ST. PAUL, Minn. — Blake Wheeler admits that returning home to play in Minnesota still feels special after a 12-year NHL career spent playing elsewhere, including the past nine seasons for the Wild’s rival Winnipeg Jets.
With his mom and dad in attendance Saturday afternoon, it was fitting that Wheeler became his franchise’s all-time leading scorer with another big game in Minnesota.
Wheeler had a goal and assist, Connor Hellebuyck made 31 saves for his third shutout of the season, and Winnipeg beat Minnesota 6-0.
Wheeler’s 616 points surpassed the previous mark set by Ilya Kovalchuk, who played for the franchise when it was the Atlanta Thrashers.
“For a guy that works that hard every day, you deserve to have good things happen,” Jets Coach Paul Maurice said. “To become the all-time leader in a big game for us, but in his home state and to have his mom and dad here, that is fantastic for him and he’s earned it.”
Patrick Laine had two goals for the Jets, who had lost three of their last four games. Mark Scheifele scored for the eighth time in nine games, and Nikolaj Ehlers and Logan Shaw also had goals.
Minnesota was shut out for the third time this season a game after scoring a franchise record-tying eight goals in a win at Arizona on Thursday night.
“The teams that score a lot of goals one game, they usually say, ‘Geez, I wish we would have saved some for the next game,”’ Minnesota Coach Bruce Boudreau said. “But I’m more worried about defending. We gave up five (Thursday) and then we gave up six.
DUCKS 6, ISLANDERS 5: Jakob Silfverberg scored in regulation and added the shootout winner for Anaheim at Uniondale, New York.
Adam Henrique had a goal and an assist, and John Gibson made 28 saves.
Anders Lee, Brock Nelson and Mathew Barzal each had a goal and an assist, while Semyon Varlamov made 23 saves for the Islanders. Nick Leddy added three assists.
SABRES 3, KINGS 2: Rasmus Ristolainen and Marco Scandella scored to lead Buffalo to a victory at home, ending a three-game losing streak.
Adrian Kempe and Dustin Brown scored for Los Angeles. Kempe’s goal came 1:32 into the second. He found an opening in the high slot for his seventh goal of the season and his third in the last three games.
Ristolainen opened the scoring for the Sabres 7:35 into the period. He finished off a rebound from the left circle after two quick shots from Jeff Skinner.
Scandella gave Buffalo a 2-1 lead with 3:12 left in the second, blasting a shot from the point that deflected off Kings defenseman Drew Doughty.
Victor Oloffson added an empty-net goal with 1:33 remaining, before Brown finished a pretty cross-ice feed by Doughty to again make it a one-goal game with 37.7 seconds left.
MAPLE LEAFS 4, RED WINGS 1: Michael Hutchinson made 29 saves in his first win of the season and Toronto beat visiting Detroit for its fourth straight victory.
Zach Hyman and Auston Matthews each had two goals and an assist for the Maple Leafs.
CAPITALS 3, LIGHTNING 1: Dmitry Orlov scored the go-ahead goal with 6:03 left, Braden Holtby made 26 saves and Washington killed off several late power plays to beat visiting Tampa Bay.
BLUE JACKETS 5, DEVILS 1: Oliver Bjorkstrand scored twice in the first period, Joonas Korpisalo stopped 21 shots and Columbus cruised to a win at home.
PANTHERS 4, HURRICANES 2: Jonathan Huberdeau had a goal and an assist in the third period, and Chris Dreidger stopped 42 shots for visiting Florida.
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