NHL Recap January 21 2020
PANTHERS PROWL TO SIXTH STRAIGHT WIN IN QUENNEVILLE’S RETURN TO CHICAGO
Frank Vatrano registered his second career hat trick, and first with Florida, as the Panthers (28-16-5, 61 points) extended the League’s longest active win streak to six games and helped Joel Quenneville record a positive result in his return to Chicago.
Vatrano’s performance, which moved Florida into a tie with Boston, Edmonton and Washington for the most hat tricks this season (all w/ 4), boosted the Panthers 2019-20 output to a League-leading 183 goals for (including shootout-deciding goals). The club will enter the All-Star break four points ahead of the Maple Leafs (25-17-7, 57 points) for third in the Atlantic Division.
Mike Hoffman assisted on two Vatrano’s three goals to extend his point streak to 10 games (6-8—13) and trails only Tuesday’s opponent Patrick Kane (5-11—16) for the League’s longest active run. The 2019-20 campaign marks the second time in as many seasons that Hoffman has registered a streak of at least 10 games after establishing a franchise-record 17-game run in from Oct. 13 – Nov. 21, 2018.
Additionally, Hoffman became just the third active player to record point streaks of 10-plus games in each of his first two seasons with a club, joining Penguins captain Sidney Crosby (10 GP in 2005-06, 10 GP from 2006-07 and 19 GP in 2007-08) and Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin (11 GP in 2005-06 and 13 GP in 2006-07).
TERAVAINEN HELPS HURRICANES PUT FINISHING TOUCHES ON WIN
Teuvo Teravainen (1-2—3) collected his fourth three-point game of the season and assisted on Justin Williams’ game-winning goal (2-0—2) as the Hurricanes (29-18-3, 61 points) improved to 4-0-1 in their last five games at PNC Arena.
Teravainen (Helsinki, Finland) was one of three Finnish-born players to collect at least one point in Tuesday’s contest between the Hurricanes and Jets. He was joined by teammate Sebastian Aho (0-1—1; Rauma, Finland) and Jets forward Patrik Laine (1-0—1; Tampere, Finland). The trio rank second, third and fourth in scoring among Finnish-born players this season, respectively.
Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov (0-1—1) also found the score sheet Tuesday and paces the cohort, while Avalanche forward and Nousiainen, Finland native Mikko Rantanen (15-19—34 in 33 GP) rounds out the top five.