Bobby Ryan showed up in a big way for the streaking Ducks. Ryan got his second hat trick of the season and added an assist keying the Ducks to a blowout win over St. Louis. Jonas Hiller saw his shutout streak snapped at 178:34 in the second period when David Backes scored at 3:44. He added another goal just a couple minutes later to cut the Ducks lead to 3-2, but in the third Anaheim blew up big.
The Ducks would score four straight in the third with goals by Ryan, Corey Perry, Lubomir Visnovsky, and Brandon McMillan to pull ahead 7-2. The Blues would score a pair late, but the damage was done. Hiller stopped 30 shots on the night while Ty Conklin was only able to stop 17 in the loss. Things would get ugly in the third period as multiple fights broke out as the Blues vented their frustration at getting beaten so badly. Four different fights would break out in the final period as the teams brought back some flavor from the 80’s with a high-scoring game and a brouhaha in the third. Somewhere, Tony Twist is smiling.
Corey Crawford is quickly becoming the story of the season for Chicago. The suddenly starting goalie earned his second straight shutout in helping the Blackhawks finally beat the Avalanche in their final meeting of the season. The Hawks got 24 saves out of Crawford and goals from four unlikely sources in Troy Brouwer, Dave Bolland, Fernando Pisani, and Jack Skille to pace the offense. Peter Budaj made 27 saves in the loss as the Avs, once again, couldn’t tighten up the defense to keep their opponent off the board. It was a rare night for Colorado in that they didn’t score a goal of their own as the Avs have one of the top offenses in the NHL.
A confidence-boosting win for Pittsburgh who, until tonight, hadn’t won without Sidney Crosby in the lineup. Getting a win over the team they just lost to last week and lost to in the playoffs makes it especially sweeter. Alex Goligoski had two goals and an assist, Jordan Staal had a goal and two assists, and Kris Letang had three helpers in leading the way for Pittsburgh. Marc-Andre Fleury got the last laugh on Carey Price stopping 20 shots in the win and striking a payback pose mocking Price who did so similarly after winning in the shootout over Pittsburgh last week. Price, for his efforts, stopped 31 shots in the loss.
Dwayne Roloson stopped 23 shots in shutting out a mostly uninterested looking Caps team and taking sole possession of first place in the Southeast Division. Roloson’s shutout over the Caps, his second in nine days with the Lightning, will have the Caps looking at him as their supreme divisonal nemesis the rest of the way.
Dominic Moore, Sean Bergenheim, and Simon Gagne each had goals for Tampa Bay. For Gagne, it was his fourth of the season and a slump-buster as he hadn’t scored in his last 11 games. If Gagne can get his offensive game going, the Lightning are really going to start looking good. Semyon Varlamov stopped 35 shots in the loss for Washington, a solid effort but he’s got to get tired of seeing his high-powered offense not showing up consistently.