NHL Recaps: Oilers rout Pens, Red Wings clip Rangers, Bruins edge Kraken, and more
The Daily Goal Horn
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NHL Recaps: February 23, 2023
Ten games loaded up the Friday night schedule in the National Hockey League.
It was a wild night with four games requiring overtime to decide a winner. Both the New Jersey Devils and Vegas Golden Knights needed the extra session to solidify their standings for a playoff spot.
Meanwhile the Detroit Red Wings beat the New York Rangers to jump over the Florida Panthers for the last wild card spot in the East. Another Atlantic Division team got a hat trick from Tage Thompson as the Buffalo Sabres are just two points behind the Red Wings.
The Boston Bruins made a big trade with the Washington Capitals late yesterday to add defenseman Dmitry Orlov to their roster. They then proceeded to beat the Seattle Kraken to keep a firm lead on the Presidents’ Trophy. And finally, we start the recaps with the amazing Connor McDavid blasting the Pittsburgh Penguins.
NHL Recaps: Oilers blast Penguins
Oilers 7 vs Penguins 2
Connor McDavid had two goals and two assists as Edmonton scored seven straight goals to defeat host Pittsburgh. One of his tallied came on a penalty shot.
“I heard someone say it’s like living at the foot of Everest; you almost get numb to what you’re seeing every day,” Edmonton coach Jay Woodcroft said of McDavid. “I think it’s important that everybody takes a step back and understands that we’re seeing someone at the top of their craft in the prime of their career putting out there what he’s putting out.”
NHL.com
Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins each added a goal and an assist; Kailer Yamamoto, Devin Shore and Warren Foegele also scored; and Tyson Barrie had two assists for the Oilers, who have won two straight. Edmonton goaltender Stuart Skinner made 22 saves.
Kris Letang scored twice and Evgeni Malkin had two assists for the Penguins, who have lost four straight. Pittsburgh goaltender Tristan Jarry gave up six goals on 29 shots through two periods and was replaced by Casey DeSmith, who made 14 saves.
Wild 2 vs Blue Jackets 0
Kirill Kaprizov scored his team-leading 34th goal and Marc-Andre Fleury stopped all 30 shots he faced for his 73rd career shutout as visiting Minnesota blanked Columbus. Fleury’s 73 shutouts rank 12th on the NHL’s all-time list.
“Great team effort,” Fleury said. “The guys blocked a lot of shots and let me see the puck.”
The win snapped Minnesota’s five-game road losing streak and extended its overall win streak to four. Minnesota killed off its 22nd straight penalty in the win and has not given up a power-play goal in nine straight games.
Thursday marked the return of Columbus star Johnny Gaudreau, who missed two games due to a lower-body injury. Gaudreau’s consecutive-games played streak ended at 349, the third-longest active iron man streak in the NHL, behind Phil Kessel (1,038) and Brent Burns (734).
Sabres 6 vs Lightning 5 (OT)
Ilya Lyubushkin scored the game-winner on a short-handed breakaway 1:41 into overtime, Tage Thompson posted his fifth career hat trick and Buffalo beat host Tampa Bay.
“For me, when I’m skating up the ice I’m just trying to get open and find a spot,” Thompson said via NHL.com. “It was one of those nights where everything was coming to me.”
With Buffalo opening overtime on a four-on-three penalty kill, Lyubushkin notched his first goal in 42 games this season by stripping Steven Stamkos up top and breaking in on goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy (17 saves). Lyubushkin beat him on the short side to move Buffalo to 7-3 in overtime.
Nikita Kucherov set up Stamkos’ goal to stretch his team-record home point streak to 19 games, dating back to a three-assist game against the St. Louis Blues on Nov. 25.
Devils 4 vs Kings 3 (OT)
Dawson Mercer remained red-hot, scoring a tying goal early in the third period before collecting his first overtime goal to lift New Jersey past visiting Los Angeles, which has lost the first two games of its five-game road trip, each by one goal.
After taking the puck along the boards and passing it to Dougie Hamilton, Mercer then dashed past Drew Doughty and into the crease, where he took the puck back from Hamilton and chipped the puck past Pheonix Copley for his seventh goal in the last five games.
