Gameday 61 (Wed, 20 Mar) - Results

Tampa Bay v Toronto 2-4 - Nazem Kadri continues to produce for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Kadri set a new career mark with three assists as the Maple Leafs snapped a five-game winless streak with a 4-2 victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Air Canada Centre on Wednesday. With the win, Toronto is hoping it can regain some traction in the race to the Stanley Cup Playoffs after going 0-3-2 since a 5-4 victory against the Ottawa Senators on March 6. The Maple Leafs are currently in sixth place in the Eastern Conference with 36 points. Holding a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes, the Leafs blew the game wide open before the halfway point, with three goals in the first 7:22 of the second period en route to a 4-0 lead after two periods. Dion Phaneuf began the barrage 52 seconds into the second when he scored his fifth goal on a high drive from the blue line that eluded Mathieu Garon to make it 2-0. Later, with Toronto pressuring, Phil Kessel came streaking in on Garon, but could not control the puck. As two Lightning defenders converged on Kessel, the puck bounded to Tyler Bozak, who was left alone in the slot and ripped home his eighth goal of the season at 6:53. Bozak's goal prompted Lightning coach Guy Boucher to pull Garon, who allowed three goals on 13 shots. His replacement, Anders Lindback, got a rude awakening as Nikolai Kulemin greeted him with a goal less than 30 seconds after Bozak's marker. After going eight games without a goal, Kulemin has now scored twice in as many games. Kadri caught the Lightning defenders on their heels, breezing over their blue line before passing it back to Kulemin, who was trailing. Upon receiving the puck, Kulemin dragged it around defenseman Radko Gudas before wiring a shot past Lindback for his fourth of the season. With each passing game, Kadri is showing that he can give a boost to any player who plays wing on a line he centers. Maple Leafs coach Randy Carlyle gave Kadri's line (he skated with Kulemin and Joffrey Lupul on Wednesday), plenty of shifts against Tampa Bay's top line, which contains two of the NHL's deadliest threats in Martin St Louis and Steven Stamkos. Meanwhile for the Lightning, Garon's exit turned out to be temporary. He reappeared in goal with 12:16 to go in the game as Lindback headed for the dressing room for an injury that Boucher would not reveal afterwards. While the Maple Leafs took the play to the Lightning, Tampa Bay was not without its chances in the middle period. Tyler Johnson took a centering feed in the blue paint, but James Reimer got his stick on the tip-in attempt. He finished with 26 saves. Rookie-scoring leader Cory Conacher took it upon himself to get his team on the board as he drove to the net with less than 30 seconds to go, but Reimer was not fooled by his move to the backhand and closed the five-hole to thwart the opportunity. Conacher, a Toronto-area native with dozens of family members and friends in attendance, and Gudas would score late in the game, but it was a case of too little, too late. With his goal, Conacher now leads all rookies with 22 points. However, as much as he was in awe, he was equally disappointed in the effort displayed by himself and the team. With the loss, the Lightning were unable to gain any ground in the battle for a postseason berth. They remain five points back of eighth place in the East. Just as he did in his first game back from injury one game ago, Lupul continued to make up for lost time as he opened the scoring with his third of the season at 6:56 of the first period. After taking a hard cross-ice pass from Carl Gunnarsson, Kadri was able to zip the puck to Lupul, who was unmarked in the slot and able to redirect the puck behind Garon. Arguably the most valuable player on the Maple Leafs last season, Lupul missed 25 games with a broken forearm during the club's third game of the season. The Lightning received a scare less than a minute into the third period when defenseman Victor Hedman was on the receiving end of a high hit from Lupul in the neutral zone. Hedman was forced to briefly head to the dressing room, but was able to return to the game. Lupul received a two-minute penalty for an illegal check to the head. Boucher did not want to comment on the collision, but said that he was certain the League would review it. Defenseman Jake Gardiner was in the starting lineup after being recalled on Tuesday from an extended stint in the American Hockey League. He led all skaters with 8:14 ice-time in the first period and finished with one shot, one hit and a minus-1 rating in 19:20 of ice time. He feels his game has come a long way since he was reassigned to the AHL's Toronto Marlies after just two games with the Maple Leafs earlier this season.

