NHL - Central - Monday, December 07, 2015

Nashville @ Boston Bruins 3-2

Viktor Arvidsson scored the game-winning goal with 4:56 remaining and Roman Josi scored twice in a 3-2 win against the Boston Bruins at TD Garden. The Predators won for the second time in six games (2-2-2) and first time in six games here. Carter Hutton made 15 saves against Boston's season-low total of 17 shots and won for the third time in four starts. Nashville had 30 shots on net.
Arvidsson won a battle at the Boston blue line to gain control of Cody Hodgson's long pass. Arvidsson then cut to the middle and drew Bruins goalie Jonas Gustavsson out of the goal before sending a shot past him. The Bruins failed to earn a point for the first time in nine games (6-1-2). They might've been tired after returning home Sunday from playing three games in four nights in Western Canada, but coach Claude Julien blamed the Bruins' 26 penalty minutes more for the loss. Kevan Miller gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead at 4:13. Miller took a handoff from David Krejci in the right circle and took a shot which went off of Colton Sissons and past Hutton. The Predators tied it 1-1 during a 4-on-3 power play late in the first period. Josi found the room to beat Gustavsson high to the stick side with a wrist shot from near the left hash mark at 19:35 for his sixth goal. Boston and Nashville each scored a power-play goal within a 27-second span in the second period. Loui Eriksson gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead when he deflected Ryan Spooner's pass into the net at 10:53. Patrice Bergeron had the second assist on the goal for his 575 career point, tying him with Milt Schmidt for 11th on Boston's all-time scoring list. Josi tied it with his second goal of the game and seventh of the season at 11:20. After he intercepted Zdeno Chara's clearing attempt, Josi skated down the right wall and cut to the net before he beat Gustavsson to tie it 2-2. The Predators outshot the Bruins 12-4 in the second period and held a 24-11 edge through two periods. Boston didn't have a shot on goal during the final 9:07 of the second period. The Bruins' shot drought lasted 17:06 until Bergeron's shot on goal at 8:09 of the third period. Gustavsson made 30 saves. The Predators visit the Chicago Blackhawks next.

Roman Josi: "We thought we played some really good games lately and kind of found a way to lose it. And tonight, we found a way to win that game and I thought our discipline was way better in the second half of that game. We didn't take any penalties any more. And their power play's dangerous. That's kind of how we lost the game in Detroit, giving them too many opportunities on the power play. And we stayed disciplined tonight. So it was a good win for us. I had a lot of space. I mean I think their 'D' tried to clear and he was kind of out position so I just saw like an empty lane to the net. I decided pretty quick I'm going to take it to the net and hopefully something good happens."
Carter Hutton: "You just kind of stay with it, stay focused and it just goes on top of the fact of not playing that often. Just keeping your mind in it because it might be that one key save. I can only control the game that they throw at me. Tonight we were able to get one and hang on for the win."

Penalties

1st Period
13:30 BOS	Zach Trotman  Holding against  Filip Forsberg
13:54 NSH	James Neal  Slashing against  Brad Marchand
17:49 BOS	Brad Marchand  Interference against  Filip Forsberg
17:49 NSH	Filip Forsberg  Interference against  Brad Marchand
18:41 BOS	Zdeno Chara  Hi-sticking against  James Neal
2nd Period
04:04 NSH	Roman Josi  Fighting (maj) against  Brad Marchand
04:04 BOS	Brad Marchand  Fighting (maj) against  Roman Josi
06:13 BOS	Tyler Randell  Fighting (maj) against  Eric Nystrom
06:13 NSH	Eric Nystrom  Fighting (maj) against  Tyler Randell
06:38 NSH	Filip Forsberg  Tripping against  Zdeno Chara
10:44 NSH	James Neal  Embellishment
11:08 BOS	Patrice Bergeron  Hooking against  Calle Jarnkrok
13:44 BOS	Brad Marchand  Interference against  James Neal
17:26 BOS	Tyler Randell  Boarding against  Colin Wilson

Minnesota @ Colorado 1-2 OT

Frustrated by their lack of success in recent games against the Minnesota Wild, the Colorado Avalanche gained a measure of confidence with a 2-1 overtime win at Pepsi Center against their Central Division rivals. John Mitchell scored at 3:35 of the extra period after accepting a pass from Matt Duchene. He cut to the front of the net and put the puck past Wild goalie Darcy Kuemper. Semyon Varlamov made 19 saves for the Avalanche, who defeated the Wild for the first time in three games this season. Kuemper had 18 saves. The Wild were dominant against the Avalanche since winning a seven-game Stanley Cup Playoff series in 2014. They shut out Colorado four times in seven games heading into Monday and had won eight of the past nine. Zach Parise tied the game for the Wild with 6:09 left in the third period with his first goal in six games since returning from a knee injury. Jason Pominville passed from behind the net to Mikael Granlund, who was standing to Varlamov's right. He took a shot and Varlamov made a pad save, but Parise was right in front and had multiple attempts at the loose puck before it went in. Parise had a hat trick against the Avalanche in the season opener on Oct. 8 when the Wild rallied from a 4-1 third-period deficit for a 5-4 win. Varlamov has struggled this season, but he's 2-1-0 in his past three games with a 1.31 goals-against average and .955 save percentage. The loss came Saturday, a 3-0 defeat in Minnesota where he denied 41 of 43 shots. The pace of the game Monday was completely different. The Avalanche and Wild combined for 10 shots in the first period, 13 in the second and 10 in the third. Wild coach Mike Yeo said after the morning skate that he expected the Avalanche to play a much better than they did Saturday, and he was right. Tyson Barrie gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead at 4:13 of the second period to complete a tic-tac-toe passing play with Carl Soderberg and Blake Comeau. Comeau fed Soderberg during a rush into the Wild end, and Soderberg passed across to Barrie cutting to the net for a chip shot inside the right post. The goal ended the Avalanche's scoreless stretch of 116:06 against the Wild, covering parts of three games since Mitchell scored at 8:07 of the second period in the season opener. There weren't many shots or scoring chances in regulation, but Varlamov and Kuemper made some good saves. Kuemper denied Andreas Martinsen driving to the net early in the first period and he thwarted Nathan MacKinnon in the slot late in the second. Varlamov denied two shots on the Wild's first-period power play and made successive saves against Parise and Granlund midway through the second. He made another save against Nino Niederreiter with 53.2 seconds left in the period. Varlamov got a piece of his blocker on a shot from Ryan Suter 31 seconds into overtime.

John Mitchell: "[Duchene] brought a guy up to him, he kind of bit on him and passed it down low. I just tried to get to the middle of the ice as quick as I could and shoot it high glove. They've had our number for a little while here. We didn't want to let them get back in the game and even get the game to overtime. [Varlamov] played great for us; kudos to him. He was awesome."
Patrick Roy: "It was a real hard fought game. I was really pleased with the way we played defensively. We had to bounce back with a performance like this. I thought it was playoff hockey. Everyone had to fight for that inch of space out there. That was the type of game I wanted to see from our team."
Tyson Barrie: "It was a great pass by Carl. I just had to go to the net and put my stick down. It was a tight game. They always play like that. They're our rival and we hate 'em. They've had our number the last few times and it feels good to get this one. It's been frustrating."
Semyon Varlamov: "It doesn't matter how many shots, sometimes it's only five shots and three goals. It's been happening to me. Forty shots or 10 shots, I have to stay focused all the time and try to stop them."

Zach Parise: "He made a good save on me on that first whack and the rebound, luckily it stayed right there. So I was able to get the second by him."
Mike Yeo: "They played well positionally. That's their game right now. They're working their neutral zone forecheck and they've got numbers back. They had the same structure last game, but we had a quicker attack, quick ups before they got set into position, quick to take ice when ice is available, whereas tonight we let the game slow down."