Boldy Runs Toronto, Scheifele Catches Hawerchuk in Dallas: Thursday Night in the NHL

Thursday started at noon Eastern in Helsinki and ended after midnight in Los Angeles, and the eleven games in between covered just about everything the league can produce in one night: a hat trick built one period at a time, a franchise record that waited thirty-six years to be caught, a comeback from three goals down, two overtime winners, and a game in Utah where nobody scored at all. The full league lives on the NHL hub.

Wild 5, Maple Leafs 2: Boldy, one per period

TORONTO — Matt Boldy scored in the first period, the second and the third, and Minnesota’s 5–2 win at Scotiabank Arena ran the Wild’s point streak to ten games (8-0-2). According to NHL.com’s recap, it was Boldy’s second hat trick of the season and the sixth of his career, and he needed fewer games than any Wild player before him to post two in one season.

Boldy opened the scoring at 17:53 of the first, intercepting a Troy Stecher pass and finishing a give-and-go with Kirill Kaprizov. Toronto had its only real stretch early in the second — Auston Matthews tied it at 4:05 with his 12th goal of the season, and Zack MacEwen put the Leafs ahead at 6:59 — before Boldy tied it again on the power play at 9:55, one-timing a Quinn Hughes feed through traffic. The winner came 3:59 into the third, Boldy snapping one glove-side off a banked Ryan Hartman drop pass. Michael McCarron made it 4–2 at 7:34 and Danila Yurov hit the empty net at 19:03.

Kaprizov finished with three assists and Hughes one, and both men quietly carried the night’s other headline: each extended his point streak to ten games. Jesper Wallstedt made 26 saves for what Reuters’ game report called his league-leading 13th win. Toronto (8-11-2) has lost five straight, all five games of its homestand so far in regulation. The one concern for Minnesota: Joel Eriksson Ek left in the second period after colliding with Jake McCabe, and coach John Hynes told NHL.com he does not think it is serious, with a better update expected Friday.

Game Center — Minnesota at Toronto (final)

Jets 8, Stars 3: Scheifele pulls even with Hawerchuk

DALLAS — Winnipeg fell behind 2–0, then scored five times in the second period and eight of the game’s last nine goals to rout the Stars and win its fifth straight. The night, though, belonged to Mark Scheifele. His two goals and an assist gave him 929 career points, tying Dale Hawerchuk for the most in Jets franchise history — a record that only re-entered the books in September, when the NHL consolidated the original Jets’ history with the current franchise’s.

The symmetry is almost suspicious: Scheifele reached 929 with 378 goals and 551 assists; Hawerchuk got there with 379 and 550. The tying point was the secondary assist on Kyle Connor’s third-period goal that made it 6–3 and chased Jake Oettinger. Dawson Mercer scored twice for Winnipeg, Connor and Gabriel Vilardi each had a goal and two assists, and Stuart Skinner made 31 saves, according to NHL.com’s Jets report. Scheifele gets his first chance to own the record outright on Saturday in Chicago — the full story of the record night is here.

Game Center — Winnipeg at Dallas (final)

Hurricanes 4, Kraken 1: Aho’s homecoming in Helsinki

HELSINKI — The Global Series opener was decided in sixty-six seconds. Nikolaj Ehlers scored at 11:44 of the first on a wrist shot from the blue line; Seattle challenged for goaltender interference and lost, and on the power play that followed, Sebastian Aho — playing in his home country, in front of a Veikkaus Arena crowd that came to see exactly this — steered in a Jackson Blake feed at 12:50. Aho added a one-timer in the third for a 4–0 lead, and Juuso Välimäki scored the other Carolina goal, because on this night even the supporting cast was Finnish.

The detail that makes it a story instead of a box score: per NHL.com, Aho’s two goals came ten years to the day after his first NHL goal — scored against the same goaltender, Philipp Grubauer. Blake’s assist extended his career-best point streak to ten games (four goals, eight assists in the run), and Logan Stankoven’s two assists stretched his streak to six. Frederick Gaudreau’s late goal was all Seattle (9-7-1) managed. The two teams do it again in Helsinki on Saturday.

Game Center — Carolina at Seattle, Helsinki (final)

Canadiens 5, Bruins 2: Five goals, then coast

BOSTON — Montreal scored the game’s first five goals inside two periods and moved atop the Atlantic Division. Kirby Dach struck at 2:34, Josh Anderson batted in a rebound at 8:36, and the second period brought Jake Evans’ breakaway goal, Cole Caufield at 8:14 and Phillip Danault at 14:15. Evans and Anderson each finished with a goal and an assist, Jacob Fowler made 30 saves, and the Canadiens’ point streak reached twelve games (9-0-3).

