NHL Recaps: Rangers hold off Canucks, and Stars tame Wild
The Daily Goal Horn
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NHL Recaps: February 8, 2023
The schedule in the National Hockey League was light with just two contests.
In Dallas, the Stars used a big second period to tame the Minnesota Wild and increase their lead in the Central Division to five points over the Winnipeg Jets.
Meanwhile, the New York Rangers won their third straight by beating the Vancouver Canucks at the Garden. With the victory, the Blueshirts moved to within four points of the second place New Jersey Devils.
NHL Recaps: Rangers hold off Canucks
Rangers 4 vs Canucks 3
Chris Kreider scored his 250th career goal, Filip Chytil tied a career high by scoring in his fifth straight game and the host New York Rangers held on for a 4-3 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday night.
“I love scoring goals,” Chytil said. “It’s a great feeling, but it’s a great feeling also because we are winning the games and it’s helping the team get the points. That’s what is most important and what I like the most about it.”
NHL.com
New York improved to 4-0-1 in its past five games and 18-4-3 since its 5-2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Dec. 3.
Kreider and Chytil scored in a span of 1:38 during the first period while Alexis Lafreniere tallied in the second and Mika Zibanejad scored his 25th goal late in the third.
Kreider became the seventh player in team history to reach 250 goals. Chytil matched his longest goal-scoring streak set Nov. 12-21, 2018, and scored his 11th goal in his past 13 contests.
New York’s Igor Shesterkin made 22 saves in his first start in two weeks due to the All-Star Break and participating in the annual NHL extravaganza.
Conor Garland, Vasily Podkolzin and Elias Pettersson scored as Vancouver dropped to 2-2-1 under new coach Rick Tocchet and dropped to 4-12-1 in its past 17.
Vancouver’s Spencer Martin stopped 17 shots and lost for the ninth straight time.
NHL Recaps: Stars tame Wild
Stars 4 vs Wild 1
Roope Hintz scored once and added an assist as the host Dallas Stars used a three-goal second period en route to a 4-1 victory over the struggling Minnesota Wild on Wednesday.
Jamie Benn, Radek Faksa and Jani Hakanpaa also scored for the Central Division-leading Stars, who have won two straight games and have a 4-0-3 mark in their last seven outings. Goaltender Jake Oettinger made 39 saves, 16 of them in the third period, and Jason Robertson collected two assists.
Joel Eriksson Ek replied for the Wild, who have lost five of seven games, all in regulation, a swoon that has dropped them to the Western Conference’s second wild-card spot. Goalie Filip Gustavsson stopped 33 shots.
“We just didn’t find a way to score a goal,” Wild coach Dean Evason said. “We’re doing a lot of real good things. A lot of positives in this hockey game. We have to obviously stay as positive as we can. We play tomorrow night.”
NHL.com
–Field Level Media
–The Daily Goal Horn contributed to this article