This Day in Hockey History – February 17, 1923 – Cy Seizes the High

Feb 15, 2020

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Having transitioned from the National Hockey Association to the newly-formed National Hockey League in 1917, left winger Cy Denneny became the first to break the NHL record for most goals in a career. Joe Malone initially had set the record and scored his final NHL goal on February 3, 1923. Just two weeks later, on February 17, Denneny surpassed Malone’s total. He would keep his record for 11 years, a couple beyond his retirement.

The record-setting goal was made before a “packed house” of about 7,000 at Dey’s Arena in Ottawa. Denneny and the Ottawa Senators were on a roll. As the Ottawa Journal remarked, “Whitewashing Canadiens has become quite a pastime with Senators, who have blanked them three times this season.” This game was no different as the Senators’ goalie Clint Benedict blocked all comers.

In fact, both teams remained completely scoreless through the first two periods. The Ottawa Citizen described it as a “grueling, close-checking game” in which “both teams use bodies with telling effect.” A report back to Montreal concurred that it was “one of those close, stubbornly-contested games that generally marks encounters between the two clubs.” Although the game was “devoid of any great spectacular displays, chiefly through the strong defence shown by both teams,” the reporter admitted that “Ottawa excelled in combination work.”

Throughout, the Boucher brothers certainly made themselves seen. Billy Boucher was the first to shoot on Benedict. He must have been annoyed that his brother George, like he had the last time the two opposed each other, broke the scoreless tie at 4:40 of the third period. According to one recap, “It was a typical Boucher goal, scored after a serpentine dash and charge at the defence. Cleghorn and Couture closed to sandwich Boucher, who let a high one fly that Vezina couldn’t handle.” The Montreal Gazette complained that the crowd jeered and threw lemons at Sprague Cleghorn, and they claimed his two “penalties were hardly warranted.” Meanwhile, the Ottawa Citizen complimented how Montreal’s goalie, Georges Vezina, though recently injured and “only called on to make a few spectacular saves, he was as solid as a rock all evening, and did his part in faultless fashion.”

About seven minutes after Boucher’s game-winner, at 11:45, Denneny finally found the back of the net. He had already had at least three shots on goal in the first period, another in the second, and another in the third before Boucher’s goal. The Ottawa Journal praised, “Cy Denneny was immense. He had no trouble tricking the defence, and while a lot of his shots were wide there were many that staggered Vezina.” The one that made it in happened as Eddie Gerard and Denneny skated up together and the “defence split and Gerard passed his man and flipped it over to Denneny” in a “spectacular combination bout.”

While the NHL seems to contradict itself over whether that was Denneny’s 143rd or 144th goal, the league does consider this the record-breaking goal. In the very next game, on February 21, Denneny scored four of the six goals Ottawa made on the Toronto St. Pats. (Teammate Punch Broadbent scored the first and last of them.) The game after that, on February 24, Denneny again scored four goals as the Senators beat the Hamilton Tigers 5-1. Still, he couldn’t quite make it to the top of the scorers that season. (He would take the lead the following season with the lowest number of goals (22) to ever win the top spot.)

The Senators led the standings all the way to the end of the 1922-23 season, finishing with 29 points (14-9-1). The Canadiens took second with one point less (13-9-2). During the playoffs that March, Cy Denneny faced his brother Corb and George Boucher his brother Frank as Ottawa defeated the Vancouver Maroons of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA). The Senators went on to defeat the Edmonton Eskimos of the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL) to win the Stanley Cup.

Denneny remained in Ottawa until the Senators traded him to the Boston Bruins on October 25, 1928. Doing double duty as a playing-coach that final season, he ended his NHL playing career with another Stanley Cup. After some time as an on-ice official, Denneny became the head coach of the Senators for just the 1932-33 season.

When he retired, after 329 NHL games, Denneny had 247 goals and 336 points. He had made the top ten in goal scoring for nine of his twelve seasons. With his totals, he topped the all-time lists in both goals and points. Howie Morenz would surpass him in both, taking the lead in points during the 1931-32 season and then the goal-scoring record in December 1933. Still, Denneny left enough of a mark on the NHL to be in the first class inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1959.