NHL Recaps: Connor Hellebuyck stops Rangers streak, Panthers and Isles move into wild card spots
The Daily Goal Horn
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NHL Recaps: February 20, 2023
Six games lit up the schedule for the National Hockey League on Monday.
The Boston Bruins continued their winning ways by defeating the Ottawa Senators. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Flyers were able to outlast host Calgary Flames and the San Jose Sharks blanked the Seattle Kraken.
Two games with immediate playoff implications saw the Florida Panthers beat the Anaheim Ducks and the New York Islanders rally over the Pittsburgh Penguins. The victories for each team leapfrog them into the two wild card spots in the east.
We start the recaps at Madison Square Garden, where Winnipeg Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck made 50 saves to halt the New York Rangers points streak at ten games.
NHL Recaps: Connor Hellebuyck makes 50 saves
Jets 4 vs Rangers 1
Connor Hellebuyck made a season-high 50 saves and the visiting Winnipeg Jets recorded a 4-1 victory over the New York Rangers on Monday night.
“I had a good rhythm,” Hellebuyck said nonchalantly to Sportsnet. “Guys were letting me see pucks and they were battling on rebounds. It was a pretty routine night.”
Mark Scheifele scored twice for the Jets, who posted their fourth win in six games.
Kyle Connor had a goal and two assists while Pierre-Luc Dubois added a goal for Winnipeg. Josh Morrissey collected a pair of assists to set a single-season record for points by a defenseman (58) with the current Winnipeg franchise. Mason Appleton also contributed two assists.
Vincent Trocheck scored and New York’s Igor Shesterkin made 17 saves, but the Rangers saw their 10-game points streak (8-0-2) end despite producing their most shots on goal this season. It was the Rangers’ longest points streak since a 10-0-3 run early in the 2015-16 season.
Bruins 3 vs Senators 1
David Pastrnak scored in the second and third periods to reach and surpass the 40-goal mark as Boston downed visiting Ottawa.
Pastrnak’s 40th goal of the season broke a 1-1 tie with 2:54 remaining in the second period. He padded the lead at 12:10 of the third, helping the Bruins to their fourth consecutive win. Charlie McAvoy assisted on all three Boston goals, and Jake DeBrusk scored his second goal in as many games since returning from injuries.
Boston is the fastest team to reach 90 points since the 1979-80 Philadelphia Flyers, per the NHL.
Claude Giroux scored the lone Ottawa goal. Kevin Mandolese made 29 saves in his second NHL contest for the Senators, who had their four-game point streak (3-0-1) snapped.
Islanders 4 vs Penguins 2
Brock Nelson scored twice and Anders Lee notched the go-ahead goal midway through the third period as visiting New York beat Pittsburgh.
The Islanders scored the only three goals of the third period to earn a come-from-behind win. Bo Horvat had a goal and an assist while Zach Parise logged two assists for the Islanders, who are 2-2-2 in their past six games. New York’s Ilya Sorokin made 44 saves.
Jake Guentzel and Jason Zucker scored for the Penguins, who lost their third straight game. Pittsburgh goaltender Tristan Jarry, in his return after missing nine games because of an upper-body injury, made 28 saves. The game included a second-period scrum that resulted in 14 penalties to 10 players.
“This team, say whatever you want about us, but we’re going to battle and we’re going to fight until the end,” Lee said. “That’s a full team win. Really proud of our guys tonight. It could’ve gone another way, and we pushed through. We took control and we were able to come out with just a big win.”
Islanders’ Anders Lee, NHL.com
NHL Recaps: Panthers move into Wild Card spot
Panthers 4 vs Ducks 3 (OT)
Carter Verhaeghe stole the puck and scored on a breakaway 1:42 into overtime as Florida defeated Anaheim at Sunrise, Fla.
“All game it felt like we were in control and had a ton of chances,” Verhaeghe explained. “We just could not finish them. They got a couple one-off chances. It was nice to win.”
Brothers Eric and Marc Staal each scored a goal for the Panthers, while Ryan Lomberg also scored. Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky made 29 saves.
The Ducks, who have lost five straight games, got 51 saves from John Gibson, the NHL leader in losses (10-23-6). Gibson has made 50 saves twice in his past four games. Mason McTavish, Frank Vatrano and Dmitry Kulikov each scored goals for Anaheim.
Sharks 4 vs Kraken 0
Evgeny Svechnikov and Logan Couture each had a goal and an assist as San Jose earned a rare home victory by shutting out Seattle.
Noah Gregor and Michael Eyssimont also scored, Erik Karlsson had two assists and James Reimer made 26 saves for his second shutout of the season for San Jose, which improved its NHL-worst home record to 6-14-7.
Martin Jones, who played in San Jose from 2015-21, stopped 19 of 23 shots for the Kraken, who had a four-game points streak (3-0-1) snapped and missed a chance to move into a first-place tie with Vegas in the Pacific Division.
Flyers 4 vs Flames 3
Wade Allison scored a third-period game-winner as visiting Philadelphia recovered from a blown lead to beat Calgary and snap a four-game losing skid.
Travis Konecny and Tony DeAngelo both collected one goal and one assist, while Nicolas Deslauriers also scored and Scott Laughton collected two assists. Samuel Ersson made 32 saves to run his record to 6-0-0. Konecny, who leads the Flyers in goals and points, left the game late in the second period due to an upper-body injury after being on the receiving end of a hard check from MacKenzie Weegar.
Mikael Backlund and Andrew Mangiapane both netted one goal and one assist for Flames. Tyler Toffoli also scored and Noah Hanifin had two assists. Jacob Markstrom stopped 18 shots.
–Field Level Media
–The Daily Goal Horn contributed to this article