Hellebuyck Is 2-0 as a Devil, Halák Plans a Comeback at 41

InternationalJaroslav Halák, 41, wants back in goal

Jaroslav Halák announced his retirement in the summer of 2025. Now the 41-year-old Slovak says he is ready to play again, and is waiting on an offer from a club. He told the Slovak federation he has been working toward this for four months and has been on the ice regularly for the last three weeks, with some details still to sharpen after three and a half years out of competitive games. “I’m ready,” he said in his interview, which is translated here from Slovak. “I have a huge desire to play, maybe even bigger than I had during my last two or three years in the NHL” (the Slovak federation, via TASR; Pravda).

Two exhibitions got him thinking about it: Zdeno Chára’s farewell game in Trenčín and the Montreal-Winnipeg legends game at the NHL Heritage Classic, where he played goal for the Canadiens’ alumni. “Both games inspired me,” he said, and he admitted how much he had missed the gear, practices, and everything else that goes with the game.

His next stop is with his country. Before November’s Deutschland Cup he will spend two training days with Slovakia’s national team as a goalie mentor, not as a player named to the tournament, after an invitation from general manager Miroslav Šatan. “Jaro surprised me with his decision to restart his career,” Šatan said. “His mentoring and presence will certainly help, and not only our goalies” (SME Sportnet).

Halák won 295 of his 581 regular-season NHL games, for seven teams, and backstopped Montreal to the Eastern Conference Final in 2010. His last game was for the Rangers against Toronto on April 13, 2023, and a tryout with Carolina that November didn’t lead to a contract. He wore No. 41 through his whole pro career, which isn’t lost on him. “There is a certain symbolism there,” he said (Pravda).

On InGoal: Jaroslav Halák’s Pro Reads.

Updated Oct. 31, 11:57 AM PT

NHLWolf back in the Flames' crease with Cooley out week to week

Calgary’s net is Dustin Wolf‘s again for now. Coach Ryan Huska said Devin Cooley will be out week to week with the lower-body injury from Wednesday’s crease collision with Edmonton’s Colton Dach, which was in our Oct. 29 edition. Cooley took it in stride on Instagram: “Injuries suck but I’m a very fast healer!” (TSN).

In his first start since Oct. 15, according to his NHL.com game log, Wolf stopped 20 of 22 Seattle shots on Friday as the Flames won 6-2 at home. His backup was Arsenii Sergeev, recalled from the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers, where he is 4-2-0 with a .907 save percentage. Sergeev’s only NHL game so far came on April 16, a 27-save debut win over Los Angeles (Flames).

Sergeev now gets his turn. He starts Saturday night in Colorado, the only change to the Flames’ lineup, according to Derek Wills. It will be his second NHL start.

On InGoal: Dustin Wolf’s Pro Reads and Devin Cooley’s Pro Reads.

NHLWallstedt, the boy who stayed up for Lundqvist, leads all goalies in starts

Growing up in Västerås, Sweden, Jesper Wallstedt and his brother, eight years older, kept late hours to see the Rangers on TV. “For me it was always Lundqvist ever since I was young,” the Wild goalie told Aaron Vickers of NHL.com. “The dream was always to be like him and win over here and play in the NHL.”

He said much the same at 18, on InGoal Radio the week of the 2021 draft. “I think both me and my brother really looked up to him,” he said of Lundqvist, adding: “He has been a great goalie, and he still is. But he’s even a better person, I would say.”

At 23, he has 13 of Minnesota’s 15 starts, the most in the league, along with the most ice time of any goalie (784:28). He is 8-2-3 with a .916 save percentage, and with Filip Gustavsson out with a lower-body injury and no return date, the workload isn’t going anywhere. Wallstedt, taken 20th in 2021, is the only goalie Minnesota has ever drafted in the first round, and goaltending coach Frederic Chabot says he showed up last August in the best shape the staff had seen: “There’s never any guarantee, but when you put in the work and prepare the way he does, the chance of success is very good.” Coach John Hynes kept it simple: “He’s just very consistent” (NHL.com).

On InGoal: InGoal Radio Episode 129 with Jesper Wallstedt.

