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Riding the Zamboni - Monday, December 20th

hiller45saves

James O’Brien

For a recap of Pittsburgh plundering Phoenix, click here. If you want a rundown of the altered landscape of the Southeast Division thanks to wins by the Atlanta Thrashers and Tampa Bay Lightning, read this post.

Moving forward, let’s take a look at Monday’s other four games.

Florida 5, Philadelphia 0

If you came from the future and showed me the score to this game, I’d first complain that you didn’t tell me to pick the New Jersey Devils to miss the playoffs. Then I’d assume that Tomas Vokoun earned a shutout while basically auditioning for the Philadelphia Flyers’ starting job.

Even though Sergei Bobrovsky was chased from the Flyers’ net in this one after allowing four goals, I think the team is happy with its three goalies going forward.

Only Kimmo Timonen and Nikolay Zherdev were the only Philadelphia players who didn’t have a negative plus/minus.

Anaheim 3, Boston 0

Tonight was one of those rare nights when Tim Thomas was on the wrong end of a shutout. Jonas Hiller provided an amazing performance, as the best Swiss goalie in the world stopped 45 shots to help the Ducks beat the Bruins.

Teemu Selanne earned two assists and Brandon McMillan earned his first career high multiple point game, one goal and one assist.

Minnesota 4, Calgary 1

Niklas Backstrom absolutely dominates the Flames, as he is 7-1-1 in his last nine games against Calgary. He made 34 out of 35 saves to help the Wild beat Kipper for the second time in three days. (Fun stats via the AP recap.)

Martin Havlat and Cal Clutterbuck earned a goal and assist each while the Wild power play converted on two of their three chances to easily beat the Flames tonight.

Vancouver 3, St. Louis 1

Apparently the Canucks’ hot streak beat the Blues’ stout home advantage in St. Louis in this game. It’s kind of hard to believe that Roberto Luongo was once a goalie constantly besieged by pucks without much goal support in Florida, because now it’s the opposite. He only had to make 15 out of 16 saves to win, the second time in four games that he earned a victory by making less than 20 stops.

Ryan Kesler, Aaron Volpatti and Jeff Tambellini scored the Canucks’ goals while Alex Steen earned the Blues only tally. Mikael Samuelsson also had a nice night for Vancouver, providing two assists.