Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Monday NHL Recap

One of the nice things about being so far behind is that you get to make trades sound like they happened earlier than they actually did, with James Wisniewski being traded from the New York Islanders to the Montreal Canadiens. After acquiring him in the offseason for a conditional third round draft pick, the Isles shipped him off in return for a second round pick in 2011 and fifth round pick in 2012. Way to make the management look serviceable. Also of news this Tuesday, Calgary Flames general manager and executive vice president Darryl Sutter has stepped down, being replaced by former assistant general manager Jay Feaster in the general manager role. As for the six Monday games, we start with...

The New York Islanders visiting the New York Rangers. Dwayne Roloson and Henrik Lundqvist were in between the pipes for the game. Matt Gilroy and the Rangers struck early with his first of the season, assisted by Chris Drury and Brandon Dubinsky. The Islanders answered back with a Rob Schremp goal, assisted by James Wisniewski (his final point in this stint with the Islanders) and Blake Comeau. It was Schremp's seventh of the year. P.A. Parenteau gave the Islanders a 2-1 lead with his eighth of the season, from Matt Moulson and John Tavares. The Rangers tied the game late in the first period with Marian Gaborik scoring his tenth of the year, with help from Marc Staal and Derek Stepan on the power play. Gilroy potted his second of the night and the year in the second period, with help from Brian Boyle. Boyle would make it 4-2 with his 13th of the year, assisted by Michal Rozsival. Dubinsky would continue the Rangers scoring surge in the third period with his 15th of the year, assisted by Artem Anisimov and Drury. Ruslan Fedotenko made it 6-2 with his seventh of the year, courtesy of Brandon Prust and Boyle. Stepan registered what would be the last goal of the game, which was his eleventh of the year, helped along by Gaborik and Mats Zuccarello on the power play. The Rangers beat their archrivals 7-2. Gilroy, Boyle, and Dubinsky earned the three stars.

Heading down to Florida, where the Panthers hosted trading partners of the offseason, the Boston Bruins. Tim Thomas and Scott Clemmensen played in goal for the game. The first period was scoreless, and The Panthers got on the board first with David Booth potting his ninth of the season, from Michael Frolik. The Bruins answered back with David Krejci scoring his sixth of the season, assisted by Michael Ryder and Zdeno Chara. Florida answered back later in the second period with Mike Santorelli scoring his tenth of the season, assisted by Frolik and Bryan Allen. Krejci retied the game for Boston in the third period with his seventh of the year and second of the night, assisted by Blake Wheeler and Ryder. The 2-2 tie lasted until a shootout was needed, with Wheeler's lone goal in the skills competition being the factor, earning him a star alongside Krejci and Thomas (32 for 34 saves).

Heading west a bit, with the Columbus Blue Jackets hosting the Minnesota Wild. Jose Theodore and Steve Mason were delegated to the starting job. Chuck Kobasew gave Minnesota an early first period lead with his fourth of the year, assisted by Nick Schultz and Brad Staubitz. Columbus tied the game in the second period with Derick Brassard scoring his ninth of the season, assisted by Kristian Huselius and Rick Nash. The Wild retook the lead later when Mikko Koivu potted his eighth of the year with two seconds left in the second period, with Antti Miettinen and Marek Zidlicky picking up the helpers. Fedor Tyutin scored his second of the year to get the Blue Jackets in a 2-2 tie in the third period, thanks to Jared Boll and Rick Nash. Forty-one seconds later, Columbus had a 3-2 lead after Andrew Murray netted his second of the season, from Marc Methot and Samuel Pahlsson. Minnesota would tie it up with the tenth goal of the season by Cal Clutterbuck, with help from Zidlicky and Kobasew. The game would require a shootout, where Nash and Kyle Wilson put Columbus up early, Pierre-Marc Bouchard answered to give the shootout tally a 2-1 Blue Jackets advantage, but Huselius put it away, giving the Blue Jackets a 4-3 win over the Wild. Steve Mason (37 for 40 saves), Nash, and Huselius earned the three stars. In the fighting category, Boll and Staubitz had a first period dance, with Staubitz coming back for more in the third period, dueling with Tom Sestito.

Next up we have the Colorado Avalanche hosting the Detroit Red Wings. Chris Osgood and Peter Budaj were the goalies for the game. Colorado opened the scoring in the first period with a goal by Matt Duchene, his 14th of the year, assisted by Tomas Fleischmann and Milan Hejduk. Detroit answered with a power play goal by Jiri Hudler, his second tally of the season, with help from Valtteri Filppula and Nicklas Lidstrom. The Avalanche retook the lead with T.J. Galiardi scoring his sixth of the campaign, and David Jones and Adam Foote picked up the helpers. The Red Wings scored another power play goal courtesy of Johan Franzen, his 16th marker of the year, assisted by Lidstrom and Niklas Kronwall. After going scoreless through the second period, the Red Wings would return to the scoresheet with Lidstrom potting his tenth of the season, a power play goal from Hudler and Todd Bertuzzi. Duchene put the game into a 3-3 tie for the Avalanche with his second of the night and 15th of the season, assisted by Paul Stastny and John-Michael Liles on the power play. The tie would last until Detroit's Kronwall broke it in overtime, notching a power play goal from Henrik Zetterberg and Lidstrom to win the game. The goal was his eighth of the year. Detroit would beat Colorado 4-3, with Osgood (46 of 49 saves and 400th career victory), Kronwall, and Duchene grabbing the three stars.

Next up was the Calgary Flames hosting the Buffalo Sabres. Ryan Miller and Miikka Kiprusoff were the men tending the twine. Drew Stafford and Buffalo struck first with his tenth of the year, from Jason Pominville and Andrej Sekera. Calgary answered in the second period with Olli Jokinen potting his eighth of the year, from Alex Tanguay and Robyn Regehr. Jarome Iginla gave the Flames their first lead of the game with his 15th of the season, assisted by Tanguay and Jokinen. Extending the lead in the third period was Ales Kotalik, whose first of the year made it 3-1 with help from Anton Babchuk. Calgary scored again, with David Moss sneaking his fourth of the year past Ryan Miller, assisted by Tim Jackman. Patrick Kaleta netted his fourth for the Sabres, with Jochen Hecht and Mike Weber picking up the helpers. Tom Kostopoulos made it 5-2 for Calgary in the final second, his third of the year coming on the man advantage from Adam Pardy and David Moss. Iginla, Cory Sarich, and Jokinen earned the three stars.

Lastly, we have the San Jose Sharks hosting their rivals from the south, the Los Angeles Kings. Jonathan Quick and Antti Niemi picked up the starts. The game was uneventful through two periods, save for a Brad Richardson of the Kings and Scott Nichol of the Sharks bout in the second period. Los Angeles did wake up in the third period, with Trevor Lewis scoring his second of the campaign from Richardson. Marco Sturm extended the lead with his first of the season, courtesy of Anze Kopitar and Matt Greene. Dustin Brown took a pair of goals to wrap up the scoring, his 15th and 16th of the years for the Kings, from Drew Doughty and Kopitar first and Kopitar again for his sock trick and Jack Johnson. Quick's 24 save 4-0 shutout, Brown, and Kopitar grabbed the stars for the game.

That's all for this post here. Still in ketchup mode at this point, but two posts will quickly follow this one.

No comments :

Post a Comment