Wednesday Night Hockey

Four games, a match up between last year’s Stanley Cup Champions and this year’s Presidents’ Trophy winners, and 29 goals, 11 of which came at Rogers Arena.

 

Toronto Maple Leafs v Buffalo Sabres

4-2

The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Buffalo Sabres to close in on second place in the Atlantic Division.

Auston Matthews had a goal and an assist to reach 200 NHL points for the Leafs, who trail the Boston Bruins by four points. Garret Sparks made 22 saves. 

Among the players who started their careers with the Maple Leafs, Matthews (204 games) is the third-fastest to get 200 points. Charlie Conacher (197) and Syl Apps (200) are the other two.

John Tavares (81pts), who has tallied the most goals in a single season by a Leafs player since Mats Sudin in 2001/02, and Mitch Marner (86pts) are the first teammates to get 80pts in a season for Toronto since Dave Andreychuk (99pts) and Doug Gilmour (111pts) in 1993/94.

Zach Hyman scored an emptynetter for the Leafs, who outshot Buffalo 19-7 in the first, including 13-2 in the first 9:10.

Casey Mittelstadt and Alexander Nylander, who was playing his brother William Nylander, scored and Carter Hutton made 42 saves for the Sabres, who haven’t won consecutive games since December 11-13. 

Rasmus Dahlin had an assist to give him 39 points and move past Bobby Orr for the second-most points by an 18-year-old defenseman in NHL history, trailing only Housley (57). 

 

Up Next:

Rangers v Leafs – Saturday, March 23 (7pm)

Sabres v Canadiens – Saturday, March 23 (7pm)

 

Tampa Bay Lightning v Washington Capitals

5-4 (OT)

Andrei Vasilevskiy made a Tampa Bay Lightning record 54 saves, but the Washington Capitals extended their lead in the Metropolitan Division with a 5-4 overtime loss to the Lightning.

Nikita Kucherov had two goals, Steven Stamkos scored one and assisted two, Anthony Cirelli also scored and Victor Hedman won it in overtime with 1:59 remaining for the Bolts, who have won six in a row and clinched the Presidents’ Trophy on Monday. They are five victories from tying the 1995/96 Detroit Red Wings for the NHL single-season record (62).

The victory was Tampa head coach Jon Cooper‘s 199th NHL win and saw them become the eighth team in NHL history to post four or more separate winning streaks of at least six games in a season. 

Lars Eller scored one, assisted one, Carl Hagelin had a goal and an assist, T.J. Oshie scored for his 200th NHL point (99g, 101a), and Evgeny Kuznetsov scored his 100th NHL goal to tie the game with 53 seconds remaining in the third to send it to overtime.

The Capitals set a franchise record of 58 shots on goal and Braden Holtby made 23 saves for the reigning champions, who moved three points clear of the New York Islanders at the top of the Metropolitan Division, though they have played one more game.

Up Next:

Lightning v Canes – Thursday, March 21 (7pm – ESPN+)

Wild v Capitals – Friday, March 22 (7pm)

 

Ottawa Senators v Vancouver Canucks

4-7

The Vancouver Canucks moved closer to the Western Conference wild-card race with a 7-4 victory over the already eliminated Ottawa Senators.

Tanner Pearson and Bo Horvat each had two goals and an assist, Loui Eriksson had a goal and three assists, Jake Virtanen and Brock Boeser also scored, Alexander Edler had a hat trick of assists and Jacob Markstrom made 21 saves for the hosts, who gave up four straight goals in the third period before their late breakaway. 

Vancouver center Elias Pettersson had two assists, giving him a team and NHL rookie leading 63 points (27g, 36a) in 63 games.

The Canucks have matched their season high with three consecutive wins and are 4-0-1 in the last five games after going 4-10-3 in their previous 17. They sit four points behind the Arizona Coyotes for that second western wild card.

Max Veronneau, Brady Tkachuk, Oscar Lindberg and Anthony Duclair scored, Dylan DeMelo had three assists and Anders Nilsson made 33 saves for the Senators, who were also trying to match a season high of three straight wins. 

Up Next:

Senators v Flames – Thursday, March 21 (9pm)

Flames v Canucks – Saturday, March 23 (10pm – ESPN+)

 

Winnipeg Jets v Anaheim Ducks

3-0

The Winnipeg Jets extended their lead atop the Central Division to three points with a 3-0 win over the Anaheim Ducks.

Connor Hellebuyck, who had six shutouts in 64 starts last season, but none after a 4-0 in St Louis on February 23, 2018, made 29 saves for his first shutout of the season (his 55th start) for the Jets, who have won four games in a row and can match their longest winning streak of the season if they defeat the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday.

Mark Scheifele scored on the power play for his 35th goal of the season, Kyle Connor had a goal and an assist for the second game running, Jacob Trouba had two assists and Nikolaj Ehlers also scored. 

Scheifele has five points (3g, 2a) in the last four games, Trouba has four points (1g, 3a) in the same time frame, and Winnipeg are 8-for-25 (30.8%) on the power play in their last eight games against Anaheim.

The visitors won their 20th road game of the season, tying the Jets/Atlanta Thrashers record reached in 2006/07, 2014/15 and 2017/18. They also have nine games remaining whilst second-placed Nashville Predators have eight, they play each other for the final time this season on Saturday in Winnipeg.

John Gibson made 20 saves for the Ducks, who lost for the first time in three games.

 

Up Next:

Jets v Knights – Thursday, March 21 (10pm – ESPN+)

Sharks v Ducks – Friday, March 22 (10pm)

 

KEY

 

ALL TIMES U.S. EASTERN