Vasilevskiy Passes Vanbiesbrouck for 19th in NHL Wins, Jake Allen Celebrates 500 Games With a Win

NHLJake Allen's 500-game night ends with 31 saves against Colorado

The Devils marked Jake Allen‘s 500th NHL game before Tuesday’s game against Colorado at Prudential Center. He reached the mark on Oct. 10 against Vancouver, the 86th goalie in league history to get there. Martin Brodeur was on hand to give him a Tiffany crystal on the NHL’s behalf, co-owners David and Allison Blitzer gave him the silver stick, with small ones for his kids, and from the team came a fishing rod made for the milestone and an engraved Rolex, handed over by captain Nico Hischier and alternates Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt. The crowd gave him a standing ovation at centre ice, his family came out to join him, and the arena screen showed his wife, Shannon, and their children watching his career highlights (NHL.com).

Then he beat the Avalanche 4-3 with 31 saves on 34 shots, 19 of them in the third period, including stops on Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar. “I told myself just to enjoy that moment,” Allen said of the ceremony, and he put the night next to the best day of his career: “Winning the Stanley Cup (with the St. Louis Blues in 2019) and tonight are the two highlights of my career for sure.” Of the third-period pressure, he said, “After the first two saves it was just chaos” (NHL.com). The 500th game itself, a 20-save win with his daughters waiting in the dressing room, was in our Oct. 11 edition.

On InGoal: InGoal Radio Episode 276 with Jake Allen and Jake Allen’s Pro Reads.

NHLStolarz makes 35 saves as the Leafs carry three goalies through a back-to-back

Toronto played Monday and Tuesday, and to give both of its goalies a full night off, it called up Artur Akhtyamov from the Marlies on Monday to sit on the bench for both games. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman described it on X as “some game management with the goalies.” Coach Jim Hiller said after Monday’s morning skate that Akhtyamov would “back up the next couple nights,” with Sergei Bobrovsky starting Monday and Anthony Stolarz Tuesday, “and they’ll get some rest” (The Hockey News). Bobrovsky didn’t even make the trip to Columbus: the Leafs left him at home in Toronto for a fuller rest (The Leafs Nation, Maple Leafs Hot Stove), ahead of Thursday’s home game against the Rangers and a four-game trip west.

It worked both nights. Bobrovsky beat San Jose on Monday, as yesterday’s edition reported, and Stolarz stopped 35 of 37 shots in Columbus on Tuesday as the Leafs won 6-2 (NHL game center). It was his third win of the season and gave Toronto its first two-game winning streak of the season; the Leafs are 2-0-0 on the second night of back-to-backs (Maple Leafs). Akhtyamov, 24, didn’t play, but he arrived as the reigning Calder Cup playoff MVP: the AHL gave him the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy when the Marlies won the title in June (Maple Leafs).

On InGoal: InGoal Radio Episode 122 with Anthony Stolarz.

NHLHofer beats his hometown Jets for the fourth time

Joel Hofer made 32 saves on 33 shots as St. Louis beat Winnipeg 2-1 at Enterprise Center on Tuesday, four of them in the last stretch after the Jets pulled Stuart Skinner for an extra skater. It was his fourth career win over his hometown team, and the goalie at the other end was his old partner: he and Skinner played together for the WHL’s Swift Current Broncos in 2017-18. “Any game in our division, especially hometown team, it obviously adds a little bit more,” Hofer said, and he knew what was coming at his net: “That was in the pre-scout that they go to the net hard and they’re hungry around there.” Jets coach Scott Arniel gave him his due: “Hofer obviously made some big stops” (NHL.com).

On InGoal: InGoal Radio Episode 218 with Joel Hofer and Pro Tips with Joel Hofer: the simplest way to improve your goalie IQ.

NHLStevenson on hockey, his mother, and getting back to feeling like himself

A note before you read: this story is about Clay Stevenson’s mother, who died by suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling, help is there at any hour: call or text 9-8-8 in Canada or the U.S. Elsewhere, findahelpline.com lists free, confidential lines by country.

Clay Stevenson is talking publicly about losing his mother, Holly, because he wants mental health to be easier to talk about. A paramedic who had earlier worked as a dental assistant, she lived with mental illness for years and died by suicide in September 2019, days before his third BCHL season with the Coquitlam Express. The new Jets goaltender told Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press that the game got him through it: “It was the worst thing that happened, but you lean on other people and get back to feeling like yourself.”

He first told that story on InGoal Radio in 2022. He sat out the Express’s opener, came back for one of the next games and made 39 saves for a shutout in Surrey, which he called one of the best games of his life. “It put everything into perspective for me,” he said. The game stopped weighing on him; he went to the rink each day to enjoy it with his friends, and his teammates, billets and family helped by treating him as they always had. “She wouldn’t want me to dwell and feel sorry for myself,” he said. That season was the breakthrough that took him to Dartmouth.

Hockey was what the two of them shared. Some mornings before school she was the only one on the ice shooting at him, she taped his goalie sessions so he could study them, and when he wanted to quit at 16 she talked him into staying. When he played Junior B in 100 Mile House, B.C., she got herself posted to the town’s ambulance station to stay near him. “Hockey was the special bond I had with my mom,” he told the Free Press. The paramedics’ Star of Life is on the back of his new Winnipeg mask: “I think about her all the time.”

