Nashville Predators goaltender Juuse Saros faced a storm of 67 shots that didn’t stop him from enjoying a 5-3 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday.
His 64 saves are a team record.
He became only the fourth goaltender to make that many saves in a regular season game (since the stat was officially launched from 1955-56), joining Ron Tugnutt (70, March 21, 1991 with Quebec) , Mario Lessard (65, March 24, 1981 with the Kings) and Joe Daley (64, December 10, 1970 with Buffalo).
Saros successively faced 18-21 and 28 shots. He was beaten three times inside the first 30 minutes, but he gave nothing afterwards to obtain, unsurprisingly, the first star of the game.
His performance ruined Max Pacioretty’s first game with the Hurricanes. The former Vegas Golden Knights and Montreal Canadiens had yet to play a game this season due to an Achilles tendon injury. He didn’t get a point, but he was used 16:06, including more than five minutes on the power play.
Saros was foiled by Paul Stastny who opened the scoring on a power play. Brady Skjei and Jordan Staal also managed the feat of outsmarting the Preds doorman.
In the win, Filip Forsberg scored his sixth goal since returning from the holiday break. He has since totaled nine points.
Mattias Ekholm, Cody Glass, Mark Jankowski and Colton Sissons have the others for the Preds.
Capitals explode into second
TJ Oshie scored twice and the Washington Capitals used a four-goal second period to beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 6-2.
The Capitals thus clinched a seventh consecutive victory on the road, a record for the club. Washington has won 12 of its last 15 games, earning a point in eight straight meetings.
For their part, the Blue Jackets have lost nine of their last 10 games.
Oshie, Nicolas Aubé-Kubel, Martin Fehervary and Garnet Hathaway scored in the second period. Oshie and Alex Ovechkin hit the mark in the final third.
Dylan Strome had three assists, Evgeny Kuznetsov assisted with two goals and Darcy Kuemper stopped 25 shots.
Johnny Gaudreau and Gavin Bayreuther hit the target for Columbus, and Emil Bemstrom had two assists. Elvis Merzlikins stopped 31 shots in his first start since Dec. 13.
Jack Hughes’ two goals are not enough
Ivan Barbashev tied the game late in the second period and allowed Brandon Saad to score the game-winning goal early in the third period to lead the St. Louis Blues to a 5-3 win over the New Jersey Devils.
In the win, Robert Thomas scored twice, Jordan Kyrou once and Jordan Binnington made 36 saves. The Blues have improved to 7-2-3 in their last 12 games while directing just 19 shots on the net.
Thomas confirmed the victory for his team by scoring in an empty net with 43 seconds left in the game.
Jack Hughes, who has scored six goals in his last four games, scored twice for the Devils and Nico Hishier hit the mark on a two-man advantage.
Akira Schmid, who was recalled from the Utica Comets of the American Hockey League earlier in the day due to a hand injury suffered by Mackenzie Blackwood, made 14 saves.
Dunn gives himself against the Maple Leafs
Vince Dunn scored the game-winning goal and had two assists to lead the Seattle Kraken to a 5-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Jared McCann had a goal and an assist in the Kraken’s third straight victory (21-12-4).
Eeli Tolvanen opened the scoring for the Kraken on the power play. Rookie Matty Beniers and Alex Wennberg also hit the mark.
Martin Jones stopped 26 shots for the win.
John Tavares replied for the Maple Leafs (23-9-7) on the power play.
Goaltender Matt Murray made 21 saves in his first start of 2023 for the Maple Leafs.
Five Flyers goals in second
Kevin Hayes scored one of Philadelphia’s five second-period goals and Morgan Frost had four assists to help the Flyers beat the Arizona Coyotes 6-2 for their fourth straight victory.
Hayes was a surprise selection to the Flyers for All-Star Weekend. He was preferred over Travis Konecny and goaltender Carter Hart.
Konecny scored his 20th goal of the season to start the Flyers’ push into second. Joel Farabee, Wade Allison and Ivan Provorov also found the back of the net to give a 5-2 lead.
James van Riemsdyk made it 6-2 in the third and helped the Flyers score at least three goals in eight straight games.
Hart stopped 21 shots. Michael Carcone scored late in the first period to give Arizona a 1-0 lead and Nick Ritchie responded to Konency’s goal early in the second to give Arizona a 2-1 lead.
Vancouver come out of a bad streak, not the Avalanche
Andrei Kuzmenko scored twice and the Vancouver Canucks got a much-needed win, beating the Colorado Avalanche 4-2.
Brock Boeser and JT Miller each added a goal for the Canucks (17-18-3), who snapped a three-game losing streak and won their first game of 2023.
Elias Pettersson and Oliver Ekman-Larsson both had two assists.
Mikko Rantanen and Samuel Girard hit the target for the Avalanche (19-15-3).
Collin Delia stopped 29 of 31 shots to triumph. His vis-à-vis, Alexandar Georgiev, made 39 saves.
The Avalanche have lost their last five games (0-4-1) for the first time since November 2019.
Eichel shines on his return with the Golden Knights
Jack Eichel scored a goal and had two assists in his return from a lower-body injury to help the Vegas Golden Knights edge the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-2.
The Golden Knights lead the Western Conference and are tied for second in the NHL at the halfway point of the season.
The Penguins, who lost 2-1 in Boston on Monday in the Winter Classic, lost for the sixth straight time.
After giving the Golden Knights a 2-0 lead early in the first period, Eichel, back after missing 11 games, aided in the nets of Chandler Stephenson and Mark Stone. Phil Kessel and Paul Cotter also hit the mark and Adin Hill made 38 saves.
Ty Smith scored the Penguins’ first goal, his first of the season. Sidney Crosby completed the scoring and reached 20 goals for the 15th time in his career.
Casey DeSmith made 26 saves in the loss.
Doubles from Frederic and Pastrnak against the Kings
Trent Frederic scored twice within 34 seconds of the third period as the Boston Bruins beat the Los Angeles Kings 5-2.
The Bruins thus extended their series of games with at least one point to 12 and they reached the milestone of 30 victories.
Frederic first redirected a Brandon Carlo shot from the point, then got his ninth goal of the season, a career-high, beating goaltender Pheonix Copley from the backhand.
David Pastrnak also scored twice and he leads his team with 27 goals this season.
Brad Marchand had a goal and an assist, while Charlie McAvoy had two assists for the Bruins, who hold the NHL’s best point total with 64.
Jeremy Swayman made 27 saves in the win and edged Copley in the first game ever between two Alaskan-born goaltenders.
Copley made 17 saves but his winning streak ended at seven. In the loss, Phillip Danault and Sean Durzi hit the target.
