The Seattle Kraken hockey team have made history! By winning their 4th game against the Arizona Coyotes last Thursday, they have earned a spot in the playoffs for the first time ever and set an NHL record for most wins by a team during its second season. Congrats to the Kraken!
Four players – Jared McCann, Jordan Eberle, Matty Beniers, and Vince Dunn – scored for the Kraken hockey team. This 44th win is a big achievement because now it’s the most victories that any second-year NHL team has had since 1968 when the Original Six era ended.
This is a big improvement from last year when Seattle had 27 wins and 49 losses with 6 ties, so they finished last in the Pacific Division. Philipp Grubauer also helped out by saving 27 shots during the game and this was their third straight win!
Arizona hockey team players Barrett Hayton and Laurent Dauphin both scored goals, but their team still lost. Karel Vejmelka made a total of 29 saves during the game.
David Pastrnak from the Boston Bruins scored his 57th goal of the season when he blasted a shot from inside the left circle during overtime which ended up making them win against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The victory meant that the Bruins now have 61 wins in the season so far – only one away from beating two NHL teams’ set records; Detroit’s in 1995-96, and Tampa Bay’s in 2018-19.
Boston won a close game with Jeremy Swayman making 31 saves and Charlie Coyle scoring. Toronto had led 1-0 until the third period because of Sam Lafferty’s goal, but Ilya Samsonov made 31 saves for them too.
In another game, Alex Lyon set a record by making 56 saves for the Florida Panthers who beat Ottawa 7-2. Aleksander Barkov scored two goals to help the Panthers win their fifth straight game.
Lyon made the most saves in a game, beating Craig Anderson’s previous record of 53. The all-time high is 57 saves, which was set by Roberto Luongo during a 2002 overtime loss to Detroit.
Florida and New York Islanders currently hold the same amount of points for the top wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, but Florida has more wins, so they would get the spot if it comes down to it.
Brandon Montour, Sam Reinhart, Eetu Luostarinen, Nick Cousins and Gustav Forsling all scored goals for Florida. That team got five goals in just one period! Claude Giroux (who was traded last season to the Panthers) also scored a goal for the Senators team which lost the game and were not allowed to go to playoffs. Finally Ridly Greig made a goal in the very end of the third period for Ottawa.
In addition, Devils won 8-1 against Blue Jackets in their match.
Jack Hughes scored two goals and set up two more by Timo Meier helping New Jersey beat Columbus in a big way with their most points since 2016. Tomas Tatar, Erik Haula, Damon Severson and Ryan Graves also got on the scoring sheet as the Devils manage to record 50 wins this season – just one short of the franchise’s record from 2008-09. Vitek Vanecek had 16 saves during the game too. The most points ever for the Devils was nine goals in a single game. Lastly, for Columbus’ side, Finnish rookie Joona Luoto managed to achieve his first NHL goal ever!
Jason Robertson quickly scored two goals just before the first-period ended, leading Dallas to victory over Philadelphia and helping them keep pace in their tight playoff race. Joe Pavelski had one goal and two assists, while Colin Miller also scored a goal. This win allowed the Stars to get 100 points in total, which tied them with the defending Stanley Cup champions Colorado. The Dallas team is now two points ahead of Minnesota!
Kevin Hayes scored his 18th goal of the season in the second period and stopped Jake Oettinger from earning his fifth shutout of the season. The goalie for the Dallas team had 24 saves which caused the Flyers to lose four games in a row without scoring any points.
Meanwhile, the Vegas Golden Knights won 5-2 against the Kings. They made four goals on their first six shots and they are now very close to winning the Pacific Division and clinching the top spot in the Western Conference.
Phil Kessel, Ivan Barbashev and Chandler Stephenson each scored one goal and made one assist for the Knights in a big win. Nicolas Roy and Jonathan Marchessault also gave them two more goals. Laurent Brossoit then made 30 saves of attempts from the Kings, who scored through Anze Kopitar and Vladislav Gavrikov. At the same time, Sabres beat Red Wings 7-6 in penalty shootout.
Tage Thompson scored his 45th goal of the season and Dylan Cozens got two goals in Buffalo’s victory over Detroit. Henri Jokiharju, Zemgus Girgensons, and Jordan Greenway also added goals while Devon Levi blocked 26 shots made by Detroit. Alex Tuch and Jack Quinn were successful to score in their shootout attempt.
