Today in NHL History, March 21st

1885: Hockey Hall of Famer Billy Gilmour born in Ottawa.

1921: More than 11,000 fans jammed the Vancouver Arena for the first game of the Stanley Cup series as the Millionaires beat the Ottawa Senators 2-1. At the time, it was the largest crowd ever to watch a hockey game.

1929: Butch Keeling scored at 25:50 as the NY Rangers beat the NY Americans 1-0, to win their two-game, total-goal Stanley Cup playoff series, 1-0. (The first game ended in a 0-0 tie). John Roach recorded his second straight shutout for the Rangers.

1931: Cooney Weiland scored all three Boston goals in a 3-1 win against the Montreal Maroons, at Boston Garden.....Toronto's Ace Bailey scored four goals in the third period as the Maple Leafs beat the Senators 9-6 at Ottawa. Charlie Conacher added his second consecutive hat trick in the win, as Toronto came back after trailing 6-3 in the third period.

1937: Bill Cowley had four assists as the Bruins won 6-1 over Chicago. The "Kraut Line" of Milt Schmidt, Woody Dumart and Bobby Bauer played together for the first time in the NHL, and Bauer scored his first NHL goal.

1939: Montreal's Claude Bourque became the third rookie goalie in NHL history to get a shutout in his first career Stanley Cup playoff game, a 2-0 Canadiens' win over the Detroit Red Wings, at the Forum in Montreal.

1944: Toronto goalie Paul Bibeault made 60 saves in the Maple Leafs' 3-1 win over the Canadiens, at Montreal in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Semi-Finals.

1948: Montreal's Elmer Lach scored twice in the final game of the season to win the Art Ross Trophy by one point over the Rangers' Buddy O'Connor. But the 4-3 loss at Boston kept the Canadiens out of the playoffs for the first time since 1940.....Playing in the final regular season game of his NHL career, Syl Apps scored three times to become the second player in franchise history to score 200 goals as a member of the Maple Leafs. The milestone came in a 5-2 win at Detroit.

1954: Detroit's Gordie Howe became the first player in NHL history to lead the league in scoring four straight years, when had a goal and two assists in the final game of season, a 6-1 win over Toronto.

1970: Minnesota's Charlie Burns became the final player/coach to score a goal in a regular season NHL game, when he tallied once in a 5-4 North Stars' win against the the visiting Boston Bruins.....Claude Provost became just the second player in Montreal history to appear in 1,000 games with the Canadiens. The milestone came in a 2-0 win over the visiting Philadelphia Flyers. Rogie Vachon recorded his 11th career shutout in the game.

1971: Bill Goldsworthy set a North Stars' record with four goals in Minnesota's 6-3 win at Vancouver. It was Goldsworthy's third career hat trick.

1973: Defenseman Ab DeMarco scored a goal and added three assists to lead the Blues to a 6-3 win over the Red Wings in St. Louis.

1974: Bobby Orr scored his 5th career hat trick to give him 30 goals on the year. Prior to the game, Orr promised a 16-year-old boy, gravely ill with a rare disease, that he would score a goal for him. Bruins went on to beat St. Louis 7-0 in Boston.

1975: Atlanta Flames set a team record for most goals in a game, in a 12-4 win over the visiting Vancouver Canucks. Keith McCreary led the scoring with four goals (including his second career hat trick) and an assist.

1976: Buffalo Sabres' goalie Al Smith set a team record for fewest saves in a complete game, with just seven, in a 3-1 win over the Kansas City Scouts, at the Aud.

1979: Minnesota's Mike Fidler and rookie Steve Payne each scored their first career hat tricks in the North Stars' 7-3 win against Philadelphia at the Met Center.

1982: Mike Bossy broke Guy Lafleur's NHL record of 136 points by a right wing in one season by scoring his 58th goal and 137th point of the season, in a 3-2 Islanders' win at Washington.....Ilkka Sinisalo scored the 4,000th goal in Philadelphia Flyers' history, during a 5-3 win over the Hartford Whalers, at the Spectrum.

1985: Washington's Bobby Carpenter became the first U.S. born player in NHL history to score 50 goals in a season; the milestone came in a 3-2 loss at Montreal.

1987: Montreal's Bobby Smith scored a goal and added four assists to lead the Canadiens to a 9-4 win against the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs.

1988: Calgary's Joe Mullen scored twice to become the first U.S. player to get 250 career goals, and the Flames extended their team-record road undefeated streak to 9 straight games (6-0-3) with a 3-3 tie at Montreal.

1989: Calgary's Joe Nieuwendyk scored his 50th goal of the season as the Flames beat the Islanders, 4-1. Nieuwendyk became the third player in NHL history (with Gretzky and Bossy) to score 50 goals in each of his first two NHL seasons.....Lanny McDonald scored his 500th career goal to lead the Flames to a 4-1 victory over the New York Islanders in Calgary. The 36-year-old veteran became the 14th player in NHL history to get 500 goals.

1990: Brett Hull became the sixth player in NHL history to score 70 goals in a season, as the Blues lost 8-6 at Edmonton.....NY Rangers used nine rookies in a 5-5 tie against Toronto. First year players were Darren Turcotte, Troy Mallette, Mark Janssens, Miloslav Horava, Paul Broten, Jeff Bloemberg, Kevin Miller, Rick Bennett, and ...Mike Richter.

1991: Boston's Ray Bourque set an NHL record by taking 19 shots during a 3-3 tie against the visiting Nordiques as the Bruins extended their home undefeated streak against Quebec to 15 straight games (12-0-3). Also, Quebec's Ron Tugnutt stopped 70 Bruins shots (including 12 in overtime), The Bruins' 73 shots were 10 short of the NHL record set by Boston in a 1941 game against Chicago.

1992: Vancouver Canucks clinched the 1992 Smythe Division Championship, with a 2-2 tie against the Winnipeg Jets, at the Pacific Coliseum.

1993: Don Beaupre became the first goaltender in team history to record 100 wins as a member of the Capitals. The milestone came in a 5-3 win over the visiting San Jose Sharks. Defenseman Kevin Hatcher led the scoring with a goal and 3 assists.

1994: Boston Bruins traded Joe Juneau to the Washington Capitals in exchange for Al Iafrate, in one of 18 deals (involving 35 players) made prior to the 1994 NHL trading deadline.....Florida Panthers set an NHL record for most points by an expansion team, when their 3-3 against New Jersey gave them 74 points for the 1993-94 NHL season. They broke the record of 73 set by Philadelphia in 1967-68.

1996: Rick Tocchet scored his 14th career hat trick as the Bruins extended their home winning streak against Ottawa to 11 straight games with a 3-1 win over the Senators. Adam Oates had three assists in the game to give him 900 career NHL points.

1998: Pittsburgh became the 10th NHL franchise to win 1,000 games and Ron Francis became the 7th NHL player to get 1,000 career assists, when the Penguins won 4-3 over the visiting Philadelphia Flyers.

2001: Martin Brodeur recorded his 50th career shutout (and his 8th of the season) as the Devils stretched their unbeaten streak against the Rangers to 23 games (15-0-8 since 1997) with a 4-0 win over visiting New York.

2002: Martin Brodeur tied an NHL record with his 7th straight 30-win season, when New Jersey won 4-3 against the Predators at Nashville. Brodeur joined Tony Esposito and Ken Dryden as the only goalies to win 30 games seven straight years.

2004: Brett Hull scored his 25th goal of the season for the 16th time in his career and added an assist in the Red Wings 8-6 loss to the Mighty Ducks at Anaheim.