Gameday 54 (Wed, 13 Mar) - Results

Ottawa v Montreal 3-4 - The Montreal Canadiens have established a rotation of forwards who will lead their team to victory, and Wednesday night it was Lars Eller's turn up at the plate. Eller scored the opening goal in regulation and the winner in the shootout as the Montreal Canadiens extended their winning streak to four games with a 4-3 victory against the Ottawa Senators at Bell Centre on Wednesday. The previous couple of games it was the line centered by Tomas Plekanec that led the Canadiens' attack, and on other nights it's been the line of David Desharnais that has caused the opposition the most problems. But on this night, it was Eller and his rookie linemates Alex Galchenyuk and Gabriel Dumont that gave the Senators fits, combining to register 12 of the Canadiens' 45 shots on goal, with seven coming from Eller alone. Eller's goal gave him 15 points in 25 games played, more than halfway toward his total of 28 points in 79 games last season. The key piece acquired in the trade that sent goaltender Jaroslav Halak to the St. Louis Blues in the summer of 2010, Eller has shown a level of consistency that was absent in his first two seasons in Montreal. Therrien benched Eller for two games after the opening game of the season because of a lack of intensity, but that has clearly not been a problem over the past month or so. P.K. Subban had a goal and an assist and Brendan Gallagher also scored for the Canadiens (18-5-4), who took back sole possession of first place in the Eastern Conference by moving two points ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins with the win. Mika Zibanejad, Daniel Alfredsson and Patrick Wiercoch scored in regulation for the Senators (13-8-6), who have just one win in seven games but have still picked up six points over that span by losing three times in the shootout and once in overtime, allowing them to remain in the thick of the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference. It was the seventh time in their last 12 games the Senators were tied at the end of regulation, and it was the 10th straight time they were involved in a one-goal game. Continuing that trend by erasing a two-goal deficit in a hostile building against the top team in the East took a lot of the sting out of losing the shootout for the Senators. After Alex Galchenyuk scored on Montreal's first attempt in the shootout, fellow rookie Jakob Silfverberg tied it as Ottawa's second shooter. Eller was the Canadiens' third and final shooter, and he beat Robin Lehner upstairs when the Senators' goalie attempted a poke check and missed. Kyle Turris was Ottawa's final shooter, and his attempt was stopped by Carey Price to seal the win for the Canadiens. One game after Kaspars Daugavins became the talk of the NHL for his creative shootout attempt against Boston on Monday, coach Paul MacLean was asked why he didn't go back to that well once again. Subban's goal and assist came on Montreal's two power-play goals scored in the game, meaning he has had a hand in each of the last nine goals the Canadiens have scored with the man advantage. His second period goal was also Subban's seventh of the season, giving him the NHL lead in goals by a defenseman. The goals by Zibanejad and Alfredsson were their sixth of the season, allowing both of them to finally tie their fellow Swede Erik Karlsson for the team lead in goals exactly one month after the reigning Norris Trophy-winning defenseman played his last game and had his Achilles tendon lacerated. The Canadiens opened the scoring for the 20th time in their 27 games this season at 7:02 of the first off some excellent work by rookie forward Gabriel Dumont, who earned his first NHL point on the play. Working behind the net, Dumont quickly spun along the boards with the puck to shed Daugavins and attempted to stuff the puck in. Lehner made the save, but a hard-charging Eller pounced on the rebound and buried it for his fourth of the season. The Senators tied it at 10:26 on the power play when Chris Neil won a puck battle along the wall to allow Silfverberg to retrieve it. The Swedish rookie immediately fired it into the slot to his countryman Zibanejad, who beat Price to the blocker side for his sixth of the season and third in his past five games. Montreal took the lead back on the power play at 6:40 of the second when Subban fed Max Pacioretty for a shot from the bottom of the faceoff circle that was tipped in front by Gallagher as he fended off two Senators defenders for his eighth goal of the season, moving him into sole possession of second place in the NHL for goals by a rookie. A Subban blast from the point on another power play beat a screened Lehner at 17:11 of the second period to make it 3-1 Canadiens, but the two-goal margin was very short-lived. With the Senators on a power play and the clock winding down on the period, Alfredsson walked out from the corner and wired a wrist shot just under the crossbar and off the net camera with less than two seconds to play in the second. The referees initially waved the goal off, but video review clearly showed the shot bouncing out off the camera. Wiercoch tied it 3-3 for Ottawa early in the third when he entered the zone, cut to the middle against Andrei Markov and took a quick wrist shot that beat Price between the legs for his third of the season at 1:50. The Canadiens had two excellent opportunities to take the lead midway through the third when Chris Phillips and Wiercoch took penalties less than three minutes apart at 9:17 and 12:06, but Lehner stood tall for the Senators to keep the game tied, with perhaps his best stop coming on a deflection in tight by Michael Ryder during the second power play. Lehner also managed to get an arm on a Galchenyuk laser beam wrist shot to deflect it off the crossbar with about 1:20 to play in regulation.

Philadelphia v New Jersey 2-5 - The New Jersey Devils are slowly regaining the winning formula that was prevalent in the early stages of the 2012-13 season. The only difference now is that goalie Johan Hedberg is beginning to establish himself between the pipes in the absence of injured Martin Brodeur. Adam Henrique had his first two-goal game of the season, and Patrik Elias, Ilya Kovalchuk and Andrei Loktionov each scored once as the Devils earned a 5-2 victory over the struggling Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday before 17,625 fans at Prudential Center. The victory for Hedberg, his third in four games, might have been his best outing since Brodeur removed himself from pregame warm-ups against the Winnipeg Jets on Feb. 24. The 39-year-old Swede, who has won six of nine decisions against the Flyers as a member of the Devils, finished with 23 saves. Flyers goalie Ilya Bryzgalov, who told the Philadelphia media Tuesday that two straight losses to the Devils during this home-and-home set would doom the team's Stanley Cup Playoff chances, allowed five goals on 32 shots. The victory was the third in four games for New Jersey (13-9-5), which remains seventh in the Eastern Conference with 31 points. The Devils are 21-5-1 in the regular season against the Flyers since 2005-06, and 13-5-1 since moving to Prudential Center in 2007. The loss was the fourth in five games for the Flyers, who remain last in the Atlantic Division with a 12-15-1 record. If Philadelphia doesn't right the ship, and soon, it likely will miss qualifying for the playoffs for the first time since 2006-07. Even before the opening faceoff, the Flyers received bad news, learning defenseman Luke Schenn was suffering from the flu and would not be available. That forced Laviolette to insert Kurtis Foster, who had missed the previous 12 games, into the lineup. The Devils opened a 4-1 lead 6:31 into the second period on Loktionov's fourth goal of the season. He took an outlet feed from Alexei Ponikarovsky and skated down his left wing before putting the brakes on in the left circle, causing defenseman Braydon Coburn to fall to the ice. The 5-foot-10, 179-pound Russian then went backhand-to-forehand before ripping a shot through the five-hole on Bryzgalov. Henrique tacked on his second goal of the game 1:16 into the third when he lofted a backhand attempt from low in the right circle over Bryzgalov's glove with his team on the power play for a commanding 5-1 lead. The teams came out of the gate raring to go in the first, but it was New Jersey that opened a 3-1 lead. Just 36 seconds after Jakub Voracek had pulled the Flyers even on a power-play goal at the 9:45 mark, Henrique sent a harmless attempt from the right circle toward Bryzgalov that deflected off a backpedaling Matt Read and across the goal line. Elias and Hedberg were credited with assists on the go-ahead goal. Kovalchuk extended the lead to 3-1 at 17:18 of the first when he connected for his fourth career shorthanded goal against the Flyers. After taking a feed from Stephen Gionta along the right-wing boards, Kovalchuk made like a locomotive over the Flyers blue line and into the circle before snapping a shot high to the short-side corner on Bryzgalov. The Devils grabbed a 1-0 lead 2:02 into the game when red-hot Elias feathered a backhand attempt from the slot between the pads of Bryzgalov. The early goal against Philadelphia has been a common theme for the Devils this season. In a 3-0 win on Jan. 22, Travis Zajac scored 1:07 into the contest, and in a 5-3 triumph on Feb. 15, Zajac connected 40 seconds into the game. Hedberg was making his 10th straight start in goal for the first time since 2001-02, when he started 10 in a row for the Pittsburgh Penguins from Jan. 5-23. Philadelphia's Scott Hartnell closed out the scoring for the Flyers when he lifted a shot over Hedberg at the 16:08 mark to pull the Flyers within 5-2.

