Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
NHL ROUNDUP
HURRICANES 4, BLACKHAWKS 0
RALEIGH, N.C. — A hot goalie and a rejuvenated power play helped the Carolina Hurricanes break a three-game winless streak with a victory over the Chicago Blackhawks.
Petr Mrazek stopped 32 shots to record his second shutout in 12 days and the Hurricanes (7-3-1) went 2-for-2 on the power play as they returned home with a win following a four-game road swing. Andrei Svechnikov scored twice, Nino Niederreiter had a goal and one assist, Jordan Staal scored and Sebastian Aho had two assists for Carolina.
Chicago (2-5-2) has lost four straight, including one overtime loss, and now has totaled just two goals in its last three games. Corey Crawford made 27 saves on 31 shots for the Blackhawks.
Mrazek, who posted a 31-save shutout at Los Angeles on Oct. 15, was sharp throughout the game, particularly during a flurry of Chicago opportunities in the closing minutes of the first period that included a pad save on Patrick Kane at the goalmouth after a cross-ice feed.
“I saw the puck very well and the guys did a great job in front of me, so it made it easier,” Mrazek said.
Svechnikov opened the scoring on the first power-play goal of his career with a wrist shot over Crawford’s right shoulder from the top of the faceoff circle in the game’s fifth minute. Staal also scored with the man advantage in the third period as the Hurricanes broke out of a power play drought.
Carolina had been just 1-for-19 on the power play over the previous six games. Coach Rod Brind’Amour said the team works on the power play in every practice, so the improvement wasn’t necessarily due to any specific strategy the team put in place.
“When we go 0-for-5, we worked on it the day before, too,” Brind’Amour. “And you are looking for stuff. Everybody looks. They’ve got the video. You know what you’re trying to do. The other team knows what you’re trying to do. It just usually comes down to execution, and tonight we were able to capitalize.”
Meanwhile, the Blackhawks were 0-for-3 with the man advantage. Chicago is 3-for-29 on the power play this season.
“The power play would be big,” said Chicago coach Jeremy Colliton. “I don’t think we’ve won the special teams battle much this year. It’s difficult to get results. I think there’s no secrets in there as far as what we need to do to get some wins.”
PREDATORS 3, LIGHTNING 2, OT
TAMPA, Fla. — Ryan Ellis scored 3:15 into overtime and the Nashville Predators beat the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Ellis scored from the left circle shortly after Nashville failed to score on power play that resulted from Tampa Bay having too many men on the ice.
Calle Jarnkrok and Roman Josi also scored, and Juuse Saros stopped 28 shots for the Predators, who are 131-2 against Tampa Bay in the last 16 meetings. Nashville’s lone regulation loss to the Lightning this decade came Dec. 19, 2013.
Tampa Bay got goals from Steven Stamkos and Tyler Johnson. Curtis McElhinney made 37 saves.
Nashville played without forwards Matt Duchene and Filip Forsberg, who were out with lower body injuries.
Josi got Nashville even at 2 on the power play at 14:47 of the third. He added two assists, including on Ellis’ game-winner.
The Predators have outscored opponents 24-11 during the third period this season.
PENGUINS 3, STARS 0
DALLAS — Matt Murray made 25 saves for his first shutout of the season, Dominik Kahun and Bryan Rust scored in the third period, and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Dallas Stars.
Brandon Tanev added an empty-net goal with 1:14 to play.
Kahun’s first goal came in his 12th NHL game. Rust was playing in his first game this season after being injured in the final preseason game.
Both goals came from near the net against Ben Bishop, who stopped 24 shots.
The Penguins totaled only 11 shots on goal in the first two periods but outshot Dallas 16-3 in the third.
On the first goal, Bishop whiffed at clearing the puck from behind the net. Kahun passed out to Sam Lafferty, whose shot trickled under the supine Bishop. Kahun knocked the puck in from the right side at 7:29.
The second came 1:38 later, when Rust scored amid a scramble in front.
Murray made glove saves to stop Denis Gurianov and Jamie Benn in the first. Pittsburgh’s Dominik Simon had a clear shot from the right faceoff circle, but it went off Bishop’s chest.
Dallas had a flurry with seven minutes left in the second period, but Murray stopped a short-range shot by Alexander Radulov and a wrist shot by Justin Dowling after he had shot wide and retrieved the puck.
FLYERS 7, BLUE JACKETS 4
PHILADELPHIA — Kevin Hayes scored the go-ahead short-handed goal late in Philadelphia’s five-goal third period, and the Flyers rallied to beat the Columbus Blue Jackets.
James van Riemsdyk had two goals and an assist, Jake Voracek added a goal and two assists, Shayne Gostisbehere had a goal and an assist, and Michael Raffl and Travis Konecny also scored for Philadelphia. Hayes and Ivan Provorov also each had two assists, and Brian Elliott finished with 22 saves to help the Flyers end a five-game losing streak to their Metropolitan Division rivals.
Boone Jenner scored twice, and Pierre-Luc Dubois and Josh Anderson also had goals for Columbus. Joonas Korpisalo stopped 39 shots.
Anderson’s goal 2:15 into the third period gave the Blue Jackets a 4-2 lead. The Flyers then scored five times in an 8:54 stretch in the latter half of the period to get the win.
Gostisbehere got the rally started with a slap shot with 9:08 remaining, and van Riemsdyk tipped in his second of the night to tie the score with 7:23 to go.
BRUINS 3, BLUES 0
BOSTON — David Pastrnak scored his team-leading 11th goal, Tuukka Rask stopped 26 shots for his second shutout this season and the Boston Bruins beat the defending NHL champion St. Louis Blues in a rematch of the Stanley Cup Final.
It was the first meeting between the teams since St. Louis won its first Cup last season, skating with the trophy around the TD Garden ice in Boston on June 12 after a 4-1 victory in Game 7.
Anders Bjork also scored for Boston (7-1-2). Brandon Carlo added an empty-net goal with 49 seconds left.
Rask, who played his 500th game with the Bruins in a win over Toronto on Tuesday, recorded his 47th career shutout. He’s 5-0-1 in six starts this season, picking up his solid play that carried Boston to the final.
Jordan Binnington made 21 saves for the Blues (5-3-3), who won their previous two games. In his rookie season, the 6-foot-2 goalie sparked St. Louis to its run from last place in the Western Conference in early January to a title.
Like last spring’s Cup final, the matchup featured lots of hard hits, beginning with the first shift when Boston captain Zdeno Chara leveled winger Oskar Sundqvist in front of the Blues bench. Linemate Brayden Schenn skated in to defend Sundqvist and was sent to the penalty box — along with Chara — for matching roughing penalties.
With David Perron off for holding, Pastrnak one-timed a pass from Torey Krug at the top of the left circle for a power-play goal 14:59 into the opening period. The puck deflected off Binnington and trickled into the net, just as he looked over his shoulder.
Rask’s best save came when he made a blocker stop on Sundqvist’s clean breakaway with seven minutes left in the first.
Boston capitalized on a 3-on-2 break when defenseman Matt Grzelcyk sent a pass to Bjork at the right circle, where he one-timed a shot over Binnington’s left shoulder to make it 2-0 at 9:31 of the second.
Clinging to the two-goal edge, Rask made a pair of splendid stops when the Blues were on a power play shortly after Bjork’s score. The toughest was on Tyler Bozak’s wrister from the slot.
CANADIENS 5, MAPLE LEAFS 2
MONTREAL — Jonathan Drouin scored two goals on breakaways, and the Montreal Canadiens beat the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Brendan Gallagher, Joel Armia and Nick Suzuki also scored for the Canadiens,
who snapped a two-game losing skid. Carey Price made 29 saves.
Jake Muzzin and Andreas Johnsson scored for the Maple Leafs, who were playing the second game of a back-toback. Backup Michael Hutchinson made 33 saves. Frederik Andersen led Toronto to a 4-1 victory over San Jose on Friday.
The Canadiens broke a 2-2 tie with three goals in the third period.
Armia scored seven seconds into the frame, off a Leafs face-off win, by poking the puck around Muzzin and beating Hutchinson on the blocker side for his team-leading sixth of the year.
Drouin made it 4-2 for Montreal on his second breakaway goal at 7:40 off a giveaway by Tyson Barrie at the blue line.
Suzuki put the game away with his third goal of the season, scoring on a 2-on-1 with Nate Thompson at 11:53.
The teams were playing for the second of four games this season. Montreal also beat Toronto 6-5 in a shootout on Oct. 5.
The Canadiens jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period.
Gallagher put Montreal in front at 7:43 after breaking away from Cody Ceci’s loose coverage in front of goal. He cut to the net and scored off Tomas Tatar’s backhand pass for his fifth of the season.
WILD 5, KINGS 1
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Eric Staal scored the go-ahead goal late in the second period, Alex Stalock stopped 30 shots and the Minnesota Wild beat the Los Angeles Kings.
Gerald Mayhew, Joel Eriksson Ek, Mikko Koivu and Jared Spurgeon also scored, and Matt Dumba added two assists for Minnesota, which has won three of four after beginning the year 1-6.
Ben Hutton scored for Los Angeles, and Jonathan Quick made 22 saves for the Kings, who have lost two straight.
With the game tied at 1, Staal took a pass from Jason Zucker at the blue line, skated in alone on Quick’s left and beat him over his far shoulder for his third goal of the season at 17:04 of the second.
Minnesota put it away with a threegoal flurry in the third.