Top Five Highest-Scoring NHL Games In the 21st Century: Wild and Canucks Join List

The Minnesota Wild and Vancouver Canucks combined for 17 goals on Monday, which has only happened three other times in the NHL since 2000.

Monday is Family Day in Canada, Presidents' Day in the United States and, apparently, Hat Trick Day in Minnesota.

The Minnesota Wild and Vancouver Canucks combined for three hat tricks in a rollercoaster contest, which saw the Wild come back from a 5-2 deficit to win 10-7 at home. Sheesh.  

This was just the fourth time since 2000 that two teams combined for 17 goals in an NHL game, but it's the third season in a row in which it's happened. The Canucks-Wild scoring bonanza was also just the fifth time a game has had at least 16 goals in the 21st century.

Here's more on each of the five games, starting with Monday's matchup:

Let's return to those hat tricks.

Canucks forward J.T. Miller scored his 25th goal of the season in the first period to give a 2-0 lead before Wild center Joel Eriksson Ek answered late in the frame to make it 2-1. In the second period, Miller scored his second of the game on the power play to make it 4-1 Canucks, and then he completed the hat trick to make it 5-2 with 6:30 to go in the period.

Minnesota once again answered late in the period, but Eriksson Ek scored 29 seconds into the third frame to reduce the deficit to one. Kirill Kaprizov scored just under a minute later to tie it, and Eriksson Ek completed his hat trick 21 seconds afterward to take the lead.

With two hat tricks on the board, Kaprizov added the third with two more goals, including an empty-netter.

The Wild scored seven goals in the third period, setting a franchise record. 

Los Angeles Kings captain Anze Kopitar set the tone for this contest when he scored 16 seconds into the game. But Kraken forwards Matty Beniers and Jared McCann gave Seattle the lead just under eight-and-a-half minutes later.

No team scored more than two goals in a row in this NHL Pacific Division affair. When Viktor Arvidsson tied the game, Wennberg gave the Kraken the lead again. When Gabriel Vilardi tied it again for the Kings, Beniers scored his second of the game for Seattle. The Kraken did score twice to break a 5-5 tie, and then both teams traded goals yet again to make it 8-6 Seattle heading into the third period.

At home, the Kings received contributions from defensemen Sean Durzi and Mikey Anderson to tie the game and force overtime. But the extra frame only needed one shot, as Andre Burakovsky scored on the power play to give the Kraken their sixth straight win.

That was just the fifth 9-8 game in NHL history, and it is the highest-scoring game that needed overtime.

Maple Leafs winger Mitch Marner had a natural hat trick in the second period of this game between two Original Six NHL teams. That extended Toronto's lead to 6-1 over the Red Wings midway through the game. Sam Gagner and Auston Matthews traded goals to make it 7-2 Leafs heading into the third period.

The game looked all but over, but it turned out to be the opposite. Filip Hronek scored 35 seconds into the final frame, and Carter Rowney scored just over two minutes in. Just like that, it was 7-4 for the Leafs. Joe Veleno's wrist shot made it 7-5, and Michael Rasmussen tipped in the Red Wings' fourth unanswered goal to shrink the deficit to one.

Lucas Raymond answered a Leafs goal to make it 8-7 Toronto with under 10 minutes in the game, but that's the closest Detroit got. The Maple Leafs scored two unanswered goals, with Marner getting his fourth of the game. 

It was the first 17-goal game in more than 10 years.

The Winnipeg Jets were just nine games into their return to the NHL following their relocation from Atlanta when they ended up in this scoring battle in Philadelphia.

Scott Hartnell got the Flyers on the board first, but the Jets took flight afterward. Randy Jones, Jim Slater, Kyle Wellwood, Tanner Glass and Nik Antropov each scored to give the Jets a commanding 5-1 lead in the second period. Claude Giroux and Evander Kane added tallies to make it 6-2 Winnipeg.

It was Philadelphia's time to fly. Daniel Briere, Max Talbot, Briere again, Matt Read and James van Riemsdyk gave the Flyers five straight lamp-lighters to take a 7-6 lead. Their lead lasted 28 seconds. Three goals later, the Jets held on to win 9-8. The final shot tally was 48-25 in favor of the Flyers.

Of all the games on this list, the only time this game was close was in the first three minutes.

Senators forward Shawn McEachern scored 79 seconds into the game, and Marian Hossa added another two in the following six minutes to give Ottawa a 3-0 lead over the Capitals. When Sergei Gonchar responded for the Caps, Ottawa scored another two thanks to captain Daniel Alfredsson and Radek Bonk.

Gonchar responded again in the second period but so did Alfredsson to make it 6-2 for the Senators. The Capitals' Chris Simon cut the deficit to three, but Ottawa struck again with goals from MacEachern, Todd White and Alfredsson, who completed the hat trick.

Each team traded tallies twice to bring the final score to 11-5 for Ottawa. The game also had four fights, including two for Simon and a Gordie Howe hat trick for Chris Neil. Ottawa's coach for that game is its current interim coach, Jacques Martin.