Jaromir Jagr is not even thinking about retiring after having three assists to pull into a tie for second place on the NHL’s career points list as the Florida Panthers beat the Buffalo Sabres 4-3 after a shoot-out on Tuesday night.
Jagr pulled even with Mark Messier at 1,887 points, trailing only Wayne Gretzky (2,857). Jagr received a long ovation from fans after tying Messier and acknowledged the crowd.
“When I retire, I’ll look back at what I did, maybe I’m going to think about it a little more, but right now I just enjoy every moment I get a chance to play in this league and try to do everything I can to stay in this league,” 44-year-old Jagr said. “I love it so much. I know when I said I want to play until 50 everybody was laughing at me, but I’ll work every day to do it.”
Photo: AP
Roberto Luongo stopped 33 shots, including both attempts in the shoot-out, to pull into a tie with Terry Sawchuk for fifth all-time in the NHL with 447 wins.
Nick Bjugstad scored his first goal of the season, while Keith Yandle also scored and Aleksander Barkov had a goal and two assists for the Panthers.
The Panthers blew a 2-0 lead when the Sabres scored three consecutive goals.
“When you’re playing a game and all of a sudden you’re down 3-2, you don’t really think about that kind of stuff,” Jagr said.
The Panthers tied the game with 3 minutes, 51 seconds left in the third. Bjugstad, who missed 19 games with a broken hand, evened the score at 3-3 when he swept in the puck from in front off a pass from Barkov, who got the puck from Jagr.
“We didn’t quit, we battled back, we tied it in the last five minutes and won it in a shoot-out,” Jagr said.
Jagr had his last three-point game on Nov. 19 against Ottawa.
“We’re really lucky,” Panthers interim coach Tom Rowe said. “This doesn’t come around a lot. When you have two guys with Jagr, who is definitely going to be in the Hall of Fame, [Luongo] is going to be in the Hall of Fame, and to be able to watch it front row is a lot of fun.”
Rasmus Ristolainen and Sam Reinhart each had a goal and an assist for the Sabres. Evander Kane also scored and Robin Lehner made 36 saves.
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