Pittsburgh Penguins left winger Matt Cooke has been suspended for 2 games without pay for his hit on New York Rangers' Artem Anisimov in their game last saturday. Video of the hit can be found in the article for the game Video: Penguins Crush Rangers, Crosby Busts Loose.
Cooke, 31, is an 11-year pro and delivered a vicious elbow to Anisimov's head in the 3rd period of the game that the Penguins won 8-3. Anisimov got off the ice under his own steam, but the Rangers' 21-year-old rookie center was reported to have needed smelling salts to clear his head.
The Rangers were looking for Cooke after the hit, with tough guy Donald Brashear being assessed a double minor for roughing for trying to goad Cooke into a fight. Cooke eventually fought with New York's Ryan Callahan. Both players were assessed fighting majors and 10-minute misconduct penalties which took them out of the remainder of the game.
Cooke will miss Pittsburgh's game Monday when they renew their hostilities when they head to New York for the second of their home-and-home series with the Rangers. He will also miss Thursday's game against the Colorado Avalanche. Cooke has 5 goals, 7 assists for 12 points in the 27 Penguins games in which he has appeared this year.
The San Jose Sharks scored two goals 13 seconds apart late in the 3rd period to beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-2 on the road. With the win, the Sharks are now alone atop the National Hockey League standings with 40 points, four up on both the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins, although both teams have games on San Jose. As far as the Pacific Division goes, the Sharks are well out in the lead, eight points up on the 2nd place Los Angeles Kings.
Vancouver Canucks Kyle Wellwood beat San Jose's goalie Evgeni Nabokov at the 2 minute mark to give them an early 1-0 lead, but Nabokov shut the door after that. Left winger Frazer McLaren drew the Sharks even, scoring his first ever NHL goal about midway through the 1st. This was McLaren's 10th game in a Shark uniform and the lanky winger (he's 6'4") does show promise.
Defensman Dan Boyle put the Sharks up 2-1 at 6:15 of the 2nd on the power play. Joe Thornton got his league-leading 30th assist on the play, shooting at wrist shot that bounced off Canucks netminder Roberto Luongo to Boyle who was cruising in to Luongo's left, snapping his 6th under Luongo's left leg for the go-ahead goal.
Manny Malhotra backhanded in his 5th goal of the season at 17:25 of the 3rd and then left winger Jamie McGinn put the game out of reach for the Canucks 13 seconds later.
Canucks right winger Jannik Hansen beat Nabokov tipping in Wellwood's pass into the slot with 7 seconds left in regulation, but as the announcer said: "Too little, too late." The Canucks had a disappointing night after dominated the Edmonton Oilers in their last game.
The Sharks meet up with the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday at San Jose, while the Canucks head to New Jersey to do battle with the Devils on Wednesday.
The Calgary Flames spotted the Columbus Blue Jackets to a 3-1 lead, then rallied to tie the game late in the 3rd period before winning their 3rd game in a row.
Center Olli Jokinen opened the scoring with his 5th of the season beating Columbus goalie Steve Mason at 5:29 of the 2nd period after a scoreless first. Rick Nash and Marc Methot scored a minute apart midway through the period to take the lead 2-1. Then right winger Jared Boll popped in his 3rd of the year with half a minute left in the 2nd.
Dustin Boyd and Nigel Dawes got Calgary back into the game with goals in the latter half of the 3rd period sending the game to overtime which solved nothing, although the Flames had 4 shots on Mason, while the Blue Jackets got 3 on Curtis McElhinney.
In the following shot out, 5 of the 9 shots taken went in, with Jamie Lundmark finally scoring the decider, completing Calgary's comback.
Kristian Huselius CBJ Goal Nigel Dawes CGY Goal Rick Nash CBJ Goal Olli Jokinen CGY Goal Fedor Tyutin CBJ Save Jarome Iginla CGY Save Anton Stralman CBJ Miss Jamie Lundmark CGY Goal
Calgary heads to Nashville for a tilt against the Predators on Monday, while Columbus plays the same night, with the St Louis Blues in town.
Detroit Red Wings finally ended their goalless slump scoring 4 times in a shoot out against the St Louis Blues.
The Blues opened the scoring with 2 goals in the first period, David Backes at 13:24 and then Roman Polak 4 minutes later. Detroit got on the board for the first time in 175 goalless minutes as Tomas Holmstrom tipped a Henrik Zetterberg shot past Blues goalie Chris Mason on the power play early in the 2nd to cut the score to 2-1. Kris Draper tied it up at 2:27 of the 3rd.
Right winger Brad Boyes put St Louis up 3-2 with his 6th that beat Jimmy Howard as he snapped up a rebound at Howard's feet. Henrik Zetterberg scored with less than a minute left in regulation on a weird shot from behind the goal line to Mason's left. Zetterberg pass out front hit Blues defenseman Erik Johnson's elbow and slipped past Chris Mason. After overtime, they went to the shoot out and after Andy McDonald and Pavel Datsyuk traded goals, big Todd Bertuzzi ended it with a backhand over Mason.
Andy McDonald STL Goal Pavel Datsyuk DET Goal Brad Boyes STL Save Henrik Zetterberg DET Save David Perron STL Save Dan Cleary DET Save T.J. Oshie STL Miss Todd Bertuzzi DET Goal
Detroit if off until Monday when they host the Dallas Stars, while St Louis also plays Monday, heading to Columbus for a game against the Blue Jackets.
Los Angeles Kings goalie Jonathan Quick shone as he denied Chicago Blackhawks snipers in the shoot out to lead the Kings to a 2-1 victory. Quick stopped 32 of 33 shots and stoned both Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane to earn first star honors as L.A. won for only their 2nd time in 5 games.
Right winger Wayne Simmonds put Los Angeles up 1-0 early in the 2nd period on a backhand that beat 'Hawks netminder Cristobal Huet, after a scoreless first period. Jonathan Toews got a power play goal to tie it up 1-1 on the only shot to get by Quick who faced 33 shots. Overtime was uneventful, although the Blackhawks did have a power play advantage for the last minute when Kings defenseman Drew Doughty was sent off for hooking.
Both Anze Kopitar and Jack Johnson beat Huet in the shoot out for the win, while Quick stopped Toews and Kane.
Anze Kopitar LAK Goal Jonathan Toews CHI Save Jack Johnson LAK Goal Patrick Kane CHI Save
The Kings head to Anaheim to play the Ducks on December 1st, while Chicago hosts the Blue Jackets on Tuesday.
The Vancouver Canucks ran up an early 4-0 first period lead, chasing Edmonton Oilers netminder Jeff Deslauriers from the net after only 11 shots and 4 goals. No excuses, but the Oilers are missing 7 players including number one goaltender, Nikolai Khabibulin, who is out with back spasms. The latest to fall into the injured category, Ales Hemsky, out for shoulder surgery. Oilers' head coach, Pat Quinn was forced to drop rookie Devan Dubnyk into his first National Hockey League game to try to see if he could stem the tide. Dubnyk did okay in his debut, allowing 3 more goals, and facing 24 shots over 2 and a half periods.
Christian Ehrhoff, Alexandre Burrows, Mason Raymond and Daniel Sedin scored early, with Ehroff and Raymond getting there goals on the power play. Deslauriers was yanked after Sedin scored his 1st of the season as he was returning from missing several games off due to an ankle injury.
Gilbert Brule got Edmonton on the board with a power play marker of his own, beating Canucks netminder Roberto Luongo at 14:44. Vancouver tough guy, Tanner Glass scored his 2nd goal in as many games with 17 seconds left in the 1st period giving Vancouver a 5-1 lead heading into the 2nd.
Rookie Oilers right winger Colin McDonald got his 1st ever NHL goal in his 2nd pro game. Dustin Penner got the Oilers to 5-3 with his team-high 15th of the year, but Luongo and the rest of the Canucks shut down Edmonton pretty much from there. Defenseman Alexander Edler netted his 1st goal, also on the power play to make it 6-3 at the end of two. Mikael Samuelsson closed out the scoring, with his 10th, second most for Vancouver. Henrik Sedin has 14 goals for the Canucks this season and leads them with 28 points.
The early season slump the Boston Bruins suffered through now seems to be in the distant past as the Bruins beat the Ottawa Senators to take over top spot in the Northeast Division with a 4-3 shoot out victory.
Sens captain Daniel Alfredsson, who had a great game in the losing cause, opened the scoring with his 9th goal, beating Bruins goalie Tim Thomas with a blast front the slot 5 minutes into the 1st period. Two and a half minutes later Alfredsson assisted on Milan Michalek's power play goal that put Ottawa up 2-0.
