2023-12-24 02:42:00
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Would Marc-André Fleury be the bane of the Boston Bruins?
The Quebec goaltender stopped 19 of the Bruins’ 21 shots on Saturday night to sign his second victory of the week against Boston.
After a 4-3 overtime triumph on Tuesday, the Wild won by a score of 3-2 on Saturday night. It was Fleury who defended the Wild cage both times.
Fleury thus obtained the 550th victory of his NHL career, in his 998th game. His next success will allow him to join Patrick Roy in second place in history, with 551 victories.
Roy, however, needed 1029 games to get there. Martin Brodeur is at the top with his 691.
The Bruins have now lost their last four games while the Wild have won their last three outings as well as six of their last seven games.
Fleury gave up twice in the match, against David Pastrnak and Morgan Geekie. Pastrnak reached the 20-goal plateau to open the scoring in the first period.
Joel Eriksson Ek, Kirill Kaprizov and Marcus Foligno, however, hit the mark without reply to put the Wild in control.
Geekie scored in the third period to close the gap, but the Bruins were unable to complete the comeback. Linus Ullmark was busy in front of his net with a 32 save evening.
The Wild boast a 10-3-0 record since the arrival of John Hynes as head coach. Wild captain Jared Spurgeon missed a sixth straight game with a lower-body injury.
The Bruins will face the Sabers next Wednesday, while Minnesota has a meeting with the Red Wings.
Matthews masterful, scares for Kuraly
Few teams have been able to stop Auston Matthews this season in the NHL and the Columbus Blue Jackets were no exception.
Matthews scored two goals and an assist and the Toronto Maple Leafs posted a 4-1 victory over the Blue Jackets, two days after their embarrassing 9-3 loss to the Buffalo Sabres.
Thus, Matthews has consolidated his place as top scorer in the NHL this season, he who already has 28 goals in just 30 games. He also became the fourth top scorer after 30 games in a season since 1993-1994 in the Bettman circuit.
Cam Neely (34 goals in 1993-1994), Mario Lemieux (30 goals in 1995-1996) and Jaromir Jagr (30 goals in 1996=1997) are the only ones to have done better than Matthews during the first 30 games of a season in the last 30 years.
In the Maple Leafs organization in this regard, no one has done better than him in the modern era, since 1943-1944. Pete Mahovlich scored 27 goals in his first 30 games in 1960-1961.
Matthews scored his first goal midway through the first period, when he took advantage of a nice cross-ice pass from Mitch Marner to score with a good one-timer. With this goal, he extended his streak of games with at least one goal to seven.
Then midway through the second period, with the Maple Leafs leading 2-1, Matthews took advantage of a power play to score a goal identical to his first. Once again, Marner fed him with a crossfield pass and Matthews’ throw left goalkeeper Daniil Tarasov no chance.
John Tavares also stood out with a beautiful goal in the Maple Leafs’ victory. In the second period, Tavares spun around in possession of the puck, before scoring with a good wrist shot even though he was surrounded by three Jackets players.
William Nylander scored the Maple Leafs’ other goal in the third period to make it 4-1, thanks to an excellent wrist shot in excess.
Martin Jones was brilliant in net for the Maple Leafs with a 27 save performance. Justin Danforth was the only Blue Jackets player to find the back of the net.
The two teams will meet next Friday in Columbus. Until then, the Leafs will face the Senators, while the Blue Jackets will face the Devils.
A disturbing scene
The end of the first period was also marked by a very worrying scene.
Blue Jackets forward Sean Kuraly was initially tackled behind the net and appeared to be injured on the sequence. A few seconds later, Kuraly was hit in the chest by a puck and he struggled to return to his team’s bench.
The replays then showed that Kuraly seemed to quietly collapse to the ground behind the Jackets bench. The first period was interrupted with 18 seconds left and both teams retired to the locker room. The 18 seconds were played just before playing the middle period.
