Mitch Marner notched his third career hat trick with three straight goals within the first two periods and the Toronto Maple Leafs wrecked Todd McLellan’s Red Wings coaching debut with a 5-2 victory at Detroit on Friday night.
Marner scored twice in the first period and added another goal late in the second as the Maple Leafs built a 5-0 lead. He had a career-high four goals against Detroit on Feb. 26, 2022.
Toronto’s David Kampf scored his first goal of the season in his 500th career game. Nicholas Robertson also scored for the Maple Leafs, and John Tavares added two assists. Joseph Woll made 23 saves for the win.
McLellan, the former San Jose, Edmonton and Los Angeles head coach, was hired on Thursday to replace Derek Lalonde. Lucas Raymond and Simon Edvinsson scored for Detroit, which has lost four straight games. Cam Talbot and Alex Lyon had a combined 18 saves.
Avalanche 4, Utah Hockey Club 1
Artturi Lehkonen posted his first career hat trick and Nathan MacKinnon collected three assists to lead Colorado past Utah in Salt Lake City.
Goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood, on the day the Avalanche announced he signed a five-year, $26.25 million contract extension, made 34 saves to record his fourth win five starts since being traded to Colorado. Mikko Rantanen also scored for the Avalanche, who have won four consecutive games and eight of their last 10.
Nick Schmaltz logged the lone goal for Utah, which is winless in three outings (0-2-1) and fell to 5-7-4 at home this season. Goalie Karel Vejmelka stopped 33 shots.
Golden Knights 6, Sharks 3
Brayden McNabb and Jack Eichel scored short-handed goals 23 seconds apart to highlight a four-goal third-period outburst as visiting Vegas rallied for a victory over San Jose.
Vegas recorded its league-leading 14th comeback victory of the season and extended its overall winning streak to a season-best five games. Eichel, McNabb, Mark Stone and Brett Howden each finished with a goal and an assist, and Noah Hanifin and Pavel Dorofeyev also scored goals for the Golden Knights.
Will Smith had a goal and an assist and Shakir Mukhamadullin and Tyler Toffoli also scored for San Jose, which lost its sixth straight game (0-5-1). Fabian Zetterlund added two assists, and Alexandar Georgiev made 30 saves.
Sabers 6, Blackhawks 2
Alex Tuch’s third career hat trick led Buffalo to a win over visiting Chicago.
Jack Quinn and Dylan Cozens each had a goal and an assist, Rasmus Dahlin had two assists and Zach Benson scored for Buffalo. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 15 of 17 shots for his 10th win in 25 starts this season.
Tyler Bertuzzi and Seth Jones scored for the Blackhawks, who have lost their last three games. Chicago is 1-10-1 in its last 12 away games. Blackhawks starting goalie Petr Mrazek allowed four goals on 11 shots before being removed at the first intermission. Arvid Soderblom stopped 22 of 24 shots over the final two periods.
Wild 3, Stars 2 (OT)
Brock Faber scored on a wraparound 35 seconds into overtime to lift visiting Minnesota to a comeback victory over Dallas.
Jonas Brodin and Marcus Foligno scored in the third period and Filip Gustavsson made 27 saves for the Wild, who had lost four of five entering the Christmas break.
Wyatt Johnston and Evgenii Dadonov each had a goal and an assist and Jake Oettinger made 15 saves for the Stars, who blew a 2-0 third-period lead but extended their point streak against Minnesota to 12 games (8-0-4).
Devils 4, Hurricanes 2
Jacob Markstrom saw his two-game shutout streak end, but the goalie made 29 saves in New Jersey’s win over Carolina in Newark, N.J.
Markstrom, 34, extended his personal win streak to six games and improved to 9-0-1 in his past 10 starts. Luke Hughes recorded a goal and an assist for his third two-point game in his past four contests. Ondrej Palat, Nico Hischier and Dawson Mercer also scored. Hughes was one of five defensemen to record an assist for the Devils, who have won three in a row and six of their past seven.
Brent Burns had a goal and an assist for Carolina. Eric Robinson also scored. Pyotr Kochetkov stopped 19 shots for the Hurricanes, who have lost three of their past four.
Blue Jackets 6, Bruins 2
Columbus used a four-goal second period and went 3-for-3 on the power play to cruise past visiting Boston in the opening half of the teams’ back-to-back, home-and-home series.
Dmitri Voronkov posted two goals and an assist — all in the middle frame — while Sean Monahan also scored twice for Columbus, which tallied three times in a 2:47 span to break open what was a 1-1 game through 20 minutes. The Blue Jackets also received a goal and two assists from Kirill Marchenko, Adam Fantilli lit the lamp, and Zach Werenski tied a career high with four assists.
Elvis Merzlikins made 24 saves as Columbus improved to 3-0-1 in its last four games ahead of the Saturday rematch in Boston. Pavel Zacha and Charlie Coyle each scored, and Joonas Korpisalo (27 saves) took the loss for the Bruins, who had a five-game point streak (4-0-1) snapped.
Blues 7, Predators 4
Robert Thomas and Zack Bolduc scored on St. Louis’ first two shots, and Thomas added another goal in pulling away to defeat visiting Nashville.
The quick tallies helped St. Louis, which never trailed but didn’t shake Nashville until late, earn its second straight win following a 1-3-2 rut. Cam Fowler added a goal and two assists, Jordan Kyrou had a goal and an assist, Philip Broberg and Colton Parayko also scored, and Dylan Holloway had two assists. Joel Hofer made 26 saves.
Jonathan Marchessault and Steven Stamkos each had a goal with an assist for the Predators, and Nick Blankenburg and Mark Jankowski also scored. Juuse Saros was pulled late in the second period after yielding five goals on 15 shots faced. Justus Annunen stopped 12 of 13 shots in relief.
–Field Level Media
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