In the 2nd, David Krejci and Michael Ryder tied it up 2-2 with their own power play markers past Sens goalie Brian Elliott, while Dennis Wideman scored for the Bruins at 9:19 of the 3rd (also on the power play) to give the Bruins a 3-2 edge.
It looked as though Boston might steal the win, but Michalek scored with a mere 20 seconds left in regulation to force overtime. Michalek flew down the left wing and somehow got the puck to trickle between Thomas' pads for his 2nd of the game. OT as usual, meant little, and the teams went to the shootout. Boston had lost a 2-1 shoot out game to the New Jersey Devils the night before. This was actually Boston's 3rd straight game that went to a shoot out and 5th shoot out in the franchise's last nine games! Anyway, it went down like this:
Patrice Bergeron BOS Save Alexei Kovalev OTT Save Blake Wheeler BOS Save Jason Spezza OTT Save David Krejci BOS Save Daniel Alfredsson OTT Save Michael Ryder BOS Goal Mike Fisher OTT Save
Both goalies were great in the shoot out, but Michael Ryder put it away for the Bruins, leaving Fisher with all the pressure to keep the game going, but Thomas denied the Ottawa center.
With the win over divisional rival Ottawa, Boston now sits precariously in first place in the Northeast Division with 31 points, one up on both Buffalo and Ottawa, while the Montreal Canadiens are 5 points behind the Bruins. Both the Sabres and Senators do have games in hand on Boston who have a 6-1-2 record in their last 10 games.
Ottawa is off until December 3rd, when they go to the west coast to play the Los Angeles Kings. The Bruins next play Wednesday, when they host the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Pittsburgh Penguins demolished the New York Rangers last night 8-3 at the Mellon Arena in the first of a home and home series between the teams. Sidney Crosby picked a great night to bust out of his scoring drought, ending the night with a hat trick along with a couple of assists. The 3rd period was a chippy affair with a couple of fights and several game misconducts, setting up an interesting round two when the teams meet again on Tuesday night in New York.
Marc Staal opened the scoring with his 3rd of the year on a backhand that beat Pens goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, but Pittsburgh center Evgeni Malkin tied it with his 8th. Crosby got his 1st point of the night. Three minutes later, Crosby scored his 1st of the night, beating Rangers netminder Stephen Valiquette with a laser from the slot.
Less than a minute later it was 3-1 Pittsburgh as Crosby passed to Maxime Talbot who barged through the slot area and deked Valiquette for his 1st goal of the year. Matt Gilroy got the Rangers back within one with a wrist shot that beat Fleury but Mark Eaton restored Pittsburgh's 2 goal cushion scoring with just one second left in the 2nd period.
Rangers defenseman Michal Rozsival scored his 1st goal this year at 0:33 of the 3rd, but then the Pens delivered several knock out blows, scoring 4 unanswered goals to run the score up to 8-3 by the mid-point of the 3rd. Pittsburgh's Matt Cooke delivered a big elbow to the head of Rangers' rookie center Artem Anisimov (at about 6:00 on the video below) that will likely be reviewed by NHL officials. Cooke blindsided Anisimov with an elbow to the head as he crossed into the Penguins zone.
About this time, with the game quickly slipping away, the Rangers started getting penalties, starting with seldom used Donald Brashear getting a double minor for roughing. Ryan Callahan fought with Matt Cooke and both were tossed after receiving misconducts.
Meanwhile, the Penguins continued rolling on, with Crosby scoring his 14th and 15th, sandwiched around a goal by Pascal Dupuis. Following Crosby's 3rd of the night, the Penguins faithful rained the ice with hundreds of hats - it was Hat Night in Pittsburgh. Tyler Kennedy finished off the scoring with a tip-in. Both Crosby's and Kennedy's goals were on the power play. Then it was the Sean Avery show.
Rangers left winger Sean Avery received a 5 minute fighting major, an instigator penalty and a game misconduct after jumping Pittsburgh's Ruslan Fedotenko. In the video, you can see Fedotenko's attempt at a slew foot on Avery as he battled in front of Fleury. Avery dropped his gloves and jumped on Fedotenko's back, driving him to the ice.
All this nastiness sets up a good game on Tuesday, when the divisional rivals renew pleasantries.
The Montreal Canadiens came back from a 2-0 deficit to take the lead in the 3rd period, only to have the Washington Capitals tie it with 12 seconds left in regulation. Overtime solved nothing and Habs goalie Carey Price couldn't keep Nicklas Backstrom from scoring in the shoot out to give Washington the win. Sweet revenge for the Capitals, who lost lost 3 straight beginning with a 3-2 loss to Montreal November 20th. This makes 3 losses in Montreal's last 4 games.
Eric Fehr tipped in his 5th of the year on a shot from defenseman Karl Alzner which best Price at 8:47 of the 1st. That was Alzner's first point in 2 Caps games this year. A minute and 12 seconds later, Alexander Ovechkin scored his 18th on another long shot on Price that eluded the Habs goalie. Ovechkin cruised over the Canadiens' blueline and took a one-timer from a pass from Nicklas Backstrom.
Jaroslav Spacek scored a power play goal early in the 2nd on Caps netminder Semyon Varlamov. Tomas Plekanec tied it up with his 6th of the season at 13:50. Roman Hamrlik assisted on both Habs goals in the second. Travis Moen put the Canadiens up 3-2 with a power play goal in the 3rd. Washington was down 2 men due to penalties and had just killed off one Montreal advantage, but the Habs had the puck in Washington's end and Moen deflected Marc-Andre Bergeron's shot past Varlamov.
The Habs couldn't hold off a determined Caps team as Washington won a faceoff and moved the puck to Ovechkin whose shot from the top of the slot was stopped by Price, but Eric Fehr pounced on the juicy rebound stuffing it 5-hole with twelve seconds left forcing overtime. That was Fehr's 2nd goal of the game. Neither team could do much in the extra frame, so off to the shootout, where both Price and Varlamov stopped everything thrown at them, but the last shooter, Backstrom beat Price with a high shot to take the win for the Caps.
The Habs are off until Tuesday night when the Toronto Maple Leafs stop by. The Capitals hope to feast on the woeful Hurricane on Monday when they head to Carolina.
The Ottawa Senators are now tied with the Boston Bruins for the lead in the Northeast Division at 29 points, one up on the Buffalo Sabres in the tight divisional race following a 2-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets at Scotiabank Place. The Sens have won 5 of their last 6 games, and 5 in a row at home.
In the Columbus game, the Senators and Blue Jackets traded goals about a minute apart late in the first period, Kristian Huselius getting his 10th with a power play goal from the slot that beat Brian Elliott after a scramble in front of the Senators' net. The Blue Jackets have been excellent so far this year on the power play, scoring on 25.5% of their chances.
Jason Spezza tied it up for Ottawa 53 seconds later with a bullet shot from just inside the Columbus blue line past a screened Steve Mason. That was only Spezza's 2nd of the season. There was no scoring in the second period.
Ottawa won it on Nick Foligno's 5th goal of the season as he beat Mason at 13:50 of the 3rd period with a power play marker of his own.
The Vancouver Canucks continue to do fairly well, going 6-4-0 in their last 10 games with a spirited effort in the 3rd period to beat the Los Angeles Kings 4-1. Canucks' goalie Roberto Luongo made 31 stops on 32 Kings' shots as his team put L.A. away in the 3rd period with 3 goals as Vancouver has won 3 of their last 4 games by a combined score of 18-6.
Kings sniper Anze Kopitar was held pointless again and was a -2 for the night although he registered 4 shots on Luongo. Kopitar has not had a goal in his last 8 games after scoring 14 in his first 18 games this season. Because of his lack of production, Kopitar has slipped from the lead in the National Hockey League's point race and now sits in a tie with Marian Gaborik of the Rangers with 33 points, three points behind San Jose's Joe Thornton.
Left winger Alexandre Burrows put the Canucks up 1-0 at 7:35 of the 1st period with the only goal of the period when he tipped in a sweet pass from Daniel Sedin past Kings netminder Jonathan Quick. It wasn't until the last minute of the 2nd before Los Angeles could get one behind Luongo when Wayne Simmonds got his 7th of the year.
