One of these days we’ll have to start one of these posts about the Lightning and not talk about Steve Stamkos. This won’t be one of them. Stamkos scored his league-leading 20th goal of the year in helping lead the Lightning over Boston. Dana Tyrell and Teddy Purcell also had goals while Michael Ryder had Boston’s lone goal. Mike Smith stopped 26 shots in the win while Tuukka Rask had a busy night saving 33 shots in the loss
Nikolai Kulemin’s two goals helped lead the Leafs past a woeful Dallas tonight. If Stars forward Brad Richards was auditioning for the Leafs the way some folks would like to believe, he was the lone Star to show up on the score sheet scoring for Dallas. Jonas Gustavsson continued to play great tonight saving 21 shots in the win. Kari Lehtonen played well for Dallas but not enough to keep the Leafs completely off the board stopping 22 of 25 shots.
A feisty game that will be talked about mainly for Marc Staal’s incredibly destructive open-ice hit on Matt Stajan saw the Rangers come out on top thanks to goals from Dan Girardi and Brian Boyle. Martin Biron played solid once again saving 31 shots in the win. Jarome Iginla stayed hot for Calgary scoring his sixth goal in three games but it wouldn’t be enough. Miikka Kiprusoff saved 22 shots in the loss.
The chances that anyone predicted this outcome tonight are virtually nil. That’s why they play the games. Youngster Braden Holtby got the start for Washington and was blitzed for five goals against as the struggling Devils may have gotten the breakout game they’ve been hoping for. Jason Arnott had two goals while Mattias Tedenby scored on a penalty shot. Dainius Zubrus and Patrick Elias also scored while Johan Hedberg stopped 30 shots in earning the shutout. If you’re curious, and we know you are, Ilya Kovalchuk finished the game with no points and just one shot on goal.
The feisty game we thought we might see from Mike Richards and P.K. Subban before the night started never materialized but in its place we got another play0ff-like game between these two teams. Montreal got out to a 2-0 lead thanks to two Maxim Lapierre goals but the Flyers stormed back with three in a row to take the game. Ville Leino, James van Riemsdyk, and Claude Giroux all had goals for Philly while Brian Boucher stopped 29 shots to get the win. For Montreal, Carey Price was outstanding in a losing effort saving 42 shots. All we know is that we’d like to see these teams keep playing each other like this the rest of the way.
Ho hum, another win for Columbus and another shutout, this time from Steve Mason. Mason stopped 27 shots on the way to the shutout, his first of the year. His teammate Mathieu Garon has three. Meanwhile, Mike Commodore and Rick Nash had the Columbus goals. For Nashville. Pekka Rinne stopped 28 shots in the loss. The win is Columbus’ fourth in a row.
OK so who had Chris Conner in their game-winning goal pool? No one? We figured as much but it was Conner at 12:56 of the third that put the Pens ahead to stay after dealing with the feisty and game Panthers. Sidney Crosby got another goal, his 15th of the year as he tries to keep pace with Steve Stamkos. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 27 shots to pace the Penguins in the win. Cory Stillman and Bryan McCabe had Florida’s goals.
A bit of controversy hovers over the final decision in this one as what appeared to be a game-tying goal with three seconds left by Ryan Smyth was disallowed because the official ruled he hit it in with a high stick. The play went to instant replay and the war room in Toronto but the call on the ice was upheld. An earlier apparent Kings goal was disallowed because the net came off the moorings before the puck crossed the line. On replay, it appeared that Sens defenseman Matt Carkner pulled the goal out of place after sliding into it, but it would not be counted regardless.
As for what was counted, it was all the game’s stars that got involved. Alex Kovalev earned his 1,000th career point with a power play goal in the first while Milan Michalek and Jason Spezza added tallies in the win. Anze Kopitar and Ryan Smyth each had goals for L.A. Brian Elliott made 28 saves to pace the Sens while Jon Quick made just 16 saves in the loss.