NHL Recaps: Wild clip Ducks in final seconds; Canucks edge Flyers; and Devis beat Hawks in OT
The Daily Goal Horn
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The NHL docket only had three games on it last night, but all were close and exciting contests. Minnesota won their contest in the waning seconds, while Vancouver and New Jersey needed to go beyond regulation for their victories.
Let’s catch up all of last night’s action.
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NHL Recaps: Wild 2, Ducks 1
Marcus Foligno scored the tiebreaking goal with 7.2 seconds left in regulation, and the Minnesota Wild opened their season with a 2-1 victory over the host Anaheim Ducks on Friday night.
“I knew time’s ticking down, so I didn’t really want to move from the net,” Foligno said after the winner. “I thought I might have had more body position if I kind of did a spin-o-rama, and I just got lucky.”
Minnesota pressured Anaheim goaltender Anthony Stolarz all night, and he came up big more often than not while recording 41 saves. However, the Wild kept the heat on, and Foligno found himself in front of the net to push home the go-ahead goal to give his club its eighth consecutive victory over Anaheim.
The Wild’s Kevin Fiala tied the game at 1-1 late in the second period. It came after the Ducks opened the scoring on the man advantage with Jakob Silfverberg’s goal within the first minute of the second.
Cam Talbot stopped 28 shots for Minnesota, which has won four in a row at Anaheim.
Canucks 5, Flyers 4 (SO)
Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller each scored in the shootout and the Vancouver Canucks defeated the host Philadelphia Flyers 5-4 on Friday.
Miller had a goal and two assists in regulation while Pettersson and Alex Chiasson each added a goal and an assist for the Canucks, who scored four goals in the second period. Vasily Podkolzin contributed his first NHL goal, and Thatcher Demko made 31 saves.
Joel Farabee led the Flyers with one goal and one assist. Cam Atkinson scored in his Philadelphia debut, while Travis Konecny and Claude Giroux also scored. Goaltender Carter Hart stopped 35 shots, and Keith Yandle, Ryan Ellis and Sean Couturier had two assists each.
“I thought we just got better as the game went on,” Canucks coach Travis Green said via NHL.com. “We weren’t very good in the first period. Philly had us hemmed in our zone, they had better skating legs. Talked to the team after the first period and I really liked how they responded. Second period was good. I thought our third period might have been our best period.”
Devils 4, Blackhawks 3 (OT)
Jack Hughes scored 57 seconds into overtime as New Jersey opened its season by recovering from blowing a two-goal lead late in the third period to edge Chicago in Newark, N.J.
The game was the season opener for the Devils while the Blackhawks lost their second straight to start the campaign.
Hughes teamed up with Ryan Graves on an impressive end-to-end goal after Chicago got goals from Kirby Dach and Dominik Kubalik in the final 3:53 of regulation to force overtime. It was Hughes’ second goal of the game. Jonathan Bernier made 24 saves.
Dougie Hamilton, playing his first game with the Devils after signing a seven-year deal as a free agent, scored just 17 seconds into the first period. Andreas Johnsson gave New Jersey a two-goal lead early in the third.
“It was a great pass (by Pavel Zacha),” Hamilton said via NHL.com. “It wasn’t my best shot, but a good screen, I think. I’m obviously happy it went in.”
Alex DeBrincat scored the other goal for Chicago, which is 0-1-1 to start the season. Kevin Lankinen made 25 saves.
–Field Level Media