This Day In Hockey History: Feb 29th

1980 - Hartford's Gordie Howe scored his 800th NHL goal to help the Whalers to a 3-0 win over St. Louis, in the Blues' 1,000th regular season game.

1984 - Patrik Sundstrom scored a goal and added six assists as Vancover won 9-5 over the Penguins at Pittsburgh. Sundstrom was just the third player in NHL history to get six assists in a road game (Billy Taylor and Bobby Orr were the others).

1984 - Hartford Whalers signed Dave Tippett as a free agent.

1984 - After competing in the Olympics, Pat LaFontaine and Patrick Flatley made their NHL debuts, when the Islanders won 4-3 over the Jets, at Winnipeg.

1988 - New York Rangers held a "Marcel Dionne" night at MSG, and Dionne assisted on the Rangers' first goal on their way to a 5-2 win over St. Louis.

1988 - Former U.S. Olympic team captain Brian Leetch made his NHL debut and picked up an assist for his first NHL point as the Rangers won 5-2 over the Blues, at MSG.

1992 - Ray Bourque scored a goal and two assists to give him 1,000 career points in the Bruins' 5-5 tie against Capitals.

1996 - Wayne Gretzky played his first game as a member of the St. Louis Blues, and scored his first goal with the team in a 2-2 tie at Vancouver.

2004 - Carolina's Ron Francis became just the second player in NHL history to score 10 (or more) goals for 23 straight seasons, when he connected for the Hurricanes in a 3-3 tie at Minnesota. Francis tied the record set by Gordie Howe.

2004 - Detrot's Nicklas Lidstrom became just the 4th player - and first defenseman - to play 1,000 games with the Red Wings

Happy Leap Day Birthday to Henri Richard, Cam Ward, Simon Gagne, Dan Daoust, Kari Eloranta, Lyndon Byers, Bobby Sanguinetti and Jim Dobson.