NHL Recaps: Kris Letang returns, Mitch Marner’s streak continues, and more
The Daily Goal Horn
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NHL Recaps: December 10, 2022
Saturday night’s hockey was a little lighter than usual with just eight games on tap.
The biggest story of the night should’ve been Mitch Marner extending his point streak to 22 games and winning the match in overtime for the Toronto Maple Leafs over the Calgary Flames. That would’ve been the case until Kris Letang took the ice just 12 days after suffering a stroke.
Letang played over 20 minutes in his return.
“It was great,” Letang said. “I was getting anxious to get back out there. With the schedule, we don’t have the chance to practice that much. Tried to prepare the best I could.”
NHL.com
NHL Recaps: Kris Letang returns in Pens win
Penguins 3 vs Sabres 1
Sidney Crosby had two goals and an assist as Pittsburgh held off visiting Buffalo for its fifth win in a row.
Rickard Rakell also scored, and Jake Guentzel added two assists for the Penguins, who are 12-2-2 in their past 16 games. Pittsburgh goaltender Casey DeSmith, who had not played since Nov. 26, made 37 saves.
Peyton Krebs scored for the Sabres, who are 5-3-2 in their past 10 games. Buffalo goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 28 saves.
Stars 3 vs Red Wings 2 (OT)
Nils Lundkvist scored with 31 seconds left in overtime as Dallas edged visiting Detroit.
Denis Gurianov and Jamie Benn had the regulation goals and Mason Marchment contributed two assists for the Stars, who ended a five-game homestand with their second consecutive overtime victory.
David Perron scored in his 1,000th career game for the Red Wings. Dylan Larkin had the other goal, while Husso was credited with 30 saves. The Red Wings haven’t won in Dallas since February 2016. They lost their last two games of a four-game road trip after winning during the first two legs.
Senators 3 vs Predators 2
Pyotr Kochetkov stopped all 16 shots he faced for Carolina, which beat New York in Elmont, N.Y.
It was Kochetkov’s second career shutout, both this season. The first came on Nov. 14 when he made 27 saves in a 3-0 win over the Chicago Blackhawks. Paul Stastny scored in the second period, while Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Jordan Staal added goals in the third for the Hurricanes, who improved to 4-0-1 on their current six-game road trip.
Goalie Ilya Sorokin made 26 saves for the Islanders, who have dropped four of six (2-4-0).
Hurricanes 3 vs Islanders 0
Ottawa rallied late to earn a win against host Nashville.
Alex DeBrincat and Drake Batherson scored third-period goals for the Senators, who trailed 1-0 late in the second period. Claude Giroux also scored for Ottawa, which had lost two straight, and Cam Talbot made 27 saves in the victory.
Yakov Trenin and Nino Niederreiter scored for Nashville. Juuse Saros made 30 saves for the Predators, who have lost back-to-back games. Niederreiter scored a minute after Batherson’s goal to bring it back to a one-goal game, but the Predators weren’t able to complete the comeback.
NHL Recaps: Mitch Marner’s streak continues
Maple Leafs 5 vs Flames 4 (OT)
Mitchell Marner scored a power-play goal 43 seconds into overtime and the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the visiting Calgary Flames 5-4 Saturday night.
“It was a bit of an ugly one there,” Marner said. “A little bit too much back and forth … but these are the ones sometimes you have to grind through and get two points from. Just great we stayed with it and great night tonight from [the Auston Matthews’] line just carrying us really and leading the way.”
NHL.com
Marner scored his 12th goal of the season on an assist from William Nylander, who had two goals and three assists. Marner also had an assist to extend his point streak to 22 games, which is already a team record. The Maple Leafs have picked up at least one point in 14 straight games (11-0-3).
Auston Matthews added a goal and two assists for Toronto, and Rasmus Sandin had two assists. Matt Murray made 22 saves for Toronto.
Noah Hanifin scored twice for the Flames, who lost to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday. Nazem Kadri and Trevor Lewis also scored. Andrew Mangiapane added two assists. Dan Vladar stopped 29 shots for Calgary.
Lightning 4 vs Panthers 1
Brayden Point beat Florida for the second time in two months, netting a tiebreaking third-period goal as host Tampa Bay won for the fourth time in five games.
Point, who scored in overtime to beat Florida 3-2 in Sunrise, Fla., on Oct. 21, netted from in close in the third, giving him 18 goals and 11 assists in 27 career games against the Atlantic Division foe. Pat Maroon, Mikhail Sergachev and Steven Stamkos potted goals — extending Stamkos’ point streak to 13 games. Cal Foote produced two helpers and Nicholas Paul assisted for his 100th career point.
The Panthers got a goal from Zac Dalpe, his second in three games since being called up from the AHL Charlotte Checkers on Monday. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 34 shots and defenseman Brandon Montour played in his 400th career NHL game. In falling to 4-5-3 in its past 12 games, Florida went 0-for-4 on the power play.
Kings 4 vs Canadiens 2
Anze Kopitar and Viktor Arvidsson scored 19 seconds apart in the first period, and Pheonix Copley made 20 saves to lead visiting Los Angeles to a win against Montreal.
Alexander Edler and Adrian Kempe also scored for the Kings, who were coming off a 5-0 loss at the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday. Mike Hoffman and Cole Caufield scored, and Jake Allen made 31 saves for the Canadiens, who have lost three of four.
Hoffman ended Copley’s bid for his second NHL shutout when he scored on a slap shot from the top of the right circle to make it 3-1 at 11:41 of the third period. Caufield made it 3-2 with 2:28 left when he threw the puck toward Copley from just above the goal line and it slipped in on the short side. Kempe scored into an empty net to give the Kings a 4-2 lead with 37 seconds left.
Wild 3 vs Canucks 0
Filip Gustavsson made 35 saves to collect his first career shutout and backstop the Minnesota Wild to a 3-0 victory over the host Vancouver Canucks.
Matt Boldy, Connor Dewar and Sam Steel scored for the Wild, who snapped a two-game skid. Mats Zuccarello collected two assists, but Kirill Kaprizov was held off the scoresheet and saw his point-scoring streak snapped at a franchise record 14 games.
Gustavsson wasn’t tested with as many high-danger chances as Vancouver counterpart Spencer Martin, but was very steady. His biggest stop was against Ilya Mikheyev during a scramble.
The Wild have won seven consecutive regular-season meetings.
Martin stopped 30 shots for the Canucks, who saw their modest three-game winning streak snapped and were shut out for the first time this season.
–Field Level Media
–The Daily Goal Horn contributed to this article