Results - Sun, Feb 02, 2014

Detroit @ Washington 5-6 OT - The Red Wings, cognizant of Ovechkin's NHL-leading 38 goals and 14 power-play goals, shadowed him in an attempt to take away his patented one-timer from the left circle and did so successfully, preventing him from having a shot on goal. Yet facing a 4-on-3 situation in overtime, Detroit could not utilize that tactic, and with plenty of space, Ovechkin finally broke through. The Capitals captain blasted his 15th career overtime goal, tied for third all-time, past Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard at 2:37 to lift Washington to a 6-5 victory at Verizon Center. Gustav Nyquist earned his first career hat trick for the Red Wings, who overcame three separate two-goal deficits. The Capitals applied ample pressure from the opening faceoff, pinning the Red Wings in their own zone with several dominant shifts. A hardworking shift by the Capitals' third line that left the Red Wings scrambling led to Chimera's 12th goal of the season at 4:43. Casey Wellman started the flurry by throwing a shot wide of the net, which Connor Carrick retrieved before throwing a backhanded pass towards Ward in the crease. Ward's shot ricocheted off the far post and toward the right faceoff circle, where Chimera was waiting to beat Howard with a sharp-angle shot. Ward extended Washington's lead to 2-0 less than three minutes later on the power play, receiving a pass from Marcus Johansson in the slot and rifling it past Howard. The Red Wings, who were held without a shot on goal until the first period was nearly nine minutes old, were able to cut into their early deficit at 11:40. With Carrick in the penalty box for cross-checking Tomas Jurco, Detroit needed only nine seconds to score. Michal Neuvirth (25 saves) stopped Daniel Alfredsson's shot, but the rebound popped out right to Nyquist in the slot. Nyquist's goal could not have come at a better time for the Red Wings, who entered the game having been shut out in three consecutive road games for the first time since 1928. The goal snapped Detroit's scoreless streak at 194:14. Carlson restored the Capitals' two-goal lead at 16:05 with a slap shot from the high slot, setting a career high with his 10th goal. Ovechkin had a prime chance to give his team a 4-1 lead on his team's third power-play opportunity in the closing seconds of the first period, but his slap shot sailed over a wide-open net as time expired. There were noticeably fewer scoring chances in the second period than the first. Neither team broke through until the final 6:30, when the Red Wings sandwiched Ward's second goal of the game with two of their own. First, Tomas Tatar scored off the rush, his wrist shot clipping Neuvirth's blocker and finding its way into the back of the net. Nineteen seconds later, however, Ward crashed the crease for his 17th of the season, tying his career high set in 2008-09 as a member of the Nashville Predators. Not to be outdone, Nyquist scored his second of the game at 18:49 when he tipped in Henrik Zetterberg's feed through the crease past Neuvirth. Just 42 seconds into the third period, Nyquist struck again in nearly identical fashion when he tipped another Zetterberg pass past Neuvirth on the rush to complete the hat trick. Brouwer broke the tie at 4:28, pouncing on a turnover, but Justin Abdelkader responded at 6:25, sliding a backhand past the reach of Neuvirth. With the victory, the Capitals moved within one point of the Red Wings for the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.
Winnipeg @ Montreal 2-1 - The Winnipeg Jets continue to roll under Paul Maurice, but the new coach is still looking for more from his team. Michael Frolik scored the game-winning goal early in the third period, Al Montoya stopped 30 shots in goal and the Jets improved to 8-2-0 under Maurice with a 2-1 victory on Sunday against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre. In spite of the victory and allowing just one goal, the Jets were bailed out on numerous occasions by Montoya after some giveaways at inopportune times. The most glaring one was a Zach Bogosian turnover that led to a Brian Gionta breakaway and ended with the Canadiens captain hitting the post. Tobias Enstrom scored for the Jets (27-25-5), who moved to within four points of the Vancouver Canucks, who currently hold the final Western Conference spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. After allowing 24 goals in the final five games under former coach Claude Noel, the Jets have allowed 21 goals in 10 games under Maurice. Gionta scored the only goal for the Canadiens (29-21-6), who were swept in their traditional pair of matinees on Super Bowl weekend (0-1-1), losing each game by the same score. A big reason why they couldn't was Montoya, starting for the second time in the Jets' past 11 games, making a number of strong saves in the first half of the game to keep Montreal off the scoreboard. The Canadiens' power play continued to struggle, going 0-for-3, with two of them coming in the third period with Montreal down 2-1. The Canadiens are 4-for-44 on the power play in their past 14 games, but coach Michel Therrien liked what he saw from the power play unit Sunday. Therrien, however, made it clear he would have like to have had one more power play opportunity in the game. With Montreal goaltender Carey Price on the bench in the final minute of regulation, Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher got tied up near the Jets net with Montoya and Bogosian on his way out of the zone, then was knocked over by Jets defenseman Jacob Trouba just before he hit the Winnipeg blue line. Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban was organizing a rush up ice, but had to turn back twice to wait for Gallagher to clear the zone, costing Montreal about 25 seconds as it tried to tie the game. With the game tied 1-1 after 40 minutes, the Jets took the lead again at 1:04 of the third period on a mistake by Price, who left his net to play the puck only to lose it to Andrew Ladd. The Jets captain quickly sent the puck in front and found Frolik, who had an empty net to shoot at for his 12th goal of the season and his second in as many games. After a scoreless first period where the teams traded momentum swings and with the Jets jumping out to a 7-0 lead in shots in the first three minutes before the Canadiens took over with a 12-3 advantage the rest of the period, Winnipeg opened the scoring midway through the second. Chris Thorbur was battling for a puck to the side of the Canadiens net when he managed to send it back to Enstrom at the point. Enstrom skated along the boards and around the net before coming out the other side and banking a shot in off Price for his sixth goal of the season at 9:13. Gionta hit the post in the 15th minute of the second period, but when he got another opportunity less than three minutes later, he didn't make the same mistake. Gionta took a feed in the slot from Tomas Plekanec and quickly let go of a snap shot that beat Montoya high on the glove side for the Canadiens captain's 10th goal of the season at 17:06 to tie the game 1-1.