At 7:33 of the third period, Brett Hull one-timed a pass from Brendan Morrow into the net past Curtis Joseph, tying the hockey game and contributing to the Dallas Stars 3-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs. The goal placed Brett in ninth place on the NHL‘s all-time scoring list.
Toronto coach Pat Quinn, who once played against Bobby, said the only similarity between the two is that they’re both blond. “Bobby was the dominant one. He was ‘Give me the puck and I’ll bull through everybody,’” Quinn said. “Brett has always gotten himself into a position where a good play maker could find him.” Brett himself describes his style as “stealth mode.”
Basketball fans had been waiting for the MJ / Dominique Wilkins rematch since 1985. Injuries had derailed the Dunk Contest meet-up in 1986 and ‘87, but in 88, Michael and the “Human Highlight Reel” put on a classic duel.
Jordan’s victory over Wilkins in 1988 in Chicago finished with a perfect 50-score dunk from the free-throw line for his third dunk to win the contest. However, the announcers did note that Wilkins was given abnormally low score for his breathtaking third dunk, a 45, allowing Jordan to win it by 2 with his perfect 50. To this day, the allegations of “home cooking” still float around surrounding the event – it was held on Jordan’s home court; one of the judges was former Chicago Bears star Gayle Sayers; and another judge, former NBA star Tom Hawkins, is a Chicago native – and is considered arguably the most controversial of the slam dunk competitions. With this victory, Jordan became the first player to win the dunk contest two years in a row.
Scores from the 1988 Dunk Contest:
FIRST Round: Michael Jordan(Chicago): 94 (47+47) Dominique Wilkins (Atlanta): 96 (49+47) Clyde Drexler (Portland): 88 (44+44) Otis Smith (Golden State): 87 (40+47) Jerome Kersey (Portland): 79 (41+38) Greg Anderson (San Antonio): 76 (42+34) Spud Webb (Atlanta): 52 (34+18)
To this day, his 5-goal performance still stands as a record for most goals in a game by an NHL defenseman.
During the game, Turnbull only had five shots on goal, but he made every one of them count as he also became the first player in NHL history to score five goals on only five shots. He would finish that season with a total of 22 goals and 57 assists in 80 games, and he would add another 4 goals and 4 assists through nine playoff games.
Although the combination of Börge Salming and Turnbull gave the Leafs one of the league’s top defensive pairing, it was not enough to bring the franchise a Stanley Cup. Unfortunately for Turnbull, he would never get to raise hockey’s Holy Grail above his head during his 10 year career, but he did come away with a rather significant record that should stand for some time.
Here is the video of Ian Turnbull scoring his fifth goal of the game:
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