Henrik Sedin scored the eventual game winner about 4 minutes into the 3rd slipping a backhand past a sprawling Quick. Tanner Glass put the Canucks up 3-1 on a great effort by center Kyle Wellwood. Wellwood scored an empty net goal with 6 seconds remaining to finally get his first goal of the year. Wellwood had been snake-bit all year, also registering an assist on Glass' goal to give him 1 goal, 3 assists for 4 points in 20 games this year.
The win gave the Canucks captain Roberto Luongo his 9th victory of the season, moving him into a winning record after starting so uncharacteristically slowly this year.
Philadelphia Flyers Daniel Briere was suspended for 2 games and will lose $67,000 in salary for his late hit on Colorado defenseman Scott Hannan following Hannan's goal in the 2nd period of the game the Flyers lost to the Avalanche 5-4. The video above is in slooow motion and you can see Briere leaving his feet and elbowing Hannan in the throat as he watches his shot at Philadelphia's netminder Ray Emery.
Briere was not penalized on the play and in the 3rd period he scored the Flyers' 3rd goal and assisted on Jeff Carter's goal, ending the night with 2 goals and 2 assists.
So far this season the 32-year-old Briere has 10 goals and 6 assists for 16 points in the 17 games he has appeared.
The Montreal Canadiens came back from a 3-2 deficit against the Columbus Blue Jackets with three unanswered goals in the 3rd period to remain unbeaten in their last 4 games. The Habs are now 3-0-1 and one point back of both the Boston Bruins and Buffalo Sabres for 2nd in the Northeast Division.
Michael Cammalleri beat Carey Price and put the Canadiens up 1-0 at 5:50 of the 1st with his 12th of the season, but Columbus' Antoine Vermette (with his first of two on the night) and Anton Stralman gave the Blue Jackets a 2-1 lead with a power play marker heading into the 2nd period. Rick Nash assisted on both of the Columbus goals giving the big right winger 27 points on the season.
Defensman Marc-Andre Bergeron tied it 2-2 with his 4th on a weak goal allowed by Blue Jackets netminder Mathieu Garon from the point. Vermette got his 6th of the year on the power play midway through the 2nd.
In the 3rd period, Glen Metropolit, Bergeron and Maxim Lapierre beat Garon who faced 13 shots while the Blue Jackets could muster only 8 in the penalty-free 3rd.
The Habs are off to play the Penguins in Pittsburgh today, while Columbus heads to Ottawa for a Thursday game against the Senators.
I think the hit by Toronto Maple Leafs Ian White on Cole was the best. It was the most spectacular that's for sure. And the hits by Tkachuk and the Flames hit just look PAINFUL. Of course, now that Milan Lucic is back, you can expect to see him regularly. He hit one guy behind the net in another game that was similar to Avery's demo on Green that was even harder.
That save by Giguere reminded me of the Mason save last week. And LeClaire's beauty as it slips behind him. And of course, Mason yet again. The Blues' netminder is very underrated.
Love the goal by David Perron and T.J. Oshie's sweet play. One point I absolutely HATE is the screaming play-by-play on the Steven Stamkos goal. And the shoot out moves of Boston Bruins Patrice Bergeron. Now let's see some of the great saves to balance it out.
The Toronto Maple Leafs bombarded Islanders goalie Dwayne Roloson with a league-high 61 shots and came back from a 3-0 deficit to force overtime, but it was for naught as New York's second-year center Josh Bailey scored his 5th of the season with less than a minute left in the extra period to give the Islanders 2 points. Roloson's performance was amazing as the Leafs peppered the 40-year-old Isles' netminder.
That was the highest total of shots faced by any goalie so far this season. By contrast, the Leaf tandem of Jonas Gustavsson and Vesa Toskala faced a mere 21 Islander shots. Perhaps the Leafs should have picked up the aging Roloson last year when he might have been available, but he signed on with the Islanders for a further 2 years last July 1st, so the Leafs' goaltending woes will continue for the near future.
The Isles jumped out to a 3-0 lead on goals by Jeff Tambellini, Matt Moulson and Sean Bergenheim in the 2nd period. Bergenheim's goal at 14:17 was a shorthanded, and Moulson's 11th of the season lifted him into a tie for most points on the Islanders with John Tavares (who was held pointless) with both players having 19 points after 24 games.
The Leafs responded with 3 goals with Phil Kessel scoring his 6th in the ten games he has appeared in a Leaf uniform which cut the lead to 3-1. In the 3rd period, Wayne Primeau and Niklas Hagman scored to tie the game at 3-3. Hagman's goal was his 9th which is tops for Toronto this year. Leafs defenseman, Tomas Kaberle had assists on Kessel's and Hagman's goals giving him 24 points, which is better than a point a game. By forcing overtime yet again, the Leafs stole another point, but with the loss Toronto falls to a 4-11-7 record to tie the Carolina Hurricane for last overal in the National Hockey League, although Toronto does have one game in hand on the Hurricane.
The Leafs head to Tampa Bay for a game Wednesday against the Lightning, while the Islanders will be at home to face Philadelphia also on Wednesday.
The New York Rangers easily handled the Columbus Blue Jackets in monday's 7-4 victory, scoring seven times in slightly more than the first half of the game and moving into a 3rd place tie with the Philadelphia Flyers in the competitive Atlantic Division. The Blue Jackets jumped out to a 2-0 lead early in the 1st period on goals by rookie Derek MacKenzie and Jared Boll who beat Rangers netminder Henrik Lundqvist, but after the midpoint of the 1st, it was all Rangers as they scored three times in less than 6 minutes to take the lead.
Marian Gaborik, with his first of 2 goals on the night, cut the lead to 2-1 and then Artem Anisimov tied it up with Gaborik assisting. Anisimov also had 2 assists on the night. Michael Del Zotto scored an unassisted goal at 17:19 of the 1st to give the Rangers the lead.
In the 2nd period, pesky Sean Avery scored his 3rd and 4th goals this season, the 2nd one on the power play. Gaborik put the Rangers up 6-2 with his 18th of the season, tying him with the Sharks Dany Heatley for the league lead in goals so far this season. The Blue Jackets pulled goalie Chris Mason after Avery's second goal and replaced him with Mathieu Garon, but he faired just as badly, allowing 3 more goals.
At this point Jared Boll fought with New York's Aaron Voros so with his goal, assist and fighting major, Boll had the elusive "Gordie Howe Hat Trick" and for good measure, Boll also fought Donald Brasher in the 3rd period. Matt Gilroy put the Rangers up 7-2 at 12:47 of the 2nd.
Kristian Huselius and Jakub Voracek scored 2 more for the Blue Jackets, but Columbus couldn't inch any closer to the Rangers. This was a gift for Rangers' coach John Tortorella as the Rangers had just 9 goals in the team's previous 5 games.
The Washington Capitals vaunted offensive machine is not firing on all cylinders. With the 4-3 overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators, Washington has now lost 4 of their last 5 games, but remain in the top spot in the Southeast Division, 7 points up on the Tampa Bay Lightning, but the Caps now are tied with the surging Pittsburgh Penguins for the lead in the Eastern Division.
Ottawa opened the scoring with Peter Regin tipping in his 3rd goal of the year past Caps goalie Semyon Varlamov at 7:27 of the 1st period, but both Chris Clark and Brendan Morrison replied for Washington giving them a 2-1 lead at the end of the period. Right winger Jay Beagle put the Caps up 3-1 in the 2nd with his 1st NHL goal an unassisted marker that beat Sens netminder Brian Elliott. Beagle has appeared in only 4 Washington games this year and three last season. He was also in 4 playoff games and spent most of last year with the Hersey Bears of the AHL.
Filip Kuba assisted on all 3 Senators goals as they came back in the 3rd period to force overtime on goals by Chris Neil and Alexandre Picard. Picard's goal was on the power play. Mike Fisher scored the game winner 1:14 into overtime beating Varlamov with a tip-in.
Washington's sniper Alexander Ovechkin had 3 shots on net, and did have an assist on Clark's goal, but he hasn't been able to score like was doing at the beginning of the season. Ovechkin has been held to 2 goals and that one assist in his last 5 games, and has slipped to 3rd place tie in the goalscoring race with Calgary's Jarome Iginla behind the Rangers Marian Gaborik and the Sharks Dany Heatley who are 2 up on Ovechkin with 18 goals.
Anaheim Ducks Teemu Selanne scored the only goal in the shootout to win the game for Anaheim after Jarome Iginla got his 16th of the year to tie the game 2-2 late in the 3rd period. Ducks netminder Jean-Sebastien Giguere faced 18 total shots in the 3rd period alone as Calgary pressed for the tying goal. Giguere had 43 shots total in his 1st win this season after putting in 7 appearances, mostly as backup.
Curtis Glencross put the Calgary Flames up 1-0 at 13:44 of the 1st but Bobby Ryan tied it with his 10th about 2 minutes later on a backhand that eluded Calgary goalie Miikka Kiprusoff and then Ryan Getzlaf gave Anaheim the lead with about 3 minutes left in the first.
The Ducks retained the lead up until the last minute of the 3rd period when Iginla scored his team-high 16th of the year. No other Flame has more than 7 goals so far in the 2009-10 season. OT solved nothing so it went to the shoot out with Selanne scoring the only goal winning it for Anaheim.
Corey Perry ANA Save Nigel Dawes CGY Save Ryan Getzlaf ANA Save Olli Jokinen CGY Save Teemu Selanne ANA Goal Curtis Glencross CGY Miss
With the win, the Ducks move ahead of the Minnesota Wild and out of the basement of the Western Conference, but remain firmly in last place in the tough Pacific Division, eight points back of 4th place Phoenix. Anaheim will face the Carolina Hurricane tonight. Calgary is still in 2nd place in the Northwest Division. The Flames will also play Wednesday, hosting Phoenix.
Jeff Deslauriers got his first ever NHL shutout as his Edmonton Oilers beat the Phoenix Coyotes 4-0 on sunday night. Coyotes goalie Ilya Bryzgalov allowed 3 goals in the 1st period and the Oilers cruised to an eventual 4-0 home ice win.
Ethan Moreau opened the scoring at 7:59 then Sheldon Souray and Ales Hemsky scored 7 seconds apart. Shawn Horcoff closed out the scoring with a power play goal with one second remaining in the 2nd period.
Los Angeles Kings motor into Edmonton for a game on Wednesday, while Phoenix heads to Calgary to play the Flames.
The Florida Panthers jumped out to a 2-0 lead on goals by Nathan Horton with his 7th and defenseman Keith Ballard who got his 1st of the season beating Pittsburgh's netminder Marc-Andre Fleury. Horton, who is on a 6-game point streak, has 7 goals, 12 assists for 19 points to lead the Panthers. But the big story was Sidney Crosby, scoring the overtime winner. Horton was penalized for a 4-minute highsticking infraction about a minute and a half into the extra frame and Crosby capitalized on the man advantage, breaking his own scoring drought.
Pascal Dupuis and Michael Rupp both scored for the Penguins to tie the game 2-2 forcing overtime with 3rd period goals. Pittsburgh sniper Evgeni Malkin had several great chances to score, and did get assists on Rupp's tying goal and Crosby's OT game winner. Panthers goalie Tomas Vokoun had twice the workload that Fleury faced, taking on 45 shots, 16 in the 3rd period alone as the Pittsburgh pressed for the tie.
This was the Penguins' 2nd win in a row, and they improve to a 5-5-0 record in their last 10 games and remain 3 points up in the Atlantic Division over the New Jersey Devils. Florida has an even more respectable 6-2-2 record despite the loss and are tied for 3rd place with the Atlanta Thrashers in the Southeast Division.
Both teams play again this Wednesday, with the Penguins playing the Montreal Canadiens at the Mellon Center, while the Panthers host the New York Rangers.
Nashville Predators' Martin Erat scored twice to dump the Detroit Red Wings 3-1. Preds goalie Pekka Rinne made 30 saves as Nashville won their 6th straight game and more importantly, moving the Preds one point above the suddenly struggling Wings. The Predators are looking good, have now won 10 of their last 12 games moving into 2nd place in the Central Division, 5 points back of division leading Chicago.
Jason Arnott scored his 7th to put the Preds up midway through the 1st period and Erat got his first of 2 on the night early in the 2nd. Drew Miller scored his 1st of the year to cut the lead to 2-1, but Detroit's offense sputtered somewhat in this game with Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk going pointless, although Zetterberg did manage 5 shots on Rinne. Red Wings' goalie Chris Osgood stopped 22 of Nashville's 25 shots.
Erat scored his 2nd of the game late in the 3rd to seal the victory for Nashville, and that was his 4th point in his last 2 games, giving him 4 goals, 4 assists for 8 points this year.
Detroit hosts the Atlanta Thrashers on Wednesday and Nashville heads over to Colorado to play the Avalanche.
The Colorado Avalanche jumped out to a 2-0 lead in less than 5 minutes in their game against the Philadlephia Flyers on goals by David Jones and Peter Stastny, but the Flyers kept coming back. Daniel Briere scored twice himself and had a pair of assists, but the Flyers fell short, losing 5-4 in Colorado.
The Flyers highscoring center, Jeff Carter had the other 2 Philadelphia goals, but Philadelphia couldn't get the tying goal past Avs goalie Craig Anderson who improved to 13-6-3 this season. Philadelphia's Ray Emery was pulled after the 4th Colorado goal and replaced by Brian Boucher who allowed Jones' game winner. Cody McLeod and Scott Hannan also scored for Colorado who won for the first time in their last 3 games.
Patrice Bergeron had 4 assists helping his Boston Bruins extend their winning streak to 3 straight games for the first time this season. Bergeron needed just one more assist to tie his career best of 5 assists in a game which he set 3 years ago against the Ottawa Senators. The Bruins' win was only their 3rd in 18 games against the St Louis Blues going back to 1996-97.
The Bruins won this one with special teams, scoring 2 power play goals and adding a shorthanded goal. Mark Recchi scored his 4th at 11 minutes of the 1st period tapping in a rebound in mid-air past Blues goalie Chris Mason, and about a minute and a half later, St Louis tied it up on Keith Tkachuk's tip in on a pass from Carlo Colaiacovo. Blake Wheeler scored his 6th, a power play goal at 3:02 of the 2nd period, but then Colaiacovo tied it again with a smokin' hot shot from the point the beat Bruins' netminder Tuukka Rask at 7:37.
Milan Lucic got his 2nd of the season, assisted by defenseman Zdeno Chara which proved to be the eventual game winner, and Marco Sturm scored shorthanded to put the game out of reach at about 11 minutes into the 3rd.
Boston next plays November 25th when they visit Minnesota to take on the Wild, while St Louis also plays Wednesday when Dallas Stars host the Blues.
Take a look at the best goals, saves and checks of the National Hockey League for the past week. I knew Chris Mason's save would be included and Dave Perron's goal, and of course Steven Stamkos' incredible goal.
Montreal Canadiens' tough guy Georges Laraque took out 2 Detroit Red Wings in one shift in the Habs game November 21st against the Detroit Red Wings. First Laraque appeared to deliberately highstick Darren Helm in the mouth in Detroit's end while the Red Wings were carrying the puck into Montreal's end. On the Niklas Kronwall hit, big Georges appeared to stick his leg out in a deliberate attempt to injure the Red Wings' defenseman. Kronwall was lost for the remainder of the game which Detroit ended up winning 3-2 in a shootout.
Laraque ended up with a double-minor for the highsticking call and only a minor for tripping for the terrible hit on Kronwall. Although Laraque stayed in the game (I think he should have been tossed for a deliberate attempt to injure Kronwall) but was limited to less than 5 minutes of playing time.
Chicago Black Hawks netminder Antti Niemi faced all 30 shots on route to a 1-0 shutout victory over the Vancouver Canucks Sunday night in Vancouver. Both Niemi and Canucks' goalie Roberto Luongo played well, but Hawks' left winger Bryan Bickell shoveled in his first goal of the season (actually, his first in 3 seasons!) which proved to be the only goal of the game.
Vancouver had 30 shots on Niemi, while Chicago had only 17 on Luongo, but Bickell's one shot was the one that counted most. Bickell has been used sparingly by Chicago, appearing in only 13 National Hockey League games, 6 of them this season.
Chicago's captain, Jonathan Toews and defenseman Brian Campbell had assists on Bickell's marker, scored at 1:12 of the 3rd period. This was Niemi's 2nd shutout of the season and only his 9th NHL game, having appeared in only 3 games last season. He played most of last season with the Rockford IceHogs of the American Hockey League going 18-14-3 with 2 shutouts for the IceHogs.
The Black Hawks head down the West Coast to meet the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday, while Vancouver is off until Thursday the 26th, when they host the Los Angeles Kings.
Have you seen this one? St Louis Blues left winger David Perron scores a highlight reel on New York Islanders goalie Dwayne Roloson, putting the Blues up 4-1 in their game last Saturday. This was actually Perron's 2nd goal of the game as he had scored about 3 minutes before.
