It may not have been his prettiest effort of the season, but Jonathan Quick got it done to earn his 392nd career NHL victory in his team’s 8-5 win over Arizona Saturday.
With the win, Quick officially surpasses Ryan Miller for the most wins in league history for an American born goaltender.
Over the course of his career, Quick has piled up 370 victories with the Los Angeles Kings, 5 with the Vegas Golden Knights and now 17 with the New York Rangers to break the record.
“You do everything you can to not think about it, but it’s there,” Quick said following the game. “It’s a good feeling to get it over with and get it done and focus on what’s important — winning the division and winning the conference.”
“Whether we’re up a couple or down a couple, whatever the situation is, we have that confidence that we’ve won similar types of games throughout the year,” Quick continued. “Today it’s up a couple and they tie it up and you get feeling it could go either way, but we found a way.”
With the win, the Rangers became the first team to reach the 50 win plateau this season as they sit in first place in the Metropolitan Division with a 50-20-4 slate. It was also a night that saw former 1st overall draft pick Alexis Lafreniere record his first NHL hat-trick, en route to a 5 point night.
“It’s an honor to play with him and it’s an honor to be part of a night like this. We didn’t help him out a whole lot, but it’s really cool for him to get that record,” said New York defenceman Ryan Lindgren.
Quick currently sports a 17-5-2 record on the season, and has recorded 4 straight wins, with victories in 8 of his last 9 contests.
“What an amazing career for [Quick], and Lafreniere continues to play really well; five points, three goals and his line was dangerous the entire night,” head coach Peter Laviolette told reporters after the game.
Also of note on the evening was Chris Kreider’s tally at the 5:45 mark in the 3rd period which was the 300th NHL goal of his career.
Currently riding a 5 game win streak, New York will hope to inch closer to a top seed and possible President’s Trophy when they take on the Pittsburgh Penguins Monday evening at 7pm ET.
Photo: Jenn G. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.