June 20: Niedermayer, Devils go up 2-0 in 1995 Final

THIS DATE IN HISTORY: June 20
1995:
Scott Niedermayer
scores a spectacular goal and
Jim Dowd
gets a more conventional one to bring the New Jersey Devils within two wins of their first Stanley Cup championship.

Niedermayer, one of the NHL's fastest defensemen, uses his speed to blast through the neutral zone and drive in on Detroit Red Wings goalie
Mike Vernon
. His shot misses the net, but the puck comes right back to Niedermayer, who scores at
9:47 of the third period
to tie Game 2 of the Final at 2-2. Dowd puts the Devils ahead 3-2 with 1:24 left by knocking in the rebound of a shot by defenseman
Shawn Chambers
, and
Stephane Richer
scores into an empty net to wrap up a
4-2 win
at Joe Louis Arena that gives the Devils a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series.
Dowd's goal is the winner, but Niedermayer's is the one that Detroit coach Scotty Bowman wants to talk about afterward.
"The Niedermayer goal was tough to take," Bowman says. "We know his speed and we let him take the puck from his own goal line through a pretty wide gap in the neutral zone."

MORE MOMENTS
2008: The Tampa Bay Lightning use the No. 1 pick in the NHL Draft at Ottawa to select center Steven Stamkos from Sarnia of the Ontario Hockey League. The Los Angeles Kings, picking second, take Guelph defenseman Drew Doughty. The Atlanta Thrashers and St. Louis Blues, picking third and fourth, respectively, also take defensemen; Atlanta selects Zach Bogosian and St. Louis chooses Alex Pietrangelo.

2012:Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins picks up a hat trick of honors at the
NHL Awards in Las Vegas
. Malkin wins the
Hart Trophy
as most valuable player to go along with the
Art Ross Trophy
as the leading regular-season scorer and the
Ted Lindsay Award
, given to the most outstanding player as voted by members of the NHL Players' Association.
"It's a special day to me," Malkin says. "I hope it's not the last one. I try to work every year and I hope to be here again."

2018:Taylor Hall takes home the
Hart Trophy
as MVP at the NHL Awards in Las Vegas after helping the New Jersey Devils qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2012. Gerard Gallant of the Vegas Golden Knights wins the
Jack Adams Award
as the NHL's top coach after guiding his first-year team to the Stanley Cup Final.