Thirteen years ago, Sam Gagner made history.
Did we look at Gagner in last week’s Throwback Thursday? Sure. However, Sunday was the 13th anniversary of his eight-point game against the Chicago Blackhawks. Moreover, the Edmonton Oilers faced the Blackhawks on Wednesday, so this is a pretty timely article.
Coming into the Feb. 2, 2012 game against the contending Hawks, Gagner had just five goals and 22 points in 43 games. Chicago opened the scoring with Jamal Mayers’ goal 6:29 into the first period. Early in the second period, the Blackhawks’ Patrick Sharp extended the Blackhawks lead to 2-0.
Less than two minutes later, the Oilers cut the lead in half as Gagner sprung Taylor Hall for a semi-breakaway, with the Oilers first overall pick in the 2010 picking up the goal. Gagner followed that up with a goal of his own just over five minutes later to tie the game at two thanks to a missed pass and a wrap-around.
Late in an Oilers powerplay mid-way through the second period, Gagner’s zone entry was foiled, with the Blackhawks failing to clear the puck. It landed on the stick of Ryan Whitney, who blasted it past the Blackhawks’ netminder for his first of the season. Chicago tied it before the end of the second, sending the game tied 3-3 into the third period.
It was all the Oilers from there though. Gagner pounced on a missed shot and a fortunate bounce beside the net, scoring his second of the game and his fourth point of the affair. Gagner registered the secondary assist on Cam Barker’s goal less than two minutes later, doing almost no work on the play, but still hitting the five-point mark with this goal.
The Blackhawks showed life once again, with Dave Bolland scoring to make it 5-4. Gagner dashed their comeback attempts though, receiving a pass from Hall and beating Corey Crawford for his second career hat trick.
Late in the game, Gagner received a terrific pass from Jordan Eberle, tapping it in his fourth goal of the game and his seventh point of the night. Less than two minutes later, Gagner returned the favour to tie the Oiler record for most points in a game. Team legends Paul Coffey and Wayne Gretzky (twice) were the only two players in Oilers history to achieve the eight-point game.
Moreover, it was the first time since Mario Lemieux did it in the 1989 postseason anyone had hit eight points in a game. No one has done it since.
The thing is, Gagner continued this pace in the following game against the Detroit Red Wings on Feb. 4, 2012. Early in the game, he scored his 10th of the season on the power play, followed by an assist on Eberle’s 21st of the season. After the Wings cut the lead in half with less than a minute left, Gagner scored a buzzer-beater for his second of the game to give him 11 points in his last three periods. He added a shootout goal which was the first goal in the video below.
There wasn’t a lot to cheer about when it came to the Oilers in the decade of darkness. As someone who only started cheering for the team in 2008, this eight-point game was one of my favourite moments growing up – and I didn’t even get to watch the highlights the next morning. There’s a reason why Gagner is a fan favourite and his eight-point night will go down in history.
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