NHL Roundup: MacKinnon injured in Avs win, Leafs edge Ducks, Hawks and Wings combine for 13 goals
Anthony Scultore
|
The NHL docket had five games on Wednesday night, but it was the national game on TNT that drew the most attention.
Two Stanley Cup contenders went at it in the Boston Bruins and Colorado Avalanche. Things got heated early when Taylor Hall took an open ice run at Nathan MacKinnon leaving him bloody on the ice.
That’s where we begin our recaps, so let’s jump right in.
Avalanche 4, Bruins 3 (OT)
Cale Makar scored on a power play at 3:01 of overtime as the Colorado Avalanche erased a two-goal deficit in a 4-3 win over the visiting Boston Bruins on Wednesday to run their franchise-record home winning streak to 17 games.
Makar’s wrist shot from the top of the left circle beat Bruins goalie Linus Ullmark high glove-side near the end of a man-advantage after Mike Reilly’s tripping penalty. Avs captain Gabriel Landeskog scored with 36.5 seconds left in regulation to force OT.
Kurtis MacDermid and Samuel Girard also scored for the Avalanche. Darcy Kuemper made 29 saves for Colorado, which also extended its league-best winning streak to eight games.
Brad Marchand scored his team-leading 21st goal and both Charlie Coyle and Jake DeBrusk scored for the Bruins. Ullmark stopped 37 of 41 shots for Boston.
Avalanche star Nathan MacKinnon was injured on an open ice hit from Bruins’ forward Taylor Hall just minutes into the game. Initially, Hall was called for a major penalty, but after review it was reduced to two minutes for interference. MacKinnon did not return to the game.
“Not good enough to return to the game, so we’ll see what tomorrow presents,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “I had a chance to review it and the way he catches him, Nate’s stick was up, so I believe they probably made the right call, but it’s the type of hit the league’s trying to get rid of.”
Flames 6, Blue Jackets 0
Matthew Tkachuk scored twice and the visiting Calgary Flames took a franchise-record 62 shots on goal in a 6-0 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday night.
Mikael Backlund, Andrew Mangiapane, Elias Lindholm and Erik Gudbranson also scored for the Flames, whose previous single-game record was 59 in a 10-8 win against the Quebec Nordiques on Feb. 23, 1991. The last time a NHL team had as many as 62 shots in a regulation game was March 12, 1989, when the Chicago Blackhawks had 62 in a 6-5 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Calgary’s Jacob Markstrom made 23 saves for his NHL-leading sixth shutout this season and the 14th of his career.
Johnny Gaudreau finished with three assists for the Flames, who have won their past two games by a combined score of 13-1. Elvis Merzlikins made 56 saves for the Blue Jackets, who have lost three straight games and are 6-15-1 in their past 22.
Maple Leafs 4, Ducks 3 (SO)
Auston Matthews scored the deciding goal in the shootout and Toronto defeated visiting Anaheim.
Matthews beat John Gibson to start the second round of the tiebreaker after Toronto’s Jason Spezza and Anaheim’s Trevor Zegras each scored in the first round.
William Nylander, Mitchell Marner and John Tavares each had a goal and an assist, and Matthews had two assists for the Maple Leafs, who have won three of their past four games. Sam Steel had a goal and an assist and Jakob Silfverberg and Vinni Lettieri each scored once for the Ducks, who are 1-0-1 after the first two games of a five-game trip.
“I just kind of curled up high and I was calling for it from ‘Mo’,” Marner said. “Lucky enough it got through all the traffic there and went in. Our power play was working tonight.
Sharks 4, Capitals 1
Noah Gregor snapped a 20-game goal drought, Nicolas Meloche scored his first NHL goal and James Reimer made 32 saves as visiting San Jose beat struggling Washington.
Jonathan Dahlen’s late goal and Andrew Cogliano’s empty-netter helped San Jose avoid a third consecutive defeat overall and win for the third time in four road games.
Daniel Sprong scored and Ilya Samsonov made 26 saves, but the Capitals dropped back-to-back games in regulation for the first time since April 6-8, 2021. Washington fell to 3-6-2 in 2022.
Blackhawks 8, Red Wings 5
Dylan Strome collected his first career hat trick and added an assist as Chicago won at Detroit.
“It’s my first hat trick since the 2017 Memorial Cup, so it had been a long time,” said Strome. “I’ve felt good for the last 12 or 13 games, and once the offense starts going, you remember they signed you to a contract for a reason.”
Alex DeBrincat supplied two goals and an assist for the Blackhawks. Sam Lafferty scored his first goal this season and Dominik Kubalik and Brandon Hagel also scored. Hagel added an assist, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 28 saves.
Robby Fabbri and Tyler Bertuzzi each had a goal and an assist while Pius Suter, Moritz Seider and Dylan Larkin added goals for the Red Wings. Detroit pulled goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic (12 saved on 16 shots) for Calvin Pickard (18 saves on 21 shots) after the first period.
–Field Level Media contributed to this article.