Gameday 47 (Wed, 06 Mar) - Results

Ottawa v Toronto 4-5 - The Toronto Maple Leafs survived a wild third period to defeat the Ottawa Senators 5-4 Wednesday at Air Canada Centre. The teams combined for five goals in the third, with Toronto holding on to a 5-2 lead to win its third in a row and 11th in 15 games. Nazem Kadri's fifth goal in his past three games stood up as the eventual game-winner. He pounced on a loose puck at 10:18 and unloaded a slap shot from the high slot for his 10th goal of the season. Phil Kessel had a goal and two assists for the Maple Leafs. It is the second time this season he has tallied three points in a game. He scored his sixth goal of the season with the man-advantage early in the third to give the Maple Leafs a 4-2 lead. At the time, it looked as though Toronto had staved off a Senators' rally which started when Zack Smith deposited a Chris Phillips' rebound behind James Reimer for his first goal of the season. Smith's marker at 1:40 pulled the Senators to within one, at 3-2. As Ottawa gained momentum and started buzzing around the Maple Leafs' zone, Mika Zibanejad received a slashing penalty that led to Kessel's power-play goal at 3:42. His low wrist shot from the left circle went under Sens goalie Ben Bishop, who was unable to see the puck as James van Reimsdyk was blocking his view. However, the Senators refused to buckle and once again demonstrated the resiliency they have shown all season. Colin Greening and Daniel Alfredsson scored goals 5:55 apart in the final 10 minutes of the third period, but Ottawa could not tally the equalizer despite pouring on the pressure in the final minutes. Reimer held the fort when it counted, stopping 15 of 18 shots in the third period while his team only countered with four shots of its own. Reimer finished with 39 saves. Toronto was up 3-1 heading to the third period after the teams traded goals in the second. The home side went up 3-0 at 1:20, when van Riemsdyk scored his team-leading 12th goal of the season. Tyler Bozak stripped Senators defenseman Marc Methot behind Bishop before getting the puck to Kessel at the side of the net. Bishop was able to kick out Kessel's shot, but the rebound came to van Riemsdyk, who was alone in front. The three-goal cushion was short-lived, as Zibanejad buried a rebound from Sergei Gonchar's point shot at 2:48. Toronto defenseman Carl Gunnarsson tried desperately to fire the puck out of the crease, but he had to contend with Zibanejad and Erik Condra in the blue paint. It was Zibanejad's fifth goal of the season. Bishop looked much stronger than he did in the first period, settling down to stop 13 of the 14 shots he faced. He ended up with 23 saves. The Maple Leafs held a 2-0 lead after one period on the strength of two goals in a 56-second span. Tyler Bozak opened the scoring at 6:24, whacking in Kessel's centering pass as he was skating up the middle toward Bishop. Things did not get any easier for the injury-depleted Senators when Jay McClement scored his second goal in as many games at 7:20. McClement now has four points in his past five games. Nikolai Kulemin initially looked to take a shot near the edge of Bishop's crease but had his stick lifted by Kyle Turris. The puck traveled straight to McClement, who found the back of the net as he cruised through the slot. The teams didn't waste any time getting reacquainted in their third meeting of the season. At 26 seconds after the opening faceoff, Toronto's Frazer McLaren knocked out Dave Dziurzynski when the two fought in the Maple Leafs' zone. Dziurzynski, a rookie forward playing in his 10th NHL game, had to be helped off the ice and was diagnosed with a concussion. The Senators gave no further update on his status after the game. Dziurzynski made his NHL debut Feb. 16, the prior time the Senators played at the Air Canada Centre. Milan Michalek had an assist in 18:22 of ice time in his return to the Senators. He had not played since injuring his knee prior to a game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Feb. 13. Senators forward Mark Stone made his regular-season debut after playing one game in the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs. He finished with a minus-1 rating in 15:14 of ice time.

