Anaheim @ Buffalo 0-3
Evander Kane opened the scoring 2:36 into the second period. Jack Eichel sent the puck towards the Ducks net, and it glanced off of Kane's right foot and past goalie John Gibson for his seventh goal of the season. McCabe, a defenseman, made it 2-0 with 6:25 left in the second period with his third goal of the season. He pinched in from the blue line, took a cross-slot pass from Cal O'Reilly and beat a sprawled-out Gibson from the lower left circle. McGinn made it 3-0 with 6:10 left in the third period. McGinn received a pass from Rasmus Ristolainen and stuffed his shot past Gibson for his seventh goal of the season.
Florida @ New Jersey 5-1
Florida had 26 shots on goal and 33 total shot attempts, but controlled the tempo and the puck with a strong cycle game below the goal line that opened the points and shooting lanes. Kulikov scored off of a cycle created by Florida's top line of Jaromir Jagr, Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau. The Panthers had the puck in the offensive zone for 61 seconds before Kulikov scored on a snap shot from the right circle. Smith scored his goal from the slot off of a sustained 21-second possession following an offensive-zone faceoff win.
Pirri scored off a blocked shot during a 3-on-2 rush. Jokinen's power-play goal came on a mini-breakaway. Shaw scored into the empty net. The Devils lone goal came on a deflection by Sergey Kalinin during a power play at 7:28 of the third period.
Vancouver @ Philadelphia 0-2
Raffl's goal gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead late in the first period but the Canucks had a great chance to tie the game with 2:02 left in the second on a power play. Daniel Sedin sent the puck in front to Alexandre Burrows, who spun and shot it from the right slot off Mason's pads. The rebound went across the crease to Edler who had an open net, but Mason made a spectacular dive across the crease to stop the shot with the heel of his glove. The Canucks nearly got a goal on a slap shot from the right point by Radim Vrbata but it entered the net after the horn sounded to end the second period. The Flyers got Couturier's insurance goal with 2:50 left in the third period. Wayne Simmonds got the puck off a give-and-go with Jakub Voracek and fired a shot from the left circle that Markstrom stopped, but Couturier tapped in the rebound from the right post. Raffl's fourth goal of the season gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead with 3:15 left in the first period. He tipped a point shot by Evgeny Medvedev past Markstrom. Referees let play continue for 22 seconds before the video goal judge signaled the on-ice officials that a goal was scored. The Flyers momentarily thought they had a second goal after a shot by Claude Giroux from the hash marks triggered the goal horn with 14:37 left in the second period. Replay review showed Giroux's shot hit the crossbar.
Los Angeles @ Montreal 3-0
The Kings traveled to the resort town of Mont-Tremblant, Que., after the loss in Ottawa on Monday, which followed a 2-1 overtime loss at the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday. After a day away from the rink, Los Angeles practiced at the local arena Wednesday before making the 90-minute ride to Montreal. Doughty's slap shot from the right point went past Canadiens goalie Mike Condon for his fifth goal at 14:47 of the second. Kopitar put Los Angeles up 2-0 at 16:22 when he put Doughty's pass into an open left side. Marian Gaborik scored into an empty net with 48.2 seconds left in the third. Lars Eller had a shorthanded breakaway in the first period, when Montreal had an 18-7 advantage in shots on goal. Eller's shot struck the left post after he was hooked from behind by Alec Martinez, who was penalized at 15:05. Quick sprawled to make a right pad save when Alex Galchenyuk cut across the goalmouth at 4:15 of the third period. Moments earlier, Quick turned back to his right to clear the puck behind him near the goal line after he made a save on Pacioretty's shot from the slot. Condon had to switch masks during a break in play early in the second period when he had a problem with his usual mask. He returned to the net with a mask with a white Canadiens "CH" logo painted on the forehead, similar to the crest Montreal will wear on the front of their white Winter Classic jerseys. A Canadiens official said it was not Condon's Winter Classic mask.
Columbus @ Phoenix 7-5
On a night when defense and goaltending took a vacation, the Blue Jackets and Coyotes scored 11 times on their first 36 combined shots and entertained almost everyone at Gila River Arena. Brandon Saad, Alexander Wennberg and Cam Atkinson each had a goal and two assists to help Blue Jackets end a five-game losing streak with a flourish. Columbus scored six times on its first 14 shots and set a season high for goals. Saad, who opened the scoring 58 seconds into the game and set up Nick Foligno late in the second period for a breakaway goal that put Columbus ahead for good. Matt Calvert, David Clarkson and Brandon Dubinsky also scored for Columbus, which has two of its 12 wins and 13 of its 83 goals against the Coyotes. The Blue Jackets did it all without top center Ryan Johansen, who was a healthy scratch, and top defensemen David Savard and Jack Johnson, who were out with injuries. Tobias Rieder had two goals and Antoine Vermette, Viktor Tikhonov, Jordan Martinook also scored for the Coyotes.
The Blue Jackets scored on each of their first two shots. Saad picked up a loose puck off the stick of Wennberg and had all kinds of time to beat Lindback for his 11th goal. Just 1:28 later, Calvert made it 2-0 on a sloppy play by Phoenix in their end. Oliver Ekman-Larsson couldn't handle Kevin Connauton's dump-in around the boards and Atkinson found a trailing Calvert between the circles with traffic in front. Calvert had plenty of time to beat Lindback over the glove and under the crossbar with a snap shot. The Coyotes did regroup. They cut the deficit in half at 8:51 when Vermette lost control of a wraparound attempt but intercepted Dubinsky's clearing attempt and roofed a shot over McElhinney
Phoenix kept coming during a wild, six-goal second period. Tikhonov tied the game 2-2 on the power play at 8:15 when he cleaned up a Michael Stone shot after good rebound work by Martinook. Tikhonov's goal was his first since being re-signed as a free agent on Dec. 6 and his first in the NHL since March 21, 2009, when he scored in his first tour with the Coyotes against the Vancouver Canucks. Ten seconds later, Vermette's pretty backhand pass off the side boards found Rieder in the high slot and he beat McElhinney with a stick-side shot to the top corner for his seventh goal at 8:25 to give the Coyotes the lead for the first time. Saad put a backhand pass on Wennberg's stick in the crease and he banked the puck off Lindback and into the net at 9:10 to tie the game. Columbus went back in front when Atkinson beat Lindback between the pads with a wrist shot from the right circle at 10:23, It was the fifth goal in a span of 4:06 and sent Lindback, now the starter with Mike Smith out for 8-10 weeks following abdominal surgery this week, to the bench. Neither team was done. Martinook tied the game for the third time at 12:21 when his wraparound try deflected off the skate of Connauton and went past McElhinney. But Saad picked the pocket of Coyotes captain Shane Doan in the Blue Jackets zone and fired a pass ahead to Foligno, who went in alone on a breakaway and put the puck under Domingue's arm at 17:11 for a 5-4 lead. The goals kept coming early in the third period. Columbus stretched its lead to 6-4 at 2:19 when Clarkson finished off a Hartnell feed a step outside the crease. One minute later Rieder banged home the rebound of a Nicklas Grossmann shot to get the Coyotes close again. It stayed that way until Dubinsky clinched it for Columbus with an empty-net goal at 19:10.
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