Carolina does Penguins huge favor, cools off Flyers
For one night at least, the Penguins owed a debt of gratitude to the Carolina Hurricanes.
While the Penguins were getting routed by the host Boston Bruins Thursday night, visiting Carolina got two goals from Justin Williams and 21 saves from goalie Cam Ward to cool off the red hot Philadelphia Flyers, 4-1.
The loss ended Philadelphia’s six-game winning steak as well as Carolina’s six-game losing streak.
The Flyers had been the hottest team in hockey, riding a 10-0-2 streak for their longest span without a regulation loss since 2003. Furthermore, Philadelphia had been 4-0-1 in its past five home games against the Hurricanes.
Williams knocked in a loose puck 4:40 into the game and the former Flyer stuck it to his former team one more time.
The Flyers’ sizzling offense of late fizzled and even goalie Petr Mrazek had his worst outing since he was acquired two weeks ago.
He stopped 28 shots to beat Montreal, 1-0, in a shootout in his previous start. He was 3-0 with a 1.30 goals-against average and a .947 save percentage in his three starts.
Teuvo Teravainen scored early in the second and Williams scored his 12th goal of the season late in the second for the 3-0 lead.
Panthers
And speaking of favors, there was this, too.
Aleksander Barkov scored two goals to lift the host Florida Panthers to a 3-2 win against the New Jersey Devil. That meant that the two teams the Penguins are currently battling for second and third in the Metropolitan Division both lost an opportunity to gain ground on the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions.
Maxim Mamin scored his second NHL goal and Robert Luongo made 29 saves as the Panthers recorded their fourth consecutive win.
Jesper Bratt and Taylor Hall scored for the Devils.
Cory Schneider stopped 26 shots for the Devils in his first start since missing 16 games with a lower-body injury.
Barkov’s second goal stretched the Panthers lead to 3-1 with 3:34 left in the third.
Barkov lifted the puck over Schneider and into the net.
Elsewhere
Apparently, sports fans in Seattle are ready for the NHL.
The group looking to bring an expansion team to Seattle for the 2020 season said it surpassed 25,000 ticket commitments in two hours after kicking off its season-ticket drive Thursday.
The season-ticket drive is one the steps required by the NHL as part of the expansion process and is meant to gauge the interest in the market.
Fans were required to put down a deposit of $500 per ticket or $1,000 for club tickets.
If the first day is any indication, Seattle and Oak View Group will have no problem demonstrating the desire for an NHL franchise in Seattle.
By comparison, a similar season-ticket drive to gauge the interest a few years ago in Las Vegas took two days to reach 5,000 deposits, a month to reach 9,000.