Colorado v Chicago 2-3 - Just when it seems like the Chicago Blackhawks have run out of ways to keep this historic point streak alive, they come up with something new and equally amazing. This time the hero was gritty forward Daniel Carcillo, who has battled back from two knee injuries (one major and one minor) in a little more than a year's time to join the Blackhawks' incredible start to the season and make his first goal of it quite memorable. Carcillo backhanded the game-winning goal home with the game tied and just 49.3 seconds left in regulation Wednesday night to beat the Colorado Avalanche 3-2 at United Center, extending their run of games with at least a point to 24 straight starting this season and 30 dating back to last year. The Blackhawks, who improved to a jaw-dropping 21-0-3 at the season's midway point, had a spate of injuries leave them with just nine healthy forwards available to take shifts in the last half of the third period. It started with star Marian Hossa being unable to play because of an upper-body injury after taking warm-ups and proceeded with the loss of third-line center Andrew Shaw at 14:03 of the second. Patrick Sharp also left the ice holding his left shoulder at 7:49 of the third after a crushing hit by Ryan O'Byrne into the boards, which really taxed the Blackhawks' forward groups. Making matters even more difficult was Michael Frolik sitting out a second straight game with an illness and Brandon Bollig being returned to Rockford of the American Hockey League earlier in the day to make roster space for defenseman Steve Montador's return from a lengthy injury. The fact they found a way to win, yet again, just made the Blackhawks' captain shake his head afterward. He didn't, however, attribute any part of the most recent comeback win to luck. Shaw scored Chicago's first goal at 9:51 of the opening period to give the Blackhawks an early 1-0 lead, while goalie Ray Emery won his 10th straight start to improve his record to 10-0-0. Semyon Varlomov (29 saves) took the loss, while John Mitchell and Matt Duchene scored for Colorado (8-10-4), which dropped its third straight game. Chicago started the scoring when Shaw tipped a point blast by defenseman Brent Seabrook past Varlamov. It was also Seabrook's big hit about a minute earlier that led to the man-advantage. After driving Patrick Bordeleau into the Avs bench with a hard check, Cody McLeod picked up a roughing minor for crosschecking Seabrook to the ice from behind, which caused a post-whistle scrum in front of the Colorado bench. Chicago just couldn't transfer the momentum from Shaw's tally into another goal before Mitchell's seventh marker of the season tied it 1-1 with 1:40 left in the first. After barely avoiding an offside call entering the zone, Mitchell took a short pass from Chuck Kobasew in the slot and beat Blackhawks defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson to the net. He then pulled off a smooth forehand-backhand deke to lift the puck over the sprawled Emery's left pad into the net for his seventh goal of the season. The Blackhawks pushed for the go-ahead goal starting the second, but Varlamov was up to the task and got a stroke of luck when Brandon Saad fired a shot over the net with the Avs goalie out of position. Duchene then put Colorado up 2-1 with 6:43 left in the second by taking a pass from PA Parenteau and flipping a shot from close range off Emery's thigh into the net. That's the way it stayed to start the third, until Toews soon tied it 2-2 with his shorthanded goal, a thing of beauty in which he beat a defender to the outside and broke hard toward the net with the puck on his stick. Toews tucked it past the outstretched leg of Varlamov and the Blackhawks were all riled up. Ray Emery made several outstanding saves to keep it tied, which led to Carcillo's marker, which he scored with a backhanded whack through traffic.

