NHL Day 19 2011-2012

There are three games on Monday night, and we begin with the Philadelphia Flyers hosting the Toronto Maple Leafs. Jonas Gustavsson and Sergei Bobrovsky partook in the battle of the backups. Toronto led off with the ninth of the season by Phil Kessel, with assists by Joffrey Lupul and John-Michael Liles. Philadelphia replied on a power play goal by Jaromir Jagr, coming off of Claude Giroux and Kimmo Timonen. The Flyers took the lead in the second period, as Scott Hartnell drained the puck into the net via Danny Briere on the power play. Hartnell extended the Philadelphia lead in the third period on his second of the game, courtesy of Giroux and Jagr. The Maple Leafs pulled back with Dave Steckel notching his third of the year, with help from Matt Frattin and Matthew Lombardi. The Flyers secured victory on the second of the game by Jagr, assisted by Hartnell and Timonen. The final was 4-2 and the three stars were Jagr, Hartnell, and Timonen.

In the next game, the Montreal Canadiens hosted the Florida Panthers. Jacob Markstrom and Peter Budaj took part in the second battle of the backups. Montreal opened with an Erik Cole power play goal, powered by Max Pacioretty and Raphael Diaz. Florida replied with their own power play goal, the second of the season from Tomas Fleischmann, and Kris Versteeg picked up the lone assist. The scoring resumed in the third period, as the Panthers went up 2-1 on a Scottie Upshall goal fueled by Dmitry Kulikov and Tomas Kopecky. They would hold this lead to the end, and the three stars went to Markstrom (40 for 41 in saves), Budaj (29 for 31 in saves), and Kulikov, which is at least reasonable.

Finally, the Winnipeg Jets host the New York Rangers. Keeping with the backups trend for the night's game, Martin Biron and Chris Mason spelled their more often used keepers for the game. New York was first on the board with a Ruslan Fedotenko power play goal, guided in by Dan Girardi and Michael Del Zotto. Winnipeg tied it with a Nik Antropov goal, his second of the season aided by Alex Burmistrov and Evander Kane. The Rangers took a 2-1 lead that would last 'til the end as Ryan Callahan potted his second of the year with the man advantage, thanks to Fedotenko and Girardi. The three stars went to Biron (27 for 28 in saves), Fedotenko, and Antropov, although Girardi was slightly better than Antropov.