He hopes young men in particular hear the rest of it. “It’s OK to not be OK,” he said. “But you don’t have to let that not OK feeling consume your whole life and dictate how you want to be.”

On InGoal: InGoal Radio Episode 181 (2022) and Episode 271 (2024), after Hershey’s Calder Cup.

If this story brings up something for you: 9-8-8 (call or text) in Canada and the U.S., or findahelpline.com elsewhere.

CollegeHeil opens with back-to-back shutouts, Sharks prospects Kirsch and Ravensbergen unbeaten

North Dakota freshman Caleb Heil followed his first-start shutout of Bentley, which our Oct. 17 edition covered, with another one the next night. Both games ended 5-0 at Ralph Engelstad Arena, and Heil stopped all 29 shots across the weekend (14 on Friday, 15 on Saturday, per College Hockey News). The NCHC named him its Goaltender of the Week on Tuesday, the first time he has won it, and he leads the country with a 0.00 goals-against average, a 1.000 save percentage and two shutouts (AM 1100 The Flag). No. 3 North Dakota plays at Minnesota on Thursday and Friday.

The San Jose Sharks have two goalie prospects in their first NCAA seasons, and neither has lost (The Hockey News). At Quinnipiac, Swiss freshman Christian Kirsch, a fourth-round pick in 2024, is 3-0 with a 2.00 goals-against average and a .933 save percentage: 21 saves in a 10-2 win over New Hampshire, 33 in a 2-1 win at Maine and 30 in a 6-3 win at Penn State last Friday. At Michigan State, Joshua Ravensbergen, the 30th pick of the 2025 draft, is 2-0 with a .932: 16 saves in a 6-2 win over Northern Michigan and 25 on 26 shots in Saturday’s 5-1 win at RIT (box scores, College Hockey News). Junior Quentin Sigurdson won the Spartans’ other start.

On InGoal: Ravensbergen on InGoal Radio, Episode 354.

InternationalBoltshauser wins the Bern derby, Aeschlimann hands the ZSC Lions their first loss

Luca Boltshauser stopped 36 of 37 shots in Switzerland’s National League on Tuesday as the SCL Tigers won the Bernese derby 3-1 at SC Bern’s PostFinance Arena, in front of 15,979, by the league’s game stats. Bern’s only goal came with about two minutes to play. Three days earlier Bern had won the first derby of the season 3-1 in Langnau; this time the Emmental club won away in a derby for the first time since 2022, after seven straight losses in Bern, and Blick wrote that Bern never really made Boltshauser sweat (Blick).

In Zurich, Sandro Aeschlimann made 39 saves on 41 shots as HC Davos won 3-2, ending the ZSC Lions’ unbeaten start: it was their first loss in 13 games this season, three days after they had beaten Davos 5-1 in Davos (watson). Aeschlimann’s 42-save night in Lugano was in our Oct. 17 edition.

Goalies of the weekSalen Forsberg and Moreau

• OHL: Brantford’s Vilmer Salen Forsberg, 17, is the OHL’s goaltender of the week for the second time this season after going 2-0 with a .971 save percentage: his first OHL shutout, 25 saves in a 1-0 win over Barrie on Friday, and the 42-save win over the Soo from our Oct. 19 edition. The 6-foot-6 Swede from Södertälje is 6-1-0-1 with a .936 save percentage (OHL).
• QMJHL: Val-d’Or’s Vincent Moreau is the goalie on the league’s team of the week after going 3-0 with a 0.74 goals-against average, a .971 save percentage, and a shutout from Oct. 12 to 18 (QMJHL).

The WHL, ECHL, and USHL goalies of the week were in yesterday’s edition.

HistorySergei Bobrovsky's 300th NHL win, five years ago today

On this day in 2021, Sergei Bobrovsky made 30 saves on 31 shots as the Florida Panthers beat Colorado 4-1 in Sunrise, and it was the 300th win of his NHL career. “It definitely means something,” he said, and he gave the credit to the teams he has played on: “I’ve been fortunate to play with great players, great defensemen, great forwards, great teams” (AP via Fox Sports). By InGoal’s count from the NHL’s career stats, he has won 158 more since, and Monday’s win for Toronto, his 458th, left him one behind Henrik Lundqvist for sixth all time.

Also on Oct. 21

• 1981: Grant Fuhr earned his first NHL win at 19, 26 saves in Edmonton’s 5-2 win over Hartford, the first game of the 23-game unbeaten run from our Oct. 14 edition.
• 1989: Mike Vernon played his 200th NHL game, a Calgary win over Boston.
• 2005: Dominik Hasek played his 600th NHL game, a 23-save Ottawa win in Tampa.
• 2022: Martin Jones earned his 200th NHL win in his 400th game, in relief for Seattle in Colorado: he played the last 9:43 and faced one shot.
• 2025: Stuart Skinner earned his 100th NHL win, for Edmonton in Ottawa.

The game details in this list come from the NHL’s game records at NHL Records.

On InGoal: Pro Tips: Sergei Bobrovsky on edge work in reverse VH and Martin Jones’s Pro Reads.

BirthdaysBach and Lennox

Happy birthday to former Los Angeles Kings goalie Ryan Bach (53) and to Tristan Lennox (24), who made his NHL debut with the New York Islanders in April 2025.

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