Today in NHL History, Dec 6th

1927: Toronto goalie John Roach and Alex Connell dueled to a 0-0 scoreless tie, in a game played at Ottawa. It was the 37th career shutout for Connell and the 10th for Roach.

1928: Goaltender Alex Connell recorded his 53rd career shutout and Frank Nighbor scored a goal and an assist in overtime, as Ottawa won 2-0 over the visiting Chicago Black Hawks.....New York Rangers' goalie Johnny Roach and Joe Miller dueled to a 0-0 scoreless tie, in a game played at Pittsburgh. It was Roach's 16th career shutout and the 8th for Miller.

1932: Bill Cook scored two goals and two assists and his brother Fred "Bun" added two goals and one assist in the Rangers' 5-3 win against the visiting Montreal Canadiens.

1938: Boston's rookie goalie Frankie Brimsek recorded the shutout in a 2-0 Bruins' win over the Black Hawks, at Boston Garden. It was Brimsek's second straight shutout (and second career victory), and came in his third career NHL game.

1947: Harry Watson scored 3 goals (his first with Toronto) and had 2 assists, Syl Apps added a goal and 4 assists and Max Bentley also got his first hat trick with Toronto in the Maple Leafs' 12-5 win against the visiting Chicago Black Hawks.....Bill Durnan's 15th career shutout led the Canadiens to a 4-0 win over Detroit in Montreal.

1952: Detroit's Alex Delvecchio had two assists, and Terry Sawchuk shut out Chicago 2-0 in Indianapolis, the first time since 1928 that a regular season game was played outside an NHL city. Both teams' stadiums were unavailable that night.

1953: Goaltender Al Rollins recorded his 20th career shutout to lead the Black Hawks to a 5-0 win over the Red Wings at Detroit. George Gee scored a goal and added two assists to lead the scoring.....Montreal's Paul Masnick picked up four assists to lead the Canadiens to a 7-2 win over the Bruins, at Boston.

1967: Stan Mikita scored four goals (for his 10th career hat trick) and an assist to lead the Black Hawks to a 7-2 win against the Penguins, at Chicago Stadium, in the first meeting ever between the two clubs. It was Mikita's first four-goal game.

1968: Rookie goaltender Gary Smith recorded his second career shutout to lead the Seals to a 4-0 win over the Flyers in Oakland.

1979: Reggie Leach scored his 7th career hat trick, including a team record two goals in 20 seconds, as the Flyers scored 9 straight goals, to win 9-4 over the Kings at the Spectrum. The win stretched the Flyers unbeaten streak to 23 games (17-0-6).

1980: George Ferguson and Greg Malone scored in the first :29 of the game to set an NHL record for the fastest two goals at the start of a game by one team, and defenseman Randy Carlyle added four assists to give the Penguins a 6-4 win over Chicago.....Brian Sutter scored his third career NHL hat trick to lead St. Louis to a 5-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets. The victory extended the Blues' unbeaten streak to 7 straight games (6-0-1).

1983: Bernie Federko scored twice to become the third player in team history to get 200 goals as a member of the St. Louis Blues, and added an assist in an 8-2 win over the visiting Buffalo Sabres.

1987: Jari Kurri scored a goal and added four assists, and Esa Tikkanen had two goals and two assists as Edmonton beat Minnesota 10-4, to extend their home undefeated streak against the North Stars to 11 games (9-0-2).....Washington's Scott Stevens set a club record with five assists as the Capitals won 10-3 over the visiting Los Angeles Kings.

1988: St. Louis goaltender Greg Millen posted his third consecutive shutout as the Blues defeated the Minnesota North Stars, 3-0. The previous NHL goaltender to get three straight shutouts had been Tony Esposito in 1971-72....Hartford's rookie goalie Peter Sidorkiewicz recorded his first NHL shutout, and Kevin Dineen scored twice and added an assist as the Whalers won 9-0 against Buffalo.....Mario Lemieux, who had been held to two points in his previous three games, exploded for a goal and four assists in Pittsburgh's 7-6 win over Chicago. The win extended the Pens' undefeated streak to 7 straight games (6-0-1).

1989: Defenseman Larry Robinson scored his 200th career goal and 900th career NHL point as the Kings won 5-4 over the Canucks. Robinson became the first NHL player to score 200 career goals without ever getting as many as 20 in one season.....Mario Lemieux scored his 317th NHL goal to pass Jean Pronovost, and become the Penguins' all-time goal scoring leader. It came in his 395th game, and led the Penguins to a 5-3 win over Washington, at the Civic Arena.

1990: The NHL announced the addition of two new teams for the 1992-93 season: Ottawa and Tampa Bay.

1992: Goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck recorded his 13th career shutout to lead the Rangers to a 6-0 win over Toronto in New York. It was the Rangers' first shut out over Toronto since March 14, 1971.

1995: Chicago's Jeremy Roenick became the 8th player in franchise history to score 250 goals as a member of the Blackhawks. The milestone goal (along with an assist) came in a 5-5 tie against the Rangers, in New York.

1999: Toronto's Steve Thomas set an NHL record with his 10th career regular season overtime goal, when he scored at 1:05 of OT in a 3-2 Maple Leafs win over the Buffalo Sabres. Thomas broke the record of nine OT goals held by Mario Lemieux.....Bob Essensa improved his record to 9-0-1 from the start of the season (the best start by a goalie in franchise history) in the Coyotes 3-2 win at Dallas.

2000: Ron Francis became the fifth player in NHL history to record 1,100 career assists. He picked up the milestone point during Carolina's 5-3 win over the Thrashers, in Atlanta. It was also Francis' 900th game with the Hurricanes' franchise.

2001: Gary Roberts scored his 12th career hat trick to become the 6th player in NHL history to score 350 goals and amass 2,000 penalty minutes; the milestone came in the Maple Leafs 6-3 win over the Rangers at New York.....Andy Delmore scored twice as Nashville beat the visiting Senators 4-2 for the 100th victory in franchise history. The 100th win came in the Predators' 274th game, the 2nd-fastest among 1990's expansion teams (Florida won 100 in 223 games).

2002: Ilya Kovalchuk scored his first career hat trick in the second period and added an assist in the Thrashers 7-6 loss in overtime to the Capitals at Washington.


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