Ron Tugnutt Autographed Card

Today marks the 26th anniversary of one of the most impressive sports feats of my lifetime: Ron Tugnutt's breathtaking 70-save performance against the Boston Bruins in a 3-3 tie, including 12 in the five-minute overtime period alone. The Bruins edged the Québec Nordiques 73-26 in shots, a record 19 of them coming from their star defenseman and captain Ray Bourque.

That game should have finished 10-3, but Tugnutt salvaged a point all by himself - literally.

Nowadays, he's the owner, governor and head coach of the Kemptville 73's of the CCHL, a Junior "A" league. Notable alumni include Calvin de Haan and Ben Hutton.

Here's Tugnutt wearing the Nordiques' beautiful blue (away) uniform, with a terrific red Fleur-de-lys mask to go along with it:

It's card #277 from Upper Deck's 1991-92 Series 1 set, which encompassed cards #1-500, while Series 2 (featuring more rookies and players who'd been traded mid-season) had #501-700.

If you think his pads look beat-up then, there are far worse pictures out there; he was a workhorse, finishing fourth in minutes played in 1990-91 with 3,144 in 56 games. That year, he stopped 1639 shots, finishing tenth in Vezina voting despite a 12-29-10 record.

In his entire professional career, spanning 1987-2004 including both the NHL and AHL, he made 16,466 saves. He has let in 1954 goals in 679 total games; he fared much better playing for Team Canada at the World Championships (1993 and 1999), finishing with a combined 2.25 GAA and .913 save percentage in 11 games, stopping 119 out of 130 shots, for a 4-3 record.