The Morning After: The Bruins Thrive & The Oilers Survive
It was a relatively quiet night in the NHL, at least in terms of what we’ve been used to with this abbreviated season upon us. Typically each night is filled with a minimum of 7-8 games in order to get the season wrapped in time so the playoffs don’t extend into July. Why is that? Oh right, that damn lockout that Gary Bettman and company were responsible for.
Ok, ok, enough rehashing old wounds. The game is in full swing and fans couldn’t be happier. So last night only had five games, not the end of the world. Truth be told there were some exciting games so let’s get the morning after started.
In Carolina it was the visiting Boston Bruins who remained undefeated in regulation time this season, as they narrowly escaped with a 5-3 win over the Hurricanes. It was an exciting game that saw Carolina erase a two-goal deficit to tie it late in the second period.
The Bruins would net the winner with just under two minutes to play when David Krejci scored his first of the season. Tyler Seguin would get the monkey off his back as well thanks to an empty netter that sealed the victory. Brad Marchand, Zdeno Chara and Nathan Horton also scored for Boston who took over the Eastern Conference lead with the win. Rookie netminder Anton Khubodin made his NHL debut and made 29 saves to earn his first career victory.
Jamie McBain, Jeff Skinner and Eric Staal scored for Carolina who saw their dominance of the Bruins come to an end.
The Dallas Stars were stunned by the Columbus Blue Jackets on a night that saw Dallas welcome back Jamie Benn to their lineup. Philip Larsen opened the scoring for the Stars, a goal that Benn was in on, but the Jackets would have no more of it on home ice.
Derek Dorsett and Vaclav Prospal lit the lamp for the Blue Jackets and Sergei Brobovsky picked up the win in goal by making 24 saves.
Meanwhile in the dessert it was the Coyotes handing the Nashville Predators their second regulation loss of the season, shutting them out 4-0.
Earlier today we learnt that Patric Hornqvist will be out an extended period of time for the Preds and their lack of offense showed tonight as they managed just 21 shots on goal.
Scoring for Phoenix was Antoine Vermette, Lauri Korpikoski, N. Johnson and Keith Yandle. Chad Johnson got the win in net for the Yotes, who managed just their second win in six games to start the year.
Out west, the young Oilers jumped out to a 3-0 lead before netminder Devan Dubnyk would face a shooting gallery. Ales Hemsky, Jordan Eberle and Shawn Horcoff scored for Edmonton who controlled the first twenty minutes.
Pierre Parenteau would get the Avs on the board in the third period but not before Dubnyk made 11 saves in the second and another 24 in the third period alone. Dubnyk would make 37 saves on the night helping the Oilers hang on for the division win.
For the record, Nail Yakupov scored an empty netter with ten seconds to play and his celebration was far less dramatic than it was last Thursday.
Staying out west, the Vancouver Canucks invaded the Staples Center to take on the LA Kings who have struggled to start the season.
Amid all the trade rumors and goalie controversy, Roberto Luongo got the nod in goal and played well making 26 saves despite losing 3-2 in a shootout. You could argue that he just about stole this game for the Canucks and to show him some love, the team will still try and trade him. Talk about a tough crowd.
Zack Kassian continued his fine play for the Cancuks, notching his 4th of the campaign to go with Alex Burrows’ 2nd on the season. Jeff Carter scored for the Kings before Slava Voynov tied the game with 44 seconds left in regulation.