Today in NHL History, Feb 26th

1886: Hockey Hall of Famer Ernie Johnson born in Montreal.

1926: Pittsburgh goaltender Roy Worters recorded the 5th shutout of his rookie season in the Pirates' 1-0 win over the visiting Montreal Maroons.

1927: Goaltender George Hainsworth recorded the 10th shutout of his rookie season to lead the Canadiens to a 2-0 win against the visiting Boston Bruins.

1928: New York Rangers' goalie Lorne Chabot and Cougars' Hap Holmes dueled to a 0-0 scoreless tie, in a game played at Detroit. It was Chabot's third shutout in six days (and his third of 4 in a row) and the 15th career shutout for Holmes.

1929: Clarence "Dolly" Dolson recorded his third straight shutout for Detroit (the 10th of his rookie season) a 3-0 Cougars' win over Chicago. In the previous five days Dolson had recorded shutout wins over the Rangers and Black Hawks.

1942: Max Bentley scored a goal and three assists in a seven minute span in the third period to lead the Black Hawks to a 5-4 win over the visiting Montreal Canadiens.

1944: Bill Durnan became the first goalie in Montreal Canadiens history to win 30 games in one season. The milestone was a 10-2 win over the visiting Boston Bruins. Defenseman Mike McMahon led the scoring with a goal and 4 assists.

1955: Doug Harvey picked up his 41st assist of the season, to set a new NHL record for assists by a defenseman, as the Canadiens won 4-1 over the Bruins, at the Forum. Harvey surpassed the old mark of 40 set by Toronto's Babe Pratt in 1943-44.

1957: Hall of Fame right winger Joe Mullen born in New York, N.Y. Mullen played in the NHL 1979-80 thru 1996-97 with St. Louis, Calgary, Pittsburgh, and Boston.

1963: Gump Worsley became first goaltender to record 200 career victories with the Rangers, when New York won 4-3 over the visiting Red Wings. Camille Henry led the scoring with his 5th career hat trick, including one goal on a penalty shot.

1967: Defenseman Carol Vadnais made his NHL debut as the Canadiens tied 2-2 at Chicago. When the Canadiens' chartered bus didn't show, the team traveled to Chicago Stadium in a taxi, a police paddy wagon, and two police cruisers.

1972: Goaltender Gerry Cheevers extended his NHL-record unbeaten streak to 25 straight games (19-0-6), as the Bruins beat the Kings 5-4 in Los Angeles. Phil Esposito led the scoring with a goal and two assists.

1977: Goaltender Pete LoPresti recorded his third career shutout to lead the Minnesota North Stars to a 3-0 win over Vancouver at the Met Center.....Guy Lafleur scored his 100th point of the season (for the third straight year) with an assist as the Canadiens extended their team-record home undefeated streak to 25 straight games (20-0-5) with a 5-3 win over the Cleveland Barons.

1981: Boston's Jean Ratelle scored his 491st (and final) NHL goal, and Steve Payne set a Minnesota North Stars' record with 39 penalty minutes in a 5-1 loss to the Bruins at Boston. The two teams combined for 406 penalty minutes, an NHL record.....Washington's Mike Gartner began a team-record 17 game point scoring streak in the Capitals' 7-5 loss to the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins.

1984: Quebec's Mario Gosselin became the 16th NHL goaltender to record a shutout in his first career game, the Nordiques won 5-0 over the visiting St. Louis Blues.

1986: Edmonton's Wayne Gretzky scored two goals and added four assists, Jari Kurri had a goal and four assists and Mark Messier recorded his 8th career hat trick and an assist as the Oilers won 8-2 against the Jets, at Winnipeg.

1989: Mario Lemieux scored a goal and three assists to become the third NHL player to get 100 assists in a season. Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky were the other two. They came in an 8-6 Penguins' loss to the Whalers, at Hartford.

1992: Rookie Gilbert Dionne scored his first career NHL hat trick to lead the Canadiens to a 4-1 win over the North Stars, at Minnesota.....Rookie Pat Falloon had a goal and three assists - the first four point game by a San Jose player - to lead the Sharks to a 7-4 win over the Quebec Nordiques, at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California.

1996: New Jersey obtained Phil Housley and Dan Keczmer from Calgary, in exchange for Tommy Albelin, Cale Hulse and Jocelyn Lemieux.

1997: Ray Scapinello became the first official in NHL history to work 2,000 regular season games, when the Washington Capitals beat the Maple Leafs 3-1 in Toronto.

1999: Jacques Demers moved past Punch Imlach into 11th place on the NHL's all-time victory list with his 403rd win as the Lightning won 4-1 against the visiting Philadelphia Flyers.

2001: Rangers' Mark Messier scored to become just the 4th player in NHL history to have a 20 goal season at the age of 40. His milestone came in a 3-2 loss against the visiting Ottawa Senators.

2002: Brian Leetch became the ninth defenseman in NHL history to score 900 career points when he assisted on Eric Lindros' goal in the New York Rangers' 4-3 loss to New Jersey.

2004: Jaromir Jagr scored two goals, including his 25th goal of the season for the 14th time in his career and added an assist as the Rangers completed their 6-game season sweep over the Islanders, with a 6-3 victory at Long Island.....Nikolai Khabibulin became the fourth European goaltender to win 200 NHL games, and Brad Richard scored twice and added an assist to lead the Lightning to a 4-3 win against the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs.