Nashville @ Philadelphia Flyers 2-3 OT
Claude Giroux had the idea and defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere executed it, scoring a power-play goal with 52.0 seconds remaining in overtime to give the Flyers a 3-2 win against the Predators at Wells Fargo Center. The game turned when the Predators were called for having too many men on the ice at 2:40 of overtime. The Flyers called a timeout halfway through the advantage and that's when Giroux commandeered the dry-erase board. Coming out of the timeout Jakub Voracek carried the puck into the Nashville zone and curled to the point on the right side. He sent it to Gostisbehere in the center of the zone inside the blue line and he moved it to Giroux at the left dot. Gostisbehere cut down the middle and Giroux found him above the hash marks. His one-timer went through a Wayne Simmonds screen and past Rinne. Colin McDonald and Michael Del Zotto also scored for the Flyers and Giroux had two assists. It was a play almost exactly the same as the one Gostisbehere scored on in overtime Monday to defeat the Carolina Hurricanes. The goal was Gostisbehere's third in seven games and second in overtime. He was recalled from Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League on Nov. 14 to replace defenseman Mark Streit, who is expected to miss another month recovering from surgery to repair a detached pubic plate. But Gostisbehere's play could force the Flyers into some tough decisions when Streit returns. Goalie Michal Neuvirth made 33 saves, including a spectacular post-to-post stop on the Predators' Eric Nystrom late in the second period with the game tied 1-1. Nystrom had an open net from the left slot on the rebound of Mike Fisher's shot off a shorthanded rush, but Neuvirth leapt across and did the splits to stop Nystrom with 4:50 remaining.
Filip Forsberg had a goal and an assist, and Fisher scored for the Predators. Goaltender Pekka Rinne, who played his 400th NHL game, made 33 saves. The Predators, in the final game of a five-game road trip (1-3-1), forced overtime when Fisher jumped into the crease and banged in the rebound of a Forsberg shot with 20.0 seconds remaining in the third period. But the Predators were unable to carry that momentum into overtime. The Flyers took a 2-1 lead at 4:57 of the third on McDonald's first goal of the season. Scott Laughton held the puck along the left wing boards in the Predators end and got it to defenseman Evgeny Medvedev at the point. His shot hit McDonald in front, and he fought off Nystrom to get to the rebound and slide it past Rinne. Forsberg opened the scoring 1:44 into the game with his first goal in 17 games, one-timing a Mike Ribeiro pass into the slot past Neuvirth. It was Forsberg's fourth goal of the season; he was tied for second among rookies last season with 26 goals. Against the Flyers, he had four shots on goal and three that missed the net, including a shot off the crossbar with the game tied late in the second period. The Flyers tied it at 4:00 of the first on Del Zotto's first goal of the season. It was their first even-strength goal since the third period Nov. 17 against the Los Angeles Kings, a span of 261 minutes, 58 seconds. It was the first time six games that the Flyers scored more than one 5-on-5 goal in a game. The Flyers entered Friday 30th in the League at 1.73 goals per game. Gabriel Bourque missed the final two periods because of an upper-body injury.
Winnipeg @ Minnesota 3-1
Goaltender Connor Hellebuyck made 14 saves in his NHL debut, helping the Winnipeg Jets defeat the Minnesota Wild 2-1 at Xcel Energy Center. Mathieu Perreault, Dustin Byfuglien and Nikolaj Ehlers scored for Winnipeg, which ended a six-game road losing streak. Zach Parise played for Minnesota after missing eight games with a sprained right knee. The Wild lost its second straight home game after starting 8-1-0 here. Winnipeg played an exceptional defensive game in front of its rookie goalie, limiting the Wild to three shots on goal in the first period and 10 through two. Perreault took advantage of a power play late in the second period to give Hellebuyck some support. Perreault's shot from the right circle eluded Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk on his glove side under the crossbar at 16:26. Byfuglien made it 2-0 when he surprised Dubnyk with a shot from behind the goal line, banking the puck off the goaltender's right pad at 2:24 of the third period. Ryan Carter ended Hellebuyck's shutout with 10:51 remaining in the third period when he banked in a shot off Jets defenseman Mark Stuart near the left post. Ehlers took advantage of the overaggressive Wild late in the game, getting behind Minnesota's defense and scoring on a breakaway with 3:00 remaining. The goal ended his 15-game drought. Hellebuyck was 130th pick of the 2012 NHL Draft out of the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He was recalled from Manitoba of the American Hockey League on Sunday, a day before the Jets put goalie Ondrej Pavelec on injured reserve with a knee sprain that is expected to keep him out into January.
Connor Hellebuyck: "Once I got on the ice I got comfortable, because it's just another game of hockey. Huge milestone, but the way you've got to look at it is just another game."
Paul Maurice: "This game was important because of how it was played, not the result. It was played in a way that you can say, 'That's our game, that's the game that we can have some confidence in,' so the result is almost secondary. If that game hadn't turned out that way, but we had played that well, we'd be trying to play the same game tomorrow night. [Byfuglien] needs to shoot it when he gets the chance to shoot it; we don't need to keep looking for a better and better shot. We had a perfect net-front screen and he can pick corners. Really important, more because [Ehlers] was skating tonight. He played as good a defensive game as anyone else in that lineup tonight so it's good feedback for him."
Dustin Byfuglien: "Just threw it at the net. It's just one of those bounces. It got in somehow."
Mike Yeo: "I think our record might be a little misleading. There was a lot of inconsistencies in our game, and early in the year I think you get away with that stuff; you show the video and maybe it gets a little bit better. But when you're winning games, I don't think those things sink in. I think we're playing the same game that we were at the start of the year, but the League gets better and we're not getting away with those things. This is maybe a good kick in the [rear]."
Zach Parise: "They made it a little tough. It's tough to play when you feel like you're chasing the puck all game. It's tough to make plays, it's tough to get shots when you never had the puck."
Chicago @ Anaheim Sucks 3-2 OT
Patrick Kane extended his point streak to 18 games with an assist on Duncan Keith's game-tying goal, and the Chicago Blackhawks erased a two-goal deficit late in the third period in a 3-2 overtime win against the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center. Kane matched Eddie Olczyk and Phil Kessel for the longest NHL point streak by an American-born player with the assist in the final minute of regulation. Artem Anisimov scored the winner 1:53 into overtime. Marian Hossa's power-play goal with 1:41 left in the third period drew Chicago within one, and Keith tied the game with 26.6 seconds left. Brent Seabrook assisted on each goal for his second three-point game this season. Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford made 23 saves and is 11-4-1 in the regular season against the Ducks in his career. Crawford has enjoyed Kane's streak. Kane, the NHL's leader in points (35), is three games from tying the Chicago scoring-streak record, set by Bobby Hull during the 1971-72 season. Chicago is 5-2 in overtime games.
It was the first time the Ducks and Blackhawks played in Anaheim since Game 7 of the 2015 Western Conference Final, but Quenneville said that Friday was more reminiscent of another game in the series at Honda Center. Anaheim captain Ryan Getzlaf, who was in the penalty box for tripping Andrew Shaw when Hossa scored. A turnover by Trevor van Riemsdyk set up the Ducks' first goal. Cam Fowler gathered the puck and moved it to Andrew Cogliano, who went in on a breakaway and beat Crawford with a backhand shot at 1:02. The Ducks went up 2-0 at 7:37 of the second period when Chris Stewart scored his fourth goal. Seabrook hit Ryan Kesler on the boards, taking him off the puck and leaving it in the middle of the open ice for Hampus Lindholm, who fed Stewart at the edge of the right circle. Anaheim goalie John Gibson made 29 saves in his third straight appearance filling in for Frederik Andersen, who has the flu. Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau was satisfied with Gibson's performance until the end of the game.
Patrick Kane: "Been a fun little ride here. It seems like I'm kind of making it a little difficult on myself here the last two games."
Corey Crawford: "There's not too many players like [Kane] that come around. He could be the best American player of all time and he's still young. He will (be) if he continues to do so many things and be that sort of game-changer that he's been his whole career."
Joel Quenneville: "Pretty amazing. He's a threat every time he touches the puck. He keeps everybody on their toes defensively, generates offensive-zone time, has the puck more on his stick than any other player in the League. I didn't mind the game after about the first five minutes. I thought we worked ourselves back into the game, had a couple good shifts in the third, and then finally broke through late. It kind of brings to mind the Game 5 last year (when the Blackhawks rallied from a two-goal third-deficit before losing in overtime) but with a better ending."
No comments:
Post a Comment