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The Los Angeles Kings placed Alexander Edler on the injured reserve list and he is likely out long-term as he picked up a lower-body injury on Saturday in a game against Minnesota.
It was sad news on the Ben Bishop front as he is unable to recover from a knee injury and subsequent surgery last year. He tried to return, but after he was sent to the minors this week on a conditioning stint and giving up eight goals on 34 shots, it was determined to recall Bishop and keep him on the injured list. It appears that his career is over.
The Avalanche have lost Gabriel Landeskog for a couple of weeks and Andre Burakovsky will get the primo job of playing alongside Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. He took full advantage of the opportunity on Sunday.
There are five games on the Sunday slate.
ANAHEIM 3 ST. LOUIS 2 (Overtime)
The Anaheim Ducks completed a busy week in which they played five games on the road with a 3-2 overtime win over the St. Louis Blues on a penalty shot goal by Troy Terry. Terry was awarded the penalty shot after Scott Perunovich was called for slashing while Terry was on a breakaway with 1:02 left in the extra frame.
The goal was Terry’s second of the night and 17th of the season as he has been one of the best surprise stories in the NHL this season. Terry scored in the third period to tie the game at two and send it into overtime.
The first two periods yielded one goal in each and for both, it was their first of the season.
Buddy Robinson opened the scoring with his first of the season in the first period while Oskar Sundqvist equaled the score in the second with his first of the campaign.
The Blues recalled Nathan Walker on Dec. 8 and the move has paid off immensely. He scored three times in his NHL season debut and he had two points on Sunday, with a goal and a helper. He gave the Blues the lead before Terry’s heroics ended the game in favor of Anaheim.
Anthony Stolarz picked up the start for the Ducks who have John Gibson on the sidelines after he suffered a lower-body injury Saturday. Stolarz stopped 23-of-25 shots to improve his record to 5-2-1 with a 2.26 GAA and a .930 save percentage. Not too shabby for a backup with Anaheim this season.
Jon Gillies made his first start of the season after the Blues signed him to a one-year contract earlier in the week when both Jordan Binnington and Ville Husso went down with injuries. Gillies held the fort for most of the contest but Terry beat him cleanly with a deke and a backhand into the top corner of the net for the winner. Gillies stopped 36 shots in the overtime loss.
Brayden Schenn had a pair of assists for St. Louis prior to the leaving the game with an upper-body injury.
Terry had six shots on goal while Hampus Lindholm had five.
Nicolas Deslauriers had seven hits.
NASHVILLE 1 NEW YORK RANGERS 0
Juuse Saros was outstanding in stopping all 32 Rangers shots to give the Nashville Predators a 1-0 win.
It was the third straight win for Saros who is 13-8-1 with a 2.24 GAA and a .925 save percentage as once again he is one of the top goalies in the NHL.
It was Philip Tomasino who scored the lone goal of the game. It was in the second period and it was his fifth of the season. The goal was a beauty as Filip Forsberg found a wide-open Tomasino at the top of the slot and he ripped a wrist shot, past Alexandar Georgiev and into the top corner of the net.
Georgiev was solid in the Rangers cage as he made 23 saves. The netminder is 5-2-1 with a 2.85 GAA and a .902 save percentage.
Ryan Strome had eight shots on goal.
Yakov Trenin had five shots on net and six hits for Nashville.
Ryan Johansen sat out Sunday’s game after he was placed in COVID protocol.
Matt Duchene missed his second game in a row, allowing Tomasino to play on the top line with Forsberg.
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COLORADO 3 FLORIDA 2
Andre Burakovsky had his first NHL hat trick to lead the Colorado Avalanche to a 3-2 win over the Florida Panthers.
The game was halted in the second period when Jacob MacDonald was hit with a legal check by Ryan Lomberg and had to be stretchered off the ice. The good news is that MacDonald was alert, had full movement and he was responsive.
Burakovsky opened the scoring in the second period with a power play goal and made it 2-0 in the third. He, as mentioned above, is now playing alongside MacKinnon and Rantanen and took full advantage of the move.
