For a recap of the Pittsburgh Penguins’ dominant 8-1 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning, click here. There are also recaps of Russia’s shocking comeback against Canada and the U.S. team’s bronze medal win over Sweden in the World Junior Championships.
Now let’s take a look at the other five NHL games from Wednesday night.
Henrik Lundqvist (31 out of 32 saves) and Mats Zuccarello - a man known to many as “Norwegian Hobbit Wizard” - stood tall to help the Rangers win a tough match against the Hurricanes. Zuccarello scored the game winning goal and also earned an assist in the game, giving seventh-ranked New York an extra point over ninth-place Carolina in the race for Eastern Conference playoff spots.
The scrappy Rangers seem like the type of team that could make a high seed sweat bullets, although they’re not so far out of contention that a mid-level (fourth, fifth or sixth) type seed is out of the question.
This game is shrouded a bit in controversy, as a possible Bryan McCabe goal wasn’t even reviewed by the Toronto war room. That being said, what really matters is the final score. Rich Peverley scored two goals for the Thrashers (one to give Atlanta a 2-1 lead, then the game winner) while Chris Higgins scored a goal and an assist for the Panthers. Ondrej Pavelec won his 15th game of the season while Tomas Vokoun was pulled in his first start after earning a shutout.
Corey Perry is probably the most universally disliked player in the Pacific Division, but Mike Ribeiro isn’t far behind. Yet much like Perry, the divisive Ribeiro can do more than irritate people. He demonstrated that tonight with a two goal performance.
Kari Lehtonen continues to be a huge factor for the Stars, stopping 35 out of 37 shots. Then again, getting a lucky bounce here or there never hurts either.
The Flames put 44 shots on net, but Roberto Luongo stopped all but one of them to give the Canucks their seventh win in a row. Ryan Kesler, Kevin Bieksa and Daniel Sedin scored for Vancouver while Tim Jackman scored a goal for Calgary to bring the game to 3-1 in the third period.
Nashville’s three game winning streak is the second best in the Western Conference, which probably says more about the parity-filled West than it does about the Predators themselves.
The game was closer than it looked, though, as the Predators scored two empty net goals as the Ducks decided to go for broke. Pekka Rinne might have been the best player of the game, making 40 out of 41 saves.
