3 things we learned in the NHL: Kari wasn’t Lehtonen many goals

Tyler Pitlick scored two goals and the Dallas Stars cruised past the New York Islanders.

The Senators earned a much-needed win, the Bruins completed a late comeback against the Red Wings, and the Canucks were embarrassed by the Predators.

Here are three things we learned in the NHL Wednesday.

1. Kari Lehtonen hits pair of milestones

One thing is certain, Kari wasn’t Lehtonen many goals…

The Dallas Stars netminder made 32 saves and was named the third star in a 5-2 victory over the New York Islanders. In doing so, he earned his 300th career NHL win.

Lehtonen became the sixth active goalie to record 300 wins, joining Roberto Luongo, Henrik Lundqvist, Marc-Andre Fleury, Ryan Miller and Cam Ward, who accomplished the feat Tuesday.

Wednesday was a double milestone kind of night for Lehtonen. In addition to win No. 300, Lehtonen played in his 624th career game, which sets a new record for most starts by a Finnish-born goalie, passing Miikka Kiprusoff.

Lehtonen is now 19 wins behind Kiprusoff for first place all time among his compatriots. With Ben Bishop between the pipes in the Stars’ net most nights, however, it might be a while before he leapfrogs Kipper in wins. No Finnish netminder has faced more shots than Lehtonen though.

2. King Henrik has seen more rubber than the Michelin Man

The Rangers might’ve come up short in Ottawa but Henrik Lundqvist did something to be proud of. He recorded his 20,000th career save in a 3-2 loss.

Lundqvist is one of only two active goalies to have made that many saves, Luongo being the other.

“It means a lot to me to be up there with those names,” Lundqvist said when asked about being close to the milestone prior to the game. “The amount of saves, I don’t know, I’ve never really thought about that number. I’m happy I’ve been able to play a lot of hockey throughout my 12 and a half seasons here. That’s pretty much the only thought I get when I hear 20,000 saves.”

Also in the Rangers-Sens game, Chris Kreider registered his 200th career NHL point by collecting an assist on a Pavel Buchnevich goal.

Fans of symmetry will be annoyed Kreider reached 200 points with an assist. He currently has 99 goals and 101 assists.

3. Sedin keeps rising on the all-time assists list

There was pretty much one thing for Canucks fans to be happy about in Wednesday’s 7-1 shellacking courtesy of the Preds and that was Henrik Sedin recording his 800th career assist.

The Canucks captain is one of three active players with at least 800 career assists (joining Jaromir Jagr and Joe Thornton) and became only the fourth European-born player to reach that milestone (Jagr, Stan Mikita and Nicklas Lidstrom are the others).

Only 30 players in NHL history have recorded more assists than Sedin.

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