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 entered the Montreal Canadiens' 50th and final game of the 1944-45 season, in Boston against the Bruins, sitting on 49 goals, one short of a total no NHL player had ever reached in a single season. The existing record, 44 goals 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 Boston goaltender Harvey Bennett for his 50th goal of the season, becoming the first player in NHL history to reach the milestone, and doing it in the fewest possible games, exactly fifty, a pace that would not be matched again for three decades.
The achievement, forever known simply as '50 in 50', stood alone for 16 years before Bernie Geoffrion, Richard's own Canadiens teammate, became the second player to reach it. The 'Rocket' Richard Trophy, awarded annually to the NHL's leading goal-scorer since 1999, carries his name in permanent recognition of the record he set that night in Boston.
