VASILEVSKIY EXTENDS WIN STREAK ON BANNER-RAISING NIGHT
After the Lightning raised the franchise’s second Stanley Cup championship banner to the rafters in front of fans at AMALIE Arena, they scored six goals and Andrei Vasilevskiy recorded 28 saves to extend his personal win streak to eight games (1.60 GAA, .942 SV% and 3 SO).

* Vasilevskiy, who leads the League with 17 wins this season, improved to 9-0-0 at home and became the 10th goaltender in the NHL’s expansion era (since 1967-68) to win each of his first nine home games of a campaign.

* Additionally, this is the fourth consecutive season in which the 2018-19 Vezina Trophy winner has posted a win streak of at least eight games after also doing so in 2017-18 (9 GP), 2018-19 (10 GP) and 2019-20 (10 GP & 8 GP).



ISLANDERS YOUTH PROPELS CLUB TO EIGHTH STRAIGHT VICTORY
Twenty-two-year-old Kieffer Bellows netted two goals, including the game winner, and 20-year-old Oliver Wahlstrom also scored as the Islanders erased a 2-1 deficit to extend the League’s longest active win streak to eight games.

* Saturday’s contest also featured tallies from 23-year-old Pavel Zacha and 22-year-old Janne Kuokkanen. It marked the first time the Islanders competed in a game in which all goals were scored by a player aged 23 or younger since Nov. 14, 2013 (min. 5 goals).

* Barry Trotz recorded his second win streak of eight or more games since joining the Islanders in 2018-19 (also 10 GP in 2019-20). He is the first head coach in NHL history to record two runs of at least that length within his first three seasons with multiple franchises. He was behind the bench for nine-game win streaks with Washington in 2015-16 (Dec. 12-30, 2015) and 2016-17 (Dec. 31, 2016 to Jan. 15, 2017).

PACIORETTY, STONE LIFT GOLDEN KNIGHTS PAST BLUES
Max Pacioretty (1-2—3) and Mark Stone (2-0—2) factored on three of five Vegas goals, and Marc-Andre Fleury (34 saves) earned his 198th road win as the Honda West Division-leading Golden Knights defeated the Blues. Despite holding an all-time regular-season record of 6-5-1 against St. Louis, Saturday marked Vegas’ first-ever regulation win over that span (STL: 6-1-5).

* Stone (5-9—14 in 7 GP) has recorded a point in seven consecutive appearances and boosted his 2020-21 totals to (9-22—31 in 24 GP). He required the fewest games by a Golden Knights player to reach 30 points in a single season, eclipsing the previous mark set by Jonathan Marchessault in 2017-18 (12-19—31 in 30 GP).



MALKIN MATCHES LEAGUE’S LONGEST ACTIVE POINT STREAK
Casey DeSmith (24 saves) recorded his first shutout of the season and Evgeni Malkin (0-1—1) factored on the game-winning goal to extend his point streak to seven games (3-7—10), tied with Carolina’s Dougie Hamilton (1-8—9 in 7 GP) for the NHL's longest active run.

* Malkin, who collected 1-1—2 on March 11 against the Sabres, has notched at least one point in each of his last 14 contests against Buffalo dating to Oct. 29, 2015 (7-14—21). He has only had a stretch of that length against one other opponent (14 GP vs. NYI from March 27, 2008 – Oct. 15, 2010).

MORE #NHLSTATS FROM SATURDAY

* Connor McDavid assisted on Edmonton’s only goal of the game and boosted his League-leading totals to 17-35—52 (30 GP). Only one active player has recorded as many points as the Oilers captain through his first 30 games of a season.



* Alex Ovechkin (716-582—1,298) scored one of Washington’s five goals to move within one of tying Phil Esposito (717-873—1,590) for sixth place on the NHL’s all-time list. It also marked his 263rd career power-play goal, moving the Capitals captain within two of Brett Hull (265) for second on the League’s all-time list.

* Zach Werenski’s fifth career overtime tally on Saturday marked his 60th career regular-season goal (322 GP). Only two active defensemen reached the mark in fewer games than the Blue Jackets blueliner: Erik Karlsson (295 GP) and Shea Weber (302 GP).

* Sean Monahan (201-230—431) scored twice, including the game winner, to eclipse the 200-goal mark in his 567th career regular-season contest. Among players to debut with the Flames franchise, he required the seventh-fewest contests to reach the mark.



QUICK CLICKS

* Joe Thornton passes Mark Recchi on the NHL’s all-time games played list
* Panthers collect 40th point of 2020-21

* Jets finish 2-0-1 in three-game set with Maple Leafs
* Nikita Kucherov on schedule to return to Lightning by Stanley Cup Playoffs

* Artemi Panarin returns to give Rangers 'huge boost' in win against Bruins

HAMILTON, HURRICANES LOOK TO EXTEND STRINGS OF SUCCESS

The Hurricanes (19-6-1, 39 points) will put their seven-game win streak on the line when they travel to Detroit to take on the Red Wings (8-16-4, 20 points).



* Dougie Hamilton has collected at least one point during each game of Carolina’s win streak dating to Feb. 27 (1-8—9 in 7 GP) and can tie Boston’s Charlie McAvoy (8 GP from Jan. 23 – Feb. 10) for the longest point streak by a defenseman this season. In fact, only two blueliners in Hurricanes/Whalers history have posted a longer such run than Hamilton: Mark Howe (11 GP in 1979-80) and Ulf Samuelsson (9 GP in 1987-88).

* Carolina's current seven-game run already sits tied for the second longest in franchise history behind a trio of nine-game win streaks. They went 9-0-0 from March 18 – April 7, 2009, Dec. 31, 2005 – Jan. 19, 2006 and Oct. 22 – Nov. 11, 2005.

Thanks to the NHL PR department for the information above.