NHLAround the league

• Akira Schmid has won three straight and five of his last six starts for Florida after a 22-save night in a 5-2 win over Winnipeg on Friday. “Akira has just gotten better and better in every game he has played for us,” coach Paul Maurice said. At the other end, Nico Daws made 33 saves in his first start as a Jet (NHL.com).
• Joonas Korpisalo practised with the Rangers on Friday for the first time this regular season, a “big step” in his recovery from a lower-body injury, coach Mike Sullivan said (NHL.com).

On InGoal: InGoal Radio Episode 141 with Nico Daws.

AHLEvan Gardner, 20, makes 30 saves as Cleveland beats Milwaukee

The Cleveland Monsters’ Evan Gardner was the first star of a 5-2 home win over Milwaukee on Friday with 30 saves, and he is 3-1-0 this season (Monsters). Gardner is from Fort St. John, British Columbia. Columbus took him in the second round of the 2024 draft, 60th overall, after a rookie WHL season in Saskatoon in which he led the league in goals-against average and save percentage (Blue Jackets).

ECHLVinnie Purpura on why confidence is '70% of the game'

Savannah Ghost Pirates goalie Vinnie Purpura, now on an AHL contract with the Charlotte Checkers, says the turning point in his career was a hard conversation in college: “Being told my sophomore year that I had to transfer or I just wasn’t going to play.” He has since played 94 pro games for Adirondack, Reading, and Savannah, and these days he measures himself by his week of preparation rather than his stats. “I think confidence is 70% of the game, honestly,” he told Samantha Wismer of The Hockey News. “When I’m playing with confidence, I feel like I can’t be beat.” When it fades, he leans on a line that stuck with him: “You can’t outwork your doubt” (The Hockey News).

CollegeArthur Smith stops all 36 in Princeton's opener, Leroux blanks Bentley

Princeton took seven penalties in its first game of the season, and Arthur Smith held Stonehill off every time. He stopped all 36 shots in Friday’s 3-0 win in Brighton, Massachusetts, 29 of them in the second and third periods (College Hockey News box score).

In Worcester, Danick Leroux needed the same kind of finish. Bentley put 15 shots on him in the third period while Holy Cross managed two, and he stopped all 32 on the night in a 2-0 Atlantic Hockey win (College Hockey News box score).

Around the NCAA

• Kassidy Lawrence made 31 saves in St. Lawrence’s 2-0 women’s win at Dartmouth on Friday (College Hockey News box score).

U SPORTSOUA goalie of the year Zach Roy stops all 32 in Nipissing's win at UQTR

Zach Roy, named the OUA’s goaltender of the year in March, stopped all 32 UQTR shots in Nipissing’s 3-0 road win on Friday. Ivan Fabjan scored twice in the second period, the first nine seconds in, and Markas Samenas added one early in the third (U SPORTS box score).

Around U SPORTS

• Manitoba’s Braden Holt, a veteran of the WHL, stopped 36 of 37 Trinity Western shots in a 4-1 home win on Friday. The Bisons gave up the first goal, then scored the next four (U SPORTS box score).
• Max Donoso, the reigning OUA West goalie of the year, made 36 saves on 39 shots in Windsor’s 4-3 win at Waterloo on Friday (U SPORTS box score).
• Presley Daschuk made 41 saves on 43 shots in Western’s 3-2 women’s win at Waterloo on Thursday, and Sara Forwell scored the winner early in the third period (U SPORTS box score).

InternationalCharlin and Brückmann in Switzerland and Germany

Around Europe

• Stéphane Charlin made 25 saves as Genève-Servette HC won the derby 1-0 at Fribourg-Gottéron on Friday in Switzerland’s National League, shutting the door after the home side pushed back in the second and third periods (Le Matin).
• Felix Brückmann earned a shutout in Kölner Haie’s 4-0 win at the Krefeld Pinguine on Friday in Germany’s DEL (PENNY DEL).

