Nashville @ Los Angeles Kings 3-4 OT
Jeff Carter didn't reveal any strategic secrets when asked about his breakaway move on Pekka Rinne. Carter could have unleashed one of his patented wrist shots but instead outwaited Rinne to score with 18 seconds left in overtime, giving the Los Angeles Kings a 4-3 win at Staples Center. It fell into place for Carter, who took an outlet pass from Drew Doughty down the left side, broke in across on Rinne, and lifted a shot into the net. It ended almost five minutes of exciting rushes and chances that belied the defensive styles of the teams. The Kings won their seventh straight, one shy of their last-season-high eight-game streak. The Predators fell one win short of matching their best 10-game start (2005-06) after taking a 2-1 lead.
Nashville tied it 3-3 when defenseman Ryan Ellis' slap shot beat Los Angeles goalie Jonathan Quick at 13:56 of the third period. The shot might have deflected off the stick of Kings defenseman Alec Martinez. The Kings took a 3-2 lead in the third period on Tyler Toffoli's second goal of the game and Andy Andreoff's first goal of the season. Toffoli finished a 2-on-1 with Trevor Lewis at 7:06 for his ninth goal of the season, tied for the NHL lead. Andreoff was left unmarked on the right side of the net to put in Jake Muzzin's rebound at 10:08.
Toffoli scored at 4:28 of the first period when he took a pass from Milan Lucic in the slot and used a backhand. Nashville scored two power-play goals in 3:22 of the second period to take a 2-1 lead. Shea Weber beat Quick with a one-timer at 16:15 after Martinez hooked Filip Forsberg. James Neal tied it 1-1 at 12:53 of the second with Kings defenseman Brayden McNabb serving a high-sticking penalty. Neal took the puck out of his skates and got a quick shot in the slot past Quick for his Predators-leading seventh goal. The Kings had not allowed multiple power-play goals since the season opener. Quick, who was 2-7-2 against Nashville, made 31 saves; Rinne made 25. The combined six goals allowed in regulation wasn't typical of either team, but Rinne said the close game was indicative of both. The Predators have not allowed a first-period goal in 10 straight games to open the season, two shy of the NHL record set by the 1974-75 Kings.
Jeff Carter: "It's definitely exciting [the 3-on-3 play]. The building got rocking. It's a lot of fun for us. A little nerve-wracking, but it's fun. I think the League got what they were looking for with trying to reduce the number of shootouts. It's been exciting. You can see the fans are right into it. It's back-and-forth. Me, personally, I like it. [Toffoli] bears down on his opportunities. He works hard to get them."
Drew Doughty: "Really, [Carter] had the whole ice in front of him. The slowest guy on our team still would have gotten that breakaway. But he made the read. It's either going to be a goal going at our net, 3-on-1. He made the read to stay up there."
Darryl Sutter: "Two good goalies tonight. I think they challenged those position players. It's a team that Jonathan hasn't had a lot of success against, so it's good to see him get the win."
Peter Laviolette: "I liked the way our guys played. But it's tough to have a lead going into the third period. You want to be able to close that out. L.A.'s got a real good team. They're playing really well right now with a lot of confidence, so it was a good game. It just had to take overtime to decide."
Pekka Rinne: "We are similar teams, both are good defensively, but still have good forwards, good scoring and good power plays" he said. "It's a good matchup."
Winnipeg @ Columbus Blue Jackets 3-2
The last time the Blue Jackets played at home, they trailed by a goal in the third period, failed to score on three successive power plays, and lost by four. Coach Todd Richards was fired the next day. His replacement, John Tortorella, in his Nationwide Arena debut, could not change that luck in a 3-2 loss to the Jets. Winnipeg led 3-1 midway through the third period by surviving a double-minor for high-sticking to defenseman Mark Stuart. The Blue Jackets got one shot on goal during the power play. Columbus won two of four on the road since Tortorella took over Oct. 21 but has lost all five games at home this season.
Blake Wheeler and Bryan Little each had a goal and an assist, and Ondrej Pavelec made 19 saves for the Jets, who started a four-game road trip that continues Sunday at the Montreal Canadiens. Little's fifth and Andrew Copp's first of his NHL career gave the Jets a 2-0 lead in the first period before Brandon Saad scored for Columbus at 10:32. Wheeler completed the first-period scoring with a power-play goal at 16:59. The Jets scored first for the third time in 11 games and then scored 53 seconds later. Wheeler took advantage of a Columbus line change to hit Little with a stretch pass. Little's slap shot from the top of the right circle whizzed over the blocker of Sergei Bobrovsky 5:52 into the period. Copp, a former Michigan player in his 12th NHL game, scored at 6:45 with the help of a fortuitous bounce of the puck off the end boards that put it on his stick near the right post. Copp's family and friends made the nearly three-hour drive from his home in Ann Arbor, Mich. The Blue Jackets made it 2-1 on Saad's fourth goal that came two seconds after a power play expired.
Columbus did not score again until there was 1:14 left in regulation, Scott Hartnell's fourth of the season with an extra attacker on the ice. Columbus starts a three-game California road trip on Tuesday against the San Jose Sharks. Wheeler made it 3-1 with his sixth goal of the season from the left circle with low drive that hit the right post on the way in.
David Savard: "We have to simplify the game and come back to the basics. Play the same way on the power play we do 5-on-5 and shoot pucks and hopefully get rebounds."
John Tortorella: "It's not through a lack of caring. It's confidence. You see the difference. You see Winnipeg. They're full of confidence right now, just working the puck out of their zone. At times I thought we had chances to make plays, but we weren't able to."
Nick Foligno: "We're doing a lot of good things defensively. Now the offense needs to take over. We need to generate some offense. One goal isn't going to win games. I think we've simplified our offense enough to play right defensively. Now it's about making the right plays offensively to get some goals."
Andrew Copp: "We've been talking about getting off to good start and I thought we had one tonight. We played with a lot of confidence. It's been a little bit of a long time coming but it's a great place for me to do it. My parents and grandparents are here and I've got a couple of buddies down here. It's a pretty good feeling. Being a Michigan alum, it's a little bit sweeter in Ohio State territory."
Bryan Little: "That was one of the better power-play chances we've had this year. We moved the puck around and had several chances before the goal. Thank God for that. If you weren't into the game, you were after that."
No comments:
Post a Comment