A tough and ugly night for the Penguins in Pittsburgh as the Jackets jumped out quickly in the first with Rick Nash’s 24th goal of the year and only saw things get worse in the second when Samuel Pahlsson and Jakub Voracek tallied to put the Jackets up 3-0. Steve Mason stopped 32 shots to earn the win for Columbus. Tyler Kennedy had a power play goal for the Penguins but it wasn’t close to enough.
Making matters worse was yet another reckless and awful hit by Pittsburgh’s Matt Cooke. Cooke boarded defenseman Fedor Tyutin in the first period putting Tyutin down on the ice and sparking a brawl that had Jackets center Derick Brassard squaring off with Cooke for the hit. Cooke was given a five-minute major for charging as well as five for fighting but was not kicked out of the game. This makes two games in a row where Cooke has made a highly questionable and dirty hit on a player. On Sunday, Cooke caught Alex Ovechkin with a knee-on-knee hit that had the Capitals in an uproar. Cooke has a disciplinary meeting with the NHL tomorrow as he’ll be facing some brand of action from the league for the hit.
New Jersey 3 - Carolina 2 (F/OT)
A night filled with rookies scoring saw Mattias Tedenby score twice for New Jersey including the game-winner in overtime as the Devils continued to stay hot. Jeff Skinner scored two power play goals for Carolina while Nick Palmieri also had a goal for New Jersey. Johan Hedberg held strong with 20 saves to get the win in goal while Martin Brodeur is out of action. Cam Ward made 31 stops in the loss.
Anton Volchenkov drew the ire of both the Hurricanes and his own coach. Volchenkov picked up three minor penalties which upset his coach Jacques Lemaire. One of those was an elbow to the head of Zach Boychuk that earned him an elbowing minor. The shot to the head is a virtual textbook violation of Rule 48 and the NHL will be meeting with Volchenkov about it to determine what action to take against him.
At one point in this game, Tampa Bay was up 3-1 in the second period. Thomas Vanek’s second period goal to cut the lead to 3-2 set the tone for what was to come in the third as the Sabres rattled off five goals in a row to go ahead 7-3 and ultimately win 7-4. Drew Stafford had his third hat trick of the season while Vanek finished the game with two goals.
The wheels came off when Jordan Leopold scored to tie it early in the third. Dwayne Roloson was knocked down when Stafford was bumped into him by Marc-Andre Bergeron. Roloson tumbled to the ice and Leopold fired it over the prone goaltender. The Lightning protested to no avail and the Sabres rolled after that. Bergeron finished the game with a -4 rating by the way. Sean Bergenheim had two goals while Vincent Lecavalier had two goals and an assist for the Lightning in defeat. The Sabres are now four points behind Carolina for eighth in the East.
The game turned into a must-win one for the Leafs before things even started when Islanders would-be starting goalie Kevin Poulin was injured in warmups leading to Mikko Koskinen making his first NHL start. The Leafs made the rookie’s night an unmemorable one by having five different goal scorers light him up on the way to the win. Colby Armstrong had a goal and two assists while Tomas Kaberle had a goal and an assist. James Reimer had another outstanding effort in goal for Toronto stopping 31 shots in the win. Koskinen stopped 21 shots in the loss while Michael Grabner scored his 17th goal of the season for New York. Not a bad waiver pick up for the Isles there. Shame they can’t get any goaltending help there.
A great chance for the Panthers to eke closer to the Eastern playoff race was blown as they weren’t able to crack through a healthy and rested Jaroslav Halak. Halak stopped 30 shots to pace the Blues to victory. Matt D’Agostini scored the game-winner with four minutes to play in the third period to give the Blues a sorely needed victory. David Backes also scored for the Blues while Dennis Wideman had Florida’s lone goal. Tomas Vokoun was steady in the loss stopping 26 shots.