NHL Roundup: Fleury wins 500, Isles still winless at UBS, Wild streak extends, and more
The Daily Goal Horn
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The NHL boasted 10 exciting matchups on the docket for Thursday night with a little history for fans to enjoy.
Marc-Andre Fleury, a sure first-ballot Hall of Famer recorded the 500th win of his career in spectacular fashion. He shutout the Habs en route to the milestone.
Let’s get to all the recaps.
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Blackhawks 2, Canadiens 0
Marc-Andre Fleury turned aside all 30 shots he faced to record his 500th career NHL win on Thursday, lifting the visiting Chicago Blackhawks to a 2-0 victory over the Montreal Canadiens.
The reigning Vezina Trophy recipient recorded his seventh victory in his last 10 outings to join Hall of Famers Martin Brodeur (691) and Patrick Roy (551) as the only NHL goaltenders to reach the 500-win plateau.
Fleury was born in Sorel, Quebec, approximately one hour north of Montreal. He gave the “home” fans a show by stopping all 12 shots he faced in the third period to secure his second shutout of the season and 69th of his career.
“It meant a lot for me to have so many people from Quebec maybe being proud of me for being from here and achieving this goal,” Fleury said via NHL.com.
Captain Jonathan Toews scored his first goal of the season and Henrik Borgstrom also tallied for the Blackhawks, who have won seven in a row in Montreal.
Jake Allen made 23 saves for the Canadiens, who matched a season high with five straight losses (0-4-1). Montreal began the season by losing its first five games.
Lightning 5, Maple Leafs 3
Ondrej Palat had two goals and an assist, Steven Stamkos had a goal and three assists as the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-3 on Thursday night.
Taylor Raddysh added a goal and an assist for the Lightning, who have won five straight. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare also scored. Alex Killorn added two assists. It was the 400th career win for Lightning coach Jon Cooper.
Ondrej Kase scored twice and William Nylander once for the Maple Leafs. John Tavares added two assists.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 35 saves for Tampa Bay.
Jack Campbell stopped 22 shots for Toronto.
Ducks 2, Blue Jackets 1 (SO)
Trevor Zegras and Rickard Rakell scored in the shootout to lift the visiting Anaheim Ducks to a 2-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night.
Isac Lundestrom scored in regulation, and John Gibson made 33 saves for the Ducks, who are 2-0-1 on their five-game road trip.
Alexandre Texier scored, and Elvis Merzlikins made 25 saves for the Blue Jackets, who have lost six of their past seven.
Blues 6, Red Wings 2
Nathan Walker had a hat trick in his season debut and the host St. Louis Blues defeated the Detroit Red Wings 6-2 on Thursday.
Walker had only three career goals prior to his outburst.
St. Louis played with only 17 skaters due to health and safety protocols and injuries. The Blues called up Walker from Springfield of the American Hockey League on Wednesday due to their roster issues.
Colton Parayko, Ivan Barbashev and Marco Scandella also scored for the Blues, and Charlie Lindgren made 29 saves.
Robby Fabbri scored both of the Red Wings’ goals.
Predators 4, Islanders 3
Eeli Tolvanen scored with 11.5 seconds left in the third period Thursday night for the visiting Nashville Predators, who overcame a late deficit to edge the New York Islanders, 4-3.
Roman Josi’s shot from just in front of the blue line sailed through a gaggle of players and glanced off Tolvanen before fluttering past Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov.
Ryan Johansen and Colton Sissons scored in the first period and Yakov Trenin scored the tying goal with 7:29 left for the Predators, who have won three straight and four of five. Goalie David Rittich made 18 saves.
Austin Czarnik, Anders Lee and Noah Dobson scored for the Islanders, whose point streak ended at four games. Their losing streak at UBS Arena hit seven games (0-5-2) — the longest arena-opening losing streak by a team at its new home in NHL history.
Varlamov recorded 25 saves.
