Dec. 20 NHL History
1938: Boston Bruins rookie Frank Brimsek gets his third straight shutout and sixth in seven games in a 3-0 victory against the New York Americans at Boston Garden. The win gives Brimsek six shutouts in his first eight NHL games.
1950: Turk Broda of the Toronto Maple Leafs becomes the first NHL goaltender to reach 300 career victories. The milestone comes when Toronto defeats the Canadiens 6-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens.
1964: Bobby Hull scores in the Chicago Blackhawks’ 3-2 victory against the Bruins, giving him 28 goals in 28 games. Hull goes on to score 32 goals in Chicago’s first 35 games of the 1964-65 season, but injuries limit him to 39 goals in 61 games.
1969: Bobby Orr has five assists to lead the Bruins to a 6-4 road victory against the Pittsburgh Penguins. He assists on each of Boston’s last five goals, including two by Johnny Bucyk. Orr goes on to become the first defenseman to lead the NHL in scoring.
Three Hockey Hall of Famers who played for the Montreal Canadiens reach significant milestones exactly 10 years apart.
1973: Center Henri Richard becomes the ninth player in NHL history to reach 1,000 career points. It comes when he sets up a second-period goal by Jim Roberts in a 2-2 tie with the Buffalo Sabres at Memorial Auditorium.
1983: Guy Lafleur scores his 500th NHL goal and Steve Shutt gets his 400th during a 6-0 victory against the New Jersey Devils in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Shutt scores No. 400 at 3:55 of the second period when he takes a pass from Ryan Walter and beats goaltender Glenn Resch. Lafleur scores his 500th at 8:34 of the third, beating Resch with a rising 30-footer.
1981: Doug Smail of the Winnipeg Jets sets an NHL record for the fastest goal from the start of a game when he scores five seconds after the opening faceoff against the St. Louis Blues. Smail’s 15-foot wrist shot beats goaltender Paul Skidmore, who is making his NHL debut. Smail also scores the go-ahead goal in the third period to help the Jets to a 5-4 victory at Winnipeg Arena.
1985: Denis Potvin of the New York Islanders becomes the NHL’s all-time scoring leader among defensemen. Potvin gets his 916th career point, breaking a tie with Orr, with a first-period assist in a 2-2 tie against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
On the same night, Jari Kurri scores four times and Wayne Gretzky has six assists in the Edmonton Oilers’ 9-4 victory against the Los Angeles Kings at Northlands Coliseum.
1986: The Kings rally from a four-goal deficit in the final 9:14 of the third period to earn an 8-8 tie with the Oilers in Edmonton. Bernie Nicholls gets the tying goal with 34 seconds remaining and goalie Darren Eliot on the bench for a sixth attacker.
2007: Marian Gaborik of the Minnesota Wild becomes the first NHL player in nearly 11 years to score five goals in a game. Gaborik’s five-goal performance in a 6-3 win against the Rangers at Xcel Energy Center is the first since Sergei Fedorov of the Detroit Red Wings does it against the Washington Capitals on Dec. 26, 1996.
