NHL Credits Goal to Pittsburgh Penguins' Chris Kunitz

By Stephanie Lewark
Geoff Burke – USA TODAY Sports

The first goal scored by the Pittsburgh Penguins in yesterday’s game against the Washington Capitals was originally credited to Chris Kunitz, but then an announcement was made during the game that it was given to defenseman, Paul Martin.

However, today the NHL announced that they are once again crediting the goal to Kunitz with assists from Martin and Sidney Crosby.  With the addition of this goal, the total for Kunitz in yesterday’s game is now at four goals including the hat trick he scored with second left in the game.

Not only is this a career-high for Kunitz as to the number of goals he has scored in a game, according to the official Penguins webpage, it has also been around 12 years since the last Penguins player scored four goals in a single game.  That player was none other than Jaromir Jagr who did so in October 2000 against the New York Rangers.  It’s also the first time a Penguins player has recorded four goals in a game on the road since Mario Lemieux did it against the Montreal Canadiens back in January 1997.

When all is said and done, it’s nice to know that the league takes record-keeping so seriously and they want to make sure to get it right.  I’m assuming that we have the NHL’s “War Room” in Toronto to thank for their fine work once again.

Stephanie Lewark is a featured Penguins columnist for www.RantSports.com. If you enjoy her articles / posts, you can follow her on Twitter (@steelcitysports), check out her personal Facebook page (via Networked Blogs), visit her personal Tumblr page, or stop by her Pinterest page.

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