Sorokin Sets an Islanders Home Record, Oettinger Strings Together Two Shutouts

NHLOettinger posts back-to-back shutouts for the second time

Three nights after blanking San Jose on 13 shots, Jake Oettinger did it again in Buffalo, stopping all 26 Sabres shots in a 4-0 Dallas win on Thursday. That makes 18 shutouts in his NHL career. (AP via WKBW) Twice Zach Benson had the puck with nobody near him in front, and twice Oettinger won the battle. (Sabres) It was also his 308th game for Dallas, moving him past Ed Belfour into third among the franchise’s goalies.

Oettinger hasn’t allowed a goal since opening night, a run of 146:55 that trails only his 154:20 in the spring of 2024. It’s also his second set of back-to-back shutouts (March 30 and April 3, 2024, and now Oct. 5 and 8). Only two other Stars goalies have done that more than once: Belfour and Cesare Maniago, three times each. (NHL.com)

On InGoal: InGoal Radio Episode 176 with Jake Oettinger, his on-ice hip warm-up with goalie coach Jeff Reese, and InGoal Radio Episode 279 with Cesare Maniago.

NHLHildeby makes 34 saves to win his first start for Tampa Bay

Dennis Hildeby got his first start for the Lightning on Thursday, and Minnesota couldn’t score on him after the second period. He made 34 saves in a 3-2 win and was the game’s second star. (NHL.com)

Benjamin Pierce, beat writer for TampaBayLightning.com, points to two saves: Hildeby got across on Maxim Shabanov in tight late in the second, and with a little more than 12 minutes to play he took away an open chance for Blake Coleman low in the right circle. All 15 Wild shots in the third were stopped. “It was fun just battling out there, and we did a great job keeping it tight,” Hildeby said. (Lightning)

The 6-foot-7 Swede was Toronto’s fourth-round pick in 2022 and played 20 games for the Maple Leafs last season. Tampa Bay sent Nick Paul and two draft picks to Toronto for him on July 1. Andrei Vasilevskiy, now his partner in the Lightning crease, was the goalie he looked up to as a kid, he told Pierce in the summer: “To meet him, who’s been a big role model for me growing up, that was one of the first things I thought about.” Read: Meet Dennis Hildeby (Lightning).

On InGoal: how his first Lightning start was shaping up in yesterday’s Goalie News.

NHLUllmark back in Ottawa's net three days after leaving in Boston

On Monday a crease collision in Boston kept Linus Ullmark out of the third period. On Thursday he was back in goal for the Senators’ home opener, and he made 28 saves in a 2-1 win over Philadelphia. (NHL.com)

He is 3-0-0 with a .956 save percentage. The Ottawa Citizen’s Callum Fraser picked out three moments: a first-period glove save when Sean Couturier came in alone, his read on a Tyson Foerster power-play shot that came past Travis Konecny in the third, and four more stops through scrambles in the final two minutes as the Flyers pressed for a tie. (Ottawa Citizen)

After the game, Ullmark and Philadelphia’s Samuel Ersson brought back the dab for their postgame celebration. (NHL)

On InGoal: Linus Ullmark’s Pro Reads, and Monday’s exit in the Oct. 6 Goalie News.

NHLRay Emery's family rings in the Senators' season

Before Ullmark took the ice for the home opener, Ray Emery‘s family rang the bell to start the Senators’ season at a sold-out Canadian Tire Centre, dressed in his old Ottawa sweaters and carrying his old helmet. “It’s just come full circle with being here at the arena,” his mother, Sharlene, said. “You just feel the energy in the building and we’re so thankful for those memories.” His father, Paul, said that for a while the rink was too hard to visit: “It kind of hurt too much to come to the arena. So we’re healing and it’s back to fun again.” (CBC)

The night also marked 20 years since Emery backstopped the 2006-07 Senators to the Stanley Cup Final, still the club’s only trip there in its modern era. Ottawa drafted him in 2001. He later fought back from a degenerative hip condition in Philadelphia to play in the NHL again, and won the Cup with Chicago in 2013. He died in a swimming accident in 2018, at 35. His parents moved to the Ottawa area during the pandemic and live a short drive from the arena, which Sharlene called “comforting and healing.” Read: Ottawa Still Feels Like Home for the Emery Family (Senators).

On InGoal: the preview of the tribute in the Oct. 8 Goalie News.

