NHL Recaps: Avs top Knights, Connor McDavid hits 50 goals, Claude Giroux nets 4 points, and more
Anthony Scultore
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NHL Recaps: February 27, 2023
There were only five games on the schedule for Monday night across the National Hockey League but plenty of excitement for fans to enjoy.
Claude Giroux turned back the clock with a four-point game to lead the Ottawa Senators over the Detroit Red Wings. Meanwhile, the battle for Connor Bedard saw the Anaheim Ducks top the Chicago Blackhawks.
The scoring machine that is Connor McDavid hit the 50 goal mark by scoring twice, but it still wasn’t enough for the Edmonton Oilers to beat the Boston Bruins. In Vancouver, the Canucks edged the Dallas Stars in overtime.
Don’t look now, but the Colorado Avalanche have won six in a row. By blanking the Vegas Golden Knights, they’ve moved just two points behind the Dallas Stars for first-place in the Central.
NHL Recaps: Avalanche win sixth straight
Avalanche 3 vs Golden Knights 0
Mikko Rantanen had two goals, Alexandar Georgiev made 31 saves for his third shutout of the season and Colorado beat Vegas in Denver.
“I think the first period was one of the tougher ones for me, but I think we played really, really great [in the] second and third,” Georgiev said. “Didn’t let them get too much going on. We’re playing really, really good right now, and it’s not a big workload in terms of shots. So fun to play like that.”
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Nathan MacKinnon also scored for the Avalanche, who have won six in a row and have recorded points in eight straight (7-0-1). Rantanen has goals in five straight games and MacKinnon recorded at least a point in his eighth consecutive game.
Adin Hill turned away 31 of 33 shots for the Golden Knights, who have dropped two in a row (0-1-1).
Senators 6 vs Red Wings 2
Claude Giroux had a goal and three assists and host Ottawa scored four times in the second period to beat Detroit for the second time in three meetings this season.
Jake Sanderson, Drake Batherson, Brady Tkachuk, Thomas Chabot and Tim Stutzle also scored for the Senators. Cam Talbot made 22 saves. Tyler Bertuzzi and David Perron scored for the Red Wings, while Magnus Hellberg made a career-high 36 saves.
The teams will face each other again in Ottawa on Tuesday night. A postponement in December led to the back-to-back set.
NHL Recaps: Connor McDavid 50 goals, Bruins still win
Bruins 3 vs Oilers 2
Pavel Zacha scored a tiebreaking goal in the final minute of the second period, and the Boston Bruins held on to beat the host Edmonton Oilers 3-2 on Monday night.
Jeremy Swayman made 22 saves to improve to 10-1-3 in his past 14 decisions for the Bruins, who have started 3-0-0 on a four-game Western Conference road trip, extending their winning streak to seven games.
“You win games in the third period. You understand that and you take pride in that,” Swayman said. “That’s something that you want to keep as an identity for our team.”
Tomas Nosek and Nick Foligno rounded out the Boston offense with first-period goals. Dmitry Orlov had two assists while David Pastrnak added one assist to reach the 80-point plateau for the fourth time in his NHL career.
Edmonton’s Connor McDavid scored twice for the first 50-goal season of his NHL career. It was his 61st game of the season, making him the fastest player to reach the 50-goal milestone since Mario Lemieux (50 games), Jaromir Jagr (59 games) and Alexander Mogilny (60 games) in 1995-96. Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner stopped 25 shots.
Canucks 5 vs Stars 4 (OT)
Thatcher Demko returned to the lineup after a three-month injury absence and stopped 34 shots to lead visiting Vancouver past Dallas. Andrei Kuzmenko scored the winner 48 seconds into the overtime for the Canucks, who are 3-1-1 in their past five games.
Anthony Beauvillier scored two goals and assisted on the winner, Kuzmenko had a goal and two assists, and Vasily Podkolzin and Sheldon Dries each scored a goal for the Canucks. Quinn Hughes chipped in three assists.
Jamie Benn contributed a goal and an assist while Evgenii Dadonov, Nils Lundkvist and Roope Hintz also scored for the Stars, who fell to 1-3-3 in their past seven games. Jake Oettinger stopped 16 shots.
Ducks 4 vs Blackhawks 2
Max Jones scored the go-ahead goal late in the second period and Mason McTavish had three assists as the Anaheim Ducks matched a season high with their third consecutive victory by defeating the visiting Chicago Blackhawks 4-2 on Monday.
Isac Lundestrom, Jakob Silfverberg and Troy Terry also scored goals for the Ducks, with Silfverberg recording his 150th in an Anaheim uniform. Terry and Silfverberg have goals in each game of the winning streak.
Lukas Dostal had 24 saves for the Ducks, while Frank Vatrano had two assists in the game between the two worst teams in the Western Conference.
Tyler Johnson and Andreas Athanasiou each scored goals for the Blackhawks, who saw their season-best five-game winning streak come to an end. Petr Mrazek had 29 saves for Chicago, while Max Domi had two assists.
Chicago was without Patrick Kane for the second consecutive game after the star forward returned to Chicago amid trade rumors. Jonathan Toews has missed the Blackhawks’ past 11 games because of health issues.
–Field Level Media
–The Daily Goal Horn contributed to this article