Pittsburgh v Buffalo 4-3 - When Sidney
Crosby comes to Buffalo, so do the points. In the Pittsburgh
Penguins' 4-3 victory against the Buffalo
Sabres on Sunday at First Niagara Center, Crosby recorded a goal
and two assists and that's nothing new for the Penguins' captain.
Crosby has points in 20 of 22 games against the Sabres and at least
one point in 14 consecutive games. He also has eight goals and 11
assists when playing at First Niagara Center in his career, earning
at least one point in each of his 13 games here. Defenseman Paul
Martin scored the game-winner with 2:04 to play in the third
period. The puck was poked off of Crosby's stick in the Buffalo zone
and ended up on Martin's tape just after he came off the bench.
Martin's shot from the point deflected off Sabres defenseman
Christian
Ehrhoff and past goaltender Ryan
Miller. Crosby's line with Pascal
Dupuis and Chris
Kunitz stepped up for the Penguins. Dupuis scored twice and
Kunitz recorded three assists. Crosby assisted on the team's two
third period goals and has six points in his last three games.
Buffalo's goals came from Cody
Hodgson, Thomas
Vanek and Steve
Ott. Vanek extended his lead as the NHL's top scorer with 12
goals and 25 points on the year. With three points in this game,
Crosby now trails Vanek by one. Goaltender Marc-Andre
Fleury made 30 saves for the Penguins and Miller stopped 31 shots
for Buffalo. Pittsburgh scored two goals in the first 1:27 of the
game to take a 2-0 lead but the Sabres managed to tie it up heading
into the third period. Ott gave Buffalo a 3-2 lead 5:17 into the
third period. Nathan
Gerbe had a shot blocked by Penguins defenseman Brooks
Orpik and the puck deflected into the middle of the ice and onto
Ott's stick. A quick wrist shot from Ott beat Fleury. The Sabres
rallied in the third period to beat the Boston Bruins on Friday, but
their efforts Sunday afternoon came up short. Pittsburgh was quick to
respond. Kris
Letang pinched into the Buffalo zone and sent a pass across the
ice to Dupuis, who ripped a one-timer past Miller at 7:06 of the
period to tie the game, 3-3. Pittsburgh opened the scoring 35 seconds
in on their first shot of the game. Kunitz picked up a turnover by
Hodgson behind the Sabres net and sent the puck back to Orpik at the
left point. Orpik fired a shot on goal that Dupuis deflected in past
Miller. The Penguins have scored the opening goal in all 10 of their
road games this season and improve to 8-2-0 away from home.
Pittsburgh went on the power play 33 seconds later when defenseman
Tyler Myers
was sent to the box for high sticking. Crosby scored his seventh goal
of the season 19 seconds into the man advantage when a shot from the
point by Evgeni
Malkin caromed off the end boards to Miller's left and right to
Crosby. The Penguins captain tucked the puck over the goal line to
give his team a 2-0 lead. Pittsburgh has scored a power-play goal in
eight consecutive games. Against the Sabres last season, the Penguins
went 6-for-14 with the man advantage and were 1-for-4 on Sunday.
Buffalo battled back with a goal from Hodgson at the 6:32 mark to cut
Pittsburgh's lead to 2-1. Fleury put a rebound from an Ehrhoff point
shot right into Hodgson. After settling the puck down and knocking it
out of Joe
Vitale's reach, Hodgson fired a shot over the glove of a
sprawling Fleury. Hodgson has scored in consecutive games of the
Sabres and has seven this season. Buffalo and Pittsburgh became the
first teams to combine for three goals on the first four shots of the
game since the Sabres and the Atlanta Thrashers played each other on
March 16, 2010. Midway through the first during 4-on-4 play, Miller
stopped a shot by Crosby and Tyler
Ennis blocked a shot from Kunitz shot while Miller was down on
the ice with his back to the shooter. Fleury made a big save of his
own when he stopped Vanek on a point blank opportunity in front of
the net a few minutes later. Vanek tied the game at two with a rare
power-play goal against the Penguins 9:16 into the second period.
