Today in NHL History, April 3rd

1930: Montreal beat Boston 4-3 at the Forum, to win the 1930 Stanley Cup Championship in two straight games. For the defending Cup champ Bruins, who had the best regular season record (38-5-1), it marked their first back-to-back losses of the year.

1934: John Muckler born in Midland, Ontario. Muckler coached in the NHL with Minnesota, Edmonton, Buffalo,and the NY Rangers. He also served as the G.M. of Buffalo and Ottawa.

1937: New York Rangers' Dave Kerr got his second straight playoff shutout over the Montreal Maroons, a 4-0 win in the second and deciding game of their Stanley Cup Semi-Final series. Neil Colville had two goals and an assist in the game.

1939: Former NHL defenseman Darryl Sly born in Collingwood, Ont. Sly played in the NHL 1965-66 through 1970-71 with Toronto, Minnesota and Vancouver.

1945: Carl Liscombe scored four goals for the Red Wings in a 5-3 playoff win over Boston, in Game Seven of the Semi-Finals in Detroit. With the win, the Red Wings advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals vs Toronto.

1966: Toronto used three goalies in a game (for the first time in NHL history) in a 3-3 tie against Detroit. Johnny Bower played the 1st, Terry Sawchuk the second & Bruce Gamble the 3rd. Bower also took Punch Imlach's place as coach in the last period.....In the final game of the 1965-66 season, Chicago's Bobby Hull picked up an assist (during a 4-2 loss at Boston) to give him 97 points, the most ever by a player in one season. Hull broke Dickie Moore's NHL record of 96 points set in 1958-59.

1971: Gordie Howe scored his final goal as a member of the Detroit Red Wings, in a 4-1 win over Chicago. His 25 years of regular season play with Detroit included 786 goals, 1,023 assists, for 1,809 points.

1976: Darryl Sittler became the first 100 point scorer in Toronto Maple Leafs' history, when he picked up an assist in a 4-2 loss to the Bruins, in Toronto.

1977: Guy Lafleur extended his NHL-record point scoring streak to 28 games as Montreal won 2-1 at Washington. Lafleur scored 19 goals, 42 assists for a total of 61 points during the 28 game streak. Gretzky later broke the record with a 51 game streak.....Montreal's Steve Shutt set an NHL record for most goals in a season by a left-winger, when he scored his 60th of the season and added an assist, in a 2-1 win at Washington. With the win Montreal finished the season with a record of 60-8-12 and 132 points, an NHL record. The Canadiens became the first NHL team to win 60 games in a season, and set another NHL record with their 27th road victory.

1982: Buffalo's Gilbert Perreault scored a goal and added two assists to become the 16th player in NHL history to score 1,000 career points, as the Sabres won 5-4 at Montreal. Perreault also became the first Sabre to reach the 1,000 point plateau.....New York Islanders concluded their regular season home schedule with a record-tying 21-0-2 home undefeated streak as they beat Philadelphia 6-3. Bryan Trottier became the second player in team history to score 50 goals in a season.

1985: Toronto's Bill Derlago scored his fourth (and final) career hat trick and added two assists, as the Maple Leafs lost 9-7 to the North Stars, at Minnesota.

1988: Calgary's Gary Suter extended his team-record point scoring streak to 16 straight games in the Flames' 4-1 win over the visiting Minnesota North Stars. Suter scored 8 goals, 17 assists for a total of 25 points during the 16 game streak.....The Devils made the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since their move to N.J. in 1982, when John MacLean scored at 2:21 of overtime for a 4-3 win at Chicago, in the final game of the 1987-88 regular season.....Mario Lemieux became the fourth player in NHL history to score 70 goals in a season, as he led the Penguins to a 4-2 win over the Hartford Whalers. He was preceeded by Phil Esposito, Wayne Gretzky, and Jari Kurri.

1993: Mario Lemieux became just the second player in NHL history to score a goal against 22 teams in one season, when he connected for the Penguins in a 5-3 win over the Nordiques, in Quebec City.....Ottawa Senators lost 7-3 to the Whalers at Hartford, to set an NHL record with their 38th consecutive loss on the road, breaking the the mark of 37 set by the Washington Capitals in the 1974-75 season.

1997: Wayne Gretzky notched his 2,700th career NHL point with a goal in the Rangers' 5-4 win over Boston. The point gave Gretzy a lead of 850 points over Gordie Howe in NHL career scoring.

1998: Phoenix' Teppo Numminen had a goal and three assists (in a 6-3 Coyotes' win over the visiting Mighty Ducks of Anaheim) to become the franchise's all-time leading scorer among defensemen. Numminen moved ahead of Fredrik Olausson (335 points).

1999: Jacques Demers coached his 1,000th career NHL game, as the Tampa Bay Lightning won 4-3 against the visiting Washington Capitals.

2000: Brett Hull scored his 610th career goal to tie his father, Bobby, for 9th place on the NHL career list in the Stars 2-2 tie against the visiting Calgary Flames.....Nashville's Cliff Ronning set a team record for most goals in a season, when he picked up his 26th of the year in a 3-1 Predators' loss at Anaheim. Ronning broke the record of 25 goals set by Sergei Krviokrasov in 1998-99.

2001: Ron Tugnutt tied a modern NHL record for most victories by an expansion team goaltender, with his 21st win of the season, when the Columbus Blue Jackets beat the visiting Detroit Red Wings 2-1.....New Jersey's Martin Brodeur picked up his 40th win of the season with a 6-4 victory against the Capitals at Washington, to join Jacques Plante and Terry Sawchuk as the only goaltenders in NHL history to post three 40-win seasons.

2002: Lindy Ruff became the Buffalo Sabres' all-time leader in games coached, when he was behind the bench for game #405, a 1-1 tie against the visiting New York Islanders. He broke the mark of 404 games coached, set by Scotty Bowman.

2004: Toronto Maple Leafs became just the second team in NHL history to end a season with two straight shutouts, as Ed Belfour recorded his 10th of the year (and 75th of his career) in a 6-0 win at Ottawa.