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Early ride on the Zamboni - Saturday, December 18th

ericstaalhattrick

James O’Brien

For a recap of the Flyers-Rangers game, click here. To find out more about how the Capitals lost their eighth straight game to the Bruins, read this post. Expect a recap of the Minnesota-Calgary game tomorrow.

Dallas 2, Columbus 1

The Stars might have a little trouble keeping Chris Osgood from earning his 400th career win considering that they’ll need to play Detroit less than 24 hours after this game began because this was a tough, physical game. On the bright side, they scratched and clawed to win this one with great performances by their best two players: Brad Richards (both goals) and Kari Lehtonen (35 saves).

Vancouver 4, Toronto 1

It’s tough not to wonder if Brian Burke looks on with deep envy at Vancouver, especially considering the fact that he’s a former Canucks general manager. Roberto Luongo made 27 saves while Alexandre Burrows and Jannik Hansen each earned two points in a fairly easy Canucks win.

Atlanta 7, New Jersey 1

It doesn’t get sweeter for this for Atlanta: they took the Southeast Division lead by absolutely throttling Ilya Kovalchuk and the woeful New Jersey Devils. Eric Boulton (of all people) scored a hat trick in this game. Boulton’s career high is four goals, so this was a bit of a surprise.

Phoenix 4, NY Islanders 3 (SO)

The Coyotes must feel blessed any time someone not named Ilya Bryzgalov wins a game for them. It didn’t come easy, as the Coyotes needed Jason LaBarbera to make 41 saves and one shootout stop while Martin Hanzal had to score a late goal in the third to best surprise Islanders starter Nate Lawson.

Carolina 4, Anaheim 2

It was a battle between the team’s two big, talented centers and Eric Staal (natural hat trick, including the game winner) beat Ryan Getzlaf (two goals). Cam Ward was also excellent for Carolina, earning 43 saves.

Tampa Bay 3, Buffalo 1

Earlier, I wrote that the Lightning could earn a slight lead over the Capitals for second in the Southeast if they beat the Sabres. Tampa Bay did indeed hold onto that 2-1 lead as Martin St. Louis put it away with an empty net goal. Perhaps Mike Smith is hearing the Evgeni Nabokov rumors, because he played well (22 out of 23 saves) to win.

Los Angeles 6, Nashville 1

So much for the Predators doing fine without Pekka Rinne. Both of their other goalies allowed three goals, as Anders Linback was pulled after allowing three goals on nine shots and then Mark Dekanich allowed three on 25. Jonathan Bernier played like the hot prospect he was coming into 2010-11, stopping 29 out of 30 himself.

Ryan Smyth had two goals, Drew Doughty had a goal and an assist and Trevor Lewis also provided a tally and a helper.

San Jose 4, St. Louis 1

Antero Niittymaki is quietly putting together a great season with the Sharks as his record is 11-3-3 now. There was plenty of goal support as Logan Couture stayed hot (two goals) while Dan Boyle (two assists), Marc-Edouard Vlasic (one goal and one assist) and Devin Setoguchi (one goal) also played well.