Yes, it was a 1970-71 game against the expansion Buffalo Sabres. But, that shouldn’t diminish the fact that hockey history was written on the night of March 13, 1971 at the St. Louis Arena. The Blues were hosting the Sabres in a late season game and two players in particular put on a performance.
Interestingly, the two players that put on a show for St. Louis hockey fans are better known for the consecutive game ironman streaks than points and shutouts. A young Garry Unger had a seven point night and Glenn Hall recorded the 84th and final shutout of his NHL career in a 9-0 blowout.
Garry Unger
Garry Unger had just come to the Blues a little over a month before in a trade with the Detroit Red Wings. On February 5, 1971, he was shipped to St. Louis with Wayne Connelly for Red Berenson and Tim Ecclestone. As it turns out, Berenson has his place in this story, as well.
Red had previously put in a seven point night for the Blues on six goals and an assist against the Philadelphia Flyers on November 7, 1968. Unger tied the point total against the Sabres with three goals and four assists. Over half a century later, Garry and Red are the only two St. Louis Blues players to total seven points in a game.
In the game, Unger scored his 19th, 20th and 21st of the season. He also assisted on goals by Wayne Connelly, Bill Sutherland, John Arbour and Jim Lorentz. He did this while putting a modest five shots on Buffalo goalie Joe Daley. It was the only hat trick by a St. Louis player for all the 1970-71 NHL season.
Glenn Hall
The veteran goaltender known as Mr. Goalie turned away 27 shots for the 84th and final shutout of his career. Phil Goyette and Eddie Shack accounted for many of those shots with Goyette recording six and Shack putting five on Hall.
At the time, this cemented Glenn’s position as third all-time NHL goalie for career shutouts behind just Terry Sawchuk and George Hainsworth. It also put a two shutout cushion between him and Jacques Plante. Hall still remains fourth in the category with the record, of course, now belonging to Martin Brodeur with 125.
Team Record
At the time, the nine goals scored tied for the most in a single game by the Blues. It had been done twice previously. The current record is 11, set on February 26, 1994 in an 11-1 win over the Ottawa Senators. The 9-0 score remains tied for the franchise record for the highest scoring shutout. The also blanked the Atlanta Flames 9-0 on November 2, 1974.
More About Garry Unger
Between 1967-68 and 1982-83, Unger appeared in 1,105 regular season and 51 playoff games in the National Hockey League. Along with the Red Wings and Blues, Unger also played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Atlanta Flames, Los Angeles Kings and Edmonton Oilers.
At one time, Garry owned the NHL record for most consecutive games played. Between 1968 and 1979, he appeared in 914 straight. That record was then taken over by Doug Jarvis with his streak of 964 games coming to an end in 1987. Unger’s ironman streak stands today as the fourth longest. Phil Kessel owns the current record with 1,064 games.
More About Glenn Hall
An ironman in his own right, Glenn Hall will most likely forever hold the record for most consecutive games played by a goalie with 502. That number places him 28th in NHL history, regardless of position.
Between 1952-53 and 1970-71, Glenn appeared in 906 regular season and 115 playoff games in the NHL with the Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues. He was a Calder Trophy and Conn Smythe Trophy winner once each and a three time recipient of the Vezina. Hall was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1975.
St. Louis Blues 1970-71 NHL Season
1970-71 was just the fourth year in the NHL for the Blues but it was also the first time they would not reach the Stanley Cup final. After finishing second in the West Division behind the Chicago Blackhawks, St. Louis was bounced in the opening round of the playoffs by the Minnesota North Stars.
The team was led in scoring by Chris Bordeleau with a modest 21 goals and 53 points. Ernie Wakely took over as the team’s number one goalie but backup Glenn Hall still saw 32 games during the regular season and three in the playoffs.
Al Arbour began the season as player coach before Scotty Bowman took over. Bowman was also the team’s General Manager. The following season, Bowman was off to Montreal. Arbour would begin his historic run behind the bench with the New York Islanders in 1973-74.
Garry Unger and Bill Goldsworthy were 2 of my favorite players as a kid. To me they were the Blues and North Stars.
Though not entirely his fault Gary had a bad +/- history for someone who was a top goal scorer/point player. He had 3 years of -35 or greater.
He did have that run of 9 – 30 goal season in 10 years.
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