Buffalo @ Washington 2-1 SO - Behind a stellar performance from its franchise goaltender and the return of its leading scorer from injury, Buffalo avoided matching the longest road-losing streak in franchise history. Ryan Miller made 28 saves and Cody Hodgson, who returned from an eight-game absence after recovering from a hand injury, scored the decisive shootout goal to lead the Sabres to a 2-1 victory. Tyler Ennis scored for the Sabres. Jason Chimera scored for the Capitals, who had their two-game winning streak stopped, but still at least temporarily reclaimed sole possession of second place in the Metropolitan Division from the Philadelphia Flyers, who face the New York Rangers on Sunday night. Washington took a 1-0 lead at 11:01 of the first period on a fortuitous bounce. As Chimera cut towards the net, his centering pass intended for a charging Marcus Johansson ricocheted off Sabres forward Brian Flynn's outstretched stick and past Miller for his eighth goal of the season. Buffalo tied the game on a late first-period power play, earned when Tom Wilson charged Jamie McBain along the boards. Hodgson carried the puck into the zone and left it for Matt Moulson near the left point, who then sent a cross-ice pass in the direction of Christian Ehrhoff. With traffic in front, Ehrhoff threw the puck towards Grubauer, and Ennis, who bumped into Capitals forward Joel Ward as Hodgson started the rush, was able to corral it before beating the Capitals goaltender at 18:09. Ennis' ninth goal was Buffalo's 12th first-period goal of the season, the lowest total in the League by a significant margin, and the Sabres' first since Dec. 27. The teams played a scoreless second period and Grubauer and Miller combined to make 17 saves. Buffalo's 28th-ranked power play failed to score on two opportunities and 1:07 of a third, the rest of which was killed by Washington to start the third period. While there was a dearth of quality scoring chances in regulation, Miller had to make two impressive saves as the third period came to a close. First, he snagged a Chimera shot from the high slot with his glove, then stretched out to make a diving save with the blade of his stick on Mikhail Grabovski, who had a wide-open net in front with over two minutes left. The Capitals, however, thought that they bested Miller and won the game with 53 seconds remaining on a goal from Karl Alzner, but before he got the shot off, Nicklas Backstrom tripped Hodgson, negating the goal and putting the Sabres on the power play. Washington killed off the remainder of Backstrom's penalty in overtime, but in the shootout, Hodgson scored the only goal in the bottom of the third round to clinch the victory.
New Jersey @ Toronto 2-3 SO - James van Riemsdyk scored in the shootout and Jonathan Bernier made 36 saves to give the Toronto Maple Leafs a 3-2 win against the New Jersey Devils at Air Canada Centre on Sunday. Van Riemsdyk was the only player to score in the three-round shootout and helped the Maple Leafs snap a four-game losing streak. Toronto grabbed the lead when Tyler Bozak scored at 15:53 of the first period. Bozak capitalized on a rebound after a flurry of shots from Phil Kessel and van Riemsdyk. Bozak finished it off by sliding a Kessel rebound underneath Devils goalie Cory Schneider, who started a third consecutive game for the second time this season. The goal was Bozak's seventh of the season and continued his hot streak since returning from an oblique injury on Dec. 29. In seven games since his return, he has eight points. Adam Henrique tied it at 1:39 of the second period on the power play. Ryane Clowe fed a pass to Henrique, who fired a wrist shot past Bernier for his 11th goal of the season. It was Henrique's fifth goal and eighth point in the past nine games. Van Riemsdyk scored on the power play to put the Maple Leafs ahead 2-1 at 5:56, when he collected a rebound from a Cody Franson shot in front of Schneider to score his 17th goal of the season. Clowe tied the game 27 seconds after van Riemsdyk's goal with his first goal of the season. Clowe scored a breakaway goal on the backhand to beat Bernier. It was his first goal since April 19, when he was a member of the New York Rangers. The Maple Leafs thought they took a 3-2 lead on the power play at 10:03 of the second period when Bozak put a backhand rebound past Schneider, but officials waved off the goal and ruled van Riemsdyk interfered with the goalie. No penalty was called on the play.