The Pittsburgh Penguins have been decimated by injuries at times this season, missing 5 of their 6 regular defensemen for a while, but are still finding ways to win games. In the meantime, Pens captain Sidney Crosby continues experiencing the worst goalscoring drought of his career, having one goal in his last 11 games. Crosby scored 3 goals back on October 28th, but has only one since then, a game versus the Boston Bruins a week ago. During those 11 games Crosby has been held without a point 6 times, but does have 7 assists to go along with that goal.
In this game, the Pens built up a 3-0 lead on goals by Martin Skoula, and Evgeni Malkin. Skoula rarely scores and his 2 goals was a career high for the defenseman who has stepped up his game during the time Pittsburgh has been without their usual core of defenders. Malkin beat Atlanta Thrashers netminder Johan Hedberg at 11:46 of the 2nd which proved to be the game winner.
In the 3rd, Atlanta's Chris Thorburn scored a shorthanded goal on Marc-Andre Fleury and Maxim Afinogenov got the Thrashers to within one goal with about 18 seconds left, but it was too little too late.
Captain Jarome Iginla scored his 9th career hat trick helping his Calgary Flames handing the Los Angeles Kings a 5-2 loss. The Kings slip to a 5-5-0 record in their last 10 games. Calgary has owned the Kings lately, beating L.A. 10 out of the last 11 meetings between the clubs.
Iginla started it off quickly, beating Kings netminder Jonathan Quick 13 seconds into the game. He also scored a power play goal on a 5 on 3 man advantage in the 2nd period and scored his first hat trick this year with about 4 minutes left in regulation. The National Hockey League's points leader, Kings center Anze Kopitar, was held to 2 shots on net, and tallied one assist on Alexander Frolov's 5th goal of the season. Kopitar ended as a minus 2 on the night. Iginla's 2nd goal tied the score at 2-2.
Los Angeles' Drew Doughty 6th goal of the season had tied it 1-1 and Doughty also got an assist on Frolov's goal. Miikka Kiprusoff kept the Kings off the scoreboard for the second half of the game as the Kings could only muster 5 shots in the 3rd period as Calgary put them away with 3 more goals, including Daymond Langkow's game winner while shorthanded at 7:22 of the 3rd.
Iginla got his 3rd of the night and 15th of the season at 15:53 of the 3rd period. With less than a minute left Calgary's David Moss tipped in Robyn Regehr's shot to seal the win. Calgary is now one point back of Northwest Division leading Colorado and have 2 games in hand on the Avalanche. L.A. meanwhile sits precariously in 2nd in the Pacific Division, one point up on Phoenix and two up on Dallas. Both the Coyotes and Stars have games in hand on the Kings.
Calgary heads to Anaheim Monday to play the Pacific basement dwelling Ducks, while the Kings are off until Wednesday when they head north to play the Edmonton Oilers.
The Detroit Red Wings stormed into Montreal with a flourish dominating the 1st period getting 2 power play goals while the Canadiens spent most of the period in the penalty box and were outshot by the Red Wings 16-3. Detroit, who are always amongst the least penalized team had only one minor penalty in the game. Montreal got their penalty problems sorted out and took the only other penalty, a 3rd period delay of game by Maxim Lapierre for shooting the puck over the glass.
Brad Stuart and Pavel Datsyuk put Detroit up 2-0 in a two minute span of the 1st and Michael Cammalleri got his 10th and 11th goals of the season in the 3rd to tie it after a scoreless 2nd period. Andrei Kostitsyn assisted on both of Cammalleri's goals. The teams went through the overtime period still all tied up and went into the shootout where, once again, Detroit showed their stuff, with both Henrik Zetterberg and Datsyuk scored on Carey Price while Cammalleri was stoned by Detroit's Jimmy Howard and Tomas Plekanec missed.
Detroit, now 7-2-1 in their last ten games, head to Nashville to face the Predators on Monday, while the Habs hit the road to play the Penguins on November 25th.
Ottawa Senators' captain Daniel Alfredsson had 2 goals and one assist while defenseman Filip Kuba had 1 goal along 3 assists to help the Sens extend their winning streak to three straight with a 5-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres.
Sabres Thomas Vanek scored his team-high 7th goal of the season on the power play past Ottawa's Pascal Leclaire to open the scoring with about one minute left in the 1st period. LeClaire left with a lower-body injury after the 2nd period and was replaced by Brian Elliott. Elliott faced 16 shots, allowing 2 goals in the 3rd.
Kuba tied it with a power play goal of his own 50 seconds into the 2nd period Alfredsson put the Sens up 2-1 7 minutes later. In the 3rd period, Chris Kelly, Milan Michalek (his 10th), and Alfredsson with his 2nd of the game all scored putting Ottawa up 5-1 by the 8 minute mark.
Patrick Kaleta and Jason Pominville scored 2 quick goals on Elliott, but after that, the Sabres couldn't solve Elliott giving Ottawa their 3rd win in a row and moving them into 2nd place in the Northeast Division and are now one point behind the Sabres. Both Boston and Montreal are snapping at the Senators heels, sitting one and two points back respectively, although bough Buffalo and Ottawa have games in hand on the Bruins and Habs.
Ottawa is at home on Monday when they put their winning streak on the line against the Washington Capitals who are coming off consecutive losses to the Leafs and Canadiens. Buffalo meanwhile will continue their road trip on Wednesday when they will be playing the Caps.
The Washington Capitals looked a little sluggish and were missing 7 players due to injuries, but you still have to give props to the Toronto Maple Leafs for shutting down the high-flying Caps who could only muster one goal (Alexander Ovechkin scored it of course). That would be Ovechkin's 16th career goal in the 17 games he has played against the Leafs.
After Ovechkin put Washington up 1-0 late in the 1st period past Vesa Toskala, neither team could beat Toskala or Caps netminder Semyon Varlamov, but then maybe Toronto's luck is changing! The Leafs scored their one goal of the game at 16:49 of the 2nd when Jason Blake's shot deflected off a Caps defender, then hit Niklas Hagman in the hip while he was driving to the Caps net and flitted behind Varlamov tying it up 1-1.
Neither team could score in the 3rd or in overtime and surprisingly, the Leafs were the only team who could score when it came to the shootout, with Leafs sniper Phil Kessel and Hagman scoring while Washington's Eric Fehr and Ovechkin were both stopped by Toskala. This was Toronto's 4th win of the season and although they remain last overall in the National Hockey League, they are almost playing .500 hockey, collecting 9 out of 20 points in their last 10 games. The team still sucks though, in my opinion and will be hard pressed to challenge for a playoff spot this year. They remain 9 points back of division rival Montreal Canadiens.
Washington though slipped to a more respectable 13-5-5 record and remain on top of the Eastern Conference. The Capitals head to Ottawa Monday to play the Senators, while the Leafs are off until Wednesday when they take on the Tampa Bay Lightning in Florida.
San Jose's Dany Heatley scored his 9th career hat trick and linemate Joe Thornton contributed 4 assists as the Philadelphia Flyers fell 6-3 to the Sharks. With those 3 goals, Heatley has 17 goals and is now the number one goalscorer in the National Hockey League so far this season.
Daniel Briere put the Flyers up 1-0 at 9:16 of the 1st on a nice play by Matt Carle who curled towards the Sharks' net and made a tough crease pass to Briere who snapped a shot that deflected off San Jose's netminder Evgeni Nabokov and in. The Sharks tied it on Manny Malhotra's 4th of the season with a little less that 5 minutes left in the 1st.
Heatley got his first of the night 0:50 into the 2nd period on a tip-in from Thornton. Philadelphia's Claude Giroux got his 2nd of the season about halfway through the period, tieing the score 2-2. Patrick Marleau nabbed his 14th of the year with 5 seconds left to restore the Sharks' lead.
In the 3rd, Heatley got the eventual game winner while shorthanded. Giroux got his 2nd of the game (he had a 3-point night), Heatley put the Sharks back up by 2 goals with a power play marker at 12:44. Ryane Clowe rounded out the scoring with his 3rd at 15:22 past the Flyers Ray Emery who slips to a respectable 11-5-1 won/loss record.
Thornton's 4 assists give the big center 24 for the year, tops in the NHL and his 30 points puts him second overall in the points race, behind Los Angeles Kings center Anze Kopitar who has 33.
Both teams play again today, as Philadelphia heads to Phoenix to take on the Coyotes while the Sharks visit Anaheim to renew pleasantries with the Ducks.
