* David Pastrnak pocketed 3-1—4 and climbed the Bruins’ all-time lists for 30-goal seasons, hat tricks and game-opening tallies.
* The Central Division-leading Stars defeated the Panthers to maintain their one-point lead on the Jets, who prevailed in a turbulent clash with the Canucks to remain at cruising altitude.
* Monday’s slate opens with Rasmus Dahlin looking to follow up his franchise record-tying five-point performance from Saturday and closes with League scoring leader Connor McDavid facing the Kings.
PASTRNAK SCORES HAT TRICK FOR NHL-LEADING BRUINS TO ECLIPSE 30-GOAL MARK
David Pastrnak (32-26—58 in 40 GP) opened the scoring to reach the 30-goal mark for the sixth time in his NHL career and added two more tallies to complete the hat trick at Honda Center. Pastrnak scored his 13th regular-season hat trick in the NHL and passed Johnny Bucyk (12) for sole possession of third place on the franchise’s all-time list.
* The League-leading Bruins (32-4-4, 68 points) extended their point streak to 14 games (11-0-3 dating to Dec. 11, 2022) and maintained their 11-point edge on the Maple Leafs (25-9-7, 57 points), who occupy second place in the Atlantic Division standings. Toronto defeated Philadelphia on Sunday, with Auston Matthews (20-27—47 in 41 GP) reaching the 20-goal mark for the seventh time in as many seasons.
U.S.-BORN SKATERS SHINE FOR STARS, JETS ON SUNDAY
Jason Robertson (Arcadia, Calif.) and Kyle Connor (Shelby Township, Mich.) combined for five goals Sunday as the Central Division-leading Stars (24-11-6, 54 points) secured a 5-1 win while the second-place Jets (26-13-1, 53 points) prevailed after surrendering leads of 2-0 and 4-2 to keep pace:
* Robertson recorded the 16th multi-goal game of his NHL career and moved into a tie with Steve Payne for the seventh most by a Stars/North Stars player age 23 or younger. Robertson’s six multi-goal games this season trail only Bo Horvat (9) and Alex Ovechkin (7) for the most in the NHL.
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* Connor (20-29—49 in 40 GP) corralled the fourth hat trick of his NHL career to extend his home point streak to a franchise-record 11 games (9-12—21 dating to Dec. 4, 2022) and reach the 20-goal mark for a sixth straight season. Pierre-Luc Dubois had a career-high four assists for Winnipeg, which extended its winning streak to five contests.
REICHEL, TIMMINS TALLYING FIRST CAREER NHL GOAL FEATURED IN LIVE UPDATES
Sunday’s edition of #NHLStats: Live Updates featured more notes from the eight-game slate, including Blackhawks forward Lukas Reichel (1-2—3) and Maple Leafs defenseman Conor Timmins (1-1—2) scoring the first goal of their NHL career. Reichel’s milestone tally came against Calgary, the team his uncle Robert played parts of six seasons with from 1990-91 to 1996-97.
QUICK CLICKS
* Capitals return ‘meant the world’ to Nicklas Backstrom
* Slapshot has three pint-sized helpers at Capitals Kids Day
* Panthers desperate for 2nd-half turnaround after rocky start
* Jets honor Ukrainian Under-25 National Team and Ukrainian Ice Hockey Federation
Photo via @NHLJets
MONDAY OPENS WITH DAHLIN ENCORE, CLOSES WITH McDAVID EYING 80 POINTS
A four-game Monday begins with Rasmus Dahlin and the Sabres (20-15-2, 42 points) squaring off with the Flyers (15-18-7, 37 points) at KeyBank Center and is capped by Connor McDavid and the Oilers (21-17-3, 45 points) clashing with the Kings (23-14-6, 52 points) at Crypto.com Arena. Buffalo is four points back of Pittsburgh (20-13-6, 46 points) which occupies the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference standings, while Edmonton and Los Angeles rank fifth and second place, respectively, in the Pacific Division.
* Dahlin had 2-3—5 on Saturday to match the franchise record for most points in a game by a defenseman and help the Sabres improve to 8-1-0 in their last nine contests. The most points by a Buffalo blueliner over a two-game span is seven, achieved by Phil Housley (1-6—7 from Dec. 22-23, 1989 & 3-4—7 from Nov. 25-27, 1988), Brian Campbell (1-6—7 from Oct. 11-13, 2007) and Jerry Korab (2-5—7 from Feb. 23-25, 1978).
* McDavid (33-43—76 in 41 GP) needs four points to become the fastest NHL player to reach 80 in a season since Penguins teammates Mario Lemieux (31-52—83 in 31 GP) and Jaromir Jagr (34-46—80 in 37 GP) in 1995-96. McDavid has 16-30—46 in 31 career head-to-head games with Kings captain Anze Kopitar including 4-10—14 in seven contests during the 2022 First Round, but has only recorded two four-point outings against the two-time Frank J. Selke Trophy winner (1-3—4 on Oct. 5, 2019 & March 26, 2019).
