Thursday NHL games

There were six games on again for Thursday's schedule. We started in...

Atlanta, where the Thrashers hosted the Calgary Flames. Miikka Kiprusoff and Ondrej Pavelec were in between the pipes. Mark Giordano has the game's first goal, netting his fifth of the season for Calgary with the help of Robyn Regehr and Olli Jokinen. In the second period, Atlanta responded with a Bryan Little goal from Niclas Bergfors and Evander Kane, good for his 14th of the year. The Thrashers took the lead with the 13th of the season by Anthony Stewart, assisted by Nik Antropov and Kane. Fifty-five seconds later, the Flames were in a tie again on the Brendan Morrison tally from Giordano and Alex Tanguay, going down as his ninth of the year. Calgary snatched a lead with the Mikael Backlund goal, his sixth of the season, which was an unassisted goal. The Flames sealed the game 4-2 with the empty net tally by Curtis Glencross, his 13th of the year also going unassisted. The three stars were given out to Giordano, Backlund, and Kane.

Up in Philadelphia, the Flyers hosted another interconference game with the Nashville Predators. Anders Lindback and Sergei Bobrovsky picked up the starting jobs. Jeff Carter got Philadelphia up first with his 24th of the season, courtesy of Kimmo Timonen and Claude Giroux. Marcel Goc tied the game for Nashville with his ninth of the year, with the assists by Cody Franson and Colin Wilson. After a scoreless second period, Ville Leino put the Flyers back in front with a power play goal from Carter and Mike Richards, his 12th tally of the campaign. The Predators tied it with Joel Ward's power play goal for his seventh of the season, helped along by Martin Erat and Shea Weber. Leino put Philadelphia back on top with his second of the night and 13th of the year, thanks to Giroux and Carter. The Flyers would win 3-2 over Nashville, with the three stars being Leino, Carter, and Goc.

Onto one of the most interesting games of the year, where the Boston Bruins hosted the Dallas Stars. Your starting goalies were the backups Andrew Raycroft and Tuukka Rask. The game started off with three fights in a span of four seconds, with Steve Ott fighting Gregory Campbell, followed a second later by Krys Barch and Shawn Thornton, and two seconds after that Brian Sutherby shared a dance with Adam McQuaid. After thirty-one peaceful seconds, the scoreboard was dented by Milan Lucic notching his 21st of the season, with the help of David Krejci and Nathan Horton. Patrice Bergeron added a pair of goals for Boston in the form of his 18th and 19th of the year, with the assists by Brad Marchand and Mark Recchi on both goals. Andrew Raycroft was pulled in favor of Kari Lethonen in front of the Dallas net. In between the goals, another fight featured Adam Burish and Andrew Ference. Thornton made it 4-0 for the Bruins before the end of the first period with his eighth of the season, made possible by Daniel Paille and Zdeno Chara. The Stars finally found twine with Karlis Skrastins third of the year, from Burish alone. Brendan Morrow cut the deficit to 4-2 for Dallas with his 22nd of the season, a shorthanded goal assisted by Ott and Loui Eriksson. Brad Richards added on his 21st of the year for the Stars, with the helpers coming from Eriksson and Jeff Woywitka. Boston added on with a Tyler Seguin goal, his eighth of the season made possible Michael Ryder and Blake Wheeler. Marchand secured a 6-3 victory with an empty net goal courtesy of Bergeron and Recchi for his 14th of the year. Getting the prestigious three stars honors were Bergeron, Rask (30 for 33 saves), and Marchand.

To less-chaotic pastures (don't tell the Toronto media that), the Toronto Maple Leafs hosted the Carolina Hurricanes. Cam Ward and James Reimer were in the blue paint. Toronto opened the scoring in the second period with the Clarke MacArthur goal from Tomas Kaberle and Nikolai Kulemin for his 16th of the season. Darryl Boyce added on his unassisted third of the campaign for the Maple Leafs. Making it 3-0 in the third period was Kris Versteeg with his 14th of the year, assisted by Dion Phaneuf and Colby Armstrong. This was the eventual final, with the three stars given to Reimer (27 saves for the shutout), Tim Brent, and Armstrong.

The next game finally featured some bitter division rivals, the New York Rangers hosting the New Jersey Devils. Martin Brodeur and Henrik Lundqvist were the masked men. Ilya Kovalchuk put New Jersey up first with his 15th of the season, assisted by Dainius Zubrus. Zubrus added on for the Devils with his ninth of the year, courtesy of Henrik Tallinder. Brian Rolston made it 3-0 New Jersey and chased away Henrik Lundqvist with his seventh of the campaign, with assistance from Patrik Elias. Martin Biron came on in relief. New York got on the board with Ryan Callahan potting his 12th of the season, thanks to Artem Anisimov. Vinny Prospal put the Rangers within a goal with his first of the year, returning from a knee injury, a power play goal getting steam from Mats Zuccarello and Marian Gaborik. New York failed to recover completely, and fell 3-2 to New Jersey, with Zubrus, Prospal, and Kovalchuk getting the three stars.

Lastly, the Colorado Avalanche played host to the Minnesota Wild. Jose Theodore and Craig Anderson were given the goaltending job. Minnesota struck first with a Kyle Brodziak goal just thirty-three seconds into the game, his tenth of the season getting the help of Nick Schultz and Cal Clutterbuck. Twenty-eight seconds after that, the Wild made it 2-0 thanks to the Andrew Brunette marker, his 13th of the year coming from Antti Miettinen and Mikko Koivu. Colorado entered the scoring in the second period with Milan Hejduk scoring his 16th of the season courtesy of Kevin Porter and Kyle Cumiskey. Brunette made it 3-1 for Minnesota with his second of the game and 14th of the year, with the help of Koivu and Pierre-Marc Bouchard. Hejduk had his second of the game and 17th of the season for the Avalanche to cut the lead back down, thanks to Chris Stewart and Adam Foote. Bouchard added on his only tally, making it 4-2 Wild with his fifth of the year, aided by Martin Havlat. With eleven seconds left in the game, Stewart added on his 12th of the campaign, from Brandon Yip and T.J. Galiardi, but they couldn't get the equalizer and fell 4-3. The three stars were given to Brunette, Hejduk, and Bouchard.

That's all there is to it. Due to some work that needs to be done, Friday's games will come out tomorrow.