1961- Coming into the 1961 NHL hockey season, the Montreal Canadiens were fresh off of five Stanley Cup Championship seasons in 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959 and 1960. Unfortunately for them, if you can call it unfortunate after five straight Cup wins, they ran into the Chicago Blackhawks. On this day in in 1961, the Blackhawks defeated the Canadiens 3-0 to win the series 4-2. The Hawks went on that season to win its first Stanley Cup since 1938.
1973- Earlier this season, Patrick Kane and former Blackhawk Brandon Hagel both scored hat tricks in the same game. It was a regular season game and not the only time that has happened for the Hawks, the other one coming in 2003. On April 4, 1973, two players, Pit Martin and Dick REdmond, scored hat tricks in a playoff game, becoming the first team in NHL history to accomplish this. During the game, Stan Mikita tallied five assists.
1986- Although not a Blackhawks moment, it's certainly an NHL moment worthy of mentioning. On this day in 1986, Wayne Gretzky broke his own record, setting the new season high for points with an astounding 214 points. He added one more point to set the presumably unattainable mark at 215 points.
