NHL - Central - Friday, October 16, 2015

Calgary Flames @ Winnipeg Jets 1-3
The Jets got the result they wanted in their home opener against the Flames, even if they didn't follow their coach's blueprint. Paul Maurice spoke to his players in the morning about the importance of pouncing on opponents, using the home crowd to their advantage and making MTS Centre a tough place for opponents. Instead the Jets had to overcome a slow start and needed a tiebreaking goal by defenseman Dustin Byfuglien with 1:28 remaining in the third period to earn a 3-1 win. The Jets have outscored their opponents 8-2 in the third period of their five games this season. Byfuglien broke a 1-1 tie when he forced an offensive-zone turnover by Calgary forward Johnny Gaudreau, broke into the Calgary zone and cut off the left boards before backhanding a shot that slipped past goaltender Karri Ramo. Calgary's Bob Hartley used his coach's challenge, contending that the play was offside, but the goal stood.
Blake Wheeler hit the empty net 35 seconds later to complete the win. He has points in each of Winnipeg's five games and leads the Jets with seven points, including three goals. The goal spoiled a strong bounce-back performance by Ramo, who allowed five goals in his one previous start this season. The 29-year-old made 27 saves and held the Flames in the game after the Jets had pushed back, but blamed himself for the winning goal.
The Flames took a 1-0 lead on Mikael Backlund's goal 3:38 into the game. But the Jets, who began a six-game homestand after returning from a 3-1-0 season-opening road trip, settled down in the second period and smothered any semblance of a Calgary attack, holding the Flames to four shots in a 31:06 stretch. Calgary finished with 20 shots, nine after the first period. Bryan Little, who had two goals in a 4-1 win against the New York Rangers on Tuesday, tied the game midway through the second period. Winnipeg goaltender Ondrej Pavelec made 19 saves and has a .936 save percentage and a 2.01 goals-against average in three starts this season. Calgary scored on its second shot of the game. Pavelec stopped left wing Sam Bennett's wraparound attempt, but Backlund broke through a crowd of players in the crease and shoved the loose puck into the net. From there the Flames quieted the Jets and took seven of the final nine shots of the period. The Jets tied the game 8:12 into the second period with some help from an opportune bounce. Wheeler's pass into the slot deflected off Little's skate and bounced past Ramo. Little has three goals in two games after going without a point in his first three. Winnipeg dominated the remainder of the period. Calgary managed one shot on goal in the final 10:39 of the second period, and wasn't credited with a third-period shot until 11:06. A six-game homestand this early in the season could set up the Jets well if they can continue their strong start. The St. Louis Blues visit MTS Centre on Sunday for the Jets' first Central Division game this season. The Flames started 5-3-1 last season and went on to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs. With a home game against the winless Edmonton Oilers on Saturday, the slow start this season has created some degree of urgency. Maurice credited his 6-foot-5, 260-pound defenseman [Byfuglien] with helping to key the Jets' resurgence in the second half of the game and marveled at the winning goal.
Paul Maurice: "We've built in games. We seem to get a little more confidence [as games progress]. It's so unusual for a man so big to be able to do some of the things that he can do at high rates of speed. Sometimes it's hard to get a feel for that, now it was up and down the ice, but it did get loose in the second for both teams. There were more odd-man rushes. It wasn't from a casualness in the game; it was coming up and down hard. [Calgary] worked hard too. They blocked an awful lot of shots. There wasn't anything easy. I think in the first period for us, we kind of got behind it a little bit with our offensive game trying to slow the game down. [We] got out of that mindset early in the second period and were pretty good after that."
Dustin Byfuglien: "I knew I was onside because I had the puck. I just went down the wall and tried something I don't do very often and it happened to work."
Bryan Little: "Once we tied [the game] in the second period, we found a new gear and controlled the play a lot more."
Colorado @ Anaheim Sucks 3-0

