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    • Bruins fire coach Montgomery; MSU-North Dakota to meet in 2026
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    Bruins fire coach Montgomery; MSU-North Dakota to meet in 2026

    Vaseline Posted on

    News staff and wire services
     |  The Detroit News

    Boston — Boston coach Jim Montgomery, who led the Bruins to the greatest regular season in NHL history but never got them past the second round of the playoffs, was fired Tuesday, a day after the below-.500 team lost to last-place Columbus to extend its losing streak to three games.

    “Jim Montgomery is a very good NHL coach and an even better person,” general manager Don Sweeney said in a news release announcing the move. “Our team’s inconsistency and performance in the first 20 games of the 2024-25 season has been concerning and below how the Bruins want to reward our fans.”

    Assistant Joe Sacco, who led the Colorado Avalanche to a 130-134-40 record from 2009-2014 and was a finalist for coach of the year in his first season, will lead the Bruins on an interim basis. Boston will be in Detroit on Saturday night to face the Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena (7 p.m., FDSN/97.1).

    “I believe Joe Sacco has the coaching experience to bring the players and the team back to focusing on the consistent effort the NHL requires to have success,” Sweeney said. “We will continue to work to make the necessary adjustments to meet the standard and performance our supportive fans expect.”

    Montgomery, 55, was fired 20 games into his third season in Boston and a day after a 5-1 loss to Columbus in which the Bruins allowed two short-handed goals. He leaves with a 8-9-3 record this season and a 180-84-33 mark in his career, which also included one-plus season in Dallas.

    The Bruins finished with more than 100 points in each of Montgomery’s first two seasons – including a record-setting debut, when their 65 wins and 135 points were both the most in NHL history. But the team lost in the first round of the playoffs that year and advanced to only the second round last season.

    The struggles carried over into the new season, with an opening night loss to Florida in which they fell behind 5-1 and an 8-2 loss to Carolina on Halloween. After the Monday night loss in which the team was booed off the ice at home after falling behind 3-0 in the first period, Montgomery grew philosophical.

    “Everyone goes through struggles. Whether in life, or your team,” he said. “That’s what life’s about. How do you pick yourself up? It’s not how hard you fall. It’s how quickly you pick yourself up.”

    The Bruins’ best hope is that a coaching change kick-starts a roster with high-end talent that hasn’t been performing.

    As a team, the Bruins have given up 21 more goals than they’ve allowed – third-worst in the NHL. All-Star David Pastrnak managed no shots on Monday and his minus-4 is the lowest plus-minus of his career; Brad Marchand is minus-3, the lowest since he became a full-time NHLer.

    “Definitely not happy with the way that things are going,” Marchand said Monday night. “We need to be much better in a lot of areas. … It’s not acceptable to continue to have the same mistakes and do the same things over and over that aren’t bringing us success. So, yeah, we need to be a lot better.”

    MSU-North Dakota to meet in Hall game

    Michigan State and North Dakota will play in the 2026 U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game on Oct. 31 in Austin, Texas. 

    North Dakota will serve as the host institution for the game, which will be played at the H-E-B Center at Cedar Park in Austin, Texas, the home of the Texas Stars, the AHL affiliate of the Dallas Stars.

    “We look forward to welcoming two of the top collegiate hockey programs and some of the best hockey fans in the country to Austin,” said Drew Hays, director of the Austin Sports Commission.

    “It promises to be an outstanding matchup between two storied college hockey programs that combined have won 11 NCAA national championships,” said MSU head coach Adam Nightingale.

    Spartans’ Vansaghi earns Big Ten honor

    Michigan State freshman Shane Vansaghi was named the Big Ten Third Star of the Week on Tuesday after his four-point effort against Notre Dame at Munn Ice Arena last weekend. 

    Vansaghi had a goal and three assists in the weekend sweep of the Fighting Irish, two assists on Friday, and then a goal and an assist on Saturday. 

    He is the only Spartan with points in all four Big Ten games and has all eight of his points (2-6-8) in the last six games.

    Vansaghi and the Spartans head to Plymouth to play his former team – the U.S. National Team Development program – on Thursday at USA Hockey Arena at 7 p.m.

