Don’t look now but the Sharks have won four straight. Devin Setoguchi scored twice while rookie Logan Couture continues to get it done adding a goal of his own. Antti Niemi played strong in goal saving 23 shots. The hard-luck guy of the night was Wild starter Niklas Backstrom. Backstrom made 38 saves in a losing effort as the Sharks outskated and outhustled the Wild all night long. The win keeps the Sharks in line with the Blackhawks and Ducks in the race for the final two playoff spots in the West and also puts some space between themselves and Minnesota in that race. Things are a bit tight in the West.
After the mayhem that erupted after these two met earlier this week with Kings GM Dean Lombardi losing his cool, the Kings got out to a 3-0 lead early and ended the first period up 3-1. In the second period they’d give it back when Martin Hanzal scored and Lee Stempniak added his second goal of the game. Jarret Stoll would get the eventual game-winner in the third on an acrobatic goal, one that he needed about as bad as the Kings did. The win snaps a three game slide for the Kings and gets them caught up a little bit with the rest of the division as they finally crack the 50 point barrier.
Calgary 4 - Vancouver 3 (F/SO)
For what turned out to be a really exciting game will only be known for how it was decided in the shootout. Alex Tanguay appeared to be stopped by Roberto Luongo on his attempt but Luongo slid almost fully across the goal line while making the save. The official ruled it no-goal on the ice, but the call went to replay. On the video, there was no way to see the puck underneath the pads nor where it was located and it was assumed that the puck had crossed the line. The call was changed to a goal and the Flames skated away as winners. While the call was correct and logical, it’s stunning to see logic factor into a replay decision. Alex Edler potted two goals for the Canucks while Tim Jackman had a goal and an assist for Calgary.
NY Rangers 3 - Atlanta 2 (F/SO)
A gutsy comeback victory for the Rangers in Atlanta as Mats Zuccarello continued his shootout mastery scoring the winner in the skills competition. Zuccarello is now 3-for-3 in shootout attempts this year and has become a valuable weapon there with guys like Alex Frolov and Erik Christensen out with injuries. Brian Boyle scored his 17th goal of the year for New York and it was a clutch one tying the game at two with just over five minutes to play. Ondrej Pavelec played strong for Atlanta in the loss stopping 29 shots. Henrik Lundqvist was a bit less busy stopping 20 shots and all three he saw in the shootout.
Pittsburgh held on to get an important win over the Canes despite Carolina coming on strong in the third period. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 24 shots in the win while Dustin Jeffrey, Mark Letestu, and Pascal Dupuis all had goals. Carolina got back into the game with under five minutes to play after getting goals from Sergei Samsonov and Eric Staal but couldn’t punch home the equalizer. The Pens have had a bad habit of letting teams back into the game in the third period this season but they were able to bend and not break in this one.
In a battle between teams having a hard time of late in the Central Division, the Jackets were able to roll to victory in St. Louis thanks to virtually everyone. 13 different Columbus skaters registered a point in the victory including six different goal scorers. Jakub Voracek and Derick Brassard each had two assists while Steve Mason had a quiet night stopping 19 shots in the win. The win tied Columbus with St. Louis in the Central with 51 points and was their second straight victory. Baby steps for the Blue Jackets as they look to regain the winning form they had earlier this season.
Anaheim 3 - Montreal 2 (F/SO)
It was Brad Marchand’s coming out party for the Bruins. The rookie forward had four points with two goals and two assists to help lead Boston to the blowout victory. Somehow, those four points weren’t enough to get Marchand the number one star of the game. Tough crowd. Those honors went to the ageless Mark Recchi who had a goal and two assists. Tim Thomas was strong once again in goal stopping 32 shots while Avs starter Craig Anderson was miserable getting pulled after giving up four goals through two periods and stopping 24. The story of the game might end up being the loss of Marc Savard as he was knocked out of the game in the second period after taking a hit from Matt Hunwick and hitting his head against the glass.
Recaps from this afternoon: New Jersey beats Philly while Chicago takes out Detroit