Red-hot Mikko Rantanen scored two more goals and Nathan MacKinnon extended a pair of streaks as the Colorado Avalanche won their eighth consecutive game, 6-1 over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday.

Cale Makar had a goal and an assist and Ross Colton also scored for the Avalanche, who have won 10 of 11 to remain tied with Dallas for the top spot in the Central Division.

Rantanen had a hat trick in Tuesday’s win over St. Louis and has eight goals in his last five games.

MacKinnon had a goal and an assist to extend his home point streak to 33 games. He also has 11 goals and 23 assists during a 17-game overall point streak.

Elvis Merzlikins stopped a season-high 44 shots for the last-place Blue Jackets.

Milano has hat trick in Capitals’ shootout win

Sonny Milano notched his first career hat trick and Dylan Strome scored the lone shootout goal to lift the Washington Capitals to a wild 7-6 win over the Carolina Hurricanes.

Strome had three assists in regulation and Alex Ovechkin, John Carlson and Ivan Miroshnichenko also scored as the Capitals won their fourth in five games to get within one point of Detroit for the final Eastern Conference playoff spot.

Sebastian Aho scored three goals and Jake Guentzel had three assists for Carolina, which had won four straight. The Hurricanes moved to 7-1-1 in their last nine games and are within one point of the Rangers for the lead in the Metropolitan Division.

Benn lifts Stars over Penguins

Jamie Benn scored two goals in a 77-second span in the second period and the Dallas Stars topped the sliding Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-2.

Joe Pavelski and Sam Steel also scored and Jake Oettinger stopped 20 shots for the Stars, who have won three in a row to tie Colorado for first place in the Central Division.

Michael Bunting and Rickard Rakell tallied for Pittsburgh, which fell to 0-6-1 in its last seven road games.

Michael McCarron scored twice and the Nashville Predators scored seven straight goals to extend their point streak to a franchise record-tying 15 games with an 8-2 rout of the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday.

Roman Josi and Filip Forsberg each had a goal and two assists and Ryan McDonagh and Kiefer Sherwood added three assists apiece for the Predators, who improved to 13-0-2 in their last 15 games since their last regulation loss to Dallas on Feb. 15.

Nashville matched a 14-0-1 run from Feb. 19-March 19, 2018.

Juuse Saros stopped 18 shots and is 10-0-2 in his last 12 starts.

League-worst San Jose has lost five straight and is 1-12-2 in its past 15 games.

Rantanen’s big game powers red-hot Avalanche

Mikko Rantanen completed his hat trick with the tiebreaking goal early in the third period and the Colorado Avalanche won their seventh straight game, 4-3 over the St. Louis Blues.

Casey Mittelstadt had the other goal for the Avalanche, who have outscored opponents 31-13 during the seven-game streak, the longest active run in the NHL.

Nathan Walker, Alexey Toropchenko and Brayden Schenn tallied as St. Louis had a four-game winning streak snapped.

Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon picked up his 75th assist of the season to extend his point streak to 16 games (10 goals, 22 assists).

Jarvis leads Hurricanes over Islanders

Seth Jarvis scored twice and the Carolina Hurricanes started fast in a 4-1 win over the floundering New York Islanders.

Trade-deadline acquisition Jake Guentzel had a goal and two assists and Pytor Kochetkov stopped 30 shots to lead Carolina to its fourth straight victory.

The Hurricanes matched a franchise record with their sixth straight road win and pulled within two points of the Rangers for first place in the Metropolitan Division.

The Islanders have been outscored 20-6 during a five-game losing streak as their playoff hopes continue to dim.

Aleksander Barkov scored his second goal of the game with 5:22 remaining and the NHL-leading Florida Panthers used a three-goal third period to defeat the Dallas Stars 5-2 on Tuesday.

Dallas held a 3-1 lead midway through the third period, but Barkov scored a power-play goal with 8:51 left and Sam Bennett netted the tying goal just under three minutes later. Barkov scored the winner just 38 seconds later on a power play.

