Edmonton @ Pittsburgh 4-6 - The Pittsburgh Penguins have struggled to consistently put together 60-minute efforts throughout the season. This game was no different, but ended with a Penguins win. Pittsburgh survived after surrendering a four-goal lead to defeat the Edmonton Oilers 6-4 at Consol Energy Center. After seeing its 4-0 lead vanish, the Penguins restored a one-goal lead when Steve Downie pounced on a rebound off of a wrist shot from Maxim Lapierre. Downie wrapped a shot around goalie Richard Bachman for his 12th goal with 5:22 remaining in the third period. Patric Hornqvist added an insurance goal with 4:16 remaining. Despite the win, Penguins coach Mike Johnston said Pittsburgh was less satisfied with its performance than if it had lost with a better effort. Down 4-2, Benoit Pouliot scored the Oilers’ second power-play goal of the game, on a snap shot off of a cross-ice pass from Derek Roy, 4:51 into the third period. Derek Roy scored the tying goal for Edmonton with 9:56 remaining. After Roy tipped the puck away from Derrick Pouliot in front of the Pittsburgh net, Nail Yakupov sent a wrist shot on goal and Roy crashed the net, driving the puck past goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. The Penguins (39-18-10) pulled to within three points of the Metropolitan Division-leading New York Rangers, and two points of the second-place New York Islanders.
The Oilers (18-39-11) are 0-5-1 since they last won, 2-1 against the Minnesota Wild on Feb. 24. With Penguins forward Nick Spaling in the penalty box for interference in the first period, Sutter scored his fourth shorthanded goal of the season, a career-high. When the puck came to Oilers defenseman Justin Schultz at the point, Sutter tipped it past the blue line and sent himself on a breakaway.
Sutter showed his forehand, causing goalie Ben Scrivens to commit to the fake, then went backhand past Scrivens’ blocker for a 1-0 lead, 4:16 into the first.
Following a few minutes of action in the Oilers’ end, Sutter scored again when he beat defenseman Mark Fayne to a rebound off of a wrist shot from Downie, 9:37 into the first. Sutter collided his stick with Fayne’s, but was able to sneak a wrist shot past Scrivens for his first multi-goal game since scoring twice in Pittsburgh’s 3-2 win against the Colorado Avalanche on April 6, 2014. In Pittsburgh’s first home game since March 1, the Penguins experienced one of their more impressive starts of the season, capped by David Perron’s goal with 6:24 remaining in the first. Sidney Crosby raced behind the Edmonton net to retrieve the puck before sending it out front, where Perron and Hornqvist waited. Perron was the recipient and sent a wrist shot through three Oilers and past Scrivens. Crosby scored the Penguins’ fourth goal, 1:01 into the second period. Defenseman Kris Letang fed Crosby at the top of the right circle for a one-time slap shot he sent through a screen by Hornqvist into the right side of the Oilers net for a power-play goal. Bachman replaced Scrivens, who allowed four goals on 13 shots, following the goal. Evgeni Malkin earned the secondary assist on Crosby’s goal for his 700th NHL point. He joined Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr and Crosby as the only Penguins to reach that milestone. Edmonton scored a pair of goals to cut its deficit in half by the end of the second. Anton Lander scored with Ben Lovejoy in the penalty box for high-sticking when he whacked at a rebound off of a Ryan Nugent-Hopkins shot before getting it past Fleury with 7:53 remaining in the second. Jordan Eberle scored 3:04 later to bring the Oilers to within two goals. After Fayne’s shot was blocked and deflected into the air in front of Fleury, Nugent-Hopkins batted at the airborne puck, sending it to Eberle, who backhanded a shot past a sprawling Fleury with 4:49 left in the period.
