Player Analysis: C. Gauthier’s Hat Trick and Scheifele’s Two-Second Winner
November 8, 2026
Cutter Gauthier, Mikael Granlund, Mark Scheifele, Tomas Hertl, Timo Meier and Pontus Holmberg carried Sunday. Six finals went in, 72 skaters found the scoresheet, and every one of them is listed in the tables at the bottom.
Key points
The numbers from six finals that deserve a second look.
- Cutter Gauthier had four points in Anaheim’s 5-2 win over Pittsburgh: two goals inside the first 9:11 of the second period, an assist on the opening goal, and a hat-trick empty-netter with 34.4 seconds left in regulation.
- Mikael Granlund finished with four points in the same game, one goal and three assists. Defenseman J. LaCombe added three assists and 30:54 of ice time.
- Winnipeg led 3-0 with 11:50 left. Tampa Bay answered with three goals in 4:17, two of them 26 seconds apart, before Mark Scheifele’s power play goal at 19:58 of the third, two seconds on the clock, won it 4-3.
- New Jersey won 4-0 in Toronto behind two goals from Timo Meier and a 23-of-23 afternoon from Hellebuyck.
- Tomas Hertl scored twice and Mitch Marner added a shorty and an assist as Vegas took 4-1 in Buffalo.
Top performers
Each of the six finals, in order, with the players who decided them.
The biggest night belongs to Anaheim. Cutter Gauthier scored at 6:28 and 9:11 of the second period, then filled his line score with an assist on Mikael Granlund’s power play opener and a third goal into an empty net at 19:26 of the third. Granlund ended with one goal and three assists of his own, and J. LaCombe collected three helpers across 30:54 at the blue line.
Pittsburgh’s two goals were both power play goals, Kris Letang and Rickard Rakell scoring with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin adding one assist apiece. Brossoit stopped 31 of 33, and the Ducks closed a 5-2 win that the final score slightly flatters Pittsburgh in.
Winnipeg’s night nearly slipped away in the last twelve minutes. Brayden Yager’s power play goal at 8:10 of the third made it 3-0, Brandon Hagel cut it to 3-1 at 10:22, and Pontus Holmberg buried two goals 26 seconds apart at 14:01 and 14:27 to tie it at 3-3. Mark Scheifele’s man-advantage goal at 19:58 ended the game right there, 4-3, with two seconds left and no overtime needed.
Scheifele also picked up an assist on Cole Perfetti’s opening power play goal, and V. Björck had two helpers, one on each of Winnipeg’s second and third goals. Skinner faced just 21 shots and finished with 18 saves; Vasilevskiy stopped 21 of 25 on the losing end.
The shutout came in Toronto, where the Devils won 4-0 and outshot the Leafs 29-23. Timo Meier scored twice in the second period, Nico Hischier added a power play goal and an assist, and J. Hughes and J. Bratt had two assists each. Hellebuyck was perfect on all 23 shots he faced, and Connor Brown’s empty-netter with 2:37 left made the margin match the play.
Vegas settled it in the third in Buffalo. Mitch Marner opened the scoring short-handed, Jack Eichel doubled it, and Tomas Hertl added two goals 4:17 apart to close a 4-1 win. I. Barbashev and defenseman S. Theodore skated out at plus-3, and Hill turned aside 28 of 29. Beck Malenstyn scored Buffalo’s only goal against Ellis and 26 shots.
Boston won 4-1 over Florida behind Elias Lindholm, Michael Eyssimont, Morgan Geekie and JJ Peterka, with David Pastrnak and P. Zacha collecting two assists each. Swayman stopped 40 of 41, and Carter Verhaeghe’s power play goal, set up by Brady and Matthew Tkachuk, was all Florida got across 41 shots.
The lone overtime game went Calgary’s way, 4-3 over Philadelphia, on Matt Coronato’s goal at 4:08 of the extra period. The lead changed hands six times: Denver Barkey opened it, Zayne Parekh evened it, Noel Acciari restored Philadelphia’s lead, Zach Whitecloud tied it again, Owen Tippett put the Flyers up 3-2 on the power play, and Joel Farabee answered short-handed to set up Coronato’s winner. Y. Kuznetsov and Y. Sharangovich had two assists each, the latter on both of Calgary’s regulation ties. Cooley made 32 saves, Vladar 22.
All point-getters
All 72 skaters with a point on Sunday, sorted by points.
| Player | Team | Game | G | A | P | +/- | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C. Gauthier | ANA | PIT at ANA | 3 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 18:24 |
| M. Granlund | ANA | PIT at ANA | 1 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 21:51 |
| J. LaCombe | ANA | PIT at ANA | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 30:54 |
| P. Holmberg | TB | TB at WPG | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 13:23 |
| T. Hertl | VGK | VGK at BUF | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 14:18 |
| T. Meier | NJ | NJ at TOR | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 18:35 |
| C. Perfetti | WPG | TB at WPG | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 15:41 |
| M. Marner | VGK | VGK at BUF | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 18:35 |
| M. Scheifele | WPG | TB at WPG | 1 | 1 | 2 | -1 | 21:54 |
| N. Hischier | NJ | NJ at TOR | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 17:52 |
| D. Pastrnak | BOS | FLA at BOS | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 21:16 |
| E. Cernak | TB | TB at WPG | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 16:59 |
Show all 72 players
| Player | Team | Game | G | A | P | +/- | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C. Gauthier | ANA | PIT at ANA | 3 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 18:24 |
| M. Granlund | ANA | PIT at ANA | 1 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 21:51 |
| J. LaCombe | ANA | PIT at ANA | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 30:54 |
| P. Holmberg | TB | TB at WPG | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 13:23 |
| T. Hertl | VGK | VGK at BUF | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 14:18 |
| T. Meier | NJ | NJ at TOR | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 18:35 |
| C. Perfetti | WPG | TB at WPG | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 15:41 |
| M. Marner | VGK | VGK at BUF | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 18:35 |
| M. Scheifele | WPG | TB at WPG | 1 | 1 | 2 | -1 | 21:54 |
| N. Hischier | NJ | NJ at TOR | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 17:52 |
| D. Pastrnak | BOS | FLA at BOS | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 21:16 |
| E. Cernak | TB | TB at WPG | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 16:59 |
| E. Malkin | PIT | PIT at ANA | 0 | 2 | 2 | -2 | 21:53 |
| I. Barbashev | VGK | VGK at BUF | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 14:45 |
| J. Bratt | NJ | NJ at TOR | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 15:52 |
| J. Hughes | NJ | NJ at TOR | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 20:06 |
| P. Zacha | BOS | FLA at BOS | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 21:51 |
| S. Couturier | PHI | PHI at CGY | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 13:43 |
| V. Bjorck | WPG | TB at WPG | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 13:22 |
| Y. Sharangovich | CGY | PHI at CGY | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 18:46 |
| B. Hagel | TB | TB at WPG | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 19:20 |
| B. Malenstyn | BUF | VGK at BUF | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 13:13 |
| B. Yager | WPG | TB at WPG | 1 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 11:00 |
| C. Brown | NJ | NJ at TOR | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 17:29 |
| C. Verhaeghe | FLA | FLA at BOS | 1 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 17:31 |
| D. Barkey | PHI | PHI at CGY | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 14:04 |
| E. Lindholm | BOS | FLA at BOS | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 18:58 |
| J. Eichel | VGK | VGK at BUF | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 17:52 |
| J. Farabee | CGY | PHI at CGY | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 20:31 |
| J. Peterka | BOS | FLA at BOS | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 16:54 |
| K. Letang | PIT | PIT at ANA | 1 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 21:56 |
| M. Barron | WPG | TB at WPG | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 14:28 |
| M. Coronato | CGY | PHI at CGY | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 16:52 |
| M. Eyssimont | BOS | FLA at BOS | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 8:14 |
| M. Geekie | BOS | FLA at BOS | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 14:49 |
| N. Acciari | PHI | PHI at CGY | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 13:05 |
| O. Tippett | PHI | PHI at CGY | 1 | 0 | 1 | -4 | 16:38 |
| R. Rakell | PIT | PIT at ANA | 1 | 0 | 1 | -2 | 22:06 |
| T. Luneau | ANA | PIT at ANA | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 16:10 |
| Z. Parekh | CGY | PHI at CGY | 1 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 21:38 |
| Z. Whitecloud | CGY | PHI at CGY | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 22:19 |
| A. Cirelli | TB | TB at WPG | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 16:48 |
| A. Iafallo | WPG | TB at WPG | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 13:46 |
| A. Killorn | ANA | PIT at ANA | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 16:43 |
| A. Suniev | CGY | PHI at CGY | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 14:06 |
| B. Sennecke | ANA | PIT at ANA | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 18:29 |
| B. Tkachuk | FLA | FLA at BOS | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 13:12 |
| C. Dvorak | PHI | PHI at CGY | 0 | 1 | 1 | -2 | 20:09 |
| C. Glass | NJ | NJ at TOR | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 14:33 |
| C. McAvoy | BOS | FLA at BOS | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 21:08 |
| C. Mittelstadt | BOS | FLA at BOS | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 16:53 |
| D. Chisholm | NJ | NJ at TOR | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 10:07 |
| E. Karlsson | PIT | PIT at ANA | 0 | 1 | 1 | -2 | 25:33 |
| F. Minten | BOS | FLA at BOS | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 16:42 |
| G. Vilardi | WPG | TB at WPG | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 21:33 |
| H. Fleury | WPG | TB at WPG | 0 | 1 | 1 | -1 | 16:37 |
| I. Mikheyev | TB | TB at WPG | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 14:46 |
| J. Drysdale | PHI | PHI at CGY | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 22:08 |
| M. Gridin | CGY | PHI at CGY | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 19:06 |
| M. Pospisil | CGY | PHI at CGY | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 14:10 |
| M. Samuelsson | BUF | VGK at BUF | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 24:05 |
| M. Tkachuk | FLA | FLA at BOS | 0 | 1 | 1 | -1 | 17:39 |
| N. Pionk | WPG | TB at WPG | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 27:15 |
| N. Seeler | PHI | PHI at CGY | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 16:51 |
| O. Bonk | PHI | PHI at CGY | 0 | 1 | 1 | -1 | 18:44 |
| R. McQueen | ANA | PIT at ANA | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 13:22 |
| S. Crosby | PIT | PIT at ANA | 0 | 1 | 1 | -2 | 23:08 |
| S. Nemec | CGY | PHI at CGY | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 22:08 |
| S. Theodore | VGK | VGK at BUF | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 24:18 |
| T. Kozak | BUF | VGK at BUF | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 11:33 |
| Y. Kuznetsov | CGY | PHI at CGY | 0 | 1 | 1 | -1 | 18:03 |
| Z. Girgensons | TB | TB at WPG | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 14:57 |
Pro Hockey Stats models the NHL in public. Every pick is graded on the Ledger, no deletions.