Minnesota v Detroit 4-2 - It might be time to add the Minnesota Wild to the list of contenders in the Western Conference. After polishing off a tough three-game road trip with a third straight win Wednesday night, 4-2 against the Detroit Red Wings at Joe Louis Arena, the Wild are starting to look and play like a very talented, confident team. Minnesota (17-10-2) has won four straight games, six of the past seven, and leads the Northwest Division with 36 points, two more than the Vancouver Canucks. Setoguchi was the one who cashed in early this time, scoring the first of his goals 2:04 into the game. His second capped a power play with 2:45 left in the second period to give Minnesota a comfortable 4-1 lead. Kyle Brodziak and Mikko Koivu also scored for the Wild, which got a strong performance in goal from Niklas Backstrom, who made 17 of his 36 saves in the first period. It's certainly a different feeling from the one that surrounded a 4-5-1 start to the season. Since those first 10 games, Minnesota is 13-5-1 and looking like a team that could be a tough matchup in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Despite firing 38 shots, Detroit (14-11-5) scored on one of five power plays and couldn't turn momentum for any length of time. The Wild scored their four goals on 19 shots and went 2-for-3 on the power play. Detroit rookie Gustav Nyquist scored his first goal of the season, and Drew Miller had the other for the Red Wings, who lost for the first time in three games. Detroit now heads west on a four-game road trip to Anaheim (back-to-back), Phoenix and San Jose. It didn't take long for Minnesota to take 1-0 lead on Setoguchi's first goal, his fifth in the past six games. After Matt Cullen slid a pass from the bottom of the right circle into the low slot, wide-open Setoguchi scooped the puck and slid it under goalie Jimmy Howard a little more than two minutes into the game. The rest of the first period was dominated by the Red Wings, but they failed to beat Backstrom legally on those 17 shots. Detroit appeared to tie it at 7:30 of the first, when Jordin Tootoo tapped home a puck that skittered through Backstrom's pads, but it was immediately waived off by referee Dave Jackson. It was ruled Miller touched the puck with a high stick in the low slot, and the play wasn't reviewed. Brodziak's fifth goal of the season pushed the Wild lead to 2-0 at 3:51 of the second, capping a four-minute power play caused by Niklas Kronwall's high-sticking infraction while delivering one of his patented big hits to Charlie Coyle. Kronwall was 39 seconds from getting out of the box when Jared Spurgeon fed a perfect pass from the right circle to Brodziak in front of the crease for a quick snap shot into the back of the net. Nyquist, recalled Wednesday after playing an American Hockey League game in Peoria, Ill., Tuesday, put the Red Wings on the board about five minutes later with a great individual effort. He stole the puck near the Detroit blue line and created his own breakaway, which he capped with a slick backhand through Backstrom's pads. The Wild didn't even blink. Minnesota countered with Koivu's goal, fired off a long rebound from the high slot, and Setoguchi's second made it 4-1.

Dallas v Colorado 3-4 - The Colorado Avalanche used key contributions from a couple of role players Wednesday to break a four-game losing streak. Chuck Kobasew, who normally skates on the fourth line, and Mark Olver, a healthy scratch in the previous seven games, each had a goal and an assist in the Avalanche's 4-3 come-from-behind win against the Dallas Stars at the Pepsi Center. Kobasew and Olver took advantage of increased playing time while serving as bookends for center Ryan O'Reilly in the third period after Avalanche coach Joe Sacco elected in the morning to scratch slumping forwards David Jones and Jamie McGinn. Kobasew, who was a plus-4, banged in a loose puck with 3:29 remaining in regulation to snap a 3-3 tie while Olver matched his career high for points in a game with two. Kobasew went to the net to pound the puck behind goalie Kari Lehtonen after defenseman Matt Hunwick took a shot that hit the Stars' Stephane Robidas in the head. Robidas fell to the ice and needed four stitches to close a cut. The Avalanche rallied from trailing 2-0 and 3-2, tying the game for the second time on O'Reilly's goal at 6:20 of the third period. Olver passed to O'Reilly, who split the Stars defense while moving down left wing and fired the puck between Lehtonen's pads. O'Reilly's goal came shortly after the Avalanche killed off a roughing penalty to Cody McLeod. The Avalanche killed all six of the Stars' power plays. Down 2-0 after the first period, the Avalanche tied the game in the second period on goals by Olver and Gabriel Landeskog. Olver scored at 8:48 after Patrick Bordeleau's shot from the slot was deflected to the left side of the net. Landeskog scored his second shorthanded goal in two games at 13:30 after he intercepted Stars defenseman Trevor Daley's bounce pass off the boards. He skated in on Lehtonen and converted his own rebound to stretch his goal-scoring streak to four games. The Stars regained the lead at 3-2 on Ray Whitney's goal at 15:56 after he skated from behind the net. He sidestepped the Avalanche's Milan Hejduk and moved through the slot before shooting the puck into the far corner of goalie Semyon Varlamov's net. Stars right wing Jaromir Jagr had a goal and two assists to extend his point-scoring streak against the Avalanche to eight games. He has two goals and eight assists in the streak, and he has more points (46) against Colorado in his career than against any Western Conference team, with 20 goals and 26 assists. Jagr scored at 12:06 from the top of the circles with a shot that squirted through Varlamov, and he passed to Daley for a shot from the middle of the right circle at 16:12.

