This Day in Hockey History – February 20, 1942, 1971, 1972, and 1974 – 50th Goals as Birthday Gifts

People like Phil Esposito really know how to get the birthday party started. Born on February 20, 1942, for three birthdays – his 29th, 30th, and 32nd (in 1971, 1972, and 1974) – Esposito gifted himself his 50th goal of each season. The last of these made him the very first player to reach 50 goals in four consecutive seasons. With these three birthday games, all on the road, Esposito helped the Boston Bruins lose, win, then tie.

Esposito led the league in scoring at the end of the 1968-69 season, earning his first Art Ross Trophy. Although he had 126 points (his first season breaking 100), he just missed the 50-goal milestone and ended the regular season with 49 goals. The following season, he dropped to 43 goals and 99 points to fall second to teammate Bobby Orr in the scoring race.

1971

The year 1971 was Esposito’s chance to reclaim his top spot. On his 29th birthday, the Bruins weren’t in the mood to celebrate. As the visiting team, they had blown a 3-0 lead to lose to the Los Angeles Kings 5-4. Esposito himself contributed to the Kings’ comeback when (at 13:53 of the second period) he “picked up a rare major for fighting, and the Bruins added a minor for leaving the bench to help out their high-scoring center.” During the penalty kill, the Kings scored their second goal.

However, Esposito also could be thanked for one of the bright moments of the match. Just over a minute after his teammate Derek Sanderson began the evening’s scoring, at 2:18 of the first period, “Ken Hodge carried the puck along the right boards and when the Kings defense overshifted in that direction, he sent a perfect centering pass to Espie breaking in from the left side. The league’s leading scorer snapped a 25-footer into the Kings net.” Esposito had become the fourth NHL player to have a 50-goal season. His predecessors were Maurice Richard, Bobby Hull and Bernie Geoffrion. Esposito topped off his night with an assist at 5:36, when Hodge deflected “an Esposito drive from 20-feet out.” 

He ended the season with 76 goals in 152 points and his second Art Ross Trophy. That began Esposito’s string of four consecutive seasons as the NHL’s top scorer and five straight 50-goal seasons. He finished the 1971-72 season with 133 points (including 66 goals), the following season with 130 points (and 55 goals), and the 1973-74 season with 145 points (and 68 goals). 

1972

In 1972, Phil spent his 30th birthday with his brother Tony over in Chicago. A crowd of about 20,000 watched Phil’s Bruins defeat Tony’s Blackhawks 3-1. With Tony in the net, Phil joked, “I love to play against him. I get a couple and I can have some laughs over the Summer.” 

Just the day before, Phil had earned his 100th point of the season on a belatedly attributed assist on Freddie Stanfield’s power-play goal late in the third period. He had not found out about the point until after midnight, thus on his birthday. He commented, “There wasn’t any question about me getting the puck back to Freddie. If I wasn’t sure of it, I wouldn’t have wanted the 100th point to come on something questionable.”

There was no question that Phil scored twice on his brother. After Chicago took an early lead, Esposito’s 50th goal tied up the game at 18:57 of the first period, during a power play. According to the Boston Globe recap of the play, “After Esposito won a draw with Mikita, he got the puck back to Bobby Orr. Bobby got off a good shot as he was brought down by Doug Jarrett.” Phil summarized, “I just got my stick up off the ice to deflect it past Tony.” With that, Esposito became only the second NHL player to have back-to-back 50-goal seasons. Chicago’s own Bobby Hull had set the record by scoring 50-plus goals in both 1965-66 and 1966-67. Interestingly, Chicago’s announcer that night neglected to mention that it was Esposito’s 50th goal much less the record.

Esposito then proceeded to score the game-winner at 13:25 of the second period with a “conversion of a rebound off a shot by Don Awrey.” Having scored his 50th and 51st goals, he earned his 52nd assist at 17:06 of the second (on a Wayne Cashman goal). At that point in the season, Esposito had 28 goals in 28 road games and 23 goals in 31 home games. Still the only published quote from Coach Bep Guidolin was simply, “It was a good game and with seven out of eight points on the road, we’re in pretty good shape.”