San Jose v Calgary 1-4 - The Calgary Flames had to wait a month for franchise goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff to return from a sprained MCL. He stopped 32 shots in his first game back and Blake Comeau and Jarome Iginla scored 1:39 apart to break open a tie game as the Flames (9-8-1) downed the San Jose Sharks 4-1 at Scotiabank Saddledome on Wednesday. Kiprusoff missed 13 games after suffering a Grade 2 sprain of his medial collateral ligament on Feb. 5 against the Detroit Red Wings. Failing on five separate occasions to climb over the .500 mark this season, Kiprusoff helped the Flames finally accomplish the feat at the expense of the Sharks, playing their second game in 24 hours after beating the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 in a shootout on Tuesday. Streaking in down the wing, Comeau beat Sharks goalie Thomas Greiss with a snap shot blocker side for his first goal of the season just 2:57 into the period to give Calgary a 2-1 lead. Iginla extended that lead to two at 4:36 off a San Jose turnover in its own end. Jiri Hudler picked the puck off the side-boards and found the Flames' captain in the high slot, who pumped another shot past the blocker of Greiss to give Calgary a 3-1 lead. The goal was Iginla's sixth in five games after starting the season with just one in his first 16. The two goals sandwiched a glorious opportunity from Hudler on a 2-on-1 set up by Iginla 30 seconds earlier. With a two-goal cushion, Kiprusoff made 17 third-period saves to slam the door on the Sharks. With Lee Stempniak in the penalty box for hooking, Kiprusoff swatted away a Joe Pavelski shot from the point with nine minutes remaining and made a pair of saves off Logan Couture with five minutes left. The Sharks pulled Greiss pulled in favor of an extra attacker while on the power play late, but Curtis Glencross added another into an empty net to seal the win. The Flames got on the board before the Sharks had an opportunity to test Kiprusoff. Iginla found Jay Bouwmeester jumping in on the rush, but Greiss stopped the defenseman's shot. Jumping on the rebound, Roman Cervenka buried the puck into the partially-open net to give Calgary a 1-0 lead at 4:27. The Sharks recorded their first shot on goal just over a minute later, one of six consecutive shots launched Kiprusoff's way. The most dangerous, a deflection of Brad Stuart's wrister from the point by James Sheppard, was equaled by the Flames' goaltender. Trading shots for the rest of the period, neither team was able to generate a significant scoring chance to close out the period despite three power plays. A turnover off the stick of Mark Giordano allowed the Sharks to tie the game in the second period. Stripping the puck off Giordano along the boards, Pavelski walked out of the corner and fed a pass across the top of the crease that Joe Thornton tapped across the goal line at 13:53 to make it 1-1. Less than a minute later, a turnover by Dennis Wideman gave the Sharks a glorious opportunity to jump ahead. Couture picked off Wideman's clearing attempt and fed Ryane Clowe in the slot, but Kiprusoff denied the winger on the doorstep.

Phoenix v Anaheim 0-2 - No blown leads tripped up the Anaheim Ducks this time. They finally completed this trilogy on a high note. Anaheim tightened up its neutral zone play and gave the Phoenix Coyotes little to work with in a heavy contrast to the wildly played previous two meetings. Basic, responsible defense backstopped by Jonas Hiller and the reuniting of the top line produced a 2-0 victory Wednesday night. Corey Perry scored in the first period and Hiller stopped 18 shots for his 16th career shutout as the Ducks won their ninth in a row at home, two shy of the club record. Anaheim's 16-3-3 mark is the franchise's best ever through 22 games. It was the third consecutive Ducks-Coyotes game in five days, a first in Ducks history. Both previous meetings in Glendale, Ariz., were 5-4 shootout wins by Phoenix in which the goals were scored in the exact same sequence, as the Ducks blew leads of 1-0, 3-2 and 4-3 in each game. Both teams cited the need to limit turnovers and control the transition areas, and the Ducks did their homework a little better. Phoenix went the first 9:34 of the game without a shot on goal and was outshot 21-12 through 48 minutes, even though it had three of the game's four power plays. The Coyotes failed to register a shot on any of the advantages, including a third-period interference call on Sheldon Souray. Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau reunited the big line of Perry, Getzlaf and Bobby Ryan, and it paid dividends right away with Perry's seventh goal at 7:10. Getzlaf grabbed a pass by Derek Morris in the neutral zone and got it to Ryan. Perry took Ryan's pass while he moved left-to-right across the slot and slid the puck in as he fell down. The Ducks took that 1-0 lead into the third period, but it could easily have been 4-0 if not for Jason LaBarbera and a little luck that prevented a Perry hat trick. LaBarbera closed his pads just in time to deny Andrew Cogliano on a penalty shot after Cogliano was pulled down by Oliver Ekman-Larsson on a breakaway. Minutes later Perry had LaBarbera beat on an outstretched move across the crease but his shot rang off the crossbar. Perry was denied again on a 2-on-1 with Ryan in the waning seconds of the period as LaBarbera got his right leg down. It wasn't the ideal scenario for LaBarbera to be thrown into in his first start since Jan. 26, but he stopped 23 of 24 shots. Radim Vrbata was scratched for the eighth straight game with a lower-body injury. Despite its winning ways, Anaheim is still 10 points back of the Chicago Blackhawks in the Western Conference. The Ducks host Chicago on March 20.