Anders Nilsson was the first star of the week as the Ottawa goaltender was a perfect 3-0-0 with a 1.64 GAA and a .950 save percentage. The netminder doubled the Senators wins this week as they now have six.
Auston Matthews was the second star as he had two goals and seven assists in four games. He assisted on all four Toronto goals Sunday but did not score despite having 10 shots on goal.
Rookie defenseman Cale Makar was the third star with three goals and three assists. He has 17 points in 17 games this season and currently is the favorite for the Calder Trophy.
Torey Krug is out of action with an upper-body injury, while Sidney Crosby will not be available Tuesday as he is out with a lower-body injury.
Nick Foligno was given a three-game suspension for his hit on Colorado’s Pierre-Edouard Bellemare.
And the most interesting news of all was the firing of Don Cherry from Hockey Night in Canada. Cherry did not apologize for his derogatory comments made Saturday night when he was unhappy with “you people” and made his thoughts known during ‘Coaches Corner’. Well done Sportsnet for a quick and proper decision.
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ARIZONA 4 WASHINGTON 3 (Shootout)
For the fifth straight game, the Arizona Coyotes blew a lead and after going 1-2-1 in the previous four games, they won this one in a shootout, beating top-ranked Washington 4-3.
Conor Garland and Nick Schmaltz scored in the shootout while T.J. Oshie and Evgeny Kuznetsov failed to do so, to give the Coyotes the win.
Arizona jumped out to a 3-0 lead on goals by Clayton Keller, Christian Fischer with his first of the season, and Michael Grabner but Evgeny Kuznetsov’s first of two in the game in the second period, gave the Capitals some much needed hope.
Kuznetsov scored early in the third to bring the Capitals to within one and Oshie tied it up with 1:16 remaining to send the game into extra time.
Antti Raanta picked up the win, stopping 31 shots and is 3-1-2 with a 3.12 GAA and a .912 save percentage.
Ilya Samsonov turned aside 32 shots and took the shootout defeat. He is 5-1-1 this season with a 2.45 GAA and a .915 save percentage.
Alex Ovechkin had seven shots on goal.
Tom Wilson had seven hits.
Jakob Chychrun blocked four shots.
CAROLINA 8 OTTAWA 2
The Carolina Hurricanes were in the throes of a four-game losing streak while the Ottawa Senators enjoyed a resurgence last week, winning three-of-four games. So it looked like the Hurricanes were going to have some trouble with Ottawa on Monday night.
But that did not happen as Carolina exploded for the first five goals of the contest en route to an 8-2 shellacking of the Senators.
Sebastian Aho scored twice to give him eight this season, leading the Canes to the win.
There were lots of contributors to the win as Warren Foegele, Ryan Dzingel and Martin Necas had a goal and an assist apiece while defenseman Joel Edmundson scored his first of the season and added a pair of helpers.
Defensemen Dougie Hamilton and Haydn Fleury also scored while Andrei Svechnikov and Brett Pesce each chipped in with a pair of assists.
Colin White with his second and Brady Tkachuk, replied for Ottawa.
Anders Nilsson, the first star of the week as mentioned above, was far from special Monday as he gave up four goals on 19 shots to get saddled with the loss. He was pulled at the 12:45 mark of the second after Fleury made it 4-0. Craig Anderson mopped up and gave up four goals as well but in 24 shots.
Petr Mrazek pushed his record to 8-3-1 with the victory. He stopped 27-of-29 shots and has a 2.51 GAA and a .907 save percentage.
Jaccob Slavin had eight shots on goal for Carolina.
Aho and Pesce were each a plus-four. Anthony Duclair was a minus-four while Jean-Gabriel Pageau was a minus-one but still retained his NHL lead in plus/minus at plus-15. It was only the second game all season where Pageau had been a minus player.
Mark Borowiecki had seven hits.[[ad:athena]]
NIGHTLY LEADERS
Goals
Sebastian Aho – 2
Evgeny Kuznetsov – 2
Assists
Brett Pesce - 2
Joel Edmundson – 2
Shots on Goal
Jaccob Slavin – 8
Alex Ovechkin – 7
Evgeny Kuznetsov - 5
Brady Tkachuk – 5
Hits
Mark Borowiecki – 7
Tom Wilson - 7
Alex Goligoski - 5
Penalty Minutes
Bobby Ryan – 5
Brock McGinn – 5
