Chicago Blackhawks @ Toronto Maple Leafs 4-1
Patrick Kane scored his first NHL regular-season hat trick and added an assist to help the Blackhawks win their 10th straight game, a 4-1 victory against the Maple Leafs at Air Canada Centre. Kane, who has played 623 games during the regular season, has two playoff hat tricks (2009, 2013) He leads the NHL in scoring with 28 goals and 67 points. The Blackhawks took a 1-0 lead at 13:07 when Kane scored his 26th goal three seconds after the Maple Leafs killed off a minor penalty to Jake Gardiner. James Reimer made a save from in tight, but the rebound went to Duncan Keith who passed the puck to Kane standing alone at the side of the net. Kane made it 2-0 with a power-play goal at 17:13. The Blackhawks went on the power play after Matt Hunwick high-sticked Kane in the face. Kane then took a pass from Artemi Panarin on the far side of the net and snapped a 20-foot shot past Reimer. Roman Polak took a cross-checking penalty 12 seconds into the third period putting his team down two men. The Blackhawks responded with a power-play goal nine seconds later when Panarin one-timed a perfectly placed Kane pass past Reimer to make it 3-1. Kane had a chance at getting the hat trick at 5:43 into the third period when he took a drop pass from Panarin in the slot, but his wrist shot was wide of the net. Kane capped the scoring and completed his hat trick with an empty-net goal on a breakaway with the Blackhawks shorthanded at 17:48 of the third period to make it 4-1. It was the third career four-point game for Kane. Morgan Rielly scored for Toronto, which has lost four in a row. Chicago appeared to take a 1-0 lead at 12:07 when Shaw put his own rebound past Reimer and under the crossbar. The Maple Leafs challenged the play and it was ruled offside thereby leaving Toronto with its timeout. Hossa was adjudged to have been offside on the play. The Blackhawks had some quality chances early, but were stymied by Reimer who was making his third start in the past four games. Marian Hossa broke in on the left side and his slap shot was turned aside by Reimer, but Andrew Shaw snapped the rebound back at him. Reimer again made the save. Six minutes later Chicago captain Jonathan Toews drilled a shot while standing alone in the slot, but Reimer made the save. Reimer made 25 saves for Toronto; Scott Darling made 28 saves for Chicago. The Maple Leafs have three goals in their last four games and are playing without left wing James van Riemsdyk who is out 6-8 weeks with a fractured foot. Van Riemsdyk is tied for the team lead in scoring with Leo Komarov with 29 points.
Patrick Kane: "I have had a couple of important ones in the playoffs and you probably wouldn't trade them for anything. It is nice to get that first one in the regular season and get it out of the way so to speak. Tonight, I was the beneficiary of some great plays by my teammates."
Joel Quenneville: "It might be my fault that [Kane had never scored a regular-season hat trick] never had a hat trick because we don't play him much when we get leads like that. I had no clue it was his first hat trick. I would have bet he had more than a handful. He nearly had one the other night but he missed the empty net so it was nice to see him come back with one tonight."
"Our guys are playing well. I think the consistency in our lineup has been more noticeable. We're getting more contribution across all four lines. Earlier on it was basically a one-line team and now we're seeing everybody contribute. Our defense has been balanced and our goaltending has been rock solid. I like the consistency right now."
Winnipeg Jets @ Minnesota Wild 1-0
Blake Wheeler's goal at 3:07 of the first period was all the offense rookie goalie Connor Hellebuyck and the Jets needed in a 1-0 victory against the Wild at Xcel Energy Center. Playing for the second time in as many nights and without top-liner Drew Stafford, who missed the game with an abdominal injury, the Jets capitalized on an odd-man rush early, then went to work, making life difficult for the Wild in the middle of the ice. Hellebuyck, starting back-to-back games for the second time in his NHL career, made 24 saves for his second shutout. Hellebuyck is 2-0-0 against the Wild; he made 14 saves in his NHL debut in a 3-1 win here on Nov. 27. It was the first time this season the Wild were shut out, leaving the Detroit Red Wings as the only team in the NHL that has not been held scoreless. The Jets have won two in a row following a three-game losing streak and open a six-game homestand against the Colorado Avalanche on Monday. It was the Wild's third consecutive loss overall and fourth straight at home. They have lost six of eight at Xcel Energy Center and begin a four-game road trip against the Nashville Predators on Saturday. Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk made 25 saves, including 17 in the second and third period. Wheeler finished a 2-on-1 break with Andrew Ladd by toe-dragging around Jonas Brodin and beating Dubnyk with a wrist shot low to the glove side. Wheeler has scored a goal in each of the past two games and three in the past four. His 44 points in 45 games lead Winnipeg and are fourth in the NHL. He was not named to the Central Division team for the 2016 Honda NHL All-Star Game in Nashville on Jan. 31, but Maurice underscored the forward's importance to the Jets. The Wild used two power plays to outshoot the Jets 13-9 in the first period, but they were unable to build momentum in the second and third period, when they were outshot by a total of 17-11.
Blake Wheeler: "It was the perfect road game. You want to try to limit what they're able to do, especially in this building. They feed off the crowd. If you get this place quiet, time seems to clip off pretty quickly. Once that one went in, you could almost feel it was going to be one of those 1-0 or 2-1 games. It didn't seem like there was a whole lot out there for either side and when there was the goalies made some big saves. That's how you want to play it on the road."
Paul Maurice: "[Hellebuyck's] played exactly the same game. He's poised in the net, he's big, square, doesn't let pucks come off him very often that he doesn't know exactly where they're going. At the end of the day, [he's] the biggest piece."
"[Wheeler's] been an all-star for us, there's no doubt about that," the Winnipeg coach said. "This was a positional decision and a Central Division issue, not whether Blake is an all-star. He's an all-star for us, but he's an all-star in this league."
Mike Yeo: "Giving up the first goal has been a very common trend. For a team like that, it allows them to try and lock it down and play a very patient game. It puts us in a press mode for the whole game. We gave up one goal tonight. You give up one goal at home, I'd say you're going to take that pretty much every night. Obviously, we've got to find a way to put some in the back of the net."
Zach Parise: "We got stuffed in the neutral zone [in the second period], but I thought we did a little bit better in the third. We had a little more zone time. But if you don't get through the neutral zone on these guys, it's a long game, a tough game."
No comments:
Post a Comment