Gameday 31 (Mon, 18 Feb) - Results

Ottawa v New Jersey 2-1 - The Senators spotted the New Jersey Devils a one-goal lead in the opening 1:19 of the game, before Daniel Alfredsson tied it the third and Jakob Silfverberg sealed it with the only goal in a shootout to give Ottawa a 2-1 victory before 17,625 at Prudential Center. Senators goalie Ben Bishop, who was making his third start of the season, was particularly impressive. After allowing a goal by Stephen Gionta on New Jersey's second shot of the game, the 26-year-old backup to Craig Anderson turned aside 29 straight to give his team their third victory in seven matches. MacLean, who is without the services of defenseman Erik Karlsson (left Achilles), and forwards Jason Spezza (back surgery) and Milan Michalek (knee), was proud of the effort. At the other end, Devils goalie Martin Brodeur was equally splendid behind 29 saves. Bishop forced Ilya Kovalchuk wide and stopped Patrik Elias before Silfverberg snapped a shot past Brodeur in the second round. The 6-foot-7, 214-pound keeper then forced ex-Senator Bobby Butler wide of the net to end the game. Brodeur slammed his stick on the ice in frustration following Silfverberg's goal. The Devils opened the overtime period a man short for 1:48 with Elias in the box for goalie interference. The scrum that ensued following the Elias penalty including unsportsmanlike conduct minors to New Jersey's David Clarkson and Ottawa's Chris Neil. Clarkson was also assessed a 10-minute misconduct, meaning he would be out the remainder of the OT. The Senators pulled into a 1-1 tie 8:12 into the third when Alfredsson converted a backhand attempt over Brodeur. The goal marked Ottawa's first since Karlsson suffered his Achilles injury with 23 seconds remaining in the second period of an eventual 4-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Feb. 13, spanning six-plus periods. Kyle Turris made the play possible when he maintained possession of the puck just inside the Devils blue line at the right point before feeding Silfverberg in the right corner. Silfverberg spotted Alfredsson in front, and the veteran wing waited patiently before lofting a shot over Brodeur, his fourth of the season and the 420th of his career. The Silfverberg-Turris-Alfredsson line, together for the first time this season, was extremely active and effective throughout the game. New Jersey lost third-line forward Ryan Carter to a head injury with 4:32 left in the second after he was sandwiched along the left-wing half boards in the Senators end by Dave Dziurzynski and Neil. Carter said he felt OK after the game. DeBoer juggled his line combinations following the injury to get his offense untracked. In two straight losses, the Devils have scored just two goals. Bishop's best save of the game came 8:09 into the second when he denied Elias off a one-timer in the slot following a feed from Butler to keep his team within one. The Senators then barely missed squaring the contest at 9:57 when Silfverberg's shot from the left circle rang off the short side post behind Brodeur. The Devils opened a 1-0 lead just 1:19 into the first when Gionta scored his first goal in 13 games. Steve Bernier battled for a loose puck along the left wing boards before releasing a long wrist shot that Bishop stopped but couldn't control. Gionta, cruising through the slot, picked up the puck and buried his second of the season.

