couldn't have been farther from the truth.
True, Lemieux had lost the scoring lead on the final day of the month but by all measures if he had played that day he probably wouldn't have. He and the Penguins were in the middle of one of the greatest stretches of play by a team and a player the NHL had ever seen. Despite starting off the month slowly with just 3 points in his first 3 games Mario notched 34 points in his next 10 games to finish the month with 37. This is tied for the second most ever scored in any March, but had the highest ppg rate at 2.85 and he was by no means done.
It seems I have run out of space, part 2 continues the story below.
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