Bowman Finally Reaches Historic Mark

If Scotty Bowman’s 1,000 NHL coaching victories don’t seem remarkable, consider this: He has won more games than all but seven of the league’s 26 franchises.

It took him three tries and Brendan Shanahan’s three goals to do it, but Bowman finally achieved his historic victory Saturday as the Detroit Red Wings rallied past Pittsburgh 6-5 in overtime.

Detroit had lost twice since Bowman won No. 999, and was on the verge of another loss as Mario Lemieux scored his 601st and 602nd career goals and Dave Roche put Pittsburgh ahead 5-4 with his first goal since Dec. 12.

But Darren McCarty sent it into overtime with his second goal, and Shanahan completed a hat trick by grabbing a deflection of Bob Rouse’s shot off defenseman Jason Woolley’s stick and jamming it past rookie goalie Patrick Lalime at 2:01 of overtime.

Bowman has won more games than all but the NHL’s six pre-expansion franchises, plus the Philadelphia Flyers. He is 1,000-452-255 in regular-season games, and 162-101 in the playoffs.

“One thousand wins are what they’re going to ... talk about for years and years,” Shanahan said. “As a team, we’re all excited to be part of that. It’s exciting.”

The stoic-as-usual Bowman did not celebrate, at least outwardly. He grabbed a couple of pieces of ice and munched them just before Shanahan scored, then shook a couple of players’ hands en route to the locker room.

Bowman, who won his record sixth Stanley Cup with Pittsburgh in 1992, insisted he derived no special satisfaction from achieving No. 1,000 against the team that revived his coaching career.

Bowman had been out of coaching for four years before Penguins general manager Craig Patrick asked him to replace the cancer-stricken Bob Johnson in October 1991.

“I didn’t do much that year, because the team was in place and nobody had to teach them how to win,” Bowman said. “It was a good place for me, and I still have a lot of friends in Pittsburgh.”

The 63-year-old Bowman figures his record will be broken, even if he leads runner-up Al Arbour by 219 victories.

“Somebody, someday will do it ... but you have to win 40-50 a year,” Bowman said. “And it’s hard to know what’s going to happen in sports with free agency now and corporations owning teams. “

Lemieux, who scored his 600th career goal Tuesday against Vancouver, added two more goals and Ron Francis moved into seventh place on the NHL’s career assists list, but the Penguins could not hold leads of 1-0, 2-1, 3-2 and 5-4.

“It was a tough loss,” Penguins coach Eddie Johnston said. “I’m sure everyone on our team would prefer that he (Bowman) got it before. But that’s an amazing feat in any sport, 1,000 wins.”

The Red Wings, 1-8-1 in their previous 10 appearances in Pittsburgh, might have won it long before overtime had referee Bill McCreary and replay judge Jim Weaver not waved off two goals for in-the-crease violations.

Martin Lapointe lost a goal in the second period when Tomas Holmstrom was detected screening Lalime in the crease. Sergei Fedorov also saw an apparent tying goal in the third period erased when Tomas Sandstrom backed into the crease ahead of the puck.

But the Penguins argued they should have gotten a penalty shot when Mathieu Dandenault hauled down Petr Nedved on a breakaway in the third period. McCreary had just signaled a roughing penalty on center Kris Draper, and apparently was reluctant to call two penalties on the same play.

“It’s ridiculous,” Nedved said. “He’s got to call a penalty shot there, and there’s not even a penalty.”

Despite losing Fedorov’s goal, the Red Wings eventually tied it when McCarty scored at 14:49 after Shanahan and Steve Yzerman worked a give-and-go in the Penguins’ zone. Shanahan finished with four points, and Yzerman had a goal and two assists.

Francis set up Lemieux’s first goal for his 927th career assist, moving him past Stan Mikita on the NHL career list. Francis also later assisted on Roche’s goal, which put Pittsburgh ahead 5-4 at 6:48 of the third.

Shanahan’s first goal, at 16:16 of the first, tied it at 2 and was his 13th power-play goal of the season. Petr Nedved also scored a short-handed goal for Pittsburgh, only the third against Detroit this season.

Detroit remained unbeaten (4-0-10) while Pittsburgh remained winless (0-4-5) in overtime.