The St. Patricks then returned home to the Arena Gardens to begin a three game homestand by first facing the Quebec Bulldogs, who they defeated 7-4, with Ken Randall leading the way with a pair of goals.
Toronto's Arena Gardens
Next to visit the Gardens on New Year's Eve were the Montreal Canadiens, who the St. Patricks thumped 5-1, led by Corb Denneny's two goals to send their fans into the night in an even more celebratory mood.
Toronto then avenged their opening night loss with a 4-3 win over the Senators on January 3rd to complete their home stand with three straight wins.
They then took to the road for a pair of games, first dropping a 7-5 decision to Quebec, as a hat trick by Denneny was not enough to over come a four goal performance by the Bulldog Joe Malone.
The 1919-20 Toronto St. Patricks
Meanwhile, the Montreal Canadiens first game did not take place until Christmas Day in Quebec, a 12-5 win for Montreal.
The Canadiens apparently did not save enough goals for their next game, as it was their turn to be shut out by Benedict and the Senators 2-0 on December 27th in their first game at their brand new home, the Mount Royal Arena, which was built to replace the Jubilee Arena, which had burned down due to an electrical fire in the spring of 1919.
The Canadiens new home, Mutual Street Arena
As previously documented, Montreal then faced off against the Toronto St. Patricks on New Year's Eve in Toronto, where they lost 5-1.
The Canadiens were then beaten again by the Senators 4-3 in Ottawa on January 7th, leaving them at 1-3.
The 1919-20 Montreal Canadiens
That set up Montreal's next game on this date in 1920, when the St. Patricks paid their first visit to Mount Royal Arena.
Mike Mitchell got the start in goal for the St. Patricks, while Georges Vezina countered for the Canadiens.
Georges Vezina
After a scoreless first few minutes, Didier Pitre opened the scoring with his first goal of the season at exactly 4:00. Newsy Lalonde then scored his sixth goal of the year exactly one minute later and then added his seventh two minutes after that at 7:00.
It was Pitre's turn next, as he scored his second goal of the game just 40 seconds later and then completed his hat trick at the 9:00 mark, chasing Mitchell from the St. Patricks goal as Montreal had streaked out to a 5-0 lead before the first period was even half over.
Didier Pitre had a hat trick in the game's first nine minutes
Billy Coutu was the first to solve Mitchell's replacement Howard Lockhart when he scored his first goal of the year at 13:30 followed by Odie Cleghorn's first goal of the season two and a half minutes later at 16:00 for a stunning 7-0 Canadiens lead.
The St. Patricks showed some signs of life when Mickey Roach solved Vezina at 16:50 to make it 7-1 for the Canadiens after the first period.
Just like the first period, the first goal of the second came at exactly the four minute mark when Cleghorn got his second of the game for Montreal. Lalonde then matched Pitre's hat trick with his third goal of the night a minute and a half later at 5:30 for a now 9-1 Canadiens lead.
Newsy Lalonde
Toronto fought back with a pair of goals exactly one minute apart at 6:20 by Reg Noble and Denneny at 7:20.
Lalonde then went back to back with a pair of goals at 9:00 and then again at 10:30, his fourth and fifth of the game, which doubled his season total to 10, tied an NHL record and also put Montreal into double digits for the night.
Denneny then scored his second of the period thirty seconds later to make it 11-4 for the Canadiens after two periods.
Still, there was twenty minutes left to endure for Toronto and they attempted to make the best of it when Cully Wilson scored just thirty seconds into the third period. The nine and half minutes between Denneny's goal at 11:00 of the second and Wilson's goal was the longest stretch of the game without a goal.
Just 1:20 later, Bert Corbeau replied for the Canadiens at 1:50 for a now 12-5 score.
Lalonde then struck yet again with his sixth goal of the night at the 3:50 mark to set an NHL record for Most Goals in a Game. His six goals on the night now surpassed his total for the season to date.
Next to join the hat trick club on the night was Toronto's Noble, who netted a pair at 9:50 and again at 12:20.
Reg Noble became the third player with a hat trick on the night
The goal scoring parade finally came to a conclusion when Cleghorn became the fourth player on the night with a hat trick when he scored at 14:50 to give him a goal in each of the three periods.
Odie Cleghorn was the fourth player to score
a hat trick during the record setting game
The final five minutes played out without any further goals, leaving the final at 14-7 for the Canadiens, which set an NHL record for Most Total Goals in a Game with 21, a record which still stands today, 96 years later.
Mitchell gave up 5 goals in the game's first 9 minutes, Vezina was tagged for 7 in the full 60 minutes while Lockhart was shelled for 9 in 51 minutes of relief play.
The record of 21 goals in a game by both teams was equaled by the high flying Edmonton Oilers and the Chicago Blackhawks on December 11, 1985 in a 12-0 win by the Oilers.
Lalonde's six goals bested the five scored by Malone three previous times during the NHL's first season when he was on loan to the Canadiens while the Bulldogs were on a hiatus, and Harry Hyland of the Montreal Wanderers. Of note, both Malone and Hyland's five goal games came on the first day of play in NHL history.
Lalonde's perch atop the NHL as the single game record holder was brief however, as Malone would score seven just three weeks later in a 10-6 win over the same St. Patricks.
Malone would go on to win the scoring title with 39 goals and 49 points in the 24 games of the 1919-20 season, closely followed by Lalonde, who was three points back with 37 goals and 46 points, the only two players with more than 30 goals. Only Frank Nighbor of Ottawa joined the pair with more than 40 points at 41.
Joe Malone won the 1920 scoring title as well as
claiming the single game goal scoring record
Since Lalonde's six goals and Malone's seven in January of 1920, only three NHL players have scored six goals in a game. Detroit's Syd Howe in 1944, Red Berenson of the St. Louis Blues in 1968 and Darryl Sittler as part of his record 10 point night in 1976.
Today's featured jersey is a 1918-19 Montreal Canadiens Newsy Lalonde jersey. The Canadiens first red sweater with a blue chest stripe appeared in 1912-13 and featured just a "C" in white and was worn only against the Ottawa Senators due to the similarity between the Canadiens striped jerseys and the Senators red, black and white barberpole jerseys.
In 1913 a letter was added inside the "C", but not the familiar "H", but an "A". which would remain in use through 1916.
The "H" would appear for the first time in 1916-17. The logo then went through several subtle color and outline changes,
including a red "CH" combination for 1919-20. Photos of the all red Canadiens "CH" logo from the year they helped set the single game scoring record are nearly impossible to find, and only the team collage photo above could be found after an extensive search.
The style of jersey featured today from the 1918-19 season concluded with the Canadiens competing for the rights to the 1919 Stanley Cup against the Seattle Metropolitans. The series was suspended after five games due to
the Spanish Flu epidemic, which caused the remainder of the series to be cancelled and sent Lalonde, Coutu, Louis Berlinguette, Jack McDonald, Joe Hall and their manager George Kennedy to the hospital, with Hall dying of pneumonia five days later. Lalonde would fully recover and return to the Canadiens for the following season.
Today's video section shows Lalonde being honored in his hometown in Cornwall, Ontario with the naming of "Newsy Lalonde Way".
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