Dose: Fleury loves Alberta
There were five games in the NHL on Friday so let’s get to the action.
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NEW JERSEY 4 TORONTO 1
The Devils beat the Maple Leafs 4-1 on Friday despite being outshot 34-17. Well at least the Leafs won in Corsi.
It was the 11th loss in a row for Toronto as Cory Schneider stopped 33 shots for his 19th win of the season. James Reimer got the start in goal for Toronto and managed only 13 saves as his record dropped to 6-11-0.
Every New Jersey player was a plus, not too shabby considering they scored only four goals.
Tuomo Ruutu got things started as Jordin Tootoo picked up one assist. Then Patrik Elias scored the 400th goal of his NHL career. It was the eventual winner.
Jaromir Jagr and Steve Bernier also scored with Adam Larsson picking up two assists. Larsson is starting to come on and is worth looking at in deeper leagues.
Tyler Bozak broke up Schneider’s shutout with a power play goal with Jake Gardiner and Phil Kessel drawing the assists.
The Leafs dealt Carter Ashton and David Broll to the Lightning for a conditional seventh round pick in 2016. I guess they are starting off very slowly.
COLUMBUS 7 ST. LOUIS 1
Nick Foligno hit the 20 goal mark with a couple of goals and he added an assist in the Blue Jackets 7-1 win over St. Louis.
An interesting note in this game was that both teams had 33 shots on goal. The difference was that Columbus scored seven goals and St. Louis only once.
Ryan Johansen had a goal and two assists for the Blue Jackets while Matt Calvert, Corey Tropp, Cam Atkinson and Scott Hartnell also scored.
Curtis McElhinney was solid in goal for Columbus as he has taken over the top job with the injury to Sergei Bobrovsky. McElhinney picked up his sixth win of the season as only Paul Stastny beat him to break up his shutout.
Brian Elliot started the game and gave up four goals on only 14 shots before Jake Allen replaced him. Allen gave up three goals on 19 shots as the Blues were destroyed on Friday night.
WASHINGTON 3 ANAHEIM 2 (Shootout)
Nicklas Backstrom’s shootout goal turned out to be the winner as the Capitals defeated Anaheim 3-2.
Jason Chimera scored once and added an assist for the Capitals while John Carlson also found the back of the net. Evgeny Kuznetsov assisted on both goals. Paul Grubauer stopped 23 shots in winning his first game of the season in his first start.
Ryan Kesler scored once and assisted on Corey Perry’s 23rd of the season. Ilya Bryzgalov stopped 32 shots as he put in a rare good performance for the Ducks as his record dropped to 1-3-1.
Ryan Getzlaf missed his second game in a row with a lower body injury while Mike Green was a late scratch as he also has a lower body injury.
PITTSBURGH 4 CALGARY 0
Marc-Andre Fleury stopped all 21 shots to pick up his league leading eighth shutout of the season to lead the Penguins to a 4-0 win over Calgary.
Fleury had great success in Alberta as he shut out the Oilers on Wednesday and is now 25-11-5 this season.
Sidney Crosby scored twice and added an assist while linemate Chris Kunitz had three helpers. David Perron had a goal and an assist as the line had eight points on the night.
Brandon Sutter also beat Jonas Hiller who stopped 20 shots before being replaced by Karri Ramo who stopped all six shots sent his way in the last 14:41 in the third period.
CHICAGO 2 WINNIPEG 1 (Overtime)
Brandon Saad’s 16th goal of the season was the overtime winner as the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Jets of Winnipeg 2-1.
Patrick Kane set up the winner and tied the game at one in the second stanza as he is now leading the NHL in scoring with 58 points. He is actually tied with Jakub Voracek but is in the lead with more goals.
Corey Crawford stopped 20 shots to improve his record to 20-12-2 while Michael Hutchinson saw his record drop to 14-7-3 as he is 0-3-1 in his last four starts. Hutchinson has struggled of late as he has given up 15 goals on 108 shots in his last four games. It looks like it’s time for Ondrej Pavelec to get another good shot in the Jets net.
Kane’s goal halted a scoreless drought for the Blackhawks at 149:25.
Mark Scheifele was the only Jet to beat Crawford and it was only his second goal in 22 games.
It was the first game for both teams since Daniel Carcillo crosschecked Mathieu Perreault, an incident that the NHL suspended Carcillo for six games. Chris Thorburn went after Carcillo early in the first and laid a whupping on him.
NIGHTLY LEADERS
GOALS
Nick Foligno 2
Sidney Crosby 2
ASSISTS
Chris Kunitz 3
Adam Larsson 2
Ryan Johansen 2
Brandon Dubinsky 2
Evgeny Kuznetsov 2
SHOTS
David Booth 7
HITS
Steve Ott 7
Brooks Orpik 7
Zach Bogosian 7
PENALTY MINUTES
Barret Jackman 5
Matt Calvert 5
Daniel Carcillo 5
Chris Thorburn 5
PLUS/MINUS
Jack Johnson +4
BLOCKS
Ben Lovejoy 5
Karl Alzner 4
PLUS/MINUS
Alexander Steen -4
David Backes -4
T.J. Oshie -3
Jay Boumeester -3
Patrik Berglund -3
Alex Pietrangelo -3
Morgan Rielly -3
Roman Polak -3
