NHL Rink Wrap: Canucks stay unbeaten under Boudreau; Troy Terry show rolls on

By Dec 13, 2021, 7:04 AM EST
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Top player from Sunday in the NHL

Andre Burakovsky, Colorado Avalanche

The injuries keep mounting for the Colorado Avalanche, but they keep winning games. Their 3-2 win over the Florida Panthers on Sunday night was their fourth in a row and improved them to 12-2-1 in their past 15 games. Leading the way in this one was Andre Burakovsky who recorded his first career NHL hat trick, providing all of the offense in the win. With that performance Burakovsky now has 12 goals on the season, tying him for the team lead with defenseman Cale Makar and forward Mikko Rantanen. The Avalanche remain the highest scoring team in the league by a significant margin.

Highlights from Sunday in the NHL

Burakovsky completes the hat trick for the Avalanche.

Troy Terry scored two more goals for the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday night in a 3-2 win over the St. Louis Blues, including this game-winning goal in overtime on a penalty shot.

The Vancouver Canucks are suddenly on a roll under new coach Bruce Boudreau, and Elias Pettersson is starting to find his game again.

Three Takeaways from Sunday in the NHL

Bruce, there it is

It is not taking long for Bruce Boudreau to make an impact on the Vancouver Canucks. They improved to 4-0-0 since the coaching change on Sunday night, this time beating one of the league’s best teams in the Carolina Hurricanes. Their big stars were the difference makers on Sunday with Brock Boeser and Pettersson providing the offense, while Thatcher Demko stopped 28 out of 29 shots. The Canucks are still facing quite the uphill battle when it comes to getting back into playoff contention, but they have to start somewhere and the hiring of Boudreau has at least started that push.

Troy Terry’s incredible season rolls on

This remains one of the more improbable success stories in the league this season. Terry was always a pretty useful player in Anaheim but never had the offensive numbers to make anybody take notice. This season he does. He scored two more goals on Sunday night, including the overtime game-winning penalty shot seen above, to give him 17 goals and 28 total points this season. Keep in mind before this season he had never scored more than seven goals and 20 total points (in 48 games) in a single season. He also had scored just 15 total goals (in all seasons combined) before this season. He is one of the biggest reasons the Ducks are in playoff contention this season.

Juuse Saros leads Predators to a fifth consecutive win

Just when you think the Nashville Predators are trending in the wrong direction, they put together a five-game winning streak. They were 1-0 winners against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Sunday night, thanks to a goal from Philip Tomasino and a 32-save shutout from Juuse Saros. Saros was the biggest reason the Predators turned their season around a year ago and stormed back to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and he looks to be trying to do that again this season. Goaltending masks a lot of flaws if you have a great one, and the Predators look like they do.

Monday’s big story

Quite honestly the big story in the NHL on Monday is the only story in the NHL on Monday as far as games are concerned, as the Calgary Flames play the Chicago Blackhawks in the only scheduled game. Calgary will be looking to snap its current four-game losing streak against a Blackhawks team that has shown some modest improvement since Derek King replaced Jeremy Colliton as head coach. The Flames have been one of the league’s best, most dominant defensive teams in the league this season but have allowed 17 goals in their past five games. Chicago, meanwhile, has been alternating wins and losses for the past 12 games.

Sunday’s NHL Scores

Anaheim Ducks 3, St. Louis Blues 2 (OT)
Nashville Predators 1, New York Rangers 0
Colorado Avalanche 3, Florida Panthers 2
Vegas Golden Knights 6, Minnesota Wild 4
Vancouver Canucks 2, Carolina Hurricanes 1

More NHL News

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Blue Jackets acquire D Damon Severson from Devils after he signs 8-year deal
Matthew Tkachuk returns from big hit in Stanley Cup Final, adds more playoff...
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Panthers rally, top Golden Knights 3-2 in OT of Game 3 of Stanley Cup final

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    Blue Jackets acquire D Damon Severson from Devils after he signs 8-year deal

    Associated PressJun 9, 2023, 1:53 PM EDT
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    Kirk Irwin/Getty Images
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    The Columbus Blue Jackets acquired Damon Severson from the New Jersey Devils on Friday after the veteran defenseman and soon-to-be free agent signed an eight-year $50 million contract.

    Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen sent a third-round pick, 80th overall, in this month’s draft to the Devils for Severson, who will be under contract through the 2030-31 NHL season.

    Severson had 58 goals and 205 assists in 647 career appearances with the Devils since making his NHL debut in 2014-15. He scored seven game-winning goals and averaged more than 21 minutes of playing time during his nine seasons. The 28-year-old had seven goals and 26 assists this season, including two game-winning goals, in 81 games.

    “Damon is a versatile defenseman who has great vision, moves the puck extremely well, has good size and can play heavy minutes at both ends of the ice,” Kekalainen said.

    The Canadian was selected in the second round in the 2012 draft. He has collected 30 or more points five times in his career and twice notched 11 or more goals. He played in every game in three straight seasons from 2018-21 and has played 80 or more contests four times in his career.

    With the addition of the third-round pick, New Jersey now has six selections in the draft, including its own picks in rounds two, four, five, six and seven.

    Matthew Tkachuk returns from big hit in Stanley Cup Final, adds more playoff heroics

    Associated PressJun 9, 2023, 9:59 AM EDT
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    Matthew Tkachuk was down, out briefly and then back with plenty of time to make a difference.

    The Florida Panthers star left early in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final after a big hit from Vegas Golden Knights forward Keegan Kolesar, and he missed most of the first period and didn’t return immediately following intermission while being evaluated for a concussion. After looking as if he might be lost for the night, Tkachuk returned in the second and then came through with more of his now trademark playoff heroics.

