The three-game sweep of the NHL from Saturday starts in Columbus where the Blue Jackets continue to have issues despite retooling the lineup with the addition of Seth Jones from the Nashville Predators.
In the back end of a home-and-home with the Carolina Hurricanes, Jordan Staal scored in extra time to send the Canes to a sweep of the set, 4-3.
Jordan Staal potted game-winner in OT versus Columbus – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
“I kind of was just looking to see if I had a guy jumping up so I could have time,” Staal said. “[Slavin] did a great job of getting his feet going and opening up space. From there I more or less closed my eyes.”
The win improved the Canes to 18-18-7 on the season, .500 for the first time in this campaign.
“[The win] is what you want to get every night. It was a good game,” Staal said. “We’ve done a good job sticking with our game and working hard and it was nice to get rewarded.”
The decision was another loss for the Jackets but it might have been worse if not for a three-goal rally to force the extra session.
“We kept fighting,” Columbus center Brandon Dubinsky said. “We found a way to get a point. Obviously we needed two.”
Carolina got goals from Andrej Nestrasil, Kris Versteeg and John-Michael Liles.
Columbus rallied on goals from Cam Atkinson, Alexander Wennberg and Josh Anderson.
In a dig at his veteran players, John Tortorella commended the play of his younger skaters; Anderson and Rychel played together for the Lake Erie Monsters in the AHL.
“Honestly, we need to keep them around. That’s very important where we are as an organization right now,” he said. “It gives me a great opportunity to see them. It’s a young man’s league. Quite honestly, I hope these kids take some veterans’ jobs. That’s how you get better as a team.”
In San Jose, the Sharks found their entire game Saturday night just the as tires came off the Toronto Maple Leafs wagon in a 7-0 shelling of the Leafs.
“That was huge, because I thought we were a little tentative,” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said of Burns’ goal. “We were almost in that waiting-for-something-to-go-wrong mindset. He just said, ‘Screw it,’ and took the puck. That changed the game for us; it really did. That play changed the game. That’s how we have to play. That was a world-class play by a world-class player.”
Six different Sharks scored including Brent Burns, Tomas Hertl (two goals), Joe Pavelski, Melker Karlsson, and Joonas Donskoi.
“I’m so happy tonight,” Hertl said. “This was a great game for the team. I’m not just happy for me. I’m happy for Donskoi, Nieto and Melker. Everybody needs to score, and all four guys scored. It was a great game for everybody. I’m so happy we scored on our line with [Thornton] and [Pavelski]. It was so fun today. I thank those guys for helping me.”
Burns had the first goal of the game in the second period when the Sharks broke it open with four goals.
“Obviously, the stats show for every team, if you score first, it can change a game,” Burns said. “I think it’s important for us to jump ahead at home here and start getting some bounces. That was key. We feel good about our team, we feel good at home. This is a place we’ve always loved to play. Just been some tough bounces.”
Martin Jones had 28 saves for the shutout win.
“I thought we started off great,” Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock said. “We did lots of good things. But then we stayed out too long on the PP. They beat us to the puck, and we give up a shorthanded goal. lt’s that simple. We should have changed earlier instead of trying to milk it one more time and they caught us. Until then, I thought we were still good. We got off-kilter, and they came at us.”
In Dallas, Devan Dubnyk’s 34 saves made the difference as the Minnesota Wild defeated the Dallas Stars, 2-1.
Ryan Carter and Thomas Vanek scored for the Wild improved to 22-11-8 on the season.
“That’s what we talked about,” Minnesota coach Mike Yeo said. “There’s been times this year where we’ve played solid hockey against them, but when they’ve pushed, we didn’t push back.”
Antti Niemi took the loss on 23 and was solid despite the loss; he earned second star for his efforts.
“[Dubnyk] was solid all night,” Yeo said. “He was real good at the end of the game, too, when he had to make a huge save with the goalie pulled, but yeah, he was composed and he was calm in there all night and obviously made some huge saves.”
Jamie Benn made things interesting with less than four minutes left in regulation when he scored his 25th of the year on the power play.
But that was close as the Stars would get.
“We weren’t shooting the puck very well. The few times [we did get a good chance], it was pretty easy saves for the goaltender,” Stars coach Lindy Ruff said.
Dallas is on a 1-3-1 stretch and are not on the ice again until Friday in Anaheim.
“Everybody’s looking forward to getting a few days and just recharge, and a couple practices in there too,” Dallas defenseman Alex Goligoski said. “We’ve probably had one practice in the last two weeks. That’s where you create your habits.”
“We need some time away,” Stars center Jason Spezza said. “We need some time to rest. We’ve lost some games here. We had a bad five-game set, and we’re not happy with how we’re playing. We need to get our game back.”
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