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The National Hockey League had a total of eight games on Monday, and we had an entertaining bunch of games with a slice of history, too. San Jose’s Patrick Marleau was the big story at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, as he moved past Gordie Howe for the NHL’s all-time games played top spot. Marleau has been both mentally and physically tough to reach this milestone. Hats off to the future Hall of Famer, who has played a majority of his career in San Jose. Now, hopefully someone can get the beautiful leather gloves for No. 12 corrected. The custom gloves read: “Most Games Played in NHL History”, with “1,768th NHL Games” underneath. As the kids like to say, SMDH. Anyway, let’s get started!
Tampa Bay Lightning 3, Carolina Hurricanes 2 (OT)
The Lightning saw Alex Killorn open the scoring with his 12th goal of the season at 14:42, helped out by Anthony Cirelli and Tyler Johnson.
It got better early in the second, as Brayden Point notched his 19th goal on the power play. It was the 300th point of his NHL career, and it’s fitting it came on the man advantage. Victor Hedman, who just reached 400 points last time out, picked up his 34th helper, while Ondrej Palat also notched an assist.
The Hurricanes weren’t going away quietly. They answered on the power play, as Andrei Svechnikov bagged goal No. 13 with the 30th helper of the season to Dougie Hamilton. Then, early in the third, Brady Skjei scored an unassisted goal for just his second of the season, and it stood up as the game-tying goal to force overtime.
Yanni Gourde helped the home side secure points, hitting the game-winning tally, as Killorn came back for his second point on the winner.
Andrei Vasilevskiy, who lost for the first time in 15 home games last time out, bounced back with the win, making 25 saves. He bested Petr Mrazek, who stopped 33 of 36 shots.
Florida Panthers 4, Columbus Blue Jackets 2
The Panthers made a deal for Sam Bennett at the NHL trade deadline, and he is paying huge dividends.
Bennett scored his fifth goal of the season early in the second period, helped out by Anthony Duclair and Jonathan Huberdeau. That made it 2-0 after Frank Vatrano‘s earlier unassisted goal, and the Panthers never ended up trailing in this game.
Oliver Bjorkstrand and Zac Dalpe were the goal scorers for the visiting Jackets, but they just couldn’t get within arm’s length of Sergei Bobrovsky and the Panthers.
Officially, Radko Gudas was credited with the game-winning tally, as Gustav Forsling had primary helper and Duclair was back for his second point of the evening.
Bob ended up with 34 saves on 36 shots for the win, and Vatrano tacked on an empty-net goal for good measure.
Dallas Stars 3, Detroit Red Wings 2 (SO)
The Stars were heavily favored on home ice, but the Red Wings haven’t been pushovers lately, and they gave the home side all it could handle.
Roope Hintz opened the scoring on the power play late in the first period, but Luke Glendening was having none of that. He scored his fourth of the season from Evgeny Svechnikov and Alex Biega to pull even.
Jason Robertson, who has been red-hot over the past several weeks to emerge as a must-start fantasy option, bagged his 13th with Hintz on primary apple and Miro Heiskanen getting on the board.
But Glendening again returned late in the second and potted a goal, helped out by Darren Helm and again, Alex, don’t call me Lou, Biega. The third period, as well as overtime, was scoreless.
Thomas Greiss and Anton Khudobin were each beaten in the first round of the shootout before clamping down. It wasn’t until Round 5 when Denis Gurianov broke in for the winner that the Stars finally were able to sneak by the huge underdogs for the extra point.
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Nashville Predators 5, Chicago Blackhawks 2
The Predators and Blackhawks exchanged goals in the first period, as Matt Duchene opened the scoring, while Alex DeBrincat cleaned up some loose change on the power play to square things up 1-1.
In the second period, Calle Jarnkrok pushed Nashville back ahead with his 12th goal of the season. Jarnkrok was playing in his 500th NHL game, all with Nashville, and he is the 13th player in franchise history to reach the milestone.
Mattias Ekholm notched his sixth, taking a short pass from Ryan Johansen in his own end and then speeding on the breakaway to make it 3-1. In fact, on the telecast they showed him reach 20 mph.
