TODAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1960 USA beats Germany in Olympic hockey finals round, 9-1. 1968 Gary Unger begins NHL consecutive-game record of 914 games. 1980 USA Olympic hockey team defeats Finland, 4-2, to win the gold medal. 1982 Wayne Gretzky scores NHL-record 78th goal of season en route to 92. 1987 Los Angeles Laker Kareem AbdulJabbar scores his 36,000th NBA point. 1988 Matti Nykanen becomes the Winter Olympics first triple gold medallist. 1989 Harold Ballard sells the Hamilton Tiger-Cats to David Braley. 2002 Canada defeats the United States 5-2 to win the men’s Olympic hockey gold medal. 2002 19th Winter Olympic Games close at Salt Lake City, Utah.

Team Canada, led by captain Mario Lemieux and Steve Yzerman and coached by Hamilton’s PatQuinn, ended a half centuryof Olympic gold medal droughtbydefeating the host USA team 5-2 attheSalt Lake Games, 15 years ago today.