JuniorChase Petrova, 17, stops 44 against the team that traded him, Hriczov and Bach earn first OHL shutouts

The Ottawa 67’s drafted Chase Petrova in 2024 and sent him to Brantford in June for a sixth-round pick. On Friday he went back to TD Place and made 44 saves in the Bulldogs’ 3-1 win, with Ottawa outshooting Brantford 45-25. The only puck that beat him came in the third period. The Bulldogs called it a historic performance and say it tops Nick Donofrio’s 37 saves in 2017; he is now 5-1 with a .937 save percentage (Bulldogs). When Brantford made the trade, its director of goaltending, Franky Palazzese, praised his “elite footwork, high hockey IQ and great athleticism in the net” (Bulldogs).

Notable performances in the CHL

• OHL: Kitchener’s Mason Hriczov, 17, stopped all 35 shots for his first OHL shutout, 14 of them in the first period, in a 3-0 win over Flint on Friday (Rangers). It ended the Firebirds’ eight-game point streak and was the first time they had been blanked this season (Firebirds).
• OHL: Barrie’s Hagan Bach, 17, made 32 saves in a 2-0 win at Saginaw on Friday for his first OHL shutout and first win of the season. Saginaw had all 17 of the third period’s shots (WNEM).
• WHL: Prince Albert’s Michal Orsulak, 19, a Detroit Red Wings draft pick (third round, 2026), stopped 41 of 44 in a 4-3 win over Seattle on Friday, 20 of them in a 21-shot second period (WHL game report).
• QMJHL: Rimouski’s Morgan Blackwood, 18, a cousin of Avalanche goalie Mackenzie Blackwood, was the first star of a 3-2 home win over Drummondville on Friday with 39 saves (QMJHL game report).

HistoryPatrick Roy's five Halloween wins, and Jacques Plante's bare-faced night before the mask

On this day in 1959, Jacques Plante played bare-faced for Montreal in a 2-2 tie with Detroit at the Forum, stopping 31 of 33 shots (Hockey Reference). The next night in New York, he first wore his mask.

By InGoal’s count from the NHL’s game logs, Patrick Roy has the most Halloween wins in NHL history, five, going 5-2 in seven games. Al Rollins has two Halloween shutouts (1951 and 1953), and nobody else has more than one. Ondrej Pavelec‘s 50 saves for Atlanta in a 2009 win at Ottawa are the most on Halloween since saves were recorded. A puck to the face knocked his helmet off that night, and he said he felt like Plante 50 years earlier. Coach John Anderson called it “one of the best games I’ve ever seen in goal” (The Hockey News). Pavelec, Frederik Andersen, and Chris Terreri are each 3-0 on Halloween, and nobody has more wins on the date without a loss. No NHL playoff game has been played on Oct. 31, and these counts run through Oct. 29, 2026, so this year’s Halloween games aren’t in them.

Also on Oct. 31

• 1970: Hall of Famer Gump Worsley won his 300th regular-season game, 33 saves for Minnesota in Toronto, the sixth goalie to get there by the NHL’s current totals.
• 1984: Dan Bouchard played his 600th regular-season game and won it, 28 saves for Quebec in Hartford.
• 1992: Patrick Roy won his 200th regular-season game, 31 saves for Montreal against the Rangers.
• 2007: Martin Brodeur played his 900th regular-season game and won it, 21 saves for New Jersey against Tampa Bay.
• 2008: Roberto Luongo played his 500th regular-season game and won it, 31 saves for Vancouver in Anaheim.
• 2009: Martin Biron won his 200th regular-season game with a 38-save shutout for the Islanders against Buffalo.
• 2013: Igor Shesterkin, playing for Spartak’s junior team, scored a goal into the empty net against Red Bull Salzburg’s juniors, the first by a goalie in MHL history, according to Sports.ru.
• 2021: Frederik Andersen played his 400th regular-season game and won it, 22 saves for Carolina against Arizona.

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

On InGoal: InGoal Radio Episode 82 with Martin Biron, InGoal Radio Episode 200 with Roberto Luongo, and InGoal Radio Episode 23 with Martin Brodeur.

BirthdaysGagnon and Akhtyamov

Happy birthday to former Detroit Red Wings goalie David Gagnon (59) and Toronto Marlies goalie Artur Akhtyamov (25).

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