Reto Berra made 35 saves for the Avalanche in a 3-0 win against the Sucks at Honda Center. It was the third time the Ducks were shut out in four games this season. They outshot the Avalanche 35-25, but Colorado blocked 41 shots and Berra, playing in place of Semyon Varlamov, earned his first win of the season and second NHL shutout (April 9, 2015 against the Winnipeg Jets). Anaheim has gone eight periods without a goal. Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said he saw positive indicators but admitted the drought has been exceptionally frustrating.
Colorado coach Patrick Roy was especially pleased with its defensive effort in front of Berra and the work the penalty kill put in against five power plays.
After giving up six goals to the Boston Bruins at home in their previous game, the Avalanche played with an emphasis on defensive fundamentals. They executed their defensive-zone game plan by pushing the Ducks to the perimeter and putting bodies in shooting lanes, forcing Anaheim to shoot from the outside and eliminating chances for easy goals.
Nathan MacKinnon, Jack Skille and John Mitchell scored for Colorado. Alex Tanguay fed MacKinnon from the corner and his one-timer from the edge of the right circle beat Ducks goalie Frederik Andersen blocker-side 53 seconds into the first period. Colorado strung together a few high-pressure shifts in the second period and Skille capitalized with a slap shot at 7:11. Anaheim captain Ryan Getzlaf had a prime opportunity at 15:52 of the second, with time and space in front of the left circle, but his snap shot hit the post. Mitchell scored into an empty net at 19:15 of the third. Simon Despres left the game at 11:57 of the second period with an upper-body injury after a hit by Avalanche defenseman Tyson Barrie. There was no update on Despres' status following the game.
Reto Berra: "Mentally, I was so calm today and saw the puck really good. I didn't care about a score. I just stopped every puck."
Patrick Roy: "We made a great commitment blocking those shots. The tracking was phenomenal tonight. We talked about that this morning. We wanted to make sure we played well in our zone. We've got great leaders in this room and guys know that we have to play better defensively in order to win some hockey games, and that's exactly what we did tonight."
Gabriel Landeskog: "You don't want to be fearless and stupid with it, but you've got to get in those shooting lanes and have everybody collapse into the zone. When it expands, they have free reign to throw pucks at the net, so you've got to just get in that lane and sacrifice the body."
Nathan MacKinnon: "This is a big game for us, we wanted to get out to a good start. It's always fun to score a big goal like that early; it turned out to be the game-winner and we really locked it down, I thought."


Minnesota @ Los Angeles Kings 1-2 OT
Anze Kopitar scored 2:19 into overtime to give the Kings their first victory of the season, 2-1 against the Wild at Staples Center. After Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick made glove saves on Thomas Vanek and Mathew Dumba in the 3-on-3, Kopitar took a pass from Tanner Pearson and snapped a shot from the slot past Wild goalie Darcy Kuemper. The Kings dominated the first two periods, outshooting the Wild 32-14. But they managed one goal, by Tyler Toffoli on a power play early in the second period. The Wild tied the game on Mikko Koivu's power-play goal at 5:37 of the third. Kuemper, making his first start of the season after Devan Dubnyk played the first three games, made 35 saves.
Jonathan Quick, who has started all four games for the Kings, made 25 saves.
The Kings outshot the Wild 16-5 in the first period but were unable to beat Kuemper, who made saves on Dustin Brown and Kopitar. A tripping penalty to Wild defenseman Marco Scandella at 19:24 gave the Kings a power play that carried over into the second period, and they ended an 0-for-13 drought from the start of the season at 1:13 when Toffoli took a pass from Lucic and snapped a shot over Kuemper's left shoulder for his second goal of the season. Minnesota began to generate some offense in the third period and tied the game when Koivu shoveled the rebound of Zach Parise's shot from the right circle past Quick with Kings forward Nick Shore in the penalty box for tripping. Defenseman Derek Forbort, a Minnesota native and the 15th player taken in the 2010 NHL Draft, made his NHL debut for the Kings, the final player from that first round to do so. He had one shot in 11:33 of ice time.
Darcy Kuemper: "It felt good, better as I went along. I wasn't clean early, The guys were battling great in front of me. There weren't many second chances." told Fox Sports North.
Mike Yeo: "We knew what we were going to face tonight, a winless team and it's not like they're a team that you would expect to be winless at this point. We knew we were coming into a hornets' nest and we definitely weren't on top of it, but I'm very proud and very pleased with the way we responded in the third period."
Zach Parise: "We played one good period and had a chance to win the game. We didn't play very well in the first or second. Our power play was able to get one and then we started to play better after that."
Anze Kopitar: "I think tonight was more like Kings hockey. It definitely feels nice to get the first one out of the way."
Milan Lucic: "I thought our game, as a full 60-minute effort, was much better. We were able to establish more zone time. We were better through the neutral zone. We were better supporting each other. We were able to get more chances; it's just about executing and finishing them off."
Darryl Sutter: "I thought he made some good decisions with the puck. I think he has to play a more assertive, aggressive game and understand the strength of the players he's playing against."