Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

NHL Short Notes

03/20/2018 at 8:52am EDT

NHL MORNING SKATE

MONDAY’S RESULTS

Home Team in Caps

Columbus 5, BOSTON 4 (OT)

Nashville 4, BUFFALO 0

Florida 2, MONTREAL 0

Los Angeles 4, MINNESOTA 3 (OT)

ARIZONA 5, Calgary 2

RINNE HITS 40 WINS WITH SHUTOUT, PREDATORS SET FRANCHISE RECORD
Pekka Rinne (35 saves) established a franchise record with his League-leading eighth shutout of the season to help the Predators (48-14-10, 106 points) increase their lead atop the NHL standings. It marked the 15th consecutive game with at least a point for Nashville (14-0-1), also a new club record.

* Rinne (40-9-4) reached the 40-win mark for the third time in his career, becoming the seventh goaltender in NHL history to achieve the feat; Martin Brodeur (8) is the only goaltender with more such campaigns.

* Rinne recorded his 51st career shutout to extend his personal win streak to 11 games, matching his career high set from Jan. 7 – Feb. 4, 2012. His win streak is the longest by a goaltender since last season, when Sergei Bobrovsky (14-0-0 w/ CBJ) and Brian Elliott (11-0-0 w/ CGY) each won at least 11 consecutive appearances.

* Nashville also extended their franchise-record road win and point streaks to nine and 15 games (12-0-3), respectively. This marks the NHL’s longest road win streak since Minnesota posted a 12-game run in 2014-15. The Predators have only one regulation road loss in the 2018 calendar year (Jan. 2 at VGK).


LUONGO CLIMBS ALL-TIME LIST WITH SHUTOUT VICTORY

Roberto Luongo turned aside all 28 shots he faced to backstop the Panthers (36-27-8, 79 points) to victory and to within three points of the idle Devils (37-27-8, 82 points) for the second Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference. Florida holds games in hand on New Jersey (2), Columbus (3) and Philadelphia (3) – all teams they are within six points of in the playoff race.

* Luongo, who ranks fourth in NHL history with 468 career wins, recorded his 76th career shutout to move into a tie with Tony Esposito and Ed Belfour for ninth place on the NHL's all-time list. He sits six games shy of joining Martin Brodeur (1,266) and Patrick Roy (1,029) as the only netminders to play 1,000 career games.

* Aaron Ekblad scored the game-winning goal to push his season totals to 15-17—32, tied for the second-most goals by a defenseman in 2017-18. He sits one goal shy of matching the single-season franchise record for a defenseman (set by Jason Garrison in 2011-12) and from tying Jay Bouwmeester (53) for second all-time for goals by a Panthers defenseman.

STAAL INCHES CLOSER TO 40 GOALS AS RICHARD RACE INTENSIFIES
Minnesota’s Eric Staal (39-32—71) scored his 39th goal of the season to move within one of becoming the fourth 40-goal scorer in 2017-18. Staal has two 40-goal seasons to his credit, but has not reached the benchmark since 2008-09. Only one player in NHL history has gone at least eight seasons between 40-goal seasons: Gordie Howe, who skated 11 seasons between 40-goal campaigns (44 in 1956-57 and 44 in 1968-69).

* Overall, seven players sit within five goals of the NHL lead. This marks just the seventh time in the NHL's modern era (since 1943-44) that at least that many players have been within five goals of the League lead during the final three weeks of the season.


PLAYOFF HOPEFULS EARN CRITICAL POINTS WITH OVERTIME WINS
The Blue Jackets (40-28-5, 85 points) and Kings (40-27-6, 86 points) each collected overtime victories to improve their positions in their respective playoff races:

* Cam Atkinson scored in overtime to help the Blue Jackets extend the NHL’s longest active win streak to eight contests. Columbus, who currently holds the second Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference, moved into a tie in terms of points with idle Philadelphia (37-25-11, 85 points) for third place in the Metropolitan Division.


* Atkinson netted his fifth career regular-season overtime goal, one back of Rick Nash (6) for the most in franchise history.

* Dustin Brown (1-1—2) tied the contest with 46.5 seconds remaining in regulation and Jeff Carter (2-0—2) scored in overtime to help lead the Kings to a 6-3-1 record over their last 10 contests. Los Angeles displaced Anaheim (37-24-12, 86 points) for third place in the Pacific Division based on the ROW tiebreaker.


* Brown’s goal marked the 34th instance of a team scoring a tying goal in the final minute of regulation this season (third by LAK). Clubs that have accomplished this feat own a 15-0-19 record in 2017-18.

