Today in NHL History, Feb 18th

1905: Fred Brophy of Westmount (of the CAHL) became the first goaltender to score a goal in Stanley Cup play. Brophy made a save, then skated the lengh of the ice to score past Quebec goalie Paddy Moran. But Quebec won the game 17-5.

1918: Montreal Canadiens' goalie Georges Vezina recorded the first shutout in NHL history, blanking Toronto 9-0. It came in the NHL's third month of play, in the league's first season.

1919: Ottawa's Cy Denneny scored his 52nd career goal (in a 4-3 win over the Toronto Arenas) to become the NHL's all-time leading goal scorer. Denneny passed Joe Malone (who regained the lead a year later).

1926: Ottawa set a new NHL record for most wins in a season, with their 20th of the year, a 4-2 victory over the Canadiens. The Senators broke the record of 19 wins, set by 3 teams over the NHL's first 8 seasons. Cy Denneny scored a natural hat trick.

1928: Senators' Alex Connell recorded his sixth consecutive shutout, an NHL record, in a 1-0 win over the Montreal Canadiens, in Ottawa. It was Connell's 12th shutout of the season and the 47th of his career.

1930: Boston's Tiny Thompson set an NHL record for most wins in a season, when he picked up his 31st victory of the year, in a 3-2 Bruins win over the visiting Montreal Canadiens. Thompson broke the record of 30 wins set by Alex Connell in 1926-27. Boston also set a new NHL record for most wins in a season, with their 31st of the year (and their 16th straight at home), the Bruins broke the old record of 30 wins, set by Ottawa in 1926-27......Americans' Norman Himes scored a hat trick and added an assist (including a goal and an assist in overtime) as New York won 6-4 at Chicago.

1936: Americans' Nels Stewart scored a hat trick and added an assist and Sweeney Schriner had two goals and two assists as New York tied 8-8 with the visiting Maroons. Montreal's Reginald "Hooley" Smith scored two goals and three assists.

1940: Tiny Thompson recorded his 81st (and final) career shutout as the Red Wings scored twice in the final period to beat the Rangers 2-0 in Detroit.

1941: Art Jackson scored both Boston goals as the Bruins extended their unbeaten streak to 14-0-8 in a 2-2 tie against Toronto, at Boston Garden. Leafs' goaltender Turk Broda made 49 saves in the tie.

1945: Montreal Canadiens' goalie Bill Durnan and Black Hawks' Mike Karakas dueled to a 0-0 scoreless tie, in a game played at Chicago. It was the 26th career shutout for Karakas and the third for Durnan.

1954: Montreal beat Detroit 4-2, but during the game, Gordie Howe was advised that he had become the father of a baby boy, who he later named Marty.

1967: Montreal's rookie goalie Rogie Vachon played in his first NHL game. His first shot was a breakaway by Gordie Howe. Vachon made the save and the Canadiens went on to beat Detroit 3-2 at the Forum.

1968: The first NHL game was played at the fourth "Madison Square Garden" (home of the New York Rangers). Rangers won 3-1 over the Philadelphia Flyers.

1970: Boston's Bobby Orr beat L.A. goalie Wayne Rutledge for his 22nd goal of the season (during a 5-5 tie in Los Angeles) to break his own NHL season mark for goals by a defensemen, set one year earlier.

1971: Red Wings' Gordie Howe scored his 20th goal of the season in 5-3 win against the Minnesota North Stars, in Detroit. It was the 22nd straight season Howe reached the 20-goal mark, an NHL record.

1972: Jean Ratelle scored a goal and and assist, for his 100th point of the season, in the Rangers' 2-2 tie against the Golden Seals, in Oakland. Ratelle became the first player in Rangers' history to score 100 points in one season.

1975: Washington Capitals lost 6-1 to the L.A. Kings in Washington, the first of 17 straight games, the longest losing streak (at that time) in NHL history.

1976: Montreal's Guy Lafleur scored two goals and added three assists, and Steve Shutt had two goals and two assists in the Canadiens' 7-5 win, at Toronto.

