NHL Results - Sun, Mar 22, 2015

St Louis @ Detroit 1-2 OT - Due to forgetting that all TV schedules are published in ET and that in Arizona you need to tune in 3 hours earlier than that, I missed the first 2 and a bit periods of this game. Justin Abdelkader's power-play goal 24 seconds into overtime gave Detroit a 2-1 win. Erik Cole also scored for the Red Wings, who were without center Pavel Datsyuk for a third straight game because of a lower-body injury. Jimmy Howard made 23 saves for Detroit. Abdelkader extended his career high when he pushed in a rebound for his 20th of the season and the overtime winner; his previous best was 10 goals, in 2012-13 and 2013-14. The winning goal was disputed by the Blues, who said Abdelkader broke his stick before he scored the goal and play should have been stopped. Alexander Steen scored in the second period for St. Louis (45-21-7), and the point pushed the Blues into sole possession of first place in the Central Division. Jake Allen made 23 saves. The Blues lost 6-3 on Saturday to the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center. Allen made a glove save on Tomas Tatar's one-timer from the right circle with 56 seconds left in the third period to help reach overtime after the Blues' Patrik Berglund took a tripping penalty with 1:21 left. Cole tied the game 24 seconds into the third period. Abdelkader's shot from the top of the right circle hit St. Louis defenseman Chris Butler in the face and bounced directly to Cole in front of the net. He poked it in for his 21st goal.
The Red Wings took three consecutive penalties from late in the first period into the second, and they paid for it. With Luke Glendening in the penalty box for high sticking, the Blues scored the first goal of the game on Steen's screened wrist shot from above the left circle 9:38 into the second period. It was Steen's 23rd goal; Backes provided the main screen in front of Howard. Allen stopped Abdelkader from the slot and then made an outstanding pad save on Cole's rebound attempt almost three minutes into the middle period. Howard made a save on Dmitrij Jaskin's shot from the bottom of the right circle without his goalie stick during a St. Louis power play early in the second. Abdelkader hit the goal post twice in the first period. The first came a little more than 4:30 into the game at the beginning of a power play, and the second with about 3:30 remaining in the opening period.
Boston @ Tampa Bay 3-5 - J.T. Brown and Anton Stralman scored 15 seconds apart in the first period and the Lightning earned a 5-3 win. Bruins starting goalie Tuukka Rask was pulled in the second period after allowing four goals on 12 shots. Boston has lost four of its past five games. Before the two-goal outburst, Stamkos challenged the odious Brad Marchand to a fight and wrestled him to the ice to the delight of the home crowd. The Lightning captain took issue with a low hit Marchand delivered to Valtteri Filppula earlier in the period.

Stamkos' only other NHL fight came on November 26, 2008 against New York Rangers forward Nikolay Zherdev. Brown's goal gave the Lightning a 2-1 lead at 10:47 in the first period. Palat led a streaking Brown with a beautiful pass and Brown sent a backhanded wrist shot past Rask. Stralman extended the lead 15 seconds later when he sent a one-timer past Rask high on the glove side with Filppula and Vladislav Namestnikov getting the assists. Garrison scored his fourth goal of the season at 7:54 of the second period when he took a pass from Johnson at the point and sent a one-timer past Rask, who was replaced by Niklas Svedberg after the goal. Bergeron scored the first goal of the game 33 seconds into the first period off a centering pass from Marchand. He sent a wrist shot over the outstretched glove of Lightning goalie Ben Bishop (25 saves).
Namestnikov tied the game at 5:49 of the first period when he sent a rebound past Rask after the latter made saves against Brown and Brenden Morrow.
Chara made it 4-2 with a power-play goal at 10:22 of the third, but Palat responded with one of his own at 13:50 to make it 5-2. Paille scored at 19:12.

Bam! Stamkos takes the dirty bitch down.

Anaheim @ NY Rangers 2-7 - I chose not to watch this game. Two teams I despise, who I think will provide the eventual line up for the Stanley Cup Final. Instead I watched a very entertaining NBA game between the Phoenix Suns and the Dallas Stars lead by the legendary Dirk Nowitzki. The Rangers could be on their way to winning the Presidents' Trophy for the first time since the 1993-94 season, when they last won the Stanley Cup. The Rangers moved into first place in the NHL with a 7-2 win against the Anaheim Ducks at Madison Square Garden. New York, Anaheim and the Montreal Canadiens each have 99 points, but the Rangers are first in the League standings because they've played the fewest games (71); they also have the most regulation/overtime wins (ROW) with 42. New York has two games in hand on Montreal and three on Anaheim. It also has two more ROW than Montreal and four more than Anaheim. In addition, left wing Chris Kreider scored his first goal in nine games, left wing Carl Hagelin his second in 14, and center Derick Brassard his first in seven. Right wing Rick Nash had his first point in six games, and defenseman Ryan McDonagh his first in seven. Eleven of New York's 18 skaters had at least one point, with Stepan, Yandle, Miller, right wing Mats Zuccarello and center Kevin Hayes contributing at least two points. The Rangers' fourth line was their only line that didn't account for a goal. Perry was robbed on his bid for a hat trick at 12:03 of the third, when Talbot made a glove save on his point-blank shot from the top of the crease. Stepan and Miller scored in the second period to extend the Rangers lead to 5-2. Fast scored at 6:12 of the third period, and Brassard made it 7-2 at 8:17. The Rangers scored three goals on their first seven shots in the first period to force Boudreau to change goalies from Frederik Andersen to John Gibson at 10:16.