QUICK CLICKS

· Pietrangelo, MacKinnon, McElhinney named Three Stars of the Week

· Zach Parise, Anze Kopitar use curling brooms for ceremonial face-off

· Lightning ride scoring depth to playoff berth (via Dan Rosen)

· Larry Kwong, first Chinese-Canadian in NHL, dies at 94 (via Dave Stubbs)

SNEAK PEEK AT TUESDAY’S ACTION

NBC Sports Channel Finder | Sportsnet Channel Finder | NHL Network Channel Finder

METROPOLITAN DIVISION RACE TAKES CENTER STAGE

Each of the top five teams in the Metropolitan Division – who are separated by only seven points and hold five of eight Eastern Conference playoff spots – are in action tonight:

* The Capitals (41-24-7, 89 points) set out for a sixth straight home win when they host the Stars (38-27-8, 84 points). Alex Ovechkin is tied for the NHL lead with 43 goals (with 10 games remaining) as he aims to become the second player in League history to finish atop the goals list at least seven times. The most goals he has scored in his final 10 games of a season is nine, in 2012-13.

* The Penguins (41-26-5, 87 points) seek to narrow the gap on the Capitals when they visit the Islanders (30-32-10, 70 points). Evgeni Malkin (40-49—89) already has his fourth-most points since 2011-12 – when he won his second Art Ross Trophy – and sits four back of the League lead. Only eight players have led the League in points at least three times, including two Penguins: Mario Lemieux (6x) and Jaromir Jagr (5x).

* The Flyers (37-25-11, 85 points) eye a third straight victory when they visit the Red Wings. Claude Giroux (26-58—84) is tied for fifth in the League in points while Jakub Voracek (18-60—78) ranks second in assists and sits one point outside the top-10. Only six seasons have finished with multiple Flyers among the top-10 in points – including 2014-15 when Voracek (t-4th) and Giroux (t-10th) did so – and only three have seen a Flyers player at least share the League lead in assists.

* The Blue Jackets (40-28-5, 85 points) aim for their ninth consecutive victory when they take on the Rangers (32-32-8, 72 points) in New York. Columbus looks to record the third win streak of at least nine games in franchise history. The others: 16-0-0 from Nov. 29 – Jan. 3, 2017 and 9-0-0 from March 18 – April 4, 2015.

* The Devils (37-27-8, 82 points) play the fifth game of a six-game road trip (3-1-0) when they take on the Sharks (40-23-9, 89 points). Taylor Hall paces New Jersey with 31-46—77 (67 GP), the most points by a Devils player since 2011-12 when Ilya Kovalchuk (37-46—83 in 77 GP) and Patrik Elias (26-52—78 in 81 GP) each had more.

FOUR CLUBS TAKE ICE IN MIDST OF WESTERN CONFERENCE PLAYOFF PUSH

Four of the eight teams separated by 10 points in the Western Conference hit the ice as they hunt down playoff spots:

* The Sharks (40-23-9, 89 points) try for a fifth consecutive win as they aim to strengthen their grip on the No. 2 seed in the Pacific Division. Logan Couture (29-25—54) sits one goal shy of joining Patrick Marleau (7) and Joe Pavelski (4) as the only Sharkswith at least three 30-goal seasons.

* The Kings (40-27-6, 86 points) continue a four-game road trip with a meeting against the Jets (43-19-10, 96 points). Los Angeles has the second-most road wins in the NHL this season (21; tied) and will match up against Winnipeg, owners of the League’s top home record in 2017-18 (26-7-2, 54 points; tied). The Jets need one victory (overall) to establish a new single-season franchise record.

* The Avalanche (39-25-8, 86 points), who have at least one point in 12 of their last 14 games (8-2-4), visit the Blackhawks looking to inch closer to the Wild (41-24-8, 90 points) for third place in the Central Division. Owners of the first Wild Card spot, the Avalanche are led by Nathan MacKinnon (38-51—89), who is within striking distance of becoming the second player in franchise history to win the Art Ross Trophy (Peter Forsberg in 2002-03).

* The Stars (38-27-8, 84 points) visit the Capitals, sitting two points back of three teams who currently hold a playoff spot. Tyler Seguin (38-31—69) is two goals shy of becoming the 11th player in Stars/North Stars history to score 40 goals in a season, and the third to do so since the club moved to Dallas (Mike Modano: 50 in 1993-94 and Jamie Benn: 41 in 2015-16).

above information was supplied by the NHL PR department

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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