Results - Tue, October 22, 2013

Anaheim @ Toronto 2-4 - The Maple Leafs didn't get off to the kind of start they wanted as the Ducks jumped out to a 2-0 lead on goals by Nick Bonino and Mathieu Perreault. Bonino's goal at 17:38 of the first period came at the end of a 3-on-1 rush; he finished off a cross-crease pass by Patrick Maroon. Perreault made it 2-0 at 1:59 of the second period when he skated out from behind the Toronto goal untouched by the defense and beat Jonathan Bernier. Toronto took over after Anaheim goaltender Jonas Hiller made a pair of highlight-reel stops five minutes into the second period. Kessel scored his first goal of the game on the power play at 7:44 after James van Riemsdyk fired a no-look pass across the crease. Kessel was wide open and scored easily to cut the lead in half. Dion Phaneuf tied it 1:19 later when he batted home the rebound of Dave Bolland's shot. Just over a minute later, Jay McClement was called for hooking, followed by a van Riemsdyk tripping call 33 seconds later. However, the Ducks failed to score during 87 seconds of a 5-on-3 power play. Kessel put the Maple Leafs ahead to stay at 16:09, beating Hiller on a 2-on-1 rush with van Riemsdyk. Kessel completed his hat trick at 8:11 of the third period, finishing off a pass from van Riemsdyk on another 2-on-1. Ducks defenseman Hampus Lindholm tried to keep the puck in the Toronto zone, but van Riemsdyk poked it by him to start the odd-man rush. Hats rained down to the ice as the fans chanted Kessel’s name in celebration. Van Riemsdyk had a chance to add a goal to his two-assist night but hit the post on a penalty shot with 6:59 remaining in regulation.

New Jersey v Columbus 1-4 - New Jersey aided Columbus with loose play that led to Wisniewski's goal and the one by Cam Atkinson late in the second period that gave the Blue Jackets the lead. Earlier in the period, the teams exchanged power-play goals; Michael Ryder scored for the Devils (1-5-3) at 6:24 before Brandon Dubinsky equalized at 9:56. On Wisniewski's goal, Devils defenseman Peter Harrold tried to clear the zone out of the left corner, but the pass went off the stick of teammate Andrei Loktionov directly to Wisniewski, who kept the puck in at the blue line and followed with a shot that deflected off the stick of New Jersey defenseman Mark Fayne. The game was scoreless until Ryder took a pass from Jaromir Jagr, playing in his 1,400th NHL game, and put a wrist shot under the crossbar at 6:24 for his fourth goal. It came on the Devils' eighth shot of the period while the Blue Jackets had none. That didn't deter Columbus. Jagr went to the penalty box for holding at 8:21, and Dubinsky made him pay 95 seconds later. The Blue Jackets moved the puck along the blue line and set up Wisniewski for a shot from the right point. The puck hit the body then the skate of Blue Jackets left wing R.J. Umberger and landed in the crease, where Dubinsky poked in his second goal before Schneider could get to it. Atkinson took advantage of another turnover to score the winner at 15:30 of the second. He claimed an errant puck off the high wall and skated right-to-left above the circles before zipping a backhander. With Boone Jenner creating a screen in front, Schneider never saw Atkinson's third goal fly by.
Edmonton v Montreal 4-3 - Canadiens center Lars Eller ruffled more than a few feathers in the Edmonton room earlier Tuesday when he compared the Oilers to a junior team, saying, "They take a lot risks, a lot of chances. They're a little all over the place. There's not a lot of structure always in their game. It can really be anything. You don't know." Eakins may have credited Eller with providing the motivation for the victory, but the Oilers did not look like a very motivated bunch in the first period. They were outshot 14-8 and were it not for Dubnyk, they could have been down more than 2-0 after 20 minutes. Tomas Plekanec, Brendan Gallagher and Brian Gionta scored for the Canadiens (5-4-0), who have lost two straight games for the first time this season. Carey Price stopped 28 of 32 shots and gave up four goals for the first time since a 4-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the season opener. Hemsky got it started at 12:50 of the second when he took a feed from Arcobello at the Canadiens blue line, weaved his way into the slot and beat Price with a wrist shot to the stick side for his third goal of the season. Edmonton tied the game 2-2 at 15:37 of the second when Price kicked out a Nugent-Hopkins shot into the faceoff circle right to Smid, who put it in the open net for his first of the season. Petry put the Oilers up 3-2 at 7:59 of the third while the two teams were playing 4-on-4. Jordan Eberle got it started by winning a one-on-one battle with Josh Gorges in the Oilers zone, sending Petry away through the neutral zone. Petry made a nice feed to Nugent-Hopkins at the Canadiens blue line and took the return feed in the slot with a wide open net to shoot at for his second of the season. Jones made up for an earlier gaffe that cost the Oilers a goal by providing the insurance goal, jumping on a rebound of a David Perron for his first goal of the season at 9:57 of the third to make it 4-2 Edmonton. Gionta scored his second of the season with 1.4 seconds to play in regulation for the Canadiens. Montreal pinned the Oilers in their territory for an entire shift, resulting in a tripping penalty by Luke Gazdic to give the Canadiens a power play. Six seconds later, Andrei Markov found Plekanec with a pass through the teeth of the Oilers' penalty-kill unit, and Plekanec put it through Dubnyk's legs at 16:36 for his fourth goal of the season. The lead was doubled 87 seconds later when a Jones pass was picked off by Gallagher at the Edmonton blue line and he got position on Anton Belov before beating Dubnyk to the glove side at 18:03 to make it 2-0 Montreal.

