Vancouver @ St Louis 4-1 - Ryan Miller helped his new team defeat his former team when he stopped 31 shots in the Canucks' 4-1 victory against the Blues at Scottrade Center. Miller, who was traded from the Sabres to the Blues on Feb. 28, less than a week before the NHL Trade Deadline, rebounded from a tough outing Tuesday, when he was pulled in the second period of a 6-3 loss to the Dallas Stars in which he allowed five goals on 13 shots. It was his first game in St. Louis since the Blues were eliminated in the Western Conference First Round by the Chicago Blackhawks in six games. Nick Bonino broke a 1-1 tie with a third-period goal, Chris Higgins had a goal and an assist, and Alexandre Burrows had two assists to help the Canucks snap a two-game losing streak.
Miller played a hand in the game-winner when he robbed Blues center Jori Lehtera from the right circle with a left-pad save. Bonino countered off a 3-on-1 and beat Blues goalie Jake Allen with a wrist shot from the left circle at 4:54 of the third period. And when the Canucks countered, Bonino beat Allen off one of many odd-man rushes the Canucks had in the game. The Canucks scored three third-period goals on four shots. Linden Vey scored from the slot at 11:57 for a 3-1 Vancouver lead, and Jannik Hansen scored an empty-net goal to seal the game for the Canucks. Kevin Shattenkirk scored for the Blues, who lost their second straight and have a number of players dealing with the flu bug. Allen stopped 19 shots. The Canucks pounced on an early Blues turnover in the neutral zone, and Higgins converted after Allen initially stopped Burrows' shot after a 2-on-1. Allen made the first save, but Higgins was on the doorstep to score on the rebound 41 seconds into the first period to give Vancouver a 1-0 lead. The Blues finally equalized on their third power play. Shattenkirk scored when he took a cross-ice feed from David Backes and fired a wrist shot from above the left faceoff dot. He beat Miller high short side 7:38 into the second period. Both goalies came up with big saves late in the second period. Allen stopped Higgins twice, the first coming after a Blues turnover that resulted in a breakaway with a little more than 10 minutes remaining in the period, and Miller was able to stop a pair of Patrik Berglund shots after the Blues center stole a puck along the left boards. Vey's power-play goal took the wind out of the Blues' sails after they had controlled the puck in the Canucks zone but failed to beat Miller. Berglund took a holding penalty, and the Canucks capitalized when Vey converted a pass from behind the Blues goal by Henrik Sedin. The Blues pulled Allen with 3:32 remaining for the extra attacker, and Hansen scored from the faceoff circle in the Canucks zone with 3:01 remaining.
Chicago @ Nashville 2-3 - James Neal scored a goal in each period to get the natural hat trick. The Predators remain in first place in the Central Division. The Blackhawks lost for the first time in regulation. Ben Smith gave the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead at 12:21 of the first period. The Blackhawks survived a flurry of chances from the Predators on the previous shift, and then Smith scored on a backhand right in front of Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne. Neal tied the game 1-1 with 47.8 seconds remaining in the period. He received a pass from defenseman Seth Jones and put a wrist shot past Chicago goaltender Antti Raanta. Nashville forward Mike Ribeiro picked up an assist to extend his point streak to five games. The Blackhawks put heavy pressure on Rinne during a power-play opportunity midway through the second period. They were unable to score despite possessing the puck for most of the two minutes. Nashville made Chicago pay soon after the power play expired. Neal scored his second goal with 3:48 remaining in the second when he took a slap shot from the faceoff circle. Predators forward Filip Forsberg was able to get the puck to Neal for his fifth assist. Neal scored his third goal 1:52 into the third period. He was planted by the net and put in the rebound of a shot by defenseman Ryan Ellis. Chicago forward Andrew Shaw made it 3-2 at 12:36 of the third. The puck went off the boards, and Nashville seemed to think it went out of play. Shaw capitalized and swatted his rebound out of midair past Rinne. Nashville was able to hold off Chicago’s late push to secure the win. The Predators are the only team in the NHL that does not have a regulation loss this season. Neal has five goals in the past four games after not having any in three games to start the season. This was Neal's first multipoint game for the Predators.
