Gameday 2 - Sun, 20 Jan

Philadelphia v Buffalo 2-5 - The Buffalo Sabres were a middle of the pack team on the power play in 2011-12, but they looked like an elite bunch with the extra man Sunday. Thomas Vanek had five points and Tyler Myers scored Buffalo's third power-play goal of the afternoon late in the third period to propel the Sabres past the Philadelphia Flyers 5-2 at First Niagara Center. Myers' shot from near the left point ricocheted off Philadelphia defenseman Kimmo Timonen and past goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov with 5:03 left in the third period of Buffalo's season-opening contest, breaking a 2-2 tie. Cody Hodgson, in his first full season with the Sabres and playing between Vanek and Jason Pominville, added an insurance goal just 76 seconds later. With Myers and Philadelphia's Scott Hartnell in the box, Hodgson put the rebound of a Vanek breakaway chance past Bryzgalov. Vanek sealed the victory with an empty-net tally with 47.4 seconds left. Pominville finished with three assists. It appeared as though Philadelphia might have gotten one back when the scored was still 4-2 with Bryzgalov on the bench for an extra attacker, but play was whistled dead as the puck was squirting past a crowd in the Buffalo crease and into the Sabres' net. Vanek's second goal of the game came seconds later. The loss capped a lost weekend for the Flyers, who were beaten 3-1 at home by Pittsburgh on Saturday. One thing the Flyers have to fix is the penalty-killing. After allowing Pittsburgh to score twice in three tries on Saturday, Philadelphia surrendered three power-play goals on six chances to the Sabres. Sabres forward Steve Ott, acquired from Dallas during the summer, needed a little more than 11 minutes to provide an impact for his new club. His one-timer from the slot was the first extra-man tally of the day and gave Buffalo a 1-0 lead at 11:07 of the opening period. Philadelphia struck twice early in the second. Second-year center Sean Couturier deflected a Kurtis Foster shot past goalie Ryan Miller at 2:23. Giroux put the Flyers in front at 4:57, but Vanek drew the Sabres level at 15:54 with the team's second power-play goal of the game. Miller finished with 27 saves.
San Jose v Calgary 4-1 - After a disappointing finish last season, the San Jose Sharks knocked the rust off quickly and put the NHL on notice that they can still be dangerous. Patrick Marleau took a bite out of the festivities of the sellout crowd of 19,289 at Scotiabank Saddledome by scoring twice as San Jose found the back of the net three times in a four-minute span in the second period to defeat the Calgary Flames 4-1 Sunday night. After allowing 16 shots in an anxious opening 20 minutes, the Sharks settled down in the second period and took control of the game with three goals. Trailing 1-0 and with Chris Butler in the box for roughing, Joe Thornton pickpocketed Calgary defenseman Mark Giordano behind the net and fed a backhanded pass into the slot to a waiting Marleau, who beat goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff at 13:52 to tie the game. Kiprusoff thought he had squeezed Marc-Edouard Vlasic's point shot, but he dropped the puck to his left and onto the waiting stick of Martin Havlat, who tucked the puck into the open net at 15:05 to put the Sharks ahead to stay. Marleau added his second goal with 1:50 remaining in the period. Denied by the right pad of Kiprusoff, the six-time 30-goal scorer fired his own rebound into a wide-open net for a 3-1 lead. Goaltender Antti Niemi's poise in the first period paved the way for the Sharks' revival in the second. Though San Jose also allowed 12 shots in the final period, Niemi and the Sharks closed the door to thwart any comeback attempt by Calgary. The Flames' best opportunity to get within striking distance came with 6:54 remaining. After stopping Dennis Wideman's blast from the point, Niemi kicked out a rebound -- but he denied Calgary captain Jarome Iginla and Alex Tanguay in the ensuing scramble before San Jose was able to smother the puck. Dan Boyle iced the game during a 5-on-3 advantage for the Sharks, blasting a point shot under the pad of Kiprusoff with 60 seconds remaining in the game. Calgary came out with much more enthusiasm than the Sharks in the first period. With Havlat in the box for goaltender interference, Lee Stempniak took a pass on the half-wall from Jay Bouwmeester, skated to the top of the left faceoff circle and fired a wrist shot over Niemi's glove at 12:21 for Calgary's first goal of the season and a 1-0 lead. The Flames had plenty of opportunities to extend that lead but were thwarted by Niemi and his posts. Newcomer Steve begin came in on a partial breakaway a few minutes later while killing a penalty and fired a shot that caught Niemi's stick before bouncing off the crossbar. With 3:25 remaining, Mikael Backlund split Vlasic and Ryane Clowe to break in alone but was denied by the stick of Niemi. On the same shift, rookie Sven Baertschi struck iron, taking a feed in the slot and ringing it off the post. Calgary will have little time to recover from the loss, the Anaheim Ducks come to town on Monday. Backlund knows a short memory will be vital.
Pittsburgh v NY Rangers 6-3 - The marathon that is the NHL season has been reduced to something that falls between a furious sprint and a briskly paced 15K race. With the echo of the starter's pistol still in the air, the Pittsburgh Penguins have galloped to the front of the pack in the Eastern Conference. James Neal scored twice and Evgeni Malkin had three assists as the Penguins pounded the New York Rangers 6-3 at Madison Square Garden for their second road win in as many days against two of the conference's elite squads. The Penguins ran roughshod over the Rangers and chased reigning Vezina Trophy winner Henrik Lundqvist with four goals on 18 shots before the game was half-over. Tomas Vokoun, signed to back up incumbent starting goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, was tremendous over the first two periods and earned the win in his first start with 31 saves. After building an early lead in Philadelphia on Saturday and slipping past the Flyers for a 3-1 win, the Penguins followed that performance with a far more convincing victory. These two wins for Pittsburgh have infused the Penguins with confidence, but the two losses the Rangers suffered this weekend at the hands of the Bruins and Penguins have been the result of ineptitude in nearly every facet. The Rangers fell behind early and failed to recover after a sloppy first 30 minutes Saturday against the Boston Bruins and eventually fell 3-1. On Sunday, it was yet another game in which the mistakes and costly penalties doomed the Rangers against a quality opponent. Brad Richards took an interference penalty 37 seconds into the contest, and Neal made the Rangers pay with the first of his two goals. Neal was left alone at the top of the left circle and snapped a shot past Lundqvist to open the scoring. The Rangers killed all seven penalties against the Bruins on Saturday, but that was based largely on Lundqvist making 11 saves while shorthanded. The Penguins finished those chances on Sunday, going 2-for-5 with the extra man. Ryan Callahan equalized at the 9:55 mark during a 5-on-3 power play, but two mistakes by Rangers blueliners led to goals that put the Penguins ahead for good. First, Tyler Kennedy scored his second goal of the year by stashing home the rebound of a Joe Vitale shot. Vitale stepped past defenseman Stu Bickel along the right-wing boards, drove to the net, and created the chaos that led to Kennedy reaping the benefits. Less than four minutes later, Niskanen scored from the blue line when his shot off a face-off win by Crosby hit the skate of Rangers defenseman Dan Girardi and skittered past Lundqvist to make it 3-1. The draw was set up when, after a turnover in the neutral zone with Marc Staal leading a rush, Penguins forward Tanner Glass countered with a shot from the slot that Lundqvist stopped and covered. Pascal Dupuis finished a tic-tac-toe passing play with the Penguins on a power play midway through the second period that ended Lundqvist's night. It was the first time since March 31, 2011 that he was removed from a game because of poor play (he left a game against the Edmonton Oilers last season due to a cramp). The Rangers went the entire 2011-12 season without removing a goaltender for ineffectiveness. Neal beat Martin Biron (19 saves on 20 shots) early in the third period to make it 5-1. Rick Nash and Taylor Pyatt scored their first goals as Rangers to make things interesting, but Penguins defenseman Kris Letang deposited the puck into an empty net to finish the scoring with 1:52 remaining. It was a particularly sweet victory for Vokoun, who missed the entire postseason with the Capitals in 2012 due to a lower-body injury and could only watch as the Rangers beat the Caps in seven games in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Now with the Penguins strictly as a backup, he was stellar in the early going before the Penguins pulled away. He stopped 21 of 22 shots over the first two periods and 12 of 13 in the first period when the game still could've gone either way. Things are going perfectly for the Penguins so far this season. They'll get two days of rest before their home opener against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night. The Rangers, meanwhile, get two days off as well before back-to-back games against the Bruins and Flyers. Everything is compressed and magnified in a shortened season, and right now, the Penguins are in the driver's seat in the Atlantic Division.
Dallas v Minnesota 0-1 - Just 24 hours after achieving a number of firsts as a member of the Minnesota Wild, Zach Parise checked some more items off his to-do list. Parise's one-timer from the high slot at 8:11 of the first period was his first goal as a member of the Wild and became his first game-winner as Minnesota defeated the Dallas Stars 1-0 Sunday night at Xcel Energy Center. With the teams skating 4-on-4, the puck came to Pierre-Marc Bouchard near the left circle. He dished it to Parise on his right, and goaltender rookie goaltender Cristopher Nilstrop had no chance, as Parise's blast snuck just inside the right post and tucked under the crossbar. Both teams were coming off home victories Saturday night and looked tired during the middle part of the game before the intensity picked up in the final five minutes. But Dallas' Trevor Daley committed a critical high sticking penalty with 2:01 remaining in regulation, making the task of tying the game that much tougher. Despite playing shorthanded, the Stars had perhaps the best chance of the night with 1:10 left in regulation. Minnesota defenseman Jared Spurgeon turned the puck over in the corner to Stars center Derek Roy, who fed a streaking Ray Whitney crashing from the point. The night was especially special for Harding, making his first start since announcing almost two months ago that he has multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system. Among the symptoms are loss of balance, numbness, problems moving ones legs and arms, problems walking and difficulties with coordination. Minnesota's 2-0-0 record is the first such start since 2008-09 when the Wild began the year 4-0-0. The Wild are off Monday before hosting Nashville to wrap a three-game homestand to start the season. It will also be Ryan Suter's first game against the Predators, the team he played with for the first seven seasons of his career. The Stars are also off until Tuesday when they play at Detroit.


Edmonton v Vancouver 3-2 - For a team with so much young, fresh talent, the Edmonton Oilers sure looked like an experienced group Sunday night. Trailing 2-0 midway through their season debut, the Oilers stuck with their game plan, never deviating or forcing things, earning the praise of their first-year coach and a 3-2 comeback win against the Vancouver Canucks. Jordan Eberle started the comeback with 3.1 seconds left in the second period, and Ales Hemsky tied it on a power play with 5:55 left in the third before combining with Sam Gagner to win it for the Oilers in the shootout. Eberle started the comeback with a perfect sharp-angle backhand shot off the rush and over Roberto Luongo late in the second period, and, after killing off a couple Canucks power plays, the Oilers converted one of their own to tie it. Hemsky, turned away on a couple good looks earlier in the game, took a pass from Gagner in the neutral zone and skated in alone down the right wing before lifting a shot from the faceoff dot under Luongo’s blocker. Gagner then beat Luongo with a backhand deke in the first round of the shootout, and after Devan Dubnyk stopped Alexander Edler and Alexandre Burrows, Hemsky sealed the comeback win with a slick deke through Luongo’s legs. Hemsky credited Oilers goaltending coach Frederic Chabot, who Krueger said made the shootout selections, for giving them a game plan in the one-on-one. It might not have gotten that far if not for Dubnyk, who made 27 saves through the end of overtime, including a Dale Weise breakaway early in the third period, and several good saves while blanking the Canucks on five power plays. At the other end, Luongo, who got the start just one night after replacing new No.1 Cory Schneider in a 7-3 loss to Anaheim, finished with 30 saves through overtime before being beat by both shootout attempts. Edler and Zack Kassian scored for the Canucks, who at least managed a point after a brutal debut against Anaheim the night before. Edler scored his second of the season, and third point after signing a six-year, $30-million contract extension on the eve of it Friday, shortly after helping kill off an Edmonton power play. Edler made a nice play to break up a good one-timer chance at one end, but as he skated out of his end the big defenseman missed teammate Maxim Lapierre coming out of the penalty box for a breakaway. Instead Edler kept the puck himself, walked over the line and leaned into a slap shot over Dubnyk’s blocker-side shoulder form the top of the faceoff circle. Kassian doubled the lead with 5:42 left in the second period after a spinning backhand pass out of the corner from Daniel Sedin, but Eberle cut into it late driving wide off the left wing and lifting a perfect backhand over the shoulder of Luongo, who dropped to a knee, and just inside the far post and crossbar.
Chicago v Phoenix 6-4 - If the NHL season had started in October, it would have started without Marian Hossa. Almost seven months after a serious concussion suffered in a hit from Phoenix’s Raffi Torres in the Western Conference Quarterfinals last April, Chicago’s high-scoring winger was just getting on the ice. And when he finally was cleared in mid-November, it was a slow transition to the speed of the game. Two months later, hockey is back and so is Hossa – and he’s proving it. He followed up a two-goal game in Los Angeles with two more goals Sunday; both came during a flurry of four straight Chicago goals in a 6-4 revenge win against the Phoenix team that ended their 2011-12 season earlier than expected. Torres came out with his Phoenix teammates for the unveiling of the first division title banner in franchise history, but he still had seven games left on his suspension for his illegal hit on Hossa in Game 4 of the playoff series. But Hossa is back and made his presence felt on the scoresheet, scoring what proved to be the game-winner 14 seconds into the third period. Dave Bolland added two goals and an assist and Patrick Sharp and Viktor Stalberg added one each during a four-goal outburst over a 10:24 span of the second and third periods as Chicago built a 5-2 lead and then held on. The Blackhawks have put up 11 goals in road wins over the defending Stanley Cup champion Kings and Pacific Division champion Coyotes to start the season – four by Hossa. While Chicago is off to a 2-0-0 start while beginning a season-opening stretch in which it plays 10 of its first 12 games on the road, the Coyotes are quickly 0-2-0 in this shortened season, with goalie Mike Smith and their vaunted defense allowing 10 goals. Phoenix captain Shane Doan scored in his 1,200th NHL game and Dave Moss, Antoine Vermette and Martin Hanzal added goals against shaky Chicago backup goalie Ray Emery, but two early one-goal Coyote leads were swallowed up quickly by the Blackhawks. The Coyotes led 1-0 and 2-1 thanks to goals by Moss and Vermette – one a soft goal Emery would have liked back and another on a rebound coughed up in the slot. But Phoenix couldn't keep the momentum going for long either time as errors, turnovers and poor decisions played right into Chicago’s hands. After getting only two shots in the first 10 minutes of the period, Chicago responded with an artful goal to begin its flurry. On the rush, Bolland slipped a short pass to Sharp in stride, and Sharp picked the far top corner over Smith's blocker at 9:50. Hossa gave Chicago its first lead at 17:34 with a wrister from the slot, and Stalberg found the short side 50 seconds later to make it 4-2. Hossa's second goal, a backhander that squeezed between Smith and the post, came just 14 seconds into the third period and gave the Hawks a three-goal lead. The Coyotes rallied with goals by Hanzal and Doan 50 seconds apart to cut the lead to one goal with 14:32 left, but Bollard popped a pretty Sharp feed up and over Smith just 22 seconds after Doan's goal to restore breathing room. The Hawks played without left wing Daniel Carcillo, who missed the second half of last season due to left knee surgery and is expected to miss a month with after injuring his right knee in the third period of Saturday's game.