Dallas @ Carolina 5-3 - There is rarely time to reflect on career milestones in the middle of a season, but Dallas Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen allowed himself a moment to consider his 500th NHL game before the Stars faced the Hurricanes. The Stars (31-27-10) scored three goals in the first period and dominated the Hurricanes (25-33-8) for most of the game in a 5-3 win at PNC Arena. Curtis McKenzie, Alex Goligoski and Jason Demers each scored his fourth goal of the season in the opening period for Dallas, which got 15 saves from Lehtonen, including 12 over the final two periods. Dallas had allowed 11 Carolina shots on goal when Cody Eakin extended the Stars' lead to 4-1 in the third period with his 16th goal. The Hurricanes then scored two goals in a 48-second span to make it a one-goal game, before the Stars' Patrick Eaves scored into an empty net to seal the win. Victor Rask had a three-point night for Carolina, including the first goal of the game at 4:06 of the first period. Rask won the draw, cut to the net, and backhanded in the rebound of Brett Bellemore's hard wrist shot from the point for his 10th goal. The Stars answered quickly when Shawn Horcoff slid a pass through the legs of Hurricanes defenseman Ryan Murphy and onto the stick of McKenzie, who tapped the puck in at the left post at 7:37. Dallas made it 2-1 after a long shift in the offensive zone. After winning several individual battles, Eakin passed from the goal line to the slot, where Goligoski snapped a hard shot past Carolina goalie Anton Khudobin at 10:38. The Stars made it 3-1 on a Demers wrist shot that found its way through traffic from the right point at 16:25. The goal was unassisted, after Demers held in Eric Staal's clearing attempt along the boards. The Hurricanes had four shots in the first period. They continued to struggle in the second, but Khudobin kept them in the game. In the middle of the period, he made outstanding right-pad saves on Tyler Seguin and Ales Hemsky driving the net.
Eakin made it 4-1 when he got a stick on Goligoski's shot from inside the blue line at 11:37 of the third period. But Carolina wasn't finished. Andrej Nestrasil scored his sixth of the season for Carolina on a goal-mouth scramble at 13:58. Less than a minute later, Chris Terry made it 4-3 with his eighth goal after Lehtonen bobbled a shot from Bellemore at 14:46. The Hurricanes had one good chance to tie it with the extra attacker when Staal fanned on a bouncing puck in the slot. Eaves scored his eighth goal when he cleared a rebound from the top of the Stars crease and into the empty net. Dallas has won two in a row and four out of five. As for Lehtonen, he was sharp when he needed to be. Two of his best saves came in the second period, first with a right-pad save on Alexander Semin's breakaway, then with a glove save against Elias Lindholm finishing a 2-on-1. Lehtonen is 242-180-55 in his career. The years have rolled by quickly since he made his debut in the 2003-04 season with the Atlanta Thrashers.
Ottawa @ Montreal 5-2 - Erik Karlsson scored two goals and first-year goalie Andrew 'Hamburglar' Hammond continued his historic run by making 27 saves in a 5-2 come-from-behind win. Hammond improved to 8-0-1 in nine starts for Ottawa, who remain seven points behind Boston for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. Hammond has allowed two goals or fewer in each of his first nine NHL starts. The 27-year-old is the fourth goaltender in League history to accomplish that feat; he's the first since Frank Brimsek, who took over from fellow Hall of Famer Tiny Thompson with the Boston Bruins early in the 1938-39 season, did it in his first 12 starts. Brimsek went on to win the Calder and Vezina trophies, was named to the First All-Star Team and led the Bruins to the Stanley Cup. Hammond is the third goalie in the past 25 years to earn at least one point in his first nine NHL starts. Patrick Lalime accomplished the feat with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1996-97, and Ray Emery matched it with Ottawa from 2002-06. Karlsson scored at 2:50 of the second to get Ottawa within 2-1, assisted on Mark Stone's go-ahead power-play goal 1:23 into the third period and scored his second of the night and 18th of the season at 9:43 to make it 4-2. That goal came one second after the Senators killed Matt Puempel's double minor for high sticking. Erik Condra and Marc Methot also scored for the Senators. Max Pacioretty scored two special-teams goals 2:11 apart in the first period for Montreal, who led 2-0 before Ottawa had its first shot on goal. Karlsson beat Price with a slap shot to begin Ottawa's comeback. Condra tied it at 18:21 of the middle period when he got credit for his ninth goal of the season after Jean-Gabriel Pageau's pass from behind the net went into the net off his leg. Karlsson got the second assist when Stone deflected Patrick Wiercioch's shot past Price for his 17th goal, putting the Senators ahead to stay. Karlsson's second goal came off a pass from Milan Michalek. Methot completed the scoring at 12:36 with his first goal since March 10, 2014. Pacioretty made it 1-0 at 6:43 of the first period with his 32nd goal. He deflected Subban's power-play slap shot from the point past Hammond with 14 seconds remaining in Alex Chiasson's double minor for high-sticking Montreal center Tomas Plekanec. Pacioretty scored his 33rd of the season at 8:54 when he deked on a breakaway and put a backhand past Hammond for his first shorthanded goal of the season. Senators defenseman Mark Borowiecki left the game in the third period after Subban's shot deflected off his stick and hit him in the face. Canadiens defenseman Sergei Gonchar played his 1,300th game. He is the 57th NHL player to reach that milestone.
