The sweep of the NHL from Wednesday night starts in Pittsburgh where the visiting New York Rangers got a 34-save effort from Henrik Lundqvist as the Rangers defeated the Penguins, 3-0.
“I just like the way we competed,” Lundqvist said. “This game is so much about how hard you want to work and how hard you want to compete. All over the ice, you have battles. In front of the net, and if you notice, we were getting to loose rebounds. We were right there to clean things up.”
Henrik Lundqvist stopped 34 for his 58th career shutout in win over Pens – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
New York limited Sidney Crosby to no shots on goal and snapped his seven-game scoring streak.
“They’re a good team,” Lundqvist said. “We knew coming into this building that we were playing a really hot team and their top players were playing really well, so I definitely saw it as a great challenge for us.”
For the Rangers, it was their fourth straight win and eighth in their last 10 games.
“There’s no doubt tonight I wanted to play [Brassard’s] line as much as possible against Crosby’s line,” Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said. “Anytime you miss, whether it be on defense or up front, you miss some of your top people, it’s an opportunity for some other guys to step up and I think we have some other guys that have stepped up.”
That game plan kept Crosby off the scoresheet and frustrated him most of the night.
“We had some good chances tonight. They capitalized on theirs and we didn’t,” Crosby said. “That was the difference, but I think what’s gone on in the past doesn’t really matter. … We had some good chances that hit the post, a few got blocked, [Lundqvist] made some good saves on a couple other ones. We had some good looks.”
Kevin Hayes opened the scoring for the Rangers in the first period on a rebound and toe-drag of the puck.
“You have to play with confidence and I haven’t really been on the score sheet too much lately,” Hayes said. “But I think my overall game has been above average and I’m just trying to play with confidence. … Hopefully it’s a jump-start. But like I said, I’m happy with where my game is, and beyond the goal tonight, I’m happy with how I’m playing defensively and how I’m playing offensively.”
Dominic Moore and Jesper Fast scored in the third period for New York.
In Glendale, the Vancouver Canucks rode Ryan Miller’s outing in a 2-1 win over the Coyotes.
Miller made 33 saves in the win.
“They are tight games right now and you can’t afford mistakes,” Arizona coach Dave Tippett said. “We are letting points slip away. We know exactly what we have to do and the points we have to gain. It hasn’t been very fruitful lately.”
Jake Virtanen and Jannik Hansen scored for the shorthanded Canucks who are missing several players due to injuries including a fractured jaw for Brandon Sutter and fractured tibia for Alexander Edler.
“Yeah we were short, but I thought our young guys were good today,” Canucks coach Willie Desjardins said. “McCann came in and played well and Virtanen had a good game.”
Martin Hanzal was the Coyotes lone goal scorer.
“You can sit there and feel sorry for yourself and think you should’ve won,” Coyotes forward Max Domi said. “But at the end of the day, if you only score one goal it isn’t going to cut it. We did some good things tonight, but at this time of the year just doing some things isn’t really good enough.”
In Detroit, the Red Wings made the most of the visit from the Ottawa Senators and their new skaters who had less than a day to mesh with their new teammates.
Petr Mrazek made 22 saves for the win as the Wings stymied the Sens and their disjointed defensive corps with Dion Phaneuf in his first game as a Senator.
Danny DeKeyser, Henrik Zetterberg and Darren Helm were Detroit’s goal scorers.
“I think just the way we play a little simpler than before here at home,” Zetterberg said. “We have patience, we trust each other that we’re going to get enough chances to win games and not force pucks in the beginning of the game so I think that’s one difference.”
Zack Smith scored late in the third to ruin Mrazek’s shutout bid.
“It would be nice, but we got two points. Huge points for us,” said Mrazek, who general manager Ken Holland said would be the Red Wings No. 1 goalie for the rest of the season. “They were chasing us from the back [of the standings]; the two points gives us [room] now.”
Following the big trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Senators are hoping to gear up for the playoff run they are all expecting but the first few games will be trials to get the new talent in the mix and force the puck low.
“We let them off the hook in the first period,” Ottawa coach Dave Cameron said. “I’d like to see us get it to the net. We were looking for the Grade A chance.”
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