Gameday 56 (Fri, 15 Mar) - Results

New Jersey v Philadelphia 1-2 - Ilya Bryzgalov threw down the gauntlet early in the week, then lay down to help preserve the Flyers' victory Friday. Bryzgalov stopped 27 shots in regulation and overtime and two more in the shootout as the Philadelphia Flyers earned a split of their home-and-home series against the New Jersey Devils with a 2-1 shootout win. Matt Read and Claude Giroux scored in the shootout, and Maxime Talbot had the goal in regulation for Philadelphia. In the post-overtime tiebreaker, Bryzgalov allowed Ilya Kovalchuk's goal, then stopped David Clarkson and Patrik Elias to secure the Flyers' first shootout win in more than a year (March 10, 2012). Clarkson had the Devils' goal. Johan Hedberg made 21 saves. Bryzgalov said Tuesday the Flyers would be "done" if they lost both games to New Jersey, and after a 5-2 loss Wednesday at Prudential Center, that was the situation facing Philadelphia. Bryzgalov stepped up his game Friday, backstopping a penalty-killing unit that denied all four Devils power-play chances, including one that carried through the final 1:42 of regulation and first 18 seconds of overtime. He was even better later in overtime, making three sensational saves on a New Jersey flurry with 1:52 left. He stopped Elias twice on the doorstep, then after Marek Zidlicky pulled the puck from between Bryzgalov's skates, the Philadelphia netminder fell on his back and got his toe on Zidlicky's shot. When it fluttered down next to his arm, he was able to trap it against his body. Just as important were the four saves he made during a New Jersey power play midway through the first period with the game scoreless. Dual penalties to Wayne Simmonds and Jakub Voracek put the Flyers down a man for 18 seconds, then down two men for 1:42. Moments after the big kill, the Flyers got a big goal from Talbot, who scored his third of the season at 15:21 of the first period. Talbot led a rush up the ice, dished the puck over to Matt Read and skated to the net. Read sent a pass across the New Jersey zone to Simon Gagne, who skated through the slot and found an open passing lane when Devils defenseman Andy Greene collided with Talbot and fell into Hedberg, taking them both out of the play. Gagne got the puck to Talbot on the right post, where he stopped it with his skate and scored into an empty net. Clarkson tied the game at 6:09 of the second period. Bryce Salvador fired a shot from the left point that Clarkson, posting up Flyers defenseman Luke Schenn in the slot, tipped past Bryzgalov for his 11th goal of the season, snapping a 13-game goal drought. After scoring nine times in his first 12 games, it was Clarkson's second in 16. The Devils kept firing, but the Flyers, and Bryzgalov, kept getting in the way. In addition to Bryzgalov's saves, Philadelphia blocked 16 shots, led by three each for Kimmo Timonen and Andrej Meszaros. Not to mention a penalty-killing unit that held New Jersey to six shots with the extra man. Though no one in the Flyers locker room really believed their season would be "done" if they had lost Friday, it would have made their hole awfully deep. The Flyers remain 11th in the Eastern Conference, three points behind the eighth-place Winnipeg Jets.