Florida Panthers netminder Scott Clemmensen is usually relagated to a back up role appearing rarely to spell off whomever is his team's main goaltender, but he can get the job done when called upon and he was last night. The high-flying Detroit Red Wings were held to one goal for only the fourth time this season despite outshooting the Panthers 40 to 20.
The game was scoreless until 17:58 of the 2nd period when Red Wings center Pavel Datsyuk solved Clemmensen backhanding Henrik Zetterberg's pass into the net for his 5th of the season. Stephen Weiss tied it for Florida midway through the 3rd and Weiss also assisted on Bryan McCabe's game winner at 40 seconds into the extra frame.
The Montreal Canadiens can breath a sigh of relief after last night's game against the Washington Capitals. Somehow they were able to keep Alexander Ovechkin off the score sheet in their 3-2 win at Washington last night. Maybe Ovie is still a little tuckered out after returning from injury, but he did get 5 shots on Habs goalie Carey Price. The Capitals really turned up the heat in the final 2 periods, outshooting Montreal 27-8 in the final 40 minutes as they tried deperately to get the tie and force overtime.
The Capitals started slowly, getting 7 shots on Price in the 1st period, while the Canadiens came out expecting the usual flurry of red Caps shirts. The Habs got 14 shots on Caps netminder Michal Neuvirth who was appearing in his first game of the year. Neuvirth is something of a rookie himself, only putting in 5 appearances last year for Washington. He spent most of last season with the South Carolina Stingrays of the ECHL and the Hersey Bears of the AHL, with 22 appearances in the Bears playoff run last year.
Eric Fehr put the Caps up 1-0 with his 3rd goal of the year about halfway through the 1st period. Montreal took a 2-1 lead in the 2nd on goals by Travis Moen and Tomas Plekanec. Michael Cammalleri put the Habs up 3-1 at 12:29 on the power play when Caps center was sent off for tripping. Cammalleri's goal was his 9th of the season, tops for Montreal. Plekanec recorded an assist on the goal to add to his team-high 21 points.
Washington center Brendan Morrison got the Caps back within one goal when he beat Price at 17:28 and the Capitals went on the power play with a minute and a half remaining in the 3rd when Maxim Lapierre was sent off for hooking, but Washington couldn't get the tieing goal behind Price.
Montreal is trying to win their 3rd straight game for only the second time this season when they host the Detroit Red Wings tonight. Washington should have an easier opponent tonight when the head to Toronto to face the Leafs who sit in last place overall following their most recent loss.
Milan Lucic has the rep for being one tough customer who can play the game. The Buffalo Sabres hate playing the Boston Bruins with Lucic in the lineup because of the physical threat the big left winger brings, as well as having an ability to score and set up plays. Lucic is easing his way back in the Bruins' lineup after being out for some time with a surgically repaired index finger, so he only played for 13-14 minutes, but he did make his presence felt, scoring his first goal of the season on his only shot on Buffalo's netminder Ryan Miller.
The Sabres took an early lead with a power play goal from Paul Gaustad at 4:20 of the 1st period, and then Lucic's goal midway through the 2nd tied the game 1-1. Bruins' goalie Tuukka Rask earned an assist on the goal. Buffalo peppered Rusk with 15 shots in the 3rd, but Rusk stood tall and forcing overtime.
Patrice Bergeron scored the winner, a tip-in on a point shot from defenseman Zdeno Chara, in the extra period at 0:47 in, giving Boston their 3 win in their last 4 games. With the win, the Bruins are now only 2 points behind Buffalo for the lead in the Northeast Division standings, although Buffalo does have a number of games in hand. Notably, Thomas Vanek, Buffalo's sniper was held pointless, although he did have a number of scoring chances.
Boston's next game is on Monday when they head to St Louis to play the Blues, while the Sabres play again tonight in Ottawa for fight against the division rival Senators.
The Bruins haven't shown the form they did last year, and although they did end up winning this one, they gave up a goal in the final minute forcing overtime. Patrice Bergeron scored the only goal of the shootout giving Boston the win. Michael Ryder scored twice for the Bruins, while the Atlanta Thrashers got goes from Nik Andropov (his 1st of the season), Ilya Kovalchuk scored his team-high 13th of the season along with assisting on both of the other Atlanta goals, now has 21 points in the 12 games in which he's appeared.
Maxim Afinogenov scored the tieing goal for the Thrashers forcing overtime which solved nothing. Patrice Bergeron scored the only goal in the shootout to win it for the Bruins who moved ahead of the Canadiens to take over 3rd in the Northeast Division. As a side note, the Boston Bruins expect tough guy Milan Lucic to return for tonight's game against the Buffalo Sabres.
St Louis Blues defenseman Erik Johnson scored the winner in overtime, but if his goalie Chris Mason hadn't stood on his head in the second half of game, Johnson's OT heroics wouldn't have been possible. Mason let in one goal early, Radim Vrbata scoring his 7th at 3:22 of the 1st period, and Keith Tkachuk tied it with his 4th of the year 3 minutes later.
Phoenix left winger Vernon Fiddler scored at 1:58 of the 2nd to restore the Coyotes' lead, but after that, Mason was a brick wall making save after save to keep his team in the game. It could have been a much higher score in Phoenix's favor if not for Mason's excellent play. I would not be surprised to see a couple in the saves of the week video. T.J. Oshie popped in his 3rd of the year (this was Oshie's third multi-point game this year) to tie it up 2-2 early in the 3rd period. Mason faced 13 shots from Phoenix, but the Coyotes just could not get a puck past the Blues goaltender, forcing overtime. Phoenix Coyotes goalie Ilya Bryzgalov dropped to 11-6-1 with the loss.
Johnson scored his game winner 17 seconds into the extra period completing the Blues comeback. St Louis' win propelled the team out of the basement of the Western Division past both Minnesota and Anaheim.
St Louis next faces off at home against the New York Islanders on Saturday the 21st and the Coyotes also play Saturday, hosting the Philadelphia Flyers.
It started off pretty good for the Pittsburgh Penguins as Jordan Staal scored his 6th of the season early in the 1st period, but after that, the Penguins' vaunted offensive machine sputtered to a grinding halt against the Ottawa Senators. The Sens recovered fairly quickly and slowly built up a solid 6-1 lead before Evgeni Malkin closed out the scoring late in the 3rd period.
Ottawa defenseman Chris Phillips turned into a sniper scoring his 2nd and 3rd goals of the season which put the Senators up 5-1 and forcing the Penguins to pull goalie Marc-Andre Fleury for Brent Johnson. Ottawa's Mike Fisher had 3 assists on the night and the center has 5 points in the last 2 Ottawa victories. Milan Michalek put the Senators up 2-1 with a power play goal at 2:31 of the 2nd period.
Chris Kelly got his 1st of the season early in the 3rd, and then it was the Chris Phillips show as the defensman showed his offensive prowess scoring twice to put it out of reach for the Penguins. Jonathan Cheechoo even got in on the scoring with his 2nd of the season.
Malkin's goal was his first goal since October 20th against the St Louis Blues, but he did miss 2 weeks due to injuries. He has a goal and three assists in his last 3 games since returning to the lineup. He now has 5 goals, 13 assists this season which is obviously well off his pace last year when he won the scoring title.
And talking about someone being off his game, Sidney Crosby was held pointless yet again and was a minus 2 for the night. What is up with Sidney Crosby and how is he going to shake this funk? Sid the Kid has only a single goal to show for the last 10 Penguin games after starting off with 9 in his first 12. Crosby does have 21 points so far in the young season, but he sits well down the scoring ranks at a lowly number 23 overall, eleven points back of league leader Anze Kopitar. After scoring a hat trick on October 28th against the Montreal Canadiens, Crosby has slowed to a crawl. He did get 3 assists in the Boston game when Malkin returned, but why has Crosby suddenly become incredibly ordinary?
Take a look for John Tavares' goal where he bats one in off a rebound off the end glass. And Rick Nash dancing in and faking out the goalie with a lean back. Lots of dipsy-doodling and great backhands.
Do you agree that these are the best hits of last week? Honestly, I thought there were a bunch they missed, but some of these are pretty sweet. Anyone who has played would tell you that the best hits include a little shoulder, some forearm, a touch of fist, some hip and a lot of speed being stopped suddenly or reversed. Maybe I should put together some of the best hits that I saw because some of these are just okay, the last two are what I look for in a hit. Hey, if you want to put together a Best Of clip, let me know and I'll try to get it on.
