Vancouver @ Minnesota 5-2 - The Canucks went with quality over quantity Wednesday against the Wild. Outshot 24-12 through two periods, the Canucks held a two-goal lead which they extended in the third to win 5-2 at Xcel Energy Center. David Booth scored two goals for the Canucks, who won their third in a row. Zack Kassian, Ryan Kesler and Daniel Sedin also scored, and Eddie Lack made 29 saves for Vancouver, which was outshot 31-19. The Canucks (34-30-10) moved within four points of the Phoenix Coyotes for the second Western Conference wild-card spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with eight games remaining. The Wild are three points ahead of the Coyotes for the top wild-card position. Minnesota and Phoenix each has nine games to play. Vancouver never trailed Wednesday, pouncing on turnovers and taking advantage of the few chances it had. The Canucks scored three times on 12 shots against Wild goaltender Darcy Kuemper, who was replaced by Ilya Bryzgalov at the start of the third period. It was the first time since Jan. 30 Kuemper did not finish a game he started. Booth gave the Canucks a 1-0 lead at 15:39 of the first period, scooping a loose puck off a faceoff in his end. He zoomed down the right wall and slammed on the brakes at the right circle, snapping a shot through Wild defenseman Jonathon Blum's legs and past a screened Kuemper. Minnesota's Charlie Coyle tied the score by taking advantage of a fortuitous bounce off the glass and rifling a shot over Lack's glove for his 10th of the season at 17:31. Coyle has scored in three straight games. Midway through the second period, an interference penalty on Canucks defenseman Kevin Bieksa put the Wild on their second power play. Sensing a critical moment in the game, Tortorella called timeout. Whatever Tortorella said, it worked; the Canucks killed the penalty without allowing a shot. Ten seconds later, Booth jumped on a turnover by Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon, snapping a shot over Kuemper's glove at 11:57 to give Vancouver the lead for good. Kassian made it 3-1 with 56.1 seconds left in the second period when he won a puck battle against Coyle at the left circle and fired a shot through a screen for his 12th of the season. Vancouver got an insurance goal in the third period when Sedin tipped a Dan Hamhuis shot from the point at 11:12. The goal was his 11th of the season but first since Dec. 30, a span of 23 games played. Kesler scored a power-play goal 49 seconds later, cleaning up a loose puck in front. Minnesota's Nino Niederreiter got one back at 12:25 of the third period to make it 5-2, firing a shot from the slot past Lack for his 13th of the season. Lack saw plenty of action and made big saves at crucial times. His glove save from point-blank range on Matt Moulson came nine seconds before Booth's opening goal. Lack stoned Mikael Granlund from in tight in the early moments of the third period when it was 3-1. The save of the night may have come from Canucks defenseman Alexander Edler. With Vancouver up 2-1 late in the second period, Wild forward Zach Parise slipped a puck through the five-hole of Lack. It reached the goal line before Edler shoveled it away.
Philadelphia @ NY Rangers 1-3 - The New York Rangers made a statement Wednesday night in what could be a preview of a first-round series in the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs. New York's tenacious fourth line led the Rangers to a 3-1 victory against the Cryers in a playoff-like environment at Madison Square Garden. The win moved the Rangers three points ahead of the Flyers for second place in the Metropolitan Division, though the Flyers have two games in hand. It was New York's eighth straight victory at the Garden against Philadelphia. Dominic Moore and Ryan McDonagh also scored for the Rangers, who got 30 saves from Henrik Lundqvist. New York has won five straight and six of seven. The Rangers will visit the Calgary Flames on Friday to open a four-game road trip. Jakub Voracek scored late in the third period to spoil Lundqvist's shutout bid. Steve Mason stopped 26 of 29 shots for the Flyers, who have lost two in a row following a five-game win streak. New York led 1-0 despite being outshot 15-6 in the first. The Rangers turned the tide in the second, and they outshot the Flyers 23-16 during the final two periods. Mason made one of his best stops of the game on Rick Nash early in the second period. Nash eluded both Flyers defensemen at the blue line before going to the forehand at 5:04. Mason stretched out his left pad to keep the score 1-0, but there was little the Philadelphia goaltender could do 30 seconds later on an impressive individual effort from McDonagh that put New York ahead 2-0. Dangling in from the right point, the defenseman released a hard, rising shot that beat Mason just inside the right post for his 14th goal at 5:34. That goal was the high point of a commanding stretch for New York during which they held Philadelphia without a shot for more than eight minutes. McDonagh's 14 goals are the most by a Rangers defenseman since Brian Leetch scored 21 in 2000-01. McDonagh's scoring touch, coupled with the work he and partner Dan Girardi did to shut down the Flyers' top forward line of Claude Giroux, Scott Hartnell and Voracek, earned raves from New York coach Alain Vigneault. The Flyers' attack was momentarily hampered by the loss of Kimmo Timonen, who took a Brian Boyle shot to