Today In Habs History: February 19th

The very first big moment in Habs history that came on this day was a 5-goal performance by a Canadiens legend and Hockey Hall of Famer, Bernie “Boom” Geoffrion. On February 19th, 1955, Geoffrion had his best single-game performance as a goal scorer when he led the way in helping the Canadiens crush the New York Rangers with a 5-goal performance in a 10-2 victory. With his performance, Geoffrion became just the 7th Habs player to score 5 goals in a single game and one of just 9 players to do so as of today. This feat hasn’t been accomplished again since 1975, when Yvan Cournoyer scored 5 goals in a 12-3 win over the Chicago Blackhawks.

On top of Geoffrion’s 5 goals against the Rangers, Hall of Fame defenseman Doug Harvey finished with 5 assists for the most productive game of his NHL career. With that being said, it was a night of two legendary Habs players taking over the game, very similar to many games that the Canadiens played during that era. Both Geoffrion and Harvey would never accomplish their respective feats from that night in 1955 again.

The next notable game on February 19th came in 1977, the year of the greatest Habs team of all time. On that night, the Canadiens extended their home undefeated streak to 23 games with a 5-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers. During their unbeaten streak, the Habs improved to 18-0-5 on home ice (there were ties back then).

However, the reality is that the accomplishments came from two Hall of Fame forwards who reached big goal-scoring milestones against the Flyers that night. Yvan Cournoyer scored 2 goals, which included his 400th NHL goal, becoming just the 4th Habs player to reach that mark. While centre Jacques Lemaire found the back of the net once with his 300th career goal to become the 9th in team history to reach that milestone. Cournoyer would go on to score 428 goals in his career, which is ranked 4th in Canadiens history to this day. Lemaire finished his career with 366 goals, which places him 7th all-time with the team.

The final notable game/moment came on February 19th, 2008, when the Canadiens made a miraculous comeback from being down 5-0 against the New York Rangers to beat them 6-5 in a shootout. This game is something I will always remember as an 11-year-old kid watching at home, thinking the game was over, only to see the comeback happen in real time.

As of 5:03 into the 2nd period, the Habs had found themselves down 5-0, looking like a completely deflated team. A few minutes later, Michael Ryder would score to give Habs fans at the Bell Centre something to cheer about. Then he came back with another goal before the end of the 2nd period. This gave the Habs life to have a good 3rd period that night.

In the 3rd period, the Canadiens scored two goals 9 seconds apart to make it a 5-4 game. It started with Alex Kovalev getting a goal 6:43 into the final frame of regulation. This was quickly followed up by a Ryder shot that went off defenseman Mark Streit’s leg and into the net, which prevented the sniper’s hat trick, but the fact that it brought the Habs within 1 matters more.

Following those 2 quick goals came a game-tying goal by Kovalev with a little under 5 minutes to go, sending the game to overtime. The game would go on to the shootout where Habs captain Saku Koivu got the only goal as they completed the comeback in incredible fashion.

This was as remarkable a comeback as I have ever seen, and it’s one of the best moments to watch for any Habs fan that wasn’t able to watch the 1993 Stanley Cup-winning team, like myself. It’s one game that I will never forget, and it happened 18 years ago today.