Pens celebrate New Year's Eve 1969 by beating Habs

The Penguins rang in 1970 with a bang, knocking off the Stanley Cup Champion Montreal Canadiens 4-2 at the Igloo on New Year's Eve, 1969. Led by Keith McCreary's pair of goals, the Pens won for only the second time against the Canadiens in their then short history. It was, in fact, perhaps the Penguins finest performance of the season, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Jimmy Jordan in this game recap (the article (along with a fairly grainy picture) is on the next page).

"They played together as a unit, skated their own lanes and, in general provided the style of play Coach Red Kelly had insisted they were capable of since the start of the season," Jordan wrote.

You can also see the Montreal Gazette's take on the game here, which featured a clearer picture of McCreary scoring on Rogie Vachon (scroll to the left for the article.)

Unfortunately, only 5,202 fans turned up to see the Penguins fine effort. Guess there were some good parties happening elsewhere around Pittsburgh that night.