Dose: Patrick is Sharp
It was a tough night for the Western Conference leaders as the second place Nashville Predators failed to gain any ground, dropping a 3-0 decision to Colorado.
The Preds were fortunate to remain a pair of points behind Anaheim as the Ducks later in the night were beaten 4-1 by Chicago.
The Avs climbed to within two points of eighth place Calgary as the Western Conference tightened up just a little bit more.
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PITTSBURGH 2 NEW JERSEY 1 (Overtime)
The Penguins needed overtime to defeat the Devils 2-1 despite outshooting New Jersey 43-14.
Defenseman Simon Despres’ second of the season was the winner as Cory Schneider was outstanding in the Devils net, stopping 41 shots.
Kris Letang assisted on both goals giving him assists on all seven Penguins goals this week. He and Sidney Crosby, who now has 37 assists this season, set up Chris Kunitz’s power play goal to tie the game at 1 in the third.
Steve Bernier gave the Devils a 1-0 lead, 6:08 into the third. Marc-Andre Fleury needed to stop only 13 shots for his 23rd win of the season.
ST. LOUIS 3 CAROLINA 2 (Shootout)
Coach Bill Peters saw enough of goaltender Anton Khudobin after the netminder gave up two goals on only three shots 3:25 into the first period and pulled him, enabling the Hurricanes to grab a point in the standings Friday.
Cam Ward came in and stopped all 29 shots in regulation and overtime as the Hurricanes fought back from a 2-0 deficit only to lose in a shootout.
Kevin Shattenkirk was the only goal scorer in the shootout as Blues goalie Jake Allen stopped all three Hurricane attempts. Allen stopped 26 shots in 65 minutes as defensemen Justin Faulk with his 10th and Ryan Murphy with his first scored for Carolina.
Ryan Reaves scored his second goal in two games to give the Blues an early 1-0 lead while David Backes with his 17th forced the Hurricanes to pull Khudobin.
The Hurricanes comeback and subsequent loss in the shootout, made a loser of Ward while Khudobin kept his six game winning streak alive, albeit undeserved.
There were only two minors called in the game with Murphy’s goal coming on the power play.
COLORADO 3 NASHVILLE 0
Semyon Varlamov stopped all 23 shots to lead the Avalanche to a 3-0 win over the second place Nashville Predators.
Mazime Talbot opened the scoring for Colorado with his fourth of the season and it held up as the winner. The Avs scored twice in the third including an empty netter, to seal the win. Jarome Iginla scored his 16th of the season while Gabriel Landeskog potted his 10th into the empty net.
Nathan MacKinnon had two assists while Mike Ribeiro was a penalty minute force as he took an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty as well as a misconduct and a game misconduct to give him 22 minutes in the game.
Marek Mazanec made his first start of the season and stopped 25 of 27 shots to take the loss.
VANCOUVER 5 BUFFALO 2
It was a big night for Ryan Miller as he faced his ex-Buffalo teammates for the first time in his career and made 20 saves to lead the Vancouver Canucks to a 5-2 win over the Sabres.
The loss was the 14th in a row for Buffalo and to make matters worse, all have been in regulation time.
Chris Higgins led the way for Vancouver with a goal and an assist while Yannick Weber, Nick Bonino on the power play, Bo Horvat and Radim Vrbata into the empty net, also scored for the Canucks.
Henrik Sedin and Chris Tanev each had two assists as Miller upped his record to 24-11-1 this season.
Chris Stewart, who will likely be traded by the March 2 deadline, scored both goals for Buffalo.
Matthew Hackett played in his first game of the season for Buffalo as Jhonas Enroth was given the night off and Michal Neuvirth is out of action with a lower body injury. He stopped 33 of 37 shots.
Cody Hodgson, who is having a terrible season, was a healthy scratch against his former team.
CHICAGO 4 ANAHEIM 1
It was a big night for the Patricks as Patrick Sharp had four assists while linemate Patrick Kane had two goals and an assist to lead the Blackhawks to a 4-1 win over the Anaheim.
Jonathan Toews with his 15th and Duncan Keith with his seventh of the season and first in 19 games, completed the scoring for Chicago while Rickard Rakell broke the shutout bid of Corey Crawford with his fifth of the season. It was a power play effort.
Crawford stopped 21 shots to improve his record to 19-11-2 while Frederik Andersen gave up four goals on 33 shots to drop to 27-7-5.
NIGHTLY LEADERS
GOALS
Chris Stewart 2
Patrick Kane 2
ASSISTS
Patrick Sharp 4
Nathan MacKinnon 2
Kris Letang 2
Henrik Sedin 2
Chris Tanev 2
SHOTS
Brandon Saad 7
Justin Faulk 6
HITS
Craig Adams 8
Cody McLeod 7
Dmitrij Jaskin 6
Ryan Reaves 6
Max Lapierre 6
PENALTY MINUTES
Mike Ribeiro 22
PLUS/MINUS
Patrick Sharp +4
Patrick Kane +4
Duncan Keith +3
BLOCKS
Nate Guenin 5
Niklas Hjalmarsson 4
Chris Terry 4
PLUS/MINUS
Mattias Ekholm -3
Ryan Getzlaf -3
Rasmus Ristolainen -3