Philadelphia v NY Islanders 7-0 - Philadelphia Flyers captain Claude Giroux sent a message with his words late Saturday night. He followed through with his play Monday afternoon. Less than 48 hours after criticizing his team's compete level in a lopsided loss in Montreal, Giroux played his best game of the season in the Flyers' most lopsided victory. Giroux scored twice, including the opening goal 26 seconds into the game, and added an assist for his first three-point game of the season in a 7-0 victory over the New York Islanders at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Giroux's line accounted for 10 points with Jakub Voracek accounting for four assists and Matt Read a goal and two assists as the Flyers snapped a two-game losing streak. Ilya Bryzgalov made 19 saves for his first shutout of the season while Danny Briere also had two goals and an assist. Eleven of the Flyers 18 skaters recorded at least one point and their penalty killers held what was a red-hot Islanders' power play to only one shot on goal in five failed attempts, including a full two-minute 5-on-3 in the first period. Giroux responded Monday on the first shift of the game by planting John Tavares into the wall 22 seconds into the game and scoring only his fourth goal of the season just four seconds later. He then had the primary assist on Read's goal 15 seconds into the second period and added a goal with 5:15 left before the second intermission. Not only did the Islanders have no answer for Giroux and his linemates, they couldn't solve Philadelphia's aggressive forecheck. Tavares' line was on the ice for three of the Flyers' five even-strength goals. Islanders coach Jack Capuano broke up that top line for a while, sending Brad Boyes down the lineup and moving Michael Grabner up to play right wing with Tavares and Matt Moulson. Nothing worked. The end result was the worst shutout defeat on home ice in franchise history. So did the Islanders' power play, which was 7-for-12 in the three prior games. It was way off kilter on Monday due in large part to the play of the Flyers, who blocked eight shots on the penalty kill and forced turnovers by getting sticks into the passing lanes. Philadelphia is 38-for-40 on the PK over the past 10 games, including 21-for-21 over the past six. The Islanders head out for a three-game road trip that begins Tuesday in Ottawa and continues Thursday in Montreal. It ends Saturday in Buffalo. The Flyers used an early goal by Giroux and a strong penalty kill to get through the first period with a 1-0 lead. They opened a 4-0 lead after the second period because instead of trying to sit on the lead, they went right after the Islanders and got goals from Read, Schenn and Giroux. It was more of the same in the third period as Harry Zolnierczyk used his speed to set up Zac Rinaldo for his first goal of the season at 3:31. Briere finished off the scoring with a pair in the final 10 minutes. Briere has three goals in the past two games after scoring only two goals in his first 11. The Flyers will try to bottle it up and take it to Pittsburgh for a game Wednesday. It's the final game of a season-long six-game road trip.

Nashville v Colorado 5-6 - It was Presidents' Day Monday in the United States, so defense and goaltending also took a holiday at the Pepsi Center. The Colorado Avalanche and Nashville Predators, two of the lowest-scoring teams in the National Hockey League, put on a rare offensive display with the Avalanche eventually prevailing 6-5. Matt Duchene and Aaron Palushaj collected a goal and two assists each for the Avalanche, who began the day averaging 2.3 goals per game. Five players each had a goal and an assist for the Predators, who were averaging 1.9 goals per game. The teams combined for seven goals on 27 shots in the second period when the Avalanche chased Predators starting goalie Chris Mason with three goals in a 2:30 span and built a 6-4 lead. The Avalanche did need some timely saves from goalie Semyon Varlamov in the third period when the Predators enjoyed a 17-5 advantage in shots. Patric Hornqvist had eight of them and 12 shots overall, but the only goal came when Shea Weber scored from the right circle with 1:18 to play. The second-period scoring spree started when Duchene, who was clearly offside when he accepted a long pass from PA Parenteau, moved in on Mason and flipped the puck by his glove at 3:18 for a 3-1 Avalanche lead, prompting plenty of Predators protests. After Nashville's Mike Fisher and Colin Wilson sandwiched goals around one by Colorado's Chuck Kobasew, Paul Stastny and Jamie McGinn scored 13 seconds apart to pad the Avalanche lead to 6-3. Stastny swept a rebound behind Mason at 13:33 after a poor Predators' line change and McGinn scored from just inside the left hash marks at 13:46 off a pass from Duchene, who stole the puck from Weber behind the Nashville net. The quick goals by Stastny and McGinn prompted Trotz to replace Mason (six goals, 18 shots) with Pekka Rinne, who stopped all 10 shots he faced. The Predators closed to 6-4 with 49.6 seconds left in the second period when Jonathon Blum put a shot behind Varlamov from just inside the blue line. But Varlamov, who faced 55 shots Saturday in Edmonton when the Avalanche turned a 4-1 lead into a 6-4 loss, held on in the third. The Avalanche skated to a quick 2-0 lead on goals by Palushaj and Tyson Barrie, whose first career NHL goal also was the first goal scored by a Colorado defenseman this season. Palushaj was credited with a goal at 3:43 of the opening period after his shot off the end boards bounced into the crease behind Mason, who inadvertently kicked the puck into the net with his right skate. Barrie, playing in his 17th NHL game, beat Mason with a shot from the left point on a power play at 9:30 before the Predators answered with a power-play goal by Sergei Kostitsyn at 17:20. Predators center Paul Gaustad suffered an upper-body injury in the first period and didn't return.

