This Day in Hockey History – December 11, 1985 – Only Offense

Even with four goalies, the game on December 11, 1985 between the Edmonton Oilers and Chicago Blackhawks seemed to be all about offense with little defense. Between the two teams, they scored the most goals (21) in one game since the adoption of the red line in 1943, the most goals (12) in one period (the second), and the most goals (12) the Blackhawks had ever given up at Chicago Stadium.

Post-game Oilers defenseman Kevin Lowe said, “After something like this the only way to look at it is the fans [all 17,973 of them] had fun. They got their money’s worth. The thing I can’t understand is how the scorekeeper kept up.” The first period was all about the Oilers, who scored four times without any response from the Blackhawks, which turned into six goals in the first 23 minutes of the game. Then came the crazy second period with six goals apiece. Finally, the Oilers scored two goals to the Blackhawk’s three for the final period.

For the Oilers, Glenn Anderson and Jari Kurri came out with hat tricks, Marty McSorley had two goals, and the other four goals were scored by Lee Fogolin, Dave Lumley, Dave Semenko, and Kevin McClelland. The big news of the night was that while Wayne Gretzky did not score a goal, he contributed seven assists, tying the NHL single-game record he held from 1980. Gretzky commented, “I actually thought I had eight . . . but I lost count, I guess. It was one of those freaky nights.”

On the Blackhawks side, it took much longer to get on the board until Denis Savard put a stop to an Oilers shutout during a second-period power play. In addition to his goal, Troy Murray and Ken Yaremchuk each scored twice while Curt Fraser, Bill Watson, Jerome Dupont, and Keith Brown had one goal apiece.

Gretzky called the game “absolutely absurd” and described the final moments, “The funniest thing was the clock messed up with four minutes left. All of a sudden it flipped to 19:31. I don’t know if they were trying to tell us something or not? If we’d played that long we might have scored 16 and we’d have beat them by a field goal.” The final score was 12-9 in favor of the Oilers.

Interestingly, despite getting to the point of losing 6-0, the Blackhawks waited to pull their starting goalie until the Oilers beat them to it. In the Oilers’ net Andy Moog kept his net clear until the second period shooting spree. He said, “This was a street hockey game all the way. The kind played in front of your house. I gave up five goals in six minutes and that was all she wrote.” Moog said he felt sorry for his reliever, Grant Fuhr, who was “thrown into a hornet’s nest.” Fuhr let in another four goals before the game ended and told the press, “The best thing to do after a game like that is laugh. I can’t remember ever being in a game this bad.” At least his poor showing still earned the win, so he commented, “It’s got to be the strangest win I’ve ever got.”

In the other net, the Blackhawks kept Murray Bannerman in for two whole periods and 10 goals by the Oilers. Bannerman seemed at a loss when he commented, “I felt fine going in…although I guess it didn’t look that way.” He was relieved by Bob Sauve, who was quite pessimistic with the loss. “It was a sad show to watch and be part of it. There was no excuse for it.”

All told, the 21 goals were scored on 90 shots, so the four goalies all had save percentages in the .75 range. The number of shots on goal were about even with 44 for the Oilers and 46 for the Blackhawks. Obviously, the losing goalies fared worse with Bannerman having a save percentage of .722 and Sauve having one of .750. For the Oilers, Moog actually had the highest save percentage, .815, while his reliever, Fuhr, had .789.

As Jim Matheson wrote for the Edmonton Journal, “The 21-goal outburst tied a mark going back 65 years when Newsy Lalonde was dancing for the Montreal Canadiens in a 14-7 demolition of Toronto St. Patricks.” Gretzky, with his seven assists, exclaimed, “There’s never going to be another game like this.”

 Additional Sources:

• Jim Matheson, “Oilers on top when smoke cleared,” Edmonton Journal, 12 Dec. 1985, p. 67 (E1).
• Jim Matheson, “Gretzky’s record a special treat,” Edmonton Journal, 12 Dec. 1985, p. 68 (E2).