Philadelphia @ NY Rangers 1-4 - In a crucial Metropolitan Division matchup featuring two longtime rivals, the New York Rangers overwhelmed the Philadelphia Flyers practically from the opening faceoff. And a familiar face got things started. Former Flyers forward Daniel Carcillo was the first of three different Rangers to score in the opening period and Henrik Lundqvist made 37 saves to lead the Rangers to a 4-1 victory Sunday at Madison Square Garden. Chris Kreider, Derick Brassard and Rick Nash also scored for New York; Ray Emery stopped 31 of 35 shots for Philadelphia and Mark Streit scored a power-play goal in the third period. New York's jump from the opening faceoff started with Carcillo, whose last goal at MSG was the game-winner as a Flyer in a 4-2 Philadelphia victory on Feb. 20, 2011. He got things started 2:14 into the game Sunday, finding a loose puck behind the Flyers net and beating Emery off a quick wraparound on his backhand. Acquired from the Los Angeles Kings on Jan. 4, Carcillo scored his second of the season and first as a Ranger. With the win, New York leapfrogged the Flyers to tie the Washington Capitals for second in the division with 51 points. Washington has two games in hand. The MSG crowd barely had time to relish Carcillo's score when Nash doubled the New York lead 28 seconds later. The streaking Nash was found all alone in the slot by Kreider, taking a moment to cradle the puck before beating Emery low to the blocker side for his 11th of the season. His fourth goal in four games momentarily tied Nash with four other players for the team goals lead. The early 2-0 lead compelled Berube to use his lone timeout 2:42 into the game. Vincent Lecavalier tested Lundqvist shortly after the timeout, but the veteran's rising shot from the slot 3:41 into the game was swatted away by Lundqvist's quick glove. The Swedish Olympian wasn't tested often, but he made big stops when he had to. By the time the second period started, the Rangers were the ones providing much of the intensity. Already up 3-0 after 20 minutes, it was New York's red-hot power play that added to the lead. Philadelphia's sixth-ranked penalty kill stopped the Rangers in their first four man advantages. But when Nicklas Grossmann was called for boarding with 8:23 remaining in the middle period, the Rangers' power play went back to work. Sean Couturier's clearing attempt at the blue line was stopped by Brad Richards, giving Kreider a 2-on-1 down low. Using Nash as a decoy, Kreider crept in from the left side and beat Emery on the backhand. It gave New York a power-play goal in five straight games and allowed Kreider to regain the team lead with his 12th at 13:18. Penalties continue to be an issue for the Flyers, who came into the game as the League's most-penalized team. Those penalties didn't just allow the Rangers to pull away Sunday, but also made it difficult for Philadelphia to harness any momentum. That hole was established primarily in the first period that saw the Rangers come out strong against a Flyers team that lost 6-3 Saturday afternoon at home against the Tampa Bay Lightning. New York was up 2-0 early, but it was their third first-period goal that ultimately put the game out of reach. That 3-0 lead came courtesy of Brassard, who gave New York three goals from three different lines with 10:36 remaining in the first. After Braydon Coburn broke his stick while chasing a loose puck along the boards, Mats Zuccarello took advantage of the defenseman's misfortune. The Norwegian Olympian grabbed the puck along the left wing and fed Brassard, who slapped a one-timer past Emery for his eighth of the season. Brassard now has goals in consecutive games for the first time all season, with Zuccarello setting up both scores. New York thought it had another goal 2:44 later when the puck slipped behind Emery following a mad scramble in the crease. The goal light went on, but with a delayed holding penalty coming to Grossmann, officials ruled the Flyers had touched the puck to stop play. Down 4-0 in the third, Streit spoiled Lundqvist's shutout when his point shot on the power play went in at 6:49. But the Flyers wouldn't get any closer and the Rangers clamped down defensively to preserve their fourth win in five games.
Minnesota @ Nashville 4-0 - It certainly appears as if playing with a pair of 21-year-olds is helping to rejuvenate Dany Heatley, who will soon turn 33. Heatley posted his second two-point game in two days to help the Minnesota Wild beat the Nashville Predators 4-0 at Bridgestone Arena on Sunday for their fifth win in six games. Heatley said he got off to a slow start this season due to a surgical procedure on his left shoulder that prematurely ended his 2012-13 season last April. Playing with Charlie Coyle and Jason Zucker and developing chemistry with the youngsters has helped pick up his level of play, he said. Heatley went the first 10 games of the season without a goal as coach Mike Yeo moved him from line to line, but he has nine goals after he scored in the first period against Nashville on Sunday. His emergence has meant a lot to the Wild, especially with the team short top-six forwards Mikko Koivu and Zach Parise due to injury. Both of Heatley's points came in the first period Sunday. Minnesota took advantage of a turnover by Nashville left wing Viktor Stalberg, who entered the game minus-12, in the offensive zone to score its first goal. With the rush going the other way, Coyle shot from the high slot and Heatley redirected it past Nashville goalie Marek Mazanec at 12:03 of the first period. Heatley set up the Wild's second goal 2:12 after he had scored to put Minnesota ahead 1-0. He skated down the right wing on a 2-on-1 and zipped a pass to Zucker through a tight window, enabling the young left wing to convert his third goal. The Wild did a strong job limiting Nashville's chances in front of Kuemper. One of the goalie's best stops came in the form of a glove save on a backhander from former Wild forward Matt Cullen on a surprisingly dangerous 2-on-2 situation in the second period. In the third period, Kuemper again robbed Cullen by going across the crease and using his left pad to blunt Cullen's attempt at converting a cross-ice pass. Minnesota killed the only penalty it faced, and Nashville, which has the NHL's No. 7 power play, went a fourth straight game without a goal with the man advantage (0-for-8 over that span). The Predators have one power-play goal in their past seven games. Nashville coach Barry Trotz lamented the team's lack of practice time, and believes some extra work will improve the power play. Minnesota scored two goals in the third period. With Mazanec scrambling around his net after a series of shots, Matt Cooke tapped in a goal at 1:14 to make it 3-0. Wild defenseman Marco Scandella completed the scoring at 10:16. He flipped a shot off a faceoff win through a screen that fluttered over Mazanec's glove. Predators fans again showered former Nashville defenseman Ryan Suter with boos every time he touched the puck. Suter, playing in Nashville for the third time since signing with the Wild as a free agent in July 2012, had the secondary assist on the team's first goal.
