The three-game sweep of the N HL from Saturday starts in San Jose where the Sharks’ Tomas Hertl scored early in extra time to give the home team a rare win, 4-3, over the Dallas Stars.
Martin Jones make a stick save on Jamie Benn (14) – photo by Jack Lima
“I think everyone just has the right mindset,” Chris Tierney said. “Everyone is positive when we come in here. I think we’re having a lot of good starts at home right now and that’s been a big help. The guys are having fun. We’re just carrying the momentum right now.”
The Sharks have won five straight but this was their first win in 13 at home after yielding the first goal of a game.
Marc-Edouard Vlasic scored twice and Tierney had a goal.
“That was a lucky goal for Hertl, and you can tell him that,” Antti Niemi said with a grin. “It was a quick shot and it might have hit something. I didn’t see it.”
Ales Hemsky, Tyler Seguin and Jason Spezza scored for the Stars.
“It was definitely a step in the right direction,” Spezza said of the Stars’ performance. “We resembled more of the way we should be playing.”
Martin Jones made 32 saves for the win.
“I liked our first period,” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. “I loved our second period. I thought through 40 minutes I was very happy with our game. I don’t know if we thought it was just going to be easy from that point, but you have to give them credit. They loaded the big line out there with all three guys [Seguin, Benn and Spezza]. They made a push in the first shift, and we had trouble getting the momentum back after that.”
In Edmonton, the Oilers’ Cam Talbot made 31 saves and held the Calgary Flames at bay as the Oilers won, 2-1, in the skills competition.
Mark Fayne scored in regulation for Edmonton and Teddy Purcell picked up the game-winner in the shootout.
“Whenever you can contribute, it’s good. It was a big goal and we needed it at that time,” Fayne said. “I thought we had strong periods in the second and third and we responded well from the first and it was a good team win.”
Sam Bennett scored the lone Flames goal.
“We spent eight of the first 24 minutes penalty-killing,” Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. “That’s the game right there. If they get two or three; we’re not exactly scoring a lot of goals right now, so that’s the game. The penalty kill in the last six periods and overtime has done a great job after getting dinged up in Arizona [three goals against].”
Jonas Hiller had 36 saves in the loss.
“We had a great first period and were all over them. But then in the second, we had a few turnovers and a refusal to shoot the puck and trying to be too pretty,” Flames coach Bob Hartley said. “We didn’t spend enough time in their zone. They got the momentum. We didn’t give them much, but they still spent too much time in our zone. Hiller gave us quite the game, so did Talbot for them. I thought it was a pretty good goaltending matchup. It was up and down and both goalies came up with big saves.”
Talbot had 31 saves through 65 minutes and then all three shooters in the shootout.
“It wasn’t a good first period for us, but [Talbot] really held us in it and he had some huge saves for us,” Oilers center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. “We did a good job of bouncing back in the second and from the second on, I thought we really took it to them. Then we got a big goal from Fayne. Other than that, we had lots of chances, lots of second and third chances, but Hiller played solid, so it was good to get that one by him.”
In St Louis, the Blues’ Jori Lehtera scored in extra time to lift St Louis to a 4-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens Saturday.
Brian Elliott made 46 saves in the win; it was a career high for him. It was “Goalies Night” in St Louis with past greats named and in attendance.
“When those guys are watching, you kind of want to play good out there,” Elliott said. “I had a couple two-pad stacks in pregame warmup, kind of channeling from the mask a little bit. It was special for me to play in front of those guys. I watched a lot of games. I was outside playing street hockey pretending I was them a lot of years, and for them to be here and watch this game, it meant a lot to me. Guys coming through and getting the [win] was pretty special.”
It was a good rebound effort for Elliot who had been pulled from the previous game against the Carolina Hurricanes.
“It seems fitting on “Goalies Night” that he put on quite a show,” Blues captain David Backes said. “He did a heck of a job, kept us in it. It’s about time we reward him with some effort to make good on all of his great efforts.
“… He’s the guy you (media) should have these microphones in front of because he should be the first, second and third star.”
Max Pacioretty, P.K. Subban and Tomas Plekanec scored for the Habs.
“We’re making every goalie look amazing right now, and we put up three goals though,” Pacioretty said. “You score three goals, you give yourself a good chance to win a game. We put up a lot of shots, we got three goals, and we’ve just got to tighten it up to the very end.”
Mike Condon took the loss on 18 saves.
You must be logged in to post a comment.