NHL Review Saturday December 23 2017

SATURDAY’S RESULTS

Home Team in Caps

BOSTON 3, Detroit 1

NY ISLANDERS 5, Winnipeg 2

EDMONTON 4, Montreal 1

TAMPA BAY 3, Minnesota 0

FLORIDA 1, Ottawa 0

NEW JERSEY 4, Chicago 1

Toronto 3, NY RANGERS 2

Anaheim 4, PITTSBURGH 0

CAROLINA 4, Buffalo 2

COLUMBUS 2, Philadelphia 1 (SO)

VEGAS 3, Washington 0

Colorado 6, ARIZONA 2

DALLAS 4, Nashville 3 (SO)

St. Louis 3, VANCOUVER 1

SAN JOSE 2, Los Angeles 0

HOME-ICE SHUTOUTS POWER CONFERENCE LEADERS

The Lightning (26-7-2, 54 points) and Golden Knights (23-9-2, 48 points) posted shutouts on home ice to record their 15th home wins of the season, tied for the League lead. Tampa Bay sits atop the NHL standings, while Vegas moved into the top spot in the Western Conference.

Andrei Vasilevskiy denied all 22 shots he faced and the Lightning scored three times in the final 2:42 of regulation – including Nikita Kucherov’s League-high 24th goal – to improve to 10-2-0 in their past 12 games. Vasilevskiy paces the NHL with 23 wins and four shutouts (tied w/ Sergei Bobrovsky) and ranks second in both save percentage (.932) and goals-against average (2.13) among goalies with at least 12 games played.

Marc-Andre Fleury stopped all 26 shots he faced to record his 45th career shutout – and first with the Golden Knights – as Vegas extended its win streak to four games, their fourth such run of the season. Only 11 teams in NHL history have recorded more home wins in their inaugural season than Vegas (15) – the 1979-80 Whalers (22) and 1967-68 Kings (20) are the only franchises with at least 20 such victories in their first NHL season.

The Golden Knights also pushed their point streak to nine games (8-0-1) to match the longest such run in NHL history by a team its inaugural season.

CLUBS STAY HOT ENTERING HOLIDAY BREAK

The Devils (21-9-5, 47 points), Bruins (19-10-5, 43 points), Stars (20-14-3, 43 points), Sharks (19-11-4, 42 points) and Hurricanes (16-12-7, 39 points) all continued recent strings of success.

The Devils raced to a 3-0 lead and Cory Schneider made 39 saves to guide New Jersey to its fourth consecutive victory and back into the top spot in the Metropolitan Division. Schneider improved to 13-8-4 in 25 career appearances in which he has faced at least 40 shots against.

Brad Marchand collected 1-2—3 and Tuukka Rask made 30 saves to help the Bruins extend their win streak to four games. Rask improved to 8-0-1 in his last nine decisions dating to Nov. 29 (1.45 GAA, .946 SV%, 1 SO) after posting a 3-8-2 record in his first 13 appearances of the season (2.91 GAA, .899 SV%).

The Stars scored three straight goals to overcome an early 2-0 deficit en route to a shootout victory, improving to 4-1-2 in their past seven outings. John Klingberg notched two helpers to maintain his lead for most assists (27) and points (31) by defensemen this season. 

Martin Jones made 28 saves to register his third shutout of the season and backstop the Sharks to a 5-1-2 record in their last eight games. Jones moved into sole possession of third place on San Jose’s all-time shutouts list.

Teuvo Teravainen collected three assists and Justin Faulk scored twice (including the game-winning goal) to help the Hurricanes improve to 5-1-0 in their past six games. Faulk (69-133—202) is one of three defensemen in Hurricanes/Whalers history with at least 200 career points, behind Dave Babych (44-196—240) and Glen Wesley (51-176—227).

NHL Schedule for Wednesday December 27

Matchup	Time
Ottawa@ Boston	7:00 PM ET
Detroit@ New Jersey	7:00 PM ET
Buffalo@ NY Islanders	7:00 PM ET
Columbus@ Pittsburgh	7:00 PM ET
Montréal@ Carolina	7:00 PM ET
Nashville@ St. Louis	8:00 PM ET
Dallas@ Minnesota	8:00 PM ET
Edmonton@ Winnipeg	8:00 PM ET
Washington@ NY Rangers	8:00 PM ET
Arizona@ Colorado	9:00 PM ET
Vegas@ Anaheim	10:00 PM ET