    Tuesday’s NHL games

    ▶ Tampa Bay 3, (at) Pittsburgh 2 (OT): Brayden Point scored at 3:58 of overtime Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 17 shots for the Lightning.

    Point, who missed the previous two weeks with a lower-body injury, started the comeback in his return game with a goal at 5:41 of the third. Anthony Cirelli scored his fifth goal of the season.

    Rickard Rakell scored a power-play goal, while Jesse Puljujarvi opened the scoring for Pittsburgh.

    Sidney Crosby had an assist and surpassed Hall of Famer Joe Sakic for 13th-most assists in NHL history and sixth-most by a player with a single franchise. He now has 1,017 assists. Mario Lemieux ranks 12th with 1,033.

    ▶ Edmonton 5, (at) Ottawa 2: Connor McDavid had two goals and an assist, Evan Bouchard, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored for the Oilers, who were coming off a 3-0 loss in Montreal on Monday.

    Tim Stutzle and Josh Norris (Oxford) scored for Ottawa. The Senators dropped their third straight (0-2-1) and are now 3-5-1 in November.

    ▶ Minnesota 4, (at) St. Louis 2: Kirill Kaprizov scored a pair of third-period goals, and Jonas Brodin and Ryan Hartman also scored to help Minnesota beat St. Louis.

    Filip Gustavsson made 22 saves for the Wild who improved to 12-3-3 on the season.

    Scott Perunovich and Jake Neighbours scored, and Jordan Binnington made 24 saves for St. Louis, who saw Robert Thomas return to the lineup after missing 12 games with a fractured right ankle.

    ▶ Anaheim 3, (at) Chicago 2: Alex Killorn had a goal and an assist in the third period, and Anaheim beat Chicago for their season-high third straight win.

    Killorn made a perfect pass to Leo Carlsson for a backdoor tap-in with 10:22 left. Pavel Mintyukov also scored for Anaheim, which has won four of five overall. Trevor Zegras had two assists, and John Gibson made 18 saves.

    Chicago lost for the fifth time in six games. Connor Bedard set up each of Jason Dickinson’s two goals, and Arvid Soderblom made 21 stops.

    ▶(At) Winnipeg 6, Florida 3: Mark Scheifele had his ninth career hat trick, Morgan Barron added two empty-net goals and Winnipeg beat Florida to end a two-game skid.

    Kyle Connor (Shelby Township) had a goal and assist, Josh Morrissey and Nikolaj Ehlers each added a pair of assists and Connor Hellebuyck (Commerce Township) made 20 saves for the NHL-leading Jets.

    Matthew Tkachuk had a goal and assist for the Stanley Cup champion Panthers and A.J. Greer and Sam Reinhart also scored. Sergei Bobrovsky made 21 saves.

    ▶(At) Calgary 2, N.Y. Islanders 1 (SO): Dustin Wolf made 28 saves in regulation and was perfect on two shots faced in the shootout as Calgary rallied for a victory over New York.

    Rasmus Andersson had the lone goal in regulation for Calgary. Andrei Kuzmenko and Justin Kirkland scored in the shootout.

    Pierre Engvall, with his third goal of the season and third in as many games, scored the lone goal for the Islanders, who will be in Detroit on Thursday (7 p.m., FSDN/97.1).

    ▶N.Y. Rangers 4, (at) Vancouver 3: Mika Zibanejad scored and added an assist, Will Cuylle and Kaapo Kakko also posted a goal and an assist apiece for the Rangers, while Chris Kreider scored the game winner midway through the third period. Adam Fox contributed a pair of helpers.

    Igor Shesterkin stopped 21 shots as New York improved its road record to 7-1-0.

    The Canucks got goals from Quinn Hughes, Kiefer Sherwood and Conor Garland. Arturs Silovs made 29 saves for a Vancouver.

    Leafs’ Matthews in Germany to receive treatment

    Auston Matthews boarded a plane and crossed an ocean.

    The Maple Leafs are hoping the trip provides some answers – and gets their best player back on the ice.

    General manager Brad Treliving said following Tuesday’s practice his captain, out day-to-day since Nov. 5 with an undisclosed upper-body injury, is in Germany to see a doctor the star center has worked with in the past.

    “More as a general checkup,” Treliving said during an unscheduled availability with reporters. “But also to get some work done on this thing.”

