Wednesday NHL

There is a light slate of games tonight in hockey, only three. The first is in...

New York, where the Rangers host the Toronto Maple Leafs. Jonas Gustavsson and Henrik Lundqvist get the right to start. Marian Gaborik opens the scoring for New York on his 12th of the season, assisted by Sean Avery and Artem Anisimov. Brian Boyle makes it 2-0 Rangers with his 16th of the year shortly thereafter, with helpers from Marc Staal and Gaborik on the power play. Gaborik extended the New York lead with his second of the night and 13th of the season later in the first period, with assists by Anisimov and Avery. This allowed Jonas Gustavsson to be replaced by Jean-Sebastien Giguere. Ruslan Fedotenko continued the Rangers scoring spree with his ninth of the year, from Brandon Prust and Staal. Giguere was pulled, putting Gustavsson back into game action. Gaborik added another pair, giving him a four-pack before the conclusion of the second period with his 14th and 15th of the season, the first from sock trickers Avery and Anisimov, both grabbing their third assist, and the latter power play goal from Anisimov for a fourth assist and Wojtek Wolski.The Rangers went up 7-0 early in the third period on a Mats Zuccarello goal, his third of the year coming from Derek Stepan and Wolski. This would be the final, with Gaborik, Anisimov, and Lundqvist (22 save shutout) earning the three stars.

The other east coast game was between the Florida Panthers at home against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Steve Mason and Tomas Vokoun are in between the pipes. David Booth put Florida on the board first with his 14th of the season, assisted by Mike Santorelli and Dmitry Kulikov. Cory Stillman used his head and added his fifth of the year, with help from Radek Dvorak and Kulikov. Columbus got on the board thanks to Fedor Tyutin  potting his fourth of the season, unassisted. Antoine Vermette tied the game in the third period for the Blue Jackets with his tenth of the year, courtesy of Grant Clitsome and Tyutin. In overtime, Columbus got the 3-2 win with R.J. Umberger notching his 17th of the season on the power play with help from Clitsome and Rick Nash. The three stars were given out to Umberger, Kulikov, and Vermette.

Lastly, the Calgary Flames host the Minnesota Wild. Niklas Backstrom and Miikka Kiprusoff are given the starting nods, with Backstrom returning from injury. Martin Havlat sparks Minnesota to life with his 12th of the season, assisted by Kyle Brodziak and Greg Zanon. The Wild make it 2-0 with Mikko Koivu getting his 12th of the year, a power play goal made possible by Matt Cullen and Andrew Brunette. John Madden made it 3-0 Minnesota with his seventh of the year, with help from Brunette and Chuck Kobasew. The Wild got it up to 4-0 with Cal Clutterbuck notching his 14th of the season, thanks to Havlat and Brodziak. Kobasew extended the Minnesota lead to 5-0 with his eighth of the season, with help from Madden. Havlat makes it 6-0 with his second of the night and 13th of the year, with the helpers by Clutterbuck and sock trick earning Brodziak. The three stars went to Backstrom (37 save shutout), Havlat, and Kobasew.