Thursday, January 07
Philadelphia Flyers @ Minnesota Wild 4-3 OT
Michael Del Zotto busted out of a goal-scoring slump in a big way against the Wild. Del Zotto scored twice, including the overtime winner with 37 seconds remaining in the extra period to give the Flyers a 4-3 win at Xcel Energy Center.
His winner capped a pretty tic-tac-toe passing play orchestrated by Claude Giroux entering the zone and Jakub Voracek at the left circle. Del Zotto turned on Voracek's touch pass quickly and shot the puck past Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk. Flyers goaltender Steve Mason made 31 saves, including 12 in the third period and five more in overtime. Minnesota are 1-7 in overtime and hasn't won in the extra period since a 3-2 victory against the Carolina Hurricanes on Nov. 12. Sean Couturier and Ryan White scored for the Flyers, and Brayden Schenn had two assists. Schenn has at least a point in three consecutive games for the first time in his NHL career. Minnesota got goals from Marco Scandella, Jason Zucker and Zach Parise, and Dubnyk had 32 saves. The Flyers outshot the Wild 36-34, including 26-16 through the second period. Minnesota saved its best for the final 20 minutes, outshooting Philadelphia 13-6 in the third. Couturier scored at 7:49 of the first period, taking advantage of a nice play by Michael Raffl, who beat Matt Dumba to a loose puck along the left wall, skated behind the net and swung a pass to Couturier on the doorstep. Scandella's slap shot from the left point tied the game at 1-1 at 14:41 of the first. Del Zotto and White scored goals 52 seconds apart in the second period to give the Flyers a 3-1 lead at 9:54 of the second period. Del Zotto worked a give-and-go with Schenn, capping a 3-on-2 break by finishing Schenn's centering pass from the right wing with a tap-in. White shoveled a loose puck into an open net after Dubnyk stopped Chris VandeVelde with a poke check in front. Zucker's breakaway goal at 15:58 of the second got the Wild back within a goal headed to the third. He created a turnover at the Minnesota blue line, poked the puck to himself at center for a breakaway, and then beat Mason five-hole for his 11th goal. Parise tied it 3-3 at 13:36 of the third period, taking advantage of a misplay behind the net by Mason that allowed him to shoot the puck into an open net. Philadelphia rookie Shayne Gostisbehere sustained a lower-body injury with four minutes left in the first period when he was tripped by Mikko Koivu. Gostisbehere played two shifts in the second period, but he did not return after leaving at 5:08 of the period.
Mike Yeo: "It's pretty hard to say that we should play that OT differently. Obviously, they scored a goal, but we dominated overtime, and then they scored one. That's what we have to do. Every game is a new one, and we obviously have a long way to go to make the playoffs, but hopefully we're saving some magic for the playoffs in overtime."
Jason Zucker: "We looked a little tired, a little slow, myself included. [I] made a few plays that right after it happens you go, 'I don't know why I just did that,' type thing. That's the way it goes sometimes; it's a long year, but the guys really responded well and really played well in the third."
Friday, January 08
Buffalo Sabres @ Chicago Blackhawks 1-3
Phillip Danault is making up for lost time with the Chicago Blackhawks, who used the rookie center's first NHL goal to defeat the Buffalo Sabres 3-1 at United Center on Friday for their sixth straight win. Danault, who missed the season's first two-plus months after offseason hip surgery, scored the winner less than four minutes after Ryan O'Reilly tied it 1-1 at 11:37 of the third period with his 17th goal. It was the 11th career NHL game and 10th this season for Danault, who was selected by Chicago with the 26th pick in the 2011 NHL Draft. Danault's goal made up for his line being on the ice for O'Reilly's. Chicago got goals from Niklas Hjalmarsson in the first period and center Jonathan Toews into an empty net with 24.5 seconds left. Corey Crawford made 28 saves and won his fourth straight start. Patrick Kane had a five-game point streak end, but he had a season-high nine shots on goal. Chicago outshot Buffalo 45-29 and had a 70-53 advantage in total shot attempts. Danault's goal qualified as one of those. He showed a burst of speed on the play that he said wasn't there prior to the surgery. After getting the puck from Duncan Keith in the neutral zone, Danault entered the Buffalo zone and took a wrist shot from the left faceoff dot that beat Sabres goalie Chad Johnson to the short side. After playing through his injury last season in the American Hockey League, Danault opted for surgery despite having a good chance to make the Blackhawks roster in training camp. He was sidelined four months, but the wait eventually paid off. Danault was recalled after Marcus Kruger sustained a fractured bone in his left wrist that required surgery. He made his season debut in Chicago's 3-2 shootout victory in Buffalo on Dec. 19. Johnson made 42 saves for the Sabres, who lost their sixth straight game. O'Reilly has scored a goal in the past two games and in three of four. He credited Johnson for keeping Buffalo in the game. Hjalmarsson opened the scoring with 1:34 left in the first with his second goal of the season and first since Nov. 28 at the Los Angeles Kings (18 games). Assists went to Toews and rookie Erik Gustafsson, whose short slap pass gave Hjalmarsson the puck alone in the slot. Neither team scored in the second period despite a combined 31 shots, with the Blackhawks outshooting the Sabres 19-12. Johnson made several saves to prevent goals on good scoring chances in the second and third.
O'Reilly's goal prevented Crawford from adding to his NHL-high six shutouts. Jamie McGinn collected the puck after a board battle deep in the Blackhawks zone, carried it toward the back of the net and sent it to O'Reilly for a snap shot that beat Crawford from the low slot. Danault countered with his goal 3:24 later to put Chicago back in front.
Phillip Danault: "I was anxious [to get the first goal], but all the guys were telling me, 'Phil, keep going, you're on the right path,' and they were right. The first goal is hard to get for some guys, [and] some guys not. For me, it was hard to get, but a big achievement. I saw an opening. I saw it [go in] right away, so that was a big feeling for me."
"It was obviously disappointing [having surgery], but sometimes in hockey you take a step back and it brings you more positive things. It ended up happening to me. Obviously, I'm lucky to be here, since [Kruger] is hurt. I want to [make the most] of my chance."
Corey Crawford: "We're playing the way we're supposed to play. We're not taking risks around the ice. We're not putting pucks in areas you're not supposed to. [We're] taking what we get and also moving our feet [and] playing as a team. We're getting some key goals too throughout this stretch."
Nashville Predators @ Colorado Avalanche 3-5
Tyson Barrie scored a tie-breaking power-play goal midway through the third period and the Avalanche defeated the Predators 5-3 at Pepsi Center for their third consecutive win. Barrie broke a 3-3 tie at 11:00. He was at the top of the faceoff circles when he ripped a shot past goalie Pekka Rinne, who was screened by Gabriel Landeskog, with three seconds left on Miikka Salomaki's penalty for tripping Alex Tanguay. Jack Skille scored an empty-net goal just before the final buzzer, and Semyon Varlamov made 19 saves for Colorado, who have a 9-2-1 record against Central Division teams and has gone 9-2-2 in its past 13 games.
Barrie, who has three goals and three assists in a three-game scoring streak, said he was yelling for Nick Holden to pass him the puck before he scored his seventh goal of the season. Center Ryan Johansen, acquired by the Predators from the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday, had a power-play goal 2:35 into the game and an assist on linemate Filip Forsberg's second-period goal.
Ryan Ellis also scored and Rinne made 22 saves for Nashville. The Predators and Avalanche each have 45 points, but Nashville holds the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference because it has played one fewer game. Forsberg's goal at 16:37 of the second period tied the game 3-3. He scored on a shot from the left hash marks for his first goal in five games and 11th of the season. The Avalanche had gone ahead 3-2 on Landeskog's 10th goal at 7:40. Blake Comeau made a long pass to Carl Soderberg, who skated down left wing on a 2-on-1 with Landeskog on the right and Shea Weber the lone defender back. Soderberg passed across and Nashville's Eric Nystrom raced back to tip the puck, but Landeskog gained control and poked it inside the right post. The Predators tied it 2-2 at 2:45 of the period on Ellis' fifth goal. Mattias Ekholm fed Ellis in the middle of the left circle for a one-timer that beat Varlamov to the glove side. After Johansen gave Nashville an early lead, Jarome Iginla and Cody McLeod scored 2:55 apart late in the first period to put Colorado ahead 2-1. Iginla poked the puck inside the left post at 14:50 for his 12th goal of the season and the 601st of his NHL career, tying Jari Kurri for 18th place on the all-time list. With Craig Smith off for holding, Nathan MacKinnon took a shot that Rinne stopped, but Soderberg slid the puck to Iginla just outside the crease. McLeod scored his seventh of the season at 17:45 after Skille outworked Roman Josi for the puck behind the net. Skille passed to McLeod at the edge of the crease for a shot that went past Rinne's right arm. Johansen scored on his new team's first shot of the game. McLeod was in the penalty box for charging when Johansen set up at the bottom of the left circle and beat Varlamov to the short side for his seventh goal of the season.
Patrick Roy: "It was another solid performance by our team tonight. We took the lead on the power play and I was very happy to see that we didn't change our game, kept going at them. We were there to play solid hockey, smart hockey. Made good decisions, good management."
Tyson Barrie: "I think one of their guys lost his stick, broke his stick or whatever. It was a good play by Holden. The puck went to him and their guy went back to the bench for a stick. I was screaming for it and he made a nice pass to me and I tried to get it on net."
"To think a month ago we were nine points behind these guys says a lot about our club, what we've been able to do and how hard we've worked. It's nice to see results. There's a lot of season left, but I think we're building towards something and we're getting better every night."
Gabriel Landeskog: "Somebody was backchecking hard, it got tipped and instincts just take over. You see a puck laying there and you poke it in. Good play by Carl and Comeau."
Ryan Johansen: "It is definitely nice to get something early like that. Hopefully, I can use that as some confidence and move forward in shooting the puck. It's too bad we couldn't find a way to win this one. It would have been a lot cooler. I felt pretty comfortable. I made some mistakes on the power play systematically, but what matters is it's a lot easier when you have guys like [James] Neal on the one side and Forsberg on the other. They made it a lot easier out there for me and I had fun even though we didn't come out on top."
Peter Laviolette: "[Johansen] was really good. I thought he had a solid game, Neal was good, he was good. Filip was good when he went up on that line."
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