Ice Hockey · 1945 · Boston, USA
Fifty Goals in Fifty Games
In the very last game of the season, Maurice Richard becomes the first player in NHL history to score fifty goals, doing it in exactly fifty games.
First 50-goal season in NHL history
Feat
50 (50 goals in 50 games)
Games played
44 goals (Joe Malone, 1917-18)
Previous record
Maurice Richard went into the Montreal Canadiens' 50th and final game of the 1944-45 season, in Boston against the Bruins, sitting on 49 goals. No NHL player had reached 50 in a single season, and the existing record of 44, set by Joe Malone in the league's inaugural 1917-18 season, had stood for 27 years.
With just over two minutes left in the game, Richard beat the Boston goaltender Harvey Bennett for his 50th, the first player in NHL history to get there and in the fewest games it can be done in. Nobody matched that pace for another three decades.
'50 in 50' stood by itself for 16 years, until Bernie Geoffrion, Richard's own Canadiens teammate, became the second player to reach it. The 'Rocket' Richard Trophy has gone to the NHL's leading goal-scorer every season since 1999.
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