Columbus @ Detroit 3-1 - It was the Blue Jackets’ third win in their past 11 games, but Columbus is 9-2-1 against Detroit in the past 12 between the two teams. Columbus had the best of the play from the opening face-off but Luke Adam took a high-sticking double minor 5:04 into the game and Detroit capitalized. Abdelkader scored a power-play goal at 7:49 of the first period. He tipped Marek Zidlicky's shot from the point out of the air and past Bobrovsky. It was Abdelkader's 18th goal and fifth in his past six games. Tyutin tied it with 7:36 left in the first. He scored on a one-timer from the bottom of the left circle that Howard could only get a piece of with his blocker. It was Tyutin's third goal. Hartnell gave the Blue Jackets a 2-1 lead 4:00 later. He scored on a one-timer from the slot off a pass from Marko Dano for his 19th goal. Atkinson's power-play goal with 1:30 left in the second period gave Columbus a 3-1 lead. Atkinson cut around Luke Glendening at the Detroit blue line, came in off the left wing and scored past Howard with an in-stride wrist shot high on the glove side for his 14th goal and first in 13 games. Babcock re-united Zetterberg, Abdelkader and Pavel Datsyuk on a line to begin the third period and shuffled the other lines. Bobrovsky stopped defenseman Niklas Kronwall's backhand shot as he cut across the top of the crease and Kronwall's shot off the rebound a little under a minute into the third period.
Winnipeg @ Florida 2-4 - Jaromir Jagr is making a strong contribution for the Florida Panthers, and linemates Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau are thriving since his arrival. Barkov scored the tiebreaking goal with 3:53 left in the third period, and Huberdeau and Jagr each had two assists. Barkov broke a 2-2 tie when his wrist shot from the high slot went past defenseman Mark Stuart and beat goalie Michael Hutchinson to the glove side. Michael Frolik assisted on Stafford's goal to extend his career-high point streak to eight games (five goals, three assists). Hutchinson, who was pulled from two of his previous three starts, made 16 saves. The Panthers led 2-1 heading into the third period before Stafford tied it at 3:47 when a pass in the slot went off a stick and then off Stafford's body. He collected the loose puck in front of the net and put it past Ellis. MacKenzie gave Florida a 1-0 lead with a highlight-reel goal at 16:28 of the first period. Dave Bolland, back after missing eight games with an upper-body injury, was standing near the Winnipeg blue line when he backhanded a blind pass toward the net. With the puck slightly out of MacKenzie's reach, he dove to get his stick on it and deflect it toward the net. Hutchinson got a piece of the puck but it trickled past him for MacKenzie's first non-empty-net goal since Dec. 16. Hutchinson produced a spectacular save midway through the second period on a Florida power play. He found himself in a prone position when the puck went to Jagr at the side of the net. Jagr fired high into the open net, but Hutchinson stopped the shot with a kick save. Scheifele tied the game 1-1 at 9:14 of the second when he scored 10 seconds after the end of a Panthers power play. Scheifele beat Ellis with a floating wrist shot from the right circle. Boyes gave Florida a 2-1 lead with a fluky power-play goal at 17:07 of the second. He took a centering pass from Huberdeau outside the crease, but his redirect was stopped by the stick of defenseman Adam Pardy. Boyes and Pardy tried to hit the puck out of midair, but Pardy knocked it into his own net.
Huberdeau extended his point streak to five games (two goals, six assists).
Winnipeg defenseman Tyler Myers left the game in the second period because of an apparent upper-body injury. Myers slammed into the boards after sliding to try to break up Jussi Jokinen's breakaway attempt early in the second period. Myers briefly returned to the game before leaving for good. Winnipeg coach Paul Maurice said after the game he had no update on Myers' status.
Philadelphia @ St Louis 0-1 SO - Ken Hitchcock knew he was getting close to 700 NHL victories, and in doing so thought about one of his closest friends. Earlier this season, the St. Louis Blues coach caught and passed Pat Quinn, who passed away in November, for fifth in NHL victories with No. 684. Hitchcock became the fourth coach to win 700 when the Blues defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 1-0 in a shootout at Scottrade Center on Thursday. Hitchcock is 700-424-95 with 88 ties having coached the Blues, Flyers, Dallas Stars and Columbus Blue Jackets. He is 167-74-25 with St. Louis. Hitchcock joined Scotty Bowman (1,244), Al Arbour (782) and Joel Quenneville (746) at the milestone. Each of the other three started his NHL coaching career with the Blues. T.J. Oshie and Vladimir Tarasenko scored in the shootout for the Blues (43-19-5), and goalie Brian Elliott stopped Jakub Voracek and Wayne Simmonds. Elliott made 28 saves and tied Jaroslav Halak for the Blues record with his 20th shutout for them. He did it in his 131st game with St. Louis; Halak accomplished it in 159 games. St. Louis moved ahead of the Nashville Predators, who lost 2-0 to the San Jose Sharks, for first place in the Central Division. Each has 91 points, but the Blues have two games in hand. Goalie Steve Mason made 35 saves for the Flyers (28-27-14). He is the third goalie to have multiple shootout shutout losses in same season (Predators goalie Pekka Rinne, 2009-10; and Stars goalie Marty Turco, 2008-09). Philadelphia is 10 points behind the Boston Bruins for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference; Boston defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 in a shootout Thursday. The Flyers have scored five goals going 0-2-2 the past four games. Mason made the save of the game with 9:30 remaining, stopping Jori Lehtera from the goalie's left after a Flyers turnover and a feed from Tarasenko. Mason then stopped Dmitrij Jaskin from the slot with 8:57 left. St. Louis' Alexander Steen hit the post for the second time with 5:55 remaining. He had Mason beat on a second-period power play in the final minute but hit the post. Elliott made his biggest save on Voracek, using his left pad after a Tarasenko turnover on a drop pass with 7:32 to go. He made a glove save former Blues defenseman Carlo Colaiacovo in overtime.
New Jersey @ Colorado 1-2 SO - After Iginla swept the puck between Schneider's skates in the shootout, Varlamov made a save against Devils forward Patrik Elias to secure the win. Ryan O'Reilly scored in the first round, but Matt Duchene shot wide in the second. Varlamov made a pad save against Scott Gomez in the first round, but Jacob Josefson snapped the puck behind him in the second. Varlamov was especially good in the first period, when the Devils dominated play and outshot the Avalanche 13-3. Roy changed all four of his line combinations after the first period. The most significant move: replacing Jordan Caron with John Mitchell on a line with Duchene and Iginla. The three players combined for Colorado's goal at 2:27 of the second period. Mitchell knocked the puck away from Andy Greene in the slot and it caromed off two skates, Mitchell's and Duchene's, and landed near the lower hash mark on the left side. Iginla followed the play and shot inside the near post for his 22nd goal, which leads the Avalanche. The Devils tied the game on Greene's goal at 14:12 of the second period. Adam Henrique corralled a deflected puck in the right corner and passed to Greene just inside the blue line for a shot by Varlamov, who was screened. Each goalie made a huge save in overtime. Schneider stopped Alex Tanguay on a breakaway with 2:27 left, and Varlamov gloved Jon Merrill's open shot from the right circle with 1:27 to go.
