Laine named NHL’s first star of the month

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This article was published 01/12/2018 (2471 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NEWARK, N.J. — Patrik Laine is the NHL’s official Mr. November.

The Winnipeg Jets right-winger was named the league’s first star of the month Saturday for the phenomenal display of his rare scoring touch during a 12-game span.

Laine fired 18 goals last month, including a pair of three-goal efforts (Nov. 1 in Helsinki vs. Florida and Nov. 19 in Vancouver) and an incredible five-goal performance exactly a week ago in St. Louis. He leads all NHL skaters with 21 goals heading into Saturday’s action.

His remakable total was generated on just 54 shots on goal — good for a 33.3 per cent shooting accuracy in November.

The 20-year-old Finn also added one assist against Buffalo.

“I think I had a pretty good month, obviously scored a lot of goals and that way I think I was able to help my team to win with those goals,” said Laine, who has 13 goals in his past six contests. “Just gotta be proud of myself and just try to work hard again this month and try to do the same things I did last month.”

The Jets wrapped up the month with a 6-5 triumph over the visiting Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday night to finish November at 7-4-1. Laine potted a pair.

He was kept off the scoresheet Saturday in New Jersey.

Laine is on pace for a 71-goal campaign. No player has scored 70 goals since legendary Jets sniper Teemu Selanne, a rookie at the time, and former Buffalo star Alexander Mogilny each had 76 during the 1992-93 season.

Laine’s exploits the very first night of the month turned out to be a harbinger of things to come.

Playing Nov. 1 in front of a more than 13,000 fans at Helsinki’s Hartwall Arena, he fired his first hat-trick of the season as the Jets beat the Florida Panthers 4-2 in the opener of the NHL’s Global Series.

That doubled his season output to six — since then he’s been relentless.

“I think that helped. Obviously, I was kind of struggling in October so it was awesome to get those goals to try and get things going,” he said. “After that trip, it felt like the pucks just went into the net in a pretty high percentage.

“I’ve been able to build my confidence because of those goals and just try to still play well.”

Laine fell just two tallies shy of the NHL record for most in a calendar month (20), shared by Selanne (March of 1993) and Joe Malone of the old Hamilton Tigers (February of 1921).

He hit the 100-goal mark for his career in 179 games, the quickest in Jets/Atlanta Thrashers history.

“For our franchise, record-breaking,” said Maurice. “For shooters and goaltenders, confidence is everything. You can’t give a guy confidence, the puck’s gotta hit the back of the net. And for a guy like Patty, it hit the back of the net and it just kept going.”

Laine was exactly 20 years and 224 days old when he ripped his 100th against Chicago on Friday, the fourth-youngest player in league history to do so behind only the great Wayne Gretzky (20 years, 40 days), Jimmy Carson (20 years, 116 days) and Brian Bellows (20 years, 179 days).

Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalance and Marc-Andre Fleury of the Vegas Golden Knights were also named stars of the month.

Second star MacKinnon (centre) topped the NHL with 9 goals and 14 assists in 14 games while third star Fleury registered nine wins and four shutouts in goal for the month with a .920 save percentage.

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell