Results - Mon, Jan 13, 2014

Calgary Flames @ Carolina Hurricanes 2-0 - Mikael Backlund and Sean Monahan scored in front of Karri Ramo, who stopped 23 shots to defeat the Hurricanes. It was the first shutout in 69 NHL appearances for Ramo, who spent the past four seasons playing in the Kontinental Hockey League in Russia. The Flames had gone without a shutout in their previous 117 games. The tight-checking effort was what the light-scoring Flames needed. Shut out in five of their previous eight games, Calgary entered the game aiming to limit the Hurricanes' opportunities, and they did for 60 minutes. Backlund, whose goal against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday snapped the team's 174:59 scoring drought, put the Flames up 1-0 with 4:34 remaining in the second period. With Hurricanes forward Patrick Dwyer in the box for hooking, Backlund tucked a loose puck under Anton Khudobin for his seventh of the year. Jiri Hudler started the play with a centering pass that deflected off the skate of Hurricanes forward Radek Dvorak. Dennis Wideman earned the second assist. The Flames effectively shut down Carolina in the third period, limiting the Hurricanes to six shots. Monahan gave the Flames some breathing room at 9:36 with his 13th goal. With TJ Galiardi and Paul Byron leading a 3-on-2, the rookie beat Khudobin for a 2-0 lead. From there, Calgary clamped down on defense, keeping the Hurricanes away from the slot to close out the game. While Ramo was not tested often, he was sharp on several occasions. He stayed square on a couple bids by Nathan Gerbe in the second period, then stopped Gerbe again in the third period on a rebound attempt off Jordan Staal's shot. The Hurricanes were expecting a better effort with Eric Staal, Jiri Tlusty and Riley Nash returning to bolster the forward ranks. The Flames played without leading goal scorer Mike Cammalleri, who suffered a concussion against Pittsburgh and did not make the trip to Carolina. All the more reason, Hartley figured, to give the Flames some credit.

Tampa Bay @ Columbus 2-3 - Jack Johnson's shot from the blue line was redirected by Mark Letestu at 17:22 after Nathan Horton had tied the score at 3:09 with a blast from the top of the left faceoff circle. Alex Killorn and Victor Hedman scored in the second period for Tampa Bay to overcome a goal by Blue Jackets center Ryan Johansen earlier in the period, but penalties eventually caught up to the Lightning (27-15-4), who killed the first four before giving up two man-up goals in the third. Horton scored his second goal in six games after missing the first 40 following left shoulder surgery shortly after signing with Columbus in July. It was the 200th goal of Horton's career in his 597th game and the 27th against the Lightning, the most he has scored against any opponent. Columbus is 5-1 since Horton returned. Tampa Bay went on the power play after the Horton goal and gave up a shorthanded breakaway to Brandon Dubinsky, but he fired left of the goal. Columbus goalie Sergei Bobrovsky then made a point-blank save on Ondrej Palat to preserve the tie. Then it was the Blue Jackets turn and they connected 50 seconds into a hooking penalty to Tyler Johnson. Bobrovsky made 26 saves for his third straight win since being out a month with a groin strain, although his streak of more than 133 minutes without allowing a goal at home was snapped. Anders Lindback made his fourth consecutive start for the Lightning; top goalie Ben Bishop, who had been out with a sprained wrist, was on the bench and could start Tuesday at the New York Rangers. Lindback made 25 saves.


Vancouver @ Los Angeles 0-1 - The Canucks visited the Los Angeles Kings on Monday night in a gloriously contentious game between two teams that don’t like each other. Overall, the teams combined for 110 penalty minutes in the Kings’ 1-0 win. Seemingly these Dustin Brown encounters are getting aggravating for the Vancouver Canucks and quite fruitful for the Los Angeles Kings. Brown was already the No. 1 enemy of Vancouver when he injured Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo crashing the net in a game on Jan. 4. Brown inflicted more pain Monday with the only goal for a 1-0 win at Staples Center. Brown easily tapped in Anze Kopitar's missed chance to finish a rush 24 seconds into the third period. The Kings broke out after Dan Hamhuis couldn't keep the puck in Vancouver's end. Jonathan Quick continued to be a rock in goal with a 28-save win for his first career regular season shutout of the Canucks. L.A. desperately needed Brown's goal after it couldn't score with nearly 15 minutes of power-play time. The Kings are still in a 3-6-1 rut and, outside of those two wins, have not scored more than two goals in that span. They play the next eight games away from Staples Center, although the Jan.25 game against the Anaheim Ducks at Dodger Stadium is technically a home game. The series has grown contentious since L.A. eliminated Vancouver in the 2012 Western Conference Quarterfinal series, and this was one of the rougher regular-season matchups in some time. The teams combined for 109 penalty minutes. Vancouver came in with plenty of motivation, having gone 0-3 this season against the Kings and been outscored 11-4 despite having held a lead in two of the three games. The Canucks also got defenseman Alexander Edler back from a knee injury that kept him out since Dec. 3 and could have tied L.A. with 59 points in the Pacific Division. But the Canucks fell to 0-4 and couldn't convert on four power plays. Vancouver has scored two goals in the past two games and one was a win against the St. Louis Blues, another physical team. The Canucks visit Anaheim on Wednesday. The Kings' power play continued to struggle and put six shots on goal, but couldn't set up in Vancouver's zone during 10:13 of power-play time in the opening period. That included a 47-second two-man advantage. Tom Sestito single-handedly gave L.A. a seven-minute power play when he instigated a fight at 2:33 of the game with Jordan Nolan after the latter hit Canucks center Henrik Sedin hard. Looking to defend his teammate, Sestito lined up next to Nolan for the faceoff, and dropped his gloves when the puck was dropped by the linesman. He pounded on Nolan … who didn’t fight back, acutely aware that Sestito’s night would be over if he just took the punches. And it was: Sestito earned a 5-minute fighting major, a 2-minute penalty for instigating the fight, a 10-minute misconduct and a game misconduct. Just 6 seconds into the start of the second period and Ryan Kesler had a fight with Dustin Brown. 8.28 in the second period saw the third fight of the game. Kevin Bieksa was adjudged to have interefered with LA goalie Jonathan Quick. Matt Greene stepped in and while both received fighting majors, Greene also got a penalty for instigating. Vancouver otherwise sounded satisfied with its play despite the missed chance to catch L.A. in the standings.

"I thought that is a big statement by our team," Canucks forward Ryan Kesler said. "I think, in the past, that team tries to bully you and instill physical play and I thought we out-hit them, out-battled them. I thought we were good all game and I think we played the right way tonight."

L.A. defenseman Matt Greene returned to the lineup after being scratched the previous four games. The Kings have beaten the Canucks four times in the same season for the first time since they went 5-3-0 in 1990-91.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEvMNqhFeaY