Rasmus Ristolainen, Mikko Rantanen and Roope Hintz netted in the NHL round.
Jonne Niemeläinen,
STT Sports
In the ice hockey NHL, the Winnipeg Jets picked up a home win over the Minnesota Wild for the second day in a row. In this round, the hosts skated to victory with a score of 3–2.
For Minnesota, the loss was bittersweet, because of the team’s goalkeeper From Marc-Andre Fleury with the match became the fourth goalkeeper in league history to have a thousand NHL games under his belt.
Fleury’s mood still didn’t seem to be completely dampened by the defeat. The Canadian guard, who blocked a total of 26 shots, described in the aftermath of the match how his skin had gone goosebumps as people cheered in the ice rink.
With their win, Winnipeg extended their point streak to the eighth consecutive game. If Minnesota had won on Sunday, Fleury would have risen to the same level as the NHL goaltender of the past years Patrick Roy’s with.
Fleury’s compatriot Roy accumulated a total of 551 victories during his NHL career. Roy is only ahead of goalkeepers in victory statistics Martin Brodeur. The Canadian Brodeur, who also played a total of 1,266 games in the league, ended his career with 691 NHL wins.
Roy played in 1,029 games in his NHL career, and the second most seen on the ice was Roberto Luongo at 1,044.
“I’m kind of glad it’s over,” Fleury said
The Canadian boxer admitted that he had hoped that the match would have ended in victory and expressed his disappointment.
– I think the guys played great tonight, fought hard. This was a better game than the night before in Winnipeg, he said. Fleury described being flattered by the reception from the crowd and his teammates.
– It means a lot. I feel lucky to have played for so long and to have been able to do what I love for many years, he added.
Finns from Dallas on display
Dallas Stars star forward Roope Hintz continued his scoring streak as he scored once in the Stars’ emphatic 8–1 home win over the Chicago Blackhawks.
Hintz had the Stars’ sixth hit when he struck out Petr Mrazek bounce into the net after the save. With the goal, Hintz made a total of 4+0 in two consecutive games against Chicago.
Miro Heiskanen caught two assist points in the match. Esa Lindell mixed Jani Hakanpää both got one assist. The star of the match was the striker Starsin Mason Marchmentwho scored the second hat trick of his NHL career in the match.
Ristolainen’s opening goal of the season
of the Philadelphia Flyers Rasmus Ristolainen managed a goal in the Flyers 3–4 road loss against the Calgary Flames. The goal was the Finnish defender’s first of the season.
Ristolainen started the match’s scoring in the middle of the first period when he stepped up to the goal post, where Ryan Poehling scored a pass, from which the Finnish defender was able to put the puck into an almost empty goal.
Rantanen scored the yv goal directly from the pass
Colorado Avalanche Mikko Rantanen scored his 19th goal of the season as the Avalanche beat the San Jose Sharks 3–1.
Rantanen shot directly from the pass when Nathan MacKinnon found him superbly with a pass that went through three Sharks players.
MacKinnon extended his streak in home games to 19 games. This ties his streak last season as the second longest in club history. Only With Joe Sakic (23 games, in the 2000–01 season) has a longer streak at home.
Sharks goal Kaapo Kähkönen stretched in front of the puck 30/32 times. San Jose power forward Mikael Granlund recorded an assist on his team’s only goal, which came on the power play.
NHL results:
Minnesota–Winnipeg 2–3
Detroit–Boston 3–5
Ottawa–Buffalo 5 to 1
Pittsburgh–NY Islanders 3 to 1
PIT: Woody 0+1
Tampa Bay–Montreal 4–3
Calgary–Philadelphia 4–3
PHI: Ristolainen 1+0
Anaheim–Edmonton 2–7
Dallas–Chicago 8 to 1
DAL: Hakanpää 0+1, Heiskanen 0+2, Hintz 1+0, Lindell 0+1
Colorado-San Jose 3-1
COL: Rantanen 1+0
SJS: Granlund 0+1, Kähkönen 30/32 save.