Nashville v Calgary 3-6 - Pekka Rinne's night at Scotiabank Saddledome on Friday was even shorter than his stint at Rogers Arena 24 hours earlier. One night after he was pulled in the second period of Nashville's 7-4 loss to the Vancouver Canucks, Rinne lasted just eight minutes and allowed goals on the only two shots he faced in Nashville's 6-3 loss at the hands of the Calgary Flames. Chasing Rinne lifted the Flames to their sixth consecutive win on home ice, spliced between a three-game losing streak through California last week. Though Curtis Glencross had a third-period hat trick, it was the duo of Mark Giordano and Blake Comeau that sent Rinne to the bench early. Giordano danced around Brandon Yip at the point and tucked Calgary's first shot of the game over Rinne's blocker and just under the crossbar at 6:20 to put the Flames up 1-0. Comeau added his second in as many games just 1:40 later. Hauling the puck up ice on a 3-on-2, Mikael Backlund fed a cross-ice pass to Jiri Hudler, who relayed the puck to Comeau in the slot. Comeau buried his third of the season to chase the Predators goaltender from the game. The Flames beat backup Chris Mason 3:38 into the second period with Zach Boychuk sitting out a holding penalty. Cammalleri found Hudler cruising through the slot, and Hudler redirected Calgary's ninth shot of the game behind Mason, snapping a personal 14-game goal-scoring drought and giving Calgary a 3-0 lead. Gabriel Bourque found the back of the net with Nashville's ninth shot 1:36 later to get the Predators on the board. Bourque tipped Shea Weber's power-play blast behind Flames' goalie Miikka Kiprusoff for his team-high ninth of the season to make it 3-1. But Glencross took over in the third period. He restored the Flames' three-goal lead 1:14 after the period-opening faceoff. Glencross drove to the net and was in the right place when Stempniak's shot rang off the far post but came out and ricocheted off Glencross and into the net. Fisher answered the goal two minutes later, but Glencross restored the three-goal edge at 5:32 with his 11th of the season. With time ticking down, David Legwand chipped one over Kiprusoff to cut the lead to 5-3 with 2:19 remaining, but Glencross hit the empty net to complete his hat trick. On Western Night in Calgary, the goal triggered a cascade of hats.

Detroit v Edmonton 3-2 - Pavel Datsyuk spoiled the Edmonton Oilers' homecoming. Datsyuk capped Detroit's rally from a two-goal deficit with a spectacular goal 3:39 into overtime, giving the Red Wings a 3-2 victory in the Oilers' first game at Rexall Place in nearly three weeks. Datsyuk took a pass from Johan Franzen as he approached the Edmonton blue line and made a couple of fakes to undress defenseman Jeff Petry before whipping a wrister from the left of the slot past Devan Dubnyk for his ninth goal of the season and first in 11 games. The win, just the fourth for Detroit in 12 road games this season, evened the Wings' record on their Western Canada trip at 1-1-0. They visit Vancouver on Saturday. Detroit jumped to fifth in the Western Conference with 31 points and improved to 18-1-7 in its last 26 games against the Oilers, who are 13th with 26. The Red Wings swept the three-game season series. Detroit's rally also spoiled the night for the Oilers, who were playing their first game at Rexall Place since Feb. 23 after going 3-4-2 on a franchise-record nine-game road trip. It was the Oilers' 12th straight loss when returning home after a road trip of two or more games, and it came after they were almost flawless through the first 40 minutes. The Red Wings trailed 2-0 after two periods, but finally beat Dubnyk 4:27 into the third period on a backhander from the slot by Valtteri Filppula. Kronwall then got credit for the tying goal with 5:53 left in regulation when his power-play shot was blocked in the slot and Petry accidentally shot the carom into his own net while trying to clear the puck. The Oilers outshot Detroit 26-14 through 40 minutes, but were outshot 12-6 in the third period and 2-0 in overtime. The Oilers opened the scoring 3:34 into the game on a spectacular individual effort by Hall. The first player taken in the 2010 NHL Draft took a pass from Shawn Horcoff near the left boards in the neutral zone, cut to the middle as he crossed the blue line and stepped between four defenders before beating Jimmy Howard from the slot for his sixth of the season. Edmonton's Mike Brown and Detroit's Jordin Tootoo, who fought eight days earlier during the Red Wings' 3-0 victory at Joe Louis Arena, went at it again with 8:17 remaining in the middle period. Both players landed some solid blows before they were ushered off the ice to serve five-minute majors. The Oilers made it 2-0 with 3:42 remaining in the period when Sam Gagner tapped in a rebound in the crease. Hall held off defenseman Jonathan Ericsson behind the net and slid the puck to Nail Yakupov, who circled from the left wall to the slot and fired. Howard stopped that shot, but Gagner got a piece of the rebound and tapped it home for his 11th of the season. But the Wings regrouped and took control of the game in the final 20 minutes and the overtime. Detroit finally beat Dubnyk after Henrik Zetterberg freed the puck behind the Edmonton net, Filppula picked it up, circled into the slot and lifted a backhander over Dubnyk's shoulder for his sixth of the season and second in as many games since returning after missing seven games with an injury.