Gameday 87 (Mon, 15 Apr) - Results

Ottawa v Boston PPD - Game postponed due to the tragic news earlier in the day from Boston. A re-arranged date, has not been announced as yet.

New Jersey v Toronto 0-2 - James Reimer outdueled Martin Brodeur and Phil Kessel broke a scoreless tie on Toronto's eighth shot of the game at 13:28 of the third period. Jay McClement cemented the win for the home team with a late empty-netter. For the second straight game, the Devils severely outshot the opposition, but could not score. Last Friday, while hosting the Ottawa Senators, the Devils outshot their guests 33-11, but lost 2-0. Against Toronto, the shots were 32-13 in favor of the Devils, but the score was the same. And it didn't help that the Maple Leafs have a hot goaltender of their own in Reimer. The loss for New Jersey equaled a club record set in 1983-84. The Devils have outshot their opponents 65-24 in the past two games, both 2-0 losses. The Maple Leafs' magic number to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs is now four. Any combination of points gained by Toronto or lost by the Winnipeg Jets adding up to four will guarantee the Maple Leafs a trip to the playoffs for the first time since 2004. Toronto's best chance to score in the first 45 minutes came five minutes into the third, when New Jersey defenseman Henrik Tallinder casually carried the puck in front of his team's net and momentarily lost control of it, nearly causing it to trickle past Brodeur. Brodeur had to make a legitimate save, his toughest of the game to that point, a few minutes later, when the Maple Leafs finally penetrated the Devils' zone with some speed. Kessel dropped a pass to linemate James van Riemsdyk, who snapped a shot that Brodeur knocked down with his trapper. Reimer produced his biggest save of the night to that point blocking a shot on Henrique, who was fortunate enough to have the puck come back to him. While Reimer was down, he somehow managed to get the rebound, too. Seconds after New Jersey defenseman Andy Greene hit the post, Reimer produced a remarkable splits save on Travis Zajac and about 30 seconds after that, he turned back David Clarkson. With New Jersey's Marek Zidlicky off for holding, Kessel finally figured out Brodeur with a snap shot from the top of the circle with 6:32 left in regulation, his 16th goal of the season and sixth in the past four games.

Philadelphia v Montreal 7-3 - The Montreal Canadiens became the third NHL team to clinch a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs on April 11. They've been a different team ever since. Two nights after losing 5-1 to the Maple Leafs in Toronto, the Canadiens fell 7-3 to the goal-starved Philadelphia Flyers on Monday, leaving them vulnerable in the race for first place in the Northeast Division. The Flyers (18-21-3) had scored three goals over the course of a four-game losing streak coming into the game, a goal total they needed just 21:02 to match against Carey Price and the Canadiens (26-11-5). Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek each had a goal and two assists and Scott Hartnell snapped an eight-game point drought with his seventh career hat trick for the Flyers, who are still an extreme longshot to make the playoffs. Price had his second consecutive poor outing, getting pulled after allowing six goals on 29 shots in 40 minutes. After allowing three goals on four shots in Toronto on Saturday before being pulled, Price allowed the second and fifth shots he saw against Philadelphia to get past him. In his past five starts dating back to a 5-3 loss in Philadelphia on April 3, Price is 1-4-0 with a 4.45 goals-against average and an .858 save percentage. Montreal played its fourth game since defenseman Alexei Emelin was lost for the season with a torn ACL in his left knee; the impact is starting to show, with a 1-3-0 mark and 15 goals allowed in the three losses. His regular defense partner Andrei Markov is a minus-6 in those four games. Things will not be getting much easier for the Canadiens as they prepare to travel to Pittsburgh to face the Penguins on Wednesday before returning home for a game against the Tampa Bay Lightning the next night, their final set of back to back games of the season. The Canadiens observed a moment of silence prior to the game in memory of the victims of the explosions during the Boston Marathon earlier in the day. The tragic events in Boston resulted in the postponement of the game between the Ottawa Senators and Bruins scheduled at TD Garden, meaning the Bruins are still one point behind the Canadiens in the Northeast standings, but now hold a game in hand. The Flyers defense, already ravaged by injuries, lost another member at 6:11 of the first period when Kent Huskins left the game with what the team announced was a concussion after taking a hit from Montreal forward Ryan White. White hit Huskins directly in the jaw with a glancing blow with his shoulder, sending Huskins to the dressing room under his own power. White was immediately challenged by Flyers defenseman Kurtis Foster, and he was assessed a major penalty for a hit to the head, a major for fighting and a match penalty. The Flyers' power play had gone six games and 16 straight chances without a goal, but they connected twice in six chances against a Canadiens penalty kill that had allowed two goals in opponents' previous 27 opportunities. Rookies Alex Galchenyuk and Brendan Gallagher each scored for the Canadiens, while Max Pacioretty tallied his first goal in seven games. With the game tied 2-2 in the second period, the Flyers erupted for four goals before the second intermission to take control of the game. Voracek scored his 18th of the season to make it 3-2 at 1:02, just 24 seconds after the Canadiens had tied it 2-2. Hartnell followed with his first of the night at 7:30 of the second, one-timing a Giroux feed past Price low to the glove side. Galchenyuk cut the Flyers lead to 4-3 at 9:11, but Giroux came right back at 10:46 when he converted a perfect Voracek feed to make it a two-goal game. Hartnell scored his second power-play goal of the game at 19:27 of the second, and completed his hat trick at 12:45 of the third by beating Peter Budaj with a one-timer from the slot to complete the scoring. The Flyers got goals from Wayne Simmonds and Erik Gustafsson early in the first period to jump out to a quick 2-0 lead. Simmonds came down the right wing and took a slap shot for Philadelphia's first shot of the game that Price kicked right back to him. Simmonds fanned on the rebound attempt, but it bounced in off Canadiens defenseman Nathan Beaulieu at 2:45. Gustafsson took the Flyers' fifth shot at 5:49 from the high slot and saw it get through a crowd and squeeze through Price's pads. Two cross-checking penalties assessed to Flyers defenseman Oliver Lauridsen drawn by Gallagher helped Montreal get back in the game. Pacioretty got Montreal on the board with 57.2 seconds left in the first on a tip from the slot, and Lauridsen took another penalty 21 seconds later. This time, Gallagher converted on the power play 38 seconds into the middle period to make it 2-2.

Dallas v Chicago 2-5 - The Dallas Stars were hoping to exact some revenge against the Chicago Blackhawks along with a victory and two key points in the standings. They got neither. The Blackhawks (33-5-4) swept the three-game season series against the Stars (21-18-3) with a decisive 5-2 win at United Center on Monday night. Chicago moved two points closer to clinching the top seed of the Western Conference in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Blackhawks have won six straight games and are 8-0-1 in their past nine. They have 70 points, 11 more than the second-place Anaheim Ducks in the race for the West's top spot. Both teams have six games remaining. After trouncing Dallas 8-1 at American Airlines Arena on March 16, the Hawks knew the Stars would be out for some payback in the rematch. It just didn't matter after Chicago got goals in the third period by Andrew Shaw and Niklas Hjalmarsson less than five minutes after Dallas center Jamie Benn tied it 2-2 with his second of the game at 3:07. Marian Hossa, who also had a pair of assists, added an empty-net goal to seal it and give him a three-point night. Jonathan Toews and Viktor Stalberg also found the back of the net for the Blackhawks, who are off until they play the Nashville Predators at home on Friday night. After going through a slight lull following a 24-game point streak to start the season, the Hawks are starting to look like that same team again as the playoffs approach. The loss snapped a season-high five-game winning streak for the Stars and kept them two points behind the eighth-place Detroit Red Wings in the Western Conference playoff race. Backup goaltender Richard Bachman, the NHL's Third Star of the Week, started for Dallas and made 23 saves. He played pretty well considering Chicago again dominated most of the offensive chances, especially in the early going. The Hawks outshot the Stars 13-4 in the first period and 22-11 through 40 minutes. That part was a little reminiscent of the last time they'd played, but a big difference was the score heading into the third. Chicago led just 2-1 at that point and the Stars carried some momentum into the second intermission after Benn's first goal, at 14:12, capped a 3-on-1 break and put the Stars on the board. Prior to that, Chicago took a 2-0 lead on the goals by Toews and Stalberg. Toews grabbed the team lead in goals with his 21st of the season at 12:54 of the first period when he redirected a perfect slap pass by Hossa into the net for a 1-0 lead. Stalberg scored his ninth goal and second in the past three games at 12:14 of the second for a 2-0 lead. The speedy Swedish forward took a pass from Michal Handzus in the neutral zone and beat Stars defenseman Philip Larsen on a rush up the middle of the ice before burying shot past Bachman's stick. Benn scored just 1:58 later by zipping a shot from the right circle through Emery's pads, then tied the game when he stuffed the puck into the short side. The Stars were poised to pick up those all-important standings points with a nice push down the stretch, but Shaw and Kane had other ideas. Shaw put Chicago back on top 3-2 at 4:31, just 1:24 after Benn tied it, with his ninth goal of the season. Kane made amends for a turnover that led to the 3-on-1 resulting in Benn's first goal by slipping a pass to Shaw in the right circle for a shot that went through traffic and beat Bachman to the far side. Hjalmarsson added some insurance by ripping a slap shot past Bachman from the high slot at 7:46 before Hossa hit the empty net. Dallas also got some bad news with a shoulder injury to top-line rookie forward Alex Chiasson, who'd scored six goals and added an assist in his first six games with the Stars. Chiasson left the game 1:03 into the second with a shoulder sprain and didn't return after taking a hit by Hjalmarsson.

Vancouver v Nashville 5-2 - Vancouver Canucks center Ryan Kesler has missed 31 games this season with two different injuries so the idea that he hasn't shown any rust in the last few games tickled him. On Monday, Kesler scored twice, giving him three goals and three assists in four games since returning from a broken foot that sidelined him for 19 games, in a 5-2 win at Bridgestone Arena that eliminated the Nashville Predators from the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The loss was the Predators' seventh straight, tying a franchise record that the club set more than 13 years ago in its second season in the NHL. The day before the game, Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault tinkered a bit with his lines. He toyed with the idea of playing Kesler on right wing with Derek Roy at center. Instead, when it came game time it was the newly acquired Roy who moved to the wing with Kesler at center and Jannik Hansen at the other wing. Roy earned first goal with the Canucks since arriving in an April 2 trade from the Buffalo Sabres. Hansen had two assists and Roy also added an assist. Vancouver rebounded from a 4-3 loss to Colorado on Saturday in which it blew two third-period leads. The win was the Canucks' fifth in their last six games. Vancouver went 2-for-4 on the power play, including the game-winning goal from Jason Garrison at 17:02 of the second period. Hal Gill received two minutes for roughing after knocking Alex Burrows to the ice after the whistle. Six seconds later, Garrison blasted a slap shot from just inside the blue line with Nashville goalie Pekka Rinne screened on the play. Nashville had qualified for the playoffs seven times in the previous eight seasons, advancing past the first round in each of the past two. However, injuries have decimated the Predators' lineup. On Monday, the Predators iced a lineup in which 11 forwards had played a combined total of 1,066 NHL games, compared to the 889 of the 12th forward, David Legwand. Such a huge influx of new personnel for Nashville had the negative side effect of communication issues going awry. Despite keeping the puck in Vancouver's zone after the initial faceoff, the Predators were whistled for too many men on the ice when they went to change following the game's first shift. Vancouver made them pay when Kesler took a feed from Henrik Sedin and beat Rinne with a wrist shot from the slot at 1:34. Exactly three minutes later, the newest Predator, defenseman Mattias Ekholm, who was called up on Monday and arrived a few hours before game time, could not clear a rebound of a shot by Canucks defenseman Dan Hamhuis, an ex-Predator. Roy put it in for his fifth goal and a 2-0 lead. Nick Spaling broke a scoreless streak by Nashville of 89 minutes 22 seconds with a goal at 1:34 of the second period to make it 2-1. Spaling snuck right in front of the crease and roofed a pass from Sergei Kostitsyn, who was behind the net, over Roberto Luongo. Bobby Butler tied the game at 11:40. In the second period, the Canucks' defense was leaving a big gap for the Predators' forwards and they took advantage of the extra ice. Skating down the right wing off the rush, Butler had plenty of space to rip a wrist shot low to Luongo's blocker side. Vancouver made it 4-2 just 50 seconds into the third period when Burrows redirected Henrik Sedin's shot form the high slot. Kesler added his second goal at 15:53 with a 19-foot wrist shot. In goal for Vancouver, Roberto Luongo had to withstand a 19-shot onslaught in the second period – Nashville's most in a period this season. He finished with 36 saves and has played in two of the last three games for the Canucks, winning both, after an 11-game stretch in which he played only once while Cory Schneider started the other 10 games.

Columbus v Colorado 4-3 - If the Columbus Blue Jackets earn a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, their 4-3 overtime win Monday night against the Colorado Avalanche at the Pepsi Center could prove to be a major factor. Nick Foligno scored with 28.7 seconds remaining in the extra period to give the Blue Jackets their fourth consecutive win after RJ Umberger scored with 1:27 to play in regulation to send the game into OT. The Blue Jackets moved into ninth place in the Western Conference with five games to play. The Blue Jackets and eighth-place Detroit Red Wings each have 47 points, but the Wings have one game in hand. Foligno had gone eight games without a goal before he finished off a 2-on-1 rush when he fired the puck between goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere's pads from inside the right circle. Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who made 29 saves, robbed Gabriel Landeskog on a shorthanded breakaway 50 seconds into overtime while Avalanche defenseman Shane O'Brien was serving an elbowing penalty that started with 57.3 seconds left in regulation. Umberger's goal came 35 seconds after Jamie McGinn's power-play goal put the Avalanche ahead 3-2. Umberger maneuvered around Avalanche defenseman Tyson Barrie while skating into the Colorado end and slipped the puck beneath Giguere's pads. McGinn had drawn a high-sticking penalty from Blue Jackets defenseman Nikita Nikitin and tipped home defenseman Stefan Elliott's shot from the high slot on the ensuing power play with 2:02 remaining. The Blue Jackets have won the first two games of a six-game road trip that continues Wednesday against the Anaheim Ducks. Their only remaining home game is the season finale against the Nashville Predators. Avalanche left wing Cody McLeod matched his career high for goals in a game with two and tied the game 2-2 at 5:21 of the third period. Tyson Barrie took a shot from the right corner and McLeod tipped it in while jousting for position with Nikitin. The Blue Jackets had gone ahead 2-1 at 2:32 on a goal by Blake Comeau, his first in four games since his April 3 acquisition from Calgary. Comeau was in the slot when he converted Derek MacKenzie's pass from behind the net while being checked by Avalanche defenseman Jan Hejda. The Avalanche took a 1-0 lead at 10:57 of the second period on a goal by McLeod, but the Blue Jackets got even 1:38 later on a goal by Mark Letestu. McLeod, a fourth-liner for most of his NHL career, has been playing on a line with Landeskog and Ryan O'Reilly as a reward for his hard work and willingness to drive to the net. He scored on a rebound, banging the puck under Bobrovsky's glove after Landeskog took a shot from the slot. Letestu answered at 12:35 off a pass from Vinny Prospal. The play started when Prospal attempted to shoot the puck around the boards, but it hit referee Tim Peel and slid a couple of feet. Prospal regained possession and passed through the goalmouth to Letestu at the base of the right circle for a shot inside the near post. The Blue Jackets kept the score tied by killing off a double minor to Marian Gaborik late in the second period while holding the Avalanche to three shots. Gaborik was penalized for clipping Matt Hunwick in the face.

Minnesota v Calgary 4-3 - After scoring just eight goals in their previous seven games, the Minnesota Wild came up with four against the Calgary Flames. As it turned out, they needed each and every one of them. The Wild owned a three-goal lead late in the third period, but had to hold off a late charge from the Flames to beat Calgary 4-3 at Scotiabank Saddledome on Monday night. After being shut out in two of their previous three games, the Wild received two goals from Jason Pominville while Mikko Koivu snapped a nine-game goal scoring drought to give Minnesota a much-needed two points. They jumped over the St. Louis Blues into sole possession of sixth in the tight Western Conference playoff race. Calgary trailed 2-0 heading into the third period, but Jiri Hudler quickly cut Minnesota's lead to one, finishing a three-way passing play set up by fellow Czechs Roman Cervenka and Roman Horak by beating Niklas Backstrom to bring Calgary at 3:42. But Minnesota needed just 11 seconds to restore its two-goal advantage, and only 1:13 after that to expand it. Pierre-Marc Bouchard made it 3-1 when he snapped a shot between the wickets of Joey MacDonald at 3:53. Pominville added his second of the night at 5:06 on the game's next shot when he one-timed a feed from Matt Cullen in the high slot between MacDonald's legs for a 4-1 edge. But after being foiled earlier by Backstrom, rookie Ben Hanowski made good on his second chance of the game at 11:19, poking the puck across the goal line during a scramble for his first NHL goal to cut the margin to two. That lead dwindled to one with the net empty. Sven Baertschi beat Backstrom with 39 seconds remaining by corralling a nifty cross-crease feed from Mike Cammalleri and burying it into a virtually empty net. But while they scrambled around Backstrom's crease, Calgary couldn't find the equalizer, and the Wild escaped with their second win in eight games. Hunting for two points and some temporary breathing room, Minnesota capitalized on their first scoring chance of the game. Koivu picked up Zach Parise's rebound off the pad of MacDonald and had his initial shot swatted away from the goal line by Mark Giordano. But it came right back onto Koivu’s stick, and he fired another shot that hit Giordano's stick before ricocheting off the defenseman and into the net to snap his personal scoring drought and give Minnesota a 1-0 lead 2:17 into the game. The Wild goaltender, making his ninth consecutive start, turned aside 11 shots in the opening 20 minutes, including robbing Hanowski on his first career shot with a glove save at 15:54. That save came one shift after Backstrom denied rookie Maxwell Reinhart from point-blank range. Backstrom continued his strong play early in the second period with Jason Zucker in the penalty box for hooking, making a glove save off Curtis Glencross' backhand attempt from just a few feet out at the 3:00 mark. His fast glove gave way to Pominville's quick hands at 11:13. Ryan Suter's shot from the point went wide, but Pominville, parked just off the far post, was able to snare the puck off the wall and tuck it across the goal line before MacDonald had a chance to slide over for a 2-0 lead.

San Jose v Phoenix 4-0 - The San Jose Sharks are heading toward their biggest game of the season. The Phoenix Coyotes have reached the point of no return in their bid to make the playoffs. Logan Couture, Tommy Wingels and Joe Pavelski scored during a 7:11 span of a dominant second period as the Sharks all but ended Phoenix's postseason hopes with a 4-0 whitewashing at Jobing.com Arena on Monday night. Matt Irwin finished off the scoring on the power play with 1:27 left and Antti Niemi stopped 35 shots for his 23rd career shutout and fourth of the season as the Sharks improved to 51 points and set up a showdown with fourth-place Los Angeles on Tuesday night in San Jose. Jason LaBarbera, playing for the injured Mike Smith, made 37 saves but couldn't deal with a second-period onslaught when the Sharks unleashed 23 shots and didn't stop scoring until they had the Coyotes by the neck. Phoenix is stuck at 43 points and in 11th place with six games left. With the Minnesota Wild and Columbus Blue Jackets both winning Monday, the Coyotes would likely need to run the table to avoid missing the postseason for the first time in four years. Niemi made 16 saves in the third period to preserve the shutout and is now one shy of Smith and Pekka Rinne of the Nashville Predators for the League lead. Smith suffered a lower body injury in practice on Sunday and was unable to make it through Monday's morning skate. Smith had stopped 114 of 119 shots in his last four starts and had shut out the Sharks in four of his past season appearances against them. A former Coyote had an impact right away. Just 10 seconds into his first shift against his old team, San Jose's Raffi Torres blasted Phoenix defenseman Keith Yandle in the neutral zone, then rocked an elbow into Yandle's face during an exchange in the front of the Phoenix crease a few minutes later. The Coyotes outhit the Sharks 14-6 in the period, but Torres had the memorable ones. Both teams also had golden opportunities in the period. Boedker was set up between the circles by a Kyle Chipchura feed and hit the crossbar with Niemi down and out 12 minutes into the game. With 50 seconds left in the period, Couture pounced on a Yandle turnover and swooped in alone, but LaBarbera smothered the puck and period ended scoreless. The Coyotes used dominant second period to sweep a three-game homestand two weeks ago. This time the second period was all Sharks. LaBarbera made nice saves on Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton before San Jose broke through at 8:50. Marleau's passout from behind the net set up Jason Demers for a shot from the circle. LaBarbera stopped it, but the rebound went right to Couture for the easy finish. San Jose doubled the lead 1:48 later. Antoine Vermette won a faceoff with Pavelski in the Phoenix zone, but the puck wound up on the stick of Wingels in the left circle. Wingels whirled a backhander that beat LaBarbera over the left shoulder and under the crossbar, and the Sharks had the Coyotes on the run. Pavelski capped the period with a hand from Torres, who turned stole a puck in the neutral zone and turned into a 2-on-1 rush. He fed Pavelski, whose shot from the right circle deflected off a stick and beat LaBarbera over the glove to put San Jose in total control. Pavelski's 13th goal of the season was his 15th goal and 30th point in 40 career games against Phoenix.