Today in NHL History, March 17th

1927: Ottawa Senators extended their NHL-record by winning their 9th straight game by just one goal, when Alex Connell picked up his 12th shutout of the season (the 34th of his career) in a 1-0 victory over the visiting Boston Bruins.

1928: Detroit goalie Harry Holmes recorded his second consecutive shutout (his 11th of the season and the 17th and final shutout of his NHL career) as the Cougars won 7-0 at Chicago.

1934: A crowd of 11,000 turned out in Toronto for "King Clancy Night" on St. Patrick's Day. Clancy wore a green uniform with a large shamrock on the back, but later changed into his regular Leafs' uniform. Toronto won 3-2 over the visiting Rangers.

1936: Tiny Thompson recorded his 10th shutout of the season (and the 61st of his career), and extended his scoreless streak to 196:25, in a 1-0 Bruins' win over the Canadiens, at Boston Garden.

1938: New York Americans' veteran Nels Stewart became the first player in NHL history to score 300 career goals, during a 5-3 loss to the Rangers.

1945: Detroit's Bill "Flash" Hollett became the first NHL defenseman to score 20 goals in a season. His 20th goal came in a 4-3 Red Wings' win over Toronto.

1948: Detroit goalie Harry Lumley and Bruins' Frankie Brimsek dueled to a 0-0 scoreless tie, in a game played at Boston. It was the 13th career shutout for Lumley and the 34th for Brimsek.

1951: Gordie Howe scored three goals in the final nine minutes of play to lead the Red Wings to an 8-2 win over Chicago at the Olympia. Howe also added an assist to break Herbie Cain's scoring record of 82 points for a season set in 1943-44.

1954: Toronto goalie Harry Lumley became the 4th NHL goaltender to record 250 career victories as the Maple Leafs won 3-1 over the visiting Montreal Canadiens.

1955: A riot erupted in the streets of Montreal, as fans protested NHL President Clarence Campell's suspension of Maurice Richard the day before. The Canadiens forfeited the game to the Red Wings after a smoke bomb went off.

1957: Alex Delvecchio scored his 100th career NHL goal as the Detroit Red Wings clinched the NHL regular season championship by defeating Montreal 2-1.

1959: John Wilson played in his 509th consecutive game to break the NHL record set by Murray Murdoch, when the Red Wings beat Chicago 2-0. Terry Sawchuk got the shutout.

1968: Boston scored three goals in the final three minutes of the game to beat Montreal 3-1 and clinch the Bruins' first playoff berth in nine years. The Bruins went on to make the playoffs for 29 straight years.

1974: Buffalo's Rick Martin scored his 6th career hat trick in a 5-2 win over the visiting Minnesota North Stars.

1979: Toronto's Darryl Sittler scored his 10th career hat trick and added an assist as the Maple Leafs won 6-4 over the Minnesota North Stars.

1982: Wayne Gretzky scored his 10th hat trick of the season and broke his own NHL record with his 109th and 110th assists of the season in Edmonton's 10-4 win over Pittsburgh. Gretzky ended the 1981-82 season with a new record of 120 assists.

1985: Edmonton's Wayne Gretzky picked up an assist to give him 1,100 career points. The milestone came in career game #464, as the Oilers lost 5-4 to the Kings at Los Angeles.

1986: Minnesota's Dino Ciccarelli scored his 10th career hat trick, including the winning goal at 4:35 of overtime to give him 200 career NHL goals, and added an assist as the North Stars won 6-5 against the visiting St. Louis Blues.....Michel Goulet scored four goals, including his 50th goal of the season for the fourth straight year. The milestone, along with two assists came in an 8-6 Quebec Nordiques win, at Montreal.

1987: Jari Kurri scored twice (including his 350th career goal -- and 50th of the season for the 4th straight year) and added an assist as the Oilers beat New Jersey 7-4 to extend their home undefeated streak against the Devils to 9 games (8-0-1).

1988: Detroit Red Wings had the night off, but when the Minnesota North Stars tied St. Louis 2-2, it clinched Detroit's first division championship since 1964-65, when the Red Wings finished first in the six team NHL.

1990: Minnesota rookie Mike Modano scored his first NHL hat trick to lead the North Stars to a 6-2 win over the Penguins, at Pittsburgh.....St. Louis' Adam Oates set new team record with his 74th assist & Brett Hull set a team mark with his 108th point, when the Blues lost 4-3 to Detroit. Bernie Federko had held both records, with 73 assists in 1980-81 and 107 points in 1983-84.....Los Angeles Kings scored three goals in the final five minutes of the game, to come from behind and beat the Bruins 5-4, for their first win at Boston Garden in nine years, ending their 13 game road winless streak (0-12-1) in Boston.....In a pre-game ceremony the Calgary Flames retired Lanny McDonald's uniform #9, to honor the team's former captain. The Flames then went out and extended their unbeaten streak to 8 straight games (7-0-1) with a 5-4 win over the Hartford Whalers.

1992: Joe Mullen scored his 400th NHL goal, and added two assists to lead the Penguins to a 6-5 win over Edmonton. Mullen became the first U.S. born player to score 400 NHL goals and the 39th NHL player to do so.

1993: New York Rangers acquired Esa Tikkanen from Edmonton, in exchange for Doug Weight.

1996: Toronto's Mike Gartner had two goals and an assist to lead the Maple Leafs to a 4-2 win over the visiting Vancouver Canucks. The two goals gave Gartner 30 for the year for the 16th time in his NHL career, extending his own NHL record.

1997: Buffalo's Rob Ray became the 4th player in NHL history to get 2,000 PIM with one team, when he reached the milestone in a 5-1 Sabres win against Boston.

1998: Steve Yzerman scored his 557th career goal, moving him ahead of John Bucyk for 13th place on the NHL list, and Norm Maracle got a win in his first NHL start as the Red Wings won 4-3 against the Edmonton Oilers, at Joe Louis Arena.

1999: Calgary's Phil Housley scored his 300th career NHL goal in the Flames' 3-1 loss at Chicago. Housley became the fourth defenseman in NHL history (along with Paul Coffey, Ray Bourque and Denis Potvin) to score 300 goals.....Pat Burns coached his 750th NHL game, Dmitri Khristich scored a goal and added an assist for his 500th NHL point and the Bruins scored three goals in the final 6:31 of play to win 4-1 at Toronto.

2001: Mats Sundin became the all-time NHL point leader amongst Swedish players with three points in the Maple Leafs 5-3 win against the Panthers at Florida. Sundin broke the record of 856 points held by Tomas Sandstrom.....Peter Bondra became just the second player in Washington Capitals' history to get 20 power play goals in a season, when he scored in a 3-2 loss to the visiting Buffalo Sabres. Bondra's power play goal tied the mark set by Dennis Maruk in 1981-82.