March 12th 1966 - Bobby Hull scores his 51st goal of the season, setting a new NHL record.
With 10 games remaining in the season, the sniper needed just a single goal to exceed the half century mark set by Rocket Richard and Boom Boom Geoffrion and matched by Hull himself in 1961-62. The Black Hawks played host to the New York Rangers, who had taken a 2-0 lead into the third period. After setting up Chico Maki's strike early in the final frame, Hull blasted a feed from center Lou Angotti to knot up the score two-and-a-half-minutes later. Not only did the goal spark an eventual 4-2 win for the home team, but it set a new standard in the goal-scoring department. Hull would finish the season with 54 tallies and meet or exceed the 50-goal mark three more times in the NHL and in each of his first four seasons in the rival WHA. He would find the back of the net 58 times in 1968-69, which is amazingly still 34 shy of Wayne Gretzky's92 in 1981-82. While Bobby was never able to reach 50-in-50, his son Brett would achieve the feat in back-to-back seasons from 1990-92.
(Courtesy HockeyBarn.com)
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