Detroit @ Anaheim 0-1 - Jonas Hiller has benefited from some large numbers on the Anaheim Ducks' part of the scoreboard during his winning streak. He enjoyed no such luxury Sunday, and still kept it going. The Detroit Red Wings lulled Anaheim into a low-scoring, muck-and-grind game and Hiller again wasn't fazed in a 1-0 win at Honda Center that kept two impressive streaks intact. Hiller won his 14th straight game to tie four others for the second-longest streak in NHL history, most-recently achieved by Tom Barrasso of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1992-93. Gilles Gilbert of the Boston Bruins holds the record with 17 straight wins in 1975-76. The Ducks improved to 19-0-2 at home and are the only team in the NHL without a regulation home loss. Hiller made 22 saves; Detroit goalie Petr Mrazek made 22. Anaheim had scored four or more goals in a team record six straight games, but couldn't get traction against its longtime nemesis in the Red Wings' first appearance in Anaheim since they eliminated the Ducks in last season's Western Conference Quarterfinal series. Corey Perry did his part by forcing Detroit into three penalties, but Anaheim went 0-for-4 on the power play. Justin Abdelkader nearly tied it when he hit the left post with about four minutes remaining before Anaheim killed a power play and a 6-on-5 Detroit advantage. The game settled into a stalemate when Andrew Cogliano's line provided the energy shot in the second period. Saku Koivu, who took three minor penalties in the opening 22 minutes, broke up a pass in Detroit's zone and threaded the puck through defenseman Brendan Smith to Cogliano for a tap-in goal at 12:42. Boudreau joked that "we were resting [Koivu] the first period" in the penalty box. On a serious note, Boudreau was pleased with the Cogliano-Koivu-Kyle Palmieri line.
"They're out there to shut down [Henrik]
Zetterberg's line and they end up scoring the goal to end the game,"
Boudreau said. "That's the kind of play we've been getting
from Cogs and Saku, and I thought Palmieri did a real good job on the
right side tonight."
Anaheim couldn't get into its skating game and
that might have had to do with the absence of captain Ryan
Getzlaf, who was scratched with a lower-body injury and is
day-to-day, the team said. Getzlaf took a shot off his foot in the
second period Saturday against the Phoenix Coyotes and did not return
for the third. Boudreau said they'll re-assess Getzlaf on Tuesday and
noted that Getzlaf "was walking pretty good."
Detroit played a second straight game without Daniel
Alfredsson after he was a late scratch Saturday with back spasms.
The Red Wings were already without Pavel
Datsyuk, Johan
Franzen, Darren
Helm and Jonathan
Ericsson, but for the second game in as many nights Detroit was
up to the task. The Red Wings came out with another good road period
and limited Anaheim to six shots in the first period. Detroit got
three early power plays, all courtesy of Koivu, but its best scoring
chances in the first came on Riley
Sheahan's drive to the net and Zetterberg's pass to Abdelkader
that was broken up by Jakob
Silfverberg. Detroit coach Mike Babcock is tired of talking about
his injured players, but admitted it's particularly hurting the power
play. The Red Wings went 0-for-5 Sunday and are in an 0-for-21 slump.
"When we're limited like this our power
play's got to be more dangerous," Babcock said. "We're
too many one-offs. We don't it get back enough. We're not on the
inside enough, so that's something that can improve but, all in all,
a good effort for our team. Normally they (Ducks) beat you 5-1. It
was tight, but they didn't have much room either. Neither goalie had
to be very good, to be honest with you. There just wasn't that type
of opportunity. They're finding a way to win every night and we're
not finding a way to win every night. We would like to be more like
them, to be honest with you."
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