Joe Thornton cut the Avs lead in half with his third of the season and Brandon Montour’s fourth of the season before Burakovsky scored the winner with 8:17 left in the contest.
Darcy Kuemper picked up the start for Colorado and got the win. He is 12-5-0 with a 2.82 GAA and a .906 save percentage. He is not playing as well as the Avs had hoped for when they dealt for him from Arizona in the off-season.
Sergei Bobrovsky turned aside 23 shots in taking the loss. He is having a great comeback season but is now 12-2-1 with a 2.36 GAA and a .920 save percentage.
Mikko Rantanen had three assists while Nathan MacKinnon and Carter Verhaeghe had two apiece.
MacKenzie Weegar picked up a 10-minute misconduct at the end of the game. Ryan Lomberg and Nicolas Aube-Kubel battled each other and had seven minutes in penalties.
Patric Hornqvist had eight shots on goal while MacKinnon had six.
Erik Johnson had six blocked shots.
VEGAS 6 MINNESOTA 4
Defenseman Zach Whitecloud scored twice in the Vegas Golden Knights’ 6-4 win over Minnesota.
Whitecloud has five goals this season and the two-goal effort tied him for the lead among Golden Knight blueliners with Alex Pietrangelo who also scored.
It was also a big night for Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone who each had a goal and two assists.
Evgenii Dadonov had a goal and an assist.
Marcus Foligno, Nick Bjugstad, Mats Zuccarello and Alex Goligoski replied for Minnesota who were outshot 36-27 by Vegas.
Robin Lehner stopped 23 shots in picking up the win. He is 11-9-0 with a 3.15 GAA and a .904 save percentage. The Golden Knights really miss the goaltending that Marc-Andre Fleury gave them the first four seasons of the franchise but the organization decided that they could not afford Fleury anymore and while they hoped Lehner would do the job, he really hasn’t been anything special this season.
Cam Talbot stopped 30-of-35 shots in taking the loss. Talbot saw his six-game winning streak come to an end as he is 15-6-0 with a 2.71 GAA and a .917 save percentage.
It was a big night for Chandler Stephenson who returned to the Vegas lineup after missing Friday’s tilt for personal reasons as he had four assists.
Jared Spurgeon had three assists.
Jordan Greenway had six hits with Dadonov getting five.
Pietrangelo had seven blocked shots.
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VANCOUVER 2 CAROLINA 1
Thatcher Demko made 28 saves as the Vancouver Canucks won their fourth straight game under new head coach Bruce Boudreau, upending the Carolina Hurricanes 2-1.
Demko has been in net for all four wins and is 12-11-1 with a 2.66 GAA and a .917 save percentage.
Brock Boeser opened the scoring in the first period with his seventh of the season and Elias Pettersson made it 2-0 with his fifth in the second.
Martin Necas cut the Vancouver lead in half with his seventh of the season at the 2:32 mark of the third.
Antti Raanta got a rare start and took the loss, giving up two goals on 26 shots. He is 4-2-1 with a 2.37 GAA and a .907 save percentage.
Vincent Trocheck had six hits.
Bo Horvat had six shots on goal.
Tucker Poolman blocked seven shots.
Sebastian Aho missed the game with an illness.
NIGHTLY LEADERS
Goals
Andre Burakovsky – 3
Troy Terry – 2
Zach Whitecloud - 2
Assists
Mikko Rantanen – 3
Jared Spurgeon - 3
Nathan MacKinnon – 2
Carter Verhaeghe - 2
Brayden Schenn – 2
Mark Stone – 2
Max Pacioretty - 2
Shots on Goal
Ryan Strome – 8
Patric Hornqvist – 8
Bo Horvat - 6
Kirill Kaprizov - 6
Nathan MacKinnon – 6
Troy Terry – 6
Hampus Lindholm – 5
Yakov Trenin – 5
Zach Whitecloud - 5
Hits
Yakov Trenin – 6
Jordan Greenway – 6
Vincent Trocheck - 6
Penalty Minutes
MacKenzie Weegar – 10
Ryan Lomberg – 7
Nicolas Hague - 6
