MONTREAL -- Yvan Cournoyer was two months into his captaincy with the Montreal Canadiens, having been voted successor to the retired Henri Richard to begin the 1975-76 season.

Now, 14 games into the schedule, the bullet-fast skater known as the Roadrunner was having a difficult time getting untracked; heading into a game at the Pittsburgh Penguins 50 years ago this Nov. 13, he'd scored just three goals, none in his previous six games.

Cournoyer snapped out of his slump that night with a hat trick, the ninth and final regular-season three-goal game of his Hall of Fame-bound career, and to this day he gives credit to a courageous young cancer patient on whom he paid a call hours before the opening face-off.

© Montreal Canadiens; O-Pee-Chee/Hockey Hall of Fame

Yvan Cournoyer on the

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