Nov. 4: Gretzky gets 1,000th assist

THIS DATE IN HISTORY: Nov. 4
1987:
Wayne Gretzky
beats
Marcel Dionne
to the 1,000-assist mark, and he does it in person.

Gretzky and Dionne enter the New York Rangers' game against the Edmonton Oilers with 998 assists each. But Gretzky gets to the milestone with
two assists
(in addition to a hat trick) in Edmonton's 7-2 victory at Northlands Coliseum. Assist No. 1,000 comes in his 645th NHL game.
Dionne has one assist, his 999th. He gets No. 1,000 three nights later against his former team, the Los Angeles Kings.

MORE MOMENTS
1962:
Bill Gadsby
, playing his 17th NHL season, becomes the first defenseman in League history to have 500 points in his career. The milestone comes when he's credited with a
third-period assist
in the Detroit Red Wings' 3-1 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks at Olympia Stadium.
1977:
Phil Esposito
becomes the third player in NHL history to score 600 goals. He joins
Gordie Howe
and
Bobby Hull
when he scores a
power-play goal
during the first period of the New York Rangers' 5-1 victory against the Vancouver Canucks at Pacific Coliseum.
1998:
Mike Vernon
makes 21 saves to help the San Jose Sharks defeat the visiting Dallas Stars 4-0. The Sharks
score their four goals on nine shots
, the fewest by a winning team since shots on goal become a statistic in the 1955-56 season.
2003:
Mark Messier
becomes the No. 2 scorer in NHL history by
scoring two goals
in the Rangers' 3-0 victory against the Stars at Madison Square Garden. Messier (1,851 points) passes Howe and moves into second place behind Gretzky.

2014:Alex Ovechkin becomes the all-time leading scorer in the history of the Washington Capitals. He breaks a tie with the former record holder,
Peter Bondra
, with the first of his
two assists
in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Calgary Flames at Verizon Center. His 827 points are two more than Bondra has in his 14 seasons with Washington.
2016: The Columbus Blue Jackets hit double figures in goals for the first time since joining the NHL in 2000 when they
defeat the Montreal Canadiens 10-0
at Nationwide Arena. Cam Atkinson, Nick Foligno and
Scott Hartnell
each score twice for Columbus. The Canadiens lose 10-0 for the fourth time in their history and tie their largest margin of defeat.

2017: Andrew Cogliano of the Anaheim Ducks becomes the fourth player in NHL history to play in 800 consecutive games at any point in his career and the second to do so beginning with his League debut, joining
Doug Jarvis
, the all-time record-holder with 964. His streak ends at 830 when he sits out Anaheim's games on Jan. 15 and Jan. 17 after being suspended for two games.
2018:Cam Fowler completes his first NHL hat trick by scoring 36 seconds into overtime to give the Anaheim Ducks a
3-2 win against the Blue Jackets
at Honda Center. Fowler becomes the seventh defenseman in NHL history to have a regular-season hat trick that includes an overtime goal and the third to do so for the Ducks, joining
Lubomir Visnovsky
(March 4, 2011) and Hampus Lindholm (Dec. 21, 2017).
2019: Brad Marchand has his second five-point game of the season, scoring two goals and assisting on three others for the Boston Bruins in a
6-4 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins
at TD Garden. He's the first player for the Bruins since they enter the NHL in 1924 to have two five-point games in the first 14 games of a season.