April 6: Howe scores in final NHL game

THIS DATE IN HISTORY: April 6
1980: In his 1,767th and final regular-season game, 52-year-old
Gordie Howe
of the Hartford Whalers scores his 801st NHL goal, a backhand shot past Detroit Red Wings goalie
Rogie Vachon
. The
Whalers win 5-3
at the Hartford Civic Center to end their first season in the NHL.

Howe's 15th goal of the season comes 11:25 into the second period, with
Ray Allison
and
Gordie Roberts
(a Detroit native who's named after the longtime Red Wings star) earning assists. Howe also earns his 1,049th and final NHL assist when he sets up Allison's first-period goal.
It's a bit of poetic justice that Howe scores his final NHL goal against Vachon. On Feb. 18, 1967, in his NHL debut with the Montreal Canadiens at the Forum, Vachon stops Howe, then a member of the Red Wings, on a breakaway for his first save.

MORE MOMENTS:
1926:
Clint Benedict
helps the Montreal Maroons win their first Stanley Cup championship with his third shutout of the Final, a
2-0 win against the Western Hockey League's Victoria Cougars
.
Nels Stewart
scores twice and finishes with six goals in four games for the Maroons, who win the best-of-5 series 3-1. The
Stanley Cup
is awarded for the final time before the NHL takes control of the trophy beginning in the 1926-27 season.
1945:
Frank McCool
of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit's
Harry Lumley
become the first rookie goalies to face each other in the Stanley Cup Final. The
Maple Leafs defeat the Red Wings 1-0
in the first of three straight shutouts for McCool.
1969:
Johnny Bower
(44 years, 4 months, 28 days) becomes the oldest goalie to appear in a postseason game when he plays for Toronto in a
3-2 loss to the Boston Bruins
at Maple Leaf Gardens.

1974:
Denis Potvin
of the New York Islanders scores a goal and has three assists in the final game of the season to set NHL records for most goals (17), assists (54) and points (71) by a rookie defenseman. The Islanders
defeat the Minnesota North Stars 4-2
at Nassau Coliseum. Potvin goes on to win the
Calder Trophy
as the NHL's top rookie.
1986:
Wayne Gretzky
of the Edmonton Oilers wins the
Art Ross Trophy
for the sixth consecutive season and sets an NHL record with 215 points, three more than he had in 1981-82. Gretzky gets his 163rd assist, also an NHL record, in Edmonton's season-ending
3-2 win against the Vancouver Canucks
at Pacific Coliseum.
1988:Potvin breaks
Henri Richard
's NHL record for career playoff games played when he steps onto the ice against the New Jersey Devils at Nassau Coliseum for Game 1 of the Patrick Division Semifinals. It's the 181st postseason game of his NHL career.
Pat LaFontaine
scores at 6:11 of overtime to give the Islanders a
4-3 win against the Devils
, who are making their first playoff appearance since 1978, when the franchise is based in Denver and known as the Colorado Rockies.
2002:Toronto's
Mats Sundin
becomes the leading goal-scorer among Sweden-born NHL players with the 395th of his career in a
2-2 tie with the Florida Panthers
. Sundin scores at 16:38 of the second period to break the mark set by
Tomas Sandstrom
of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.

2003: The Colorado Avalanche become the first team to win a division title in nine consecutive seasons when they
defeat the St. Louis Blues 5-2
at Pepsi Center.
Milan Hejduk
scores his 50th goal of the season and becomes the first member of the Avalanche to lead the NHL in goals.
2018: Nikita Kucherov has a goal and an assist for the Tampa Bay Lightning in a
7-5 victory against the Buffalo Sabres
at Amalie Arena, becoming the third player in team history to have a 100-point season. Yanni Gourde has a goal and two assists to set Lightning rookie records for goals (25) and points (64).

2019:The Lightning tie the NHL single-season record for victories by
defeating the Bruins 6-3
at TD Garden in their regular-season finale. It's Tampa Bay's 62nd win, matching the record set by the 1995-96 Red Wings. The Lightning finish 62-16-4; their 128 points are the
fourth-highest total in NHL history
. Kucherov has a goal and an assist to
finish the season with a League-leading 128 points
(41 goals, 87 assists); he passes
Alexander Mogilny
(127 points with the 1992-83 Sabres) for the most points in an NHL season by a player born in Russia.