This Day In Hockey History: March 18th

1892 - Lord Kilcoursie of the Ottawa Rebels read a message from Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor-General of Canada, proposing to give a trophy to Canada's top hockey team each year. It would be known as the Stanley Cup.

1944 - Montreal Canadiens became the first NHL team to go undefeated for an entire season at home. Their record was 22-0-3 at the Forum.

1945 - In the 50th and final game of the 1944-45 season at Boston, Maurice Richard became the first player in NHL history to score 50 goals in one season. Montreal beat Boston 4-2.

1956 - Dick Irvin won his 690th and final career game as a coach. That record stood for 28 years until Scotty Bowman broke it.

1996 - St. Louis' Wayne Gretzky scored his 1,000th pro hockey goal (including NHL, WHA, regular season and playoffs), in a 3-1 Blues win at Los Angeles. Gretzky joined Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull in the exclusive 1,000 pro goal club.

2000 - Ray Bourque became the first defenseman in NHL history to score 400 career goals. His milestone came in a 4-3 loss against the visiting Atlanta Thrasers.

2001 - Brett Hull scored his 29th career hat trick (and first as a Dallas Star) to break the family record of 28 hat tricks set by his dad Bobby.

2002 - New York Rangers acquired right wing Pavel Bure from the Florida Panthers, in exchange for Filip Novak, Igor Ulanov, and two future draft picks.

2002 - Sami Kapanen scored with just 10.4 seconds left to play to give the Carolina Hurricanes a 1-1 tie with Montreal. It was Carolina's 7th consecutive tie, a NHL record.

Happy Birthday to Zdeno Chara, Bob Nevin, Guy Lapointe, Guy Carbonneau, Kimmo Timonen, Gilles Hamel, Matt Lombardi, Jan Bulis, Jack Valiquette, Bill Gardner, Craig Johnson, Phil Sykes, Vitaly Vishnevski, Normie Smith, Brad Selwood, Brantt Myhres, and Cory Schneider.