Four games on a Friday night, all of them decided, none of them boring. The NHL served up a little of everything: a statement road win, a rivalry game, a goalie duel that went to a shootout, and a full-on barn-burning in Detroit. Here's what actually happened, from the real scores.
Ducks 5, Jets 1 — the only unbeaten team left, and it isn't close
Everybody keeps waiting for the Ducks to come back to earth. Winnipeg waited too. Then Anaheim scored three in the first 45 minutes, let Kyle Connor get one back, and answered with two more. Final: 5-1 at Canada Life Centre, in front of 13,693 very quiet people. The Ducks remain the NHL's only unbeaten team, and at this point it might be time to stop treating it like a scheduling fluke.
The goals told the whole story of this roster: it wasn't the big names doing it. Judd Caulfield opened it at 14:41 of the first off feeds from Jeff Malott and Tim Washe. Washe made it 2-0 in the second off Malott and Caulfield — Malott and Washe each finishing with a goal and an assist, Caulfield a goal and an assist. Sam Colangelo (from Beckett Sennecke) made it 3-0, Connor cut it to 3-1 for the Jets, and then Mikael Granlund and Nikita Nesterenko (empty net, from Sennecke and Granlund) slammed the door. Sennecke finished with two assists, Granlund with a goal and an assist. Lukas Dostal stopped 15 of 16 (.938) — he barely had to work. Clay Stevenson got the hook-end of it for Winnipeg: 12 saves on 16 shots.
This is the result that should make the rest of the West uncomfortable. Going into Winnipeg and winning 5-1 is what contenders do in January, not what unbeaten teams do in early October to stay unbeaten.
Capitals 3, Rangers 1 — depth beats star power on rivalry night
The pregame talk was all about the rivalry — and it delivered a real hockey game, the kind where both teams leave it all out there and one team's depth just keeps coming in waves. Alexis Lafrenière opened the scoring for the Rangers at 10:17 of the first (J.T. Miller and Pavel Dorofeyev on the assists), and for about 15 minutes it looked like New York might steal one. Then the Capitals woke up.
Timothy Liljegren tied it in the second off Dylan Strome and Ryan Leonard. Boone Jenner — unassisted — made it 2-1 late in the second, and Tom Wilson iced it with an empty-netter with a second left, from Vincent Desharnais. The number that matters: Logan Thompson, 22 shots, 21 saves, .955. The Caps needed exactly one great goaltending performance and got it.
The Rangers' goaltending plan is worth a raised eyebrow: Dylan Garand started (11 saves on 12), and Igor Shesterkin finished (13 on 14). Neither was the problem. The problem was Washington's third and fourth lines generating more than New York's stars, and a 3-1 scoreline in a game the Rangers had every chance to win. These two will see each other again, and the Rangers' top six owes them one.
Blue Jackets 3, Penguins 2 (SO) — a 43-save masterpiece, wasted
This is the cruelest kind of hockey loss. Sergei Murashov — the Penguins' young netminder — stopped 43 of 45 shots over 65 minutes at Nationwide Arena. A .956. In a game his team led never. And Pittsburgh still lost, because the Blue Jackets found the one guy who could end it.
Columbus built a 2-0 lead the hard way: Damon Severson's snapper at 10:52 of the first (Zach Werenski and Cole Sillinger), then Mathieu Olivier at 11:40 of the second (Severson and Sillinger again — Sillinger quietly had two assists on the night). Bryan Rust got one back for Pittsburgh off Samuel Girard, and Evgeni Malkin — deflected, off Erik Karlsson's feed — tied it 3:19 into the third. Nobody scored in overtime despite Murashov standing on his head again.
Then the shootout, and Kent Johnson was the only shooter on either side to convert. One snap shot, one extra point, one very long flight home for Murashov, who did everything humanly possible and got nothing for it. Cam Talbot made 20 saves for Columbus at the other end and will take the win. Some nights the scoreboard is just rude.
Kraken 6, Red Wings 3 — five goals in one period, good night Detroit
Some games you describe period by period. This one you describe in about ten minutes of the second. The Red Wings led 2-1 at Little Caesars Arena after William Wallinder's snap shot (Alex DeBrincat and Michael Brandsegg-Nygård). Viktor Arvidsson had opened the scoring for Detroit in the first off Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider. Then the Kraken scored five times in the second period and turned a hockey game into a public service announcement.
Freddy Gaudreau did it twice (from Ryan Winterton and Ben Meyers both times), Mackie Samoskevich made it 3-2 off Jared McCann, Ben Meyers made it 5-2 off Berkly Catton and Brandon Montour, and Vince Dunn's third-period snapper (Chandler Stephenson, Montour) made it 6-2. Brandsegg-Nygård got one back unassisted for Detroit late, 6-3, which is the kind of goal that helps nobody. Winterton finished with three assists, Montour with two, Meyers with a goal and two assists. Philipp Grubauer stopped 37 of 40 (.925) for the win.
Detroit's crease, meanwhile, was a crime scene. Daniil Tarasov faced 9 shots and stopped 8; John Gibson faced 15 and stopped 10 (.667). When you use two goalies and the better one still gives up five, the problem isn't the goalies. The Red Wings have now been outscored 6-3 at home by a team that played the night before their fans showed up — and the boos at the final horn at Little Caesars Arena told the story.
For the full Friday setup, see our pregame slate preview and this morning's NHL roundup for Thursday's results.