Monday NHL recap

Tonight, we had four games being played. We start in a game with a storyline, but far from being a revenge game for the...

Boston Bruins, who would potentially be avenging the concussion of their center, Marc Savard, against their hosts, the Pittsburgh Penguins. Tuukka Rask and Marc-Andre Fleury played in the creases. After going scoreless in the first period, Michael Rupp opened the scoring with his fourth of the season for Pittsburgh, thanks to Deryk Engelland. The Penguins took it one step farther with Kris Letang netting his seventh of the year with a man advantage, assisted by Evgeni Malkin and Paul Martin. Zdeno Chara got Boston going later in the third period with his sixth of the season, a power play goal from Dennis Seidenberg and Gregory Campbell. Twelve seconds later, the game was tied up by the Bruins with Brad Marchand recording his seventh of the campaign, with help from Patrice Bergeron and Campbell. Boston took a lead on a Mark Recchi goal, his eighth of the year, a power play goal helped along by Michael Ryder and Seidenberg. Forty-two seconds later, Campbell iced the game off with an empty netter for the Bruins, making it 4-2 with the help of Blake Wheeler and Bergeron on his fourth of the year. Recchi, Marchand, and Letang earned the three stars.

Heading west for the St. Louis Blues hosting the Phoenix Coyotes. Jason LaBarbera and Jaroslav Halak were the designated as starters. The first major happening in the game was actually a fight, with Phoenix's Paul Bissonette getting out of the press box to fight Cam Janssen of St. Louis. St. Louis opened the scoring later in the first period with David Backes netting his 12th of the season, assisted by Matt D'Agostini and Alex Steen. Phoenix answered in the second period with Lauri Korpikoski notching his tenth of the year, with help coming from Ed Jovanovski and Adrian Aucoin. Lee Stempniak gave the Coyotes a lead with his ninth of the season, an unassisted goal. D'Agostini answered for the Blues in the third period with his tenth of the year, also unassisted. Twenty seconds later, St. Louis had obtained a 3-2 lead with Brad Winchester notching his eighth of the campaign, with help from Jay McClement and Brad Boyes. Phoenix retied the game again with the seventh of the season by Kyle Turris, with Sami Lepisto and Taylor Pyatt picking up the helpers. Pyatt gave the Coyotes a 4-3 lead later in that period with his tenth of the year, assisted by Turris and Korpikoski, and good enough to secure a win for Phoenix over the Blues. Turris, D'Agostini, and Jovanovski picked up the three stars.

Heading farther west on our travels to Colorado, with the Avalanche hosting bitter rivals from Detroit, the Red Wings. Jimmy Howard and Peter Budaj got the starts. Paul Stastny put Colorado on the board first with his 16th of the season, assisted by Milan Hejduk and Kevin Porter. The lead was short-lived, with Detroit tying it just fifty-four seconds later on the first of the season by Jan Mursak, with help from Drew Miller and Justin Abdelkader. Matt Duchene put the Avalanche back on top with his 17th of the year, helped along by Tomas Fleischmann. Porter made it 3-1 for the Avalanche with his eighth of the year, with assists coming from David Jones and Brandon Yip. Duchene added another goal for Colorado, his second of the night and 18th of the year, helped along by Fleischmann and Jones. Brian Rafalski put a band-aid on for the Red Wings, cutting the lead back down to 4-2 for Colorado with his third of the season, from Darren Helm. Detroit starter Jimmy Howard was pulled in favor of Joey MacDonald before Jones answered back for the Avalanche in the second period with his 14th of the campaign, assisted by Duchene. Henrik Zetterberg replied back for Detroit with his 16th of the year, a power play goal with assistance from Tomas Holmstrom and Nicklas Lidstrom. Holmstrom added his own power play goal in the third period, cutting the lead down to 5-4 with his eleventh of the season, assisted by Zetterberg and Lidstrom. Duchene, Jones, and Zetterberg earned the three stars in the aforementioned final score.

Finally, the western finale, with the Los Angeles Kings hosting the Toronto Maple Leafs. James Reimer and Jonathan Quick are the goaltenders. Los Angeles opened the scoring in the first period with Wayne Simmonds potting his ninth of the season, from Rob Scuderi and Jarret Stoll. Toronto answered in the second period with Darryl Boyce netting his second of the season, from Colby Armstrong and Kris Versteeg. Thirty-four seconds later, the Maple Leafs had a lead of 2-1 with Phil Kessel putting away his 18th of the year, thanks to help from Joey Crabb and Tyler Bozak. The Kings tied it with Michal Handzus' sixth of the year, assisted by Alec Martinez and Ryan Smyth. Toronto took the lead back in the third period, with Nikolai Kulemin making it 3-2 with his 16th of the year, assisted by Mikhail Grabovski and Clarke MacArthur. This would be the final for the game, with Grabovski, Simmonds, and Kessel earning the three stars.

That's all for the games. Little late news bit coming in, as the Phoenix Coyotes and New York Rangers swapped underwhelming players, with New York offlloading Michal Rozsival and picking up Phoenix's trash that came in the form of Wojtek Wolski (no offense Wojtek).