NHL Roundup: Wild down Canes, Panthers roar back, Stars playoff push, and more
Anthony Scultore
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NHL Roundup for Saturday, March 2, 2022 recaps all 9 games on the docket.
The Florida Panthers completed an amazing comeback in OT after being down by four goals heading into the third period. Meanwhile, the Dallas Stars continue to make a push for the playoffs as they once again overtake the Vegas Golden Knights for the second wild card spot by beating the San Jose Sharks.
We start in Carolina, where the Minnesota Wild received a stellar performance from Marc-Andre Fleury to beat the Hurricanes.
NHL Roundup: Wild 3, Hurricanes 1
Marc-Andre Fleury made another strong impression since joining the Minnesota Wild, this time notching 37 saves in a 3-1 victory against the host Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night in Raleigh, N.C.
Mats Zuccarello, Dmitry Kulikov and Kirill Kaprizov scored goals as the Wild extended their point streak to nine games by winning for the eighth time during that span. Zuccarello also recorded an assist, giving him a team-best 49 this season.
For Kaprizov, he is now the Wild’s all-time single-season record holder for points with 85 and counting.
“It’s a huge accomplishment for me,” Kaprizov said. “I’d like to thank all of my teammates, all the coaching staff, everyone in the organization who made it possible.”
Carolina had a six-game point streak end. The last time the Hurricanes didn’t register a team point came in a March 20 shutout loss at home to the New York Rangers.
Fleury was in his third game since arriving from the Chicago Blackhawks in a trade. The Wild are 3-0-0 with Fleury in the net. He has given up four goals while facing 96 shots in those games.
Maple Leafs 6, Flyers 3
Auston Matthews scored his 51st goal of the season and the 250th of his career to break a third-period tie as visiting Toronto defeated Philadelphia.
Morgan Rielly added a goal and two assists for Toronto. Wayne Simmonds, Timothy Liljegren, Pierre Engvall and John Tavares also scored. Mitchell Marner and Michael Bunting added two assists each.
Ivan Provorov had two goals and assisted on a goal by Kevin Hayes, who also had an assist for Philadelphia.
Bruins 5, Blue Jackets 2
Erik Haula’s second goal of the game — a power-play tally with 3:54 left in the third period — lifted Boston past visiting Columbus.
Haula decided the sixth win in seven games for Boston by tipping home Brandon Carlo’s shot from the top of the left circle. It was his second multi-goal game of the season. Jake DeBrusk and Charlie Coyle scored empty-net goals following Haula’s game-winner, capping off Boston’s three-goal third period.
Jeremy Swayman made 22 saves, improving to 12-2-1 in his last 15 starts in Boston’s net. Justin Danforth and Gustav Nyquist scored for the Blue Jackets, who have now lost six straight games.
Stars 5, Sharks 4
Vladislav Namestnikov had a goal and an assist, and Joe Pavelski scored what proved to be the game-winner to lead the visiting Dallas Stars to a 5-4 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night.
Jason Robertson and Roope Hintz each had a goal and an assist, and Tyler Seguin added three assists for Dallas (39-25-3, 81 points), which moved past idle Vegas into the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Jani Hakanpaa also scored a goal and Scott Wedgewood made 24 saves for the Stars, who won for the sixth time in their last seven games.
Logan Couture, Nick Bonino, Brent Burns and John Leonard each scored goals, and Erik Karlsson, Noah Gregor and Sasha Chmelevski each had two assists for San Jose (29-31-8, 66 points) which suffered it fourth loss in five games.
Kaapo Kahkonen, making his first home start for the Sharks since being obtained in a trade with the Minnesota Wild, stopped 10 of 14 shots before being pulled after one period. James Reimer finished up and made 14 saves.
“Giving up that early goal, it got our attention,” Stars coach Rick Bowness said. “I love how we responded. We came right back quickly and got a couple ourselves. I always tell the guys, ‘they score, let’s go back at them,’ and we did.”
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Canadiens 5, Lightning 4 (SO)
Nick Suzuki scored the shootout’s only goal as visiting Montreal topped Tampa Bay.
Shooting in the bottom of the third round, Suzuki backhanded the game-deciding tally past Brian Elliott (27 saves) for Montreal’s lone win on its four-game road trip (1-2-1).
Jake Allen (37 saves) denied Tampa Bay’s Brayden Point, Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos to win the extra session 1-0. Kucherov led the Lightning with three points, which included a goal, his 12th of the season, and a pair of assists.
Kings 3, Jets 2
Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe each had a goal with an assist, and Los Angeles continued a month-long stretch of strong play by beating host Winnipeg.
In his 1,200th career regular-season game, Kopitar scored the tiebreaking goal — with help from Kempe — just about midway through the first period, and the Kings never relinquished the lead. Gabriel Vilardi also scored and Cal Petersen made 25 saves as Los Angeles, in position to make its first playoff appearance since 2018, improved to 9-4-3 since March 4.
Nikolaj Ehlers recorded his 22nd goal and Adam Lowry also scored for Winnipeg, which is trying to move into playoff position in the Western Conference. Connor Hellebuyck stopped 35 shots for the Jets, who have dropped back-to-back games in regulation for the first time since Feb. 19 and 21.
Avalanche 3, Penguins 2
Devon Toews scored a tiebreaking goal late in the third period, Mikko Rantanen had a goal and an assist, and Colorado beat visiting Pittsburgh.
Nicolas Aube-Kubel also scored, Nathan MacKinnon had two assists and Darcy Kuemper stopped 38 shots for Colorado.
Sidney Crosby and Mike Matheson had goals, Jake Guentzel had two assists and Tristan Jarry made 35 saves for the Penguins.
Panthers 7, Devils 6 (OT)
Gustav Forsling scored 1:45 into overtime as Florida overcame a late four-goal deficit to post a win over host New Jersey.
Florida trailed 6-2 in the third period before Brandon Montour and Forsling scored 1:29 apart to halve the deficit. Captain Aleksander Barkov scored with 4:37 remaining and again with goalie Spencer Knight off for an extra attacker with 1:24 left to forge a 6-6 tie.
“We know we can come back in any game,” said Barkov, the Panthers captain. “I think during the second intermission, we just had to forget about it. We still have 20 minutes. We just had to keep going, keep finding our game and that’s what we did.”
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Forsling completed his two-goal performance by scoring on a rush to win the game. Five of Florida’s goals were scored by its defensemen, including two by Forsling and one each from Ben Chiarot, Radko Gudas and Montour. It was Chiarot’s first goal with the Panthers, who acquired him from the Montreal Canadiens at the deadline.
Blues 6, Flames 4
Nathan Walker scored the go-ahead goal late in regulation and goaltender Ville Husso made 39 saves to give the visiting St. Louis Blues a 6-4 victory over the Calgary Flames on Saturday.
Ivan Barbashev netted the winning goal with an empty-netter, the second of four goals scored in the final two minutes of the game.
Robert Thomas, Justin Faulk and Brandon Saad all collected one goal and one assist for the Blues (38-20-10, 86 points). Ryan O’Reilly also scored.
With overtime looming and the score tied 3-3, Thomas spotted Walker in the slot, and the forward found the mark with 1:56 remaining in regulation for his seventh of the season.
Barbashev and Saad scored empty-net goals, bookending a late tally by Calgary’s Dillon Dube in a crazy last couple of minutes.
Noah Hanifin collected one goal and one assist while Johnny Gaudreau and Brett Ritchie added singles, and goalie Jacob Markstrom stopped 19 shots for the Pacific Division-leading Flames (40-19-9, 89 points), who have lost three straight.
–Field Level Media contributed to this report.