Golden Knights break two Penguins records in Stanley Cup win

Jack Eichel bumped Jake Guentzel’s 2017 playoff run off an American records list.

• By
  
  Julia Stumbaugh
  
• on June 17, 2023 6:00 am

Jake Guentzel’s name just got moved down one spot in American hockey record books.

Guentzel’s 2017 playoff season was one for the ages. He completed his first career hat trick in overtime of Game 3 against the Columbus Blue Jackets in Round 1. He assisted on the Bryan Rust goal which eliminated the Washington Capitals in Game 7 of Round 2.

In the end, Guentzel finished the postseason with 21 points (13 goals, eight assists) in 25 games. That beat out Joe Mullen’s 18 points in 10 games of 1982 for the most productive rookie postseason by an American-born player in NHL history, per ESPN Stats and Info.

Jack Eichel just smashed that record with the Vegas Golden Knights.

The first pick of the 2015 draft is no rookie, but six years in Buffalo means this was the first playoffs of his career. That’s why Eichel’s 26 points in 22 games (six goals, 20 assists) make him the new record-holder for the most points in a U.S.-born player’s first postseason.

That’s not the only Penguins record the Golden Knights knocked down on their run to the championship June 13. Vegas also beat a team standard set by Pittsburgh in 1991, per The Hockey News’ Nick Horwat.

The Penguins earned the first championship in franchise history in dominant fashion during Game 6 in Minnesota against the North Stars on May 25, 1991. Ulf Samuelsson opened scoring on the power play two minutes in, and from there it was nothing but Penguins.

Mario Lemieux scored shorthanded, Joe Mullen got on the scoreboard twice, and Ron Francis, Bob Errey, Jim Paek and Larry Murphy added goals of their own to score their way to a dominant 8-0 victory. At the time, that was the highest-scoring title-clinching game in NHL history.

The Golden Knights scored nine times to claim the championship victory over the Florida Panthers in Game 5, breaking the Pens’ 1991 standard.

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