DENVER, Col. – Samuel Girard converted a breakaway at 2:47 in overtime and the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Nashville Predators 3-2 on Monday night at Ball Arena.
It was a first goal this season for Girard. The latter stole the disc from Brady Skjei at the blue line before spinning alone, then scoring with a high shot which deceived the vigilance of Juuse Saros.
Devon Toews also earned a first goal in 2024-2025, while Mikko Rantanen scored the other goal for the Avalanche (8-8-0), winning for the second time in a row to return to the .500 mark .
Luke Evangelista and Colton Sissons answered back for the Preds (5-9-2), who were beginning a five-game road trip.
Nashville captain Roman Josi missed a great chance to put his team in control late in the third period, but Alexandar Georgiev stretched out and stopped his rival’s backhand shot.
It was only the second time in 16 games this year that star defenseman Cale Makar was held off the scoresheet.
Makar has 24 points so far, including eight goals.
Author of an assist on Rantanen’s net, Nathan MacKinnon reached the 30-point plateau (7-23) in his 16th game.
Marchment is putting the Penguins through hell
The Dallas Stars are obviously not big fans of suspense.
Thanks to an extraordinary first period offensively, the Stars cruised to a crushing 7-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday night for only their second victory in five games.
Six of the Stars’ seven goals were scored in the first 20 minutes of play, during which forward Mason Marchment had a goal and three assists.
This is only the seventh time in the history of the Stars/North Stars organization that the team has scored at least six goals in a single period. Since moving to Dallas, the team had only achieved this feat once, in 2009.
Marchment, for his part, became the eighth player in team history to obtain at least four points in a period, and the third player in the last 35 years after Tyler Seguin (2013) and Valeri Nichushkin (2013).
Marchment added a point on Wyatt Johnston’s goal in the third period to bring his tally to five points in the game. Miro Heiskanen scored twice to get his first two goals of the campaign, while the other Stars goals were the works of Matt Duchene, Logan Stankoven and Tyler Seguin.
The Stars only needed two minutes and 33 seconds to establish their rhythm and open the scoring. Duchene made a nice feint entering the zone to open the game, then he fired a shot that barely escaped goalkeeper Joel Blomqvist.
After doubling their lead thanks to Stankoven’s third goal of the campaign, the result of a shot while there was a lot of traffic in front of the net, the Stars took off with three goals in the space of five minutes.
A long pass from Brendan Smith first hit the boards deep in the Penguins zone and Marchment used his speed to get to the puck first, at the top of the slot. He then fired a sharp shot into the top of the net to make it 3-0 and chase Blomqvist out of the match.
The latter only made two stops on five shots.
Deprived of goals in 13 games this season, Heiskanen took advantage of this good offensive performance to break the deadlock with two goals in less than 90 seconds to make the score 5-0. He first took advantage of a nice cross pass from Marchment to score, before causing a turnover at the Stars blue line and scoring another goal, this time on a breakaway.
Seguin capped this crazy offensive period for the Stars with less than two minutes to play by scoring on a brilliant delivery from Marchement in excess. It was already a fourth point for Marchment.
In an already lost cause, Quebecer Anthony Beauvillier saved the day at the end of the second period to put the Penguins on the mark. He took advantage of a superb pass from Valtteri Puustinen to score his fourth goal of the season, with a one-timer from the mouth of the net.
Johnston completed the scoring late in the third period when he completed a superb tic-tac-toe.
Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger blocked 20 of the 21 pucks aimed his way.
The Stars face the Boston Bruins on Thursday, while the Penguins will return to action on Wednesday against the Red Wings.
Huberdeau keeps the Kings at bay
Jonathan Huberdeau found the back of the net and the Calgary Flames held on to defeat the Los Angeles Kings 3-1.
Goaltender Dustin Wolf is certainly no stranger to the Flames’ evening success. He stopped 28 pucks.
In addition to Huberdeau on a breakaway, Mikael Backlund and Kevin Rooney also found the back of the net for the Flames. The Alberta team thus obtained at least one point in a fourth game in a row.
Trevor Moore was the only Kings player to get the better of Wolf. In front of the Kings net, Darcy Kuemper made 25 saves. This is a second defeat in three games for LA
The Flames scored twice in just 36 seconds in the middle period. A turnover allowed Backlund to take a shot that surprised Kuemper. A few moments later,
Huberdeau got the better of the goalkeeper with a low shot. On the sequence, Wolf collected an assist for his first point in the NHL.
Rooney’s goal was scored into an empty net to confirm the Flames’ victory.
The Canes impose their law in Vegas
Jesperi Kotkaniemi had a goal and an assist in the first period, helping the Carolina Hurricanes dominate the Vegas Golden Knights 5-2.
After seeing their eight-game winning streak end in Colorado two days ago, the Canes (11-3-0) bounced back in a big way at the expense of the 2022 champions.
Pyotr Kochetkov made 31 saves to help the Raleigh team win.
In addition to Kotkaniemi, Eric Robinson, Jordan Staal and Tyson Jost also threaded the needle at the expense of Adin Hill. Jordan Martinook drove home the final nail by scoring into an empty net with 5:32 remaining.
This is a rare poor performance for the Golden Knights at home, who were until then perfect in front of their fans, at 8-0-0.
Jack Eichel scored early in the third period to spare the Knights (9-4-2) the indignity of a shutout loss. Ivan Barbashev also scored, with 12 seconds left in the third, on a power play.
Vegas was without veteran Mark Stone for a second straight game, who is nursing a lower-body injury.
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