Top player from Saturday in the NHL
Yegor Sharangovich, New Jersey Devils
Sharangovich was one of the young players in New Jersey a year ago that gave their fans and the organization a lot of reason for optimism. It has been a slow start for the second-year forward this season as he entered Saturday’s game with zero goals in his first 13 games this season. He scored 16 in 54 games a year ago as a rookie.
He finally broke through in a big way in a 5-3 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning, scoring two goals and adding an assist to help the Devils erase a 3-1 third period deficit. The Devils scored four consecutive goals to get the win, ending Tampa Bay’s point streak at nine consecutive games.
The win also snapped what had been a three-game losing streak for the Devils.
With Saturday’s win New Jersey is now 8-5-3 on the season and doing a good job hanging in despite the continued absence of its best player, Jack Hughes.
Highlights from Saturday in the NHL
It came in a losing effort as the they allowed the Vegas Golden Knights to score three consecutive goals to complete the comeback, but Columbus Blue Jackets forward Alexandre Texier scored this absolutely amazing shorthanded goal, dangling around one of the best defensive forwards in the league in Mark Stone.
This is from the American Hockey League, but it is worth seeing. This is Josh Ho-Sang scoring the game winning goal in overtime for the Toronto Marlies, and what a play it is.
THIS IS INSANE 🤯
— Toronto Marlies (@TorontoMarlies) November 21, 2021
JOSH HO-SANG WITH THE OT WINNER #MarliesLive pic.twitter.com/AZISN0reFg
The Montreal Canadiens needed a game like this. They crushed the Nashville Predators in a game that was highlighted by Ryan Poehling scoring two goals just 30 seconds apart.
Three Takeaways from Saturday in the NHL
Hurricanes find another potential star
The Carolina Hurricanes were not perfect on Saturday afternoon, but they still managed to get a 5-4 win over the Los Angeles Kings to improve their record to a league-best 14-2-0 through their first 16 games. They are absolutely loaded, and their pipeline of talent keeps producing players. Their latest find is 19-year-old Seth Jarvis, their first-round pick from the 2020 NHL draft class. Jarvis opened the scoring for Carolina on Saturday with his fourth goal of the season in only his ninth game. He has now scored a goal in three consecutive games and looks to be sticking around for the rest of the season.
With Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov, Teuvo Teravainen, Vincent Trocheck, Martin Necas, Nino Niederreiter, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, and Jordan Staal already in place, and Jarvis added to that group, the Hurricanes have a fantastic collection of forwards at the top of their lineup that are going to make them a serious Stanley Cup contender for the foreseeable future. For the longest time their defensive core was the position that made this team full of so much potential. The collection of forwards has now exceeded the talent on the blue line.
Derek Forbort the surprising star for Boston on Saturday
The Boston Bruins need to get more from their secondary players this season, and they got that in a big way on Saturday afternoon in a 5-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers. Craig Smith and Tomas Nosek scored goals in the win, but the surprising star of the game was defenseman Derek Forbort who scored not one, but two goals in the win. That performance gives him four goals in 14 games this season. Why is this noteworthy? Because entering this season he had scored only eight goals in 331 career regular season games.
Draisaitl, Ovechkin, and Mangiapane leading the league in goals
Okay, two of these names we expect to be here. Leon Draisaitl and Alex Ovechkin are regulars at the top of the goal scoring leaderboard, and both found the back of the net on Saturday. Draisaitl scored his 18th goal of the season (in Edmonton’s 17th game) in a 5-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks, while Ovechkin scored two goals in the Capitals’ 4-0 win over the San Jose Sharks to give him 14 goals on the season, tying him for the second most goals in the league.
Tying him with Calgary Flames forward Andrew Mangiapane.
Mangiapane also scored two goals on Saturday night in the Flames’ 5-2 win over the New York Islanders, spoiling their home debut at UBS Arena.
Keep in mind his career high for goals in a season is 18, set a year ago in 56 games.
He is having one of the wilder statistical seasons in the league, scoring 14 goals on a 31 percent shooting percentage, while only recording two assists.
Sunday’s big story
The New York Islanders play their second home game at UBS Arena and look to snap their five-game losing streak. Their opponent: John Tavares and the Toronto Maple Leafs. It is going to be a challenge for the Islanders as they not only have to face a Toronto team that has been one of the best teams in the league over the past few weeks, but because they also have five key players currently out of the lineup.
Saturday’s NHL scores
Carolina Hurricanes 5, Los Angeles Kings 4
New Jersey Devils 5, Tampa Bay Lightning 3
Florida Panthers 5, Minnesota Wild 4
Pittsburgh Penguins 2, Toronto Maple Leafs 0
Montreal Canadiens 6, Nashville Predators 3
Calgary Flames 5, New York Islanders 2
Boston Bruins 5, Philadelphia Flyers 2
Arizona Coyotes 2, Detroit Red Wings 1 (OT)
Dallas Stars 4, St. Louis Blues 1
Vegas Golden Knights 3, Columbus Blue Jackets 2
Edmonton Oilers 5, Chicago Blackhawks 2
Washington Capitals 4, San Jose Sharks 0
New York Rangers vs. Ottawa Senators (Postponed)
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Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.
