With so many goalies locking down shutouts this season, you may have been worried that goal scoring was on a severe decline. Don’t worry fans, the Blue Jackets and Bruins singlehandedly attempted to restore your faith that offense is alive and well in the NHL.
Buffalo 5 - New Jersey 4 (F/SO)
Two backup goalies do battle in a game between teams that have had issues scoring and, hey look, scoring! Oddly enough, in this battle between teams that have yet to win at home, the home team managed to still lose which was good news for the equally struggling Sabres. Of course, for the Devils, it wasn’t just that they lost but it also that Ilya Kovalchuk lost the puck on his shootout attempt that could’ve kept the Devils alive. Tyler Myers had a goal and two assists for Buffalo while Jhonas Enroth picked up his second straight shootout win. Johan Hedberg was the hard luck loser after stopping 38 shots on the night.
Looking at the final score, you wouldn’t know that the Penguins had this game under control at all at any point in the night. The Bruins came back from being down 4-2 to rattle off five unanswered goals in the third period to kick the Penguins around in Pittsburgh. Shawn Thornton scored the backbreaker in the third dekeing and ripping a shot over Brent Johnson’s shoulder to put the Bruins up for good. Mark Recchi had a goal and two assists to lead the way for Boston. Sidney Crosby had a goal and two assists while Evgeni Malkin had two assists to do their part for Pittsburgh.
The Blues and Jaroslav Halak were due to have an off night eventually and boy did the Blue Jackets give them one. Chris Clark and Jakub Voracek each had two goals while Halak saw all of 23:15 of the game before allowing four goals and being chased from the game. Things didn’t go any better for Ty Conklin in relief as he too allowed four goals. As if losing by seven to Columbus wasn’t bad enough, the Blues lost T.J. Oshie to a broken ankle suffered in a late-game frustration scrum. Oshie was the Blues leading scorer. The eight goals were a franchise record for the Blue Jackets.
You know your team is struggling when you can look at a 4-1 loss and say, “Well at least they scored a goal.” Times are bad with the Leafs and the Panthers were more than happy to pile on. Four different Panthers, including Michal Frolik, scored goals while Tomas Vokoun stopped 32 shots in the win. Mikhail Grabovsky got Toronto’s lone goal while Jonas Gustavsson stopped 24 shots in the loss. This makes seven straight losses for the offensively-challenged Leafs and without any consistent goal scoring showing up, things look worse as the days go by.
Speaking of teams that are struggling, hey it’s the Blackhawks. The Hawks got on the board first thanks to Bryan Bickell and could get things going any easier through the game. Once the second period rolled around, goals by Kyle Turris and Eric Belanger just 35 seconds apart would provide the difference for the Coyotes. Phoenix backup goalie Jason LaBarbera was outstanding in goal stopping 35 shots in the win. Marty Turco had a quiet night in goal in a losing effort stopping just 20 shots. Chicago’s frustration is starting to show through as captain Jonathan Toews said tonight’s game, “felt like a cheap loss.”
The Ducks got off just 14 shots on goal and managed to steal a win over the hapless Islanders. Saku Koivu’s third period goal stood up as the only marker in a game that saw the Islanders get off 27 shots only to see backup goalie Curtis McElhinney stop all of them en route to his first career NHL shutout. The loss marks the Islanders’ eighth straight loss and they’ve done so poorly that even the Devils have finally caught up to them in the standings.