NHL Short Notes

* Nathan MacKinnon became the second-fastest player in franchise history to reach the 100-point mark behind Peter Stastny with the Quebec Nordiques (60 GP in 1981-82).

* Sebastian Aho, Teuvo Teravainen and Jesperi Kotkaniemi helped the Hurricanes beat the Blue Jackets ahead of 2024 Hockey Day in Finland, while Auston Matthews inched closer to becoming the NHL’s first 70-goal scorer since Alexander Mogilny and Helsinki native Teemu Selanne 31 years ago.

* Thursday featured the NHL’s second trade in as many days, with Ilya Lyubushkin returning to his former club in a three-team deal involving the Maple Leafs, Ducks and Hurricanes. Click here to read the #NHLStats Pack for the upcoming Trade Deadline (3 p.m. ET on March 8).

MacKINNON HAS 1-1—2 TO RECORD SECOND STRAIGHT 100-POINT SEASON
Nathan MacKinnon (36-64—100 in 61 GP) had a goal and an assist to record his second straight 100-point season and move closer to Art Ross Trophy race leader Nikita Kucherov (38-66—104 in 61 GP), who had one assist Thursday.

* MacKinnon became the first player in Avalanche team history (since 1995-96) and fourth in franchise history with 100 points in two or more consecutive campaigns, following Peter Stastny (6 from 1980-81–1985-86), Michel Goulet (2 from 1982-83–1983-84) and Joe Sakic (2 from 1989-90–1990-91) who all achieved the feat with Quebec. MacKinnon became the fifth player with multiple triple-digit campaigns at any point with the club, joining Stastny (7), Sakic (6), Goulet (4) and Peter Forsberg (2).

* Zach Parise (2-1—3) potted two goals and Justus Annunen (24 saves) recorded the first shutout of his NHL career as the Avalanche (37-19-5, 79 points) moved into a tie for the second-most points in the Central Division with the Jets (37-16-5, 79 points), who hold three games in hand. Parise (39 years, 216 days) became the oldest player in franchise history with a multi-goal game, besting the previous mark held by Ray Bourque (39 years, 73 days on March 10, 2000).

ATLANTIC DIVISION’S TOP THREE TEAMS TRIUMPH THURSDAY
The Panthers (40-16-4, 84 points), Bruins (35-12-14, 84 points) and Maple Leafs (34-17-8, 76 points) logged victories to increase their lead on the Red Wings (33-21-6, 72 points), who occupy fourth place in the Atlantic Division and fell to the Islanders:

* Sam Reinhart scored on the power play and penalty kill to eclipse the 40-goal mark and help the Panthers stage a comeback, capped by Anton Lundell’s shootout-winning tally, en route to passing the idle Rangers (40-17-3, 83 points) for top spot in the NHL’s overall standings. Florida (1 day) joined Vancouver (42 days), Winnipeg (10 days), Boston (4 days) and New York (3 days) as the fifth different team to occupy first place in the League standings since Jan. 1.

* Reinhart leads the NHL in power-play and shorthanded goals (tied) in 2023-24 with 23 and five, respectively – his five on the penalty kill are tied for the second most in a single campaign in Panthers history. Only three players have concluded a season leading the League in both power-play and shorthanded goals (tied or outright): Mario Lemieux (2x: 1995-96 & 1988-89), Wayne Gretzky (1983-84) and Max Bentley (1945-46).

* Jonathan Marchessault became the first Golden Knights player to collect 400 career points with the franchise and helped the club erase a three-goal deficit, but Morgan Geekie (3-0—3) scored the fifth hat trick by a Boston skater this season as the Bruins ended a stretch of six consecutive games with a decision beyond regulation. Boston captured its Eastern Conference-leading eighth all-time win against Vegas (8-2-2), but its .750 points percentage against the club is the highest among all teams.
* Geekie’s three-goal performance marked the 80th hat trick in the NHL this season, which helped AstraZeneca reach $400,000 of its $500,000 donation goal – a campaign that has seen the organization donate $5,000 to the Hockey Fights Cancer Fund of the V Foundation for every hat trick in 2023-24. The 80 hat tricks through 952 games of 2023-24 are tied with 1993-94 for the second most at this stage of a season in the past 30 years behind 1995-96 (90).

