Today in NHL History, Dec 12th

1925: Montreal Maroons forward Harry "Punch" Broadbent scored the 100th goal of his NHL career, in a 5-2 win over the visiting Ottawa Senators.

1943: New York Rangers beat the Bruins, 4-3 in New York, to end their NHL-record 15 game winless streak (0-14-1) from the start of the season.

1952: Former NHL defenseman Lars Lindgren born in Pitea, Sweden. Lindgren played in the NHL 1978-79 through 1983-84 with Vancouver and Minnesota.

1953: Maurice Richard became the NHL's all-time scoring leader, when his goal and two assists in a 7-2 win over the Rangers gave him 611 career NHL points, one more than injured teammate Elmer Lach, who had held the record since February 1952.....Harry Lumley recorded his 46th career shutout, and Harry Watson scored twice as the Toronto Maple Leafs extended their team-record home winning streak to 7 straight games, with a 2-0 win over the Chicago Black Hawks.

1963: Montreal beat the Rangers 6-4 in a game that set an NHL record for fastest 3 goals by 2 teams. Montreal's Dave Balon and Gilles Tremblay, and Rangers' Camille Henry scored within a span of 18 seconds early in the first period to set the record.

1968: Toronto edged the Flyers in a 1-0 game at the Spectrum. Ron Ellis scored the game's only goal against Bernie Parent, while Johnny Bower recorded his 37th (and final) career shutout for the Maple Leafs.

1970: Orland Kurtenbach became the first player in Vancouver Canucks history to score a hat trick. He scored his only career hat trick and added an assist in a 5-2 win over the Oakland Seals, three months into the team's first NHL season.

1971: Boston's Phil Esposito scored his 300th career NHL goal, in a 4-2 loss to the Seals, in Oakland. Esposito became the 16th player in NHL history to score 300 goals, and the second fastest (behind Maurice Richard).....Chicago's Bobby Hull became the fifth player in NHL history to score 1,000 career points. His milestone point was an assist in his 909th game, a 5-3 Black Hawks' win over the Minnesota North Stars.

1976: Rangers' Rod Gilbert picked up three assists playing in his 1,000th NHL game as New York won 5-2 over Montreal, at MSG. Gilbert became just the second player to appear in 1,000 games in a Rangers' uniform.

1977: Atlanta Flames traded goalie Phil Myre, Curt Bennett and Barry Gibbs to the St. Louis Blues, in exchange for goalie Yves Belanger plus Dick Redmond and Bob MacMillan.

1979: Marcel Dionne picked up his 350th career goal and his 500th NHL assist in a 7-4 Kings' win over the Hartford Whalers, at the Forum.

1981: Harold Snepsts was assessed 12 penalty minutes to become the first Canucks' player to accumulate 1,000 career PIM, when Vancouver lost 7-5 at Los Angeles.

1982: Darryl Sutter scored four goals (including his second career hat trick) and Tom Lysiak added five assists to lead the Black Hawks to a 7-3 win against the visiting Quebec Nordiques.

1986: Wayne Gretzky picked up his 900th, 901st and 902nd career assists (in his 584th NHL game) as the Oilers beat the Winnipeg Jets, 6-1.....Mario Lemieux scored four goals (including three in one period) and added two assists, to tie a Penguins' record for most points in a game as the Penguins beat Toronto 8-3 at the Civic Arena. It was the third hat trick of Lemieux's NHL career.

1987: Montreal's Bobby Smith picked up three assists, including the 500th of his NHL career, as the Canadiens won 5-3 against the Red Wings, at the Forum. Teammate Stephane Richer added two goals and an assist.

1989: New Jersey Devils won for only the second time ever at Nassau Coliseum by beating the NY Islanders 7-2. The victory snapped a 15-game winless streak for the Devils on Long Island.

1991: Detroit Red Wings beat the Quebec Nordiques 4-1, for their ninth consecutive victory at home.....Jyrki Lumme scored a goal and picked up three assists to lead the Canucks to a 7-5 win over the visiting Minnesota North Stars.

1992: Mike Ricci scored a goal and added four assists to lead the Quebec Nordiques to an 8-7 win at San Jose. Scott Young added his first career hat trick for the Nordiques, and rookie Rob Gaudreau got his second career hat trick for the Sharks.....Goaltender Ed Belfour recorded his 12th career shutout to lead the Blackhawks to a 3-0 win over the North Stars at Minnesota.

1996: Pat LaFontaine, former Buffalo Sabres owner Seymour Knox, and Bill Cleary of Harvard University were named recipients of the Lester Patrick Award, for service to hockey in the United States.

1997: Paul Kariya scored two goals and added two assists in his first game of the season and Dmitri Mironov had a team-record five assists in the Mighty Ducks' 6-4 win over the Capitals, at the Arrowhead Pond.....Canadiens' Mark Recchi scored his 300th NHL goal as Montreal lost 5-2 at New Jersey.

1999: Patrick Roy won his 424th game to pass Tony Esposito for third place on the all-time victory list and Milan Hejduk scored the winning goal at 1:36 of overtime as Colorado won 3-2 at Vancouver.

2001: Nashville's Cliff Ronning picked up his 500th career NHL assist in the Predators 4-2 win over the Rangers at New York.....Tampa Bay defenseman Grant Ledyard became only the 12th undrafted player (since 1969) to appear in 1,000 NHL games, when he played for the Lightning in a 3-1 win over the Flames, in Calgary.

2003: Vyacheslav Kozlov tied an Atlanta franchise record with a goal in his fifth straight game, a 6-3 win over the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins.


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