“We’ve had games in this building that we could’ve won,” Islanders captain Anders Lee said. “For whatever reason, we haven’t closed it out. There’s a lot of individual games you look at and how close they were, we come out on the wrong side, and it just happens to be that they’re strung together in this building.”
Hurricanes 2, Flames 1 (OT)
Sebastian Aho scored both goals, including the overtime winner, to lead the visiting Carolina Hurricanes to a 2-1 victory over the Calgary Flames on Thursday.
Goaltender Frederik Andersen made 26 saves for the Hurricanes, who are riding a three-game winning streak.
During the 3-on-3 overtime, Aho zipped down the ice and used his speed to get a step on the defender before crashing to the net. Aho lost possession of the puck, but it bounced off the goaltender and himself before bounding across the line with 52.4 seconds remaining in overtime of the tight-checking, close-to-the-vest, playoff-style clash.
Aho is now riding a four-game point streak in which he’s collected three goals and nine points.
Bruins 3, Oilers 2
Matt Grzelcyk’s first goal of the season with 2:33 remaining in the third period lifted the Boston Bruins to a 3-2 win over the host Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night.
Grzelcyk unleashed a slap shot from the top of the right circle to beat Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner low stick-side. It was the defenseman’s first goal since Game 4 of the Bruins’ first-round playoff series against Washington last May 21.
Brad Marchand added his team-leading 10th goal of the season and Jake DeBrusk also scored for Boston. Linus Ullmark made 41 saves for the Bruins, who had lost two straight and five of their last eight games (3-3-2).
Leon Draisaitl scored his league-leading 22nd and 23rd goals of the season for Edmonton. Skinner stopped 27 of 30 shots as the Oilers suffered a fourth consecutive defeat.
Jets 3, Kraken 0
Kyle Connor scored twice, and Connor Hellebuyck made 25 saves for his first shutout of the season and the 25th of his career as the Winnipeg Jets defeated the host Seattle Kraken 3-0 Thursday night.
Dominic Toninato also scored for the Jets, who won for the third time in their past four games. Connor’s two goals gave him 17 for the season, tied for third in the National Hockey League behind Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl (23) and Washington’s Alex Ovechkin (20).
Seattle goaltender Philipp Grubauer stopped 30 of 33 shots. The expansion Kraken lost their second in a row following a 5-1-1 stretch.
Wild 5, Sharks 2
Cam Talbot made 33 saves and Jordan Greenway had two goals as the Minnesota Wild extended their winning streak with a 5-2 road victory over the San Jose Sharks on Thursday.
Minnesota won for the eighth consecutive game, marking the third-longest win streak in franchise history.
Kevin Fiala, Joel Eriksson Ek and Kirill Kaprizov each had a goal and an assist for the Wild.
“Inside our room, we want to be on top of the league and, right now, I think we are,” Fiala said. “It’s still early, so we just have to keep it going.”
Jonathan Dahlien and Tomas Hertl each had a goal and an assist during a dominant third period for the Sharks, who outshot Minnesota by a 19-9 margin in the final frame. With the Wild’s lead narrowed to 3-2, Greenway and Kaprizov each scored empty-net goals in the last two minutes to clinch the victory.
San Jose is 1-3-0 in its last four games.
Kings 4, Stars 0
Jonathan Quick stopped all 27 shots he faced, and Adrian Kempe recorded his fourth goal in five games as the Los Angeles Kings posted a rare home victory over the Dallas Stars, 4-0 on Thursday night.
Quick was solid all night, and stellar when needed, in recording his second shutout of the season for the Kings, who totaled 41 shots.
Kempe’s goal early in the second period, Arthur Kaliyev’s fifth of the season late in the third and empty-netters from Viktor Arvidsson and Andreas Athanasiou were more than enough for Los Angeles to end a six-game home losing streak to the Stars.
This was just the second win in the last eight home games for Los Angeles.
–Field Level Media