    Matthews has missed six games and will sit out a seventh Wednesday when Toronto hosts the Vegas Golden Knights.

    Treliving, who added a team doctor accompanied the star sniper to Europe, said with the Leafs playing just twice this week the organization decided to use the time to its advantage.

    Treliving declined to provide further details on what’s ailing Matthews, who’s believed to have only skated twice since last playing Nov. 3.

    “There’s been no setbacks,” Treliving said of the 2022 Hart Trophy winner as league MVP. “Everything’s been, actually, going quite well. We’re just trying to use the days that we’ve got here with less games being played to just try to get this behind us.”

    Toronto (11-6-2) was already down three forwards with Matthews, Max Pacioretty and Calle Jarnkrok sidelined before announcing earlier Tuesday center David Kampf (lower-body injury) is also now on the shelf. Fraser Minten was recalled from the minors to take his spot.

    Reaves reaction

    Leafs enforcer Ryan Reaves was suspended five games for Saturday’s illegal check to the head on Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse.

    “Never want to see anybody injured,” Treliving said. “It’s a hockey play that goes wrong.”

    Reaves was in Toronto’s locker room Tuesday following practice and appeared willing to speak with reporters, but the team’s communications staff intervened and made it clear the 37-year-old forward wasn’t available to comment.

    “We thought it was a little high,” Leafs center John Tavares said of a ban from the NHL’s Department of Player Safety that rules Reaves out until Dec. 4. “But we’ll stick behind him … we know how effective he’s been.”

    Domi struggling

    Leafs forward Max Domi has just six assists – and is on a career-worst 13-game point drought – despite playing an offensive role.

    The 29-year-old, who was on the ice Tuesday, missed two recent practices for maintenance.

    “He’s fighting through a lot right now … he’s banged up,” coach Craig Berube said. “I’m not overly concerned. We gotta keep working through it.”

    Canucks’ Miller takes indefinite leave

    Vancouver Canucks center J.T. Miller is taking an indefinite leave from the team for personal reasons, the team announced Tuesday.

    General manager Patrik Allvin said the team’s focus is making sure Miller knows “the entire organization is here to support him.”

    Miller, 31, has six goals and 10 assists in 17 games for Vancouver (9-5-3) this season, and is second on the team in points behind captain Quinn Hughes (18 points).

    “Obviously he’s a massive part of our team and a superstar in the league. So any time you miss a guy like that, you’re going to feel it,” Hughes said. “But at the same time, we have a lot of confidence in the guys we have here. Coming into the year we thought we had a contending team, and it’s not just one guy, it’s our whole group.”

    Miller posted a career-high 103 points (37 goals, 66 assists) last season.

    The six-foot-one, 218-pound forward from East Palestine, Ohio, was selected 15th overall by the Rangers in the 2011 draft and has played for New York, Vancouver and the Tampa Bay Lightning over 13 NHL seasons.

    “Obviously, a very big hole to fill. But we wish him well in his personal matter, and we’re here to support him, the whole organization,” teammate Elias Pettersson said.

    Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said he’s proud of his team through the adversity and injuries that seem to be piling up.

    “We’ve dealt with a lot of stuff. Dakota (Joshua’s) cancer, there’s a lot of stuff that’s been thrown at this team,” he said. “But we’ve got a pretty good record, considering a lot of stuff.”

    Michigan-area hockey schedule

    Thursday

    Islanders at Red Wings, 7

    Michigan State at NTDP U18, 7

    Indiana Tech at Michigan women, 8

    Friday

    Iowa at Grand Rapids, 7

    Michigan at Penn State, 7

    Western Michigan at Minnesota Duluth, 8

    Minnesota State at Michigan Tech, 7

    Green Bay at NTDP U17, 7

    Michigan women at Indiana Tech, 7

    Saturday

    Bruins at Red Wings, 7

    Michigan at Penn State, 7:30

    Western Michigan at Minnesota Duluth, 6

    Minnesota State at Michigan Tech, 6

    Green Bay at NTDP U17, 7

    Adrian College at Michigan State Women, 2

    Sunday

    Iowa at Grand Rapids, 4

    Michigan State Women at Adrian College, 4

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