* Steven Stamkos’ 900th career point helped vault the Lightning into top spot in the NHL standings.
* Filip Forsberg and Quinn Hughes aided the Predators and Canucks to victory Thursday en route to extending the League’s longest active win streaks to six games.
* Jack Drury, the son of former NHL player Ted Drury and nephew of Rangers GM Chris Drury, scored in his League debut as Carolina capped their victory with a Stars Wars-themed Storm Surge.
* Connor McDavid (16-31—47) notched two points to overtake Alex Ovechkin (21-25—46) for the NHL scoring lead, while Leon Draisaitl (23-23—46) pulled even.
* Alex Ovechkin enters Friday tied with Dave Andreychuk for the most power-play goals in NHL history (274).
LIGHTNING LEAP INTO FIRST PLACE AS STAMKOS RECORDS 900TH NHL POINT
On the night the Lightning (19-6-4, 42 points) moved into first place in the overall standings for the first time since April 3, captain Steven Stamkos (452-448—900 in 869 GP) also celebrated his 900th career point and joined Martin St. Louis (365-588—953 in 972 GP) as the second player in franchise history to hit the milestone with the club.
* Andrei Vasilevskiy extended his winning streak to six games and secured his NHL-leading 16th victory of the season (2.10 GAA, .928 SV%, 2 SO). Vasilevskiy also improved to 63-21-4 in 2021 and surpassed Marc-Andre Fleury (62-30-6 in 2009 w/ PIT) for the most wins by a goaltender in a calendar year in NHL history (regular season and playoffs combined).
FORSBERG HELPS PUSH PREDATORS TO SIXTH STRAIGHT WIN
Filip Forsberg (2-1—3) factored on three of five goals to record his 24th career three-point game and help the Predators (18-10-1, 37 points) extend the NHL’s longest active win streak to six games (tied). Nashville, 8-2-0 in its last 10 games, moved ahead of Colorado (17-8-2, 36 points) and idle St. Louis (16-8-5, 37 points) for second place in the Central Division.
WESTERN CONFERENCE CLUBS CONTINUE TO JOCKEY FOR POSITION
The Golden Knights (18-11-0, 36 points), Oilers (17-11-0, 34 points), Kings (13-10-5, 31 points) and Canucks (14-15-2, 30 points) each won to keep pace in the Western Conference standings, where eight teams are separated by six points (seed Nos. 5-12).
* Alex Pietrangelo notched an assist to extend his road point streak to nine games (3-7—10) – the longest ever by a Golden Knights player – as Vegas claimed its third straight win. The Golden Knights improved to 6-1-0 in seven games since Dec. 3, moving from outside the playoff picture to within three points of first place in the Pacific Division over the past two weeks.
* Jesse Puljujarvi (2-1—3) scored twice in a span of 46 seconds – the fastest two goals by an Oilers player in more than eight years – as Edmonton halted an 0-6-0 slide to maintain the second Wild Card position in the Western Conference. Connor McDavid notched two assists to overtake Alex Ovechkin (idle) for the most points in the NHL this season.
* Anze Kopitar scored the game winner as the Kings extended their point streak to four games (3-0-1) – with each of the last three contests coming against clubs currently ranked among the top seven in the NHL standings. Kopitar tied Marcel Dionne for the second-most game-winning goals in franchise history (59).
* Quinn Hughes (0-1—1) factored on one of five Canucks goals as Vancouver improved to 6-0-0 since Bruce Boudreau was named head coach Dec. 6. Boudreau became the sixth head coach in NHL history to win each of his first six games with a club, following Geoff Ward, Jacques Lemaire, Patrick Roy, Bryan Murray and Mario Tremblay.
NIGHT OF FIRSTS IN RALEIGH HIGHLIGHTS #NHLSTATS: LIVE UPDATES
The Thursday edition of #NHLStats: Live Updates includes notes on 21-year-old Jack Drury (1-0—1) and 27-year-old Andrew Poturalski (0-1—1) securing their first NHL points in a Carolina victory. The Hurricanes (20-7-1, 41 points) required the second-fewest games in franchise history to reach the 20-win mark in a single season.
* Poturalski became the second-oldest skater in Hurricanes team history at the time of his first career point, while Drury became the fourth Hurricanes player in the past five years to score in his NHL debut.
QUICK CLICKS
* Steven Stamkos reflects on 900 career points with Lightning
* Sabres score two game-tying goals in shootout win over WIld
* Semyon Varlamov makes 40 saves, Islanders defeat Bruins
* Jonathan Quick makes 41 saves, Kings top Panthers
* 2022 NHL All-Star Game fan vote now open online
PAIR OF GAMES ON ESPN+ AMONG SIX-GAME SLATE
A six-game Friday features Alex Ovechkin looking to break a tie with Dave Andreychuk for the most power-play goals in NHL history as well as a pair of contests exclusively on ESPN+ and Hulu that includes a Central Division showdown between the Stars and Blues and the Pacific Division-leading Ducks hosting the Coyotes.
