Blackhawks rookie goaltender Drew Commesso recorded a shutout in his first NHL victory.
Commesso stopped every shot he faced to become the fourth goaltender in Blackhawks franchise history to post a shutout in his first career win, joining Corey Crawford, Craig Anderson, and Paul Goodman.
It was a 36-save shutout.
The Predators generated offensive-zone time and had some pressure throughout the night but were unable to convert against a goaltender who grew more confident as the game progressed.
Nashville created chances at five-on-five and around the net, but failed to find a breakthrough as Chicago played from ahead. According to MoneyPuck.com, the Predators had 4.38 expected goals.
“We came out in our first eight minutes or so, and I liked our game…and then we got really sloppy with the puck,” Preds Head Coach Andrew Brunette said postgame. “Our execution was fairly poor by our standards, and it didn't allow us to get to our game. We pushed a little bit at the end, but I think the whole game, I'm not sure if we thought it'd be a little bit easier than it was. Then we got frustrated with it and seemed to compound, which we haven't done that often. Regardless, we weren't sharp. They were the better team for most of the game.”
The Predators will finish the weekend back-to-back with the Washington Capitals on Sunday.
Richie Saunders scored 17 of his 24 points in the second half and No. 9 BYU outlasted Utah 89-84 on Saturday night. Robert Wright III had 23 points and AJ Dybantsa added 20 for BYU. Saunders tied his career high with 14 rebounds as the Cougars (15-1, 3-0 Big 12) won their 12th straight game.
Brandon Miller scored 18 points, LaMelo Ball had 17 and the Charlotte Hornets built a 47-point lead in the first half of a 150-95 rout against the Utah Jazz on Saturday night. It was the second-biggest win in franchise history for the Hornets and their largest on the road. The Hornets bounced back from a pair of frustrating losses in a big way, having fallen to Toronto by one point and Indiana by two in their last two games.
Well, it appears that the Pittsburgh Penguins will not go undefeated in the calendar year of 2026.
Despite a late push on Saturday afternoon, the Penguins lost to the Calgary Flames, 2-1, to earn their first loss since Dec. 23 and snap their six-game win streak. Egor Chinakhov scored his second goal in a Penguins' uniform, while Arturs Silovs made some key saves for the Penguins, stopping 23 of 25 Calgary shots on goal.
Just like the Penguins have been doing with frequency lately, the Flames got off to a quick start in this one. Just two and a half minutes into the game, the Penguins were pressuring in the offensive zone, and defenseman Ryan Shea tried to send a cross-ice pass to his partner, Jack St. Ivany, at the offensive blue line. Unfortunately, Calgary forward Connor Zary disrupted the pass and took off for a breakaway opportunity, beating Silovs five-hole and putting the Flames up, 1-0.
The Flames got the better of the Penguins for the entirety of the first period, and they carried the 1-0 lead into the second. Nearing the halfway point of the middle frame, the Penguins were finally starting to gain some momentum, and Ben Kindel made a play to get the puck to Chinakhov in the neutral zone. Chinakhov and Evgeni Malkin entered the zone on a two-on-one, and a give-and-go between the two resulted in a one-time bomb from Chinkahov in the right circle to tie the game at 1-1.
The Penguins carried much of the play for the remainder of the second period, but unfortunately, the Flames scored early in the second. Matt Coronato shot the puck through a bit of a screen after a nice move, and he put the Flames back on top.
With around eight minutes remaining in regulation, the Penguins appeared to tie the game when Tommy Novak executed a perfect wraparound and buried the puck past Calgary goaltender Devin Cooley. However, goaltender interference was called on Sidney Crosby for impeding Cooley's ability to make the save, and the Penguins did not challenge the play.
Here are some thoughts and takeaways from this one:
- Dan Muse said following the game that they did not challenge the goaltender interference call on Novak's goal because he did not think there was a high chance of the call getting overturned. I agree with him.
However, Crosby certainly didn't agree with the call.
In fact, the Penguins' captain was a little bit more blunt than usual when discussing the play after the game.
"I think it looks bad, but being in the play, I thought I did my best to avoid the goalie, and I got pushed into him," Crosby said. "I mean, the explanation had something to do with being in the crease, but you're allowed in the crease as long as you don't impede the goalie. And I was trying to get through there and got pushed back into him.