Carolina v Montreal 0-3 - The Montreal Canadiens are consistently winning games they made a habit of losing a year ago. Monday night was yet another example. Brandon Prust broke a scoreless tie in the third period and Peter Budaj did the rest, making 19 saves for his 10th career shutout to give the Montreal Canadiens their fourth straight victory, a 3-0 win against the injury-depleted Carolina Hurricanes. Tomas Plekanec and Max Pacioretty added goals 18 seconds apart in the third to ice the victory for the Canadiens (10-4-1), who jumped one point ahead of the Boston Bruins into first place in the Northeast Division. The Canadiens finished 28th in the NHL and last in the Eastern Conference last season, consistently losing third-period leads and dropping tight games like the one they played Monday night. A big difference under Therrien has been the Canadiens’ refusal to sit back and protect leads late, continuing to play aggressive hockey in an attempt to get the next goal. Cam Ward made 23 saves for the Hurricanes (8-5-1), who saw their own three-game winning streak come to an end. The Hurricanes had a depleted lineup that was missing forwards Jeff Skinner and Tim Brent and defensemen Joni Pitkanen and Tim Gleason. They had to call up Riley Nash from the Charlotte Checkers of the American Hockey League on Monday morning, and then later called up Jeremy Welsh from the Checkers after it was determined at the morning skate that Brent couldn’t play. Welsh arrived at Bell Centre at 6 p.m., and was on the ice for warmups an hour later. The Canadiens were missing rookie forward Brendan Gallagher, out with a concussion, while goaltender Carey Price served as the backup as he still hasn’t recovered from a stomach flu that sent him to the hospital to be administered intravenous fluids on Sunday. Price, however, arguably had the game’s greatest highlight just before the four minute mark of the second period when a puck was shot out of the Hurricanes end towards the Canadiens bench. As the puck was heading straight for RDS color commentator Marc Denis between the benches, Price’s instincts kicked in as he reached up and gloved it. In Price’s absence, Budaj has won two games while stopping 37 of 38 shots and earning his first shutout since Nov. 6, 2010. The Canadiens allowed 19 shots in both games, the only two times this season they have limited their opponents to fewer than 20 shots. With the game scoreless early in the third period, Canadiens rookie Alex Galchenyuk made a play that showed why he was the No 3 pick at the 2012 NHL Draft. Galchenyuk came into the Hurricanes’ zone with speed before pulling an inside-out move on Carolina defenseman Bobby Sanguinetti that got him deep into the slot area. Galchenyuk then flicked the puck to his right while he was getting checked and it bounced directly to Prust trailing the play, and he scored his second of the season at 2:06. Plekanec gave the Canadiens some breathing room at 12:03 when his slap shot from the left faceoff circle went off Ward’s mask, then his shoulder and slowly trickled into the net for his team-best eighth of the season. Plekanec has now earned a point in 11 of the Canadiens’ 15 games this season. Pacioretty scored his first of the season at 12:21 on one Ward will not want to see again, an innocent dump in from center ice that bounced in front of Ward and past him to make it 3-0 Canadiens. The two teams entered the third period in a scoreless tie thanks to some tremendous play by Ward and Budaj. Ward stopped two excellent second period chances with a blocker save on David Desharnais from in tight in the first minute, and a post-to-post pad stop on Plekanec just past the midway point of the period. Budaj didn’t see much action until the Hurricanes had a flurry of chances towards the end of the second, and he stood tall on a pair of goal mouth scrambles in the final two minutes to keep the game scoreless. A largely uneventful first period was highlighted by a pair of big body checks by Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban on Alexander Semin and Patrick Dwyer as they crossed the blue line into the Montreal zone.

