Alright four games were played in the NHL last night and the most exciting might have been the Buffalo Sabers vs Boston Bruins game. It ended 6-0. These two teams have had heated meetings for a while now but it really heated up after the Milan Lucic bull dozing of Ryan Miller earlier in the season.
This game started off with former Canuck and extremely talented hardworking defense man Christian Ehrhoff finding the back of the net on Tuukka Rask. Boston decided to play their backup and rest Tim Thomas. Before the 1st period ended All Star selection Jason Pominville made it 2-0. It was only Ehrhoff's 4th goal of the year but Pominville's 18th! Tuukka stopped 7 of 9 shots in the period while Miller was 12-12.
Onto the 2nd period and 1:52 gone in the period Tyler Ennis made it 3-0. After that goal Tuukka was pulled and in went Tim Thomas although Thomas wasn't able to do much of anything either. Patrick Kaleta made it 4-0 with less then 2 minutes to go in the 2nd. Tuukka let his one shot on net go in, then after being replaced by Thomas, he stopped 9 of 10. Miller on the other hand, was 7-7.
Into the 3rd period and again All Star Jason Pominville scores, making it 5-0 for his 19th of the season. With just over a minute left Drew Stafford made it 6-0. Thomas stopped 7 of 9 shots while Miller had his best period stopping 17 SHOTS! WOW! There were a few fights in the game and all together 90 penalty minutes were handed out between the two teams. Shawn Thornton of Boston was awarded two different fighting major penalties. One in the 1st period another in the 2nd. He was also awarded the coveted Instigator penalty in the 2nd. Thronton, Lucic and Adam McQuaid all received 10 minute game misconducts as well. Buffalo was given it's fair share of penalties but Boston takes the cake. Boston still sits 2nd in the east with 68 points while Buffao is fighting for the playoff spot sitting 12th with 52 points.
The Anaheim Ducks beat the Carolina Hurricane 3-2 in OT. The scoring was back and forth with Anaheim playing catch up the entire game. In overtime it was cutie Corey Perry who scored the game winner 1/2 was through. It was All Star Corey Perry's 23rd goal of the season! Shots on net were pretty even for the teams, Carolina taking 33 and Anaheim 34. Both teams are tied with 50 points but Anaheim is 13th in standings in the east while Carolina is 15th and dead last in the east.
The Detroit Red Wings beat the Edmonton Oilers last night. This comes after the Oilers ended a 6-0 S/O record for the Red Wings when Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored in the S/O making Detroit's record 6-1. This game only happened 4 days ago and Sam Gagner set his record of 11 consecutive points in goals. This game eneded 4-2 Detroit. Detroit's Johan Franzen scored first in the 1st period and that was it. Cory Emmerton scored 2:45 into the 2nd for Detroit then Sam Gagner scored to get his team on the board, netting his 12th goal of the season. Up from only 5 goals last week. The 2nd ended 2-1. The 3rd period was again Sam Gagner, after he tied up the game and grabbed his 13th goal of the season. Detroit's Drew Miller and Henrik Zetterberg ended it 4-2. Detroit is 1st in the west and league with 74 points, while Edmonton is 14th in the west with 47 points. Detroit has now won their last 18 games at home.
The last game to end last night was a heated one between the Calgary Flames and the San Jose Sharks. The game ended 4-3 Calgary. Olli Jokinen picked up his 7th career hat trick and Jarome Iginla scored the other goal. Last All Star pick Logan Couture, Joe Pavelski and Michal Handzus scored for San Jose but they couldn't get the 4th goal even after pulling goaltender Annti Niemi with over a minute left in the 3rd. With his win Calgary goaltender Mikka Kippersoff gets his 300th career win and his NHL career actually started in San Jose. Wild!
Henrik Sedin will be a game time decision (ankle) jeopardizing his ironman streak of 552 games. Henrik in 2nd in line league wide for the consecutive games played streak After getting a puck in the ankle against Nashville tuesday, he limped off the ice. Only time and the roster announcement today will confirm Henrik's ironman streak is or isn't over, but just for the record, I'm betting Hank plays. The leader is Calgary Flames defenseman and alternate captain Jay Bouwmeester at 559.
As playoffs approach and teams are fighting for every point let me explain briefly how a team gets into the playoffs. There are 30 teams in the NHL, 15 in each conference. Of those 15 teams the top 8 will make it into the playoffs. The west play the west and east play the east. The top team will play the team in 8th place, the 2nd place team plays the 7th place, 3rd plays the 6th and 4th plays the 5th. It is best 4 out of 7 games so the first team to win 4 games advances to the next round.
One more note of interest in regards to Canuck fans. With the focus on Sam Gagner (as it should be) we may have overlooked the records set by expansion cousins the Buffalo Sabres and the Vancouver Canucks. Both teams entered the league together in 1970 in the NHL's second wave of expansion. Both Roberto Luongo, and Ryan Miller, are their respective teams leaders in all time regular season goaltending victories. Sweet Lou passes captain Kirk McLean who had 211 and Miller time replaces the Dominator, Dominic Hasek, who had 234. Seeing as how both events were accomplished early in the new year both a kudos and a Happy New Year to both !
There are 10 games being played today:
St. Louis and New Jersey at 4:00pm
Montreal and NY Islanders at 4:00pm
Tampa Bay and NY Rangers at 4:00pm
Toronto and Philadelphia at 4:00pm
Winnipeg and Washington at 4:00pm
Dallas and Columbus at 4:00pm
Nashville and Ottawa at 4:30pm
Los Angeles and Florida at 4:30pm
Vancouver and Minnesota at 5:00pm
Calgary and Phoenix at 6:00pm ENJOY!
