On this day 90 years ago, the first NHL penalty shot goal was recorded when Ralph Bowman scored for the St. Louis Eagles.
The Canadiens may be the only NHL club to call Montreal home, but for 14 seasons, they shared the city with the Montreal Maroons, a two-time Stanley Cup-winning franchise.
During their 11th season, 1934-35, the Maroons became part of history when they gave up the first penalty shot goal on Nov. 13, 1934.
While visiting the St. Louis Eagles at the St. Louis Arena, Montreal would walk away with a 2-1 victory, surrendering one goal to the home team in the second period, a penalty shot goal to Ralph Bowman.
According to Hockey Reference, Bowman's attempt is the only time in franchise history, which includes 16 seasons as the Ottawa Senators, that a player has been awarded a penalty shot.
Meanwhile, the Maroons also had only one penalty shot in their history, on Mar. 25, 1937. Hall of Famer Lionel Conacher had an attempt against the Boston Bruins in a playoff game but was unsuccessful.
Regarding the Canadiens' history with penalty shots, the club has had 94 attempts and scored 28 times, good enough for a 29.7% success rate. The franchise's first three attempts came from Armand Mondou in 1934 and 1935. He scored the first goal on Dec. 4, 1934.
Interestingly, Martin Rucinsky is Montreal's all-time leader with four attempts but only scored once. However, a handful of players were perfect in their only attempts, including current captain Nick Suzuki, who is 2-for-2 with goals in 2022 against Buffalo and Arizona.
Other Canadiens players with penalty shot goals are Dale Weise (2014), Jason Ward (2004), Alex Tanguay (2008), Bobby Rosseau (1962), Maurice Richard (1952), Ken Reardon (1949), Tomas Plekanec (2007), Jeff Petry (2019), Chris Nilan (1985), Mats Naslund (1986, 1987), Jacques Lemaire (1973), Guillaume Latendresse (2007, 2008), Sergei Kostitsyn (2008), Brian Gionta (2014), Ray Getliffe (1945), Bernie Geoffrion (1952), Lars Eller (2012), Jonathan Drouin (2017, 2018), Laurent Dauphin (2022), Russ Courtnell (1990), and Mike Cammalleri (2010).
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