Vince Dunn became the second player in Kraken history to reach the 200-point mark as he scored the overtime winner in Seattle’s late comeback victory.
* Connor Bedard moved into a tie for third in the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy race with his 19th goal of the season and helped his Blackhawks jump into the first Wild Card spot in the West.
* Thursday will be full of action as 26 teams will take to the ice, including the past four Stanley Cup Champions (Florida: 2025 & 2024, Vegas: 2023 & Colorado: 2022) during an ESPN doubleheader.
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DUNN DELIVERS IN THE CLUTCH AND REACHES 200-POINT MARK WITH KRAKEN
After the Kings scored a go-ahead goal in the final six minutes of regulation, Vince Dunn collected his 200th career point with the Kraken by assisting on Matty Beniers’ game-tying tally in the final 26 seconds of the third period to level the game and send it to overtime. The extra frame featured more heroics from Dunn, who scored his third overtime goal with Seattle to seal the victory.
* Beniers (59:34) scored the Kraken’s third-latest game-tying goal in franchise history, trailing only Chandler Stephenson (59:58 on Nov. 8, 2025) and Eeli Tolvanen (59:38 on Dec. 18, 2023).
* Dunn became the second player in franchise history with 200 career points, following Jared McCann, and also matched the franchise record for most career overtime goals (3), alongside McCann and Jordan Eberle.
BEDARD POSTS MULTI-POINT GAME TO HELP BLACKHAWKS TO VICTORY
Connor Bedard (1-1—2) factored on two of Chicago’s three goals and Spencer Knight turned aside all 21 shots he faced to help the Blackhawks (13-11-6, 32 points) shut out the Rangers and move into the first Wild Card spot in the Western Conference.
* Bedard scored his 19th goal of the season – tied for the third most in the League – and matched Patrick Kane (2015-16) for the third most by a Blackhawks player through 30 games in campaign in the past 30 years behind Tony Amonte (21 in 1998-99 & 20 in 1996-97).
ATLANTIC CLUBS QUELL MULTI-GOAL COMEBACK ATTEMPTS IN WINNING EFFORTS
The Atlantic Division-leading Red Wings (17-11-3, 37 points) and Panthers (15-12-2, 32 points) both withstood multi-goal rallies from their opponents to pick up wins Wednesday.
* The Red Wings scored four goals through the first two periods, which marked 10 consecutive goals dating to Dec. 6 – their most since Nov. 19-25, 2022 (10 in 3 GP). Calgary, however, would go on to score three times in the third frame, but Detroit managed to hold their one-goal lead until the end of regulation and overtook the idle Bruins (18-13-0, 36 points) and Lightning (17-11-2, 36 points) for first in their division.
* After Sam Bennett (2-1—3) scored twice to help the Panthers take a 3-1 lead, the Mammoth battled back to even the score, but Anton Lundell (1-0—1) found the back of the net with 52 seconds remaining in the contest with the help of Sam Reinhart (0-1—1) to lift Florida to victory. Reinhart assisted on a game-winning goal for the 33rd time since joining Florida in 2021-22, which tied Olli Jokinen for the fifth most in Panthers history behind Aleksander Barkov (81), Jonathan Huberdeau (74), Aaron Ekblad (53) and Stephen Weiss (35).
KOPITAR TIES A KINGS BENCHMARK IN #NHLSTATS: LIVE UPDATES
Wednesday’s edition of #NHLStats: Live Updates featured notes on all eight teams in action, including the Kings, who saw their captain Anze Kopitar factor on a third-period, go-ahead goal for the 80th time in his career, which tied Marcel Dionne for the most in franchise history.
QUICK CLICKS
* Macklin Celebrini of Sharks eying ‘huge honor’ of Olympic roster spot with Canada
* U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame inductees believe ‘it’s our turn to get the gold’ at Milano Cortina
* Auston Matthews says appearing in Olympics commercial with actor Jon Hamm was ‘pretty cool’
* Alex Ovechkin enjoys ‘great’ time hosting clinic for American Special Hockey kids
* Johnny Bucyk enjoying Bruins’ success on 70th anniversary of 1st NHL goal
PANTHERS–AVALANCHE ON ESPN HEADLINES 13-GAME THURSDAY
A full Thursday of NHL action will see 26 teams hit the ice with an ESPN doubleheader that includes each of the last four Stanley Cup winners, opening with the Golden Knights (2023) visiting the Flyers and closing with the Panthers (2024 & 2025) facing off with the League-leading Avalanche (2022).
* The Flyers (7-3-0 in last 10 GP) and Golden Knights (4-0-1 in last 5 GP) both enter tonight’s contest with success in recent games and are both led in scoring by a U.S.-born player: Vegas’ Jack Eichel (12-26—38 in 29 GP), who ranks second among American skaters in points this season and Philadelphia’s Trevor Zegras (10-17—27 in 28 GP), whose point total is the second-highest among players on a new team this season behind Vegas’ Mitch Marner (6-23—29 in 29 GP).
* Florida (2023, 2024 & 2025) and Colorado (2022) have participated in each of the last four Stanley Cup Final series, combining to win in three of those four seasons. The Avalanche (21-2-7, 49 points), who sit first in the overall NHL standings, can become the 12th team to reach 50 standings points in 31 games or fewer and first since the 2022-23 Bruins (30 GP) who went on to set NHL records for wins (65) and points (135) in a campaign.
* After three straight trips to the Final, the Panthers find themselves in a clogged Eastern Conference and Atlantic Division in which they are three points back of the playoff line but also five points from first place in the division. Playing without injured franchise cornerstones Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk, the Panthers have points in each of their last four games (3-0-1).
TOP ROOKIES SET TO MEET ON LONG ISLAND
Two of the top three rookies in the 2025-26 Calder Memorial Trophy race will go head-to-head Thursday as Beckett Sennecke (10-16—26 in 30 GP) and the Ducks (19-10-1, 39 points) visit Matthew Schaefer (8-14—22 in 31 GP) and the Islanders (17-11-3, 37 points) at UBS Arena.
* Sennecke can become the fourth teenager in NHL history to record a goal and an assist in a game in four consecutive contests, following Sidney Crosby (4 GP from Dec. 9-15, 2006 & March 31 – April 7, 2006), Pierre Turgeon (4 GP from Feb. 17-24, 1989) and Wayne Gretzky (4 GP from Jan. 30 – Feb. 6, 1980). Sennecke can also become the first teenager to post a four-game multi-point streak since Andrei Svechnikov (4 GP in 2019-20).
* Less than half way into his first season, Schaefer already has the 10th-most points by an 18-year-old defenseman in NHL history and can move into a tie for ninth with two points Thursday – a list composed of Phil Housley (57 in 66 GP), Rasmus Dahlin (44 in 82 GP), Bobby Orr (38 in 56 GP), Doug Bodger (31 in 65 GP), Jim Benning (31 in 74 GP), Aaron Ekblad (26 in 50 GP), Ray Bourque (26 in 34 GP), Rick Hampton (25 in 78 GP) and Scott Stevens (24 in 75 GP).
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