Nashville v Minnesota 0-2 - Minnesota Wild forward Justin Fontaine was getting a chance to skate on the team's first line for the first time in his brief NHL career. After starting the game Tuesday on the third line, Fontaine made coach Mike Yeo's adjustment look brilliant. The rookie scored the game-winning goal with 1:04 left in the second period, and the Wild won 2-0 against the Nashville Predators at Xcel Energy Center. After Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne stopped a shot by Clayton Stoner, a crashing Fontaine chipped home the rebound for his second goal of the season, breaking the scoreless tie. The goal was crucial for the Wild, who played a brilliant defensive game even though they were down a defenseman for 57 minutes after second-year player Jonas Brodin took a Gabriel Bourque dump-in attempt to the face early in the first period. Brodin was taken to the hospital but no update was provided following the game. Already without Brodin, the Wild appeared to be in trouble late in the first period when defenseman Marco Scandella took a Shea Weber blast from the point off his foot. After getting back to the bench, Scandella went directly down the tunnel but returned in the second period. Minnesota was down to four defensemen again in the third period when Predators forward Eric Nystrom fought Nate Prosser. Seconds afterward, Matt Cooke took a tripping penalty, putting the Wild's 28th-ranked penalty kill to the test. But as they had all night, the Wild passed with flying colors. The Predators had their best chance in the final minute when former Wild forward Matt Cullen tried banking a puck off goaltender Josh Harding. The puck sat perilously in the crease before Jared Spurgeon was able to knock it away. Minnesota skated the puck out of the zone, and Jason Pominville scored an empty-net goal with 24.7 seconds remaining.

Washington v Winnipeg 5-4 SO - Washington outlasted Winnipeg 5-4 in a shootout at MTS Centre on Tuesday night, with Martin Erat deciding the game by scoring in the sixth round of the tiebreaker. The win, the Capitals' second in a row, opened a season-long five-game road trip. But it wasn't easy: Washington blew three one-goal leads, forced Braden Holtby to make 43 saves and had to score three times in the shootout when a miss would have meant a loss. Erat pulled out the win as the fourth consecutive Capital to score in the shootout after Ondrej Pavelec stopped the first two shooters. Noel was looking for a response from his team, and he received it. Along with Little's two goals, captain Andrew Ladd, who had admitted Tuesday morning that he needed to improve his play, had three assists. After a scoreless first period, each team scored three times in the second period. Mikhail Grabovski scored for the Capitals before Winnipeg's Little and Grant Clitsome beat Holtby 1:10 apart. But Ovechkin's breakaway goal late in the second period at 15:50 made it 2-2. Ovechkin then put the Capitals ahead 2:12 later with his League-leading ninth goal in his first nine games. In 54 games against the Winnipeg franchise that was based in Atlanta until 2011, Ovechkin has 40 goals and 40 assists, his best showing against any NHL opponent. Blake Wheeler, who had managed one goal in his first nine games and was demoted to the second line, answered Ovechkin's goal by scoring with 38.8 seconds remaining in the period. Washington responded in the third period. Brouwer's power-play goal 4:56 into the period gave the Capitals a 4-3 lead, but Little scored his second goal of the game 2:08 later. Grabovski put the Capitals up 1-0 with his fourth goal 3:11 into the second period. He peeled away from Jets center Olli Jokinen and backhanded a rebound past Pavelec's glove. The Jets, missing three of their regular penalty-killers, tied it with a shorthanded goal against the NHL's top-ranked power play when a neutral-zone turnover sent Ladd and Little on a 2-on-1 rush. Little fired home the rebound of Ladd's initial shot at 7:21 for the Jets' first shorthanded goal of the season. Clitsome made it 2-1 with a shot from the right point through a screen that squeezed past Holtby for a 2-1 advantage. But Marcus Johansson found Ovechkin with an outlet pass that split the defense, and Ovechkin turned Pavelec inside-out and tucked home the tying goal with 3:30 left. Ovechkin scored his second of the night at 18:02, snapping a shot that beat Pavelec off a left-circle draw in the Winnipeg zone. Wheeler replied 1:19 later, batting a puck that eluded Holtby's glove. Brouwer scored from in-close on the power play at 4:56 before Little snapped a shot from between the circles at 7:04.