New Jersey Devils Zach Parise and Nashville Predators Jason Arnott traded goals all night, but when it came down to it in the shootout, Nashville's Martin Erat put a backhander past Martin Brodeur to hand New Jersey their first loss in 4 shootouts this season.
Arnott opened the scoring when he beat the Devils Brian Rolston to the puck and slipped it through Brodeur's legs at 4:44 of the 1st period. Parise answered with his 12th of the year, 8 and a half minutes into the 1st period with a tip-in past Nashville's goalie Pekka Rinne on a rocket from the point by Colin White. Both teams were held scoreless in the second period.
In the 3rd, Nashville's captain, Jason Arnott put the Predators up 2-1 with a sweet tip-in between his legs past Brodeur, but Parise tied it up again tipping in a pass from Devils left winger Dean McAmmond for his team-high 13th of the season. With those 2 goals, Parise moves into a tie for 3rd overall in the goalscoring race, 2 behind the Rangers Marian Gaborik and the Capitals Alexander Ovechkin.
OT settled nothing and they went to the shoot out:
Zach Parise Devils Save Michael Santorelli Preds Goal Jamie Langenbrunner Devils Save David Legwand Preds Miss Travis Zajac Devils Goal Martin Erat Preds Goal
New Jersey continues with their "road warrior" tour, this time heading to Dallas to face the Stars on November 21st, where they hope to improve on their league-leading 9-1-1 road record this season. The Columbus Blue Jackets will be in Nashville to pick up on their divisional battle with the Preds on Saturday.
Both Teemu Selanne and Ryan Getzlaf had a goal and 2 assists for the Anaheim Ducks in a game against the Tampa Bay Lightning that almost got away from the Ducks. After building a 3-0 lead at home 7 minutes into the 2nd period, the Lightning came back to force overtime, but Scott Niedermayer ended it quickly in the extra frame to end Anaheims winless streak. The Ducks were 0-3-1 in their previous 4 games having been outscored 18-9 in those 4 games.
Selanne scored his 11th goal of the season on the power play on a beautiful pass thrugh the crease from Getzlaf. Anaheim's Corey Perry also earned an assist on the goal and ended with 2 assists on the night. Selanne returned the favor to Getzlaf with an almost identical play at 18:12 of the 1st period giving Anaheim a 2-0 lead. Getzlaf easily beat Tampa's netminder Mike Smith with a quick wrist shot over Smith's outstretched glove.
The Ducks moved into a 3-0 lead with a power play goal at 6:5Jeff Halpern2 of the 2nd by Bobby Ryan. From there it was all Lightning with Jeff Halpern, Steven Stamkos and then Ryan Malone tieing it all up 3-3 early in the 3rd period. Stamkos' goal was a thing of beauty as he was on his butt and tipped the puck in front of Smith and it floated over Ducks goalie Jonas Hiller's left arm and landed in the net. Take a look at the video to see it.
Early in the overtime period, Scott Niedermayer set a record for a defenseman with his 13th OT goal (his 2nd goal of the season) with assists going to Selanne and Getzlaf. That assist gave Getzlaf 22 assists for the year so far, tops in the National Hockey League, 2 more than 2nd place Joe Thornton (Sharks) and Tomas Kaberle (Leafs).
This was the first of 7 straight home games for the Ducks who next face the San Jose Sharks November 21st. The Lightning also play on Saturday when they head to Carolina to face the Hurricane.
Ding, ding, ding! That's the sound of the Calgary Flames getting lit up by the Chicago Blackhawks in last night's game. The Hawks dominated the Flames, winning the 7-1 in the first of six on the road. Chicago had 4 power play goals and goalie Cristobal Huet was solid between the pipes as the Blackhawks took their 5th straight game. With the win Chicago moves into sole possession of 1st place in the Central Division and have an eye on the top of the Western Conference. They trail San Jose by 4 points and Colorado by one but have 3 games in hand on the Sharks and 2 on the Avalanche.
Troy Brouwer scored a power play goal to put Chicago up 9:15 into the first and Calgary's Olli Jokinen scored his first in 9 games for the Flames only tally of the game. After that it was all Chicago as the Blackhawks dominated in the 2rd period building a 6-1 lead on goals by Kris Versteeg with two goals, Dustin Byfuglien, Andrew Ladd and Patrick Kane with his 8th of the season on the power play.
Miikka Kiprusoff was chased out of the Calgary net after being bombed by Chicago in the 2nd, being replaced by Curtis McElhinney who faced a mere 2 shots from the Hawks in the 3rd. But even noted tough guy Ben Eager got in the scoring getting his 1st goal of the season at 15:26 of the 3rd to round out the scoring.
This was the most goals the Blackhawks have scored this season. They did score 6 times in a 6-5 overtime win October 12th against these same Calgary Flames. Chicago plays on Saturday against the Oilers, Sunday against the Canucks before heading to California to play the Sharks, Ducks and Kings to finish their road trip at the end of the month. Calgary heads to Los Angeles to face the Kings on Saturday and Anaheim on Monday.
In a battle for last place in the National Hockey League, the Toronto Maple Leafs came up short against the equally terrible Carolina Hurricanes. Toronto took a commanding 3-0 lead (well, maybe for a good team) only to be outscored by Carolina 5-2 over the final 2 periods and losing in the shootout. If you are up 3-0 in the first, usually that means you can turn up your best defensive game and play boring defensive hockey when on the road. But Carolina won by playing a tenacious game and clawed back to tie the game forcing overtime and then winning in a shoot out. The Hurricane and Leafs have both sucked for this last month or so, but Carolina has been even worse. They haven't won a game in regulation time since October 9th and the franchise's 2 most recent wins have been due to the shootout.
In the first, Leaf fans were delirious as they thought, I told you, this is the year when Toronto steps up and becomes a franchise to be reckoned with! But no. Once again Toronto blew chunks by giving up 5 goals in the final 40 minutes and then allowing 2 for 2 in the shootout. Leaf fans were turning their backs on the old familiar franchise (until the next game when they'll have that "maybe, just maybe" glint in their eyes again).
The game started well, with Leafs goalie Jonas Gustavsson stopping 11 Canes shots and Toronto getting goals from Matt Stajan, Lee Stempniak and Mikhail Grabovski to take a 3-0 lead into the dressing room after the first period. In the 2nd, the Leafs curled up in a panicky defensive shell, getting a mere 4 shots on Carolina netminder Manny Legace while the Canes bombarded Gustavsson with 17 shots and getting 2 behind him (Stephane Yelle with his 1st and Matt Cullen with a beautiful wrister over Gustavsson). So now it's 3-2. Do the Leafs crank it up? No, they get outshot 14-7 in the 3rd and return to their weak defensive form after Alexei Ponikarovsky puts them back up by 2 goals with a rare power play goal at 3:43 of the 3rd period.
Tim Gleason scored twice in about a 3 minute span to tie the game at 4-4 and the Canes pressing for the win. It appeared that the Leafs may have salvaged a win when Ian White scored with 30 seconds remaining in the 3rd, but not to be. With 3 seconds remaining, Erik Cole popped in his 2nd of the year after Leafs defenseman Jeff Finger coughed up the puck to Tuomo Ruutu whose shot bounced to Cole who snapped a quick shot past Gustavsson. Ruutu had an excellent game, assisting on all 4 of Carolina's last 4 goals. Overtime settled nothing.
And off to the shootout where Carolina highlighted a big hole in the Leafs' last line of defense.
Tuomo Ruutu CAR Goal Phil Kessel TOR Save Jussi Jokinen CAR Goal Lee Stempniak TOR Save
To give Gustavsson some credit, this was his very first NHL shootout and he looked way out of place as both Carolina players scored on their shots. It looks like yet another glaring flaw in the "How To Beat The Leafs" handbook - get them to the shootout because their goaltenders are sieves.
What Toronto needs is another NHL franchise in southern Ontario who will suck badly for several years to take the stanky smell off the franchise until they start beating the Leafs into the ground like the rest of the NHL. When will there be professional level hockey in Toronto again? That's up to the Board of Governors.
The Toronto Maple Leafs slipped into a tie with last place Carolina following a 3-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators. The woeful Leafs limped out of Ottawa sporting a 2-4-4 record in their last 10 games, but as usual, they were in the game but not on the right side of the score sheet. Sens goalie Pascal Leclaire made some brilliant saves to preserve his spotty won/loss record at 7 wins, 5 losses. Leclaire was named the games' first star.
