* Tomas Hertl had a natural hat trick which included the overtime winner as the Sharks rallied from a 2-0, third-period deficit to defeat the Flyers.
* Colorado, Dallas and Minnesota also completed multi-goal comebacks Saturday, with the Avalanche extending their home win streak to a franchise-record 11 games.
* Zach Fucale established an NHL record for longest career-opening shutout sequence, eclipsing the previous mark set by Matt Hackett.
HERTL’S HAT-TRICK HEROICS HELP SHARKS STUN FLYERS IN OVERTIME
San Jose surrendered two goals in the opening 6:47 of the third period, but Tomas Hertl responded with three straight tallies capped by the overtime winner to complete the Sharks’ third multi-goal comeback win of the season (also Oct. 16 & Dec. 7, 2021). Hertl notched his fifth career NHL hat trick, placing him behind only Jonathan Cheechoo (9) for the most in franchise history.
* Brent Burns recorded his 11th three-assist game with San Jose, trailing only Joe Thornton (47) for the most in franchise history. Burns became the seventh defenseman in NHL history with an assist on each goal of a natural hat trick, following Lionel Hitchman (Jan. 30, 1924), Gary Sargent (Nov. 8, 1977), Jack Brownschidle (Feb. 9, 1980), Stefan Persson (Nov. 11, 1980), Oscar Klefbom (April 6, 2017) and Adam Fox (March 25, 2021).
RANTANEN GUIDES AVALANCHE TO THREE-GOAL COMEBACK AND FRANCHISE MARK . . .
Mikko Rantanen collected a primary assist on three of Colorado’s five goals, while also notching a helper on Devon Toews’ tally in overtime, to help the Avalanche rally from a three-goal deficit and extend their home win streak to a franchise-record 11 games.
* Rantanen’s performance comes on the heels of Nathan MacKinnon’s five-point outing on Jan. 6 (1-4—5). Colorado has featured at least one player with four-plus assists in consecutive games for the second time in franchise history after first accomplishing the feat on Feb. 19, 1996 (Joe Sakic: 0-4—4) and Feb. 23, 1996 (Peter Forsberg: 0-5—5).
* Colorado, which overcame a three-goal deficit to win for the first time since Feb. 20, 2018, became the seventh team to accomplish the feat in 2021-22, joining Florida (Nov. 30 & Dec. 2, 2021), Carolina (Jan. 1), Vancouver (Dec. 14, 2021), St. Louis (Nov. 30, 2021), Edmonton (Nov. 5, 2021) and Tampa Bay (Oct. 14, 2021).
. . . WHILE STARS RALLY LATE TO SNAP PENGUINS’ 10-GAME WIN STREAK
Joe Pavelski and Roope Hintz each scored in the final 5:01 of regulation while Jason Robertson (0-3—3) extended his home point streak to 10 games (5-10—15) to help the Stars improve to 12-1-0 at American Airlines Center dating to Nov. 13, 2021 – the most home wins among all teams over that span. With the victory, Dallas snapped Pittsburgh’s 10-game win streak, the longest of any team in the NHL this season.
* Saturday marked the first time in League history that a team claimed a regulation win to halt an opponent’s double-digit winning streak after trailing in the final 10 minutes of regulation. The only other instances of a team ending a winning streak of 10-plus games in any fashion after trailing in the final 10 minutes of regulation came on Feb. 11, 1973 (MTL salvaged a 2-2 tie vs. 10-0-0 NYR) and Jan. 11, 2016 (VAN claimed a 3-2 OT win vs. 12-0-0 FLA).
FUCALE FEATURED IN SATURDAY’S #NHLSTATS: LIVE UPDATES
The latest edition of #NHLStats: Live Updates features more notes from an 11-game Saturday. Some highlights include:
* Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe scored two of his team’s four goals as Florida (23-7-5, 51 points) withstood a Carolina rally to win in overtime and overtake Tampa Bay (23-9-5, 51 points) for first place in the NHL standings. Verhaeghe’s tally in the second frame marked the 16th consecutive regulation period that the Panthers have scored at least one goal in, eclipsing a 15-period streak from Oct. 19-29, 2021 for the longest such run in franchise history.
* Kings goaltender Cal Petersen turned aside all 21 shots he faced as Los Angeles (17-13-5, 39 points) claimed the final Wild Card spot in the Western Conference. The Kings crafted a 27-2 shots advantage during the opening frame and matched their franchise record for most shots in a period, a mark first achieved during the second stanza on Jan. 7, 2010.
* Wild forward Mats Zuccarello scored at 19:25 of the third period to pull Minnesota even and end Washington goaltender Zach Fucale’s career-opening shutout sequence at 138:07, which marked the longest such run in NHL history. The Wild lead the League with four game-tying goals scored in the final minute of regulation this season (also Joel Eriksson Ek on Oct. 19 & Nov. 21, 2021; Ryan Hartman on Nov. 6, 2021).
QUICK CLICKS
* #SticksOutForTeddy: NHL, hockey community honor Connecticut teen killed in high school game
* Ducks rookie Trevor Zegras can do it all, makes nice glove save at practice
* 2022 NHL Draft Diary: Brad Lambert
* Trevor Daley, former NHL defenseman, signs with Florida of ECHL
* Emotional Marc-Andre Fleury gets video tribute, standing ovation in Vegas return
STARS HEAD TO ST. LOUIS TO FACE YET ANOTHER STREAKING TEAM
The Stars (17-12-2, 36 points) will try to play “streakbusters” for a second day in a row when they travel to Enterprise Center to face the Blues (20-10-5, 45 points), who own an active 11-game home point streak (10-0-1).
* Dallas can become the second team in NHL history to halt an opponent’s double-digit win or point streak (of any sort) on consecutive days. On Feb. 10, 1951, Detroit defeated Toronto 2-1 to end the Maple Leafs’ overall point streak at 10 games (8-0-2) before claiming a 2-1 victory the next day in Boston to stop the Bruins’ home point streak at 10 contests (6-0-4).
* St. Louis, meanwhile, can join Colorado (12-0-1; active) as the second team this season to post a home point streak of a dozen or more games.
