Facts and Figures: Big day for comebacks

Four teams -- the Detroit Red Wings, Nashville Predators, Buffalo Sabres and Ottawa Senators -- each rallied to win Saturday after trailing by multiple goals in the third period.

Forward Anthony Mantha scored two third-period goals to help the visiting Red Wings tie the game before center Frans Nielsen scored the only goal in the shootout for a
4-3 win against the Carolina Hurricanes
at PNC Arena. Detroit won after trailing by more than one goal for the third consecutive game, a first in team history. The Red Wings are the eighth team to do so, and the first since the Predators from Feb. 27 to March 2, 2018.

Nashville stayed perfect on the road after defenseman Roman Josi scored a power-play goal with 43 seconds remaining in the third period and defenseman Mattias Ekholm got the overtime winner in a
5-4 victory against the Dallas Stars
at American Airlines Center. Nashville is 8-0-0 away from Bridgestone Arena. The Predators are the third team in NHL history to win each of its first eight road games, joining the Sabres in 2006-07 (10-0-0) and New Jersey Devils in 2009-10 (9-0-0).
Buffalo trailed 3-1 before scoring twice in the final 2:27 of the third period against the Vancouver Canucks, and rookie center Casey Mittelstadt scored the deciding goal in the shootout for a
4-3 win at KeyBank Center
. Buffalo won a regular-season game after trailing by multiple goals in the final five minutes of the third period for the seventh time since entering the NHL in 1970. Before Saturday, Buffalo had not done it since March 24, 2010, when it defeated the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 in a shootout.

The Senators trailed 4-2 entering the third period but scored four straight goals to defeat the Eastern Conference-leading Tampa Bay Lightning
6-4 at Amalie Arena
. It was the 14th time since entering the NHL in 1992 that the Senators rallied from down multiple goals in the third period to win a regular-season game in regulation, and the first since a 6-4 victory at the Calgary Flames on Feb. 27, 2016.

No lead is safe

In all, five of the 11 games Saturday saw a team win after trailing by at least two goals; the Montreal Canadiens were down 2-0 after the first period in their
5-4 win against the Vegas Golden Knights
. There have been 43 instances of a team winning after trailing by two or more goals in 2018-19; that's the second-highest total through the first 252 games of a season in NHL history behind 1986-87 (48).
Two of the five comeback wins (Nashville and Buffalo) saw a team score the tying goal in the final two minutes of the third period. There have been 19 tying goals scored in the final two minutes of the third period in 2018-19, the highest total through the first 252 games of a season in NHL history.

Pastrnak powering Bruins

Forward David Pastrnak had his second hat trick of the season to help the Boston Bruins
defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-1
at TD Garden in their first game since Boston eliminated Toronto by rallying to win Game 7 of the Eastern Conference First Round in the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The loss ended Toronto's season-opening road winning streak at six games.
Pastrnak leads the NHL with 15 goals. The Bruins haven't had a player lead the NHL in goals since 1974-75, when Phil Esposito did it for the sixth consecutive season. The only other Bruins to lead the NHL outright in goals are Cooney Weiland (1929-30) and Roy Conacher (1938-39).

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Hurricanes keep firing away

Carolina continues to keep opposing goaltenders busy. The Hurricanes outshot Detroit 52-32 in their shootout loss. There have been six games this season when a team has taken more than 50 shots on goal and three have been by the Hurricanes. The bad news: All three games have gone past regulation, but Carolina has won one.
Not surprisingly, the Hurricanes have the NHL's top-five players in SAT percentage (minimum 10 games): forwards Justin Williams (65.59), Lucas Wallmark (65.46), Jordan Staal (64.44), Andrei Svechnikov (64.38) and defenseman Dougie Hamilton (63.42). What they don't have is a winning record: Carolina is 7-7-3 and has scored 46 goals in 17 games.

Try something else?

The Flames are tied for ninth in the NHL with 55 goals, but they might get a few more by taking a few less slap shots. Calgary has scored an NHL-low one goal via the slap shot (in 61 attempts). In contrast, the Washington Capitals lead the NHL with 13 (on 88 slap shots). Calgary's shooters are also off-target a lot. The Flames are fifth in the NHL with 234 missed shots (attempts that are wide of the net, go over the net or hit a post or the crossbar).
As with most teams, the Flames score most of their goals on wrist shots (32). The only team that has not scored more goals via wrist shots than anything else is the Devils, who have scored 16 goals on snap shots and 10 on wrist shots.