Thompson scored 45+ goals this season, making him the first Sabres player since Alexander Mogilny and Pat LaFontaine in 1992-93 to do that. He also had 91 points, which is the most since Daniel Briere had 95 points in 2006-07.
In another game, Austin Czarnik, Dylan Larkin, Alex Chiasson, Simon Edvinsson, Jonatan Berggren and David Perron all scored for the Red Wings while Lucas Raymond was the only one to get a goal during their shootout. Finally, Pittsburgh beat Minnesota 4-1.
Tristan Jarry played really well and made 27 saves against Minnesota. This helped the Pittsburgh Penguins win the game and stay in the race for one of two playoff spots in the Eastern Conference. Kris Letang scored a goal over Fleury’s glove, Fleury is an old Penguin player who won three Stanley Cups but now plays for Minnesota. Rickard Rakell, Jason Zucker and Jeff Carter also scored goals to help Pittsburgh win. The Penguins want to keep their streak alive of reaching the playoffs 17 years in a row!
Marcus Johansson scored during a two-player advantage in the middle of the third period and prevented Jarry from getting a shutout.
ISLANDERS 6, LIGHTNING 1
Adam Pelech, Brock Nelson, Kyle Palmieri and Ryan Pulock all got goals in the second period, Ilya Sorokin made 29 saves and New York beat Tampa Bay to stay close to their goal of making it into the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Simon Holmstrom and Bo Horvat scored for the Islanders in a tight battle with Florida’s Panthers and Pittsburgh’s Penguins. All three teams won on Thursday night, but the Islanders have 89 points which is tied with the Panthers while the Penguins lag behind by one point. Each team has only three more games to play. Nikita Kucherov was able to score for Tampa Bay too in their game against the Rangers which they eventually won 3-2 in overtime.
At the St. Louis game against New York, Kasperi Kapanen scored a winning goal 1 minute and 16 seconds into overtime! Brayden Schenn gave him the pass that set up this goal, which made it Kapanen’s 15th of the season. Tyler Pitlick and Alexey Toropchenko also scored during this game and Jordan Binnington made 21 saves. Vincent Trocheck ended up tying it for the Rangers at the last second on a power play and Jaroslav Halak helped out by coming in with an extra player.
Vladimir Tarasenko scored a goal and gave another player on his team an assist in his first game since he got traded to New York together with Niko Mikkola last February 9th.
Joel Armia had three goals in the same game and helped Montreal win against Washington after they lost the four previous games. Nick Suzuki, Brendan Gallagher and Mike Hoffman also managed to score for Montreal. Mike Matheson was able to give two assists during the game, while Sam Montembeault saved 24 shots throughout the match.
Dylan Strome and Nicklas Backstom both scored goals for Washington, but the goalie Darcy Kuemper had to make 25 saves. Unfortunately, Washington has been losing three games in a row. Also, one of their players, Anthony Mantha was injured during this game so he wasn’t able to help them.
Meanwhile in Nashville, Tennessee, Mark Jankowski got a goal and an assist in the first period which helped Nashville beat Carolina. This win keeps the hope alive for Nashville’s playoffs.
Michael McCarron scored a point and the Predators won their 3rd in 4 games. Dante Fabbro added a goal at the end and Spencer Stastney got two assists for his first time in the NHL. Juuse Saros made 32 saves and it was his second shutout this season, and 20th of his career! Meanwhile, Canucks beat Blackhawks by 3-0!
In Vancouver, Thatcher Demko blocked 33 shots and was awarded a shutout in the Canucks win against Chicago. Kuzmenko, Kravtsov, Miller, and Hirose each contributed to the Canucks victory by scoring goals or assisting. The Blackhawks goalie Stalock saved 26 shots after they had just won their previous match 4-3 against Calgary but still lost this game. Lastly, Avalanche beat Sharks 6-2 in this competition.
Mikko Rantanen of Colorado scored 3 goals in the game and got 4 points, while Nathan MacKinnon also scored a goal plus had 4 points. Ben Meyers also made 2 more goals, and Alexandar Georgiev saved 21 attempts. From San Jose, Erik Karlsson scored 1 and had 98 total points in this season. Steven Lorentz was another scorer, and Kaapo Kahkonen attempted to save 15 shots before he was taken out of the game.
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