Ottawa Senators prospect Mika Zibanejad, who helped end 30 years of championship futility for the Swedish National Junior Team by scoring the tournament-winning goal in January at the 2012 World Junior Championship, will remain in North America this year instead of helping his country defend its gold medal in Ufa, Russia.

The Senators confirmed a Swedish report Thursday that stated Zibanejad would remain in North America, where he plays for the Binghamton Senators of the American Hockey League.

"We feel like keeping Mika here to play in North America is the best decision for his development," Senators general manager Bryan Murray said. "As a young player and person, he’s learning how to play the North American style and continues to progress playing for Luke [Richardson, coach] in Binghamton. Our opinion is that the best way to continue his progress towards becoming an impact player with the Senators is to spend the full season here."

Guy Carbonneau knew the odds were stacked against his Dallas Stars on March 11, 1996.

"I'm pretty sure we had a few dollars on the board to see if we could win that game," Carbonneau told NHL.com.

All the motivational money in the world likely wouldn't have mattered that night. The Stars drew the unenviable task of facing the Montreal Canadiens in the final game at the Montreal Forum, which was won handily by the home team 4-1 in front of a standing-room crowd of 17,959.

"You think about it a little bit before, but you know it's going to be a special night," said Carbonneau, who spent his first 12 NHL seasons with Montreal. "There was a lot of support from the fans and a lot of people I knew in the past. Once you get out on the ice, it's not something that you really worry about."

MONTREAL -- Forever considered as the temple of hockey, the Montreal Forum was the home of the Canadiens for 70 years until they moved to the Bell Centre in 1996.

The Forum served as home for the Habs for 22 of their NHL-record 24 Stanley Cup victories, and 12 times they lifted the Cup on Forum ice.

The Canadiens had so much success at the Forum, its walls were said to be inhabited by the ghosts of the past that helped the home team accomplish some extraordinary feats.

Former general manager Frank Selke asked toward the beginning of the 1950s that a passage from John McCrae's poem "In Flanders Fields" -- written during World War I -- be reproduced on the walls of the Canadiens dressing room, a passage that would come to define the team's sense of history and success: "To you from failing hands we throw the torch; be yours to hold it high."

Holding the torch high was what the Canadiens always took great pride in during their years at the Forum, but the building was actually not meant for them initially.

When it opened on the corner of Atwater Ave. and Ste-Catherine St., the Forum was actually meant to house the Montreal Maroons, the city's other NHL team. But the Canadiens were invited to play the Forum's inaugural game because their own venue -- the Mount-Royal Arena -- relied on a natural ice surface that was not ready for game action yet. The Canadiens would only move to the Forum on a permanent basis two years later, and they would share the building with the Maroons until 1938 when their co-tenants folded.

The Halifax Mooseheads of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League will be well-represented when the 18th annual Home Hardware CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game is played Jan. 16 at the Metro Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The Canadian Hockey League announced on Wednesday that Halifax linemates Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin will join forces for coach Don Cherry to highlight the roster for Team Cherry. MacKinnon was named captain for Team Cherry while Drouin and Sault Ste. Marie defenseman Darnell Nurse were appointed as alternates.

Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin are rated No. 1 and No. 2 in NHL Central Scouting's preliminary league rankings for the QMJHL. They will represent the host city in the Top Prospects game on Jan. 16. (Courtesy: Halifax Mooseheads)

MacKinnon and Drouin are rated No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, on NHL Central Scouting's preliminary league rankings for the QMJHL. Additionally, there's a strong possibility that the No. 1-rated goalie in the QMJHL, Halifax keeper Zachary Fucale, will join his teammates at the game when rosters are formulated via NHL club nominations that should be completed by Dec. 10.

"I'm aware of the Halifax support and very thankful to be playing for Halifax, it's a great hockey market," MacKinnon said Wednesday during a media conference call. "The fans are going to be fired up for the game and it's going to be a lot of fun. The crowd is awesome here, and they support us every game so, for sure, this experience with [Drouin and possibly Fucale] is going to be special. We're going to take a lot from this game."

The contest in Halifax marks only the second time in the history of the Top Prospects Game that a team from the QMJHL will serve as host; the other was the 2007 game in Quebec City. Other past cities to host include Toronto (1996-98, 2000, 2011), Calgary (1999, 2001), Saskatoon (2002), Kitchener (2003), London (2004), Vancouver (2005), Ottawa (2006), Edmonton (2008), Oshawa (2009), Windsor (2010) and Kelowna (2012).

