A Day in the NHL: Monday April 4

The playoff picture is becoming a bit clearer, but there was plenty of action involving the teams in the last few spots in each conference yesterday, as well as the teams hoping to earn those couple of spots.

The Night that Was:

The Calgary Flames stayed alive another night with last night’s win over Colorado. Olli Jokinen and Alex Tanguay scored to put the Flames up 2-0, and with five minutes to go in the game Milan Hejduk’s 21st made things interesting. Despite the lead being chopped in half though, the Flames would hold on for the victory to keep their playoff hopes alive and well. Tanguay had a goal and an assist for Calgary while Miikka Kiprusoff stopped 34 of 35. Jarome Iginla recorded an assist to push his point-streak to five games, giving him 81 points on the season, and it was the second win in a row for the Flames.

They got a big hand from former Stanley Cup Finals opponent Tampa Bay, who prevented Chicago from earning a point and eliminating Calgary from playoff contention. Despite managing just 15 shots on net to the Blackhawks’ 31, Vincent Lecavalier’s 21st of the year was enough to get the Bolts a 2-0 win. Mike Smith was in net for the shutout as Tampa moved one point shy of 100 for the season. Simon Gagne assisted on both goals, with the empty netter going to Nate Thompson, giving him 10 on the season. Corey Crawford took the loss, the 17th of his season as Chicago sits a point ahead of ninth-place Calgary.

Battling the Philadelphia Flyers, the New York Rangers got themselves a little breathing room from the surging Toronto Maple Leafs by earning two points in a 3-2 shootout win. Both Sergei Bobrovsky and Henrik Lundqvist made 32 saves before both of the Rangers’ shooters (Wojtek Wolski and Erik Christensen) converted, while Philly’s shooters didn’t. Claude Giroux assisted on both goals for Philadelphia while Bryan McCabe and Ruslan Fedotenko scored for the Rangers, who were without a multi-point getter (It’s a phrase to me). Nikolay Zherdev scored for the first time since January 23rd and has points in back-to-back games for just the third time this season after a 12-game layoff.

Buffalo is now a point ahead of New York, and are also trying to hold off the surging Leafs and Carolina Hurricanes, the later being the team that the Sabres faced yesterday. Eric Staal and Chris Butler traded regulation goals and after a scoreless third, Marc-Andre Gragnani scored his first NHL goal in overtime to give the Sabres the win. Cam Ward and Jhonas Enroth dueled each other throughout a grueling afternoon as Ward made 29 saves and Enroth made 35 saves in his third-straight start. The 2-1 OT win also moved Buffalo a point back of Montreal for sixth in the conference.

Quick Hits:

-Brian Rafalski and Henrik Zetterberg had two assists each and Johan Franzen scored his first goal since March 5 and Pavel Datsyuk also recorded an assist as Detroit doubled-up Minnesota 4-2. The win helped Detroit clinch the Central Division.

-The Blues got a pair of goals out of Patrik Berglund and multiple points out of four others as Jaroslav Halak made 23 saves in St. Louis’ 6-1 win over Columbus.

-Corey Perry scored his 49th goal of the season to take the league lead but three points from Brenden Morrow and two goals from Mike Ribeiro gave Dallas the 4-3 win over Anaheim.

What’s on Tonight?

The Rangers try to give themselves some breathing room over the Carolina Hurricanes when the Boston Bruins head to Broadway. Los Angeles and San Jose hook up in a West Coast battle as L.A. hopes to break out of a tie for fourth-place in the conference with Phoenix.

The Injury Bug:

-Scott Nichol isn’t planning on rushing his return from shoulder surgery to play in the last four games of the regular season. Nichol does think however, that he’ll be good to go for the playoffs.

-Jaro Spacek hopes to play in one of Montreal’s final two road games of the season. He’s recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery.

-The Nashville Predators are eying a return for both Steve Sullivan and Cal O’Reilly during the playoffs. It’s not thought that either will be ready before the early-to-mid stages of the first round.

–Paul Stastny’s season is over for the Colorado Avalanche. He suffered a stress fracture in his leg on Friday.

News Around the League:

-Columbus’ Jan Hejda received a two-game suspension over the weekend for his elbow to the head of Chicago’s Marcus Kruger. He missed Sunday’s game and will not return until Friday.

-Thoughts and prayers also go out to Jaden Schwartz, whose sister Mandi passed away yesterday, following her battle with leukemia. Mandi played hockey at Yale and attended Team Canada Orientation Camps for the women’s team. She was 23.

The Overlooked Fantasy Line of the Night:

Patrik Berglund had two goals, a plus-three rating, two penalty minutes and four shots Sunday and established a new career-high in goals with 22. He went 3/9 on faceoffs.

You can e-mail Bryan at bryanthiel74@hotmail.com. You can also follow him on Twitter at BryanThiel_88.