Mike Fisher opened the scoring with his first of 2 goals on the night at 8:08 picking up a rebound in the slot with a shot over Leaf netminder Vesa Toskala. A little over a minute later Phil Kessel scored his 5th goal in a Leafs uniform to tie it all up on a signature Kessel play, scoring after crossing the blue line with a rocket shot that eluded Leclaire. Colton Orr and Mark Carkner tussled at the 10 minute mark of the 1st period with Orr laying out Carkner. There were 4 different fights in the first 2 periods.
4:49 into the 2nd, Niklas Hagman put the Leafs in the lead with his 7th of the season, tieing him with Alexei Ponikarovsky for the goal scoring lead, but Kessel is coming up fast in that department. The Leafs' lead was shortlived as Milan Michalek tipped in Alexandre Picard's shot to tie it with the only power play goal of the game. Mike Fisher scored his 9th with about 5 minutes left in the 2nd period.
The Leafs pressed for the tieing goal in the 3rd peppering Leclaire with 15 of their 30 shots on the night, but Leclaire faced them down.
The Leafs now have lost their last 4 straight games and have a terrible 3-11-5 record for last place in the Northeast Division, 9 points behind the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins who both have 20 points on the season. Ottawa have 21, four back of division leading Buffalo.
The Leafs next face the Carolina Hurricanes for a cellar-dweller battle for last place in the NHL. Ottawa hosts Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins on November 17th.
Even with an injury-riddled team, the Pittsburgh Penguins won again to move into a tie with the New Jersey Devils for the lead in the Atlantic Division with a convincing 5-2 win over the always tough Anaheim Ducks at Mellon Arena.
Pens left winger Matt Cooke opened and closed the scoring with his 3rd and 4th goals of the season. Bill Guerin put the Penguins up 2-0 at 5:13 of the first on a beautiful one-timer off a pass from Sidney Crosby past Ducks netminder Jean-Sebastien Giguere. Giguere remains winless in Anaheim's net after 6 games this season.
Todd Marchant scored a shorthanded goal with Ryan Getzlaf off for hooking to bring the Ducks within one by cutting through the Penguins defense and putting it in on the backhand past Marc-Andre Fleury. Jordan Staal answered with a shorthanded marker of his own, his 5th goal of the year early in the 2nd period. Martin Skoula put the Penguins up 4-1 early in the 3rd period after Bill Guerin tussled with Ryan Getzlaf and both were sent off for fighting majors. If Guerin had only received an assist in this game, he would have had the "Gordie Howe Hat Trick", a goal, an assist, and a fight.
Ageless Teemu Selanne got his 10th of the season off a one-timer from the point to make it 4-2. That was Selanne's 589th of his career - do you think he will get his 600th this year? Definitely. Matt Cooke got the empty net goal to round out the scoring. Penguins Evgeni Malkin was held pointless after getting 3 assists in his return last game against the Boston Bruins.
Pittsburgh is off until Wednesday's game at Ottawa, while Anaheim hosts Tampa Bay on Thursday.
The New Jersey Devils finally lost on the road. The Flyers looked pretty good and even thought the final shots on goal totals were the same at 35 each, it looked like most of the action was in New Jersey's end of the rink. The loss also ended the Devils win streak at eight games. Two of the three Philadelphia goals were the result of Devils' goalie Martin Brodeur attempts to clear the puck and passing it to the Flyers who pounced on his mistakes.
Darroll Powe put the Flyers up 1-0 after Brodeur went behind his net and attempted to clear the puck out along the boards. It went to Arron Asham who flipped a little pass over to Claude Giroux who was parked on Brodeur's left near the New Jersey goal. Giroux passed over to Powe who was cruising in and Powe put it in past a sprawling Brodeur.
The teams exchanged power play goals in the second period, Scott Hartnell scoring for the Flyers at 44 into the period and David Clarkson cutting the lead to 2-1 with about 5 minutes remaining as he beat Flyers netminder Ray Emery with a quick shot from his left with about 3 seconds left in a 5 on 3 advantage.
Flyers' rookie James van Riemsdyk scored his 5th of the season which proved to be the eventual game winner. This rookie might bear some watching as although he trails the much heralded John Tavares of the Islanders by 3 in the rookie point race, van Riemsdyk has played 7 fewer games than Tavares.
New Jersey's Zach Parise closed out the scoring with his team high 11th with one second remaining in the 3rd to make it 3-2. Parise also leads the Devils with 24 points in 19 games. Even with the loss New Jersey remains atop the Atlantic Division now tied with the Pittsburgh Penguins with 28 points, although the Devils have 3 games in hand on the Pens. The Flyers are in a 3-way dogfight with the Rangers and the surprising Islanders who each have 23 points.
The Devils next travel to Nashville to play the Predators on November 19th, while the Flyers head out to Los Angeles for a game against the Kings.
They're not the Islanders of last year that's for sure. The Boston Bruins fell victim to the improving New York Islanders 4-1 who are now 6-2-2 in their last 10 games. Meanwhile the inconsistent Bruins have fallen to a 3-4-3 record in their last 10, and are far off the form they showed last year.
The Isles' Matt Moulson had 2 goals (his 9th and 10th) which puts him in the lead for the Islanders goal-wise. Rookie John Tavares is close behind him netting his 9th goal of the season. Tavares is leading the Islanders in points 20 games into the season with 9 goals and 10 assists for 19 points. Tavares is also the top goal leader and point leader for all rookies early in the season, obviously providing the Islanders' brain trust with reason to smile. Philadelphia's James Van Riemsdyk is second in the rookie point scoring race with 16 points.
After Moulson's goal put the Islanders up 1-0, the Bruins finally tied it at 14:56 of the 2nd period when Daniel Paille popped in his 2nd goal of the year past Islanders netminder Dwayne Roloson, who improved his own won/loss record this year to 6-1. Just about 4 minutes later Moulson put his Islanders up to stay.
Tavares scored his 9th early in the 3rd period on a tip-in on a shot by right winger Richard Park past Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask. Trent Hunter scored an empty netter to finish it off for the Isles.
Finally the Carolina Hurricanes have returned to the win column. Going 0-10-4 in their last 14 games tied the Canes' franchise worst losing streak. Back in 1992 when they set the team low mark they still known as the Hartford Whalers! Carolina almost lost this one too after going up 3-0 against the Minnesota Wild by allowing the Wild to come back.
Jussi Jokinen put Carolina in the lead 2:45 into the game with hard work by driving to the net off a faceoff in the Wild's end. Tuomo Ruutu passed quickly to Jokinen who tipped it past Minnesota netminder Niklas Backstrom. The Wild were about to be called for a penalty on the play until Jokinen's 4th goal of the season nullified the possible power play. With a little over 2 minutes left in the first, Carolina defenseman Joe Corvo notched his 3rd of the season with a onetimer on a pass from Bryan Rodney.
Ray Whitney's shot from the top of the faceoff circle eluded Backstrom who was screened by Ruutu giving Carolina a 3-0 lead 5 minutes early in the second. Whitney ended the night with 3 points (one goal, two assists). The teams traded goals mid-period with Antti Miettinen breaking the goose egg by getting on past Carolina goalie Michael Leighton (who got his first win of the season) and Brandon Sutter who put the Canes back up by three goals.
At this point what has plagued the Hurricanes happened yet again. Minnesota scored twice more to get within one goal and you could almost feel the tension as the Carolina players gripped their sticks a little tighter and probably thought here we go again. Left winger Robert Earl and defenseman John Scott both netted their 1st goals of the year. Earl, who was a recent callup from the AHL, got his 2nd of the game (and 2nd of the season) early in the 3rd period to tie it all up at 4-4. No further goals were scored in the 3rd and OT brought nothing, so off to the shoot out.
Tuomo Ruutu CAR Miss Antti Miettinen MIN Save Jussi Jokinen CAR Goal! Mikko Koivu MIN Miss Matt Cullen CAR Save Marek Zidlicky MIN Save
Jokinen's shootout goal proved to be the winner finally snapping Carolina's long winless streak. To be fair they did get 4 points due to making it to OT in four of those games, but 4 out of a possible 28 points just sucks. Hopefully the Hurricane can continue to turn it around - they went so deep in last year's playoffs and this losing streak surprised just about everyone. On a side note, Carolina players Scott Walker, Stephane Yelle and defenseman Joni Pitkanen all left the game with injuries. No word on their status yet.
Carolina heads to Montreal on November 17th to take on the Canadiens, while Minnesota is off til Wednesday when they face the Phoenix Coyotes.