"He did a good job selling it. I grazed him, and he went down pretty easy. I mean, what are you going to do? That's a hard one to challenge, and it doesn't look great. But just being part of the play, I know I was going to get around him if I didn't get pushed."
Sid on goalie interference ruling: “He sold it well.”
It's not often that I don't necessarily see eye-to-eye with Sid on anything. However, I'm not so sure that wouldn't have been called back even if the call was a goal on the ice. Even if Crosby was shoved - and if Cooley embellished a bit - it kind of looked like, accidentally or not, that Crosby leaned into the contact just a bit.
In any case, I do think Muse made the right call in not challenging that. The Penguins had all the momentum, and it wasn't worth risking a potential penalty kill late in the game.
- For the second consecutive game, the Penguins had a less-than-inspiring start in the first period. They were sloppy, they were disjointed, they were slow, they were outshot 9-6, and they surrendered the first goal of the game for the first time since Dec. 23, which is the last time they had lost a hockey game.
Of course, there is a lot else going right for the Penguins, but when they play the league's better teams, they're not going to get away with slow starts. They didn't on Saturday against one of the league's bottom teams.
The Penguins have a pretty manageable schedule for the rest of January in terms of their competition. Only four teams of the 10 they play are currently in a playoff spot. So, they need all the points they can get, and they can't afford to take the first period off in any of these games.
- Penguins didn't start much better in second period (or the third period, for that matter). But a play late in the Penguins' penalty kill on Kevin Hayes's hooking minor seemed to give them some semblance of life.
Rickard Rakell - who has looked the part on the PK - generated a shorthanded chance down low that Blake Lizotte nearly finished at the net-front. The Penguins killed off the rest of the penalty with ease, then about 20 seconds after the penalty expired, Kindel made that hard-working play to get the puck to Chinakhov initially and set the goal sequence in motion.
Rakell's and Lizotte's play was a small play, but it gave the Penguins the life they needed - at least, temporarily - to tie the game in a contest in which they were largely lifeless and sloppy.
- I've seen some pretty funny things happen this season across the hockey world (with the Joel Hofer "hiding" incident topping the list).
But, man, was that Malkin roughing penalty after Chinakhov's goal something.
The Russian connection executes a perfect give-and-go, Zary pulls up right between Malkin and Chinakhov along the boards, and Malkin just decks him for next to no reason on the way to celebrate the goal with Chinakhov, resulting in a roughing penalty for Malkin.
I mean, aside from Malkin's signature slap shot breakaway goal - and that entire sequence - against the Philadelphia Flyers way back when, can you think of a more perfect Malkin sequence of events?
- I haven't been impressed with the Justin Brazeau, Anthony Mantha, and whoever line in the last couple of games. Not having Tommy Novak or Evgeni Malkin centering those guys showed on Saturday. Hayes's lack of footspeed definitely showed, and it was hard for them to generate much.
If Rust is going to be out, I'm not really sure what to do with that line. Novak is definitely a top candidate to bump up with Crosby, and the second line really had something going on Saturday.
What I would do is consider breaking up Brazeau and Mantha until Rust returns, bump Brazeau up with Crosby, and put Novak back as the third-line center. I wouldn't be opposed to seeing Chinakhov get some reps with Crosby, either, since his skillset would probably complement Crosby well. And you could have Malkin, Kindel, and Brazeau on a line.
- Speaking of Kindel, I thought he played an outstanding game on Saturday.
Yes, there are still a few hiccups, as there are with any young player. But he just does so many little things right, and that was on full display against the Flames. He made the play happen in the neutral zone to set the scene for Chinakhov's goal. On a second-period power play, he made two or three plays where he won a puck battle or forced a turnover to keep the play alive down low. He made a few nice passes as well.
This kid is just so impressive, and - as mentioned previously - he's only going to get more productive playing with Malkin and Chinakhov.
- It's actually pretty crazy how Silovs tends to get better the later it is in a game.
He could have made a breakaway save on Zary, but that one was basically 50-50. He could have made a save on Coronato, but there was a partial screen, and the Penguins' defense gave him way too much space there. But he kept this team in the game late once again, and he made some saves in the first period, too, to do the same thing.
Silovs tends to be at his best when the stakes are raised. I thought he played pretty well Saturday, even if his team didn't get the result.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Simon Holmstrom scored his second goal of the game 1:34 into overtime and the New York Islanders beat the Minnesota Wild 4-3 on Saturday night.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Casey Cizikas also scored for the Islanders, who improved to 3-0-1 in their last four games. Ilya Sorokin made 32 saves, including 17 in a scoreless third period.
