NHL Recaps: Canucks stay in hunt, Golden Knights bedeviled, and Caps stop Avs win streak
Anthony Scultore
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NHL recaps for April 18, 2022 starts with a focus on the Western Conference playoff picture. All in all there were six games on the docket.
The Washington Capitals rolled into Colorado and came away with a 3-2 win over the mighty Avalanche. That puts the Caps just one point behind the Pittsburgh Penguins for third-place in the Metro with a game in hand.
Meanwhile, the reeling Vegas Golden Knights lost to the New Jersey Devils to stay three points behind the third-place Los Angeles Kings. And in Vancouver, the Canucks keep their faint playoff hopes alive by beating the Dallas Stars, who remain tied with the Nashville Predators at 91 points in the two wild card spots.
NHL Recaps: Canucks 6, Stars 2
Elias Pettersson scored twice in a three-point game to lead host Vancouver to a victory over Dallas to keep its playoff hopes alive.
Brock Boeser and Jason Dickinson both collected one goal and two assists, Vasily Podkolzin produced one goal and one assist and Conor Garland added a goal for the Canucks, who are riding a six-game winning streak. Thatcher Demko made 28 saves for Vancouver, which is four points back of the Los Angeles Kings for the third spot in the Pacific Division and five out of a wild-card position with six games remaining.
“We understand what we need to do,” said Garland. “You can’t take your foot off the gas. We didn’t give ourselves an easy ride to the end of the season here, so we understand it’s a tall task.”
Roope Hintz scored both goals for the Stars, who are tied with the Nashville Predators for the two Western Conference wild-card spots. Starting goalie Jake Oettinger surrendered four goals on 19 shots before being pulled. Scott Wedgwood stopped 10 of 11 shots in relief.
Kraken 4, Senators 2
Victor Rask scored the tiebreaking goal late in the second period and recorded an assist as Seattle beat visiting Ottawa.
Seattle’s Matty Beniers continued an impressive start to his NHL career with a second goal in his three games. Daniel Sprong also scored and Jared McCann had an empty-netter for Seattle, which posted back-to-back victories for the first time since March 19 and 22.
Brady Tkachuk and Nick Holden scored for the Senators, who were held to a season-low 14 shots on goal. Ottawa had won four of its previous five on the road.
Devils 3, Golden Knights 2
Andrew Hammond made a season-high 42 saves and New Jersey Devils twice in a span of 4:43 in the third period and held on for a victory in Las Vegas.
Andreas Johnsson and Jesper Boqvist scored in the opening 7:57 of the third as the Devils secured a 3-1-1 road trip. Nathan Bastian also scored for New Jersey.
Keegan Kolesar scored in the second period and Chandler Stephenson scored with 1:14 left in the third for Vegas, which is 2-3-1 in its past six games. Robin Lehner stopped 25 shots.
We got to win them all. It’s pretty simple, we got to win them all,” Vegas coach Peter DeBoer said. “Circumstances have put us in a situation here where we have no margin of error. That’s a tough way to play.”
NHL
Flames 5, Blackhawks 2
Johnny Gaudreau scored twice, including the game-sealing empty-netter, and Blake Coleman and Oliver Kylington each had a goal and an assist to lift visiting Calgary past Chicago.
Dillon Dube added a goal for the Flames, and Matthew Tkachuk contributed two assists. Jacob Markstrom stopped 22 shots for the win.
Alec Regula and Tyler Johnson scored for the Blackhawks, who got 30 saves from Kevin Lankinen.
In a recent interview, Flames GM Brad Treliving said he is going to “move and earth” to make sure Gaudreau stays in Calgary long term.
Hurricanes 5, Coyotes 3
Max Domi notched his first goal with his new team as injury-riddled Carolina beat Arizona in Glendale, Ariz.
Vincent Trocheck, Jesper Fast, Nino Niederreiter and Sebastian Aho also scored for the Hurricanes. Brett Pesce posted two assists, while Domi and Niederreiter also had an assist. Antti Raanta made 23 saves against his former team.
Nick Ritchie, Loui Eriksson and Alex Galchenyuk scored for the Coyotes, who have lost seven straight games. Kyle Capobianco had two assists, and Karel Vejmelka stopped 46 shots.
The victory puts the Canes back in first place by two points in the Metro Division over the New York Rangers. The Blueshirts have a game in hand, which they make up tonight hosting the Winnipeg Jets.
Capitals 3, Avalanche 2
Marcus Johansson scored the go-ahead goal at 10:46 of the third period and the Washington Capitals defeated the Avalanche 3-2 on Monday night in Denver, snapping Colorado’s nine-game winning streak.
“It’s a good time to get our game going and get the right mindset,” Johansson said. “We’re playing great teams, and this is the way we want to play. It’s going to be like this in the playoffs. It was a fun atmosphere out there tonight.”
Alex Ovechkin scored his 48th goal of the season and Garnet Hathaway added a goal for the Capitals, who have won six of seven. Ilya Samsonov made 24 saves.
Ovechkin, who has six goals in his past seven games, needs two more for his ninth 50-goal season, which would tie Wayne Gretzky and Mike Bossy for the NHL record.
Darcy Kuemper made 24 saves for the Avalanche, who entered the game 29-2-2 in their past 33 home games. Colorado’s Valeri Nichushkin and Artturi Lehkonen scored.
Cale Makar, who is battling Roman Josi for the Norris Trophy set a franchise single-season mark for points by a defenseman. When he recorded his 83rd point, he passed Steve Duchesne’s (82) record that was set in the 1992-93 season. That was before the Nordiques moved from Quebec to Colorado and became the Avalanche.
–Field Level Media contributed to this article.