+3
The New York Rangers beat the Philadelphia Flyers for the fourth time this season, expanding their lead in the Atlantic Division race, and the Capitals lost a huge game to the Boston Bruins Sunday.
The Washington Capitals lost to the Boston Bruins 4-1 Sunday, but considering the games they face next week, losing Sunday was less detrimental.
Tuesday, the Caps host the Florida Panthers, who lead the Southeast Division by one point after they defeated the Caps 4-2 Wednesday. Thursday, Washington hosts the Winnipeg Jets, who are right on their heels just four points back.
Two regulation wins would put the Caps back in control of the Southeast Division, one that they have dominated for the better part of three years. Two losses, however, could put them in third place.
Last week, defenseman Karl Alzner admitted that it was difficult to get up for a game against the Panthers, especially in their quiet building. Yet, the Caps need to get up and stay up against the Southeast Division for the rest of the season. It is possible that the division winner is the only one to make the playoffs out of the Southeast, so if Washington cannot get up, they will have to get out.
An "offensive outburst" by Montreal Canadiens standards, along with Carey Price's 23-save performance, helped the Habs recover from a 3-0 loss Saturday afternoon to a 3-0 victory of their own on Super Bowl Sunday.
The Winnipeg Jets loss is not for lack of trying: they had five power plays in the game and were playing a last-place Habs team. Despite a strong start, though, Winnipeg failed to convert on many opportunities and it cost them two points (and any goals) on the road, where they have struggled mightily.
Also, credit Price's performance to helping Montreal's three goals stand. His save and recovery in the third period at the 12:52 mark on Antti Miettinen assured audiences that this was, in fact, Prices best game in a while -- probably so far in 2012. With a comparably big game Sunday was Tomas Plekanec, who recorded a rare Montreal power play goal and an assist, and almost had a second goal on an empty-netter that just missed the mark. All of this goes along with a shorthanded goal from Alexei Emelin and an even-strength goal from Max Pacioretty.
If you've been wondering, Sunday officially marked a full 365 days since Scott Gomez has scored a goal.
While the Jets are only four points behind the Washington Capitals for ninth place in the East, Winnipeg will likely still miss the playoffs due to losing games like this.
As the NHL made their best attempt to fit in a day of action while avoiding conflicts with the Super Bowl, the New Jersey Devils and Pittsburgh Penguins were slated for an unusual situation. Both teams were involved with afternoon matinees on Saturday (road games, at that), then turned around and flew to the Garden State, where they dropped the puck on a cloudy Sunday afternoon.
With the Devils having exploded for six goals against the Philadelphia Flyers the day before, the team gave fans a taste of deja vu when Patrik Elias found a streaking Ilya Kovalchuk at the side of the net, setting him up for a quick wrist shot to beat Marc-Andre Fleury.
With Martin Brodeur turning away early pressure from Pittsburgh, Kovalchuk then took a turn to set up Anton Volchenkov for his first goal as a New Jersey Devil -- in fact, the first goal the Russian d-man had scored since April of 2010 as a member of the Ottawa Senators.
The Devils took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission, but Pittsburgh appeared to get an opportunity to get back into the game when Kurtis Foster was called for a hook early in the second period. The plan went off the rails, however, when Kovalchuk poked the puck past former Devil Paul Martin and fought his way to the net. Fleury made an initial save, but Dainius Zubrus picked up the loose puck and shoveled it into the side of the net.
The shorthanded goal ended Fleury's afternoon, the third allowed on 12 shots, and Brent Johnson was brought in as the Penguins attempted to salvage the match.
The change in net brought signs of life in the final seconds of the Pittsburgh power play, and Matt Niskanen beat Brodeur with a hard shot from above the left faceoff circle after a cross-ice feed from Cal O'Reilly.
The Penguins attempted to cut the deficit, but Zach Parise collected his 20th goal of the season in a scramble around the goal mouth, and Jersey held the three-goal lead into the final frame.
Evgeni Malkin scored the Penguins' second power play goal of the afternoon midway through the third period, putting him one point ahead of Claude Giroux for the league scoring title, but David Clarkson took advantage of an empty net and a Brodeur clearing attempt to put a bow on the affair as New Jersey closed to within one point of the Penguins in the Eastern Conference standings by a final score of 5-2.
Flyers Vs. Rangers: Blueshirts Continue Dominance Over Philly, 5-2
The New York Rangers continued their dominance of the Philadelphia Flyers Sunday afternoon with a convincing 5-2 victory at Madison Square Garden. It was the Broadway Blueshirts' fourth win over their arch rivals in as many tries this season, and sixth in a row dating back to late last season.
After an early first period Artem Anisimov redirection of a Dan Girardi shot gave the home team the lead, Philly's Brayden Schenn knotted the score at 1-1 on a breakaway midway through the second stanza.
With both Henrik Lundqvist and Ilya Bryzgalov playing well, it appeared the game would be heading for an epic third frame with a tie score. All that changed just before the second intermission.
Leading scorer Marian Gaborik had just gotten crushed by Andrej Meszaros behind the Philadelphia net and was slow to get up in the waning seconds, but Derek Stepan got the puck back to him. With time running out and little in the way of options, a tightly-covered Gaborik skated out front and sent a weak backhander towards the Flyers net. Bryzgalov had his stick along the ice but as he reached out to poke the puck away, his twig actually acted as a ramp and deflected the shot up and under his arm. The puck trickled through Bryzgalov and into the cage for Gaborik's 26th goal of the season with just 5.1 seconds remaining, changing the entire complexion of the game.
It was really the first soft goal allowed by the Flyers netminder since the NHL All-Star break, but it wouldn't be his last on the afternoon as the Gaborik goal appeared to weigh heavily on his mind.
Wayne Simmonds got the goal back in the first minute of the third period, roofing a shot over Lundqvist for a power play goal just nine seconds after Brandon Dubinsky took a minor for delay of the game. It was Simmonds' 17th goal of the campaign, setting a personal career-high for the former Los Angeles King.
But the stalemate did not last for long.
With Philadelphia pressuring to take the lead, defenseman Marc-Andre Bourdon turned the puck over to send the Rangers away on a rush of their own. Gaborik maintained possession along the left wing side into the Flyers' zone, then spotted Michael Del Zotto trailing the play. Gaborik hit him with a pass and Del Zotto's unscreened shot from the slot somehow found its way through Bryzgalov for his seventh of the year to stake New York to a 3-2 lead just 36 seconds after Simmonds had tied the contest.
Philadelphia did have opportunities to again even the score, but Lundqvist came up big. The slumping Dubinsky scored his sixth of the season and for just the second time in his last 11 games for an insurance marker, then ex-Flyer Ruslan Fedetenko hit the empty net with Bryzgalov pulled for an extra attacker to set the final margin of victory.
The contest featured four fights, three involving Philly's Tom Sestito, who earned a game misconduct for his efforts.
While Philadelphia dropped their second straight in a lost weekend, the Rangers improved to 4-0-1 in their last five.
They also are owners of some other rather impressive statistics; the Blueshirts are now 28-0-2 when scoring three goals or more in a game this year, and are 20-0-2 when leading after two periods this season. Last year they were a perfect 29-0-0, so they have gone 49-0-2 in their last 51 contests when holding a lead at the second intermission.
Maybe most importantly for them is their continued mastery over the Flyers. The Rangers are 4-0-0 for the season against the Orange-and-Black, outscoring Philly by a 14-6 margin. New York is 6-0-0 versus the Flyers dating back to the final month of the 2010-11 regular season, scoring 23 goals and yielding just eight over that span.
Feb 06 8:51a by David Strehle - 0 comments