NHL: A recap of Thursday’s games, including Devon Levy’s game against the Bruins

Back in the National League, Quebec’s Devon Levy passed the test with flying colors against the powerful Boston Bruins.

The Buffalo Sabers goalie made 27 stops in his team’s 3-1 win. Thus, Buffalo ended its four-game losing streak.

Last week, the organization announced that it was sending the 21-year-old goalkeeper to its affiliate team, the Rochester USA team. He played in two games, recording 30 and 40 saves respectively before returning to the NHL.

Prior to Thursday night’s game, Levy had a 3.73 goals-against average with an .876 save percentage in nine games at Pitman Arena.

Against the Bruins, Levy was certainly helped by his teammates who limited the Atlantic Conference leaders to 16 shots after two periods. Levy was unlucky with the only goal allowed since Brad Marchand’s shot deflected in front of the net and ended up in the back of the net. The Sabers goaltender stood up late in the game to preserve his team’s lead and was perfect on all 13 of the Bruins’ shots in the final period.

On the offensive end, JJ Petrca surprised Linus Ullmark with a quick layup after a standoff early in the second half. Before the end of the period, Taj Thompson added to his team’s lead with a powerful shot that left the Bruins goalkeeper no chance.

With the score 2-on-1 in the third period, Viktor Olofsson allowed the goaltender to breathe a little when he beat Ullmark with a two-on-one shot selection.

The Bruins saw their winning streak cut to three games. Ullmark finished with 33 saves.

The Sabers beat the Bruins for the first time in almost a year, since December 31, 2022.

A nightmare for sticks in Western Canada

The trip to Western Canada turned into a nightmare for the Carolina Hurricanes, who this time suffered a 3-2 loss to the Calgary Flames.

The Canes have yet to taste victory since the start of their journey with stops so far in Winnipeg, Edmonton and now Calgary. They will try to do better against the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday before returning to the East with games in Ottawa and Detroit.

But all was going well for the Hurricanes until the third period. Stefan Noysen and Michael Ponting gave the visitors a 2-0 lead at half-time.

The Flames responded harshly by scoring three goals at the expense of Pyotr Kochetkov in six minutes during the last period. Rasmus Andersson, Connor Zary and Blake Coleman all scored and suddenly Calgary took control 3-2.

Sebastian Aho thought he had leveled the score with five minutes remaining when he slotted the ball into the net. But officials reviewed the goal and ruled that Martin Necas had obstructed goalkeeper Dustin Wolfe. The latter shined by making 28 saves in the Flames’ comeback, the sixth of its kind when trailing after two periods this season.

Kochetkov made 24 saves on 27 shots.

The Blue Jackets saw their jacket

Mathew Barzal and Bo Horvat led the charge and the New York Islanders stripped the Columbus Blue Jackets 7-3.

Barzal had two goals and two assists, while Horvat scored twice in addition to being an accomplice in another goal.

After falling behind 2-1 in the second half, the Islanders scored three straight goals to turn things around. Kyle Palmieri is on the power play, and Cal Clutterbuck and Pierre Engvall have the others.

With one assist, defenseman Noah Dobson has 23 points this season in 25 games. In Islander history, he joins Denis Potvin, Tom Kurvers and Jeff Norton, who have combined for the same number of 25 games on defense. However, Potvin reached this plateau nine times during his glorious career on Long Island.

Semyon Varlamov stopped 32 shots to record his first home win of the season. Spencer Martin made 28 saves for the Blue Jackets, who suffered their third loss in a row.

For the Blue Jackets, rookie Adam Fantelli once again showed his talent by contributing to all three of his team’s goals with two goals and an assist. He now has seven goals on the clock.

At 19 years and 56 days old, Fantelli became the fourth-youngest player in Blue Jackets history to record a three-point game.

Another target of Columbus was the work of Emil Bemstrom.

Three-point games for McDonagh and Josi

Ryan McDonagh and Roman Josi each had a goal and an assist, leading the Nashville Predators to a 5-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Juuso Parsinen, Filip Forsberg and Yakov Trenin also scored goals for the Predators, who achieved their third win in a row and ninth in the last 11 games.

Jose Saros starred in the victorious evening, making 32 saves.

Alex Barré-Boulet responded for the Lightning, who saw their two-game winning streak cut to two. Jonas Johansson made 25 saves in the loss.

The Predators scored twice on the power play while beating the Lightning on four extra-man attempts. Tampa Bay started the game with the second-best power play unit in the NHL (31.9%).

Barré-Boulet got the ball rolling, giving his team a 1-0 lead with 6:28 left in the first half.

Parsinen tied the game before the end of the first half. Forsberg and McDonagh allowed the Predators to pull away in the opening minutes of the second half.

Planes approaching avalanche

The Winnipeg Jets had no intention of falling behind the Avalanche for the top of the Central Division and defeated Colorado 4-2.

With the win, the Manitoba team now has 32 points on its record, two more than the division-leading Avalanche. However, Winnipeg still has one more game to play.

After Adam Lowry’s first-half goal, Kyle Connor doubled his team’s lead with his 16th goal of the season.

Nathan MacKinnon responded brilliantly to the Avalanche. Less than two minutes after Connor’s goal, the Avalanche forward offered the Jets defense a cup of coffee before beating Connor Hellebuyck to close the gap.

But Josh Morrissey gave the Jets a two-goal lead with less than five minutes left in the second half. With 30 seconds left in the period, Joel Kiviranta fired the red light for the Avalanche making it 3-2 Jets. MacKinnon earned his second point of the game in a row.

Connor completed the score into an empty net to score his second goal of the match. Hellebuyck deserved the win thanks to his 32 saves.

For his part, Alexander Georgiev blocked 24 balls out of 27 shots.

Mrazek FForget the first two choices

Petr Mrazek was perfect against 37 shots and the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Anaheim Ducks 1-0.

Mrazek’s 25th career shutout helped the Blackhawks end a four-game losing streak.

Philip Kurashev scored the only goal of the match. Chicago has lost 10 of its last 12 games.

Connor Bedard collected an assist while Leo Karlsson was somewhat quiet during this duel involving the first two picks in the recent NHL draft. Bedard was the first to be called up by the Blackhawks, followed by Carlson with the Ducks.

It was Mrazek’s first shutout since April 4, 2021, when he played for the Carolina Hurricanes.

Lukas Dostal made 24 stops for the Ducks, who suffered their 10th loss in their last 11 games.