    Tkachuk scored the tying goal with 2:13 left in regulation, forcing overtime and giving the Panthers new life. He then provided the screen on Carter Verhaeghe‘s OT goal for a 3-2 victory that cut Florida’s series deficit to 2-1.

    The 25-year-old said he knew he was coming back when he left the game, pulled by concussion spotters. That absence felt like a long time ago in the aftermath of another big win he was largely responsible for.

    “I felt great – I feel great,” Tkachuk said. “I’m ready to go. Everybody’s excited that we’re in this position right now.”

    Florida is in this position rather than facing elimination in Game 4 on Saturday thanks in large part to Tkachuk, who also set up Brandon Montour‘s goal that opened the scoring less than five minutes in.

    Not long after, Tkachuk stumbled getting up after the hit from Kolesar and skated to the bench. He took a shift on Florida’s power play before going down the tunnel at the demand of concussion spotters mandated by NHL protocol.

    At that point, there was zero clarity, even on the Florida bench.

    “You’re not informed at all: It’s a complete shutdown,” coach Paul Maurice said. “You are completely in the dark on those. You don’t know when the player’s coming back. There’s not an update.”

    Players insist they were not worried. Montour called it a no-brainer.

    “He’s going to come back no matter what,” captain Aleksander Barkov said. “He’s really tough guy, and he’s going to battle through everything.”

    Tkachuk rejoined his teammates on the bench a few minutes into the second. When he stepped back onto the ice for his first shift since leaving, fans cheered and chanted, “Chucky! Chucky!”

    The crowd was even louder and threw rats when Tkachuk scored his biggest goal of many during this run to tie it. He didn’t get an assist on Verhaeghe’s goal but made it happen with a tape-to-tape pass in the neutral zone and was in front of Adin Hill when it happened.

    Asked if he was happy Tkachuk returned, Maurice joked that it was after midnight.

    “It was fine,” he quipped.

    Panthers rally, top Golden Knights 3-2 in OT of Game 3 of Stanley Cup final

    Associated PressJun 8, 2023, 11:48 PM EDT
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    Sam Navarro/USA TODAY Sports
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    SUNRISE, Fla. — Carter Verhaeghe scored 4:27 into overtime and the Florida Panthers pulled off some more postseason dramatics to beat the Vegas Golden Knights 3-2 in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final on Thursday night.

    Matthew Tkachuk tied it with 2:13 left in the third period for the Panthers, who got the franchise’s first title-series game win in seven tries. Florida had to fend off a power play to start overtime, and Verhaeghe got the winner from the slot to get the Panthers within 2-1 in the series.

    Game 4 is Saturday night.

    Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 25 shots for Florida. Adin Hill made 20 saves for Vegas, but got beat on the only shot that came his way in overtime.

    Brandon Montour also scored for Florida, which pulled Bobrovsky down 2-1 late in the third for the extra attacker and Tkachuk — who left for parts of the first and second periods after taking a big hit — made that move pay off when he tied the game.

    His goal breathed life into a very nervous building. But the Panthers were furious — and replays showed they had a case — when Gustav Forsling was sent to the box with 11.2 seconds remaining for tripping. Florida survived that scare, and a few minutes later, had life in the series again.

    The odds are still long, but the Panthers at least have a bit more statistical hope now. Of the previous 55 teams to trail 2-1 at this point of the Stanley Cup Final, 11 have actually rallied to hoist the trophy.

    It’s improbable, sure. So are the Panthers, who were the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference, were down 3-1 to Boston in Round 1, were 133 seconds away from trailing this series 3-0 — and now have tons of reasons for optimism.

    Jonathan Marchessault and Mark Stone each had power-play goals for Vegas.

    Marchessault’s goal was his 13th in his last 13 playoff games, his fourth of this series and his third with the man advantage.

    As if all that wasn’t enough, there was a little history in there as well. Vegas joined the 1980 New York Islanders as the only team with at least two power-play goals in three consecutive games in the Cup final. And Marchessault became the third player in the last 35 years to score in each of the first three games of a title series — joining Steve Yzerman in 1997 with Detroit and Jake Guentzel with Pittsburgh in 2017.

    But it wasn’t enough to give Vegas a 3-0 lead in the series.

    AROUND THE RINK

    Before Thursday, Florida’s last home game in the title series was June 10, 1996, when Uwe Krupp scored in the third overtime for a 1-0 win as Colorado finished off a four-game sweep of the Panthers for the Cup. … Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was in the crowd, as was NBA great Charles Barkley, and former Dolphins star Dan Marino was the celebrity drummer to welcome the Panthers onto the ice.

    Blackhawks, Athanasiou agree to 2-year, $8.5 million contract

    Associated PressJun 8, 2023, 9:28 PM EDT
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    Sergei Belski/USA TODAY Sports
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    CHICAGO — The rebuilding Chicago Blackhawks locked in one of their top scorers, agreeing to a two-year, $8.5 million contract with forward Andreas Athanasiou on Thursday.

    The 28-year-old Athanasiou tied for the team lead with 20 goals and ranked third with 40 points in his first season with Chicago. He matched career highs with four game-winning goals and three power-play goals.

    The 6-foot-2, 190-pound Athanasiou has 125 goals and 111 assists in 459 games with the Detroit Red Wings (2015-20), Edmonton Oilers (2020), Los Angeles Kings (2020-22) and Blackhawks.

    Chicago went 26-49-7 and finished last in the Central Division. The Blackhawks dealt Patrick Kane to the New York Rangers prior to the trade deadline and announced in April they would not re-sign Jonathan Toews, parting with two players who led them to Stanley Cups in 2010, 2013 and 2015.