DUCKS DUO EACH SCORE FIRST NHL GOALS
Eighteen-year-old Jamie Drysdale tallied 1-1—2 in his League debut and Trevor Zegras also netted his first career goal – 2:29 after Drysdale scored – as the rookies helped the Ducks tie the game en route to their second multi-goal comeback win of the season. Captain Ryan Getzlaf notched the 700th assist of his NHL career on Drysdale’s goal.

* Drysdale (18 years, 344 days) became the fourth defenseman in NHL history to score a goal while making his League debut at age 18 or younger (regular season), joining Ray Bourque (Oct. 11, 1979 w/ BOS), Scott Stevens (Oct. 6, 1982 w/ WSH) and Jason Doig (Oct. 7, 1995 w/ WIN).

* Drysdale became the youngest player in Ducks history to record multiple points in his NHL debut. He also became the 13th player in NHL history to record multiple points while making his NHL debut at age 18 or younger (regular season) and just the third defenseman to do so.



* Drysdale, the sixth overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, became the first Ducks defenseman to record a multi-point outing in his NHL debut and fifth Anaheim player overall to do so, joining forwards Stanislav Chistov (1-3—4 on Oct. 10, 2002), Alex Hicks (2-1—3 on Nov. 15, 1995), Alexei Smirnov (1-1—2 on Oct. 10, 2002) and Mike Leclerc (1-1—2 on March 28, 1997).

* Drysdale and Zegras became the second Ducks duo age 19 or younger to score in the same game, joining Oleg Tverdovsky and Chad Kilger who combined for the feat on Nov. 5, 1995.

LIGHTNING STAND ALONE ATOP CROWDED LEAGUE STANDINGS
Tampa Bay improved to 21-6-2 (44 points) to maintain their position as the No. 1 seed in the NHL and take sole possession of the most points in the League standings. The Lightning entered Thursday’s action tied with the Panthers, Capitals and Islanders.



* Calle Jarnkrok scored both the game-tying and winning goal as the Predators (13-16-1, 27 points) rallied to defeat the Panthers (19-6-4, 42 points). Jarnkrok (3-4—7) has factored on seven straight team goals since March 13, tied with David Legwand (2-5—7 in 2011-12) and Yanic Perreault (0-7—7 in 2005-06) for the longest such run in franchise history. He also became the second player to accomplish the feat in 2020-21 (Patrick Kane: 2-5—7 w/ CHI).

* After the Islanders scored three third-period goals to tie the game, Travis Konecny (0-3—3) factored on Oskar Lindblom’s go-ahead marker with 2:22 remaining in regulation to record his 10th career outing with three-plus points.

* Seth Jones scored twice, including the winner with 51 seconds remaining in overtime, as the Blue Jackets rallied to defeat the Hurricanes. It marked his ninth career overtime goal since making his NHL debut in 2013-14, tied with Brent Burns for the most among defensemen over that span.



McDAVID REACHES 20-GOAL MARK AS OILERS TIE MAPLE LEAFS IN NORTH DIVISION
Connor McDavid scored twice to extend his point streak to eight games (6-12—18), netting the game-winning goal for the second time in as many days, and Tyson Barrie (0-2—2) reached the 30-point mark as the Oilers (20-13-0, 40 points) moved into a tie with the idle Maple Leafs (19-9-2, 40 points) for the most standings points in the Scotia North Division.

* McDavid (20-38—58 in 33 GP) required the fewest games of his career to reach the 20-goal mark in a season, eclipsing his previous best set in 2019-20 (34 GP).

* The Oilers captain, who also recorded game-winning goals on consecutive days earlier this season (Jan. 30-31), is one of two different players to do so in 2020-21 (also Sean Couturier: Feb. 27-28 w/ PHI).



RANTANEN, LANDESKOG, MacKINNON POWER COLORADO TO FIFTH STRAIGHT WIN
Mikko Rantanen (2-2—4), Gabriel Landeskog (1-2—3) and Nathan MacKinnon (1-2—3) combined for 4-6—10 to help the Avalanche snap the Wild’s win streak and extend their own to five games dating to March 10. The Colorado trio have combined for 21 points over that stretch (10-11—21 in 5 GP).

* Thursday’s contest marked the seventh time that Rantanen, Landeskog and MacKinnon have combined for 10-plus points in a regular-season game since 2017-18. The only set of three teammates with more over that span is Edmonton's Connor McDavid,Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (8x).



VASILEVSKIY, HAMILTON HIT DOUBLE DIGITS
Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy and Hurricanes defenseman Dougie Hamilton each extended their recent strings of success to 10 consecutive games, joining rare company in the process.

* Vasilevskiy improved to 10-0-0 in his last 10 appearances dating to Feb. 22 (1.76 GAA, .934 SV% and 3 SO), allowing just two or fewer goals in six of those contests.



* Hamilton collected an assist to extend his point streak to 10 contests dating to Feb. 27 (2-10—12). His 10 helpers over that span trails only Connor McDavid (12), Tyson Barrie (11) and Mark Stone (11).



QUICK CLICKS

* David Krejci nets three assists to eclipse 700 career points
* Robby Fabbri scores Red Wings second hat trick of the season
* Squat jumps and trivia with Kevan Miller and Brad Marchand
* MikaZibanejad's six-point period for Rangers impresses Bryan Trottier

FIVE-GAME FRIDAY PRESENTS PREVIEW OF WEEKEND SLATE
Four of five matchups on tonight’s schedule open a Friday-Saturday back-to-back set, including both Scotia North Division showdowns.



* After matching an NHL record Wednesday, Mika Zibanejad and the Rangers head to Washington for consecutive games against the Capitals, who enter with a six-game win streak. Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin is riding a four-game goal streak and will look to score in at least five straight team games for the 12th time in his career - a feat he last achieved in 2018-19 (twice).

* The Golden Knights will seek a fifth consecutive win after scoring at least five goals in three of their past four outings (outscoring opponents 17-10 in 4 GP). Captain Mark Stone (4-3—7 in 5 GP) can record a six-game point streak for the fourth time since joining the Golden Knights in 2018-19, while Shea Theodore (2-6—8 in 5 GP) can match the longest assist/point streak ever by a Vegas defenseman (Colin Miller set both marks in 2017-18).



* Tyler Toffoli and the Canadiens open a six-game homestand with back-to-back meetings against the Canucks as the clubs are on track to become the first to end their regular-season series (Saturday; STL-SJS also are set to close that day). Toffoli has 8-5—13 against his former club so far in 2020-21 – the most points by a Canadiens player against a single opponent in a season since 1992-93 (VincentDamphousse: 6-9—15 in 7 GP vs. HFD) – as Montreal has pushed its point streak against Vancouver to 16 games date to Nov. 16, 2015.

Thanks to the NHL PR department for the information above.