March 8: Syd Howe becomes NHL career scoring leader

THIS DATE IN HISTORY: March 8
1945:
Syd Howe
of the Detroit Red Wings passes
Nels Stewart
to become the NHL all-time leading scorer
.

Howe gets the 516th point of his NHL career when he has an assist in Detroit's
7-3 victory against the New York Rangers
at Olympia Stadium. That's one more than Stewart, who has 515 when he ends his career after the 1939-40 season.
Howe gets one more point in 1944-45 and 11 in 1945-46 before retiring from the League.
Bill Cowley
of the Boston Bruins surpasses his mark of 527 points on Feb. 12, 1947.
MORE MOMENTS
1937:
Howie Morenz
,
the first great NHL star of the Montreal Canadiens
, dies from an untreated blood clot less than six weeks after a fractured leg abruptly ends his career. Morenz, 35, is hospitalized after breaking four bones in his left leg and ankle in a game against the Chicago Blackhawks on Jan. 28. He is hospitalized and told he will never play hockey again. Thousands of fans file past Morenz's body, which lays in state at center ice at the Forum, and as many as 200,000 people line the streets of Montreal to watch the funeral procession.

1953:The Detroit Red Wings become the first team in NHL history to win five consecutive regular-season championships by
defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-1
at Olympia Stadium.
Marcel Bonin
has a goal and an assist for Detroit.
1975:
Ron Stackhouse
of the Pittsburgh Penguins becomes the fourth defenseman in NHL history to get six assists in a game. They come in an
8-2 win against the Philadelphia Flyers
at the Civic Arena. Stackhouse joins
Babe Pratt
,
Pat Stapleton
and
Bobby Orr
.
1977: Orr announces he will not be able to play for the remainder of the 1976-77 season because of knee problems. But Orr, in his first season with Chicago, also says he's not contemplating retirement. He finishes with 23 points (four goals, 19 assists) in his first season with the Blackhawks. After sitting out 1977-78, Orr returns to play six games in 1978-79 before retiring.
1978:
Guy Lafleur
reaches the 50-goal mark for the fourth straight season when he scores twice in the third period for the Canadiens in a
4-3 win against the Washington Capitals
at the Montreal Forum. Lafleur ties the game 3-3 at 8:21, then scores No. 50 at 13:28, putting Montreal ahead to stay and preventing the Capitals from defeating the Canadiens for the first time since entering the NHL in 1974.
1983:
Ray Bourque
joins Orr as the only defensemen in Bruins history to score three goals in a game. Bourque does it when he scores three times in a span of 9:58 during the second period of an
11-5 road victory against the Quebec Nordiques
. The third goal comes when his power-play shot from the point beats goalie
Daniel Bouchard
at 12:32. It's the only hat trick of Bourque's Hall of Fame career.
1987:
Mike Bossy
of the New York Islanders scores three goals for the 39th and final hat trick of his NHL career. The three goals come in a
6-5 win at Chicago Stadium
. It's the 100th hat trick in Islanders history. Bossy retires after the season at age 30 because of back problems.
On the same night, Mike Keenan becomes the first coach in NHL history to win 40 games in each of his first three seasons. Win No. 40 in 1986-87 comes when the Flyers
defeat the New Jersey Devils 7-3
at the Spectrum.
1991:
Dale Hawerchuk
becomes the 31st player in NHL history to have 1,000 points. The milestone comes when he scores a power-play goal at 6:27 of the second period for the Buffalo Sabres in a
5-3 loss to the Blackhawks
at Memorial Auditorium.
1997:
Mario Lemieux
of the Penguins becomes the first player to get 100 points during the 1996-97 season when he has an assist in a
3-2 overtime win against the visiting Flyers
. He reaches 100 points for the 10th time in his NHL career.
2003:
Martin Brodeur
of the New Jersey Devils makes 28 saves in a
4-2 win against the Islanders
at Nassau Coliseum to reach 35 wins for the seventh straight season. At the time, no other goalie has more than three consecutive 35-win seasons.
2018:Andrei Vasilevskiy becomes the first goalie in 2017-18 to have 40 wins when he makes 27 saves in a
5-3 victory
against the New York Rangers at Amalie Arena. Vasilevskiy joins Ben Bishop (2014-15) as the only goalies in Lightning history to reach 40 wins; he finishes the season with 44, tying Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets for the NHL lead.

2019:Aleksander Barkov has the first five-assist game in Florida Panthers history when he sets up five goals in a
6-2 win against the Minnesota Wild
at BB&T Center. It's the first five-point game of Barkov's career, and he becomes the fifth player in Panthers history to have five points in a game.