This Day In Hockey History: Feb 24th

1931 - Eddie Shore scored a hat trick to lead the Bruins to a 5-1 win at Philadelphia.

1970 - The city of Vancouver was awarded the rights to an NHL expansion team. The Canucks joined the league eight months later, in the 1970-71 season.

1980 - The United States men's Olympic hockey team defeated Finland, 4-2 to win the 1980 Gold Medal at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics.

1982 - Edmonton's Wayne Gretzky beat Don Edwards for his 77th goal of the season, to break the NHL record of 76 held by Phil Esposito.

1993 - Chicago obtained Joe Murphy from Edmonton, in exchange for Igor Kravchuk and Dean McAmmond.

2002 - Team Canada won the 2002 Olympic Gold Medal in Hockey by beating Team U.S.A. 5-2 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Joe Sakic led the scoring with two goals and two assists.

Happy Birthday to Alexei Kovalev, Brian Savage, Wojtek Wolski, Chris Herperger, Mike Vernon, Earl Anderson, Murray Costello, Doug McCaig, Tim Erixon and Jeff Brubaker.