The hockey players of New Jersey won the night meeting of the overseas NHL on the ice of Utah 2:1.
The decisive goal for the Devils was scored in the 45th minute in a power play by American forward Stefan Noesen.
The players of Vancouver won the third duel in a row, on the ice of New York, the Islanders beat the home team 4:1 thanks to a hat trick by Kiefer Sherwood.
Markström: great team performance
The “Devils” were held by the Swedish goalkeeper Jacob Markström, who let only one shot from Daniil But behind his back and made 32 successful saves.
The 20-year-old Russian striker opened his scoring account in the NHL with a goal in the 10th minute of the meeting, when he took advantage of the home team’s power play. Halfway through the match, Connor Brown equalized after an assist from Nic Hischier.
The Swiss striker and captain of the hosts also scored a goal assist with Noesen’s winning accurate strike. Slovak defender Šimon Nemec, who is still on the list of injured players, was missing from the Devils lineup.
“It was a great team performance. Defensive weakening at the end of the second period, at the beginning of the third and also the mastered game of the opponent 6 against 4 at the end proved to be important.
On the contrary, the power play brought us an important goal that decided the outcome of the match,” said Markström according to nhl.com.
Sherwood’s goal concert
Sherwood recorded the third three-goal record of his career. He accomplished all of them since joining the Canucks last season. On the Islanders ice, the goal of the “orcas” by the Czech forward David Kämpf started the game.
After that, it was Sherwood’s concert, who on his first accurate shot skillfully took the puck from this year’s draft defender Matthew Schaefer and shot past Ilya Sorokin.
The Russian goalkeeper didn’t even have a chance to finish Sherwood from between the circles in the power play, and the 30-year-old winger of the second attack completed the hat trick in the penultimate minute into an empty net.
Vancouver won its third straight and ended the five-game winning streak of the team from Long Island.
“I think we’re playing the right way and we’re continuing to build our identity. It’s difficult because we’ve put in a lot of effort.
As a team, we haven’t had many wins so far, but we’ve stuck together and continued to have the right attitude. Over time, the results began to appear, but we have to repeat them,” said Sherwood, the author of the hat-trick.
The Colorado coach praised the defense
Colorado’s home streak continues, which has been successful for the twelfth time in a row. The Avalanche beat Winnipeg 3:2, and Colorado’s 40-year-old defender Brent Burns, Czech forward Martin Nečas and Parker Kelly scored the winning goal in the 42nd minute.
For the visitors, Canadian center Mark Scheifele only corrected in the 44th minute.
Colorado won the fifth game in a row and consolidated its position as the leader of the Western Conference, the Jets succeeded in only one of the previous seven meetings.
“I liked our 5-on-5 play. We could have done more in the first period, but we were very good in the second. It was one of our best defensive performances of the year,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar noted.
Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon, who scored in the seventh meeting in a row, leads the Canadian scoring team with 59 points. During the calendar year 2025, he reached the 125th point, which he did for the third time in his career.
He surpassed Finnish forward Mikko Rantanen, who scored at least 125 points in one year twice with the Avalanche before being traded to Carolina.
The record for the number of calendar years with 125 or more points in the Colorado/Quebec Nordiques is held by the legendary Slovak forward Peter Šťastný, who managed to achieve this record four times.
Great finish by Florida
Florida players performed a successful turn at home against Carolina. The winners of the previous two seasons were losing 0-3 against the Hurricanes until the 50th minute after two goals from Sebastian Ah and one strike from Jordan Staal.
However, Brad Marchand, Sam Bennett and Sam Reinhart scored in the final ten minutes, and the fight went to overtime and then to separate raids.
Evan Rodrigues converted the decisive try in the fourth series, and thanks to him, the Panthers extended their winning streak to four games, Carolina lost after five consecutive wins.
“It doesn’t happen every night, but it’s nice when it does. Our big plus is the breadth and quality of the squad. There’s always someone else stepping up in the big moments and I think that’s what makes us such a great team,” Marchand said.
The duel was not completed by Carolina forward Seth Jarvis, who retired from the game at the beginning of overtime. He hit the post at full speed trying to stop the escaping Rodrigues.
VIDEO: Seth Jarvis injury
Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour said the injury is “not good” and Jarvis will be out for some time.
The 23-year-old striker recorded two assists in the match and with 29 points (19+10) is the second most productive player of the team after the 30-point Finnish striker Ah.
Dallas did whatever he wanted with us
Dallas brought the third meeting in a row to a successful end. On the ice of Anaheim, he outclassed the home “Ducks” 8:3. In the uniform of the second team of the Western Conference, Jason Robertson scored twice and added one assist.
The remaining goals were shared by Roope Hintz, Thomas Harley, Iľja Ľjubuškin, Sam Steel, Adam Erne and Oscar Bäck.
“It was terrible. I have to admit that Dallas did whatever he wanted with us the whole game,” Anaheim coach Joel Quenneville admitted to the bad performance of his team, who expects a diametrically different approach in the meeting against Columbus: “We have something to prove, because we know that this duel was unacceptable.”
NHL – December 20 – results:
Florida – Carolina 4:3 pp and sn (0:1, 0:0, 3:2 – 0:0)
Goals: 51. Marchand (Bennett, Verhaeghe), 58. Bennett (Rodrigues, Reinhart), 60. Reinhart (Marchand, Rodrigues), rozh. come on. Rodrigues – 12. Staal (Robinson, Gostisbehere), 42. Sebastian Aho (Svechnikov, Jarvis), 48. Sebastian Aho (Svechnikov, Jarvis)
Goalkeepers: Bobrovskij – Bussi, shots on goal: 41:29
NY Islanders – Vancouver 1:4 (0:3, 0:0, 1:1)
Goals: 55. Lee (Ritchie, Barzal) – 9. Kämpf (DeBrusk), 11. Sherwood (E. Kane, M. Pettersson), 16. Sherwood (Hronek, Willander), 59. Sherwood (Hronek)
Goalkeepers: Sorokin – Demko, shots on goal: 24:30
Colorado – Winnipeg 3:2 (2:0, 0:1, 1:1)
Goals: 10. Burns (Manson, Kiviranta), 16. Nečas (MacKinnon, Lehkonen), 42. Kelly (Manson, Ničuškin) – 40. M. Barron (Iafallo), 44. Scheifele (Nyquist)
Goalkeepers: Wedgewood – Hellebuyck, shots on goal: 26:22
Utah – New Jersey 1:2 (1:0, 0:1, 0:1)
Goals: 10. But (Durzi) – 32. C. Brown (Hischier), 45. Noesen (Hischier, L. Hughes)
Goalkeepers: Vejmelka – Markström, shots on goal: 33:22
Anaheim – Dallas 3:8 (1:4, 0:3, 2:1)
Goalkeepers: Dostál (15. Mrázek) – DeSmith, shots on goal: 25:25
Goals: 4. Poehling (Gudas, R. Johnston), 42. Sennecke (McTavish, Kreider), 55. Granlund (LaCombe, Terry) – 3. Bäck (Faksa), 5. Hintz (J. Robertson, Bourque), 13. Steel (Benn, Heiskanen), 15. Harley (Rantanen), 32. J. Robertson (Rantanen, Heiskanen), 36. J. Robertson (Hintz), 39. Erne (Faksa, Harley), 42. Ljubuškin (Hryckowian, Lindell)
NHL tables
Western Conference:
