Sharks’ Marleau ties Gordie Howe’s mark for games played
ST. PAUL, MINN. » San Jose forward Patrick Marleau tied Gordie Howe’s NHL record for career games played, appearing in his 1,767th on Saturday as the Sharks faced the Minnesota Wild.
Marleau hopped over the boards for his first shift 40 seconds into the game. He could break Howe’s record Monday night in Las Vegas.
Marleau is in his 23rd NHL season. He made his debut on Oct. 1, 1997, at 18 years and 16 days old, which made him the youngest player in the league since Lee Wharton debuted at 17 years, 81 days in 1945 for the New York Rangers.
Marleau, 41, has 566 goals, 1,196 points, three All-Star appearances and two Olympic
gold medals for Canada in 2010 and ‘14.
Howe also played in 419 games in the World Hockey Association that are not included in his career total.
RANGERS 6, DEVILS 3 » Pavel Buchnevich celebrated his birthday with his first career hat trick and New York beat New Jersey for its third win over their Hudson River rivals in five days.
Artemi Panarin had a goal and three assists and Ryan Strome had a goal and an assist in a three-goal first-period outburst as the Rangers improved to 12-4-3 in their last 19 games.
The question after the quick start was whether rookie Igor Shesterkin would get his third consecutive shutout. The Russian’s shutout streak was stopped at 152 minutes, 37 seconds when Michael McLeod scored on a second-period rebound.
PENGUINS 3, SABRES 2 » Tristan Jarry stopped 27 shots as Pittsburgh eliminated Buffalo from playoff contention.
Bryan Rust and Evan Rodrigues scored second-period goals in helping the Penguins improve to 10-2-2 in their past 14. Jared McCann also scored for Pittsburgh, which earned its 59th point to move one ahead of the idle New York Islanders, and remain three behind the Washington Capitals. SENATORS 4, CANADIENS 0» Drake Batherson had two goals and an assist for last-place Ottawa, which had dropped five of six.
Artem Zub and Nikita Zaitsev also scored for the Senators and Brady Tkachuk and Josh Norris each had two assists.
Matt Murray made 23 saves in his first shutout of the season and No. 11 for his career.
Sabres Okposo out for season
BUFFALO, N.Y. » Buffalo forward Kyle Okposo will miss the remainder of the season after having surgery to repair a broken bone in his left cheek, the team announced Saturday.
Okposo was hurt after being struck by teammate Matt Irwin’s shot in the first period of a 5-2 win at Washington on Thursday.
Okposo joins a growing list of injuries for the last-place team that is one loss from being mathematically eliminated from contention for the Stanley Cup playoffs and matching an NHL record 10-year playoff drought. The Sabres are already minus captain Jack Eichel, starting goalie Linus Ullmark and defenseman Jake McCabe.