Recap: Devils Top Capitals 7-4 as Hellebuyck Stops 43 in a 14-Game Night

Fourteen games, 85 goals, two shootouts and three teams that won without giving up a goal. New Jersey scored seven at Washington, with six different goal scorers, and Connor Hellebuyck stopped 43 shots to hold a 7-4 lead at the final horn. Tampa Bay put up 31 shots and Toronto 19, and both finished the night on zero.

Key points

The Saturday slate in five bullets.

• Eleven goals in Washington: the Devils won 7-4 behind Hellebuyck’s 43 saves, and the Capitals’ 47 shots were the most by any team all night.
• Three shutout wins. D. Tarasov faced 31 shots in Detroit’s 2-0 win at Tampa, D. Levi stopped 19 for Edmonton at Toronto, and J. Oettinger was perfect on 22 as Dallas beat Buffalo 2-0.
• Both shootouts went to the road team. Mark Scheifele had four points in Winnipeg’s 5-4 win at Chicago, and San Jose took it 6-5 at Utah on Y. Askarov’s 27 saves.
• Carolina buried Seattle 37-13 in shots and won 5-1, with Artemi Svechnikov and M. Jankowski two goals each.
• Ottawa is five games without a loss after a 4-1 win at Pittsburgh, outshooting the Penguins 34-17.

What mattered

The 11-goal game, a shootout doubleheader and three quiet goalies.

Washington fired 47 shots, the highest total of the night, and still lost. The Devils’ scoring was spread out: E. Rodrigues had two goals, and C. Brown, L. Hameenaho and J. Boqvist added one apiece, giving New Jersey six different names on the scoresheet. Hellebuyck faced 47 and cleared 43 of them. That is what a 7-4 road win looks like from the goalie’s side.

The night’s two shootouts both rewarded the visitor. In Chicago, Mark Scheifele had four points and N. Daws turned aside 12 as Winnipeg won 5-4 in a shootout, even with Connor Bedard logging two points for the Blackhawks. In Utah, San Jose won the same way, 6-5, with T. Toffoli, Z. Ostapchuk and A. Gaudette among the scorers and Askarov standing on his head one more time.

The quiet goalies owned the low-end scores. Detroit skated to a 2-0 win at Tampa Bay on D. Tarasov’s 31 saves, one for every shot he faced, and L. Raymond had two points. Edmonton won 1-0 in Toronto with D. Levi stopping all 19 he faced; the Maple Leafs managed nothing from 19 shots. Oettinger handled 22 of 22 as Dallas beat Buffalo 2-0, with J. Benn and W. Johnston on the scoresheet.

The bigger scores were road-heavy too. Minnesota scored six at Boston, with B. Coleman running a three-point night and J. Wallstedt making 30 saves. The Islanders scored six at Anaheim, three of them from S. Holmstrom, and Semyon Varlamov finished with 26 saves. Calgary won 3-2 at Los Angeles behind D. Wolf’s 29 stops, and Philadelphia held on 4-3 at Columbus with two goals from D. Barkey.

Two more road wins round out the list: Florida beat St. Louis 4-1 with two points each for Brady Tkachuk and Sam Reinhart, and Colorado won 4-1 at Montreal behind M. Blackwood’s 25 saves. Ottawa’s 4-1 win at Pittsburgh extended the point streak to five. Only Carolina and New Jersey turned a home game into a statement: the Canes in a 5-1 blowout, the Devils in an 11-goal game their goalie finished with 43 saves.

The full slate

All 14 Saturday finals in start-time order, with the top performer per game by the numbers.

Final	Star of the game (by the numbers)
SEA 1 at CAR 5	N. Ehlers 3p (0g); P. Kochetkov 12 saves
WPG 5 at CHI 4 (SO)	M. Scheifele 4p (1g); N. Daws 12 saves
MIN 6 at BOS 2	B. Coleman 3p (1g); J. Wallstedt 30 saves
EDM 1 at TOR 0	L. Draisaitl 1p (0g); D. Levi 19 saves
COL 4 at MTL 1	A. Lehkonen 2p (1g); M. Blackwood 25 saves
DET 2 at TBL 0	L. Raymond 2p (1g); D. Tarasov 31 saves
OTT 4 at PIT 1	M. Amadio 2p (1g); L. Ullmark 16 saves
NJD 7 at WSH 4	C. Brown 3p (1g); C. Hellebuyck 43 saves
PHI 4 at CBJ 3	D. Barkey 2p (2g); J. Woll 28 saves
FLA 4 at STL 1	B. Tkachuk 2p (1g); J. Markstrom 23 saves
BUF 0 at DAL 2	J. Benn 1p (1g); J. Oettinger 22 saves
SJS 6 at UTA 5 (SO)	T. Toffoli 2p (1g); Y. Askarov 27 saves
NYI 6 at ANA 2	S. Holmstrom 3p (3g); S. Varlamov 26 saves
CGY 3 at LAK 2	Y. Sharangovich 2p (1g); D. Wolf 29 saves

Pro Hockey Stats models the NHL in public. Every pick is graded on the Ledger, no deletions.