Sam Reinhart added his team-leading 46th goal for the Panthers, who won for the 18th time in 21 games.

Jason Robertson, Wyatt Johnston and Joe Pavelski each had a goal and an assist for the Central Division-leading Stars, who had won five in a row.

Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky allowed more than two goals for the first time since Jan. 19, ending his personal 12-game stretch.

Shesterkin perfect again

Igor Shesterkin stopped 28 shots for his second straight shutout and the New York Rangers padded their lead in the Metropolitan Division with a 1-0 win over the Carolina Hurricanes.

Shesterkin, who blanked St. Louis on Saturday, turned away five shots in the first period, 11 in the second and 12 more in the third for his 14th career shutout.

Adam Fox scored the game’s only goal late in the first period as New York won its third straight to open a six-point lead over Carolina in the Metro.

Pyotr Kochetkov made 23 saves for the Hurricanes, who had won three in a row.

Rantanen’s big game powers surging Avs

Mikko Rantanen had two goals and two assists and the Colorado Avalanche scored five times in the second period in a 6-2 victory over the Calgary Flames.

Valeri Nichushkin had a goal and two assists and Nathan MacKinnon added a goal and an assist for the Avalanche, who have won four straight and six of seven to pull within two points of Dallas for the Central Division lead.

MacKinnon, who leads the NHL with 113 points, extended his point streak to 13 games. He has nine goals and 19 assists during that span.

The Flames dropped their third straight after winning six of seven.

Marc-Andre Fleury took sole possession of second place on the NHL's all-time wins list for a goaltender by posting a 21-save shutout and leading the Minnesota Wild to a 5-0 victory over the New York Islanders on Monday.

Fleury broke a tie with Hall of Famer Patrick Roy with his 552nd career victory, and did so in style with his 74th career shutout and the 39-year-old's first this season.

Joel Eriksson Ek scored both short-handed and on a power play to help Fleury achieve the feat and end a four-game losing streak for Minnesota. Mats Zuccarello and Marcus Foligno contributed a goal and an assist each. 

The Wild took control early by forcing an Islanders' penalty just over a minute in, and Zuccarello scored on the resulting power play for a quick 1-0 lead.

Connor Dewar scored off a New York turnover 2:18 into the second to extend Minnesota's advantage, and Eriksson Ek got his first of the night with the Wild on a 5-on-4 later in the period to increase the margin to 3-0.

Eriksson's short-handed goal came with 3:51 remaining and Foligno completed the rout by tipping in a pass from Frederick Gaudreau in the final minute.

Fleury needed to make just three saves during the Wild's dominant second period before recording eight more in the third to finish off his historic shutout.

The Islanders were dealt a fourth loss in five games and pulled star goaltender Ilya Sorokin following the second intermission after he allowed three goals on 32 shots.

Crosby, Jarry star as Penguins end Kraken's nine-game winning streak

Sidney Crosby scored two goals to support a 22-save shutout from Tristan Jarry as the Pittsburgh Penguins stopped the Seattle Kraken’s franchise-record nine-game winning streak with a 3-0 victory.

Drew O’Connor added a goal and Rickard Rakell finished with two assists to help Pittsburgh bounce back from overtime defeats in its previous two games and hand the Kraken their first loss since Dec. 18.

Seattle also had a 13-game point streak (11-0-2) halted despite a solid effort from goaltender Joey Daccord, who turned aside 30 of 32 shots.

Daccord made 12 saves in the first period to keep the game scoreless, but the Penguins broke through just 49 seconds into the second when O’Connor converted a backhand feed from Bryan Rust.

Crosby made it a 2-0 lead just 2:43 later before capping his two-goal day with an empty-net strike with 2:21 left to play.

Jarry’s shutout was his fifth of the season, tied with the Arizona Coyotes’ Connor Ingram for tops in the NHL.

