Garnet Hathaway hit the target at 13:54 of the third period to cap off a three-goal run by the Boston Bruins, who beat the Detroit Red Wings 3-2 on Saturday afternoon.
Boston (50-9-5) suddenly signs a 50th victory this season and becomes the club to reach this plateau the fastest, after 64 games. Tampa Bay (2018-19) and Detroit (1995-96) had achieved the feat in 66 games.
The Bruins have already clinched their ticket to the playoffs after the New York Islanders lost to the Washington Capitals in the evening. They are first in the East with 105 points.
The Bruins trailed by two goals after 20 minutes when they opened the machine to snatch victory from the Wings.
Hathaway took advantage of a rebound from goaltender Magnus Hellberg to push the loose puck past him for his tenth goal of the season.
Before him in the second period, Quebecer Patrice Bergeron tied the game with his 24th of the season on a power play. It was the 130th goal on the power play for the L’Ancienne-Lorette player, which allows him to climb to fourth place in Bruins history.
Hampus Lindholm has the other goal in the win.
With an assist on Bergeron’s goal, Dmitry Orlov became the fastest defenseman to reach ten points in Bruins history. In seven games, he has three goals and seven assists to his credit. Al Iafrate in 1993-94, Brad Park in 1975-76 and Irv Spencer in 1962-63 all needed eleven games to earn ten points with the Bruins.
Goaltender Linus Ullmark made 29 saves in the win and is 33-4-1 in his first 40 games this season. His 33 wins are the second-most in 40 games in NHL history behind Tiny Thompson, also of the Bruins, who went 35-4-1 in 1929-30.
For the Red Wings, Andrew Copp became the fourth fastest player in club history to score a shorthanded goal in the first after just 1:36 of play.
Alex Chiasson for his part got his first goal of the season during a massive attack at 4:32 still in first.
It was the second time in their history that the Red Wings had scored a goal short of a man and with a man more in the first five minutes of a game since Gordie Howe and Norm Ullman achieved the feat in March 1965.
Crosby approaches a Mario Lemieux brand
Captain Sidney Crosby scored his 29th goal of the season.
Crosby is just one goal short of reaching 30 goals for the eleventh time in his career. He will then join Mario Lemieux at the top of this list in Penguins history.
Kristopher Letang got his 30th point of the season with an assist on goal. It’s his 13th season of 30 or more points for him, tying Drew Doughty for the highest total among active defensemen.
Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan tied Ken Hitchcock to become the 11th fastest coach in NHL history to reach 400 wins.
Sullivan has a record of 400-234-15-87 in 736 games.
Rickard Rakell gave the Penguins the lead at 5:52 of the first period with his 22nd of the season.
Jason Zucker was lucky when he saw the puck slip past goaltender Carter Hart who saw the puck pass through his pads before slowly crossing the goal line for the Penguins third net to make it 3-1 in third period.
The forward deflected Marcus Pettersson’s shot between Carter Hart’s pads, scoring his 10th goal in his last 12 games.
Jake Guentzel then took advantage of an empty net to score his 27th of the season. Then, Mikael Granlund reached ten before the end of the game while Hart was back in front of his net.
The Penguins, in the fight for a playoff berth, responded well to their tough Thursday loss to the Islanders as they squandered a two-goal lead in the final five minutes of play.
Casey DeSmith stopped 31 shots for the Penguins, who have won six of their last eight games.
The New York Rangers relied on the contribution of their veterans to snatch a 2-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabers in overtime.
Artemi Panarin hit his twenties on the power play 2:02 into overtime to secure the win for New Yorkers.
Mika Zibanejad had an assist on the game-winning goal to go 6-7 this season in overtime. Only Mark Messier (15), Frank Boucher (14) and Brian Leetch (14) have done better than him in such a situation at Rangers.
Jeff Skinner had put the Sabers ahead in second on assists from Ilya Lyubushkin and Tage Thompson. Skinner is just one goal away from hitting the 30-goal mark for his sixth career season.
Then, Patrick Kane got his 18th of the season, but his second in his new colors to tie the score halfway through the middle period. It was also a 448th for him in his NHL career.
Cale Makar plays the heroes
Defenseman Cale Makar scored the game-winning goal in overtime as the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Arizona Coyotes 3-2 on Saturday.
Makar scored his 15th of the season to beat Connor Ingram, who was solid in net with 41 saves.
Denis Malgin quickly gave the Avalanche the lead in the second minute of play. Malgin made a nice breakthrough at the net to surprise Ingram with a backhand shot.
The Coyotes, however, took the lead before the end of the first period. Jack McBain tied the game and Calyton Keller, with his 27th, allowed André Tourigny’s troops to take the lead.
Colorado, however, took advantage of a power play in the second period. Nathan MacKinnon found the back of the net to bring both teams back to square one.
Alexandar Georgiev was quiet in goal for the Avalanche, stopping 18 pucks for his 28th victory of the season.
