A busy night around the NHL and we’ll take you around faster than Doc Brown’s DeLorean can get you to the year 2015. Either guys were lighting it up with hat tricks, or shutting it down via shutout in goal. It was just one of those nights.
Washington 4 - Atlanta 3 (F/OT)
An up and down game for both teams saw the Caps come out on top in overtime. Alex Semin scored a natural hat trick for the Caps, meanwhile Tomas Fleischmann scored the game-winner in OT. Evander Kane did everything in his power to lead Atlanta scoring a pair of goals of his own.
Tuukka Rask got his first start in two weeks and... It looked like he hadn’t played in two weeks, something the Rangers were happy to take advantage of getting goals from Artem Anisimov, Alex Frolov, and Marc Staal. Henrik Lundqvist was stellar stopping 35 in the win. Zdeno Chara and Nathan Horton had the goals for Boston.
Andrei Kostitsyn carried the offense for the Habs netting two goals, meanwhile it wasn’t a bad night to be Carey Price as he lead the way for Montreal with a 19-save shutout. Brian Elliott stopped 31 shots in the loss for Ottawa who continues to struggle.
It was just a bad night for New Jersey who saw their horrible on-ice performance overshadowed by Ilya Kovalchuk being scratched from the lineup by head coach John MacLean. Meanwhile, the Sabres on a roll getting two goals from Thomas Vanek and goals each from Patrick Kaleta, Tyler Myers, Drew Stafford, and Tyler Ennis. Devils starter Johan Hedberg was chased in the second period after giving up four goals on 13 shots.
Another tough game for the Maple Leafs in what could be a breakout game for the Flyers. Five different scorers got on the board for Philly while the Leafs own inability to handle the puck kept them from getting things going. Mike Richards broke out of his goalless slump for Philly, meanwhile Clarke MacArthur scored his sixth goal of the year for Toronto.
The Islanders got everything they could ask for out of John Tavares as he had a hat trick, but the Panthers stayed strong despite his best efforts to foil them. Four different Panthers got on the board but it was Radek Dvorak who netted the game-winner late in the third.
A wild, back-and-forth game in Detroit saw the Wings come out on top thanks to Pavel Datsyuk’s late third period snipe with 12 seconds left to play to decide the game. Expect there to be some talk about another big hit from Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall who leveled Teemu Selanne early in the game with a hit being looked at as questionable. Selanne wasn’t hurt on the play and Kronwall wasn’t penalized, but Anaheim players aren’t happy with the play. Henrik Zetterberg had two goals for Detroit in the win.
Jaroslav Halak was the hero of the night for St. Louis pitching a 31-save shutout to beat the Penguins. Pittsburgh has had about their fill of Halak after it was Halak and the Canadiens who knocked them out of the playoffs in the second round in seven games. We’re sure they’re happy he’s taking up residence in the Western Conference now. Erik Johnson scored the game-winning goal 50 seconds into overtime to win it for the Blues. Brent Johnson did his part in goal for Pittsburgh stopping 23 in the loss.
Cal O’Reilly scored 42 seconds into the game and that’s all the Predators would need to beat Dallas. Pekka Rinne, meanwhile, was outstanding stopping 30 shots in earning the shutout. Kari Lehtonen stopped 23 shots in the loss for Dallas.
The Blue Jackets were able to overcome an early 2-0 Chicago lead to take out the Blackhawks. The Jackets saw the game turn when Troy Brouwer took a five-minute major for boarding late in the second period. The penalty came just seven seconds after Derick Brassard got Columbus on the board for the first time. Early in the third with the man advantage, R.J. Umberger tipped home a shot to tie the game at 2-2 and Columbus turned that momentum into victory when Antoine Vermette scored his first goal of the year. Steve Mason stopped 30 shots in the win while Corey Crawford stopped 37 in the loss.
A wild and somewhat ugly game that saw Colorado’s Scott Hannan leave the game with a head injury in the second period, L.A.'s Wayne Simmonds get a game misconduct in the third for a butt-ending major penalty, and L.A.'s Brad Richardson netting a hat trick to lead the Kings to victory. Paul Stastny and Milan Hejduk had two goals each for Colorado, meanwhile Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown, and Alexei Ponikarovsky also scored for the Kings.
Carolina 4 - Phoenix 3 (F/OT)
The Hurricanes continue to play the role of road warriors, this time taking out the Coyotes in Glendale. Anton Babchuk’s tip-in goal in overtime gave the Hurricanes the victory. It wasn’t all easy though as the Hurricanes did lead 3-0 at one point. Kyle Turris lead the charge for Phoenix scoring twice and assisting on Scottie Upshall’s goal that made it 3-3. The game made it to overtime thanks to the big play of Phoenix’s Ilya Bryzgalov who saved 37 shots in the loss. Cam Ward was pretty good too stopping 36 shots in the win.
The Oilers thought they were off to a good start when Jordan Eberle scored shorthanded just 1:22 into the game, but things went downhill fast after that. Dany Heatley scored late in the first to tie it and the Sharks wore down Edmonton from that point on with Joe Pavelski leading the charge with a goal and two assists. Joe Thornton had three assists for San Jose as well.