Kings snap eight-game skid behind big third period

Trevor Moore had two goals and the Los Angeles Kings scored four times in the third period to come through with a 5-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes and end an eight-game losing streak.

Moore, Phillip Danault, Alex Laferriere and Pierre Luc-Dubois all had goals in the final 19 minutes to send the Kings to their first victory of 2024. Los Angeles had gone 0-4-4 since its most recent victory on Dec. 27.

The Hurricanes, meanwhile, had gone 7-0-1 over their previous eight games.

Danault added two assists and David Rittich recorded 30 saves for the Kings, who struck three times in the first 5:20 of the third to break a 1-1 deadlock after two periods.

Danault put Los Angeles ahead by knocking in the carom of teammate Vladislav Garikov’s off-target shot 61 seconds into the third. Laferriere sent a wrist shot past Carolina goaltender Antti Raanta just 1:20 later to extend the lead, and Dubois’ one-timer with 14:40 remaining increased the margin to 4-1.

The Hurricanes got closer on Jack Drury’s goal with 11:02 left to play, but failed to close the gap further before Moore put the game away with a short-handed empty-net tally with 1:16 remaining.

Moore scored the game’s lone goal of the first period before Jordan Martinook answered for Carolina 5:38 into the second to extend his goal streak to three games.

Raanta stopped just 20 of 24 shots before being pulled after allowing Dubois’ goal.

Connor McDavid had a goal and four assists to reach 900 points for his career and the Edmonton Oilers won their sixth straight game, 5-2 over the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday.

McDavid’s milestone point came on an assist on Zach Hyman’s goal in the second period. The 900th point came in his 602nd game, making McDavid the fifth-fastest player in NHL history to reach that total, trailing only Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Mike Bossy and Peter Stastny.

McDavid had five points in a game for the 10th time. He had a career-high six points on Nov. 14, 2019 against Colorado.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had two goals and an assist for the Oilers, who are 14-3-0 in their past 17 games.

Surging Jets handle Lightning

Nikolaj Ehlers and Morgan Barron scored third-period goals as the Winnipeg Jets extended their point streak to nine games with a 4-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Neal Pionk and Alex Iafallo also scored and Vladimir Namestnikov had three assists as the Jets won their third straight and improved to 7-0-2 in their past nine games.

Connor Hellebuyck, named the NHL’s third star of the month of December, stopped 33 shots. He is 7-0-2 with a 1.99 goals-against average in his last nine starts.

Red-hot Hurricanes roll past Rangers

Andrei Svechnikov scored a pair of goals and Pyotr Kochetkov stopped 28 shots to lift the Carolina Hurricanes to a 6-1 rout of the New York Rangers.

Brady Skjei had three assists against his former team and Jack Drury had a goal and an assist to help the Hurricanes win their fourth straight and improve to 7-1-3 in their last 11 games.

Svechnikov has points in five consecutive games, including six goals, while Sebastian Aho has points in his last five games with three goals and 10 assists.

Chris Kreider scored for New York, which has lost seven times this season by three or more goals.

Logan Thompson stopped 32 shots and the Vegas Golden Knights held on for a 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday to snap a four-game losing streak.

Jack Eichel, Michael Ammadio and Williams Karlsson scored for Vegas, which tied Vancouver for first place in the Pacific Division.

Thompson bounced back after he allowed four goals on Anaheim’s first nine shots during a 5-2 loss to the Ducks on Wednesday.

Anže Kopitar had a goal and an assist for Los Angeles, which lost on the road in regulation for just the second time this season (13-2-1).

Svechnikov, Fast power Hurricanes

Andrei Svechnikov had a hat trick and Jesper Fast scored twice to lift the Carolina Hurricanes to a 5-3 victory over the Montreal Canadiens.

Svechnikov tallied his first goal of the night 1:35 into the first period and snapped a tie with 6:09 remaining in the third. He completed his third career hat trick with an empty-net goal with 18.9 seconds to play.

