Today in NHL History, Jan 4th

1930: Boston Bruins set an NHL record with their 12th consecutive win, a 4-2 victory over the Canadiens, in Montreal.

1934: Montreal Maroons beat NY Americans 5-4 in a penalty-free game played in New York. There were none called against either team for the entire game

1942: Boston Bruins purchased Harvey "Busher" Jackson from the New York Americans for $7,500.

1944: Bill Cowley picked up two assists to become the NHL's all time leader in career assists, in a 6-4 Bruins win over the Black Hawks, at Chicago Stadium. The two assists gave Cowley 258 in his career, two more than Frank Boucher.....Montreal and Toronto set an NHL record for fastest six goals by two teams (3:15). Canadiens scored four of the six and won the game, 6-3 over the Maple Leafs at the Forum. Toe Blake led the scoring with a goal and two assists.

1947: Playing their sixth game in eight days, the Rangers shut out the Maple Leafs, 2-0 at Toronto. Chuck Rayner recorded his 4th career shutout, and Bryan Hextall and Edgar Laprade each scored a goal and picked up an assist.

1951: Detroit's rookie goalie Terry Sawchuk got his 6th career shutout as the Red Wings beat the Black Hawks 1-0, at the Olympia in Detroit.

1961: Toronto's Johnny Bower recorded his 100th career NHL victory in the Maple Leafs' 6-4 win at Detroit. Frank Mahovlich led the scoring with a goal and four assists. Rookie Howie Glover scored the only hat trick of his NHL career for the Red Wings.

1969: Stan Mikita had four assists to lead the Black Hawks to a 6-3 win against the Canadiens at Montreal.....Toronto's Norm Ullman scored three times to give him 350 career NHL goals as the Maple Leafs won 5-3 over the visiting New York Rangers. Ullman became 8th player in NHL history to reach the 350 goal mark.

1973: Boston's Bobby Orr scored his 163rd career goal (in his 428th game), to break the NHL career record for goals by a defenseman, set by Red Kelly (in 846 games). Bruins lost 4-2, at St. Louis.

1974: Boston's Bobby Orr scored twice against Ranger goalie Peter McDuffe to reach the 200 goal mark in his regular season NHL career. Bruins won at New York, 4-2.

1975: Phil Esposito scored a goal and added four assists, and Ken Broderick recorded his only career NHL shutout as the Bruins beat the North Stars 8-0 at Minnesota. The Bruins set a team record with 7 power play goals in the game.....Montreal's Guy Lafleur scored his 5th career hat trick and added three assists, Guy Lapointe had a goal and four assists, and Bunny Larocque recorded his second career shutout in the Canadiens' 10-0 win against the Capitals, at the Forum.

1976: Buffalo Sabres beat touring Soviet Wings 12-6 at the Aud, making them the first team in NHL history to defeat a Soviet squad. Gerry Desjardins was the winning goalie for the Sabres.....Bobby Clarke scored two goals and an assist and Bill Barber had three assists as the Flyers began an NHL-record 20 game home winning streak a 5-3 win over the NY Islanders at the Spectrum.

1980: Vancouver's Dennis Kearns became the first Canucks' defenseman to register 300 career points, with an assist in a 4-2 win against the Rockies, at Colorado.

1984: Edmonton's Wayne Gretzky extended his NHL record consecutive game assist streak to 17 straight in the Oilers' 12-8 win over the visiting Minnesota North Stars. Gretzy scored 38 assists during the 17 game streak. Also in that game, Mark Messier set an Oilers team record by picking up 4 assists in a 9:52 span in the second period and Jari Kurri had his 7th career hat trick.....Buffalo's Real Cloutier scored his 7th (and final) career hat trick and Gil Perreault had a goal and five assists as the Sabres began a team-record 10 game winning streak, with a 9-4 win over the Winnipeg Jets, in Buffalo.....Thomas Gradin earned his 408th career point, moving past Don Lever as the Canucks' all-time scoring leader. Vancouver tied 3-3, at Los Angeles.

1985: Buffalo's Gil Perreault had a goal and an assist to reach the 1,200th point of his NHL career as the Sabres won 7-2 over the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins.....Winnipeg's Dale Hawerchuk scored his eighth career hat trick, and added an assist as the Jets lost 7-4 at Edmonton.

1986: Wayne Gretzky became the first player in NHL history to get 100 points in a season for seven straight years. The milestone came when he picked up an assist in a 4-3 Oilers win against the Hartford Whalers.....Pittsburgh Penguins tied the visiting Russian Dynamo team, 3-3 before a sellout crowd in Pittsburgh.

1987: Hartford's Paul Lawless set a club record with two goals and four assists in an 8-3 Whalers' win over Toronto.

1988: Chicago Blackhawks obtained Dirk Graham from the Minnesota North Stars in exchange for Curt Fraser.....Toronto defenseman Borje Salming became the first European trained player to appear in 1,000 career NHL games, in a 7-7 Maple Leafs' tie against Vancouver. Salming also became the 5th player to appear in 1,000 games with Toronto.

1989: New York Rangers took 54 shots, including 13 by rookie Brian Leetch (a record for defensemen) in a 3-3 tie with Washington. Leetch scored a goal and an assist in the game.....Detroit's Steve Yzerman extended his team-record point scoring streak to 28 straight games in the Red Wings 4-2 win over the visiting St. Louis Blues. Yzerman scored 29 goals, 36 assists for a total of 65 points during the 28 game streak.

1990: Mario Lemieux broke the Penguins' team record by extending his point scoring streak to 29 games with two assists, in leading the Penguins to a 4-3 win over Vancouver at the Civic Arena.

1992: Quebec Nordiques played in their 1,000th all time regular season game since entering the NHL in 1979-80. Quebec lost 5-2 at NY Islanders.....Guy Carbonneau scored a minute into overtime, and Patrick Roy made 25 saves to earn his 17th career shutout in the Canadiens' 1-0 win against the Sharks, at the Cow Palace in San Francisco.

1994: Wayne Gretzky picked up four assists to lead the Kings to a 5-1 win against the Quebec Nordiques at the Forum.....Canada beat Sweden 6-4 to win the 1994 World Junior Championship in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

1997: Rangers' Wayne Gretzky tied a club record with four assists in the second period as New York won 6-4 over the visiting Ottawa Senators. It was Mike Richter's 11th straight win, and the Rangers' 2,000th franchise victory.....Mario Lemieux scored twice and added three assists and Jaromir Jagr had a goal and an assist to give him 600 career points, in the Penguins' 7-3 win against the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning.

2000: Luc Robitaille appeared in his 1,000th NHL game and scored a goal as the Kings tied the Blues 2-2 at St. Louis.

2001: Ottawa's Radek Bonk scored his first career hat trick and added 3 assists for a career-high 6 points in the Senators 8-3 win against the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning. Bonk's 6 points matched the Senators' record set by Dan Quinn in 1995.....Alexander Mogilny scored his 15th career hat trick as the Devils extended their unbeaten streak to 8 straight games (6-0-2) with a 4-2 win against the visiting New York Islanders.

2002: Mike Ricci picked up an assist to give him 500 points in his NHL career. The milestone came in a 5-3 win over the visiting Phoenix Coyotes.

2004: Brian Boucher recorded his third straight shutout (and the 10th of his career) and Jan Hrdina scored a goal and added two assists in the Coyotes 3-0 win against the Hurricanes at Carolina.


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