Minnesota @ Winnipeg 4-5
What could have been a clean, efficient win for the Winnipeg Jets turned into an adventure before they managed to hold off the Minnesota Wild in a 5-4 victory at MTS Centre. Drew Stafford scored twice and Andrew Ladd and Bryan Little each had a goal and an assist. Blake Wheeler had two assists and Michael Hutchinson made 26 saves for the Jets, who held a 5-1 lead early in the second period before Minnesota nearly rallied to tie the game. Jason Zucker, Mikko Koivu, Justin Fontaine and Zach Parise scored for the Wild. Darcy Kuemper allowed four goals on 18 shots before being pulled in favor of Devan Dubnyk, who made 14 saves. After the game, Dubnyk said that he played through knee pain. Kuemper and Hutchinson faced early pressure. The Wild and Jets combined for three goals in the first 3:28. Zucker scored 10 seconds into the game, the fastest goal in Wild history.
Winnipeg took a 3-1 first-period lead on goals from Little, Ladd and rookie Nikolaj Ehlers. Stafford scored twice in the second period to help the Jets build a four-goal lead. However, the Wild rally began when Koivu and Fontaine scored 38 seconds apart late in the second. Parise's goal with 9:19 left in the third pushed the Wild to within a goal. Minnesota was playing its third game in the past four nights, but Parise shrugged aside any notion that fatigue was an issue.
After Zucker's first goal of the season, the Jets pounced. Winnipeg's push started with Little's fourth goal, a tip of a bouncing puck, to make it 1-1 at 1:22. Ladd swept a rebound past Kuemper 2:06 later to grab a 2-1 lead. Wheeler assisted on each of the goals to extend his point streak to eight games, a career high and the longest in Jets history. He has four goals and seven assists over the stretch.
Ehlers put the Jets up 3-1 at 12:12 with an off-wing low wrist shot. Ehlers, the ninth pick in the 2014 NHL Draft, has scored in each of his past two games and has three goals and three assists in eight games. Stafford finished Kuemper's night on his fourth goal, a right-circle snap shot 51 seconds into the second period. Stafford's second of the game made it 5-1 at 4:34 after he cut into the slot and slipped a shot between Dubnyk's pads. Maurice praised the third line of Stafford, shutdown center Adam Lowry and Alexander Burmistrov.
But Burmistrov's elbowing penalty late in the second period opened the door for Minnesota. Koivu extended his point streak to six games (three goals, three assists) 1:06 into the power play before Fontaine made it 5-3 at with his first goal of the season at 14:55. Dubnyk fought through the discomfort while the Wild began the comeback. But Yeo plans to keep Dubnyk off the ice Monday before the Wild host the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday. Winnipeg will continue its six-game homestand Tuesday against the Los Angeles Kings.
Jets Quotes
Blake Wheeler: "It's never over in [the NHL]. That's a good lesson to learn early on. We're a year older, a little bit more mature as a group. When the situation gets tough out there, you learn to rely on the system more than you rely on your individual talent, and I think that's what we leaned on [Sunday]."
Paul Maurice: "We were quick. We moved the puck well and were efficient with our offense. Pucks to the net."
Drew Stafford: "We're going to be relied on for a little bit of secondary scoring. So far, so good."
Wild Quotes
Devan Dubnyk: "I wanted to stay in there and see if we could have a chance to come back. For a little bit there in the second period, it's hard to play when you're thinking about whether you're capable of certain movements, but we worked on it between the second and third."Zach Parise: "It's not something structural. I fully believe it's going to be fine going forward. We got in here at a decent time [Saturday] night. We had a great second half of the game, so I don't think it was fatigue at all."
Mike Yeo: "It was a combination of turnovers and not having our [third forward] in position that just allowed them to attack with too much speed on our defensemen. I thought that our gap, we were backing up more than we normally do, so it was a combination. I'm told that I'm not supposed to be worried about it. I've been assured that it shouldn't be a problem. We'll make sure that he gets the treatment that he needs, and certainly we'll look at the big picture. If there is any risk of him damaging this further, then he won't be in the net."
Darcy Kuemper: "I need to be better. That wasn't good enough."
Monday, October 26
Anaheim Sucks @ Chicago 0-1 OT
The Blackhawks' 1-0 overtime win against the Sucks at United Center was almost a carbon copy of their previous game. Two days after defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning by the same score in the same arena, the Blackhawks again won early in overtime on a goal by the same player, captain Jonathan Toews. After getting the puck on the same right wing that he skated down for his winner against the Lightning, Toews beat Anaheim goalie Frederik Andersen high to the short side with a wrist shot 51 seconds into overtime. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Blackhawks are the first team since the NHL reintroduced overtime before the 1983-84 season to win with consecutive overtime shutouts. That's just another historical footnote to the Ducks, who are off to the worst start in their history. Anaheim, which has scored six goals in its first eight games, has been shut out five times, one more than all of last season. Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford had a lot to do with the fifth, making saves on all 39 shots he faced for his second straight shutout and the 14th of his NHL career, but that's little consolation for the Ducks. The positives Anaheim will take from this game are outshooting Chicago 39-24 overall and dominating the third period with a 19-6 advantage in shots. The Ducks started overtime strong too, forcing Crawford to make two great saves before the Blackhawks got the puck to the other end of the rink for Toews' goal. Andersen made 23 saves but gave up the goal on the only shot he faced in overtime. He nearly allowed one to Blackhawks rookie left wing Artemi Panarin at 14:25 of the third, but it was waved off because the net was dislodged by Andersen's left skate before the shot. Playing their third game without injured defenseman Duncan Keith, who is out 4-6 weeks after surgery to repair a meniscal tear in his right knee, the Blackhawks had to battle most of the game to clear their defensive zone. It put a lot of pressure on Crawford, especially in the third period, but he was up to the challenge. The Ducks and Blackhawks each came into the game without scoring a goal during regulation in their previous game. Anaheim hasn't scored a goal in 128:36, and Chicago hasn't scored in regulation in a 139:43 span. Corey Perry, who had eight shots, nearly gave the Ducks a lead 1:02 into the second, when a Blackhawks turnover in the neutral zone led to a mini-break. He drifted down the slot, took a wrist shot and watched the puck hit the left post after beating Crawford past his blocker. Three minutes later, the Ducks failed to capitalize on a turnover by Crawford behind the net that left the Blackhawks goalie out of position. Andrew Cogliano played in his 630th consecutive game since making his NHL debut Oct. 4, 2007, with the Edmonton Oilers, tying Andy Hebenton (1955-1964) for the second-longest games played streak to begin a career.
Joel Quenneville: "It's not very often you're going to have two games exactly like that in back-to-back fashion, at home, against two top teams and you come out on top. So, we're very pleased with the results and what we gave up. He was excellent tonight. The tests the [past] couple of games haven't been as dramatic as it was tonight. It was one game where, especially as the game was going on, they started coming at the end and rebound control was in order and [he] challenged at the right times. [He was] big in those tight plays, and they go to the net hard, so it was a dominating performance by [Crawford] and very instrumental in why we got two points."
No comments:
Post a Comment