San Jose v Edmonton 4-3 - The San Jose Sharks avoided a three-game skid in dramatic fashion Wednesday. Dan Boyle scored the shootout winner as the Sharks rallied from a two-goal deficit in the third period for a 4-3 victory against the Edmonton Oilers at Rexall Place. Logan Couture had a pair of goals and Tommy Wingels also scored in regulation for the Sharks (13-10-6), who have now won just twice in their past eight games. Indeed, it was a huge win for the Sharks, who have been surrounded by trade rumors over the past few weeks. Sam Gagner, Shawn Horcoff and Ryan Jones scored for Edmonton (11-11-7), which has earned eight points in its past five contests. The Oilers scored first midway through the opening period via the power play as Nail Yakupov fed the puck across the ice to Gagner, who had time to rip a slap shot from the top of the circle that beat Sharks goaltender Antti Niemi glove-side. It was Gagner's 12th goal of the season. San Jose tied up the game with just under six minutes to play in the opening period as the puck popped loose from under Oilers goaltender Devan Dubnyk in a scramble in front and Couture was there to hammer it in on the doorstep. The Sharks had the best opportunity in the first half of the second period as Joe Pavelski rang a shot off the post in the opening minute. Edmonton went up 2-1 with eight minutes left to play in the second period. Nick Schultz picked up a pass as he stepped on to the ice from the penalty box and raced in on a 2-on-1 before feeding it across to a streaking Horcoff, who slapped it in at the side of the net. The Oilers went up 3-1 four minutes into the third period as Jones picked the pocket of defender Matt Irwin behind the San Jose net and hooked around front to send the puck through Niemi's legs. The Sharks pulled back to within one three minutes later on the power play as they were able to send the puck out of a scrum in front of the Oiler net to Couture, who sent his second of the game and 14th of the season through traffic and past Dubnyk. San Jose then tied the game with 10:45 remaining in the third as a puck found Wingels, who sent a quick wrist shot into the net to make it 3-3 and eventually send the game to overtime. The Oilers were without Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who is suffering from the flu. Teemu Hartikainen took Nugent-Hopkins' place in the lineup. Sharks forward Ryane Clowe missed the game with a shoulder injury.

Chicago v Anaheim 2-4 - Somewhere in the back of the Anaheim Ducks' training room, captain Ryan Getzlaf was presumably prone with fluids flowing through his drained body. He was too weak to be brought out to the media, and it was understandable given the gigantic push he gave his team in a five-minute span to win a game of this magnitude. Fighting off flu, Getzlaf set up the game-tying and game-winning goals by Bobby Ryan and Teemu Selanne in a span of 64 seconds late in the third period as Anaheim completed an eye-popping comeback for a 4-2 win against the Chicago Blackhawks in front of a franchise-record, standing-room only crowd of 17,610 at Honda Center on Wednesday. Selanne's 670th career goal came off a pretty dish from Getzlaf to complete a comeback from 2-1 down with fewer than six minutes left. Selanne appropriately emerged in lieu of Getzlaf to sum it up. Indeed. The first meeting between two teams with winning percentages above .800 this late in the season lived up to the hype with skill and great pace on display, and the Ducks walked away just three points behind Chicago in the Western Conference standings after they re-established a club-record home-winning streak at 13 games. It kind of boiled down to Getzlaf against captain counterpart Jonathan Toews, who scored a shorthanded goal in the first period and induced a penalty on Sheldon Souray in the second that led to a 2-1 Chicago a 2-1. But Getzlaf's line shook the Blackhawks-heavy crowd alive when he threw the puck to Ryan, who whacked it in at 14:33 to tie it 2-2. Moments later, Getzlaf took advantage of a line change by Chicago and Selanne slipped free on the right side to wrist in Getzlaf's pass at 15:37. It was a near repeat of the Feb.12 meeting in which Anaheim came back from a 2-1 deficit to win in a shootout. Anaheim's two comeback wins against Chicago this season are the only two times the Blackhawks have lost this season when leading after two periods. Anaheim has rallied from deficits 14 times this season to win. Without Marian Hossa available because of an upper-body injury, Chicago coach Joel Quenneville often double shifted Patrick Kane and played him on Toews' line. Toews logged 25:21 minutes of ice time and was a minus-4, including the final three Anaheim goals. Selanne's goal and Anaheim's comeback was marred somewhat in the ensuing faceoff when Brandon Bollig high sticked Andrew Cogliano, who left the game with a bloodied mouth and appeared to have lost teeth. No penalty was called on the play. Chicago grabbed a hold of the game by the collar midway through the second period, after their first power play produced no shots. Toews drove to the net and forced Souray to grab his shoulder for a holding penalty. Nick Leddy's slap shot arced through traffic and over a parked Viktor Stalberg in the crease at 11:54. Chicago then played keep away until the second period buzzer, outshooting Anaheim 11-5 in the final 15 minutes. Toews could not have delivered a more captain-like play to tie it at 1-1. Toews blocked a Souray shot, outraced Getzlaf and Francois Beauchemin down the right side and settled down a rolling puck in time to deke past Hiller at 3:52. His second shorthanded goal this season came with Bollig in the penalty box for interference. Anaheim got a great jump with a goal by rookie Peter Holland just 84 seconds into the game. Luca Sbisa missed a shot off the back wall that bounced out the other side to a wide-open Holland for an easy conversion to get the building roaring.