NHL Recaps: Rangers top Flames in wild affair, Panthers pound Bolts, and more
The Daily Goal Horn
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NHL Recaps: February 6, 2023
The league returned from the All-Star Break with six action-packed games.
All-Star MVP Matthew Tkachuk continued his hot scoring with three points in a 7-1 romp by the Florida Panthers over the Tampa Bay Lightning. Bo Horvat notched 4 shots but no points in the New York Islanders edging over the Philadelphia Flyers.
In Dallas, the Stars beat the Anaheim Ducks in a shootout and the Minnesota Wild fell to the Arizona Coyotes on the road.
Meanwhile the New Jersey Devils were able to outlast the Vancouver Canucks and the New York Rangers beat the Calgary Flames in a wild contest.
NHL Recaps: Rangers top Flames
Rangers 5 vs Flames 4 (OT)
Alexis Lafreniere netted the overtime winner and Mika Zibanejad scored twice as part of a three-point performance to lead host New York past Calgary.
“It was a hard slap shot [by Zibanejad], and I thought it was going in,” Lafreniere said via NHL.com. “And then I see it coming back in front. I was behind the net a little bit, just put on the breaks, sprinted to it and tried to score.”
Filip Chytil found the back of the net twice and Artemi Panarin collected two assists for the Rangers, while Jaroslav Halak made 28 saves. Captain Jacob Trouba laid two massive clean hits on opposing Flames’ skaters and answered calls to fight on both occasions.
Blake Coleman and Andrew Mangiapane both collected one goal and one assist for the Flames, while Tyler Toffoli and Michael Stone tallied once apiece. Mikael Backlund had a pair of assists and Jacob Markstrom stopped 28 shots.
Islanders 2 vs Flyers 1
Kyle Palmieri and Mathew Barzal each scored one goal, and New York defeated host Philadelphia in the first game for both teams following the All-Star break.
Bo Horvat, who had a team-high four shots on goal in his Islanders debut, helped New York earn its third win in a row. Horvat arrived in a trade with the Vancouver Canucks on Jan. 30. Islanders goaltender Semyon Varlamov made 25 saves.
Nicolas Deslauriers scored the lone goal for the Flyers, who got 28 saves from Carter Hart. Philadelphia lost for the fourth time in five games (1-2-2).
Devils 5 vs Canucks 4 (OT)
Jesper Bratt scored a power-play goal with 42 seconds left in overtime Monday night for the New Jersey Devils, who squandered a three-goal, second-period lead before edging the Vancouver Canucks 5-4 in Newark, N.J.
“This wasn’t our A-game,” Bratt said. “At the same time, we showed great character coming back and found a way to get a win.”
Andrei Kuzmenko was whistled for hooking Bratt with 1:19 left to set up the game-winning man advantage. Bratt, stationed in the right faceoff circle, took a no-look pass from Jack Hughes and fired a shot well beyond the glove of Canucks goalie Collin Delia.
Hughes and Ondrej Palat had two goals apiece for the Devils, who scored three goals in a 50-second span midway through the second period. Dougie Hamilton had three assists, and Hughes also enjoyed a three-point game.
Luke Schenn had a goal and an assist and Kuzmenko, Curtis Lazar and Phillip Di Giuseppe also scored for the Canucks, who were playing for the first time since trading captain Bo Horvat to the New York Islanders during the All-Star break. Delia recorded 29 saves.
NHL Recaps: Panthers pound Bolts
Panthers 7 vs Lightning 1
Matthew Tkachuk produced a five-point outing as Florida returned from the All-Star break to crush rival Tampa Bay in Sunrise, Fla.
“I’m tired now, it’s definitely a long weekend,” Tkachuk said via NHL.com. “But I had an unreal time this weekend, and then nothing better than coming back and seeing the guys again. We’re looking forward to the last really good home stretch to finish off the year, and it started tonight.”
Carter Verhaeghe added two goals and two assists and Sam Bennett had a goal and two assists for Florida. Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky notched 32 saves, but captain Aleksander Barkov was hurt in the second period after blocking a shot and did not return. Florida’s Paul Maurice became the sixth NHL coach to record 800 wins.
The Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov scored while Andrei Vasilevskiy surrendered seven goals on 49 shots. Fourth-line left winger Vladislav Namestnikov skated in his 600th game. Tampa Bay had a three-game winning streak end.
Stars 3 vs Ducks 2 (SO)
Jake Oettinger made 32 saves and stopped Adam Henrique to end a shootout and give Dallas a win against visiting Anaheim.
Nils Lundkvist and Roope Hintz scored in regulation for the Stars, who had lost their previous three games, all in overtime. Anaheim’s Jakob Silfverberg and Henrique collected third-period goals to force overtime. John Gibson made 39 saves for the Ducks, who had won three in a row.
The Ducks scored their goals 1:26 apart in the third period to tie the score. Silfverberg tipped in a point shot from Kevin Shattenkirk to cut the lead to 2-1 at 11:04. Henrique scored on a wrist shot from the slot to tie it 2-2 at 12:30.
Jamie Benn played in his 1000th career game since being drafted by the Dallas Stars in the fifth-round of the 2007 Draft.
Coyotes 3 vs Wild 2
Arizona came from behind with two third-period goals and Karel Vejmelka stopped 33 shots to beat Minnesota in Tempe, Ariz.
Jakob Chychrun scored twice for the Coyotes, and Jack McBain netted the game-winner at 13:13 of the final period. Karel Vejmelka stopped 33 shots for the win as Arizona improved to 3-1-1 in its past five games.
Kirill Kaprizov and Jonas Brodin scored for the Wild, who had won two straight. Marc-Andre Fleury finished with 33 saves.
–Field Level Media
–The Daily Goal Horn contributed to this article