Today in NHL History, March 11th

1877: Hall of Fame goaltender Patrick "Paddy" Moran born in Quebec City, Quebec. Moran passed away in January 1966, at the age of 88.

1890: Hall of Fame defenseman Sprague Cleghorn born in Montreal, Quebec. Cleghorn played in the NHL 1918-19 through 1927-28 with Ottawa, Toronto, the Montreal Canadiens and Boston.

1905: Ottawa Silver Seven beat Rat Portage 5-4 in the final game of their Stanley Cup Challenge. It was the sixth of eight straight Stanley Cup challenges won by Ottawa. "Rat Portage" later changed its name to Kenora.

1910: Renfrew's Newsy Lalonde scored nine goals in the final game of the NHA season (a 15-4 win over Cobalt) to beat out Montreal's Ernie Russell for the NHA scoring championship. Lalonde finished with 38 goals in 11 games, Russell with 31.

1912: Jack McDonald scored four goals to lead the Quebec Bulldogs to a 9-3 win over the Moncton Victorias, in Quebec City. It was the first Stanley Cup playoff game with six players on a side. All prior games featured seven-man teams (including "rover")

1914: Toronto Blueshirts (later Maple leafs) captured their first Stanley Cup with a 6-0 home ice shutout against the Montreal Canadiens, who made their championship series debut. It was the first Stanley Cup game played on artificial ice.

1918: The first all-NHL Stanley Cup playoff game took place as the Toronto Blueshirts hosted the Montreal Canadiens in the first of their two-game, total-goal series. Toronto beat Canadiens 7-3 before 4,000 fans. Harry Meeking had three goals.

1922: Art Duncan became the second defenseman in NHL history to score a playoff hat trick as Vancouver won 4-0 at Regina in a Stanley Cup game.

1924: Montreal Canadiens won a two-game, total-points series 5-2 over Ottawa, to claim the NHL championship.

1928: Goaltender Hal Winkler recorded his 14th shutout of the season (and the 20th of his career) in the Bruins' 1-0 win against the Americans, at New York.

1930: Cooney Weiland scored three goals and an assist as Boston extended their NHL-record home winning streak to 20 straight games, with a 4-3 win over the Chicago Black Hawks.

1934: Before a crowd of 12,000 at Olympia Stadium, the Red Wings clinched their first ever title (as champs of the NHL's American Division) with a 3-2 win over Chicago. Gord Pettinger scored the overtime winning goal for Detroit.....NHL records were set when the Montreal Maroons scored four goals in the (mandatory) 10-minute overtime period, to break a 3-3 tie and beat the Rangers 7-3, in New York. Russ Blinco led with two overtime goals.

1937: The Red Wings clinched their second straight American Division title in a row by beating the Rangers 4-2, in a penalty free game in New York. During the game Larry Aurie broke his leg and missed the playoffs.

1945: Montreal's Elmer Lach had a goal and three assists in an 11-5 win over the Rangers, at New York. Lach's three assists gave him 51 for the season, a new NHL record.

1951: Rookie goaltender Terry Sawchuk set an NHL record for most wins in a season with his 39th of the year (and picked up his 10th career shutout) in a 7-0 Red Wings victory at Chicago. George Gee scored a hat trick and two assists to lead the scoring.

1954: Toronto goaltender Harry Lumley set a team record with his 13th shutout of the season in the Maple Leafs' 3-0 win at Montreal. Lumley broke the record of 12 shutouts set by Lorne Chabot in 1928-29.

1965: NHL Board of Governors (at a special meeting in New York) announced that the league would be expanding with the formation of a second six-team division. 11 months later the National Hockey League doubled from six to 12 teams.

1970: Bruins' goalie Eddie Johnston and Black Hawks' rookie Tony Esposito got the shutouts, in a 0-0 scoreless tie in Chicago. It was Johnston's second straight shutout, and Esposito's 12th of the season.

1971: Boston Bruins became the first team in NHL history to get 50 wins in one season, and Bobby Orr had a goal and 3 assists to set 2 NHL records. His second assist was his 121st point of season, a new record for defensemen, breaking his own mark; his third assist was #88 for the year, also breaking his own mark. Boston won 7-2 in L.A.

1979: Los Angeles Kings' Randy Holt picked up an NHL record nine penalties and 67 penalty minutes in one game. They all came in the first period of a 6-3 loss at Philadelphia, also in that game Philadelphia's Frank Bathe set a Flyers' team record for most penalty minutes in a game, with 55.....Andre Savard scored a goal and four assists to lead the Sabres to a 9-4 win against the Atlanta Flames at the Aud.....Marcel Dionne scored his 50th goal of the season for the second time in his career, in a 6-3 Kings' loss at Philadelphia.

1980: Bryan Trottier had assists on all four goals as the Islanders won 4-1 over the Colorado Rockies, in Long Island.

1981: Los Angeles' Larry Murphy set a new NHL record for most points by a rookie defenseman. His 66th point (in a 4-4 Kings tie against the Black Hawks) broke the record of 65 set by Ray Bourque the previous season.

1986: Mike Bossy scored four goals (and an assist) to reach the 50 goal mark for an NHL-record ninth straight year, in the Islanders' 8-4 win over the visiting Calgary Flames. It was the 36th hat trick of Bossy's NHL career.

1987: Wayne Gretzky scored a goal and added three assists (all in the third period) to give him 1,500 career NHL points. The milestone came in his 620th career game, as the Oilers beat Detroit 6-3, for their 7th straight home win over the Red Wings.

1992: Dave McLlwain tied an NHL record when he played his 1st game with Toronto (a 3-0 win at Minnesota). It was his 4th team of the season. He started with Wpg Jets, then went to Buffalo & the Islanders before being traded to Toronto Mar 10.

1995: Following a pre-game ceremony to honor the jerseys of former Maple Leaf goaltenders Johnny Bower and Turk Broda, the Leafs and Blackhawks battled to a 2-2 tie, at Maple Leaf Gardens. Chicago's Jeff Hackett made 40 saves

1996: Canadiens beat the Dallas Stars 4-1 in the final game (#3,228) at the Montreal Forum. Canadiens' goalie Jocelyn Thibault recorded the win.....Chicago's Denis Savard had two goals and an assist to become the 15th NHL player to score 1,300 career points as the Blackhawks won 8-4 over the visiting Florida Panthers.


2000: Bob Probert became the 6th NHL player to get over 3,000 career penalty minutes and added a goal, and Alexei Zhamnov picked up his 300th career assist as Chicago won 5-3 at Florida.

2001: Colorado defenseman Ray Bourque became just the third player in history to appear in 1,600 NHL games as the Avalanche beat the visiting Dallas Stars 3-2.