MARIO LEMIEUX

Dec. 31, 1988 pittsburgh 8, new jersey 6

THE FUNNY THING ABOUT Lemieux’s performance is that the significance of it wasn’t immediately recognized.

His five-goal, eight-point output was noteworthy, of course, but it didn’t sink in until afterward that Lemieux had scored each of his goals in a different hockey situation, making it the top individual game in franchise history. Lemieux scored at even strength, on the power play, shorthanded, on a penalty shot and into an empty net in a wild win over the Devils at Pittsburgh’s Civic Arena. No NHL player before or since has scored five goals five ways.