Jim Rutheford
Syl Apps got the Penguins on the board first with his ninth goal of the season at 3:59 at even strength. Bryan Watson scored his first and only goal of the season at 11:40 to give Pittsburgh a 2-0 lead before Phil Roberto countered for St. Louis at 13:50. Less than a minute later Al McDonough banged in his 10th of the young season from Apps at 14:31 to give the Penguins a 3-1 lead after the first period.
Syl Apps
The Blues rallied in the second period, with Roberto getting his second of the game at 1:58 followed by Danny O'Shea evening the score at 3-3 with a shorthanded goal at 7:36 while teammate Barclay Plager was in the box.
Striking quickly, Fran Huck stunned the home crowd as he netted his first goal if the season at 1:22 of the third period to give the Blues their first lead of the game at 4-3 after having trailed 3-1 at the end of the first period.
Losing the lead woke the Penguins up and McDonough tied the game once again with his second goal of the game at 1:56 from Apps again just 34 seconds after the Blues had gone ahead for the first time. Greg Polis then put Pittsburgh back on top 4-3 with his fifth goal at 9:05.
Greg Polis
Bryan Hextall then extended the Penguins lead to two with his ninth goal from Jack Lynch and Polis for the game's only power play goal at 12:00 with Danny O'Shea off for a minor penalty. Just 18 seconds later, Jean Pronovost struck for his fifth of the season to stretch the Pittsburgh lead to 6-3 from Polis.
Jean Pronovost
Just 1:22 later at 13:40, McDonough completed his hat trick when he beat Stephenson with the lone assist going to Apps for the third time. Before the fans could even sit back down from celebrating McDonough's hat trick, Ken Schinkel lit the lamp just nine seconds later for his tenth goal of the season from Dave Burrows to push the Penguins advantage to 9-4.
Ken Schnikel
The Penguins then set the NHL record for the Fastest Five Goals by One Team when Ron Schock beat a shell-shocked Stephenson with his sixth goal from Schinkel at the 14:07 mark, just 18 seconds after Shinkel's goal. It was the third Pittsburgh goal in 27 seconds and their fifth in just 2:07, a record which still stands today.
Ron Schock
Mercifully, that closed out the scoring as Pittsburgh won by a final score of 10-4, having scored 7 straight goals in the third period to negate the Blues comeback in the most emphatic way. Stephenson remained in to finish the game despite the record setting Pittsburgh onslaught, having given up 10 goals on 34 shots.
McDonough was the star of the night as he finished with 4 points from his hat trick and an assist, while Apps matched his 4 points from a goal and assists on all three of McDonough's goals while Polis (1 goal, 2 assists) had a 3 point game.
Two seasons later the Boston Bruins took a run at the Penguins record when Bobby Schmautz, Ken Hodge, Phil Esposito, Don Marcotte and Johnny Bucyk scored five goals in 2:55 on December 19, 1974. On January 26, 1982, the New York Islanders came the closest to breaking the Penguins now 43 year old record when Duane Sutter, John Tonelli, Bryan Trottier back-to-back and Sutter again, ironically against Pittsburgh, tallied 5 goals in 2:37.
The Penguins 3 goals in 27 seconds was not a record, as Bill Mosienko of the Chicago Black Hawks recorded the Fastest Hat Trick ever in 21 seconds in 1952. The record for Fastest Three Goals by One Team was lowered to 20 seconds by the 1971-72 Bruins trio of Bucyk, Ed Westfall and Ted Green.
Apps would go on to lead the team in scoring for the 1972-73 season with 29 goals and 56 assists for 85 points. McDonough led the team with 35 goals and was next w ith 76 points, closely followed by Lowell MacDonald with 34 goals and 75 points. Rutherford was the Penguins number one goaltender, playing in 49 games and finishing with a 2.91 goals against, 3 shutouts and a 20-22-5 record.
The record setting 1972-73 Pittsburgh Penguins
Today's featured jersey is a 1972-73 Pittsburgh Penguins Ken Schinkel jersey. The Penguins early jersey history was one of frequent change, as they began life in 1967-68 with diagonally lettered "Pittsburgh" jerseys in the same style of the New York Rangers, For 1968-69 they completely changed jerseys, abandoning their multiple striped jerseys from their inaugural season and going with a single wide stripe trimmed in navy blue with a circular crest which contained their skating penguin logo.
In 1971-72, the skating penguin became the crest all by itself in a full size, as it's surrounding circle was dropped. This jersey remained the same for two seasons until the lighter shade of blue was darkened considerably for the 1973-74 season. This new version lasted just one season until a complete modernization of their look for 1974-75.
Schinkel's NHL career began in 1959-60 with the New York Rangers. He was with New York for parts of six seasons, as well as the majority of four seasons with the Baltimore Clippers of the American Hockey League.
When the NHL doubled in size in 1967, it created another 120 openings for players and Schinkel joined the Penguins for their inaugural season. He played six seasons for Pittsburgh with a high of 52 points in 1969. He retired midway through the 1972-73 season at the age of 40 as the team leader in games and points to become the Penguins head coach for four seasons.
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