RANTANEN POWERS AVALANCHE’S TOP LINE IN WIN OVER BRUINS...
In a contest between two of the NHL’s most potent lines, Mikko Rantanen (1-2—3), Nathan MacKinnon (1-1—2) and Gabriel Landeskog (1-0—1) combined for 3-3—6 as the Avalanche tallied six goals in a game for a League-leading fourth time this season.

* Rantanen, who boosted his League-leading totals to 7-22–29 in 18 games, has five outings with at least three points this season to tie Boston’sPatrice Bergeron for the most in 2018-19. The only Avalanche/Nordiques skaters to be the first NHL players to reach the 30-point mark in a season were Peter Forsberg (1997-98) and Joe Sakic (1998-99).

* Since 2005-06, eight of the 13 players who were the first to reach the 30-point mark accomplished the feat in fewer than 20 games. Tampa Bay’sSteven Stamkos reached the mark in his 17th contest of 2017-18.

* Additionally, Rantanen looks become the first Avalanche player to reach the 30-point mark in the first 20 team games of a season since Sakic and Forsberg both did so in their 20th game of 1996-97.

… AS PASTRNAK INCHES CLOSER TO 20-GOAL MARK
Bruins forward David Pastrnak (1-1—2) collected his third consecutive multi-point game Wednesday to inch closer to the 20-goal mark. Pastrnak, who has held at least a share of the League’s goal scoring lead since Oct, 31, became the 11th different player in NHL history aged 22 or younger to score at least 17 goals through his team’s first 18 games.

* Pastrnak, who topped the 30-goal mark in each of his previous two seasons, sits three tallies shy of reaching the 20-goal mark. Only five differentBruins players have been the first NHL player to reach the 20-goal mark in a season: Buzz Boll (1942-43), Herb Cain (1943-44), Bronco Horvath(1959-60), Phil Esposito (1970-71, 1971-72, 1973-74, 1974-75) and Bill Guerin (2000-01).

^{^}In terms of earliest game on the League schedule

* Boston will play its 20th game of the season Saturday in Arizona. Only one player in Bruins history has reached the 20-goal mark within the first 20 team games of a season: Esposito accomplished the feat in his team’s 18th contest in 1973-74 (20-20—40).

DID YOU KNOW?
Gabriel Landeskog (12-8—20) opened the scoring to join Mikko Rantanen (7-22—29) and Nathan MacKinnon (12-14—26) as the third Avalanche player to record at least 20 points this season. They joined the Bruins, Maple Leafs and Capitals as the only teams to feature three players with at least 20 points.

* Colorado’s trio has factored on 37 of 65 Avalanche goals this season (56.9%). Among those clubs, only Boston’s David Pastrnak, Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand (67.8%) and Washington’s Evgeny Kuznetsov, Nicklas Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin (64.4%) have combined to factor on more team goals this season.

WHEELER MATCHES CAREER MARK AS JETS EDGE PAST CAPITALS
Blake Wheeler collected an assist on Mark Scheifele’s game-tying goal to extend his point streak to 11 contests and match the longest such run of his career (also 11 GP from March 20 – April 9, 2016).

* Wheeler is just the second player in Jets/Thrashers franchise history to record a double-digit point streak on multiple occasions. The other: Ilya Kovalchuk (10 GP from Dec. 10-28, 2009 and 10 GP from Dec. 27 – Jan. 15, 2008). Among active skaters, Penguins forward Sidney Crosby has the most career point streaks of 10 or more games with nine such runs.

* Scheifele, who netted his 10th goal of the season in his team’s 17th game, became the sixth active player to require 17 or fewer games to reach the 10-goal mark in three or more consecutive seasons, joining David Pastrnak (2016-17 to 2018-19), Steven Stamkos (2009-10 to 2014-15), Eric Staal (2005-06 to 2007-08), Alex Ovechkin (2005-06 to 2007-08) and Ilya Kovalchuk (2003-04 to 2007-08).

* Connor Hellebuyck turned aside 27 shots to improve to 8-5-1 this season (2.72 GAA, .915 SV%), including a 6-2-1 mark at Bell MTS Place. Hellebuyck, who led the NHL with 30 home wins last season, owns a 51-17-4 mark on home ice since the start of the 2016-17 season, trailing only Washington’s Braden Holtby’s 53 home victories over that span.

GOLDEN KNIGHTS, BLACKHAWKS SHUT THE DOOR ON HOME ICE
Marc-Andre Fleury (29 saves) and Corey Crawford (28 saves) each posted shutouts to backstop the Golden Knights and Blackhawks to home wins.

* Fleury recorded his League-leading third shutout of the season as the Golden Knights recorded their largest margin of victory in a shutout performance since Oct 27, 2017 vs COL (7-0). Fleury, fresh off his ninth campaign with at least 25 wins in 2017-18, registered his 51st career shutout to move into a five-way tie for 24th on the NHL’s all-time list.

* Brent Seabrook scored the only goal of the contest to help head coach Jeremy Colliton earn his first career NHL win. Seabrook (98-344—442) sits two goals shy of becoming the third defenseman in Blackhawks franchise history to reach the 100-goal mark. The others: Doug Wilson (225) and Bob Murray (132). Crawford’s shutout was the 24th of his career, which ranks seventh on the franchise’s all-time list.

QUICK CLICKS

· VIDEO: Feature on Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko

· Carl Hagelin traded to Kings by Penguins for Tanner Pearson

· Nicknames helped Stan Fischler fall in love with hockey

· Penguins sign GM Jim Rutherford to three-year extension

SNEAK PEEK AT THURSDAY’S ACTION

PANTHERS AIM FOR SIXTH CONSECUTIVE VICTORY

The Panthers (7-5-3, 17 points) look to become the first team in the NHL this season to win six consecutive games when they visit the Metropolitan Division-leading Blue Jackets (10-6-2, 22 points) at Nationwide Arena.

* The Panthers can string together a winning streak of six or more games for the sixth time in franchise history and second time in the calendar year (6-0-0 from Feb. 22 - Mar. 4 2018). The longest winning streak in Panthers history was a 12-game run during the 2015-16 campaign.

* Mike Hoffman aims to become the first player in franchise history to record a 14-game point streak - his current 13-game run (7-8—15 in 13 GP) is the longest by any NHL player this season and tied with Pavel Bure (12-9—21 in 13 GP in 1999-2000) for the longest in Panthers history. His teammate, Evgenii Dadonov, owns the second-longest active point streak at 12 games (7-7—14 in 12 GP).

* Roberto Luongo has backstopped Florida to victory in four of the five games during the winning streak to improve his season totals to 4-0-0 (1.33 GAA, .956 SV%). He can become the first goaltender in franchise history to win his first five decisions of a season and the only goaltender on any team to start 5-0-0 this season.

the information above was provided by the NHL PR department