NHLWedgewood's 200th game, and around the league

• Cam Talbot was the first goalie off the ice at Columbus’ morning skate on Friday, which points to his Blue Jackets debut against Pittsburgh. That game would make Talbot the first goalie to play for nine NHL franchises. Sean Burke also played for nine teams, but the Hartford Whalers and Carolina Hurricanes are one franchise. (The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline)
• Scott Wedgewood played his 200th NHL game in Calgary and made 26 saves in a 7-3 Colorado win. Mikael Backlund had two chances from the edge of the crease one second apart early in the first, and Wedgewood stopped both, then gloved a Joel Farabee breakaway a few minutes later. (Avalanche)
• Tied 2-2 in Montreal, Juuse Saros shut down a Josh Anderson breakaway with his left pad midway through the third, and Nashville pulled away for a 5-2 win. He made 32 saves and was the first star. (NHL.com) Jacob Fowler, a day after his recall from Laval, made 15 saves in his season debut for the Canadiens, and he gave Saros his due: “The second period we were all over them and their goalie made some big saves there.” (NHL.com)
• Jeremy Swayman stopped 36 shots as Boston beat the Utah Mammoth 6-1 at TD Garden. (Bruins) “Their goalie played well,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said. (NHL.com)
• Alex Nedeljkovic got his first start of the season for San Jose and made 24 saves in St. Louis, where Darnell Nurse won it 3-2 for the Sharks 1:03 into overtime. (NHL.com)
• Stuart Skinner‘s new Jets masks come from Dave Fried of Friedesigns, a former goalie who grew up a Jets fan in Swan River, Man., and got the call from the team’s head equipment manager. The Heritage mask borrows from 1980s designs, with a nod to Bob Essensa; the white one puts Winnipeg landmarks, kids on a pond, and a skating polar bear on it; and a fourth, for the Hometown Remix jersey, is still in the works. “I was super stoked to get the call,” Fried said. (CTV News Winnipeg)
• Jacob Fowler stays with the Canadiens for now. Martin St. Louis said Friday that Samuel Montembeault, who left Wednesday’s practice with a lower-body injury, will be out 10 to 14 days. That leaves Fowler and Jakub Dobes, who started Montreal’s first three games, in the crease, with Detroit next on Saturday. (TSN)

On InGoal: Scott Wedgewood on the Mental Shift That Changed His NHL Career, Pro Gear: Juuse Saros Explains His Three “Batting Gloves”, InGoal Radio Episode 339 with Jacob Fowler, InGoal Radio Episode 189 with Jeremy Swayman, and Alex Nedeljkovic’s Pro Reads.

NHLMurashov's summer of guitar lessons, rock shows, and Ohio road trips

Penguins rookie Sergei Murashov called this off-season probably the best he has had. In a video posted Thursday by Michelle Crechiolo, the Penguins’ team reporter, he runs through it with her: weeks at home in Russia with family and friends, fishing with his brother, work with the goalie coach he won with in junior, then July and August training back in Pittsburgh. In between he took in a rock festival in Cleveland with Skillet headlining, the Cincinnati Open, and the hiking in Ohio’s Hocking Hills. (Michelle Crechiolo, Pens Inside Scoop)

The guitar was a New Year’s present from his family. He started out learning it by rote, he said, and is now working through the notes and how they fit together, with a friend at home, a gifted player, pushing him along: “He helps me a lot, and he, I think, inspires me to learn more.”

Asked by The Hockey News’ Kelsey Surmacz how big the step up to NHL speed is after his strong AHL playoff run last spring, he kept it simple: “Puck’s the same size, net’s the same size.” (Kelsey Surmacz on X)

Penguins coach Dan Muse says Murashov will start Friday in Columbus, the same game in which Cam Talbot is in line for his Blue Jackets debut. (TSN)

On InGoal: why learning the guitar can make you a better goalie, with Sean Burke’s lessons, in Goalies and Guitars.

NHLThe Wild's EBUG and his pads, and Columbus' EBUG from team services

Every NHL team has an emergency backup goalie on staff this season, and Minnesota’s is Peter Thome, a 29-year-old from Minneapolis who signed in August as a hockey operations analyst and EBUG. Thome played four seasons at North Dakota, where his .936 save percentage in 2019-20 still stands as the school’s best for a single season, and Columbus drafted him in the sixth round in 2016. (Wild) This week, his pads got fans talking.

