Nhl: Joel Quenneville becomes second nhl coach with 1,000 wins

Cutter Gauthier scored with 1: 14 left to give the Anaheim Ducks a 6-5 victory over the Edmonton Oilers at Honda Center on Wednesday, handing coach Joel Quenneville his 1, 000th nhl regular-season win. The goal completed a wild game in Anaheim’s first contest since the Olympic break.

Nhl milestone for Quenneville

Quenneville’s career mark now stands at 1, 000-595-153 with 77 ties; he joins Scotty Bowman, who is at 1, 244-573-10 with 314 ties, as the only coaches to reach the milestone. The 67-year-old coach has compiled the 1, 000 wins over 26 seasons and also coached 77 tie games before the shootout was implemented in the 2005-06 season. Quenneville said, "I wasn't prioritizing the number. I just wanted to play well tonight and find a way to win. " He later added, "(Bowman’s) in a different league when I look at his company, " and noted he notched his first win in the 1996-1997 season, the same season Bowman won his 1, 000th.

Late goal decides intense game

Cutter Gauthier’s backdoor finish with 1: 14 remaining gave Anaheim the go-ahead score after Leo Carlsson set up the play. Carlsson finished with a goal and two assists after missing the previous 11 games following a procedure to treat a left thigh injury. Chris Kreider had two assists and Lukas Dostal made 22 saves for the Ducks, who improved to 31-23-3 and are 10-2-0 in their past 12 games.

Scoring sequence and momentum swings

Edmonton struck 13 seconds into the game when Matt Savoie made a stretch pass up the wall to Jack Roslovic, who got behind Ducks defenseman Radko Gudas and scored from the left circle for a 1-0 lead. The Oilers pushed it to 2-0 at 9: 03 when Connor McDavid recovered a loose puck behind the Anaheim net and fed Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who lifted the puck over Dostal’s right shoulder. Ian Moore cut the deficit to 2-1 at 10: 30 of the first after stepping into a puck that banked off the side boards and scoring with a one-timer from the right circle. Alex Killorn tied it 2-2 at 3: 01 of the second by finishing a rebound while on the power play after stopping a short-handed rush in the Anaheim zone.

Oilers push then falter

Matt Savoie finished with a goal and two assists for Edmonton, giving him three points in the game. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Evan Bouchard each had a goal and an assist, while Connor McDavid and Mattias Ekholm provided two assists apiece as the Oilers fell to 28-23-8 and to a season-high four-game losing streak. Tristan Jarry made 20 saves before being replaced in the third period by Connor Ingram, who made three saves. 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. "

Postgame reaction and background

When Quenneville entered the Ducks’ locker room after the win, players gave him an ovation and surprised him by wearing fake versions of his signature mustache. Jacob Trouba said, "Very happy for him. He's come out here, he's been a great coach for us. I think he's been just kind of a breath of fresh air coming in here and we're excited to play for him. He's a good coach. " Radko Gudas, who played under Quenneville in Florida, praised the coach’s perspective: he said the way Quenneville looks at the game and the other team is something you can’t really teach and that it comes with experience; the remainder of Gudas’s comment was unclear in the provided context.

Quenneville is in his first season with Anaheim after being hired on May 8, 2025, a move that came 10 months after he was reinstated by the league. He had been out of the nhl since 2021, when the league determined he had an "inadequate response" to allegations of sexual assault within the Chicago Blackhawks while he was coach. After earlier head coaching stops with the St. Louis Blues and Colorado Avalanche, Quenneville enjoyed a highly successful run with the Blackhawks that included three Stanley Cups before a stint with the Florida Panthers that ended with his resignation in 2021. Quenneville said, "It's something I don't think about. My motivation, my goals were always once you win a Cup one time, you can't wait to do it again. And that's always been the reason why we're doing what we're doing. "

Bowman’s total of 1, 244 wins may be out of reach, and Quenneville remains the active leader; Paul Maurice is next with 945 wins, third all-time. The game at Honda Center was each team’s first following the break for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026. A photograph from the game was credited to Isaiah J. Downing.

Anaheim erased a pair of two-goal deficits for its nhl-leading eighth multigoal comeback victory and posted its sixth straight home win. Coach Quenneville called it, "a tremendous game as far as the unpredictability of the outcome, " adding that "Both teams looked like they were in complete control of the game at some times of that game. "

With Gauthier’s late goal and the sequence of scoring across the two teams, Quenneville reached the 1, 000-win mark in dramatic fashion, joining Bowman as the only coaches in league history to hit that milestone.