the leg 3:24 into the second period and later went to the Philadelphia dressing room. The veteran defenseman returned just in time to see Lundqvist make one of the game's finest saves. Lundqvist stopped Michael Raffl at the right post, but the rebound went straight to Adam Hall, who appeared to have an open net. The Rangers goaltender lunged across the crease to make the save and maintain New York's two-goal lead. The Flyers wouldn't see too many quality chances after that. With the Rangers leading 2-0 after 40 minutes, the third period was short on quality chances as a series of big hits and blocked shots slowed the pace. Moore managed to work through that gridlock to give the Rangers a 3-0 lead at 7:39. Raffl's failed clearing attempt went straight to New York defenseman Kevin Klein, whose point shot was tipped by Moore and skipped between Mason's legs before trickling across the goal line just beyond the reach of a diving Luke Schenn. Moore's sixth goal was fitting in a game in which the Rangers' fourth line of Moore, Boyle and Dorsett plugged away at the Flyers' defense. Moore's goal put the game out of reach for the Flyers. Voracek scored his 21st with 1:53 remaining and the teams playing 4-on-4. Considering how rough the play was in the first period, it seemed appropriate that New York's grinding line opened the scoring. Boyle grabbed Mason's clearing attempt along the right wall and quickly fed Dorsett in front of the net. Finding positioning at the lip of the crease, Dorsett deposited a backhand for his fourth of the season, and first in 12 games, at 8:41. Lundqvist helped the Rangers retain their 1-0 lead by making a succession of big saves after J.T. Miller was called for tripping with 2:24 remaining in the first. He made four stops on the ensuing power play, including two on Wayne Simmonds from in close. The Flyers have not beaten the Rangers in New York since Feb. 20, 2011. The long losing streak is something they'll have on their minds if they face New York in the playoffs, but they haven't started thinking about a return trip just yet.
Anaheim @ Calgary 3-2 - The Anaheim Sucks didn't waste an opportunity to gain ground in the chase for a second straight Pacific Division title. Andrew Cogliano scored the game-winner with 5:19 left in regulation and Jonas Hiller made 32 saves to lift Anaheim to a 3-2 win against the Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome on Wednesday. With the victory, the Sucks, who clinched a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs on Tuesday, pulled within two points of the idle San Jose Sharks for the top spot in the Pacific. Anaheim has two games in hand on San Jose, who have 103 points on the season. The Ducks went over the 100-point mark in a franchise-best 72 games. Their previous best, 75 games, was set in the 2006-07 season, when the Ducks won the only Stanley Cup in franchise history. The Flames helped Anaheim's cause Monday by playing spoiler and beating the Sharks 2-1 in a shootout, but couldn't return the favor to San Jose two nights later. Calgary led 2-1 heading into the third, but the Ducks got even at 5:32. Flames goaltender Karri Ramo made a blocker save on Sami Vatanen's point shot, but left the rebound for Mathieu Perreault, who fired it home for his 16th of the season to tie the game 2-2. Cogliano completed the Ducks' comeback at 14:41. Ramo stopped Stephane Robidas' shot but kicked the rebound onto the stick of Cogliano, who put Anaheim ahead to stay with his career-high 21st goal of the season. The goal came two minutes after he hit the post on a wrist shot from the high slot. A blocker save by Hiller on Mikael Backlund with 2:31 left and another on Mike Cammalleri with 34 seconds remaining helped preserve the win. After giving up three goals on five shots in just over 11 minutes of work before being pulled in a 7-2 loss to the Flames two weeks ago, Hiller's body of work was much improved Wednesday. Hiller was sharp from the drop of the puck, first denying McGrattan's deflection before using his pad to stuff Kevin Westgarth's short-side attempt in the opening minutes. He also stopped scoring chances off the sticks of Cammalleri and Matt Stajan among his 12 first-period stops. Nick Bonino rewarded his efforts with 1:03 remaining in the period. With Ladislav Smid in the penalty box for an illegal check to the head of former Flames forward Tim Jackman, Bonino skirted into the Calgary zone and shifted to get TJ Brodie moving before beating Ramo over the glove for his 18th of the season to put Anaheim up 1-0. In the second, it was Ramo's turn to shine. After McGrattan scored his fourth of the season to tie the game 1-1 at 4:44, the Flames goaltender denied Rickard Rakell's one-timer off a cross-slot feed from Corey Perry near the midway mark of the period. He followed it up with his best sequence of the game a minute later, denying Bonino's in-close bid for his second goal of the night, then scrambling to his feet in time to blocker away Bryan Allen's blast from the point. A toe save on Rakell's wraparound capped a 16-save effort in the period and allowed the Flames to take the lead with 25.5 seconds remaining before intermission. With the puck loose in the high slot, Smid faked a slap shot before spotting Jiri Hudler alone coming off the boards and feeding him for a one-timer that beat Hiller. Hudler's 16th of the season to put Calgary up 2-1 after 40 minutes.
No comments:
Post a Comment