Sebastian Aho had four assists and Brent Burns set up three scores for Carolina, which has points in eight of its last nine games (5-1-3).

Flyers score 3 quick goals to beat Canucks

Egor Zamula, Sean Walker and Joel Farabee scored in the second period and Samuel Ersson made 18 saves before leaving as the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Vancouver Canucks 4-1.

Ersson allowed only Teddy Blueger’s goal 25 seconds into the third period before leaving shortly after due to dehydration. Carter Hart stopped all eight shots the rest of the way.

Vancouver suffered its first loss in 10 games (7-1-2).

Zach Hyman scored two of his three goals in the Oilers’ four-goal first period and surging Edmonton cruised to a 6-1 rout of the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday.

Connor McDavid and Mattias Janmark each had three assists and Ryan McLeod and Mattias Ekholm also scored to help the Oilers win their fifth straight game.

McLeod scored 28 seconds into the game and Ekholm extended the lead just 13 seconds later. Hyman netted his first of the game at 5:46 and Pyotr Kochetkov was replaced by Antti Raanta after allowing three goals on six shots.

Jordan Staal spoiled Stuart Skinner’s shutout bid midway through the third period as Carolina dropped its second in a row following a 3-0-1 stretch.

Skinner finished with 38 saves and has been in net for all five wins during the streak, posting a 1.58 goals-against average.

Kucherov extends streak in Lightning’s win

Nikita Kucherov had a goal and an assist to extend his point streak to 11 games and the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-1.

Anthony Cirelli and Tanner Jeannot also scored for the Lightning, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 23 saves as Tampa Bay won its second in a row following a four-game skid.

Kucherov, the NHL scoring leader with 44 points, has six goals and 15 assists during his streak.

Jake Guentzel had the lone goal for Pittsburgh, which had a five-game point streak snapped (2-1-3).

Marchessault, Eichel lead Knights over Blues

Jonathan Marchessault scored the 200th goal of his career and JacK Eichel had a goal and an assist as the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the St. Louis Blues, 6-3.

The Golden Knights had six different goal scorers with Eichel, Marchesault, Keegan Kolesar and Michael Amadio tallying in the second period, when Vegas turned a 3-1 deficit into a 5-3 lead.

Vegas is 3-0-3 in its last six games and leads the NHL with 39 points.

Jordan Binnington made a season-high 43 saves for the Blues, who have alternated wins and losses in their last eight games.

Andrei Vasilevskiy received plenty of support in his season debut, as Brayden Point had a hat trick and two assists in an 8-2 drubbing of the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday.

Vasilevskiy, a winner of the Vezina Trophy and Conn Smythe Trophy, appeared in his first game since April following offseason surgery. He stopped 22 shots and improved to 13-5-3 all-time against Carolina.

Nikita Kucherov had two goals and four assists and Brandon Hagel added a goal and two assists for the Lightning, who are 4-0-1 in their past five games.

Tampa Bay scored three power-play goals in the first six minutes of the second period for a 3-1 lead.

Carolina made it a one-goal game later in the frame, but the Lightning scored five times in the third period, two by Point.

Stefan Noesen and Michael Bunting had goals for the Hurricanes, who lost for just the second time in eight home games this season.

Surging Kings stay unbeaten on road

Kevin Fiala scored twice and Anze Kopitar added a goal and an assist as the Los Angeles Kings remained perfect on the road with a 5-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks.

Arthur Kaliyev and Quinton Byfield also scored for the Kings, who won their fourth straight overall and improved to 9-0-0 on the road this season.

That’s the second-longest such streak in NHL history, trailing only the Buffalo Sabres’ 10 consecutive wins to open the 2006-07 season.

Alex Killorn and Radko Gudas had goals for Anaheim, which has lost five straight after winning eight of its previous 10.

