This Day in Hockey History
1899 - Montreal Shamrocks win second Stanley Cup
At the turn of the 19th century the Montreal Shamrocks emerged as a hockey juggernaut and won three-straight "Stanley Cup Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup" trophies from 1899 to 1900.
The second of those trophies was won 150 years ago today - on March 14th, 1899. On that day the Shamrocks dusted off Queen's University with a 6-2 victory to win the Cup.
Team captain Harry Judah Trihey had the game winning goal on that day - he's posing with the trophy in the middle of the front row in the below photo:
[Courtesy Hockeygods.com]
That photo is particularly notable because it's pretty much the only time in known history that the Stanley Cup - the small trophy on the right - was less impressive than any other trophy, really, much less another trophy in the same photograph (the trophy on the left is the Canadian Amateur Hockey League trophy)
1962 - Gordie Howe scores his 500th goal
On this particular day 52 years ago, Detroit Red Wings forward Gordie "Mr. Hockey" Howe put a puck past New York Rangers netminder "Gump" Worsley during a 3-2 Red Wings loss in Manhattan.
It was Howe's 500th career NHL goal, a massive milestone. At the time, Howe was only the second player in history to surpass 500 goals (Maurice Richard was the first).
[Courtesy Faceoff.com]
[Courtesy thehockeywriters.com]
40 players have joined the still fairly exclusive "500 goal club" in the 52 years since Howe scored his 500th goal. But the man they call Mr. Hockey added another 301 goals before his retirement in 1980 and sits comfortably in second place on the NHL's all-time goal scoring leaderboard.
1986 - Paul Coffey's 8 point game
It's hard to imagine a defenseman managing eight points in a single contest, especially now that goaltenders save better than 91 percent of the shots they face. But it happened in 1986 when Edmonton Oilers defender Paul Coffey managed eight points in a blowout victory over the Detroit Red Wings.
Curious to see what that would look like? This 12 minute video has extended highlights from that game, including every single Coffey point:
Coffey's eight points by a defenseman remain an NHL record, one that he shares with Tom Bladon.
The 1985-86 season was record-filled for Coffey, as he also set the all-time mark for most shorthanded goals by a defenseman that year (9 shorties, which is pretty nuts), and the record for most total goals by a defenseman in a single season (48, also insane).
Birthdays
1944 - Vaclav Nedomansky
1974 - Patrick Traverse
1993 - J.T. Miller