Tuesday was not a good night for fans who leave games early.
In four different games across the NHL, one team forced overtime with a tying goal in the final 15 seconds of regulation. That is an NHL record, Sportsnet Stats can confirm, after Chris Jastrzembski of TNT Sports was first to report the record on X.
The first tying goal came in the Anaheim Ducks' 4-3 shootout win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. After Anthony Mantha gave Pittsburgh a 3-2 lead with under five minutes to go in the game, rookie Beckett Sennecke scored the tying goal at 19:59 after dancing around multiple Penguins before banking the puck in off Erik Karlsson's glove.
The Vegas Golden Knights were the second team to force OT in the dying seconds, doing so against the New York Islanders. Pavel Dorofeyev buried the tying goal with 14 seconds remaining after pouncing on a Mitch Marner rebound. Unlike the Ducks, however, the Golden Knights ultimately lost 5-4 in a shootout.
The Edmonton Oilers were the third team to force OT with a furious comeback against the Buffalo Sabres. The Oilers erased a 3-0 hole with three goals in the third period, including two from Connor McDavid. The second one came with 1.9 seconds remaining when the puck squirted out of a crowd of bodies and landed on his stick, giving him a wide-open net to fire home a goal. The Sabres got the last laugh in overtime, though, with Alex Tuch scoring the winner only 33 seconds into the extra frame.
Finally, the Colorado Avalanche forced overtime against the Nashville Predators with a goal from Cale Makar in the final seconds. Makar's goal, with eight seconds remaining, came on the power play and was his 10th tally of the season. The Predators won the game 4-3 in a shootout.
FLYERS 4, SHARKS 1
PHILADELPHIA — Travis Konecny got his 500th NHL point and Dan Vladar only had to make 17 saves as Philadelphia beat San Jose.
Konecny helped tie the game at 1-1 late in the first period when he backhanded a lofty puck into the neutral zone. Christian Dvorak found it and promptly deked to his back hand for an easy score with 1:21 to play in the period.
The assist was Konecny’s 500th career point. He added an empty-net goal with 1:43 left to play.
Vladar, a career backup with Boston and Calgary before signing with the Flyers in the offseason, was busy late when San Jose pulled goalie Alex Nedeljkovic with just under four minutes left.
The Sharks scored first when Collin Graf drilled home a cross-slot pass from John Klingberg 11:33 into the game.
Carl Grundstrom, recalled from the AHL’s Lehigh Valley recently to replace the injured Tyson Foerster, tipped home a long-distance wrist shot by defender Nick Seeler to give the Flyers a 2-1 lead at the 3:20 mark of the second period.
With 11 seconds remaining in the period, Noah Cates took a pass from Bobby Brink and wristed it past Nedeljkovic for a 3-1 lead.
LIGHTNING 6, CANADIENS 1
MONTREAL — Tampa Bay scored three times in the first period, Darren Raddysh scored a pair of third-period goals, and the Lightning coasted to a win over Montreal.
Brayden Point, Pontus Holmberg and Nikita Kucherov had goals in the first period to help the Lightning snap a four-game losing streak. Charle-Edouard D’Astous added a second-period goal for Tampa Bay.
Jonas Johansson made 26 saves in his fourth consecutive start in relief of Andrei Vasilevskiy, who was placed on injured reserve on Monday with an undisclosed injury.
Oliver Kapanen scored a power-play goal in the final minute of the second period for Montreal. Jakub Dobes allowed three goals on 14 shots before being replaced by Sam Montembeault to start the second period. Montembeault, making his first appearance since Dec. 2, surrendered three goals on 12 shots.
Cole Caufield’s 11-game point streak came to an end in the loss.
HURRICANES 4, BLUE JACKETS 1
RALEIGH, N.C. — Eric Robinson ended a 10-game stretch without a goal by breaking a third-period tie and Carolina beat Buffalo.
