NHL Recaps: Leafs edge Rangers, Canes dim Stars, Kraken pound Canucks, and more
The Daily Goal Horn
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NHL Recaps: January 25, 2023
It was a light night of hockey action with just five games on the calendar for Wednesday.
Rick Tocchet’s second game as Vancouver Canucks head coach wasn’t as pleasant as his debut. The Seattle Kraken beat them at home easily and surpassed their inaugural season win totals just halfway through this season.
In other games, the New York Islanders struggles continue as they fall to the Ottawa Senators. The Columbus Blue Jackets stunned host Edmonton Oilers in overtime, and the Carolina Hurricanes needed the extra session to beat the Dallas Stars.
Meanwhile in Toronto, the Maple Leafs continue their home dominance with a late surge to tie the New York Rangers before winning it quickly in overtime.
NHL Recaps: Leafs surge past Rangers
Maple Leafs 3 vs Rangers 2 (OT)
Mitchell Marner scored 19 seconds into overtime for his 18th goal of the season, giving Toronto a win over visiting New York. Toronto’s Timothy Liljegren tied the game at 15:49 of the third period.
“Timmy kind of took it up the ice, drew people towards him, dropped it back to me and I saw I had a lot of time and space,” Marner said via NHL.com. “I tried to come over the blue line and decide what I was going to do, try to slow the play down and see if anything was going to open up, and I saw I had my own little lane and tried to take it.”
Pontus Holmberg also scored and Liljegren finished with two points for the Maple Leafs, who have won the first two games of a five-game homestand and improved to 4-0-1 in their past five. Ilya Samsonov, making his fourth straight start, stopped 27 shots.
Filip Chytil scored twice for the Rangers, who got 32 saves from Igor Shesterkin. Rangers left winger Will Cuylle, who is from Toronto, made NHL debut. He finished with a minus-1 rating in 5:49 of ice time.
Senators 2 vs Islanders 1
Shane Pinto and Claude Giroux scored goals and host Ottawa withstood an injury to starting goalie Cam Talbot to edge skidding New York.
Talbot was credited with the win after stopping all 14 shots he faced before exiting with 11:55 left in the second, reportedly with a lower-body injury. Anton Forsberg made 21 saves in relief for the Senators, who won for only the third time in nine games (3-6-0).
Brock Nelson scored in the second for the Islanders, who have lost six straight (0-4-2) and 11 of 13 (2-8-3) this month to fall into 11th place in the Eastern Conference and five points out of the second wild card spot. Goalie Semyon Varlamov recorded 36 saves.
NHL Recaps: Canes beat Stars in OT
Hurricanes 3 vs Stars 2 (OT)
Martin Necas scored the overtime winner to give Carolina a road victory over Dallas.
At 1:34 of the extra frame, Necas took the puck in the circle and maneuvered his way into the slot, then fired a shot past Stars goalie Jake Oettinger for the deciding score. It was Necas’ 19th goal of the season, and his second OT winner against the Stars. Brett Pesce recorded two assists for the Hurricanes, and Sebastian Aho and Brent Burns scored Carolina’s other goals.
Wyatt Johnston and Jason Robertson scored for the Stars.
Kraken 6 vs Canucks 1
Oliver Bjorkstrand scored twice and the Seattle Kraken surpassed their victory and point totals from their expansion season, defeating the visiting Vancouver Canucks 6-1 on Wednesday night.
“We wanted to be ready from the start,” Bjorkstrand said via NHL.com. “I thought we were. They’re coming off a back to back. We hadn’t played a game for I think three days (2-1 shootout loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday), so we should be fresh, and I thought we showed that we were.”
The Kraken improved to 28-14-5 with 61 points after going 27-49-6 with 60 points last season. They also defeated Vancouver for the first time, after going 0-5-1 in six previous meetings since Seattle entered the league.
Jared McCann added a goal and two assists, with Alex Wennberg, Eeli Tolvanen and Ryan Donato also scoring for Seattle, which improved to 10-2-1 in January and tied Vegas for most points in the Pacific Division. Jordan Eberle, Yanni Gourde, Vince Dunn and Adam Larsson each had two assists and goaltender Martin Jones made 19 saves.
Conor Garland scored and Spencer Martin stopped 29 of 35 shots for the Canucks, who dropped to 1-1-0 under new coach Rick Tocchet.
Blue Jackets 3 vs Oilers 2 (OT)
Kent Johnson scored with 2:31 left in overtime, and visiting Columbus ended Edmonton’s six-game winning streak.
Without a goal in his previous 15 contests, Johnson skated with the puck to find an opening, then drove it past Edmonton netminder Stuart Skinner (24 saves), who appeared to be screened by teammate Darnell Nurse, for the winner. Meanwhile, Joonas Korpisalo was strong in net while making 34 saves to help Columbus post just their fourth road win of the season.
Zach Hyman scored his 25th goal and Connor McDavid recorded his 49th assist in 49 games for the Oilers, who have still earned at least one point in nine of their last 10.
–Field Level Media
–The Daily Goal Horn contributed to this article