Tomas Tatar scored in the second period for the Devils, who have won three of four. Goalie Vitek Vanecek made 19 saves. After Sean Durzi gave the Kings a 3-2 lead in the third, Nico Hischier drew the Devils even again to force overtime by redirecting a shot by Jack Hughes with 38.6 seconds left in regulation, setting up Mercer’s heroics.
Ducks 4 vs Capitals 2
John Gibson made 41 saves for visiting Anaheim in a win against Washington in Washington D.C.
Isac Lundestrom, Troy Terry, Jakob Silfverberg and Derek Grant scored while Cam Fowler had two assists for the Ducks, who ended a six-game losing streak.
T.J. Oshie and Nick Jensen scored and Charlie Lindgren made 17 saves for the Capitals, who have lost six in a row.
NHL Recaps: Red Wings clip Rangers
Red Wings 4 vs Rangers 1
Andrew Copp had a goal and two assists against his former team and host Detroit won for the seventh time in eight games by defeating New York.
“I think this game puts us above the cutline, which means a lot to us,” Copp said about moving into a wild card spot.
Filip Zadina scored his second goal of the season for Detroit. Michael Rasmussen had a goal and an assist and Filip Hronek also scored, while Ville Husso made 30 saves. David Perron added two assists for the Red Wings, who were coming off a 4-1-0 road trip.
Vincent Trocheck scored the only goal for the Rangers, who have lost three straight following a seven-game winning streak. Jaroslav Halak made 19 saves for New York, which had just two power plays and came up empty both times.
Bruins 6 vs Kraken 5
Jake DeBrusk tipped home Charlie McAvoy’s shot from the left point with 1:38 to play as the Boston Bruins outlasted the host Seattle Kraken 6-5 in a wild Thursday night affair.
“It was obviously a crazy atmosphere,” DeBrusk said. “The ups and downs and everything, the lead changes. It was a good shift by us as a line at the end there. We battled for pucks and kind of made some bang-bang plays. It went to Charlie, and I knew it was going on net. I just tried to get wide positioning.”
NHL.com
David Krejci, David Pastrnak, Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand all had a goal and an assist for Boston, which has won five consecutive games. Brandon Carlo scored the first of the Bruins’ two third-period goals, while McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm had two assists apiece.
The winning goal was DeBrusk’s third goal in three games since returning from injuries. Jeremy Swayman made 36 saves, improving to 9-1-3 in his last 13 decisions.
Matty Beniers, Jamie Oleksiak and Vince Dunn each logged a goal and an assist for Seattle. Yanni Gourde and Schwartz added to the Kraken’s scoring. Philipp Grubauer stopped 27 shots, but Seattle lost its second straight game.
Golden Knights 4 vs Flames 3 (OT)
Alex Pietrangelo put in a rebound 42 seconds into overtime as Vegas rallied from a two-goal deficit to defeat Calgary in Las Vegas.
Jack Eichel had a goal and an assist and William Carrier and Zach Whitecloud also scored goals for Vegas, which won for the sixth time in seven games while improving to 8-0-0 all-time against Calgary at T-Mobile Arena. Laurent Brossoit finished with 25 saves in the victory.
Mikael Backlund and Jakob Pelletier each had a goal and an assist and Jonathan Huberdeau snapped a nine-game goal drought for Calgary. Vladar stopped 25 of 29 shots he faced.
Predators 6 vs Sharks 2
Mikael Granlund scored two goals in a three-point game and Nino Niederreiter tallied twice to lead visiting Nashville past San Jose.
Tommy Novak registered one goal and one assist and Yakov Trenin added a goal for the Predators, who have won three of four games. Matt Duchene collected three assists while Juuse Saros made 22 saves.
Nico Sturm and Martin Kaut replied for the Sharks, who have lost four of five games. James Reimer stopped 25 shots.
Canucks 3 vs Blues 2 (OT)
Elias Pettersson scored on an end-to-end rush with 15 seconds left in overtime to complete a three-point night and lift visiting Vancouver to a victory over St. Louis.
Pettersson also assisted on goals by Andrei Kuzmenko and J.T. Miller as the Canucks won for just the third time in their last nine games (3-4-2). Rookie goaltender Arturs Silovs made 20 saves to earn his second NHL victory.
Alexey Toropchenko and Tyler Tucker scored and Jordan Binnington made 38 saves for the Blues, who lost their fourth straight game (0-3-1).
–Field Level Media
–The Daily Goal Horn contributed to this article