Dec. 13 NHL History
1958: Gordie Howe of the Detroit Red Wings scores his 400th NHL goal in a 2-2 tie against the Montreal Canadiens at the Forum. Howe beats goaltender Jacques Plante at 9:46 of the third period for the tying goal, joining Montreal’s Maurice Richard as the only players in NHL history to reach 400.
Wayne Gretzky has his own personal hat trick on this date.
1983: Gretzky scores his 300th NHL goal in the Edmonton Oilers’ 8-5 loss to the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum. He reaches the milestone by scoring during a power play late at 18:07 of third period in his 350th game.
1985: In a 6-3 road victory against the Winnipeg Jets, Gretzky scores twice and has two assists. The four-point night gives him 1,200 points, an average of nearly 2.4 points in his 504 NHL games.
1989: Gretzky sets up Luc Robitaille’s third-period goal in the Los Angeles Kings’ 5-2 win against the Hartford Whalers at the Civic Center to extend his assist streak to 17 games, a Kings record. He has 35 assists during the streak, more than two per game.
1992: After 67 years and 535 games against Montreal, the New York Rangers finally hit double figures in goals when they defeat the Canadiens 10-5 at Madison Square Garden. New York’s Doug Weight and Sergei Nemchinov each score twice against goaltender Andre Racicot, and rookie Alexei Kovalev has a goal and three assists.
1995: Paul Coffey of the Detroit Red Wings becomes the first defenseman to get 1,000 assists in his NHL career when he sets up Igor Larionov’s first-period goal in a 3-1 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks at Joe Louis Arena. Coffey joins Gretzky, Howe and Marcel Dionne as the only NHL players with 1,000 assists.
2006: The Anaheim Ducks set an NHL record for the best road record through the first 15 games of a season when they defeat the Atlanta Thrashers 2-1 at Phillips Arena. Teemu Selanne scores twice for the Ducks, whose 12-1-2 record (26 points) away from home is the best in League history, surpassing the mark of 10-0-5 (25 points) set by the 1951-52 Red Wings.
2014: Washington Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom gets his first regular-season NHL hat trick in a 4-2 win against the Tampa Bay Lighting at Verizon Center. The natural hat trick comes after Backstrom has three or more assists in 27 NHL games.
2015: Patrick Kane of the Blackhawks extends his point streak to 26 games with an assist in a 4-0 victory against the Vancouver Canucks at United Center. It’s the longest streak in NHL history by a U.S.-born player and the longest by any NHL player since Mats Sundin of the Quebec Nordiques has points in 30 straight games during the 1992-93 season.
