* Brady Tkachuk scored his first career hat trick and the NHL’s 29th of the season to propel the Senators past the defending Stanley Cup champion Lightning.
* Auston Matthews continued his recent string of success, netting his 12th goal in 13 games to move into a tie for third most among all players in 2021-22.
* Sebastian Aho found the score sheet yet again and collected multiple points for the fifth straight game – one shy of the longest such run in Hurricanes/Whalers history.
TKACHUK, FORSBERG COMBINE FOR DAY OF FIRSTS FOR SENATORS
Senators captain Brady Tkachuk netted his first NHL hat trick and goaltender Anton Forsberg (25 saves) posted his first shutout as Ottawa won for the fourth time in five games.
* Tkachuk became the third member of his immediate family to score an NHL hat trick, following father Keith (10, including playoffs) and brother Matthew (1).
* Forsberg became the first goaltender to blank the Lightning this season and the second in as many campaigns to record his first career shutout against the defending champions.
MATTHEWS HELPS MAPLE LEAFS FEND OFF BLACKHAWKS
Chicago erased a three-goal deficit, but Auston Matthews (1-1—2) scored one of five Maple Leafs goals and factored on both of Toronto’s power-play tallies to boost his 2021-22 totals to 18-13—31 (26 GP). Matthews moved into a tie with Winnipeg’s Kyle Connor (18 in 27 GP) for the third-most goals this season, behind only Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl (23 in 26 GP) and Washington’s Alex Ovechkin (20 in 28 GP).
* After scoring six times through his first 13 games of the season (6-6—12), Matthews has vaulted up the NHL’s leaderboard in 2021-22 with 12 goals over his subsequent 13 contests since Nov. 16 (12-7—19) – the most among all players over that span.
DID YOU KNOW?
Auston Matthews was one of two Maple Leafs skaters with a power-play goal Saturday – the fifth straight contest Toronto has converted on the man advantage multiple times. They became the sixth team in the past 25 years to score multiple power-play goals in five consecutive games.
AHO MOVES WITHIN ONE OF FRANCHISE MARK IN WIN AGAINST OILERS
Sebastian Aho (2-1—3) factored on all three Carolina goals and Frederik Andersen made 22 saves as the Hurricanes (19-6-1, 39 points) leapfrogged the idle Rangers (18-5-3, 39 points) for second place in the Metropolitan Division.
* Andersen has earned a point in each of his 10 career road games against the Oilers (9-0-1). He became the 11th different goaltender in NHL history to begin his career with a road point streak of 10 or more games against one franchise – Jonathan Quick (10-0-3 at EDM) and Mike Smith (8-0-4 at TOR) are the only active netminders with longer such runs.
ISLANDERS SKATE TO FIRST WIN AT UBS ARENA
Zach Parise (1-0—1) and Andy Greene (1-0—1) each scored their first goals of the season, doing so against their former club, while Ilya Sorokin (30 saves) earned his 20th career win as the Islanders (7-11-5, 19 points) defeated the Devils en route to celebrating their first victory at UBS Arena.
BLUE JACKETS WITHSTAND BACK-AND-FORTH AFFAIR IN #NHLSTATS: LIVE UPDATES
The Saturday edition of #NHLStats: Live Updates featured a back-and-forth affair between Columbus and Seattle, which included the team debut for Alexander True. After the Blue Jackets scored four times in the second period to build a three-goal lead, the Kraken stormed back to draw even – including two goals in a span of 22 seconds in the third period – only to have Jake Bean find the back of the net 55 seconds into overtime for Columbus.
BRUCE, THERE IT IS: CANUCKS LOOK TO STAY PERFECT UNDER BOUDREAU
Bruce Boudreau will look to become the first head coach in Canucks history to win each of his first four games behind the bench when the club hosts the Hurricanes. The only head coach to earn at least a point in each of his first four or more games to begin his tenure with Vancouver is Roger Neilson, who was 3-0-1 through four contests in 1981-82 and had that point streak end at seven games (5-0-2).
CENTRAL DIVISION’S BEST LOOK TO CONTINUE RECENT SUCCESSES
Each of the top four teams in the Central Division are in action tonight:
* The division-leading Wild (19-7-1, 39 points) visit the Golden Knights (15-11-0, 30 points) looking to continue their success against the 2017-18 expansion club. No team has more wins against Vegas than Minnesota, with the Wild claiming 11 of 17 meetings to date (11-3-3; .735 P%) – tied with the Kings (11-10-1; .523 P%) for the most victories among all clubs. Minnesota’s point-percentage against Vegas (.735) is the highest among teams that have faced them at least 10 times.
* Pavel Buchnevich and the Blues (15-8-4, 34 points), who earned a victory Saturday after U.S. Army serviceman Thomas Phares surprised his family at the game by returning home for the holidays, will look to win their eighth consecutive contest at Enterprise Center when they host the Ducks. Buchnevich, who leads all Blues players in points over their current run (4-6—10 in 7 GP), aims to help St. Louis win eight or more consecutive home games for the third time in franchise history.
* The Predators (16-10-1, 33 points) will look to sweep a road trip of four or more games for the third time in franchise history when they visit the Rangers. The only perfect road trips of at least that length by Nashville were from Jan. 21-27, 2016 (4-0-0) and Feb. 27 – March 4, 2018 (4-0-0).
* The high-scoring Avalanche (15-7-2, 32 points) will aim to continue their surge up the standings when they face the League-leading Panthers (18-4-4, 40 points). Cale Makar (12-13—25 in 21 GP), who needs one goal to set a new career-high, has scored at least one tally in eight of his last 11 appearances. He is one of 11 defensemen in NHL history – and one of seven in the past 91 years – to accumulate 10 goals over an 11-game span.