Boston pulled Jeremy Swayman after four goals on 17 shots, and Casey Mittelstadt scored both Bruins goals to make the third period respectable. The loss snapped Boston’s seven-game home winning streak — and cost the Bruins the division lead to the team that beat them.

Senators 4, Avalanche 3 (OT): Pinto’s birthday, Colorado’s worry

OTTAWA — Shane Pinto opened the scoring at 7:11 of the first, set up Drake Batherson’s tying goal late in the third, then intercepted a pass in Colorado’s zone and won it himself 2:08 into overtime — on his 26th birthday, per the Associated Press report carried by Sportsnet. Tim Stützle also scored for Ottawa and Linus Ullmark made 25 saves.

The Avalanche goals — Artturi Lehkonen, Parker Kelly and Gabriel Landeskog — are not the part of this game Colorado will be thinking about on the flight home. Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar both left in the second period with lower-body injuries and did not return. Ottawa gets the two points; the whole league waits on Colorado’s next update.

Panthers 5, Red Wings 4: The champs erase three

SUNRISE — Detroit led 4–1 with under thirty seconds left in the second period, and lost. Sam Reinhart’s early goal — his 200th as a Panther — was answered by four straight Detroit goals, and then Florida remembered who it is: Lars Eller and Gustav Forsling started the climb, and Anton Lundell finished it with two third-period goals, the winner with 2:40 left. Carter Verhaeghe assisted on three of Florida’s five. It was, per Sportsnet, the Panthers’ biggest comeback of the season.

Devils 5, Capitals 2: Three in the third

NEWARK — New Jersey scored three third-period goals to pull away from Washington in the first of a two-game set between the teams. Vladislav Kolyachonok’s shot trickled past Logan Thompson at 6:27 of the third for the go-ahead goal, Evan Rodrigues had a goal and an assist, and Connor Hellebuyck made 26 saves. The Devils (14-6-0) are 12-3-0 over their last fifteen and 9-2-0 at Prudential Center this season.

Lightning 3, Blue Jackets 1: Guentzel’s 700th

COLUMBUS — Jake Guentzel broke a third-period tie in his 700th NHL game and added an assist, and Tampa Bay closed a four-game road trip with a win. The Lightning went 3-1-0 on the trip and are 6-1-1 in their last eight.

Blackhawks 3, Sabres 2 (OT): Nazar twice, Donato once, skid over

CHICAGO — Frank Nazar scored both Chicago goals in regulation — a power-play finish off a Connor Bedard feed, then a third-period deflection of a Sam Rinzel shot — and Ryan Donato won it at 3:12 of overtime as the Blackhawks snapped a six-game losing streak (0-5-1). Spencer Knight made 21 saves. Buffalo’s own recap pointed at the winner: Owen Power was knocked down by an Anton Frondell pick the Sabres believed was interference, and Donato scored while Power was getting back to his feet. Owen Power and Tage Thompson scored for the Sabres, and Alex Lyon made 22 saves in his season debut after recovering from a preseason shoulder injury.

Islanders 5, Kings 2: A skid ends in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES — The Islanders arrived on an 0-2-2 slide and left with their most complete night in a week. Brayden Schenn had a goal and two assists — seven points in a four-game point streak, per NHL.com — Victor Eklund scored for the fourth straight game, and Matthew Schaefer, Simon Holmstrom and Bo Horvat also scored, Horvat’s an empty-netter that closed a 5–2 final. Trevor Moore and Quinton Byfield scored for the Kings (5-10-2), who have lost three straight.

Blues 1, Mammoth 0 (SO): The game that refused a goal

SALT LAKE CITY — Sixty-five minutes, fifty-one combined shots, zero goals. Joel Hofer made 29 saves for St. Louis and Karel Vejmelka 22 for Utah, and both men were credited with a shutout — the tenth of each man’s career and the second of his season, per the Associated Press. The game even produced two almost-goals that review took away: a McTavish score erased by a successful Utah offside challenge, and a Philip Broberg overtime shot initially called a goal before the crossbar had the final word.

It took eight shootout rounds to find a winner. The shootout itself finished 3–2 to St. Louis, Connor McMichael beating Vejmelka in the eighth round after Barrett Hayton missed the net. The Blues have won two straight after losing three in a row; Utah (10-8-2) has lost four straight (0-2-2) to open its five-game homestand.

Friday’s slate brings Nashville into T-Mobile Arena, where the Golden Knights — idle Thursday — put a four-game winning streak on the line. The full schedule and every score live on the NHL hub and the Stats Hub.