Today in NHL History, Feb 25th

1903: Hall of Famer Francis "King" Clancy born in Ottawa, Ont. Clancy played in the NHL 1921-22 through 1936-37 with Ottawa and Toronto, and later became an NHL referee and then coach of Toronto.

1918: Rookie goaltender Clint Benedict recorded the first shutout in Ottawa Senators history (and the first of his career) and Cy Denneny scored three goals to lead the Senators to an 8-0 win over the visiting Montreal Canadiens.

1925: Goaltender Jake Forbes set an NHL record, with his sixth shutout of the season (and the 7th of his career) in the Hamilton Tigers' 2-0 win against the visiting Ottawa Senators.

1930: Alex Connell became the first goaltender in NHL history to record 60 career shutouts, and Frank Finnigan scored two overtime goals as Ottawa won 2-0 over the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs.

1940: NY Rangers faced the Montreal Canadiens in the first hockey game televised in the U.S. The game aired on station W2XBS in NY, with one camera in a fixed position to 300 TV receivers in New York. Rangers won 6-2 for their 14th straight home win.....Ebbie Goodfellow had four assists in a 4-1 Red Wings' win over the visiting New York Americans.

1941: Reg "Hooley" Smith scored the 200th (and final) goal of his NHL career, when his NY Americans played a 4-4 tie against the Maple Leafs, in New York.

1945: Maurice Richard set an NHL record with his 45th goal of the year, in a 5-2 Canadiens win over the Maple Leafs. Richard's 45th goal broke the NHL single season mark of 44, set by Joe Malone in 1917-18.

1954: Toronto goalie Harry Lumley and Canadiens' rookie Jacques Plante dueled to a 0-0 scoreless tie, in a game played at Montreal. It was the second career shutout for Plante and the 52nd for Lumley.

1973: Dennis Hextall scored a goal and added four assists in the Minnesota North Stars' 6-5 loss to the Rangers, at New York.

1976: Dave Maloney tied the Rangers' record for most penalty minutes in a game. He picked up 33 as the Rangers lost 6-4 to the Oakland Seals.

1978: Danny Gare scored three goals and two assists, and Jerry Korab had two goals and three assists to lead the Sabres to a 13-3 win against the Barons at Cleveland. Sabres became the 3rd team in NHL history to score 13 goals in a road game.....Islanders' Mike Bossy set an NHL record for goals by a rookie, when he scored his 45th of the year in a 7-1 win against Chicago. Bossy broke the mark of 44 set by Buffalo's Rick Martin in 1971-72.

1979: Vaclav Nedomansky and Andre St. Laurent each scored three goals to lead the Red Wings to an 8-1 win against the Colorado Rockies, at the Olympia. It was the second career hat trick for Nedomansky.

1983: Winnieg's Dale Hawerchuk became just the second player in NHL history to score his fifth career hat trick before age 21, when he scored three times in a 5-3 Jets' win over the visiting Hartford Whalers.

1984: Michel Goulet became the first player in Quebec Nordiques history to score 200 career NHL goals, and added an assist in a 3-3 tie against the visiting St. Louis Blues.

1987: Montreal Canadiens' Larry Robinson scored the 800th point of his NHL career, in a 3-3 tie against Chicago. Robinson became the fourth defenseman in NHL history to score 800 points.

1989: New York Rangers' Guy Lafleur picked up three assists in game at Quebec to give him 1,283 career assists, which moved him past Alex Delvecchio into ninth place on the NHL's all time scoring list. Rangers won 7-2 over the Quebec Nordiques.....Pittsburgh's Paul Coffey picked up four assists in a 5-5 tie against the Islanders. The four assists gave him a club record 86 for the season, breaking the old team record of 83 set by Randy Carlyle in 1980-81.

1990: Eric Desjardins scored the 15,000th goal in Montreal Canadiens' history, in the first period of a 6-5 win over the Blues, at the Forum.....Calgary defenseman Gary Suter had five assists in a Flames' 10-4 win over Edmonton.

1993: Cam Neely scored a goal in his first game back after a one-year (106 game) absence, to help the Bruins to a 3-3 tie against the Minnesota North Stars in Boston.

1995: Los Angeles' Rick Tocchet scored the 300th goal of his NHL career as the Kings won 4-3, at Edmonton. Tocchet became the third NHL player (after Pat Verbeek and Mike Foligno) to get 300 goals and 2,000 penalty minutes in the NHL.

1998: Dallas coach Ken Hitchcock recorded his 100th career win when the Stars beat the Islanders, 4-1 at Long Island. Hitchcock reached 100 wins in 183 games (100-62-21), the 12th fastest in NHL history.....Buffalo Sabres tied an NHL record with their fifth consecutive tie game at home, when they played the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 2-2 draw.

2000: Islanders' defenseman Eric Cairns scored his first career NHL goal (in a 5-2 loss at Detroit). It came in his 134th career game --- the longest goal scoring drought from the start of a career in NHL history.

2001: Pittsburgh's Mario Lemieux became just the sixth player in NHL history to 600 goals and 900 career assists, when he picked up an assist in a 6-1 win over the visiting New York Islanders 6-1.....Buffalo's Dominik Hasek became the first European goaltender to play in 500 career NHL games, as he led the Sabres to a 5-2 win over the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning.

2003: Mats Sundin scored twice, including his 30th goal of the season for the 10th time in his career as the Maple Leafs won 5-2 against the visiting New York Islanders.....Christobal Huet, only the second French-born player (and the first goaltender) to play in the NHL, earned his first victory, and Ziggy Palffy had two goals and two assists in the Kings 5-3 win over the Penguins at Pittsburgh.....Markus Naslund scored a goal and added five assists as the Canucks extended their NHL-best unbeaten streak to 14 games with an 8-0 win over the visiting Atlanta Thrashers. Dan Cloutier recorded his 10th career shutout.....Raymond Bourque, Willie O'Ree and USA Hockey Vice President Ron DeGregorio were named the 2003 winners of the Lester Patrick Award (for service to hockey in the United States).

2004: New Jersey's Martin Brodeur became the first goaltender in NHL history to win 30 games in 9 consecutive seasons (moving ahead of Patrick Roy) as the Devils won 8-2 over the visiting Buffalo Sabres.