| ARTICLES |
| Five for the ages by Randy Schultz / NHL.com correspondent |
Ian Turnbull holds the record for most goals scored by a defenseman in a game with five.
Bobby Orr never scored five goals in a game. Neither did Denis Potvin, Larry Robinson, Paul Coffey or any of
hockey’s other great scoring defensemen.
But Turnbull did. And he will forever be associated with that piece of hockey lore. On the night of Feb. 2, 1977
Turnbull, playing on the blue line for the Toronto Maple Leafs, scored five goals against the Detroit Red Wings. It
was a night he will never forget.
"I remember going home that evening and thinking, 'What have I done?'" recalled Turnbull, who played 10
seasons in the NHL (1973-83) with the Maple Leafs, Los Angeles Kings and Pittsburgh Penguins. "After I had a
chance to think about what I had done I had mixed emotions. I was excited about it. Nobody had ever
accomplished something like that before. However, I also felt that doing something like scoring five goals in a
game could be the kiss of death. Remember, any time you rise to a certain level of play, you now have raised the
bar.
"But the reality is, that type of performance is not the normal thing to do. But I’ve had to live with it now for all of
these years. And I’ve certainly gotten used to it.”
Turnbull admits that time has a way of making the memory of those goals seem much greater than they really
were.
"I had never seen a tape of the game or the goals for that matter in almost 20 years," Turnbull said. "I finally saw
a tape of the goals a couple of years ago. As I watched the tape and saw the goals being scored, I was thinking
to myself, ‘I don’t remember that goal going in like that.’ It just seemed so much better when I scored the goals
during the game itself.
"In reality, one goal bounced off a defenseman after I shot the puck. A couple of them went through everybody
and didn’t hit a thing and went into the net. And on one goal, I had actually rushed the net, was standing there
and the puck hit the goalie, bounced off my pants, and went into the net. It was a goal.
"But they were not quite the way I remembered them,” he concluded with a smile on his face.
Turnbull almost accomplished the same feat again four years later as a member of the Kings. It was Dec. 12,
1981 and the Kings were playing the Vancouver Canucks. It turned out to be a humbling experience for the
veteran defenseman.
"I had just scored my fourth goal of the game,” remembered Turnbull. “A teammate, Mark Hardy, sat down next to
me on the bench. He says something like, ‘Ian, wasn’t that your fourth goal?’ I said yeah. And he says that must
be some kind of a record. And I said that no it wasn’t a record. He says back to me, ‘It’s not a record?’ I said
simply, ‘no.’
“Of course then he asked me what the record was. I said five. He looks at me and says, ‘Five? Some guy got five
goals in a game?’ I just calmly looked at him and replied, ‘Yes.’ A few more moments went by and he finally
looks at me and asked who scored the five goals. I simply looked at him and answered, ‘I did.’ He couldn’t
believe it. We just laughed about it. But it just showed me that not everybody in the hockey world knew that I had
once scored five goals in a game.”
After retiring from the game, Turnbull went into the real estate business. Later he got into the mortgage banking
business. Today, at 52, Turnbull is a business consultant residing in Redondo Beach, CA.
"It wasn’t easy to walk away from hockey,” Turnbull said. “I knew as I was getting older that someday hockey
would end for me. I had to go through a transition period going from the hockey world to the business world. In
fact, I didn’t even skate for almost 18 years. I didn’t pick up a hockey stick or anything. I didn’t even watch the
game. I was basically reinventing myself.
“I just started skating with the Kings Alumni Team a few years ago. But I was fortunate at the time because when
my contract was bought out, I had a house out here in L.A. My kids were young at the time. And I had told my wife
(Inge) that I wanted to play roughly 10 years and then retire from the game. And that’s what I did. I’ve been here
now over 20 years.”
As for the record, Turnbull is pleased to be a part of hockey lore.
“What can I say? Nobody else has done it,” Turnbull said. “It’s still a record, for whatever reason I don’t know. A
couple guys have come close to tying it. The game is different today. Today’s players don’t play the same style
that we did when I played. It’s more of a chess game now. The players are a little more one dimensional. Each
of them have a strong point to their game. Our game was a little more wide open. Players would jump in and out
of the play a little more freely.
"As to whether or not a player is ever going to break my record. I don’t know. But until that happens, I’m going to
enjoy my notoriety."