Red Wings notch second win over NHL-best Bruins

Alex DeBrincat and J.T. Compher each scored one goal and set up another and the Detroit Red Wings defeated the NHL-leading Boston Bruins for the second time this season, 5-2.

Jake DeBrusk and Danton Heinen tallied for the Bruins, who had been 5-0-2 since losing at Detroit on Nov. 4.

Both of Boston’s regulation losses (14-2-3) have come against Detroit.

Robby Fabbri, Dylan Larkin and David Perron had the other goals as the Red Wings won their second straight following a 0-1-1 trip to Sweden.

Will Cuylle snapped a tie midway through the third period and the New York Rangers edged the Carolina Hurricanes, 2-1 for their sixth consecutive win on Thursday.

Chris Kreider had the other goal and Igor Shesterkin stopped 27 shots to give the Rangers eight wins in their first 10 games for the second time in franchise history. The 8-2-0 mark trails only a 9-1-0 record to open the 1983-84 season.

Seth Jarvis scored for the Hurricanes, who had a three-game winning streak stopped.

New York has won 10 of its last 14 regular-season games against Carolina and is 19-4-0 in the last 23 meetings at home.

Rangers forward Artemi Panarin assisted on Kreider’s goal to extend his season-opening point streak to 10 games with five goals and 11 assists.

New York’s Adam Fox left the game with a lower-body injury after the first period. He appeared to suffer the injury in a leg-on-leg collision with Carolina’s Sebastian Aho.

Bruins top Maple Leafs in shootout

Jake DeBrusk and Charlie Coyle converted in the shootout and the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 to remain without a regulation loss.

DeBrusk and Pavel Zacha scored in regulation and Jeremy Swayman stopped 33 shots to help Boston improve to 9-0-1 and keep pace with Vegas as the only teams yet to fall in regulation.

Toronto’s William Nylander had an assist to extend his season-opening, franchise-record point streak to 10 games.

Mitchell Marner and Auston Matthews had regulation goals for the Leafs, who are winless in their last three (0-1-2).

Golden Knights defeat Jets

The Vegas Golden Knights got a hat trick from Jonathan Marchessault and continued their blazing start with a 5-2 victory over the visiting Winnipeg Jets.

Ivan Barbashev and William Karlsson each had a goal and an assist to help Vegas improve to an NHL-best 10-0-1.

The Golden Knights are the 13th team in NHL history to record a season-opening point streak of at least 11 games.

Logan Thompson turned aside 29 of 31 shots and is 5-0-0 this season.

Sebastian Aho has received quite the gift on his 26th birthday.

The Carolina Hurricanes announced Wednesday they have signed their standout center to an eight-year, $78 million extension that will keep him under contract through the 2031-32 season.

Aho was entering the final season of a five-year, $42.3 million contract signed in 2019, when the Hurricanes matched an offer sheet the Montreal Canadiens gave the then-restricted free agent.

That has proven to be a shrewd move for Carolina, as Aho's 135 goals over the last four seasons rank eighth among NHL players and he's one of only nine players to score 30 or more goals in four of the last five seasons.

Aho has been a core member of a Hurricanes team that reached the Eastern Conference finals in 2022-23 and has won at least one playoff series in five consecutive seasons.

"Sebastian has developed into one of the best two-way centers in hockey," Hurricanes president and general manager Don Waddell said in a statement. "He's a tremendous leader on and off the ice who sets a great example for our younger players. We're grateful that he's decided to stay in Carolina for the foreseeable future."

Aho has spent his entire seven-year NHL career with Carolina after being taken by the Hurricanes in the second round of the 2015 draft. The two-time All-Star's 218 goals and 468 points both rank fifth in franchise history.

The native Finn owns club postseason records for career goals (23), assists (35) and points (58), while his 16 career shorthanded goals are tied for the most in franchise history.

Aho is coming off another outstanding campaign in which he compiled 36 goals and 31 assists in 75 regular-season games before contributing five goals and seven assists in 15 games during Carolina's playoff run. 