In Columbus, the EBUG already works for the team. Reid Robertson, 27, is in his fifth season with the Blue Jackets and manages travel and logistics in team services, and for about four years he has also been the practice goalie they call when someone is hurt or resting. Right after graduating from Manhattanville in 2022, he spent a couple of weeks of the playoffs as the Rangers’ practice goalie and EBUG. “Sometimes it’s like, I’m looking at a computer screen and 10 minutes later I’m in the net in an NHL practice,” he said. “Hopefully, I’m never needed during a game, but I’ll be ready if I get the call.” (Blue Jackets)

On InGoal: every team’s EBUG in the Oct. 3 Goalie News.

CoachesJimmy Howard will coach PWHL Detroit's goalies

PWHL Detroit has brought Jimmy Howard back to the city as an assistant coach who will work with its goaltenders, general manager Manon Rhéaume announced on Sept. 29. Howard played his whole NHL career with the Red Wings and was on their 2008 Stanley Cup team. “Jimmy knows what it means to be a professional athlete in Detroit and knows what hockey means to this city,” Rhéaume said. (Fox 2 Detroit) His first group in camp: Andrea Brändli, Detroit’s first-ever draft pick, Alice Philbert, and Michelle Pasiechnyk.

On InGoal: InGoal Radio Episode 105 with Jimmy Howard and every PWHL camp goalie in Two-Time Walter Cup Champion Nicole Hensley Heads the PWHL’s Goalie Moves.

CollegeCanadiens prospect Quentin Miller blanks Ferris State in his Western Michigan debut, Pharand's first NCAA shutout

Quentin Miller’s first start for Western Michigan ended as a 26-save shutout, a 6-0 win over Ferris State on Thursday in the last home opener Lawson Arena will host after 52 years. (WWMT) The sophomore transferred from Denver, where he went 12-10-2 with three shutouts last season. A Montreal native, he was the Canadiens’ fourth-round pick, 128th overall, in 2023. (College Hockey Inc.)

Clarkson freshman Kalia Pharand got her first college shutout in only her third start, stopping all 26 shots in a 4-0 win over St. Lawrence. A little over five minutes in, Barbora Jurickova broke in alone, and Pharand got enough of the forehand to turn it aside. (Clarkson Athletics)

No. 17 Penn State opens with three goalies: sophomore Josh Fleming, who went 10-7-2 with a .924 save percentage as a freshman and .940 in the playoffs; Ryder Fetterolf, the Hurricanes’ 2026 fourth-round pick and the CHL’s goaltender of the year with the Ottawa 67’s; and Crew Petty, from Gilmour Academy. “There’s three of them, but they’re a team,” coach Guy Gadowsky said. Of Fleming, he added: “He’s one of the top goalies in the nation.” (The Daily Collegian)

InternationalKarhunen earns a season-long deal at Jokerit, then wins the Helsinki derby

Tomi Karhunen came to Jokerit in September on a short-term deal. Seven Liiga games later, the club has signed the veteran through the end of the season, announced on Wednesday. “Karhu’s saves on the ice have spoken for themselves, and he has shown his level,” sporting director Olli-Pekka Yrjänheikki said (translated from Finnish). (Jokerit)

A night later, Jokerit and HIFK met in a Helsinki derby fans had waited more than 12 years for, and Karhunen stopped a breakaway in overtime before Alexander Forslund won it 3-2. (Jokerit)

Junior18-year-old Yermolenko makes 44 saves in Niagara's overtime win

The Ottawa 67’s outshot Niagara 45-21 on Thursday, and Vladislav Yermolenko let only one of them in. That got the IceDogs to overtime, where Jared Langdon scored with 50 seconds left for a 2-1 win, and Yermolenko was named first star. (OHL) Niagara took the Belarusian goalie 87th overall in the 2025 CHL Import Draft, after a season with Belarus’ under-18 team. (OHL)

New on InGoalGoalie News is open to every reader through November

• Our morning roundup of goalie news from the NHL to the PWHL, AHL, college, junior, international leagues and the coaching world is free for all readers through Nov. 30. Read: Goalie News: Your Morning Goaltending Roundup.

Have goalie news from your league, a big save, a signing, or a coaching hire? Send it to news@ingoalmag.com.