Matt Boldy, Kirill Kaprizov and Ben Jones scored for Minnesota in its third loss in four games (1-1-2). Quinn Hughes assisted on all three Wild goals and Filip Gustavsson stopped 23 shots.
In the extra period, Holmstrom circled into the slot and fired a backhander that beat Gustavsson to give the Islanders the win.
Minnesota took a one-goal lead three times in the first two periods, including Jones’ first NHL goal to open the scoring early in the first. But the Islanders answered each time to even the score.
Cizikas scored a short-handed goal to tie it 3-3 late in the second period, completing a 2-on-1 rush with Holmstrom by slipping the puck between Gustavsson’s pads.
The Wild were playing their first home game since Dec. 23. They went 4-1-2 on a seven-game road swing that coincided with the Twin Cities hosting the World Juniors Championships.
On Saturday night, the Chicago Blackhawks paid a visit to the Nashville Predators. This comes one night after suffering a 5-1 loss at home to the Washington Capitals. The “stomach bug” caused all sorts of problems for them.
The bug impacted their lineup on Saturday, too, as Louis Crevier, Colton Dach, Sam Lafferty, Arvid Soderblom, and Spencer Knight were all still missing. Ilya Mikheyev was able to return from his illness.
The Blackhawks called up Stanislav Berezhnoy to be the backup goaltender, and they gave the start to Drew Commesso. Commesso started in the loss to Washington, but Jeff Blashill went right back to him on no rest.
That decision worked out for the team, as Commesso earned his first career NHL win. In the process, he also earned his first career NHL shutout with a score of 3-0. Commesso is the first Blackhawks goaltender since Corey Crawford to earn his first win in the form of a shutout.
This wasn’t a game that the Blackhawks played incredible shutdown defense to help Commesso to a shutout, either. The Predators took 36 shots on goal, and he saved them all.
Tyler Bertuzzi, Nick Lardis, and Ryan Greene scored the goals for Chicago. Connor Bedard, who was only playing in his second game back from injury, was excellent again. He had two primary assists in the win.
The Blackhawks are now winners of five games out of six. They are also 6-2-1 since the holiday break ended. This level of success has them back in the Western Conference playoff race once again, which felt impossible a month ago.
The Blackhawks are back in action on Monday night when they take on the Edmonton Oilers at the United Center. This will be Connor McDavid’s first visit to Chicago this season. This kicks off four straight at home for Chicago.
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The Mets lost out on a potential target with third baseman Alex Bregman and the Chicago Cubs agreeing to a five-year, $175 million contract on Saturday night, per multiple reports.
After beginning his career with the Houston Astros where he played for nine seasons, Bregman spent last season in Boston playing for the Red Sox who signed him to a three-year, $120 million deal last offseason with opt outs after the first two years. But after a solid 2025 campaign, Bregman opted out to become a free agent and look for a new deal.
Now, the 31-year-old will join Chicago who also pursued him heavily last offseason.
Bregman played in 114 games for Boston last season after missing time with a right quad strain, slashing .273/.360/.462 with 18 home runs and 62 RBI. Prior to that, the infielder had six seasons of 145 or more games played.
In his career, Bregman has totaled 209 home runs and 725 RBI to go along with a .846 OPS, making him one of the biggest bats available this offseason.
As for the Mets, their pursuit of Bregman always seemed lukewarm at best as they seem comfortable going with Brett Baty at third base in 2026 after the youngster's breakout season in which he slashed .254/.313/.435 with 18 homers and 50 RBI in 130 games.
Baty split time at second base and third base last year, but with Mark Vientos' disappointing season offensively and struggles at third base defensively, Baty appears to be the starting third baseman at the moment.
The final score tells the truth without offering much nuance. The details, as always, matter more.
The Philadelphia Flyers' 7–2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning was their second defeat in as many meetings this season against a team operating at a very specific, very unforgiving level right now. The Flyers will get one more chance to adjust when the season series concludes Monday, but Saturday’s game made clear how quickly the game slip away when structure slips against a team that thrives on pace, precision, and punishment.
1. This Was Not Purely a Goaltending Loss, Even If the Goaltender Wore It.
Sam Ersson had a difficult night. The goals came in waves, the building grew restless, and the optics were unkind. But inside the Flyers’ room, there was little appetite for assigning blame to the goaltender alone.