Bobby Orr never scored five goals in a game. Neither did Denis Potvin, Larry Robinson, Paul Coffey or any of
hockey’s other great scoring defensemen.
But Turnbull did. And he will forever be associated with that piece of hockey lore. On the night of Feb. 2, 1977
Turnbull, playing on the blue line for the Toronto Maple Leafs, scored five goals against the Detroit Red Wings. It
was a night he will never forget.
"I remember going home that evening and thinking, 'What have I done?'" recalled Turnbull, who played 10
seasons in the NHL (1973-83) with the Maple Leafs, Los Angeles Kings and Pittsburgh Penguins. "After I had a
chance to think about what I had done I had mixed emotions. I was excited about it. Nobody had ever
accomplished something like that before. However, I also felt that doing something like scoring five goals in a
game could be the kiss of death. Remember, any time you rise to a certain level of play, you now have raised the
bar.
"But the reality is, that type of performance is not the normal thing to do. But I’ve had to live with it now for all of
these years. And I’ve certainly gotten used to it.”
Turnbull admits that time has a way of making the memory of those goals seem much greater than they really
were.
"I had never seen a tape of the game or the goals for that matter in almost 20 years," Turnbull said. "I finally saw
a tape of the goals a couple of years ago. As I watched the tape and saw the goals being scored, I was thinking
to myself, ‘I don’t remember that goal going in like that.’ It just seemed so much better when I scored the goals
during the game itself.
"In reality, one goal bounced off a defenseman after I shot the puck. A couple of them went through everybody
and didn’t hit a thing and went into the net. And on one goal, I had actually rushed the net, was standing there
and the puck hit the goalie, bounced off my pants, and went into the net. It was a goal.
"But they were not quite the way I remembered them,” he concluded with a smile on his face.
Turnbull almost accomplished the same feat again four years later as a member of the Kings. It was Dec. 12,
1981 and the Kings were playing the Vancouver Canucks. It turned out to be a humbling experience for the
veteran defenseman.
"I had just scored my fourth goal of the game,” remembered Turnbull. “A teammate, Mark Hardy, sat down next to
me on the bench. He says something like, ‘Ian, wasn’t that your fourth goal?’ I said yeah. And he says that must
be some kind of a record. And I said that no it wasn’t a record. He says back to me, ‘It’s not a record?’ I said
simply, ‘no.’
“Of course then he asked me what the record was. I said five. He looks at me and says, ‘Five? Some guy got five
goals in a game?’ I just calmly looked at him and replied, ‘Yes.’ A few more moments went by and he finally
looks at me and asked who scored the five goals. I simply looked at him and answered, ‘I did.’ He couldn’t
believe it. We just laughed about it. But it just showed me that not everybody in the hockey world knew that I had
once scored five goals in a game.”
After retiring from the game, Turnbull went into the real estate business. Later he got into the mortgage banking
business. Today, at 52, Turnbull is a business consultant residing in Redondo Beach, CA.
"It wasn’t easy to walk away from hockey,” Turnbull said. “I knew as I was getting older that someday hockey
would end for me. I had to go through a transition period going from the hockey world to the business world. In
fact, I didn’t even skate for almost 18 years. I didn’t pick up a hockey stick or anything. I didn’t even watch the
game. I was basically reinventing myself.
“I just started skating with the Kings Alumni Team a few years ago. But I was fortunate at the time because when
my contract was bought out, I had a house out here in L.A. My kids were young at the time. And I had told my wife
(Inge) that I wanted to play roughly 10 years and then retire from the game. And that’s what I did. I’ve been here
now over 20 years.”
As for the record, Turnbull is pleased to be a part of hockey lore.
“What can I say? Nobody else has done it,” Turnbull said. “It’s still a record, for whatever reason I don’t know. A
couple guys have come close to tying it. The game is different today. Today’s players don’t play the same style
that we did when I played. It’s more of a chess game now. The players are a little more one dimensional. Each
of them have a strong point to their game. Our game was a little more wide open. Players would jump in and out
of the play a little more freely.
"As to whether or not a player is ever going to break my record. I don’t know. But until that happens, I’m going to
enjoy my notoriety."
| Former Maple Leaf Ian Turnbull scored five goals in a game on Feb. 2, 1977, a record by an NHL defenseman. |
| After his tenure with the Leafs, Turnbull nearly turned the five-goal trick again as a member of the Los Angeles Kings. |