Jordan Staal will remain the captain of the Carolina Hurricanes for the foreseeable future.

The 34-year-old centerman and the Hurricanes agreed to a new four-year contract worth $11.6million, the team announced Sunday. If no deal had been reached, Staal would have become a free agent in less than a week.

Staal’s deal includes a full no-movement clause for the first three seasons.

“I’m ready to grind. I’m ready to play,” Staal told reporters during a conference call. "I feel really good about my game and feel like I can help the team for the rest of this contract. I’m going to do my best to my abilities.

“I’m excited about the deal and where this team is headed, the direction, and I’m just happy to be a part of it.”

Staal is entering his 18th NHL season and has been with the Hurricanes since 2012. He has worn the “C” on his chest since 2019.

“[Staal’s] leadership has been an integral part of our success, and the impact he has made on our organization cannot be overstated,” general manager Don Waddell said in a statement. "We could not be more excited to sign him for four more years.”

The Hurricanes won the Metropolitan Division last season with a record of 52-21-9. The franchise has secured a playoff spot in each of the last five seasons and is hoping Staal can help lead Carolina back to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 2006.

Staal had 17 goals and 17 assists in 81 games last season and remains among the top defensive forwards in the NHL. In 2022-23, he averaged 2:21 of short-handed ice time per game, while winning 55.7 percent of his faceoffs.

Staal has 275 goals and 370 assists in 1,173 career games.

Matthew Tkachuk delivered in the clutch yet again, scoring his second goal of the game on a power-play with 4.9 seconds left in regulation to complete the sweep and send the Florida Panthers into the Stanley Cup Final with a 4-3 win over the Carolina Hurricanes.

Florida will play for hockey's ultimate prize for just the second time in franchise history, after they were swept by the Colorado Avalanche in 1996.

The eighth-seeded Panthers will face either Vegas or Dallas, with the Golden Knights holding a 3-0 lead in the Western Conference final.

Jesper Fast scored the tying goal with 3:22 to go in the third period and the teams appeared headed for overtime for the third time in this series, but Jordan Staal took a tripping penalty with 57 seconds remaining to set up Tkachuk's latest heroics.

Tkachuk's goal was his eighth of the postseason and fourth of this series – including two in overtime.

Sergei Bobrovsky made 36 saves in his fifth straight victory – all one-goal decisions. He stopped 168 of 174 shots in this series for a .966 save percentage.

Carolina played most of the game without defenseman Jaccob Slavin after he absorbed a hard hit from Sam Bennett, who was not penalised on the play.

Slavin wobbled as he got to his feet and needed assistance to leave the ice.

Matthew Tkachuk scored with 12.7 seconds left in the fourth overtime to lift the Florida Panthers to a 3-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.

Sergei Bobrovsky and Frederik Andersen combined to stop 80 consecutive shots before Tkachuk took a feed from Sam Bennett and put a wrist shot over Andersen's left shoulder to end the sixth-longest game in NHL history.

The epic game ended a few minutes before 2am local time in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Carolina's Seth Jarvis opened the scoring with 12 seconds left in the first period, but Florida scored twice in just over two minutes late in the second for a 2-1 lead.

Aleksander Barkov tallied his third goal of the playoffs at 15:28 off a cross-ice pass from Anthony Duclair. Carter Verhaeghe put the Panthers ahead with his sixth postseason goal off another feed from Duclair with 2:17 left in the second period.

Stefan Noesen scored the equaliser 3:47 into the third period with Jarvis getting the primary assist.

Florida won its seventh consecutive road game in the playoffs and improved to 5-0 in overtime.

The Panthers appeared to win the game at 2:35 of the first overtime when Ryan Lomberg whipped a shot past Andersen. But the goal was waved off due to goalie interference on Colin White, whose skate made contact with Andersen's leg as he was sliding across the crease.

