Posted 4 hours ago
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Source : NHL Media
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Written by: PDUC
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— Photo © NHL Media, NHL Stats/Dallas Stars
Regular season
Florida Panthers – Toronto Maple Leafs: 2-6
Carolina – NY Rangers: 1-2
Dallas Stars – Pittsburgh Penguins: 3-2
The Maple Leafs (43-19-9, 95 points) and Rangers (42-20-10, 94 points) boosted their chances of joining the Bruins and Hurricanes in the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs with wins THURSDAY. Toronto took a five-point lead over Tampa Bay (42-25-6, 90 points) for second place in the Atlantic Division and New York moved within four points of New Jersey (45-18-8, 98 points) in the Metropolitan Division.
- Auston Matthews (293-237-530 in 471 games) scored twice to close in on his fourth straight 40-goal campaign and 300 career NHL goals. On Thursday, Matthews played his 58th career multi-goal game, three less than Mats Sundin (61 games) for third in Maple Leafs history and two shy of Pat LaFontaine (60 games) for the most games in NHL history for a player born in the United States and age 25 or younger.
- After thatArtemi Panarin (1-1-2) scored the equalizing goal, Adam Fox found the back of the net to help the Rangers defeat the Metropolitan Division leaders Hurricanes in PNC Arena. Fox’s goal marked his 12th career game-winning goal, tied with Heller there, And Girardi et Harry Howell for fifth on the franchise’s all-time list among defensemen.
Dallas retains Division lead
Jason Robertson (0-2-2) et Miro Heiskanen (0-1-1), both 23, helped the Stars (39-19-14, 92 points) hold off the Penguins and reclaim the Central Division lead from the Wild (41-22- 9, 91 points), who briefly rose to first place after earning a point against the Flyers on Thursday.
- Heiskanen (4-16-20 in 12 GP) extended his career point streak to 12 games and set a new franchise record for longest point streak by a Stars/North Stars blueliner, surpassing Craig Hartsburg (11 GP in 1986/87). Only two other defensemen have recorded a point streak of at least a dozen games this season: Erik Karlsson (14 GP) and Vince Dunn (12 GP).
- Robertson (41-50-91 in 72 games), playing his 200th career NHL game, hit the 50 assist mark for the first time and became the fourth player in franchise history to score 40 goals and 50 assists in a single season. The feat was last achieved by Dino Ciccarelli in 1986/87 (52-51-103 in 80 matches).