The Top Prospects Game showcases the Canadian Hockey League's top 40 NHL draft-eligible players, featuring talent from the Western Hockey League, Ontario Hockey League and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

Former NHL player/coach and current broadcaster Don Cherry and former player and Stanley Cup champion Mike McPhee will coach the teams. McPhee, who spent nine of his 11 NHL seasons with the Montreal Canadiens, will work the bench for Team Orr, while the effervescent Cherry will serve as coach for Team Cherry. McPhee won a Stanley Cup with the Canadiens in 1986.

NHL.com will periodically be doing a series called "Five Questions With …," a Q&A with some of the key movers and shakers in the game today aimed to gain some insight into their lives and careers.

This edition features Ottawa Senators coach Paul MacLean:

Hockey fans everywhere know the mustache -- but do they know the man behind it?

Ottawa coach Paul MacLean introduced his mustache to the NHL in 1981, when he became a full-time player with the Winnipeg Jets. For 10 seasons, the first seven spent in Winnipeg, MacLean was a consistent 30-goal scorer who put up 40 or more three times.

MacLean retired from playing at 32 and quickly became a scout for the St. Louis Blues at the request of general manager Ron Caron. He soon got into coaching and made stops at various minor-league cities with one season with the Phoenix Coyotes mixed in before he got to the NHL and found a way to stay.

He hitched on with Mike Babcock with the Anaheim Ducks, rode with the championship coach to the Detroit Red Wings, won a Stanley Cup, and last year finally got his chance to be a coach in the NHL -- 18 years after he got into the business full time.

Defenseman Darnell Nurse of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds knows that those curious NHL scouts coming to see him play not only expect a steady game along the back end, but a fairly physical one.

"At 6-foot-4 and 189 pounds, I have to use every pound that I have … it's kind of expected being this size," Nurse told NHL.com. "You have to be someone who is hard to play against, and that's something I enjoy.

"When a player skates down his wing, looks up and sees me, I want them to say, 'Oh God, I have to go against him again.'"

Scouts have already seen that trait in Nurse.

Fifty-two years ago today, Nov. 27, 1960, Gordie Howe went where no NHL player had gone before.

Howe entered the Detroit Red Wings' game against the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Olympia needing one point to become the first NHL player to record 1,000 regular-season points. He needed 6:36 to get it -- Howe assisted on a goal by Fred Glover that gave the Red Wings a 1-0 lead in a game they went on to win 2-0.

Howe's 1,000th point came in his 938th NHL game. He went on to add 850 points (including an assist on the Red Wings' other goal that night) and finished his NHL career 20 years later with 1,850 points, a total later passed by Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier.

Since that night, 78 players have joined Howe as a 1,000-point scorer. Here's a numerical look at one of the NHL's most elite groups:

0 -- Number of 100-point seasons for Howe before he reached 1,000 points. Howe's only 100-point season in the NHL came in 1968-69, eight years after he passed the 1,000-point mark.

1 -- Players who scored their 1,000th point on Feb. 29, which occurs once every four years. Boston Bruins defenseman Ray Bourque reached the milestone on Leap Day, 1992.

2 -- Players who needed more than 1,300 games to reach the 1,000-point mark. Dale Hunter got his 1,000th point on Jan. 9, 1998, in his 1,308th game. That was the record until Nicklas Lidstrom scored his 1,000th point in his 1,336th game on Oct. 15, 2009.

A pair of "exceptional" junior hockey players will join forces for Ontario when the 2013 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge is held in Victoriaville and Drummondville, Quebec.

The 10-team tournament, scheduled Dec. 29, 2012, through Jan. 4, 2013, features five clubs from Canada, along with teams from the United States, Finland, Russia, Slovakia and Sweden. A total of 18 players who had at one time participated in the 2012 World U-17 Hockey Challenge were selected in the first round of the 2012 NHL Draft in Pittsburgh last June.

Highlighting Ontario's roster are 2014 draft-eligible defenseman Aaron Ekblad of the Ontario Hockey League's Barrie Colts and 2015 draft prospect Connor McDavid of the OHL's Erie Otters. Both players were granted exceptional player status by Hockey Canada to be eligible for their respective OHL Priority Selection drafts. Ekblad was promptly drafted No. 1 by the Colts in 2011 and McDavid was chosen first by the Otters in 2012.

Each Monday, NHL.com will take a look back at the weekend that was in the American Hockey League with an emphasis on the young stars and top prospects that are continuing their development. Here are some of the highlights from the past few days in the AHL:

FRIDAY

FIRST STAR

Andy Miele, Portland

Miele had four assists to help the Pirates fend off Springfield in overtime. The Falcons led 4-1 at one point, but Miele had the primary assist on three straight goals to level the score and again on Oliver Ekman-Larsson's winner in the extra session. Miele, the 2011 Hobey Baker Award winner, signed as an undrafted free agent with Phoenix in April of last year. He is now second on the Pirates with 16 points in 18 games.