Canucks blow leads, lose in OT
VANCOUVER — Calle Jarnkrok scored in overtime as the Nashville Predators defeated the Vancouver Canucks 4-3 on Friday night.
Kevin Fiala, Ryan Ellis and Mike Fisher also scored for the Predators. Nashville (4114-9) won its seventh straight and matched its longest winning streak since Nov. 12-25, 2009.
It was the first game out of retirement for Fisher. The 37-year-old veteran forward, who retired barely six months ago, is back for his eighth season with Nashville.
Backup goalie Juuse Saros made 24 stops for the Central Division-leading Predators.
Bo Horvat, Brandon Sutter and Daniel Sedin scored for Vancouver (24-32-9), which is 3-8-3 in its past 14 games and remain in second last place in the Pacific Division.
Jacob Markstrom was impressive with 39 saves for the Canucks.
Vancouver scored first on a power play and off a faceoff in the Predators’ zone. Alex Edler ripped a shot from the blue line that Horvat tipped in at 5:55. The assist tied Edler with Mattias Ohlund for first all-time in points by a Canucks defenceman with 325. He added a second later in the game to move into first.
The Canucks made it 2-0 with five minutes remaining in the second as Sutter carried the puck from the side boards, into traffic and ripped a backhand over Saros’s right shoulders.
The Preds got on the board minutes later when Fisher swatted in a rolling puck that rebounded off a Filip Forsberg shot. He almost scored again early in the third with a shot from the slot, but hit the post.
Nashville tied it midway in the period during a 4-on-4. Fiala blasted a hard wrist shot from near the face-off circle that went top corner of Markstrom’s net.
Vancouver jumped ahead 3-2 during a power play midway in the third. Sedin took a pass from Henrik Sedin and lifted his own rebound for eighth goal in eight games.
The Preds tied it again with just over two minutes left. Ellis’s blast from the blue line cleared enough traffic to squeak by Markstrom and force overtime, when Jarnkrok blasted a shot from the hash mark that beat Markstrom.
NOTES: The Canucks shut down winger Loui Eriksson (rib injury) on Thursday for the remainder of the season . . . . Canucks forward Sven Baertschi left the game early in the second after taking a hard check from Alexei Emelin. He went to the locker-room clutching his shoulder and did not return. . . . Nashville was without D Roman Josi and Fs Craig Smith and Scott Hartnell.
RANGERS 3, FLAMES 1
CALGARY — Henrik Lundqvist accomplished something on Friday that hadn’t been done by a New York Rangers goalie in over 55 years ago.
Lundqvist had a career-high 50 saves for the second straight game to backstop the Rangers to a 3-1 victory over the Calgary Flames. He stopped 50-of-55 shots in a 6-5 win over the Vancouver Canucks two nights earlier.
Back-to-back 50-save performances hadn’t happened for New York since Hall-of-Famer Lorne (Gump) Worsley did it in 1963.
“You want to feel like you’re making a difference out there. That’s why I’m here,” said Lundqvist. The feat came on his 36th birthday. “I’m 1-0 as a 36-year-old,” quipped the veteran Swede, whose 430 career wins ranks him eighth on the all-time list.
The save that had everybody talking and left Mikael Backlund shaking his head came in the opening minute of the second period.
With the game tied 1-1, Lundqvist dropped his stick and acrobatically dove across the crease to get his blocker on what looked like a sure-goal for the Flames’ centre.
“When it happens that quickly, you don’t have time to think. You just react and improvise,” Lundqvist said.