NHL NEWS JAN 6 – CAREER FIRSTS POWER OILERS, PREDATORS AND RED WINGS

Oilers forward Patrick Maroon and Predators forward Colton Sissons each scored their first career hat trick, while Red Wings goaltender Jared Coreau posted his first career shutout.

Maroon (260 GP) opened the scoring 68 seconds into the game and tallied the eventual game-winner midway through the third period to help the Oilers move to 5-1-2 in their past eight contests. Maroon has collected 14-7—21 through 40 games in 2016-17, establishing a career high for goals in a season, besting his previous mark of 11 set with the Ducks in 2013-14 (62 GP).

Sissons (79 GP) scored three of the Predators’ four unanswered goals over the final two periods as Nashville extended its road win streak to four games. Sissons, a second-round pick (50th overall) in the 2012 NHL Draft, entered the contest with 7-6—13 in his first 78 career contests, including 2-1—3 in 27 games this season.

Coreau (5 GP) of the Detroit Red Wings made 34 saves to register his first career shutout while the trio of Andreas Athanasiou (1-2—3), Thomas Vanek (2-0—2) and Anthony Mantha (1-1—2) combined for all four goals in Detroit’s win. Athanasiou posted his first career three-point game.

NHL NEWS AND MUSINGS

• Patrick Kane (1-2—3), who has five overtime goals in 123 career playoff games, scored his third such goal in the regular-season (699 GP)
• Jeff Skinner, who led the Hurricanes with seven game-winning goals in 2015-16 (82 GP), netted his first such goal of the season. He leads the club with 14-14—28 in 37 GP
• Connor McDavid (0-2—2) extended his League lead for assists (31) and moved into sole possession of first place in the overall scoring race (14-31—45 in 40 GP)
• Sabres forward Jack Eichel scored to extend his point streak to five games (3-3—6)
• Duncan Keith (0-1—1) became the third defenseman in Blackhawks history to record 400 career assists, joining Doug Wilson (554) and Pierre Pilote (400)
• The Bruins honored Milt Schmidt, a member of the 100 Greatest NHL Players who passed away Wednesday at age 98, during a pregame ceremony at TD Garden
• The NHL fined Capitals forward Evgeny Kuznetsov $2,000 as supplementary discipline under NHL Rule 64 (Diving/Embellishment)
• The League announced details of the 2017 NHL Fan Fair, official fan festival of 2017 Honda NHL All-Star Weekend
• The United States overcame deficits of 2-0 and 4-2 before Ducks prospect Troy Terry scored the lone goal in the shootout to clinch the gold medal at the 2017 IIHF World Junior Championship.

THURSDAY’S NHL RESULTS
Home Team in Caps
Edmonton 4, BOSTON 3
WASHINGTON 5, Columbus 0
Nashville 6, TAMPA BAY 1
Carolina 4, ST. LOUIS 2
CHICAGO 4, Buffalo 3 (OT)
Detroit 4, LOS ANGELES 0
Minnesota 5, SAN JOSE 4

FRIDAY’S NHL ACTION
All Times Eastern
Toronto @ New Jersey, 7:30 p.m.
Nashville @ Florida, 7:30 p.m.
Carolina @ Chicago, 8:30 p.m.
NY Islanders @ Colorado, 9 p.m.
Calgary @ Vancouver, 10 p.m.
Arizona @ Anaheim, 10 p.m.