Koivu’s hat-trick leads Ducks over Stars
Rolling Rangers prevail in shootout over Coyotes; Flames trounce Devils
ANAHEIM – Teemu Selanne had an empty net in front of him, which is nirvana to one of the NHL’S greatest goal scorers of all time.
But there was his linemate and longtime friend Saku Koivu skating to the left of him and sitting on two goals. With a chance to close out the Dallas Stars on Tuesday night, Selanne didn’t think twice about what he would do with the puck.
“There’s no way I would take a shot myself,” Selanne said, smiling after the Anaheim Ducks’ 5-2 home victory.
“I knew Saku was going to have a chance to score a hat trick. I’m so happy for him.”
Koivu got the pass from Selanne and shot it into an empty net to finish off his second career three-goal game and first in more than nine years in leading the Ducks (13-22-6) to their third consecutive victory.
His other hat trick came in 2002, for Montreal against Pittsburgh, leading Koivu to say afterward that “there’s only two of those, so you can’t forget them.”
So what did Koivu think of Selanne passing up a chance to add to the 651 in his pocket?
“I said, ‘Thank you, you have enough of those, so you’ve got to give me one.’”
(The OC Register/mct)
Rangers 2, Coyotes 1 (SO) NEW YORK – Derek Stepan scored in the sixth round of the shootout with a forehand over the glove of Mike Smith, and Henrik Lundqvist stopped Shane Doan with his left pad to secure the New York Rangers’ fifth straight victory on Tuesday night.
With the save, Lundqvist won his seventh start in a row – a career high – and 19th game of the season.
You couldn’t blame Smith, who made 31 saves, including a spectacular stop on Marian Gaborik’s penalty shot, which was awarded with 1:50 left in overtime when Adrian Aucoin hooked him as he closed in on the net on a breakaway. Gaborik deked and went left, and Smith dove with stick extended to bat the low shot away.
Nonetheless, the Rangers kept rolling: They are 13-3-2 at home and a league-leading 27-9-4 for the season.
Even if the Rangers win just 21 of the remaining 42, they would reach 100 points for the first time since 2005-06 and just the second time since the 1993-94 Stanley Cup Championship season, when they compiled 112.
(Newsday/mct)
Flames 6, Devils 3
CALGARY – It began with a terrible start by Martin Brodeur and never really got any better after the goaltending change.
That was the kind of night it was for the New Jersey Devils as they fell, to the Flames.
Brodeur was pulled only 7:32 into the game after giving up two goals on the Flames’ first five shots. Johan Hedberg came off the bench to replace Brodeur and gave up two goals on the first three shots he faced.
Down by 4-0 after one period and 5-1 after Lee Stempniak’s goal with 3:22 left in the second period, the Devils fought back to briefly make a game of it.
After rookie center Adam Henrique scored on a shorthanded two-on-one with Zach Parise with 2:36 left in the second, Ilya Kovalchuk set up Patrik Elias for a power-play one-timer from the right circle past Miikka Kiprusoff to make it 5-3 6:04 into the third.
Any thoughts of a Devils’ miracle comeback were thwarted when Jarome Iginla beat Hedberg between the pads from in front at 8:49 to make it 6-3. That came on the Flames’ first shot of the third period and gave them six goals on 12 shots in the game.
“We got down 4-0 before we even started playing,” Devils captain Zach Parise said. “So, that’s a tough hole to dig out of.”
“We played right to the final buzzer, but in this league you can’t spot anybody four goals and expect to get points,” Devils coach Pete Deboer said.
(The Record/mct)