1977: St. Louis Blues sold Derek Sanderson to Vancouver.

1978: Barclay Plager coached his first game for St. Louis, a 4-3 Blues win over the Canucks in St. Louis. Plager replaced Leo Boivin, and helped the Blues end their team-record 12 game winless streak (0-10-2).

1981: 20-year-old Wayne Gretzky became the first player in NHL history to score five career hat tricks before the age of 21, when he had five goals and two assists in a 9-2 Oilers' win against St. Louis. It was also Gretzky's first career 5-goal game.....Hartford Whalers retired Gordie Howe's uniform number 9. Whalers tied 3-3 with the visiting Winnipeg Jets.

1982: Los Angeles Kings called up Bernie Nicholls, who had been playing with New Haven of the AHL. Nicholls went on to score 14 goals and 18 assists in the final 21 games of the 1981-82 season for the Kings.

1983: Lanny McDonald became the first player in Calgary Flames history to score 50 goals in a season. The milestone came in a 5-1 loss at Buffalo. McDonald finished the season with a team-record 66 goals.

1984: Reed Larson picked up three assists, to become the highest scoring U.S. born player in NHL history, and goaltender Greg Stefan recorded his second career shutout, as the Red Wings won 6-0 over the Black Hawks in Detroit.

1985: Brad Marsh broke a 66 game goal-less streak, by scoring in the Flyers' 8-2 win against Pittsburgh at the Spectrum. The Flyers outshot the Penguins 43-18 in the game.

1987: Minnesota's Dino Ciccarelli scored twice to give him 250 career NHL goals as the North Stars won 7-3 over the visiting Vancouver Canucks. Ciccarelli also had an assist in the game.....Edmonton's Wayne Gretzky scored a goal and added four assists as the Oilers beat Toronto 9-2, to extend their home undefeated streak against the Maple Leafs to 12 games (9-0-3).

1989: Joe Nieuwendyk scored the 100th goal of his NHL career as the Flames lost 4-3 to the visiting Bruins. It took him 134 games to reach 100, tying him with Maurice Richard for second fastest 100 goals in history. Mike Bossy had 100 in 129 games.....Wayne Gretzky scored two goals and five assists in career game #754, to give him a career total of 1,800 NHL points. They came in an 11-3 Kings' win over the Quebec Nordiques at the Forum.

1990: Defenseman Ray Bourque had the biggest scoring night of his 22 year NHL career, when he scored a goal and added five assists to lead Boston to a 7-2 win at Vancouver. With five assists Bourque became the 7th NHL defenseman to score 600 assists.

1992: John Tanner recorded his first NHL shutout and Owen Nolan helped with a goal and two assists to lead the Nordiques to a 4-0 win against the Minnesota North Stars, in Quebec City.

1993: After 522 minor-league games, goalie Rick Knickle made his NHL debut, in a 7-2 Los Angeles Kings' loss at Chicago. His debut came a week before his 33rd birthday.

1999: Hurricanes Paul Coffey became the second player in NHL history (and the first defenseman) to record 1,100 career assists. The milestone came in a 2-2 tie against the Capitals, in Greensboro, North Carolina.....Eric Lindros scored a goal to give him points in 18 straight games (tying a team record held by Bobby Clarke) in the Flyers' 3-1 loss against the visiting Montreal Canadiens.

2003: Vancouver tied a team record by extending their unbeaten streak to 10 games (6-0-4) after coming back from a 3-0 deficit in the final 15 minutes of the game to beat the Wings 4-3 at Detroit. Marek Malik scored at 3:02 of overtime for the victory.

2004: Nashville defenseman Marek Zidlicky set a team record with five assists, and Scott Walker scored a power-play goal and three assists in the Predators' 7-3 win against the visiting San Jose Sharks.....Detroit's Brett Hull tied Dave Andreychuk's NHL record with his 263rd career power-play goal, when the Red Wings forward scored in a 5-2 win against Phoenix.