NHL Roundup: Flames edge Pens in shootout, Kraken win another, and more
The Daily Goal Horn
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It was another light schedule in the NHL on Monday. Four games were on tap but there was still plenty of action.
Earlier in the day, the Pittsburgh Penguins reached an agreement to be sold to the Fenway Sports Group. Later that night, they would be in a seven round shootout with the Flames.
Flames 2, Penguins 1 (SO)
Mikael Backlund scored the shootout winner in the seventh round to give the host Calgary Flames a 2-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday.
Backlund netted the difference-maker by electing to shoot from the slot as he came down the ice. He fired a top-corner shot past Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry. Johnny Gaudreau previously scored for the Flames in the shootout, but Pittsburgh’s Kris Letang also scored in that same round of the skills contest to keep it running.
“I just checked a little bit before, kind of where he’s been letting goals in,” Backlund said via NHL.com. “I tried the move in practice and scored on ‘Marky,’ so I figured if I can score on Marky I can do it on this guy, too.”
After Backlund’s goal, Flames goalie Jacob Markstrom stopped Brock McGinn to seal the victory in his team’s first shootout of the season.
Milan Lucic scored in the second period for the Flames, who have won five of six games and claimed just their second extra-time victory against five defeats in clashes that went past regulation. The red-hot Jake Guentzel collected a third-period goal for the Penguins, who have lost two in a row after a five-game winning streak.
Coyotes 1, Jets 0
Rookie goaltender Karel Vejmelka made 46 saves for his first NHL shutout to lead Arizona to a road victory over Winnipeg.
Antoine Roussel scored the game’s only goal, giving the Coyotes all the offense they needed on Vejmelka’s special night.
Winnipeg outshot Arizona by a 46-15 margin, marking the Jets’ second-highest shot total of the season and the Coyotes’ lowest total of the season.
Kraken 7, Sabres 4
Jared McCann and Mason Appleton each scored twice to lift visiting Seattle past Buffalo.
Defenseman Carson Soucy and forward Brandon Tanev recorded the first two short-handed goals in franchise history for the Kraken, who have won four of their last five games overall. Jaden Schwartz also tallied and Chris Driedger made 32 saves to help Seattle complete a two-game sweep of Buffalo.
“Your overall mindset is to try to do your job and kill the penalty,” Tanev said. “(We had) opportunity to take a puck to the net and so you try to (do that) and create a scoring chance and I was fortunate enough to get a great balance and have the puck go in the net.”
Buffalo’s Jeff Skinner scored twice to boost his goal total to eight in 22 games this season. He had seven in 53 games in 2020-21. Dylan Cozens added a score and Brett Murray recorded his first career goal for the Sabres, who have lost 12 of their last 15 games (3-10-2).
Canucks 2, Canadiens 1
Conor Garland scored the tiebreaking goal early in the second period and Thatcher Demko made 33 saves as visiting Vancouver snapped a four-game losing streak with a win over Montreal.
Elias Pettersson also scored for Vancouver, which snapped a six-game road slide by beating Montreal in regulation for the first time since Oct. 27, 2015. Ever since, the Canadiens had been 14-0-4 against the Canucks.
Ryan Poehling scored his fourth goal of the season for the Canadiens, who were stymied again in their attempt to win back-to-back games for the first time this season.
–Field Level Media