Islanders’ streak over at 17 games
Perhaps it’s fitting that the Islanders’ 17-game point streak ended against one of the few teams that boasts goaltending comparable to the Isles’ own, especially when John Gibson is in net. The Ducks gave the Islanders their first regulation loss since Oct. 11, blanking Barry Trotz’s bunch 3-0 on Monday.
That wasn’t the only “your own medicine” element of this loss for the Islanders, either. The Ducks allowed quite a few more chances, but did a decent job of controlling the quality while losing the quantity battle. Gibson ultimately only needed 26 saves for that shutout, while Ryan Getzlaf and Cam Fowler led the way with a goal and an assist each. Anders Lee has been great during this run, but Monday wasn’t his night, as he was on the ice for all three of the Ducks’ goals.
Three Stars
1. Alexander Radulov, Dallas Stars
The Stars have been almost as hot as the Islanders lately, and while Radulov (2G, 1A) and John Klingberg (3A) have been relatively quiet during Dallas’ tear, they made the big difference against the troubled-but-still-dangerous Golden Knights on Monday.
The Stars are now on a seven-game winning streak, have gone 9-0-1 in their last 10 games, are now 14-1-1 in their last 16 games after beginning the season on a 1-7-1 whimper.
Radulov bookended that win against Vegas with two power-play goals, and also assisted on Jason Dickinson’s game-winner. It wasn’t as if the Stars’ usual top guns were totally absent (Tyler Seguin collected two assists), yet this win serves as a sobering reminder to opponents that Dallas can beat you in more ways than even the 2018-19 Stars could.
2. Ondrej Palat, Tampa Bay Lightning
The Sabres managed a 2-1 lead at some point, and it seemed like Buffalo and the Bolts would have themselves a tightly matched game. The third period kind of ended that, as the Lightning strengthened what became a 3-2 lead with two shorthanded goals. The second was scored by Palat, who ended Monday with two primary assists and the 5-2 shorthanded tally.
Palat’s now on a nice little mini-hot streak, generating points in three consecutive games (two goals, three assists for five of his 15 points this season).
The Lightning are now on a three-game winning streak and seem to have found their legs with a 7-3-0 mark in their last 10 games.
3. Artemi Panarin, New York Rangers
Is it Artemi, as I’ve been accustomed to spelling it (and the Rangers’ website spells it that way), or Artemiy Panarin, as it seems to be on the star player’s Twitter page?
I feel about as confounded as most defenders do against the absolutely slick winger, who collected assists on all three of the Rangers’ goals in a 3-2 OT win against the Wild. Seeing Mats Zuccarello’s tribute video was probably super emotional for many Rangers, but not Panarin, who was one of actually quite a few new guys who never shared a Rangers locker room with the Norwegian wizard.
Panarin now has 30 points through his first 22 games with the Rangers, including five (1G, 4A) during his past two.
Highlights
I’m partial to this fantastic move by Ryan Donato against the Rangers, although Donato’s Wild ultimately fell short:
Factoids
- With his 455th win, Henrik Lundqvist broke a tie with Curtis Joseph, and now stands alone at fifth all-time in NHL history.
- NHL PR points out that the Ducks have been effective spoilers lately. Along with ending the Islanders’ 17-game point streak on Monday, they also ended the Bruins’ 18-game (14-0-4) run on Jan. 30, 2018.
- Things remain tough for the Sabres, but Jack Eichel continues to be brilliant. He became the first Sabres player to reach 30+ points in the first 24 games of a season since Thomas Vanek did it in 2012-13, according to NHL PR.
- In case you missed it, Erik Cernak will face a hearing for the hit that injured Rasmus Dahlin.
- Kudos to Sportsnet for the specificity of this stat: Sean Monahan has scored 35 goals during the second period of games since 2017-18, the most of any player ... from the Western Conference.
- The Flames addressed Akim Aliu’s claims that Bill Peters made racist remarks. More on that here.
Scores
TBL 5 - BUF 2
NYR 3 - MIN 2 (OT)
PHI 2 - VAN 1
PIT 3 - CGY 2 (OT)
CBJ 1 - OTT 0
NSH 3 - STL 2 (SO)
DAL 4 - VGK 2
ANA 3 - NYI 0
SJS 4 - ANA 3 (OT)
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James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.