* William Nylander (1-2—3) notched three points while Auston Matthews and Matthew Knies (1-1—2), who played minor hockey with the Jr. Coyotes program, scored against their hometown team to help the Maple Leafs improve to 8-1-0 in their last nine games. Toronto earned its first home win against Arizona in regulation since Oct. 17, 2002, which was the same day that Knies was born in Phoenix.

* Matthews (53-25—78 in 58 GP) scored his League-leading 53rd goal of the season and is on pace to conclude the campaign with 74, which would mark the most by an NHL player since 1992-93 when future Maple Leafs forward Alexander Mogilny had 76 with the Sabres and Teemu Selanne had an equal amount with the original Winnipeg Jets before they became the Coyotes. Saturday’s 2024 Hockey Day in Finland celebrations fall on the 31-year anniversary of Selanne scoring a hat trick against the Quebec Nordiques to reach 54 goals that season and establish the League record for most in a campaign by a rookie.

WESTERN CONFERENCE PLAYOFF RACE TIGHTENS AS STARS, PREDATORS, KINGS WIN
The Stars, Predators and Kings picked up wins Thursday, tightening an already close-packed Western Conference playoff race:

* In a marquee matchup between the Central Division’s two top teams, it was the Stars that came out victorious, extending their home point streak against the Jets to nine games (8-0-1 dating to Oct. 6, 2018) and claiming first place in the division with the help of Jake Oettinger who made 25 saves en route to his 100th career win. Oettinger (177 GP), who outdueled one of the winningest U.S.-born goaltenders in NHL history in Connor Hellebuyck (32 saves), became the second-fastest goaltender in Stars/North Stars history to reach 100 wins, trailing only Ed Belfour (174 GP).

* Roman Josi (1-2—3) led the way for the Predators with his second straight three-point game and helped Nashville (34-25-2, 70 points) extend its winning streak to seven contests, tied for the third longest in franchise history, as it kept pace with Los Angeles (30-19-10, 70 points) which occupies the first Wild Card spot. Josi has now posted three-plus points in at least two consecutive games three different times in his career (also 4 GP & 2 GP in 2021-22) – the only active defenseman to do so more is Erik Karlsson (6x).

* Drew Doughty (1-2—3) became the seventh active defenseman and sixth player in franchise history to record 500 career assists as the Kings defeated the Western Conference-leading Canucks. Los Angeles moved within two points of Edmonton (35-20-2, 72 points) for third place in the Pacific Division.
HURRICANES CAPTURE ANOTHER ROAD WIN AHEAD OF 2024 HOCKEY DAY IN FINLAND
Teuvo Teravainen (Helsinki, Finland) and Sebastian Aho (Rauma, Finland) scored the first two goals of the game, then Jesperi Kotkaniemi (Pori, Finland) and Brent Burns assisted on the game-winning goal as the Hurricanes (36-18-6, 78 points) improved to 6-0-1 in Columbus since March 22, 2021. Burns tied former teammate Patrick Marleau (5 GP) for the most games played on Feb. 29 in NHL history.

* The Hurricanes host the Jets during an NHL Saturday presented by Fastenal game as 2024 Hockey Day in Finland celebrations continue in the birth country of Aho, Teravainen and Kotkaniemi on March 2 (12:30 p.m. ET on BSSO, TSN3). Click here to read more.

KANE SPOTLIGHTED IN #NHLSTATS: LIVE UPDATES
The latest edition of #NHLStats: Live Updates featured notes on all 24 teams in action, including Detroit’s Patrick Kane who extended his point streak to 10 games and became the eighth Red Wings player to post a double-digit stretch in their first season with the club – the last to do so was Dino Ciccarelli (11 GP in 1992-93).

QUICK CLICKS

* Capitals preparing for 'massive' game vs. Flyers likely to impact playoff hopes
* Macklin Celebrini tops NHL.com ranking of top 32 prospects for 2024 draft

* Connor Bedard 'on another planet' for top 2024 NHL Draft prospects

* Connor Bedard 'Young Guns' rookie card headlines Upper Deck Series 2 collection
* Chris Tanev picks new jersey number for hilarious reason

FRIDAY FEATURES GAMES ON SPORTSNET, TVA SPORTS AND NHL NETWORK

Friday’s three-game slate is highlighted by the Devils (30-25-4, 64 points) visiting the Ducks (21-35-3, 43 points) on Sportsnet and the Capitals (27-22-9, 63 points) hosting the Flyers (31-22-7, 69 points) on NHL Network. Both contests are also available on TVA Sports.

Thanks to the NHL PR department for the information above.

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