Dec. 31: Lemieux scores goals in five different ways

THIS DATE IN HISTORY: Dec. 31
1988:
Mario Lemieux
puts on a show the likes of which no one has seen in an NHL game.

Lemieux becomes the first player to
score goals in five ways
during the same game. Before a crowd of 16,025 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, Lemieux scores at even strength, on the power play, shorthanded, on a penalty shot and into an empty net. The five goals carry the Pittsburgh Penguins to an 8-6 victory against the New Jersey Devils.
The even-strength, power-play and shorthanded goals come in the first period. Lemieux scores on a penalty shot midway through the second and beats the clock by hitting the empty net with one second remaining in the third.
Lemieux assists on Pittsburgh's other three goals, giving him an eight-point game. His historic game comes three years to the day after he scores four goals for his first NHL hat trick in an 8-4 win against the St. Louis Blues.

MORE MOMENTS
1975: In what many consider the greatest game ever played, the Montreal Canadiens and Soviet Central Red Army play to a 3-3 tie at the Forum. Goals by
Steve Shutt
and
Yvon Lambert
give the Canadiens a 2-0 lead after one period. After Boris Mikhailov scores on the Soviets' first shot of the second period, Montreal's
Yvan Cournoyer
makes it 3-1 near the midway point of the period, but goals by Valeri Kharlamov late in the second period and Boris Alexandrov (the youngest player on the roster) early in the third get the Soviets even at 3-3. Goalie Vladislav Tretiak survives a 16-shot barrage by the Canadiens in the third to earn the tie. Montreal finishes the game with a 38-13 advantage in shots on goal.
1997:
Dominik Hasek
makes 36 saves in the Buffalo Sabres'
3-0 victory
against the Ottawa Senators at Marine Midland Arena. It's the 27th shutout of Hasek's NHL career and his sixth in the month of December, making him the first goalie since
George Hainsworth
in 1928-29 to have six shutouts in a single month.

2003:
Maxim Afinogenov
has his first NHL hat trick and
Miroslav Satan
gets his fifth in the Sabres'
7-1 win
against the visiting Washington Capitals. It's the first time in 11 years that two Sabres score three goals in the same game.
2017: William Karlsson scores three goals for the first hat trick in the history of the Vegas Golden Knights. He also has an assist for a four-point night in a 6-3 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs at T-Mobile Arena. The victory is the seventh in a row for the Golden Knights, who finish December 11-1-1, the most wins in a calendar month by a team in its first NHL season.
On the same night,
Jaromir Jagr
skates in his final game of the season for the Calgary Flames. He plays 11:49 and is scoreless in Calgary's 4-3 overtime win against the Chicago Blackhawks at Scotiabank Saddledome. It's his 1,733rd NHL game, third on the all-time list.
2018: The Nashville Predators score five unanswered goals to
defeat the Washington Capitals 6-3
at Capital One Arena to end a 10-game road winless streak. The Predators trailed 3-1 before rallying for their first victory away from Bridgestone Arena in more than seven weeks -- and their fifth in a row against Washington.
2019: Marc-Andre Fleury moves past
Curtis Joseph
into sixth place on the NHL's all-time wins list when he makes 26 saves for the Vegas Golden Knights in their
5-2 win against the Anaheim Ducks
at T-Mobile Arena. It's also the 322nd victory for Fleury in the 2010s, the most of any goalie in the decade.
On the same night, Montreal's Max Domi scores a goal in his sixth consecutive game during the Canadiens'
3-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes
All six games during the streak are on the road; he's the sixth player in NHL history to have a goal streak of at least six games with all games away from home.