Quenneville Gets 1,000th Victory as Ducks Edge Oilers — Nhl Milestone
Joel Quenneville recorded his 1, 000th nhl regular-season win when Cutter Gauthier scored with 1: 14 left to lift the Anaheim Ducks to a 6-5 victory over the Edmonton Oilers at Honda Center on Wednesday, a result that made Quenneville the second coach in league history to reach the mark.
Late goal seals a wild 6-5 finish at Honda Center
Cutter Gauthier’s backdoor finish with 1: 14 remaining broke a 5-5 tie and sent the home crowd roaring as the Ducks held on for the 6-5 win over Edmonton at Honda Center on Wednesday.
Quenneville joins Scotty Bowman in elite company
Quenneville (1, 000-595-153 with 77 ties) joined Scotty Bowman (1, 244-573-10 with 314 ties) as the only NHL coaches to reach 1, 000 regular-season victories, a milestone that came in Quenneville’s first season with Anaheim and his 26th season as a head coach, at age 67. Quenneville said, "I wasn't prioritizing the number. I just wanted to play well tonight and find a way to win, " adding, "That was the motivation, and it turned out to be a very special one as well. "
Key contributors and goalie work
Leo Carlsson returned from a left thigh procedure and finished with a goal and two assists, including the feed that set up Gauthier’s game-winner, after missing the previous 11 games. Chris Kreider had two assists and Lukas Dostal made 22 saves for the Ducks (31-23-3), who improved to 10-2-0 in their past 12 games.
Oilers rally and individual scorers
Matt Savoie had a goal and two assists for Edmonton, while Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Evan Bouchard each recorded a goal and an assist; Connor McDavid and Mattias Ekholm each chipped in two assists as the Oilers fell 6-5 and dropped a season-high four straight to move to 28-23-8. Savoie said, "I thought it was a hard-fought game. Trading chances on both sides, just gave up a little too much and they were able to capitalize. "
Early bursts and comeback sequences
Edmonton struck 13 seconds into the game when Savoie fired a stretch pass to Jack Roslovic, who slipped behind Anaheim defenseman Radko Gudas and scored from the left circle for a 1-0 lead. The Oilers made it 2-0 at 9: 03 when McDavid recovered a loose puck behind the Anaheim net and fed Nugent-Hopkins, who lifted the puck over Dostal. Ian Moore scored at 10: 30 to cut it to 2-1, and Alex Killorn tied the game 2-2 on a short-handed rebound at 3: 01 of the second period as Anaheim erased a pair of two-goal deficits en route to what the team recorded as its NHL-leading eighth multigoal comeback victory and its sixth straight home win.
Netminders and midgame changes
Tristan Jarry made 20 saves for Edmonton before being replaced in the third period by Connor Ingram, who finished with three saves. Dostal’s 22 saves were part of a tightly contested goaltending sequence that helped preserve the Ducks’ late lead in the final minutes at Honda Center.
Reflections on a milestone and Quenneville’s return
Quenneville, who notched his first NHL win in the 1996-1997 season — the same season Bowman hit his 1, 000th — has a career record of 1, 000-595-153 and coached 77 tie games before the NHL eliminated ties with the introduction of the shootout in 2005-06. The Ducks hired him on May 8, 2025, 10 months after he was reinstated by the NHL; he had been out of the league since 2021 when the NHL determined he had an "inadequate response" to allegations of sexual assault during his time with the Chicago Blackhawks. After earlier head-coaching stops with the St. Louis Blues and Colorado Avalanche, Quenneville enjoyed a run with the Blackhawks that included three Stanley Cup championships before a stint with the Florida Panthers ended with his resignation in 2021.
Jacob Trouba said after the game, "Very happy for him, " and Ducks defenseman Radko Gudas, who played under Quenneville in Florida, praised the coach’s understanding of the game and the difficulty of teaching that insight, calling the milestone "one of the most special things that a coach... can do. " Article notes add that Scotty Bowman’s 1, 244 wins stand well ahead of Quenneville, and that Paul Maurice’s 945 wins rank third all-time; commentators suggested it would likely take Quenneville at least five more seasons to reach Bowman’s total.
Detroit Red Wings — unclear in the provided context.
It was the first game for each team following the break for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, and with the Ducks in playoff contention in Quenneville’s first season in Anaheim the team will continue the regular-season schedule now that play has resumed after the Olympic break.