Los Angeles @ Vancouver 4-0 - Neither team managed a shot on its first power play, but the Kings converted on the first shot of their second opportunity after Canucks forward Derek Dorsett took a slashing penalty away from the play. Kings defenseman Jake Muzzin started the play with a cross-ice pass from the left point to Williams at the right faceoff dot, and Williams one-touched it back across the ice and through the legs of Canucks defenseman Dan Hamhuis to Toffoli inside the bottom of the left faceoff circle. Toffoli quickly lifted a shot high over Lack's blocker for his 20th goal, first in 10 games, with 3:19 left in the first period. Williams doubled the lead 3:59 into the second period, this time as the recipient of a nice backdoor pass from Brayden McNabb. The Kings defenseman was allowed to walk in unchallenged from the point to just below the left faceoff dot, forcing Lack to come out and challenge, before passing to Williams as he emerged on the other side, after circling behind the net, for an unchecked tap-in goal. Los Angeles outshot Vancouver 76-35 in the first two games, but the Canucks controlled play for long stretches early in the first period, outshooting the Kings 9-4. But they couldn't beat Quick, who robbed Jannik Hansen with his blocker 2:15 into the first period and denied Daniel Sedin alone in the slot five minutes later. Los Angeles began to take over in the second period, winning battles along the boards and pinning Vancouver in its end for long shifts with an aggressive, hard-hitting forecheck. It paid off early in the third when Hamhuis was pressured by Trevor Lewis in the corner and had his backhand pass intercepted by Kopitar, who held off the Canucks defenseman before beating Lack blocker side from 15 feet. Vancouver didn't get a shot the first 10:25 of the third period, when Quick made a great glove stop on Sedin in the high slot to preserve his fifth shutout of the season, the 36th of his career.
Chicago @ Phoenix 2-1 - Brad Richards' first goal in 24 games, and his 900th NHL point, broke a tie with 7:11 left in regulation. With his father among the horde of Chicago fans in the standing-room-only crowd of 17,534 at Gila River Arena, Richards put home the rebound of Kris Versteeg's shot on the sixth of seven Chicago power plays and the 41st of 45 Chicago shots. Andrew Shaw scored his first goal in 19 games, also on the power play, in the first period for Chicago, which is 4-1-1 without Kane despite scoring two goals or fewer in four of the six games. Corey Crawford made 17 saves to earn his 27th victory. Tobias Rieder scored the lone goal for the Coyotes, who have lost 13 of their past 14 games and scored just 19 goals during that span. They have allowed two goals in each of the past four games - and lost three of them (1-2-1). The Coyotes got a scare in the final minute when Oliver Ekman-Larsson was checked hard into the boards from behind by Chicago's Joakim Nordstrom in the final minute of the game and skated off, favoring his right shoulder. Nordstrom's boarding penalty gave a 6-on-4 power play for the final 38.5 seconds after pulling Smith, but the Coyotes were unable to get off a shot at Crawford.
With the two Chicago baseball teams also in town for spring training, Blackhawks jerseys dominated the stands and their team dominated the first period with a 17-6 advantage in shots. Mark Arcobello sent Rieder into the Chicago zone with a bank pass off the left-side boards. From the left circle, Rieder beat Crawford cleanly with a wrist shot between the pads at 4:53.