The following birthday was the only one in the four-year stretch in which Esposito did not score his 50th goal of the season. However, he still partied. The Bruins barely managed to beat the Vancouver Canucks 7-6 at Pacific Coliseum for a crowd of 15,570. Vancouver had four goals before the Bruins finally got on the board in the final minute of the first period. The second session featured four Boston goals, and the one at 6:15, was Esposito’s 38th of the season. On a power play, he “tipped in another Stanfield drive.” Esposito then, at 12:40, assisted on the tying goal when he “won a face off back to the point and Vadnais blasted a shot through a screen.” Finally, he assisted in Hodge’s game-winning goal at 9:15 of the third period. Even though it would take another month to reach 50 goals, the birthday boy was named the No. 1 star of the game.

1974

Esposito celebrated his 32nd birthday with 15,555 spectators at the Metropolitan Sports Center in Bloomington, Minnesota. He wasn’t bothered that he had failed to score in the three previous road games but instead credited the strong return of two teammates for their success in this one. While Esposito had a great night, the Bruins squeaked out a 5-5 tie with the North Stars. Still, the Bruins kept their unbeaten streak going for an eighth game.

It seemed that Esposito was determined to get to 50 as he had his second hat trick of the season (and 21st of his career). For his 48th goal, he tied the game at 1-1 at 17:01 of the first period when he “drilled a cannon from the left circle.” The score increased to a 2-2 tie at the end of the second period. At 6:31 of the third, Carol Vadnais set off a scoring spree (of six goals in nine minutes) with “a successful 40-footer that had a little instant coaching involved.” Vadnais explained, “Espie just gave me a holler to shoot, and I didn’t know it was in really until I saw the light.” Less than a minute later, Esposito scored his 49th goal when he “deflected Vadnais shot by goalie’s left.”

Esposito used his 50th goal of the season to earn the Bruins a point instead of a loss. He scored the game’s final goal during a power play at 15:32 of the third period. According to Esposito, “When the shot by Bobby (Orr) came through it bounced off both Hodgie and Cash. I had a lot of the net open with Cesare Maniago out, but I wanted to take plenty of time to make sure I put it away.” He succeeded with a “placed shot from in close to goalie’s left” and then “proceeded to do an artful job of ragging the puck to nullify any possibility of a further breakthrough.” Perhaps because they were not in Boston, “there was no great fanfare about the momentous event” of Esposito becoming the first NHLer to have four straight 50-goal seasons. Still, the Boston Globe reporter thought, “As much as anything else, it was a really appropriate birthday celebration for Phil Esposito.”

Though Esposito did not play on his birthday in 1975, he already had 50 goals as of February 8. That night in Detroit, he first earned an assist to reach 100 points, his sixth in seven seasons of surpassing that mark. He went on to score four goals, his 49th through 52nd. He finished the season with 61 goals but lost the scoring race to Orr. It marked Esposito’s fifth consecutive season with more than 50 goals.

Esposito played on his birthday five other times during his 18-season career. He tallied at least one point in every single one of them.

Additional Sources:

• “Espo scores No. 50,” Boston Globe, 21 Feb. 1971, pp. 73-74.
• Tom Fitzgerald, “Espo Steals Show, Bruins go, 3-1,” Boston Globe, 21 Feb. 1972, pp. 23-24.
• Tom Fitzgerald, “No one on the ice – Espo hits 100 mark,” Boston Globe, 21 Feb. 1972, p. 26.
• Kevin Walsh, “Bruins catch Vancouver, 7-6,” Boston Evening Globe, 21 Feb. 1973, p. 53.
• Kevin Walsh, “Bobby Orr goofs, then bails out,” Boston Evening Globe, 21 Feb. 1973, p. 58.
• Tom Fitzgerald, “Espo gets 3 (that’s 50 now) as Bruins, Stars Tie, 5-5,” Boston Globe, 21 Feb. 1974, p. 47.
• Tom Fitzgerald, “It’s a three-goal Espo show as Bruins gain tie,” Boston Evening Globe, 21 Feb. 1974, p. 29.
• Tom Fitzgerald, “Espo’s 4-goal explosion powers Bruins past Detroit, 8-5,” Boston Evening Globe, 9 Feb. 1975, p. 61.
• https://www.nhl.com/player/phil-esposito-8446722
• https://www.nhl.com/news/phil-esposito-100-greatest-nhl-hockey-players/c-284852638?tid=283865022