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There were two games in the NHL on Sunday, one more than originally scheduled as Detroit-Anaheim was switched from Thursday to Sunday due to COVID.
The four captains for the All-Star game will be announced according to the fans votes and they should be as follows as the quartet have led all through the voting:
Auston Matthews – Atlantic
Alex Ovechkin – Metropolitan
Nathan MacKinnon – Central
Connor McDavid – Pacific
The remainder of each squad will also be revealed Thursday evening as every team will be represented within its own division. All teams will have six forwards, three defensemen and two goaltenders in a three-on-three game.
Gerard Gallant, the Rangers head coach, was placed in COVID protocol and New York will replace him behind the bench with Kris Knoblauch until Gallant is able to coach again.
ST. LOUIS 2 DALLAS 1
Wow! There are not too many times a team scores twice in the last minute of play to pull out a victory from the jaws of defeat, but that is exactly what happened on Sunday as the Blues scored twice on the power play in 18 seconds at the 19:13 and 19:31 mark to defeat Dallas 2-1.
You have to feel sorry for Braden Holtby, who was working on a shutout the whole game and then lost it late. It was worse on how St. Louis scored the winner as Jordan Kyrou banked a shot off defenseman Jani Hakanpaa (a former St. Louis Blue draft pick) into the net past Holtby.
After a scoreless first period, Jason Robertson extended his points streak to seven games with his 12th goal of the season as he had trouble corralling a pass from Miro Heiskanen before controlling it and beating Jordan Binnington. Robertson has four goals and six assists during the seven-game streak as the sophomore jinx has certainly not been a hinderance in Robertson’s year.
It stayed that way until less than two minutes to go in the third when Hakanpaa was sent to the penalty box for hooking Ryan O’Reilly. O’Reilly then made the Stars pay with his sixth of the season. The Blues pulled Jordan Binnington to make it a six-on-four power play and evened the score when Torey Krug’s shot from the point bounced off the back boards, past a couple of players and a prone Holtby, right to O’Reilly in the slot and he scored into the yawning net.
Binnington stopped 26 shots for the win as he is 11-7-3 with a 2.90 GAA and a .910 save percentage as he has won three of his last four starts.
Holtby made 29 saves in taking the loss. He is 6-8-1 with a 2.56 GAA and a .920 save percentage as he has lost four of his last five games.
Miro Heiskanen took a penalty on the same play, giving the Blues yet another power play and Kyrou became the hero with his 14th of the season.
Kyrou is red-hot of late as he has a five-game points streak, scoring five times and adding six assists in the five contests.
Joe Pavelski and Heiskanen each picked up their 17th assists on Robertson’s goal.
Kyrou had six shots on net, while Pavelski had five.
Heiskanen had a pair of minors.
The Blues have been great at home, going 11-0-1 in their last 12 games.
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ANAHEIM 4 DETROIT 3 (Shootout)
It was the NHL debut for Anaheim goaltender Lukas Dostal and it ended in glory as he stopped both Detroit shots while the Ducks scored twice to give him his first NHL victory.
Dostal stopped 33 shots for the win as he was recalled earlier in the week when John Gibson went into COVID protocol. Dostal got the start in the back-half of back-to-back games after Anthony Stolarz started against the Rangers on Saturday night.
It was also a big night for Trevor Zegras, who opened the scoring and assisted Max Comtois’ first goal of the season which tied the game at three and sent it into extra time.
Zegras scored the first shootout goal as well as the rookie is up to nine goals and 27 points.
Troy Terry continued his outstanding season, with his 22nd of the season.
Tyler Bertuzzi had a goal and an assist to lead the Red Wings while Filip Hronek on the power play, and Vladislav Namestnikov with his 10th of the season, also scored for Detroit.
Thomas Greiss picked up the start for Detroit and gave up three goals on 27 shots in taking the shootout loss. He is 6-7-1 this season with a 3.36 GAA and a .894 save percentage.
Rickard Rakell had two assists for Anaheim.
Givani Smith and Nicolas Deslauriers fought in the first period with Smith being the instigator and he received 17 penalty minutes including a ten-minute misconduct with Deslauriers only getting five for fighting.
Terry had five shots on goal as did Moritz Seider.
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NIGHTLY LEADERS
Goals
Jordan Kyrou – 1
Ryan O’Reilly – 1
Jason Robertson – 1
Trevor Zegras – 1
Troy Terry – 1
Max Comtois – 1
Tyler Bertuzzi – 1
Filip Hronek - 1
Assists
Rickard Rakell – 2
Sonny Milano – 1
Ryan Getzlaf – 1
Trevor Zegras – 1
Cam Fowler – 1
Lucas Raymond – 1
Tyler Bertuzzi – 1
Marc Staal – 1
Moritz Seider – 1
Jordan Oesterle - 1
Jordan Kyrou – 1
Torey Krug - 1
Joe Pavelski – 1
Miro Heiskanen - 1
Shots on Goal
Jordan Kyrou – 6
Joe Pavelski – 5
Moritz Seider – 5
Troy Terry - 5
Hits
Pavel Buchnevich - 5
Penalty Minutes
Givani Smith – 17
Miro Heiskanen - 4