Rieder's 11th goal of the season was his third in the past five games and the most goals by a Phoenix rookie since Mikkel Boedker had 11 in 2008-09. But the Coyotes didn't get another shot for nearly 14 minutes while the Blackhawks controlled the puck, drew two penalties and tied the game. With Martin Erat in the box for holding Versteeg, Connor Murphy blocked a shot from the point by Duncan Keith. But the puck slid behind him to where Shaw was waiting, and Shaw swept a backhand between Smith's pads at 8:10 for his 10th goal of the season. With some help from six minutes of power-play time, Chicago had 18 more shots in the second period. But the Blackhawks came up empty against Smith. Their best chances came after John Moore's boarding penalty at 2:43, when Marian Hossa and Patrick Sharp each failed to finish with the puck on their sticks from in close. Kyle Chipchura's double minor for clipping Nordstrom in the lip gave the Blackhawks four minutes of power-play time later in the period, but the Coyotes limited Chicago to two shots to keep the game even. However, when Moore sent the puck over the boards with less than nine minutes left for a delay of game call, Richards and the Blackhawks cashed in for the game-winner. Coyotes Joe Vitale and Lauri Korpikoski allowed Versteeg to skate up the slot alone, forcing the defense to converge on him as he shot. Smith made the save, but no one was left to stop Richards on the rebound.
Shane Doan delivering one of his trademark cheap shot hits
Nashville @ San Jose 0-2 - San Jose Sharks goaltender Antti Niemi proved that his first shutout of the Nashville Predators this season was no fluke. Niemi blanked the Predators for the second time, making 35 saves in a 2-0 victory at SAP Center. Tomas Hertl scored a second-period goal and Tommy Wingels had an empty-net goal for the Sharks, who won for the fourth time in their past five games. The Sharks (34-26-8) are in fifth place in the Pacific Division, three points behind the third-place Calgary Flames. The Sharks also trail the Los Angeles Kings by three points for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. Pekka Rinne made 19 saves for the Predators (42-20-7), who lost for the seventh time in their past eight games and fell into second place in the Central Division behind the St. Louis Blues. Each team has 91 points, but the Blues have played two fewer games. Niemi had 29 saves in 2-0 shutout of Nashville on Dec. 13 at SAP Center. Rinne gave up one goal on 33 shots in that game. Hertl broke through Thursday at 16:28 of the second period with a power-play goal; it came 13 seconds after defenseman Mattias Ekholm went to the penalty box for slashing Joe Pavelski. McLellan opened the power play with his second unit comprised of his third line, Hertl, center Chris Tierney and Wingels, along with Braun and Marc-Edouard Vlasic on the points. The move paid off. Braun took a pass from Tierney and sent a wrist shot from the left point that Rinne stopped but couldn't control. Hertl buried the rebound from close range, putting the puck past Rinne's outstretched left pad for his 11th goal of the season. He ended a 13-game goalless streak by scoring for the first time since a two-goal game on Feb. 7 against the Calgary Flames.
When the Sharks defeated Nashville on Dec. 13, Hertl scored the game-winning goal at 5:01 of the first period, beating Rinne. The Sharks had gone 0-for-3 on the power play before Hertl scored on their fourth chance with the extra man. Nashville didn't have a power play in the first two periods. In three starts against the Sharks this season, Rinne allowed a total of three goals but lost two of the three games. Nashville went on its first power play of the game at 7:26 of the third period when Patrick Marleau went to the penalty box for holding Matt Cullen. The Predators, who had two power-play goals in their previous 35 attempts, came up empty again, but Niemi had to make four saves. The Predators went on the power play again with 5:40 left when Melker Karlsson was penalized for slashing Cullen. The Sharks killed that penalty, allowing one shot on goal. Sharks forward Matt Nieto blocked a Shea Weber slap shot, and paid the price in pain. Niemi stopped Mike Fisher on a breakaway with 1:40 left in regulation, and Wingels scored into an empty net with 58.8 seconds left.
Niemi has struggled at times this season, but he's been playing his best hockey during the Sharks' playoff drive. He had 39 saves in the Sharks 2-1 shootout victory against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
No comments:
Post a Comment