Bobrovsky finished with 63 saves and Andersen turned aside 57 of 60 shots.

The Carolina Hurricanes secured their first back-to-back 100-point seasons in franchise history on Tuesday as they scored three in the third period to defeat the New York Rangers 3-2 on the road.

With the victory, the Hurricanes improved their record to 46-15-8 – trailing only the 54-11-5 Boston Bruins for the league's top mark – and 69 games is the fewest needed to reach 100 points in franchise history.

Adding to their historic night, Carolina set another franchise record with their 10th third-period comeback of the season.

Despite the action-packed finish, it was a defensive grind through two periods as an early goal from New York's Tyler Motte was the only score heading into the last.

Jalen Chatfield equalised nine minutes into the third period, but Kaapo Kakko put the Rangers back in front 2-1 just 31 seconds later.

The hectic scoring sequence was not over, as Stefan Noesen made it 2-2 only 18 seconds after the restart, setting up Teuvo Teravainen for the Hurricanes' winner with 2:33 remaining.

Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour said he was inspired by the way his team refused to drop their heads after going down.

"I thought it was a great effort, right from the start," he told reporters. "We didn't come off of it. We had a game plan and the guys knew what we needed to do. 

"They've got a high-offense team, so we were trying to limit their chances. Everybody – all 20 guys – contributed in this win. 

"Even though it wasn't looking good for most of the game, we were down, then we tied it up and they got another right away, I just loved the way we [shook it off], next shift. 

"It was great to tie it up and then get the late one. We got what we deserved tonight, for sure."

Offseason acquisition Brent Burns also got in on the history-making fun, adding to his franchise record for points by a defenseman (53) with the game-winning assist, and he pointed to Brind'Amour's system as the catalyst for his terrific year.

"The system has been great," he said. "We play with a deep team and we just roll. It's been a lot of fun. 

"I've said it before, but it's a great group, and a special group. It's been a lot of fun to try and come in and find a place."

Chatfield pointed to how previous comebacks have given the Hurricanes "more confidence" when faced with difficult situations, and they trust what they are doing as a unit.

"We know what we've got in this locker room, and we know how we want to play every night," he said.

"To be able to match up against these guys, another great team, [is great]. We lost the first two to them, so to be able to get this one feels nice. We just have to keep going from there."

Vegas Golden Knights center Jonathan Marchessault hailed goaltender Jonathan Quick after recording his first shutout for his new side in Saturday's 4-0 win over the Carolina Hurricanes.

Quick only joined VGK earlier this month via trade from the Columbus Blue Jackets, making 33 saves in the win where they scored in every period from Marchessault, Reilly Smith, Paul Cotter and Brett Howden goals.

The veteran goaltender is 3-0-0 since joining the Golden Knights, playing his part as the Hurricanes were shut out for the first time since November 23.

"Quick was unbelievable tonight," Marchessault told reporters. "We're able to get him the shutout. That's something the team should be really proud to do for him.

"It's easy to get a guy like that going in your locker room. He's such a good veteran. He's been around for a long time and we're lucky to have him."

The win was 40-20-6 Vegas' fifth from their past six games, while it snapped the Hurricanes' four-game winning streak, leaving them 43-13-8.

Marchessault added: "I thought we were pretty good. They had a strong first period but I thought we kept a lot of their chances to the outside. Definitely a lot of positives today."

The result sees VGK improve their record to 40-20-6 to remain top of the Pacific Division, clinching their second win in the third game of their five-game road trip.

The Golden Knights won 4-3 in overtime at the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday, having lost 2-1 to the Florida Panthers on Tuesday, with games against the St Louis Blues and Philadelphia Flyers to come.

"That's a pretty tough road trip," Marchessault said. "To get two wins out of those three teams is really good for our group.

"We've got a few guys down so we need guys to step up which is what we're doing now.

"We've got to be ready to go back out there tomorrow and do the same thing."