Levi Makes a Career-High 39 Saves, and MSG Chants Garand’s Name

NHLThe Garden chants Garand's name as the Rangers stay perfect at home

Dylan Garand stopped 25 of 26 shots in a 4-1 win over Tampa Bay on Tuesday, his second start since Igor Shesterkin’s season-ending injury, and by the final minutes the Madison Square Garden crowd was chanting his first name (NHL.com). Garand now has five wins in six starts for the Rangers, which ties Shesterkin and Cam Talbot for the fewest starts it has taken a goalie to reach five wins with the Rangers (NHL Public Relations). New York is 5-0-0 at home, every win in regulation, its first five-game home winning start since 1990-91 (NHL.com).

Garand on the chant: “That felt really good. Honestly, kind of felt a little weird. It’s typically reserved for Shesty, so it was a little weird in that sense, but it felt so good. I’ve felt so much support from these fans and it really means a lot to me” (Vince Z. Mercogliano, LoHud / USA TODAY Network).

On InGoal: Dylan Garand’s Pro Reads and Dylan Garand’s Carey Price-Inspired Key to Crease Movement.

Save of the nightLuukkonen on Anderson

Buffalo led 1-0 in Montreal on Tuesday when Chris Kreider and Josh Anderson got loose two-on-none at 11:53 of the first period. Kreider passed across, Anderson shot from close in, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen pushed hard to his left and caught it (NHL.com).

The Canadiens won 4-3 in a shootout, but Luukkonen’s 35 saves were the reason Buffalo left with anything. Sabres coach Lindy Ruff put it simply: “Our goalie got us a point” (NHL.com).

Was it the night’s toughest? Akira Schmid’s stop on Sean Monahan’s backhand from in close, early in Florida’s 7-3 win in Columbus, was the other contender (NHL game center). Watch both and tell us which was harder.

On InGoal: InGoal Radio Episode 248 with Cayden Primeau and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.

NHLAround the league

• Adin Hill denied Jack Drury on a first-period penalty shot with Vegas ahead 2-1 in Nashville and made 25 saves in a 5-2 Golden Knights win. Coach Ryan Craig said everyone was ready, “especially our goaltender,” and credited the early penalty kills and the penalty-shot stop with letting Vegas settle in (NHL.com).
• Anthony Stolarz picked up his second assist of the season, the only one on John Tavares’s power-play goal in the third period in Utah. He moved the puck up from his own end and Tavares scored a few seconds later, though the Mammoth held on to win 5-4 (NHL game center). It’s the seventh assist of his NHL career (NHL.com).

On InGoal: InGoal Radio Episode 119 with Adin Hill.

InternationalThe Vienna Capitals keep Adam Reideborn through 2027-28

Adam Reideborn came to the Vienna Capitals on a short-term deal that was due to end in mid-October. Instead, the club announced on Oct. 8 that the 34-year-old Swede will stay through the 2027-28 season (Vienna Capitals). The Capitals play in the ICE Hockey League, the top league in Austria, which also has clubs from Italy, Slovenia, and Hungary.

Reideborn has played six of Vienna’s first seven league games with a .922 save percentage, including his first league shutout for the club on Oct. 2 against Innsbruck. He arrived with a long résumé: five SHL seasons, most of them with Djurgårdens IF, two Gagarin Cups with CSKA Moscow, three seasons with SC Bern, and a spot on Sweden’s team at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. Sporting director Christian Dolezal said the extension meant keeping “an absolute top goalie in this league” (translated from German) (Vienna Capitals).

JuniorBurke Hood, 19, stops 39 of 40 in Seattle; Wendt is the WHL's goaltender of the week

Notable performances in the CHL

• Burke Hood, 19, a New York Islanders draft pick (sixth round, 2025), made 39 saves on 40 shots and was the first star as the Vancouver Giants won 5-1 in Seattle on Tuesday, their third straight win over the Thunderbirds. Seventeen of his saves came in a second period when Seattle pushed hardest, power play included (Vancouver Giants).
• Tri-City’s Xavier Wendt, 18, is the WHL’s goaltender of the week after two wins and 41 saves on 43 shots, starting with a 21-save shutout of Everett last Friday. His only other WHL shutout, last Dec. 3 against Swift Current, was the night he also scored into an empty net (WHL). Undrafted in June, he was one of the goalies Pittsburgh invited to its development camp this summer (The Hockey News).
• In the QMJHL, Chicoutimi’s Raphaël Précourt made the league’s team of the week with 37 saves on 39 shots in a 3-2 win at Gatineau on Thanksgiving Monday (QMJHL).
• In the OHL, Aleksei Medvedev, a Vancouver Canucks second-round pick in 2025, made 25 saves and stopped both Kitchener shooters in the shootout as the London Knights won 4-3 on Tuesday (OHL game report).

HistoryGrant Fuhr lost his debut 45 years ago today, then didn't lose for three months

On this day in 1981, Grant Fuhr played his first NHL game, a 4-2 home loss for Edmonton to the Winnipeg Jets (Wikipedia). The Oilers had drafted him eighth overall that June, and he stopped 33 of 36 shots in the debut (NHL stats).

It was his last loss for three months. By InGoal’s count from NHL game data, Fuhr went 15-0-8 over his next 24 appearances (one of them a no-decision against Calgary) before Toronto beat him on Jan. 16, 1982. He finished his rookie season 28-5-14, went on to five Stanley Cups and the 1988 Vezina, and in 2003 became the first Black player inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame (Wikipedia).

BirthdaysBergeron and Källgren

Happy birthday to former Tampa Bay Lightning and Montreal Canadiens goalie Jean-Claude Bergeron (58) and Brynäs IF goalie Erik Källgren (30), formerly of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

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