Detroit v Calgary 2-5 - Miikka Kiprusoff kept the Calgary Flames in it for 40 minutes. Curtis Glencross handled the final 20. Kiprusoff stopped 25 saves through the first two periods to take a tie game into the third before Glencross and the Flames erupted for three goals in just 4:23 in the final period as Calgary downed the Detroit Red Wings 5-2 at Scotiabank Saddledome on Wednesday. After letting in 10 goals on 46 shots and finishing on the bench of Calgary's California road trip to forget, Kiprusoff rebounded with his strongest outing of the season to snap Calgary's three-game losing streak and extend its home winning-streak to five games. Tied 2-2 heading into the third period thanks to Kiprusoff's heroics, Glencross, playing his first game after missing a pair with an upper-body injury, set up Lee Stempniak to put Calgary in the driver's seat. Cutting through the slot with the puck, Glencross drew traffic before feeding a pass back to Stempniak, who put the puck into a virtually empty net for his seventh of the season at 5:37. Glencross then added his ninth of the campaign to make it 4-2 just three minutes later. The recipient of a turnover in the Detroit zone, he buried the puck past Detroit goaltender Jonas Gustavsson, a surprise starter after Jimmy Howard fell ill earlier in the day. Blake Comeau capped the scoring spree by ripping a shot over Gustavsson's glove at the 10-minute mark to make it 5-2. Scoring just two goals in their previous two outings, both losses, the Red Wings wasted little time getting on the board in Calgary. After Kiprusoff turned aside a Valtteri Filppula redirect off Henrik Zetterberg's pass less than a minute in and a post that followed it up 30 seconds later, Niklas Kronwall broke through. Corralling the puck at the point, Kronwall let a blast go over the blocker of Kiprusoff to put the Red Wings up 1-0. The goal came on Detroit's fifth shot of the game and before Calgary could muster one on Gustavsson. The Red Wings' lead held up for just 2:35. On the power play with Brendan Smith in the penalty box for cross checking, Mike Cammalleri sprung Alex Tanguay in alone. Tanguay dipped his shoulder then threw a nifty deke on Gustavsson before lifting it over the Detroit goaltender to tie the game 1-1 at 5:55. The Red Wings pushed to regain the lead, but Kiprusoff closed the door. First, the Flames' netminder denied Zetterberg's crease scramble at 7:30 before poking away a Damien Brunner opportunity on the same shift for two of his 14 saves in the period. Jay Bouwmeester would add his fifth of the season near the midway mark of the period. Jumping into the rush, Bouwmeester worked a give-and-go with Stempniak before firing a shot on net. Gustavsson made the initial save, but Bouwmeester's rebound ricocheted off Jakub Kindl and into the net to give the Flames a 2-1 lead. Detroit drew even and rid itself of an ominous distinction in the second period. Failing to convert on a post earlier in the shift, Filppula converted a Quincey rebound kicked onto his stick by Kiprusoff, burying the gift behind the Flames' netminder with 3:21 remaining in the period in his first game back after missing seven with a shoulder injury. The goal ended an 0-for-37 drought with a man-advantage on the road to start the season, a span of 69 minutes and 20 seconds and the longest stretch the franchise has gone without a power-play goal on the road to start the season since the 1928-29 Detroit Cougars. The Cougars scored eight power-play goals, all at home, during the 44-game season.