Toronto v Florida 3-0 - Ben Scrivens and the Toronto Maple Leafs are on a roll right now, but they're not ready to get carried away just yet. Scrivens stopped 37 shots for his second consecutive shutout and Nazem Kadri and Clarke MacArthur each had a goal and an assist as the Maple Leafs won for the sixth time in seven games, beating the Panthers 3-0 at the BB&T Center Monday night. Scrivens, coming up big with starter James Reimer on injured reserve with a knee injury, recorded his first career shutout Saturday night in a 3-0 victory against the Ottawa Senators. He hasn't allowed a goal in 142:21; the last player to beat him was Jordan Staal, who scored in the second period of Thursday's 3-1 Carolina Hurricanes victory. He did his best work Monday in the first period when Florida outshot the Maple Leafs 14-12 and in the first 5:39 of the second when the Panthers put nine shots on net. Phil Kessel also scored for the Maple Leafs, who improved to 7-2-0 on the road, their best nine-game start away from home since 1940-41. The victory also snapped Toronto's five-game losing streak in the series dating back to the 2010-11 season. The Panthers swept the Maple Leafs last season, outscoring them 20-9 in the process. Toronto had last beaten Florida Feb. 1 2011, 4-3 in a shootout at Air Canada Centre. Jose Theodore made 30 saves for the Panthers, who lost their fifth in a row and were shut out for the third time in five games. Florida did manage to avoid becoming the first team in NHL history to lose in overtime four consecutive games. The losing streak matches the longest the Panthers endured last season when they captured the first division title in franchise history. Kadri scored on the power play at 12:13 of the second period to give Toronto a 2-0 lead. After a battle behind the Florida net, Dion Phaneuf flipped a backhand pass to the front. Kadri one-timed the pass past the glove of Theodore. The goal came on Toronto's fifth shot on the power play. Less than two minutes later, Kadri's backhand pass left MacArthur all alone on Theodore and his wrist shot from the slot bounced in off the right post. The two goals were part of a dominating second half of the period for the Maple Leafs, who outshot Florida 12-0 in the final 9:55. While Toronto's power play produced Monday, Florida continued to struggle with the man advantage. The Panthers went 0-for-3 against the Maple Leafs, making them 0-for-15 during their losing streak. Panthers coach Kevin Dineen was particularly frustrated with a second-period power play that preceded Kadri's goal when his team failed to so much as get a shot on goal. Kessel opened the scoring at 17:04 of the first period off a miscue by Florida defenseman Mike Weaver. The Panthers were controlling the puck in the Toronto zone when Weaver took a pass at the point but lost control of the puck. James van Riemsdyk grabbed the loose puck and flipped a saucer pass to Kessel to send him on a partial breakaway. Kessel beat Theodore with a blistering wrist shot from the left circle. That was all Scrivens, who once had three consecutive shutouts while at Cornell University, would need. It's been pretty heady stuff for a goalie who had appeared in only four games before coming in for an injured Reimer only one week earlier against the Philadelphia Flyers, especially when he was pulled in one of those games after giving up five goals on 25 shots.

Calgary v Phoenix 0-4 - After losing four of their first five games to open the season and groping for any sign of consistency, the Phoenix Coyotes have found their patented comfort zone. And the points are starting to pile up. Keith Yandle and Mikkel Boedker scored first-minute goals in the first and third period and Mike Smith made them stand up with 30 saves and his third shutout in his last eight starts as the Coyotes' system play smothered the Calgary Flames 4-0 on Monday at Jobing.com Arena. The Coyotes have now won four of the last five and six of the last eight overall while continuing their dominance of the Flames. Phoenix has won nine of the last 12 meetings with Calgary and did it with a tried and true formula, get that first goal and turn down the screws. Antoine Vermette followed Boedker's goal with his fourth, and first in 10 games, midway through the third before Raffi Torres added his second to cap the win for Phoenix. Vermette, Torres, ex-Flame David Moss and Oliver Ekman-Larsson each had two-point nights against young Calgary goalie Danny Taylor, making his first National Hockey League start and first appearance in the League nearly five years. Phoenix is now 5-1 when scoring first this season and an incredible 