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This Day in Hockey History – April 8

Today in hockey history, a crazy goalie in the crazy goalie era, a playoff beatdown, an embarrassing streak comes to an end, a fact that Jets fans might want to avoid, an Avalanche great sets a team record, and one hell of an eventful day.

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April 8, 1934 –Red Wings’ goalie Wilf Cude led his team to a 5-2 win at Chicago in Game 3 of the Finals…and he did it despite suffering a broken nose in the second period. And it would still be another 30 years until goalies thought it might be a good idea to protect their faces from flying rubber disks.

April 8, 1970 – The Bruins scored five goals in a span of 10:21, including two shorthanded goals in a span of 44 seconds (a playoff record), in an 8-2 win over the Rangers in Game 1 of their quarter-final matchup.

April 8, 1980 – Doug Lecuyer scored at 12:34 of OT to give Chicago a 3-2 win over St. Louis in Game 1 of the “preliminary round” to end the Hawk’s playoff record streak of 16 consecutive losses, which dated back to 1975. That means they got swept at least four-straight times.

April 8, 1994 – Although none are that significant or interesting, a bunch of neat little things happened on this day that might be of some appeal to you:

  • The Rangers beat the Leafs 5-3 to clinch their second President’s Trophy in three years, and Rangers coach Mike Keenan passed Emile Francis for 10th place on the all-time wins list (regular season) with 394
  • In a 7-2 New Jersey win over Pittsburgh, Scott Stevens recorded three assists (and a goal) to set a Devils’ franchise record for assists in a season by a defenseman with 58 (passing the mark shared by Kirk Muller and Aaron Broten
  • The Anaheim Mighty Ducks beat Edmonton 3-1 for their 32nd win of the year, setting the record for wins by a team in their inaugural season. Goalie Guy Hebert became the first Ducks player to record 20 wins in a season
  • Dominik Hasek recorded his eight career shutout (seventh of the season) in a 1-0 Buffalo win over Montreal
  • Ray Ferraro scored his 250th career goal in a 5-1 Islanders win over the Stars
  • Theo Fleury became the seventh player in Flames’ history to score 200 goals in a 5-2 win over the Sharks, and Al MacInnis became the first Calgary player to reach the 800 games-played milestone with the team

April 8, 1996 – The Winnipeg Jets officially announced that their team would be changing its name to the “Coyotoes” for the following season, which really doesn’t make sense for a team in Winnipeg. …Oh.

April 8, 2001 – In a 4-2 Colorado win over the Wild, Joe Sakic scored twice to become the franchise’s all-time leader in goals with 457, breaking the mark set by Michel Goulet.

 

Source: Hockey Hall of Fame

Scott Finger
Scott is the former managing editor at Hooked on Hockey Magazine. He loves hockey, writing, and writing about hockey. He graduated from Roger Williams University in 2011 with a useless degree in Media Communications (concentrating in Journalism). Being a New York Rangers fan (and NY Giants and Mets fan) living in Boston is very uncomfortable for him, and it'll be awkward trying to celebrate a Rangers Cup win in the streets when they inevitably win sometime in the next 100 years. He also likes long walks on the beach.
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