NHL Morning Skate for March 16

* A wild night by Minnesota featured the club overcome a multi-goal deficit, match the franchise record for most goals in a game and establish a new franchise record as the Wild extended the NHL's longest active point streak to 14 contests.
* Wednesday saw a combined 34 goals (including shootout-deciding goals) - only one other four-game night in the past 25 years has featured more: 36 on Dec. 20, 2019.
* The Predators will look to extend the NHL's longest active point streak versus a single opponent to 17 games when they host the Blackhawks at Bridgestone Arena on HULU and ESPN+.

OVECHKIN CLIMBS ANOTHER ALL-TIME LIST

Alex Ovechkin scored one of Washington's three goals in the third period to help the Capitals (33-29-7, 73 points) earn a multi-goal, third-period comeback win and remain within five points of the Islanders (35-27-8, 78 points) for the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference. It marked Washington's sixth multi-goal comeback victory this season - only three teams have more: Chicago (8), Vancouver (7) and New Jersey (7).
* Ovechkin scored his 402nd home goal to overtake former Capitals forward Mike Gartner for sole possession of fourth place on the NHL's all-time list. He required the second-fewest home contests (664 GP) to reach the mark, following Wayne Gretzky (481 GP).
* Ovechkin scored his 37th goal of 2022-23 and moved within three of surpassing Gretzky (12) for the most 40-goal seasons in NHL history.

MINNESOTA SCORES EIGHT IN A WILD NIGHT FOR THE WILD

A total of 13 different Wild players found the score sheet as Minnesota overcame a multi-goal deficit spurred by John Klingberg, Oskar Sundqvist and Mason Shaw scoring 118 seconds apart - marking the fastest three goals by the club in over a year (last 95 seconds on Jan. 14, 2022). The Wild (39-21-8, 86 points), who established a franchise record for longest point streak as they extended their run to 14 games (11-0-3), moved within one point of the idle Stars (37-18-13, 87 points) for top spot in the Central Division.
* An offensive outburst in the second period marked the fifth time in franchise history that the Wild have scored five or more goals in a single period. The only time they recorded more was on Feb. 22, 2015 (6 in P3 vs. DAL).
* Minnesota matched a franchise record for most goals in a game by scoring eight - a feat they last achieved on Jan. 24, 2022 (vs. MTL) - and became the 10th club this season to do so.

RANTANEN SCORES GOAL NO. 44 ON #NHLSTATS: LIVE UPDATES

Mikko Rantanen (1-0-1), Nathan MacKinnon (0-1-1) and Cale Makar (0-1-1) combined on the Avalanche's only goal in regulation as Colorado improved to 60-14-3 when the trio all find the score sheet in the same contest. This note and more can be found in Wednesday's #NHLStats: Live Updates.

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PREDATORS CONTINUE TO CHASE FINAL WILD CARD SPOT THURSDAY

A national broadcast on HULU and ESPN+ will feature the Predators (34-24-7, 75 points) aim to gain ground on the Jets (38-27-3, 79 points) in the Western Conference Wild Card race when they host the Blackhawks (23-38-6, 52 points) at Bridgestone Arena. Nashville enters Thursday four points back of Winnipeg - which is also in action - with three games in hand.
* The Predators have earned at least a point in each of their past 16 contests against the Blackhawks dating to Jan. 9, 2020 (13-0-3) - the longest active point streak by a franchise versus a single opponent. Roman Josi leads all current Nashville skaters in goals and points against Chicago over their run with 5-5-10.

FAMILIAR FOES MEET FOR SECOND INSTALMENTS OF THEIR THREE-GAME SERIES

An 11-game Thursday will feature the Rangers (38-19-10, 86 points) and Devils (44-17-6, 94 points) hosting the Penguins (34-23-10, 78 points) and Lightning (40-22-6, 86 points), respectively. New York and Pittsburgh meet for the second of three contests in the span of a week, while New Jersey and Tampa Bay, who last met March 14, will face off in the middle contest of three head-to-head games over six days.
* While the Penguins and Lightning have never faced the same opponent three times over a span of seven or fewer days in the regular season (excluding 2020-21), the Rangers have previously competed in five such stretches and the Devils have done so once prior (NJD vs. NYI: 3 GP over 7 days from March 4-10, 2012).