FINNISH FLASH: AVALANCHE SWEEP GLOBAL SERIES WITH MORE FAST GOALS

After scoring 96 seconds into their 2022 NHL Global Series opener Friday, the Avalanche bested that with a tally 33 seconds after the opening face-off Saturday – by Finnish-born forward Artturi Lehkonen (Piikkio, Finland) – en route to a second straight win in front of yet another sellout crowd at Nokia Arena in Tampere, Finland (12,897). Colorado followed that up with three goals in a span of 3:28 in the early stages of the second period, the fastest three goals by one team overseas.

* Cale Makar collected an assist on each of those three second-period tallies to become the seventh defenseman in League history to record three points in the opening five minutes of any frame.

* Lehkonen scored against fellow Finn Joonas Korpisalo (Pori, Finland), who was making his first NHL appearance since March 22 after returning from injury. Lehkonen’s goal, the second-fastest from the start of a regular-season game played outside North America, was set up by Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen who added to their impressive stat lines overseas.

* After setting the overseas record for assists in a game with 0-4—4 on Friday, MacKinnon added three more to his tally Saturday to become the all-time leader in assists (7) and points (1-7—8) accumulated outside North America (4 GP).

* Rantanen collected 3-2—5 across the two contests in his home country to boost his career totals to 3-3—6 in games played outside North America, which trails only MacKinnon, Dustin Byfuglien (2-5—7 in 4 GP) and Patrick Kane (3-4—7 in 3 GP) on the career list.

RAINING HATS IN NOVEMBER: BENN NETS SEVENTH HAT TRICK OF THE MONTH
Stars captain Jamie Benn recorded his seventh career NHL hat trick, while teammate Jason Robertson (1-2—3) extended his goal streak to five games and has multiple points in each of his last four contests.

* Benn, who trails only Dino Ciccarelli (14) and Bill Goldsworthy (8) for the most three-goal outings in Stars/North Stars franchise history, continued the recent trend of hat tricks as the NHL has now featured eight in the past six days dating to Halloween. The NHL featured a hat trick in six consecutive days for the first time since 2020-21 when a League record-tying nine straight days had one (April 3-11, 2021, equaling a mark set from Oct. 11-19, 1988).

GOLDEN KNIGHTS TRIO HELPS VAULT VEGAS TO FIRST PLACE IN NHL STANDINGS
Golden Knights mainstays Reilly Smith (2-0—2), Jonathan Marchessault (1-1—2) and William Karlsson (0-1—1) combined for 3-2—5, while Keegan Kolesar (1-1—2) and Nicolas Roy scored third-period goals 21 seconds apart as Vegas extended its winning streak to seven games. The Golden Knights (11-2-0, 22 points) moved past the Bruins (10-2-0, 20 points), who fell to the Maple Leafs on Saturday, for first place in the League standings.

* Smith, Karlsson and Marchessault all factored on a goal for the 58th time with Vegas. That’s the third-highest total by a trio of teammates since the Golden Knights’ inaugural season in 2017-18, behind Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak (75x w/ BOS) as well as Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen (59x w/ COL).

OVECHKIN’S 787TH GOAL, CROSBY’S 900TH ASSIST FEATURED IN LIVE UPDATES
Saturday’s edition of #NHLStats: Live Updates featured more notes from the 14-game slate. Some highlights include:

* Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov (1-3—4) extended his point streak to 10 games, which includes a goal in each of his last six contests. Kucherov recorded the sixth double-digit point streak of his NHL career and now trails only Martin St. Louis (7x) for the most in franchise history.

* Penguins captain Sidney Crosby (1-1—2) recorded his 900th career assist in his 1,120th NHL game and became the sixth-fastest player to reach the milestone in League history. Crosby also became the eighth player to collect 900 helpers with one NHL franchise.

* Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin opened the scoring with his 787th career NHL goal and surpassed Gordie Howe for sole possession of the most with one franchise in League history. Ovechkin’s 134 career game-opening goals are one back of NHL leader Jaromir Jagr (135).

QUICK CLICKS

* Hockey Fights Cancer continues to unite hockey community throughout month of November

* Maple Leafs thinking of Rodion Amirov during Hockey Fights Cancer Night

* Alex Ovechkin of Capitals sets NHL record for most goals with one team
* Dylan Guenther’s family reveals he is staying with Coyotes in sweet video

* Vladimir Konstantinov drops ceremonial puck at Little Caesars Arena

SUNDAY’S SLATE HIGHLIGHTED BY MAPLE LEAFS-HURRICANES GAME ON ESPN
Sunday’s schedule includes the Hurricanes (8-2-1, 17 points) looking to extend their winning streak to five games when they host the Maple Leafs (6-4-2, 14 points) at PNC Arena. Carolina is led in scoring this season by Martin Necas (7-10—17 in 11 GP), one of nine Hurricanes players who dressed in the famous “David Ayres Game” versus Toronto on Feb. 22, 2020, that remain under contract with the team (also Sebastian Aho, Jake Gardiner, Jordan Martinook, Brett Pesce, Jaccob Slavin, Jordan Staal, Andrei Svechnikov & Teuvo Teravainen).

Thanks to the NHL PR department for the information above.