Oct. 26: Gretzky becomes first NHL player with 2,000 points

THIS DATE IN HISTORY: Oct. 26
It's a milestone day for two of the NHL's all-time greats:

1990:
Wayne Gretzky
becomes the first player in NHL history to reach 2,000 career points. He gets
point No. 2,000 with an assist
in the Los Angeles Kings' 6-2 road loss to the Winnipeg Jets. The assist gives Gretzky 684 goals and 1,316 assists in 857 NHL games.

1995:
Mario Lemieux
of the Pittsburgh Penguins scores three times to become the
20th player in NHL history to score 500 career goals
. The milestone comes in his 605th game, a 7-5 victory against the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum. Lemieux reaches 500 goals faster than anyone except Gretzky.
MORE MOMENTS
1978:
Mario Lessard
of the Kings becomes the 14th goalie to
earn a shutout in his first NHL game
. Lessard's teammates give him plenty of help in a 6-0 victory against the Buffalo Sabres at the Forum in Inglewood, California.
1989:
Sergei Mylnikov
becomes the first goalie from the Soviet Union to play in an NHL game. Mylnikov, the starting goalie for the Soviet Union in two of the three games at the 1987 Canada Cup, makes 31 saves for the Quebec Nordiques in a
4-2 loss to the Boston Bruins
at Boston Garden.
1992:
Mike Gartner
passes
Maurice Richard
for
ninth place on the NHL's all-time goal-scoring list
. Gartner scores the 544th and 545th goals of his career to help the New York Rangers defeat the Philadelphia Flyers 8-4 at Madison Square Garden. Richard is the NHL's all-time goal-scoring leader with 544 goals when he retires in 1960.

1997:Gretzky has two assists in the Rangers' 3-3 tie with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim at Madison Square Garden. They are the 1,850th and 1,851st of his career and give
Gretzky more assists than any other player in NHL history has points.
He passes
Gordie Howe
's career point total of 1,850.
On the same night,
Steve Yzerman
of the Detroit Red Wings passes
Alex Delvecchio
as the
longest-serving captain in NHL history
(11 years, 12 games). Yzerman and the Red Wings then defeat the Vancouver Canucks 5-1 to improve their road record since the start of the season to 6-0-0.
2002:The St. Louis Blues become the first team in NHL history to
win four consecutive games with four different goalies
when
Fred Brathwaite
makes 18 saves in a 4-3 overtime win at the Calgary Flames.

2006:The Buffalo Sabres tie the NHL record for the best start to a season by
winning their 10th straight game
, defeating the Islanders 3-0 at Nassau Coliseum. Ryan Miller makes 29 saves for the shutout. The Sabres match the 10-0-0 start by the 1993-94 Toronto Maple Leafs. The win comes 31 years to the day that the Sabres
defeat the California Golden Seals 3-2
at Memorial Auditorium for their eighth consecutive victory, setting the mark later broken by the Maple Leafs.
2017: Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning extend their season-opening point streaks to 11 games when Kucherov scores a goal and assists on one by Stamkos in Tampa Bay's
3-2 win against the Red Wings
at Amalie Arena. Kucherov has 19 points (12 goals, seven assists) and Stamkos has 21 (four goals, 17 assists) during the streak. It marks the seventh time in NHL history that two teammates begin a season with simultaneous point streaks of at least 11 games.
2019:Bryan Little scores at 3:04 of overtime to give the Winnipeg Jets a
2-1 win
against the Calgary Flames in the 2019 NHL Heritage Classic at Mosaic Stadium in Regina, Saskatchewan. Little taps in a pass by Kyle Connor for the win after Winnipeg defenseman Josh Morrissey ties the game 1-1 by scoring a power-play goal with 4:11 remaining in the third period, matching a power-play goal by Calgary's Elias Lindholm at 14:47 of the second. It's the first outdoor game in Canada to be played at a neutral site and draws a full house of 33,518.