Phoenix @ Minnesota 0-2 - Darcy Kuemper made 26 saves to lead Minnesota to a 2-0 win against the Coyotes at Xcel Energy Center. It was his third shutout in four starts this season and second in as many games at home. Kuemper has stopped 96 of 98 shots, giving him a .980 save percentage to go along with a goals-against average of 0.50. Minnesota were sloppy out of the gate and Kuemper had to make some quality saves early. The Wild survived an energetic first few minutes by the Coyotes, who had the three shots on goal in the opening 60 seconds of the game. The Wild sprang to life in the opening minutes of the second period, scoring twice in a span of 2:34. Defenseman Jared Spurgeon ripped a shot from the point that was tipped by Charlie Coyle and went past goaltender Mike Smith at 2:53 to give the Wild a 1-0 lead. It was the second goal of the season for Coyle, who signed a five-year, $16 million contract extension with Minnesota on Wednesday. Minnesota continued to apply pressure and made it 2-0 at 5:27 on Jason Pominville's second goal of the season. Pominville took a nifty pass from Spurgeon in transition, steered to his right to move Smith in the crease and rifled a puck through traffic, beating the goaltender just inside the far-side post. The Coyotes pulled Smith for an extra attacker with 1:48 left in regulation, but Kuemper preserved the shutout with a point-blank stop on Mikkel Boedker with just under a minute to play.
Carolina @ Calgary 0-5 - Jonas Hiller made 16 saves to record his first shutout of the season and first with Calgary. Hiller, who signed with Calgary as a free agent during the summer, extended his winning streak to three games. He has stopped 99 of 101 shots during that span. Hiller wasn’t very busy against injury-riddled Carolina, who are still seeking their first win of the season. The Hurricanes were missing defenseman John-Michael Liles and forwards Eric Staal, Jordan Staal, Patrick Dwyer and Nathan Gerbe to injury. Carolina hung in until the late stages of the first period, when Dennis Wideman converted on the first of three goals for Calgary in a span of 5:56 over the first and second periods. With 1:42 remaining in the first, Wideman scooped Kris Russell’s D-to-D pass up off the boards and fired a shot from the point that got behind Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward, who was screened, to put the Flames up 1-0. The goal was Wideman’s fourth; he’s scored the four in the past five games. It also came almost exactly four minutes after Carolina forward Jeff Skinner picked off a Stajan pass at Calgary’s blue line before skating in alone on Hiller, but the Flames goaltender flashed his glove to keep the game scoreless. The Flames built on their lead 32 seconds into the second period. After Calgary forward Paul Byron turned the puck over in his own end, he forced a turnover at the Flames blue line and streaked down the ice on an odd-man rush. Byron fed Stajan, who bounced a shot off the pad of a sliding Ward and just over the goal line to put the Flames up 2-0. Monahan extended the Flames lead to three at 4:14, converting a backdoor pass from Jiri Hudler to complete Calgary’s three-goal outburst. Monahan batted down another centering feed from Hudler and tucked it behind Ward at 3:23 of the third period to extend the Calgary lead to four. Bouma’s first followed at 5:15. He put a cross-ice pass off the rush from Josh Jooris behind Ward to give the Flames a 5-0 lead. After stopping 11 shots through the first two periods, Hiller made five saves in the third to earn the 22nd shutout of his career.
Buffalo @ Los Angeles 0-2 - Goalie Jonathan Quick became the Kings' all-time leader in shutouts and Jeff Carter and Anze Kopitar scored power-play goals in a 2-0 win Thursday against the Buffalo Sabres at Staples Center. Quick made 29 saves for his 33rd career shutout, one more than Rogie Vachon. Ironically, it was Quick's first game against Buffalo since he injured his groin last season, an injury that sidelined him for two months. Quick has had a much sunnier start to this season; he has stopped 143 of 145 shots in the past four games after his recovery from wrist surgery spilled into the preseason. Carter continued his line's hot streak; he, Tanner Pearson and Tyler Toffoli have accounted for 12 of the Kings' 16 non-shootout goals this season. Kopitar, on the other hand, re-emerged with his second goal this season when he finished a give-and-go with Carter at 15:11 of the second period. Kings forward Jordan Nolan played against his father, Buffalo coach Ted Nolan, for the first time in an NHL game. But that was the only feel-good aspect for Buffalo, which was shut out for the third time in four games and has scored one goal in that span. Carter's fourth goal of the season came 36 seconds into the game on a wrist shot from the left circle with Pearson screening Sabres goalie Jhonas Enroth (37 saves) and defenseman Tyler Myers in the penalty box for hooking. Myers, who leads the Sabres in ice time, was in the box for both goals and took himself off the ice for a total of 8:52 on the night. The Kings got an important part of their defense back when defensemanJake Muzzin made his season debut in L.A.'s first game without suspended Slava Voynov. Muzzin, cleared from an upper-body injury Wednesday, played 20:20. Buffalo, which dressed 11 forwards and seven defensemen, was down to 10 forwards when Drew Stafford took a 10-minute misconduct penalty in the first period. Sabres defenseman Nikita Zadorov made his season debut. Jordan Nolan played 12:38, considerably higher than his 9:37 average.
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