With Crosby in the box for cross checking, Penguins forward Tanner
Glass was called for a face-off violation, putting the Sabres on
a 5-on-3 power play for 1:58. Vanek lifted his leg to deflect
Ehrhoff's wrist shot from the top of the right faceoff circle with 23
seconds left in Crosby's penalty. Buffalo's last power play goal
against the Penguins came on Dec. 11, 2010 when Ennis scored in a 5-2
loss. Letang had a chance to give the Penguins the lead back on the
power play but hit the crossbar with 6:29 left in the second period.
Buffalo's best opportunities to take the lead came on a power play
late in the third period. The Sabres generated traffic and had clean
looks, but ripped most of their shots way wide of Fleury. Miller
preserved the tie game with 3:08 to play when he moved post to post
to snag a one-timer from James
Neal with his glove. Defenseman Andrej
Sekera missed the game for Buffalo with a charley horse he
sustained on Friday against the Bruins.
Los Angeles v Chicago 2-3 - The Los
Angeles Kings came into United Center with a chance for revenge
and an opportunity to cut the Chicago
Blackhawks’ bid for an NHL record short by a couple of games.
Instead, the Blackhawks ultimately did to the Kings at the "Madhouse
on Madison Street" what they did to them at Staples Center in
the season-opener. Chicago downed the defending Stanley Cup champions
3-2 on Sunday afternoon by controlling the first two periods and
hanging on to secure the win despite a pair of Mike
Richards power-play goals in the third period. The Blackhawks
(12-0-3) still haven’t lost in regulation and are now tied with the
1984-85 Edmonton Oilers at 15 straight games to start a season with
at least a point earned. The win puts them one game away from tying
the 2006-07 Anaheim Ducks for the NHL record, which they’ll have
a chance to accomplish on Tuesday night against the rival Vancouver
Canucks. The fun started early for everybody but the Kings (5-6-2) in
this game. The visitors started the day 12th in the Western
Conference, fifth in the Pacific Division and came in struggling
offensively despite winning their previous two games. The Kings then
found themselves down 2-0 after 20 minutes thanks to early goals by
Brent Seabrook
and Toews before Sharp potted the eventual game-winner just 56
seconds into in the second. Chicago also got a strong outing from
goalie Ray
Emery (25 saves), who won his second straight game pitching in
for injured Corey
Crawford (day-to-day, upper-body injury). Emery ran into the most
trouble in the third, when L.A. pressed and got both of its goals
from Richards off power plays. He scored both off slap shots, the
first from the point just 56 seconds into the period and the second
from the left circle at the 12:50 mark. The Kings unsuccessfully
pushed for the tie, even getting a late power-play in the last
minute, but couldn’t get another puck past Emery before the horn
sounded. Jonathan
Quick got the start for the Kings and made 34 saves to keep his
team within striking distance. He was busy all game, but especially
in the first, when Seabrook scored followed by Toews, who poked home
a rebound of his own shot in the crease to cap a power play 10:32
into the game. Seabrook’s goal came 3:33 earlier, when Keith set
him up perfectly in the bottom of the left circle with a cross-ice,
tape-to-tape slap pass. Quick couldn’t recover in time to stop the
shot and was also missing his stick thanks to Blackhawks forward
Brandon
Bollig, who knocked it out on a brief collision outside the
crease and then blocked a Kings player’s efforts to slide it back.
Instead, it counted and highlighted an impressive shift by Chicago’s
fourth line, which has stood out the past few games. Leading up to
Seabrook’s tally, just 11 seconds prior, Quick was forced to make a
sprawling highlight-reel save on Marcus
Kruger’s backhand attempt from point-blank range. The second
period looked about the same as the first, with the Blackhawks taking
a 3-0 lead on Sharp’s goal, his third of the season and first since
Jan. 24, a span of 10 games that saw him ring a number of shots off
posts and crossbars. This time, Sharp pounced on a loose puck in the
slot and buried a wrister over a sprawled Quick, who’d gone down to
stop a tip-shot by Toews near the right post. Another great bounce
and another golden opportunity seized by the NHL’s hottest team.
Boston v Winnipeg 3-2 - Conventional wisdom around the National Hockey
League is the rowdy MTS Centre crowd is supposed to smooth over the
Winnipeg Jets’
various blemishes. But the Boston
Bruins fear no building and took a 3-2 decision Sunday evening
against the Jets. The win moved Boston’s road mark to 5-1-1 and
tempered the lingering sting of a sloppy loss against the Buffalo
Sabres on Friday night that kicked off a five-game journey for the
Bruins. A number of significant wins on Winnipeg ice last season,
including two wins against the Bruins, one of which snapped a 14-0-1
Boston streak, bolstered MTS Centre’s reputation around the League.
But visitors to the 15,015-seat building have adjusted, and the
home-ice advantage now seems a bit less formidable for a Winnipeg
team that has lost four straight games at home and won just three of
eight so far in Winnipeg this season. Winnipeg (5-8-1) sent only 24
shots at Boston goaltender Tuukka
Rask while Pavelec made 23 saves for the Jets. Winnipeg’s
Alexander
Burmistrov and Evander
Kane tallied for the hosts. Tyler
Seguin and Daniel
Paille also supplied goals for the Bruins, who played without
Milan Lucic.
Veteran Jay
Pandolfo made his season debut in place of Lucic, who returned to
Boston on Saturday to attend to a personal matter. Boston (9-2-2)
moved into second place in the Eastern Conference, while the Jets are
mired in 14th place. The Bruins erased two Winnipeg one-goal leads,
the second of them with 1.3 seconds left in the second period that
sent the game into the second intermission tied at two. Then
Winnipeg’s Ron
Hainsey pulled down Brad
Marchand in the third period’s opening minute. Twenty-seven
seconds later against the League’s worst penalty kill, Marchand
flipped a backhanded shot over Jets goaltender Ondrej
Pavelec’s glove for a one-goal lead that the Bruins nursed
through the final period. Boston spaced the tying and go-ahead goals
38 seconds apart. Marchand’s goal came on the only man-advantage of
the game for the Bruins, who began the evening ranked 29th on the
power play. Recently the Bruins had held a meeting to discuss their
power play, Marchand disclosed. Moving the puck more crisply has been
an area of emphasis for Julien’s club. Meanwhile Boston’s
League-best penalty kill shut down a third-period Winnipeg power
play, holding the Jets without a shot. With a three-game homestand
that produced no upward movement in the Eastern Conference standings,
the Jets must now go on the road, a place that has tormented them
since their relocation to Winnipeg before last season. Starting
Tuesday against the Sabres, the Jets face a five-game road trip that
will begin a stretch of nine of 11 games away from Winnipeg. The Jets
have won only two of their first six road contests and will depart
Winnipeg without defenseman Tobias
Enstrom, who had an MRI Saturday for an injury suffered Friday.
Winnipeg again struggled to muster a strong first-period inside of
MTS Centre. Opponents have outscored Winnipeg 15-7 in first periods
this season, and Winnipeg managed only five shots through the opening
20 minutes. An inability to put pucks on net, an issue for much of
the season, continued as well, as the Jets registered 12 missed
shots. In all, Boston blocked 20 Winnipeg shots, and the Jets missed
on another 26 attempts. However, the Jets rebounded early in the
second period, scoring first for only the fifth time this season.
Zach Bogosian
launched a heavy shot from just inside the Boston blue line along the
boards. Bogosian’s shot climbed on Rask, who failed to smother it.
Burmistrov eluded Bruins defender Dougie
Hamilton and tapped the rebound low past Rask’s left glove at
1:43. The goal provided their Jets their first lead in a span of
141:43 dating back to a Feb. 9 win road win against the Ottawa
Senators. Boston answered halfway through the middle period. Seguin
jabbed a rising left-side shot from Zdeno
Chara that the bounced through Pavelec’s legs with 9:03 to go
in the period. Seguin’s was only his third after a 29-goal output
last season. Kane broke his eight-game goal drought with 26.3 seconds
left in the second period. Burmistrov work the puck in the right
corner to Nikolai
Antropov, who backhanded a pass into the slot to Kane. Rask
stopped Kane’s first chance before the big Winnipeg left wing
outmuscled Nathan
Horton and Dennis
Seidenberg and battered his own rebound past Rask. But Boston
again broke a Winnipeg lead. Johnny
Boychuk sent a long shot from the right point into the slot that
Paille redirected between Pavelec’s pads with 1.5 seconds left in
the second period to set up Marchand’s third-period strike.
Calgary v Dallas 4-3 - After surrendering three unanswered goals in the
second period, the Calgary
Flames erupted for three unanswered of their own in the third to
hand the Dallas Stars
a 4-3 defeat before 17,340 fans at American Airlines Center on
Sunday. In that decisive final 20 minutes, Calgary got goals from
Roman Horak,
Matt Stajan
and Steve
Begin, who all scored for the first time this season. The Flames
also received a 27-save performance from Joey
MacDonald, who made his first start since joining the team on
Feb. 13. It was also MacDonald's first NHL start since March of last
year, when he was with Detroit. Richard
Bachman stopped 22 of the 26 shots he faced for Dallas in a
losing effort. The Flames took an early 1-0 lead when Michael
Cammalleri netted his fourth goal in two games against Dallas
this season just 8:11 into the game. Shooting from one knee from just
inside the right circle, Cammalleri's wrister sailed over Bachman's
right shoulder for a power-play tally. After trailing 1-0 at the
first intermission, Dallas took a 2-1 lead with goals by Cody
Eakin and Reilly
Smith just 56 seconds apart early in the second period. After the
Stars began the period on the power play, Eakin tied it at 1-1 with a
45-foot wrister that beat MacDonald short side as he was screened by
Dallas forward Antoine Rousssel. Smith then netted his second career
tally and second in as many nights, lifting a backhand into the left
side of the Calgary net at 2:47. The Stars' rookie had initially
collected a rebound off a long-range shot by Derek
Roy and after his initial attempt was denied by MacDonald, Smith
was able to put it home to give the Stars a 2-1 lead. The Stars added
a third unanswered tally late in the second when Ryan
Garbutt netted his third goal of the season off a rebound at
15:23. Garbutt had laid the puck off to Robidas as the two were
streaking up the ice and after Robidas' initial shot was stopped by
MacDonald, Garbutt collected the rebound at the far post for an easy
tap-in to make it 3-1. Dallas finished the second period with a
season-high 22 shots. The Stars played the final period with just
five healthy defensemen after Trevor
Daley was unable to return after suffering an upper-body injury
late in the second. However, Calgary tied the game early in the third
with a pair of goals within 45 seconds. Horak beat Bachman with a
wrister at 1:39 of the third after the Dallas netminder had made a
pad save on a shot by Jay
Bouwmeester. Horak then flicked the ensuing carom into the right
side of the Dallas net to make it 3-2. Stajan then tied it at 2:24
with a 15-foot snap that Bachman had little chance of stopping.
Curtis
Glencross started the play from behind the Dallas goal by
flipping the puck to Lee
Stempniak, who was in front of the crease. Stempniak then fed
Stajan for the easy goal. The Flames then took the lead at 10:30 of
the third, when Begin netted his first of the season, beating Bachman
to his left with a wrister. Chris
Butler had taken a slap shot from near the blue line, but that
blast was deflected with the carom falling to Begin, who quickly
converted to make it 4-3. It was Begin's first regular-season goal
since May 1, 2010 when he was with Boston.
Detroit v Minnesota 2-3 - Just 20 seconds into the second period, the
Minnesota Wild
looked dead in the water. After being outshot 14-8 and outscored 1-0
by the Detroit Red
Wings in the first period, Pavel
Datsyuk's snipe from the left circle looked like the final straw
for a team that's struggled this season to score more than one or two
goals. But in the span of about four minutes that all changed. The
Wild rallied with three second-period goals and rallied to defeat
Detroit by a 3-2 score Sunday at Xcel Energy Center. Instead of
galvanizing the Wings, Datsyuk's goal turned out to be a game-changer
for Minnesota. Wild coach Mike Yeo said it "ticked" his
team off. The team won the next shift, and the one after that,
stringing together quality shifts for the first time all night.
Finally, Dany
Heatley scored at the 9:35 mark of the frame and the floodgates
opened. Heatley's goal came after hard work in front by linemate
Mikko Koivu,
who's rebound came free to Heatley in the slot. His off-speed shot
seemed to catch Detroit goaltender Petr
Mrazek off guard as the puck went 5-hole for Heatley's fifth of
the season and first since Jan. 27, a span of 10 games. Just under
four minutes later, the Wild tied it on an electrifying play by
rookie Jason
Zucker, just called up from the Houston Aeros of the American
Hockey League. Zucker won a pair of puck battles in his own zone,
chipped it ahead to himself at the blue line and raced down the right
side, leading a 2-on-1 break. He snapped a wrister, beating Mrazek
blocker side for his first National Hockey League goal. It was
nothing new for Wild goaltender Darcy
Kuemper, who has watched Zucker terrorize the AHL for goals 19
times this season. Kuemper, another one of the five players skating
with Minnesota 22-years of age or younger, was solid himself,
stopping 29 shots to earn his first NHL win. Not a bad night for
Kuemper, who figured to back-up Niklas
Backstrom Sunday. About five minutes before the end of warmups,
Backstrom fell ill and Kuemper was leaned on to make just his second
big-league start and first at home. He stopped the final 17 shots he
saw to preserve the victory. Minnesota grabbed the lead for good just
32 seconds after Zucker's goal, as Mikael
Granlund won a faceoff to Mrazek's right and tied up his opponent
so wing Torrey
Mitchell could swoop in. He flipped a backhanded shot past Mrazek
for his first of the season and with the Wild. Mitchell, who's
rotated between the third and fourth line for Minnesota this season,
signed with the team last summer just days before the team added both
Zach Parise
and Ryan Suter
in free agency. Damien
Brunner also scored for Detroit, his seventh of the year, giving
the Wings a 1-0 lead at 8:48 of the first period. Datsyuk had an
assist on Brunner's tally and Henrik
Zetterberg tallied helpers on each of Detroit's goals. The
victory for Minnesota evens their record with Detroit this season and
in the standings. Both teams are now 7-6-2, tied with the Phoenix
Coyotes for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western
Conference.
Washington v NY Rangers 1-2 - The New
York Rangers are slowly rounding into the form that helped them
run away with the Eastern Conference last season and made them one of
the favorites to win the Stanley Cup this season. After heading to
the first intermission down a goal and with nothing to show for
barraging Washington
Capitals goaltender Braden
Holtby with 20 shots, the Rangers never became frustrated and
were rewarded with a 2-1 victory Sunday night at Madison Square
Garden. It was the Rangers' fourth win in five games and they
improved to 8-3-1 since opening the season with two straight
regulation losses. The Rangers found themselves in a 1-0 hole after
the first period, but only because of a stellar performance from
Holtby. Of his 20 first-period saves, six came against Rick
Nash, who suited up despite being a game-time decision because of
an undisclosed injury. A relentless attack culminated with Carl
Hagelin scoring his sixth goal of the season, and fifth in the
past four games, in the second period and Derek
Stepan's game-winner on the power play early in the third period.
Lundqvist credited the specials teams for this recent stretch, and
rightfully so. The Rangers are 16-for-16 in killing penalties and
3-for-18 on the power play over the past five games. Scoring on one
of every six chances with the man advantage may not sound like much,
but it's a marked improvement for a team that started the year
3-for-35 on the power play. Stepan's power-play goal at 4:25 of the
third period looked like something from a unit that has been sizzling
all season. It took the Rangers just seven seconds to score after
Capitals defenseman Karl
Alzner was sent to the penalty box for tripping Brad
Richards. The Rangers controlled the puck off the draw, and
that's when the passing clinic commenced. Richards moved the puck to
defenseman Michael
Del Zotto at the right face-off circle. Del Zotto whipped a pass
to Stepan at the far post, and Holtby, who made 38 saves, was unable
to make what would've been his most brilliant stop of the night. The
loss snapped a three-game win streak for the Capitals, who sit in
last place in the East with 11 points, six points behind the
seventh-place Rangers. It's been a struggle for first-year coach Adam
Oates, who felt the bad outweighed the good Sunday night. Defenseman
John Carlson
put the Capitals ahead 1-0 just 1:19 into the game with a blistering
slap shot that would serve as the team's lone offensive bright spot.
One of those mistakes was losing coverage in their own zone midway
through the second period, when the Caps allowed Hagelin to get
position in near the crease for a redirection goal that tied the
score at 1-1. The Capitals had a chance to clear their zone, but
Rangers defenseman Ryan
McDonagh held the puck in the zone and played behind the net.
Nash eventually worked the puck from the half-wall back to McDonagh
at the point, and his ensuing slap pass hit Hagelin's stick and slid
into an open net behind Holtby. While Richards and Marian
Gaborik have struggled of late, Hagelin has found instant
chemistry working with Nash. This Rangers' win was similar to the one
they had at home against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Jan. 26. They
went to the locker room after the first period down 2-0 in that
contest, but dominated play and outshot the Leafs 14-3. They never
wavered from their game plan, wearing down the Leafs for a 5-2
victory. While the deficit Thursday wasn't as large and the victory
not as nearly as lopsided, the message was the same with the Rangers,
just stick with it. There was a scary moment early in the second
period when Rangers forward Darroll
Powe took the brunt of an accidental collision with Capitals
forward Matt
Hendricks in the neutral zone. They didn't see each other until
the last second, and Hendricks ducked under Powe, who flipped to the
ice and hit his head. Powe had to be helped off after laying on the
ice for about two minutes and did not return. Tortorella had no
update on Powe's status after the game.
St Louis v Vancover 4-3 - Jake
Allen skated over to the St.
Louis Blues' bench, where the coaches had an iPad loaded with
clips of the Vancouver
Canucks he was likely about to face in a shootout. The rookie
goalie didn't want to know what was coming, a philosophy that's
serving him well in three straight wins to start his National Hockey
League career. Allen made 18 of his 28 saves in the third period and
overtime, then added two more stops in the shootout to lead the Blues
to a 4-3 win against the Vancouver
Canucks on Sunday night. The Blues are having fun again, sweeping
a three-game road trip after losing the previous five games. All
three wins have come in front of Allen, who quickly shook off Mason
Raymond's tying power-play goal with 1:47 left, robbing Alexandre
Burrows on a breakaway late in overtime, and turning aside Ryan
Kesler and Burrows in the shootout. He got some help Sunday from
T.J. Oshie
and Andy
McDonald, who each scored in regulation and the shootout as the
Blues twice came form behind before Vladimir
Sobotka gave them a lead against the flow of play eight minutes
into the third period. St. Louis got goals from its top three lines
to complete a road sweep that started with wins against the Detroit
Red Wings on Wednesday and Calgary Flames on Friday. Allen, called up
from the American Hockey League after Jaroslav
Halak hurt his groin and put in when Brian
Elliott struggled, won all three, and may have earned another
start even though Halak was healthy enough to back up Sunday. The
Blues host the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday before visiting the
Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday. For now, Hitchcock is happy to have
his team going again, though it wasn't always perfect against a
Canucks' team that had a six-game losing streak snapped on Friday
night. After limiting Vancouver to four shots in the second period,
the Canucks outshot St. Louis 15-3 in the third, tying the game on
the last of three-straight power plays. Allen wasn't overly busy
early, but made six saves during that flurry early in the third,
turning Burrows aside in tight a couple times shortly before Sobotka
scored the go-ahead goal against the flow of play. Kesler and Henrik
Sedin each scored their first goals of the season for the
Canucks, who have blown leads the last two games. Roberto
Luongo, back in goal after Cory
Schneider started three of four, finished with 20 saves, but was
beaten by both attempts in the shootout and wasn't happy with the
first two goals he gave up. After Kesler opened the scoring on an
early power play, and in his second game after missing more than nine
months following shoulder and wrist surgeries, Oshie shoveled a
rebound into an empty net after Luongo got caught moving the wrong
way on a Backes shot. Sedin restored the lead on a nice give-and-go
with Burrows with 50 seconds left in the period, but McDonald had
another empty net and hit it from a sharp angle after Vladimir
Tarasenko hit the post. He didn't have much of a chance on the
go-ahead goal. After Allen turned away the Canucks flurry early in
the third period, Sobotka circled out from behind the net to Luongo's
left and fired a shot from the faceoff dot through a Patrick
Berglund's screen and over the goalie's left shoulder for his first
goal in nine games. Allen, who was stranded on Raymond's tying goal
did the rest, flashing the glove on Burrows' backhand late in
overtime.
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