105-13-5 since coach Dave Tippett arrived for the 2009-10 season. The Coyotes needed the win – they sit idle for the next four days while the rest of the West battles for 33 possible points in 11 games before they face the Oilers in Edmonton on Saturday. The Flames rallied from 3-1 down in Dallas to win 4-3 on Sunday, but they ran out of gas in the final 20 minutes this time in the back-to-back situation. An overflow crowd of 17,208 in the desert included plenty of red-clad Alberta fans, but Smith kept them quiet all night and moved into a tie with Nashville's Pekka Renne for the NHL shutout lead with three. Four of Phoenix's eight wins this year have come via the shutout, with Chad Johnson notching one for the Coyotes as well. Taylor, whose previous NHL experience was limited to a 20-minute relief stint for the Los Angeles Kings in March of 2008, got off to an inauspicious start. Phoenix's starting line of Torres, Moss and Boyd Gordon pinned the puck in the Calgary zone and Taylor left a rebound of a Moss shot waiting for Yandle to charge up the slot and bury just 41 seconds into play. After collecting only six points in the first 14 games, Yandle now has a goal and three assists in the last two. Taylor settled down from there for the next 40 minutes and gave his team a chance, finishing with 33 saves. Ex-Coyote Lee Stempniak had a strong game for Calgary, hitting the post in the first period and testing Smith three times in the second. But Smith made stick, pad and glove saves to keep the Flames off the board. The Coyotes doubled their lead with another quick goal to open the third. Ekman-Larsson's shot from the point missed the net, but it popped off the end boards right to Boedker even with the goal line. Boedker shoveled a shot to the net and banked it off the inside of Taylor's leg for his third goal at the 30-second mark.

Columbus v Anaheim 2-3 - If this was a trap game for the Anaheim Ducks, they got out of it just before the spring snapped. One of the hottest teams in the National Hockey League ended a crammed stretch of seven games in 13 days against the Columbus Blue Jackets, with a rare five-day break staring it in the face. Yet, the Ducks scratched out a 3-2 win Monday to sail into the break sitting pretty. Corey Perry's nifty backhand off goalie Sergei Bobrovsky at 8:44 held up as the game winner for Anaheim, winners of five straight and nine of 10. Jonas Hiller won in his first game back from a lower-body injury and helped Anaheim further its best start (12-2-1) in franchise history, outside of a 12-0-4 run by the 2006-07 Stanley Cup champion team. Columbus pulled to 3-2 on Derick Brassard's goal with 7:54 left and got a 6-on-4 extra attacker advantage with 34 seconds remaining that ended with Saku Koivu blocking a point shot, another difference these more-defensive minded Ducks. Hiller had become an afterthought because of the 8-0-0 start by Viktor Fasth, but coach Bruce Boudreau gave him the start and Hiller pulled a save with his back turned on Brassard in the first period. Former Hart Trophy-winner Perry has two goals in three games after he endured an 11-game goal-less streak at the start of the season, his longest since a 12-game drought in 2006-07. He said the lockout affected his timing, but it's changing. Anaheim woke up from a somnambulant start with a pair of goals in a 21-second span. Bobby Ryan made a stretch pass to Peter Holland coming out of the penalty box and Holland wristed it right blocker side by Bobrovsky. Ben Lovejoy started the play with a great strip of Derek Dorsett in the Ducks' zone. Anaheim continued to hem in Columbus. Captain Ryan Getzlaf helped get the puck out of the corner and used his long reach to put in a rebound from the right side of the goal. Bobrovsky kept Columbus in the game with two clutch saves, a spread-eagle glove denial on Kyle Palmieri at the doorstop and a sliding pad stop on Daniel Winnik. At the other end, Brassard was cruelly thwarted twice, on Hiller's back save, and when Francois Beauchemin made a leg save in the crease. The Ducks outshot the Blue Jackets, 14-3, over the final half of the opening period after Columbus jumped all over them with a 9-0 shot advantage in the first eight minutes. Vinny Prospal converted on a fluky bounce off Beauchemin and Prospal's chest before he poked it in 3:30 into the game. The pesky Blue Jackets' season slipped further. They are 0-3 on a six-game road trip and winless in six of its past seven (1-5-1). Artem Anisimov came out for warmups, but sat out a second straight game with a bruised foot. Sean Collins made his NHL debut and played on a line with Brassard and Umberger.