This day March 7 in hockey history features Scotty Bowman, Ken Dryden, Guy Lafleur , Wayne Gretzky, Brett Hull, Dino Ciccarelli and Mario Lemieux.
1921 – Ottawa’s Cy Denneny scored six goals in 12-5 win over the Hamilton Tigers. Cy’s brother Corb scored 6 goals for Toronto earlier in the season.
1951 – 18-year-old Scotty Bowman suffered a severe head injury while playing in a junior hockey game. The injury ended his playing career, but Bowman would become the NHL’s winningest coach.
1971 – Montreal Canadiens called up rookie goalie Ken Dryden from their farm club in the AHL. The rookie would win all 6 of his games, then lead the Canadiens to a surprise Stanley Cup championship in 1971.
1975 – Guy Lafleur scored twice and added two assists to become the first 100 point scorer in Montreal Canadiens history.
1981 – With 4 goals in Edmonton’s 5-3 win over Philadelphia, Wayne Gretzky became the first player in NHL history to get six career hat tricks before age 21. The four goals gave Gretzky 100 goals in his first 145 NHL games.
1988 – St. Louis Blues obtained right winger Brett Hull and Steve Bozek from Calgary, in exchange for defenseman Rob Ramage and goaltender Rick Wamsley. Hull would become a superstar in St. Louis.
1989 – Minnesota North Stars traded all time leading scorer Dino Ciccarelli and Bob Rouse to Washington in exchange for Mike Gartner and Larry Murphy.
1989 – Mario Lemieux set a new Penguins’ record with his 11th shorthanded goal of the season. It came on a penalty shot against Kelly Hrudey at Los Angeles.
1992 – In 5-3 loss to Los Angeles, Pittsburgh Penguins’ Kevin Stevens became the first player in NHL history to get 100 points and 200 penalty minutes in the same season.
1994: Boston’s Cam Neely scores his 49th and 50th goals in his 44th game of the season, tying Mario Lemieux as the third-fastest player in NHL history to reach the 50-goal mark. Neely gets No. 49 at 6:16 of the first period during a Boston power play, then scores No. 50 by beating goalie Don Beaupre at 11:03 of the third. Neely also has an assist in a 6-3 win against the Washington Capitals.
2017: Joe Thornton of the San Jose Sharks becomes the 13th player in NHL history to have 1,000 assists. The milestone assist comes when he sets up Joe Pavelski for an empty-net goal that proves to be the game-winner in San Jose’s 3-2 victory against the Winnipeg Jets at MTS Centre.
2018: Sidney Crosby has three assists for the Pittsburgh Penguins in a 5-2 victory against the Flyers at Wells Fargo Center to become the 62nd player in NHL history with 1,100 points. He is the second player to reach the milestone in less than a month; Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals gets point No. 1,100 on Feb. 15. But Crosby gets to 1,100 points in 850 games, faster than all but 12 players in NHL history.