Seth Jarvis, Jordan Staal and Jordan Martinook had Carolina’s other goals and Andrei Svechnikov supplied two assists. Brandon Bussi made 23 saves to improve his record to 9-1-0 for the Hurricanes, who wrapped up a 4-3-0 homestand. Bussi is the only Carolina goalie to win a game since Nov. 17.
Dmitri Voronkov scored on a first-period power play for the Blue Jackets, who’ve lost back-to-back games in regulation for the first time in more than a month. Jet Greaves stopped 27 shots, but Columbus has been outscored 45-28 in the third periods of games this season.
Voronkov scored with 7:21 remaining in the opening period on just the second Columbus shot of the game.
Jarvis responded at 9:42 of the second period for his team-leading 17th goal. It was his sixth goal during the homestand.
Robinson took a pass from Taylor Hall and delivered his first goal since Nov. 15, coming against one of his former teams. Staal tacked on a power-play goal with 6:22 left. Martinook’s goal with 1:15 to play was an empty-net, short-handed tally.
DEVILS 4, SENATORS 3
OTTAWA — Cody Glass scored the tiebreaking goal on a wrist shot with 7:36 remaining, and New Jersey beat Ottawa to snap a five-game skid.
Jakob Markstrom stopped 35 shots, making several saves in the final minutes to secure the victory.
Arseny Gritsyuk had a goal and two assists for the Devils, who also got goals from Simon Nemec and Paul Cotter. New Jersey had scored just once over its previous three games.
The Senators were perfect on the power play. Drake Batherson scored twice with the man advantage and Tim Stutzle also had a power-play goal.
Linus Ullmark made 28 saves for Ottawa. The Senators also went 3 for 3 on the penalty kill.
Both teams found the back of the net twice in the first period after struggling to score recently.
Ottawa struck 96 seconds when Batherson scooped up a rebound and lifted it over Markstrom. New Jersey responded a few minutes later when Nemec stepped into a shot from the high slot and beat Ullmark.
The Senators went ahead when Stutzle snapped home his first in eight games.
Connor Brown found Gritsyuk, who he raised one past Ullmark to make it 2-2 with 2:01 left in the first.
New Jersey took the lead four minutes into the second. A giveaway by Jordan Spence allowed Cotter to break in alone and tuck a backhand shot past Ullmark.
BRUINS 5, BLUES 2
ST. LOUIS — Mark Kastelic and Fraser Minten scored two goals each and Boston rallied to beat St. Louis.
Pavel Zacha scored an empty-net goal, while David Pastrnak had two assists in his first game since Nov. 16 after missing five games with an undisclosed injury. Sean Kuraly also had two assists for the Bruins, who won their third straight game and their second against the Blues in the last five days.
Jeremy Swayman made 24 saves.
Robert Thomas scored twice for the Blues and Joel Hofer made 26 saves.
Kastelic connected with a bouncing puck in the Blues crease and put it into the back of the net to give the Bruins a 3-2 lead at 8:01 of the third. Minten added an unassisted goal three minutes later.
STARS 4, JETS 3
WINNIPEG, Manitoba — Jason Robertson scored his team-leading 19th goal and Mikko Rantanen had three assists as Dallas extended its point streak to 11 games with a victory over Winnipeg.
The Stars are 9-0-2 in their last 11. They’ve also earned at least one point in 13 straight road games (9-0-4), extending their franchise record.
Esa Lindell, Roope Hintz and Alexander Petrovic also scored for Dallas (21-5-5). Wyatt Johnston added two assists, and Rantanen pushed his point streak to seven games (three goals, 11 assists).
Backup goalie Casey DeSmith stopped 30 shots. He’s only lost once in regulation this season (7-1-3).
Mark Scheifele scored twice for the Jets (14-14-1) in the opener of a four-game homestand. Logan Stanley also had a goal and Kyle Connor picked up a pair of assists.
Eric Comrie made 15 saves for Winnipeg, which is 2-7-1 in its last 10 games.
Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel juggled all four lines to try to spark more secondary scoring, including moving winger Gabriel Vilardi off the top line with Connor and Scheifele and putting Alex Iafallo into his spot.
–With files from the Associated Press
