MARCH 23, 1994

The Great One became the greatest one, five years ago tonight.

On March 21, 1994, in San Jose, Wayne Gretzky had scored twice, tying the goal-scoring mark of NHL legend Gordie Howe at 801.

That set up a possible history-making evening at the Great Western Forum, where the L.A. Kings were to play Vancouver.

A full house of 16,005 watched through a scoreless first period. Then, when Vancouver’s Jiri Slegr was penalized, the Kings put together a power play that would endure for the ages.

Luc Robitaille carried the puck into the offensive zone, passed it to Gretzky, who passed to Marty McSorley.

McSorley fired it back to Gretzky on the left circle and Gretzky caught goalie Kirk McLean out of position.

Later, Gretzky said, “When I got the puck back, I couldn’t believe it--I could see the whole net.”

The game was stopped while Gretzky’s teammates poured onto the ice, and his family embraced him.

*

Also on this date: In 1974, North Carolina State ended UCLA’s streak of seven consecutive NCAA basketball championships with an 80-77 victory in double overtime in a semifinal game at Greensboro, N.C. . . . In 1957, North Carolina beat Kansas, 54-53, in triple overtime for the NCAA title

In 1952, Chicago’s Bill Mosienko scored three goals in 21 seconds. The goalie was Lorne Anderson, 20, who never played another NHL game.

In 1966, Los Angeles’ “great holdout” continued, with Dodger pitchers Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale reporting to Paramount Studios to begin work on a movie, apparently ready to end their baseball careers--or hoping the Dodgers would think so, anyway.