This Day in Hockey History

1937 - The First Playoff Penalty Shot

In a playoff game between the Montreal Maroons and the Boston Bruins on March 25th, 1937, Maroons forward Lionel Conacher was awarded a penalty shot. Conacher skated in all alone on Boston Bruins netminder Tiny Thompson and was turned away in the first playoff penalty shot in NHL history.

Thompson was unbeatable that night, as the Bruins goaltender shutout the Canadiens 4-0. The Maroons, however, would win the series before falling to the New York Rangers in the semifinal round.

1962 - Hull joins the 50 goal club

Bobby Hull never had much help with the Chicago Blackhawks, who were usually the sixth best of the original six NHL teams. But it didn't stop him from scoring prolifically.

On March 25th, 1962, Hull scored Chicago's only goal in a 4-1 loss to the New York Rangers. That goal, however, was a milestone tally - it was Hull's 50th goal of the season.

At the time, Hull was just the third NHL skater in history to hit 50 goals in a season, following in the footsteps of Bernie Geoffrion and Maurice "Rocket" Richard.

1995 - Scotty Bowman wins 900th career game 

During the lockout shortened 1994-95 NHL season, the Detroit Red Wings faced the Vancouver Canucks four times, and three times in March of that year. The fourth meeting of the season occurred on March 25th, and the Red Wings scored a 2-1 victory thanks to goals from Keith Primeau and Sergei Fedorov, along with some sparkling play in goal by netminder Mike Vernon.

This wasn't just any win, however, for a Red Wings team that would go on to win back-to-back Stanley Cup trophies two seasons hence. This was the 900th win of Scotty Bowman's coaching career, making him the first (and still only) coach to win that number of games.

After the contest Bowman played down his historic accomplishment, describing it as "something that I'll probably enjoy later on." Added the humble hockey legend: "A lot of players I've been with are actually in the Hall of Fame. And they didn't get in there because of my coaching. They got in there because they're great players."

Bowman would go on to win 344 additional contests before retiring from the coaching ranks. He finished his career with 1,244 career head coaching wins, which puts him first all-time by a wide margin (Al Arbour is second, with 462 fewer head coaching victories).

Birthdays

1927 - Bill Barilko
1949 - Jean Potvin
1964 - Ken Wregget
1970 - Shawn Antoski
1973 - Andrei Nikolishin