As for Kuraly, he was evaluated in the arena and the Blue Jackets confirmed that he suffered an abdominal injury which does not appear serious at this time. However, he was transported to Grant Medical Center, where more tests must be performed.
Toffoli and Meier hurt the Red Wings
Timo Meier scored twice and Tyler Toffoli scored the game-winning goal with 7:15 remaining in a 3-2 New Jersey Devils win over the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday.
Vitek Vanecek stopped 22 shots and was lucky when Daniel Sprong hit the post during a Red Wings power play late in the game.
The Devils thus ended a series of three defeats (0-2-1).
Patrick Kane and Shayne Gostisbehere scored for the Red Wings, who have lost five of their last six games. Michael Hutchinson did well in his first start with the Red Wings, stopping 32 shots.
Toffoli scored the winning goal when he deflected a Jesper Bratt shot past Hutchinson.
The Red Wings played more than 25 minutes without fourth-line center Christian Fischer and defenseman Jeff Petry, who suffered a collision. Fischer needed help getting off the ice.
Hedman decides against the Capitals
Victor Hedman scored the decisive shootout goal in a 2-1 Tampa Bay Lightning victory over the Washington Capitals on Saturday.
The Lightning have now won their last three games to place themselves in a good position in the Atlantic Division standings.
Even though the Capitals saw their three-game winning streak come to an end, they picked up one point to remain among the drafted teams in the East going into the holiday break.
The Lightning struck quickly after a mistake behind the Capitals net. Luke Glendening deflected a Hedman point shot past Charlie Lindgren. Hedman extended his point streak to four games.
The Capitals tied the game with a similar goal. This time, a shot from Nick Jensen deflected off Quebec striker Anthony Mantha, who scored his 10th goal of the season. Five of them have come in his last eight outings.
Andrei Vasilevskiy blocked 32 pucks for the Lightning. At the other end of the ice, Lindgren made 19 saves.
Captain Lee leads the charge among the Islanders
Anders Lee had a goal and two assists and the New York Islanders defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 5-4.
Ilya Sorokin stopped 36 shots in net for the Islanders, who have collected at least one point in 11 of their last 12 games.
Brock Nelson, Bo Horvat and Mike Reilly each had a goal and an assist, while Sebastian Aho also scored. Kyle Palmieri and Mathew Barzal were each credited with two assists.
Stefan Noesen, Jaccob Slavin, Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen responded for the Hurricanes, who have lost four of their last five games. Martin Necas and Andrei Svechnikov both had two assists.
Pyotr Kochetkov made 23 saves. He had trouble in front of the net, a recurring problem for the Hurricanes this season.
In the absence of Frederik Andersen since November 2 due to a blood clot problem, the Hurricanes recently had to turn to the 24-year-old Russian. Kochetkov had been playing better for a while, but everything fell apart on Saturday.
Lee’s goal at 3:44 of the final period, to give the Islanders a 5-3 lead, came from a difficult angle and Kochetkov looked bad on the sequence.
Noesen cut the lead to one goal with a power play goal at 9:17. The Hurricanes were 2-for-4 with an extra man, but it wasn’t enough.
The Islanders took a 3-1 lead in a lively first period.
Kreider decides in overtime at MSG
Chris Kreider scored at 2:28 of overtime, Igor Shesterkin made 27 saves and the New York Rangers defeated the Buffalo Sabers 4-3.
Kreider scored his 17th goal of the season after Shesterkin stopped Casey Mittelstadt on a breakaway. Kreider also had an assist, having obtained five in his last three games.
Mika Zibanejad totaled a goal and two assists to help the Rangers sign their 15th victory in their last 21 duels against the Sabres. Artemi Panarin and Ryan Lindgren also threaded the needle.
Rasmus Dahlin and Jack Quinn scored to erase a two-goal deficit for the Sabres. Mittelstadt forced an overtime period by flashing the red light at 6:50 of the third period.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen blocked 29 rondelles dans une cage perdante.
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