David Kampf scored his first goal of the season with a helper to Adam Gaudette, closing the game to 3-2.
In the third, Tanner Jeannot had the tip from Ryan Ellis for insurance just 23 seconds into the period, and Luke Kunin scored just 18 seconds later. Kunin was getting worked over all game, so his hard work paid off. That goal chased Kevin Lankinen, who allowed five goals on 22 shots. Malcolm Subban finished up with eight saves on eight shots.
Juuse Saros registered 30 saves to improve to 16-9-0 with a 2.22 GAA and .928 SV%.
Ottawa Senators 4, Calgary Flames 2
The Senators doubled up the Flames, as Connor Brown remains absolutely red hot.
Brady Tkachuk scored midway through the first period with Josh Norris picking up the assist. Elias Lindholm added the equalizer with helpers to Mark Giordano and Johnny Gaudreau.
The aforementioned Brown had his third shorthanded goal of the season to grab the lead, and the Sens wouldn’t look back.
Norris struck on the power-play to open the scoring in the third period, as Tim Stutzle and Erik Brannstrom made it 3-1. Brown was back to put a bow on the scoring with the empty-net goal on an unassisted goal.
Brown had his first two-goal game since Feb. 24, 2020 in Columbus. He has managed nine goals in the past 10 games, and he has 11 points with a plus-1 rating April.
Norris had the goal and assist with a plus-1, and he has three goals and eight points during his five-game point streak.
Edmonton Oilers 4, Montreal Canadiens 1
The Oilers and Habs played to a scoreless tie after 20 minutes, but the Habs still lost.
Carey Price stopped all seven of the shots he faced, but he was unable to continue after the first intermission due to an upper-body injury. The good news is that it wasn’t related to the lower-body ailment which forced him to miss six games.
Eric Staal scored his fifth of the season, staking Jake Allen to a 1-0 lead after two periods. Unfortunately for the Oil, the third period happened.
Ethan Bear scored midway through the period, Connor McDavid put the Oilers ahead 2-1 with his 24th goal. He also chipped in with two assists, his 49th and 50th of the season.
Jesse Puljujarvi scored for the second straight game, and Devin Shore also got on the board.
It was more than enough support for Mike Smith, who is now 16-4-2 with a 2.30 GAA .923 SV%.
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Minnesota Wild 5, Arizona Coyotes 2
The Wild opened with a power-play goal at 9:19 of the first period, as Kirill Kaprizov posted the 1-0 lead. Christian Fischer scored his first of the season to level the game 1-1, his first goal since Feb. 19, 2020. He also has pointed in consecutive games for the first time since a three-game point streak from Nov. 23-27, 2019.
Jordan Greenway and Marcus Johansson scored to make it 3-1, and the Wild wouldn’t look back. Alex Goligoski opened the scoring in the third period to cut it to 3-2, so Johansson’s power-play goal stood up as the game winner.
Kevin Fiala and Jonas Brodin closed out the scoring to make it 5-2, making a winner out of Cam Talbot. The latter saved 22 of 24 shots for his 15th victory.
Vegas Golden Knights 3, San Jose Sharks 2 (SO)
The win might have gone to VGK, but the night belonged to Marleau. The 41-year-old veteran surpassed Gordie Howe for the most games played in NHL history with his 1,768th game. He made his debut back on Oct. 1, 2017 against the Edmonton Oilers.
After the game, the Golden Knights lined up and shook his hand and gave him choice words, a rarity for a regular-season games between bitter rivals. It was a classy move, as both teams also gave Marleau stick taps, he raised his stick to acknowledge the cheering crowd at T-Mobile Arena, and his family saw him play this season for the first time. It was a magical night.
After the game, Alex Tuch might have put Marleau’s longevity into the funniest perspective. He said when Marleau started his career Tuch was just a one-year-old. That’s crazy.
Marleau went scoreless, but the same wasn’t true for the Vegas captain. Mark Stone scored two power-play goals, and Robin Lehner hung for the shootout win on the historic night. The teams are back at it Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN.