NY Islanders v Buffalo 1-2 - The New
York Islanders needed two points in their season finale to give
them the best chance to avoid facing the Eastern Conference-winning
Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
They had to settle for one. Thomas
Vanek scored in the first round of the shootout and Ryan
Miller stopped all three shooters as the Buffalo
Sabres defeated the Islanders 2-1 at First Niagara Center on
Friday. Vanek snapped a high wrist shot past Evgeni
Nabokov to open the tiebreaker; Miller ended it when he got
enough of John
Tavares' wrister to deflect it wide of the net after it went
through his pads. The single point gives the Islanders 55,
temporarily moving them into sixth place in the Eastern Conference.
But to end up any higher than eighth and avoid a first-round showdown
with the Penguins, the Islanders have to hope the New York Rangers
lose in regulation to the New Jersey Devils on Saturday or that the
Ottawa Senators go pointless in games against the Philadelphia Flyers
on Saturday and the Boston Bruins on Sunday. The Islanders had been
on 8-0-3 run but finished by going 0-1-2 this week. The Sabres
finished with a 21-21-6 record and missed the playoffs for the second
straight season. Miller made 30 saves in regulation and overtime in
his 500th NHL game. Rookie Brian
Flynn had the lone goal for Buffalo. Keith
Aucoin scored New York's goal in the third period and Nabokov
stopped 21 shots in his 41st start of the 48-game season. The Sabres
opened the scoring 3:29 into the second period on Flynn's sixth of
the season. As Buffalo was making a line change, Vanek held the puck
at the top of the left circle and sent it to Flynn as he came off the
bench. Flynn's blast from the top of the left circle beat Nabokov on
his stick side. The Islanders tied the game 7:26 into the third with
a little help from the end boards. Defenseman Andy MacDonald shot the
puck down the ice in front of his own net and it banked off the end
boards in the left corner in the Buffalo zone. Miller went out to
play the puck, but it bounced straight out, past his reach and onto
the stick of Aucoin, who put it though the sliding goaltender's legs
for his sixth goal of the season. Nabokov had denied Flynn in the
opening minutes of the game, diving across the crease and kicking his
legs up in the air to stop a shot. He later stopped a Vanek breakaway
early in the third. The Islanders went on the power play with 3:35
left in overtime when Buffalo's Kevin
Porter was sent off for hooking, but failed to convert. Jochen
Hecht, Buffalo's third shooter in the shootout, announced after
the game that he would be retiring from the NHL. He and his family
will move back to his native Germany where he plans to continue
playing professionally. Hecht played 10 seasons with the Sabres.
Vanek, Buffalo's leading scorer with 41 points, extended his point
streak to three games. Miller kept the Sabres ahead when he stopped
Michael
Grabner on a breakaway with one minute remaining in the second
period. Miller became the 62nd goaltender in NHL history to reach the
500-game milestone. He is the 20th goaltender to play at least 500
games with the one team and the 12th to play his first 500 with the
same team. Miller has played his entire eight-season career with the
Sabres and has one year remaining on his contract. Before the game,
Miller was chosen as the club's Most Valuable Player by his
teammates.
Edmonton v Minnesota 6-1 - A sellout crowd came to Xcel Energy Center on
Friday night ready to celebrate the Minnesota
Wild's return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They left quietly
after the Edmonton
Oilers spoiled the party. The Oilers' 6-1 victory in front of a
stunned audience left the Wild still needing some combination of two
points to clinch their first playoff berth since 2008. The Wild need
a road win against the Colorado Avalanche or a loss by the Columbus
Blue Jackets against Nashville on Saturday. If each team gets one
point, the Wild will qualify via a tiebreaker. The Wild could finish
as high as seventh if they win Saturday and the Detroit Red Wings
lose their season finale to the Dallas Stars in any manner. The Red
Wings have 54 points; the Wild and Blue Jackets have 53. To make the
playoffs, the Wild will have to shake off perhaps their worst
performance of the season. It's safe to say Friday's result was quite
a shock to the 19,090 fans, who were hoping to see a coronation. The
Oilers came to the Twin Cities having scored just 13 goals in a 1-9-0
stretch that knocked them out of the playoff race. In goal for
Minnesota was Niklas
Backstrom, 17-0-0 lifetime against the Oilers in his home arena.
The Wild had won 19 of their past 20 meetings in this building
against Edmonton. But instead of the expected Wild win, the Oilers
scored early and often, three times in each the first and second
periods. Both teams started the game with its fourth lines on the ice
and it didn't take long for the fireworks to begin. Just after the
opening faceoff, Edmonton's Mike
Brown and Minnesota's Zenon
Konopka dropped the gloves. Afterwards, Oilers coach Ralph
Krueger said starting his fourth line wasn't meant to send a message.
But the fight gave the Oilers a jolt, and they controlled the first
couple of shifts afterwards, scoring at the 27-second mark when
defenseman Corey
Potter buried a one-timer from the right circle. At 8:02, Taylor
Hall capitalized on a bad turnover in his own zone by Pierre-Marc
Bouchard, ripping a snap shot short-side past Backstrom. Cullen
had a pair of glorious chances go by the wayside late in the first
when he missed the net on a 2-on-1 rush and was stopped on a
breakaway by Nikolai
Khabibulin seconds later. Those misses proved to be costly when,
less than a minute later, Jordan
Eberle slid a pretty centering feed from the left half-wall to a
crashing Potter in the slot, who made it 3-0 at 18:38. The goal
earned Backstrom a seat on the bench; he allowed three goals on just
five shots, one of which was a dump-in from center ice. Josh
Harding entered for Minnesota, playing in his first game since
Feb. 7. Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis last summer, Harding has
been out for more than two months in an attempt to find the right
course of treatment in battling the disease. Unfortunately for both
Harding and the Wild, there would be no miracle comeback story.
Eberle scored on a bad angle shot at 4:09 of the second before goals
by Nail
Yakupov less than four minutes apart made it 6-0. Harding
finished with nine saves on 12 shots. Hall had a solid night with a
goal and two helpers, earning the first assist on both of Yakupov's
tallies with a pair of nifty passes. Edmonton scored six goals on its
first 11 shots and breezed despite being outshot 39-17. Mikko
Koivu's 11th goal of the season just before the midway point of
the final period snapped Khabibulin's shutout bid on Minnesota's 34th
shot of the night. Khabibulin faced 15 shots in the first and 13 more
in the second, keeping the Wild off the board while his teammates ran
up the score. He finished with 38 saves in his first victory since
March 26.
Calgary v Chicago 1-3 - It was a game both teams could have mailed in and
easily forgotten. Instead, the Calgary
Flames and Chicago
Blackhawks, teams at opposite ends of the Western Conference
spectrum, treated a sellout crowd at United Center on Friday night to
a game that went into the third period with a one-goal difference.
The Blackhawks eventually outlasted the Flames 3-1 and now have just
one game left in the regular season, against the St. Louis Blues on
Saturday at Scottrade Center. Chicago has already locked up the
Presidents' Trophy and will have home ice throughout the upcoming
Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Flames, meanwhile, have been out of the
playoff picture for a while and got a look at some prospects in their
last game before looking ahead to the offseason. The combination
added up to a spirited effort on both sides. The fans wound up
getting their money's worth, starting with near playoff-caliber
decibel levels during the National Anthem. Blackhawks stars Patrick
Kane and Jonathan
Toews then scored midway through the first period to give the
Blackhawks a quick 2-0 lead and really ignite the crowd. After
Calgary made it 2-1 in the second on Chris
Butler's shorthanded goal, Chicago's Marcus
Kruger scored 7:06 into the third to re-establish a two-goal lead
for goalie Corey
Crawford, who finished it off with some top-notch stops. Crawford
made 25 saves to pick up his 19th victory; he might not start against
St. Louis, a game the Blackhawks are likely to rest a number of
regulars. Calgary backup Joey
MacDonald made 35 saves but took the loss for the Flames
(19-25-4), who bounced back in the second after being dominated in
the opening 20 minutes. Chicago pounced on the Flames in the first,
outshooting the visitors 13-5 and getting the goals by Kane and
Toews, each of whom scored his 23rd of the season to continue sharing
the team lead. The goals were separated by just 3:28 midway through
the period and brought the building to life. Kane put the Blackhawks
up 1-0 by snapping a puck past MacDonald at 9:34 after Sharp
retrieved his own rebound and fed him a pass in the bottom of the
left circle. Sharp had just had his own shot at a wide opening in the
net blocked by Mark
Cundari's stick, but didn't give up on the play. Toews made it
2-0 by tapping home a loose puck in the crease off a rebound of
Brandon Saad's
shot from the low slot at 13:02, which made it seem like a blowout
might be starting. Toews and Kane could up tied for the team lead in
goals if both sit out the final game of the regular season. Both
would've enjoyed it if they had one more goal than the other, but
it's a friendly competition and helped both push through some tough
games down the stretch, when Chicago had basically accomplished all
it set out to do in the regular season. Maybe more important to
Chicago's playoff chances, this was the second game in a row that a
recent line combination has paid dividends in the top six forward
group. Veteran Michal
Handzus, acquired prior to the NHL's Trade Deadline earlier this
month, centered the second line between Sharp and Kane. It started as
Handzus filling in for injured second-line center Dave
Bolland, but Quenneville said on Friday morning that it might
last into the postseason, even after Bolland returns. Handzus didn't
collect a point against the Flames, but Sharp assisted on Kane's goal
and the trio created a number of chances.
Colorado v Phoenix 5-4 - In their last road game, Colorado
Avalanche finally got starting goalie Semyon
Varlamov his first win away from home this season. All it took
was a rally, an injury and a shootout to get it done. Matt
Duchene had three assists and joined PA
Parenteau with a goal in the shootout as the Avalanche outlasted
the Phoenix Coyotes
for a 5-4 victory Friday in a battle of non-playoff teams. Varlamov,
who was 0-14-2 on the road for a team that finished 4-16-4 away from
Pepsi Center, stopped all six shots he saw after starter
Jean-Sebastien
Giguere left with a groin injury with 4:16 left in regulation.
All of the saves came in overtime, when the Coyotes outshot Colorado
6-1 and made their bid to win the game. Varlamov stopped Mikkel
Boedker and Radim
Vrbata in the shootout while Duchene and Parenteau solved Phoenix
goalie Mike
Smith, who let an early two-goal lead get away. Colorado's Stefan
Elliott, Parenteau and Patrick
Bordeleau wiped out an early 2-0 deficit with goals 4:07 apart in
the first period as the Avalanche won only their fourth road game all
season (4-16-4). Ryan
O'Reilly snapped a 3-3 tie with a power-play goal in the final
minute of the second period for Colorado, but the Avalanche couldn't
hold the lead. Antoine
Vermette scored twice for Phoenix, and his second of the scored
night 5:56 into the third period tied the game at 4-4. David
Schlemko and Rob
Klinkhammer also scored for the Coyotes, who finished 14-8-2 on
home ice this season but, like the Avalanche, weren't nearly as good
on the road. Smith and the Coyotes shut out Colorado 4-0 here on
April 6 and looked like they were on their way again Friday after
they scored two goals on their first four shots against Giguere.
Schlemko walked a Kyle
Chipchura pass around Parenteau and into the slot before taking
advantage of a Paul
Bissonnette screen to whip a wrist shot past Giguere at 3:17. It
was Schlemko's first regular-season goal in 72 games, dating back to
Oct. 13, 2011, in Nashville. Phoenix made it 2-0 at 8:45 with a nifty
transition goal. Smith made a big save on John Mitchell and the puck
popped into air before Yandle corralled it and headed the other way.
He dropped a pass for Vermette in the slot, and Vermette's shot
through traffic beat Giguere between the pads to give the Coyotes a
full head of steam. Colorado, who came into the game with nine losses
in its past 11 games at Jobing.com Arena, was on the run again. But
they found a way to stop the bleeding. The Avalanche owned the rest
of the period, scoring three times to flip the game. With the team
skating 4-on-4, Elliott jumped into the play and put a Duchene feed
off the crossbar and into the net for his first goal of the season.
Just 1:07 later, Parenteau took advantage of a Schlemko hooking
penalty to surprise Smith with a shot aided by a Cody
McLeod screen to tie the game. Exactly one minute later, Duchene
and Bordeleau pounced on a Tomas
Vincour rebound in the crease and kept whacking away until
Bordeleau nudged the puck past Smith at 17:52 to give Colorado their
first lead of the game. The Coyotes came out harder in the second but
needed some luck on the power play to get the game even. With
Bordeleau in the box for slashing, Klinkhammer fired a puck from the
left corner that hit Colorado defenseman Greg
Zanon, who had his back turned, and deflected into the net at
15:11. It was the fifth goal and 11th point in 20 games for
Klinkhammer after earning a promotion to the NHL. O'Reilly gave the
Avs the lead again when he walked off the half boards and blew a shot
past Smith with 34 seconds left in the period to make it 4-3. But
Vermette tied the game for a third time on the second of three
Phoenix power plays in the first eight minutes of the third period,
gobbling up the rebound of a Michael
Stone and pumping it past Giguere for his 12th goal of the
season. Colorado had a golden chance to win in regulation when
Rostislav
Klesla was called for boarding Paul Stastny with 3:28 remaining.
But Tyson
Barrie hit the post on the power play with 2:10 left and Smith
made a big save on Mitchell to force overtime.
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