This game started off with former Canuck and extremely talented hardworking defense man Christian Ehrhoff finding the back of the net on Tuukka Rask. Boston decided to play their backup and rest Tim Thomas. Before the 1st period ended All Star selection Jason Pominville made it 2-0. It was only Ehrhoff's 4th goal of the year but Pominville's 18th! Tuukka stopped 7 of 9 shots in the period while Miller was 12-12.
Onto the 2nd period and 1:52 gone in the period Tyler Ennis made it 3-0. After that goal Tuukka was pulled and in went Tim Thomas although Thomas wasn't able to do much of anything either. Patrick Kaleta made it 4-0 with less then 2 minutes to go in the 2nd. Tuukka let his one shot on net go in, then after being replaced by Thomas, he stopped 9 of 10. Miller on the other hand, was 7-7.
Into the 3rd period and again All Star Jason Pominville scores, making it 5-0 for his 19th of the season. With just over a minute left Drew Stafford made it 6-0. Thomas stopped 7 of 9 shots while Miller had his best period stopping 17 SHOTS! WOW! There were a few fights in the game and all together 90 penalty minutes were handed out between the two teams. Shawn Thornton of Boston was awarded two different fighting major penalties. One in the 1st period another in the 2nd. He was also awarded the coveted Instigator penalty in the 2nd. Thronton, Lucic and Adam McQuaid all received 10 minute game misconducts as well. Buffalo was given it's fair share of penalties but Boston takes the cake. Boston still sits 2nd in the east with 68 points while Buffao is fighting for the playoff spot sitting 12th with 52 points.
The Anaheim Ducks beat the Carolina Hurricane 3-2 in OT. The scoring was back and forth with Anaheim playing catch up the entire game. In overtime it was cutie Corey Perry who scored the game winner 1/2 was through. It was All Star Corey Perry's 23rd goal of the season! Shots on net were pretty even for the teams, Carolina taking 33 and Anaheim 34. Both teams are tied with 50 points but Anaheim is 13th in standings in the east while Carolina is 15th and dead last in the east.
The Detroit Red Wings beat the Edmonton Oilers last night. This comes after the Oilers ended a 6-0 S/O record for the Red Wings when Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored in the S/O making Detroit's record 6-1. This game only happened 4 days ago and Sam Gagner set his record of 11 consecutive points in goals. This game eneded 4-2 Detroit. Detroit's Johan Franzen scored first in the 1st period and that was it. Cory Emmerton scored 2:45 into the 2nd for Detroit then Sam Gagner scored to get his team on the board, netting his 12th goal of the season. Up from only 5 goals last week. The 2nd ended 2-1. The 3rd period was again Sam Gagner, after he tied up the game and grabbed his 13th goal of the season. Detroit's Drew Miller and Henrik Zetterberg ended it 4-2. Detroit is 1st in the west and league with 74 points, while Edmonton is 14th in the west with 47 points. Detroit has now won their last 18 games at home.
The last game to end last night was a heated one between the Calgary Flames and the San Jose Sharks. The game ended 4-3 Calgary. Olli Jokinen picked up his 7th career hat trick and Jarome Iginla scored the other goal. Last All Star pick Logan Couture, Joe Pavelski and Michal Handzus scored for San Jose but they couldn't get the 4th goal even after pulling goaltender Annti Niemi with over a minute left in the 3rd. With his win Calgary goaltender Mikka Kippersoff gets his 300th career win and his NHL career actually started in San Jose. Wild!
Henrik Sedin will be a game time decision (ankle) jeopardizing his ironman streak of 552 games. Henrik in 2nd in line league wide for the consecutive games played streak After getting a puck in the ankle against Nashville tuesday, he limped off the ice. Only time and the roster announcement today will confirm Henrik's ironman streak is or isn't over, but just for the record, I'm betting Hank plays. The leader is Calgary Flames defenseman and alternate captain Jay Bouwmeester at 559.
As playoffs approach and teams are fighting for every point let me explain briefly how a team gets into the playoffs. There are 30 teams in the NHL, 15 in each conference. Of those 15 teams the top 8 will make it into the playoffs. The west play the west and east play the east. The top team will play the team in 8th place, the 2nd place team plays the 7th place, 3rd plays the 6th and 4th plays the 5th. It is best 4 out of 7 games so the first team to win 4 games advances to the next round.
One more note of interest in regards to Canuck fans. With the focus on Sam Gagner (as it should be) we may have overlooked the records set by expansion cousins the Buffalo Sabres and the Vancouver Canucks. Both teams entered the league together in 1970 in the NHL's second wave of expansion. Both Roberto Luongo, and Ryan Miller, are their respective teams leaders in all time regular season goaltending victories. Sweet Lou passes captain Kirk McLean who had 211 and Miller time replaces the Dominator, Dominic Hasek, who had 234. Seeing as how both events were accomplished early in the new year both a kudos and a Happy New Year to both !
There are 10 games being played today:
St. Louis and New Jersey at 4:00pm
Montreal and NY Islanders at 4:00pm
Tampa Bay and NY Rangers at 4:00pm
Toronto and Philadelphia at 4:00pm
Winnipeg and Washington at 4:00pm
Dallas and Columbus at 4:00pm
Nashville and Ottawa at 4:30pm
Los Angeles and Florida at 4:30pm
Vancouver and Minnesota at 5:00pm
Calgary and Phoenix at 6:00pm ENJOY!
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