Tampa Bay scored by stretching the ice east-west, attacking seams before coverage could reset, and forcing Ersson into repeated lateral reads with traffic collapsing the crease. Those are high-danger looks even when executed imperfectly; Tampa executed them cleanly.
Ersson’s teammates recognized it immediately. Players went to him during the game to offer encouragement. Postgame, the decision not to make him available was organizational.
Sam Ersson was requested for postgame, but didn’t end up talking to the media. Flyers PR said it was a team decision to not make him available.
“We’ve gotta be better in front of him,” Owen Tippett said postgame. “Those are tough games to play… I don’t know if the sarcastic cheers are really appreciated, but we’ve gotta do a better job in front of him.”
Garnet Hathaway echoed that sentiment, revealing that his message to Ersson was to “keep his head up. I don’t think we played as defensively sound as we needed to. We’re a very offensive-minded team, and that’s not on him. He’s played great all year. So forget it; put it in the past.”
Owen Tippett and Sean Couturier said the Flyers have to be better in front of Sam Ersson. Tippett said the sarcastic cheers weren’t appreciated. Several Flyers players went to Ersson during the game to give some encouragement.
Rick Tocchet, meanwhile, struck a balance between accountability and protection.
“He’s struggling a little bit; you can tell a little bit,” Tocchet said. “You’re gonna have tough nights. If you have an NHL career, sometimes you’re gonna be in the mud, and you’ve gotta get yourself out of it. You’ve gotta work harder, you’ve gotta analyze things—not just [Ersson], anybody.”
Then, pointedly: “We’ve gotta work with him; we’ve gotta help him out, too—whatever we have to do to help him, mental or physical.”
This was a team loss. Ersson absorbed it because goaltenders always do, but the breakdowns began well before the puck reached him.
2. Tampa’s East-West Game Exposed Every Half-Second of Hesitation.
There are teams that beat you by volume. Tampa Bay beats you by speed of decision.
The Lightning punished the Flyers with an unrelenting east-west attack that forced defensive switches, pulled coverage out of shape, and turned small delays into open ice. Once Tampa established rhythm, Philadelphia struggled to disrupt passing lanes early enough to prevent those sequences from forming.
That's not to say the Flyers were completely silent. They had moments—stretches where they generated chances, forced Andrei Vasilevskiy into difficult saves, and even tilted the ice briefly. But against a team this sharp, those windows close quickly.
Rick Tocchet’s assessment was that he "didn’t mind half the game. You’re gonna have those kinds of games, but we do need some better efforts. A couple of our guys that we count on to score turned the pucks over a little too much. You can’t play that way.”
3. The Flyers Generated Chances—They Just Didn’t Finish Them.
One of the more frustrating aspects of the loss was that it wasn’t devoid of offensive opportunity. The Flyers scored twice—Garnet Hathaway’s first goal of the season and Owen Tippett’s power-play marker, his 14th—but they left several other chances on the table.
Christian Dvorak extended his point streak to three games with an assist, while Noah Juulsen and Rodrigo Abols also contributed helpers. The offense existed, and noticeably so, but the execution did not.
Some of that credit belongs to Vasilevskiy, who was calm, square, and efficient. Some of it belongs to Tampa’s ability to recover defensively after initial breakdowns. And some of it falls on Philadelphia’s inability to capitalize when the game was still within reach.
4. This Game Was a "Learning Lesson."
The Flyers will play Tampa Bay again on Jan. 12, and both players and coach highlighted the importance of having short memories and taking this game as a learning opportunity so they can be better against the Lightning next time around.
“Everybody’s tired of hearing it, but it’s a learning lesson,” Tocchet said. “You learn, you apply it, and be better, which our team has done.”
What matters now is not how they felt leaving the ice, but what they retain from it—about puck management, defensive spacing, and how quickly games can get away from you when structure slips.
The Flyers didn’t lose because they stopped trying. They lost because Tampa never took their foot off the gas. That distinction is uncomfortable, but can be ultimately useful with such a quick turnaround.
Saunders tied his career high with 14 rebounds as the Cougars (15-1, 3-0 Big 12) won their 12th straight game. Terence Brown scored 25 points for Utah but turned the ball over in the corner with 8.9 seconds left when his team had a chance to tie. Saunders was fouled and clinched the game with two free throws.
