Buffalo Sabres @ Colorado Avalanche 1-2
Alex Tanguay is hopeful the goal and assist he had to help the Avalanche defeat the Sabres 2-1 at Pepsi Center will get his game on track. Tanguay scored the tying goal at 9:23 of the third period, his first goal since Oct. 30, and passed to Francois Beauchemin for the winning goal with 31.7 seconds remaining.
Beauchemin took a pass from Tanguay off the right-wing boards just inside the blue line and beat goalie Robin Lehner, who was screened by Matt Duchene.
Evander Kane gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 16:38 of the second period after Nick Holden was penalized for high-sticking Philip Varone. The Sabres worked the puck around in the Avalanche end and Ryan O'Reilly passed to Jack Eichel, who redirected the puck to Kane. Kane was between the circles when he spun around and beat goalie Semyon Varlamov to the stick side for his 10th goal. O'Reilly was playing his first game against the Avalanche since he was traded to the Sabres on June 26. He played 21:54, had three shots, lost 15 of 25 faceoffs and was minus-2. The Avalanche have defeated the Sabres 10 consecutive times since a 6-4 loss on Dec. 4, 2005.
They've won two games in a row overall and three of their past four. The loss ended a two-game winning streak for the Sabres, who won four of their previous five. Tanguay scored the tying goal, his first goal at home, shortly after the Sabres killed a double-minor to Kane for high-sticking Cody McLeod. Buffalo killed three Colorado power plays and has stopped 18 of 19 in an eight-game stretch. Carl Soderberg slid the puck up the slot, it hit a couple of sticks, and Tanguay backhanded it by Lehner's glove into a half-open net. Limited to 17 shots through the first two periods, the Avalanche outshot the Sabres 18-5 in the third. Lehner had 33 saves in his third appearance of the season. He missed 39 games because of a high-ankle sprain. Varlamov had 26 saves. Sam Reinhart sustained an upper-body injury in a second-period collision with John Mitchell and didn't return. Tanguay has three goals in 37 games this season.
Alex Tanguay: "It's been quite a while. I haven't been on the scoresheet as much as I would like, but a little before Christmas I started to play a little bit better. I just can't get in a groove and hopefully this will spark me to help the team a little bit more."
"Beauchemin made a great pass to Carl and he kind of fumbled the puck a little bit and threw it back in front. It came back to my stick and the goalie almost got a glove on it. I was thankful it went in. Lots of relief, no doubt. It's the longest streak I've ever had. Hopefully those 20 pounds I shed after the goal will help me score a few more."
Francois Beauchemin: "It was a nice pass off the wall from Alex and I was able to keep it in. I had a lane at the net and I just threw it and it hit something in front. Sometimes that's all you need to get the goal. That's what we needed to get that win."
"We couldn't get through the neutral zone the first two periods. We tried to be too cute, too fancy. We were going through guys in the neutral zone and they were just coming back our way and we were stuck in our zone for a while. In the third we got back to the simple game, getting the red line and getting it deep and in on the forecheck. When we do that we're really successful."
Minnesota Wild @ Anaheim Ducks 1-3
Rickard Rakell scored with 6:19 remaining in the game to help the Ducks to a 3-1 win against the Wild at Honda Center. Corey Perry found Patrick Maroon out wide and Maroon fed Rakell in front of the net for his 10th goal of the season to break a 1-1 tie. The goal established a new career high for Rakell. Boudreau mixed up the lines throughout the game in an effort to generate more secondary scoring. Although he said it wasn't the cleanest effort, the results were somewhat successful because three different lines scored. Rakell and Perry showed an obvious chemistry throughout and a revamped top line capitalized on an early chance when Chris Stewart redirected Shea Theodore's shot into the net at 10:46 in the first period to tie the game at 1-1. Getzlaf centered that line with Stewart and David Perron on the wings. The Anaheim captain admitted that he wasn't completely comfortable but also wasn't completely uncomfortable without his longtime linemate Perry. Anaheim goalie John Gibson made 25 saves in the final game of an eight-game homestand. The Ducks finished 5-3-0. Jakob Silfverberg scored an empty-net goal at 19:11 to cap another poor third period performance from Minnesota. The Wild has allowed eight third-period goals in the past seven games, including two in each of the past two games. The Wild took a 1-0 lead when Erik Haula set Jarret Stoll up for a snap shot from the slot 6:48 into the game. It was the first goal in three games for Minnesota. Minnesota went 0-for-3 with the man-advantage and has gone scoreless on the power play the past 11 games (0-for-24). Down 2-1 at 16:05 in the third period, Perron was whistled for holding but the Wild managed a single shot on goal. The inability to score with or without the extra man is puzzling for Minnesota, especially when the Wild feels as though they're generating offense and quality scoring chances. Devan Dubnyk made 24 saves in the Wild's fifth straight loss. Minnesota has scored four goals in five games and will finish a back-to-back Southern California trip Thursday at the Los Angeles Kings.
Zach Parise: "I feel like we had some good stuff around the net and some good possession in the zone, but you leave the night with zeroes and you lose the game 3-1. It's our responsibility to score some goals."
Mikael Granlund: "It's not easy, it's not fun. Everybody knows that, but we can't feel sorry for ourselves. We need to keep doing things better and tomorrow we have a new chance."
Charlie Coyle: "When it comes down to crunch time, we need to be prepared to give it all we've got. Nothing to hold back. They tightened up and they played a little better when they got out there and we've got to do the same."
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