Jordan Pope scored 28 points, Dailyn Swain added 18 and a huge block in the waning seconds, and Texas stunned No. 13 Alabama 92-88 on Saturday night for its first Southeastern Conference win of the season. Tramon Mark also scored 18 for the Longhorns (10-6, 1-2 SEC), who avoided a three-game skid to open league play. Mark's layup with 23 seconds remaining gave Texas some cushion in crunch time.
Otega Oweh scored 22 points on 10-of-17 shooting and had five of Kentucky's season-high 14 steals to help the Wildcats rally from a 12-point deficit and beat Mississippi State 92-68 on Saturday night. Malachi Moreno made 8 of 10 from the field and finished with 17 points, eight rebounds, six assists and four steals for Kentucky (10-6, 1-2 SEC). Denzel Aberdeen added 16 points and Kam Williams scored 14 points.
Broberg was slow to get up but wound up skating off and slowly walking down to the team's locker room; he played 55 seconds and had an assist on a goal by Robert Thomas 53 seconds into the game that gave the Blues a 1-0 lead.
Broberg, who has two goals and 12 assists in 46 games this season, has averaged a career-high 23:18 time on ice per game. He was selected to Sweden's Winter Olympic hockey team last week.
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Trent Perry had 16 points, Eric Dailey Jr. scored 15 and UCLA cruised to a 67-55 victory over Maryland on Saturday night. Dailey added nine rebounds and Perry snagged six for the Bruins (11-5, 3-2 Big Ten Conference), who snapped a two-game skid. Tyler Bilodeau scored 10.
While the rest of us continue to deal with the cold winter months, Mets infielder Luisangel Acuña is red-hot.
Playing in the Venezuelan Winter League for the Cardenales de Lara, Acuña had a historic night on Saturday by hitting three home runs in the same game.
The first long ball came in the second inning, a three-run shot off a right-hander which gave Acuña's team a 6-4 lead. The next two, one off a lefty and one off a righty and both solo shots, came in the later innings with the infielder's team up big.
Acuña finished the game 3-for-5 with five RBI and five runs scored, reaching base in all five of his plate appearances thanks to two errors. He's just the second player in Cardenales de Lara's history to hit three dingers in the same game.
The 23-year-old has enjoyed a ton of success in Venezuela this winter and will look to carry that into spring training for the Mets starting next month after an inconsistent first full season in the majors where he slashed .234/.293/.274 in 95 games.
After bursting onto the scene as a September call-up in 2024 where he hit three home runs in 39 at-bats (.966 OPS), Acuña's power disappeared in 2025 (.567 OPS) and he was more valuable with his defensive versatility and speed on the bases (16 steals on 17 attempts).
However, if he's ever able to tap into his raw power that he displayed on Saturday night and briefly in 2024 on a more consistent basis in the majors (like his older brother Ronald Acuña Jr.), it would open up his game to another level.
The Detroit Red Wings made sure that their second meeting of the season against the Montreal Canadiens had a far happier ending than the first.
The Red Wings put together one of the most complete road efforts of their centennial campaign, defeating the Canadiens by a 4-0 final score at Bell Centre in what was a complete reversal of Montreal's 5-1 win in Detroit on Oct. 9.
Goaltender John Gibson, who has been nothing short of clutch for the Red Wings since the start of December, picked up his third shutout of the season and 27th of his NHL career.
With the victory, the Red Wings have taken sole possession of the top spot in the tightly-packed Atlantic Division.
After a scoreless first period, the Red Wings opened the scoring when Lucas Raymond buried his third goal in as many games. He capitalized on a fortunate bounce as the puck deflected off the stanchion and popped out in front of the vacated Montreal net while goaltender Jacob Fowler had gone behind the goal to play the puck.
The lead was then increased to 2-0 after a power-play goal by Dylan Larkin just seconds after the face-off in Montreal's zone.
Alex DeBrincat put the game out of reach in the third period with his 23rd goal of the campaign, while Andrew Copp put the finishing touches on the scoring with an empty-net tally late in regulation.
Several of Gibson's 27 saves were on high-danger chances for the Canadiens, who were often left frustrated after he turned aside everything they threw at him.
The Red Wings will return home to host the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday night, before which the franchise will officially retire Sergei Fedorov's iconic No. 91 and raise a banner to the rafters at Little Caesars Arena.
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