The three-game sweep starts in Edmonton where the Oilers, for once, were the team taking advantage of a lesser club, as they got goals Jordan Eberle and Anton Lander and two from Benoit Pouliot to post a 4-1 win over the woeful Toronto Maple Leafs.
“The start won us the game,” Eberle said. “We came out strong, our line scored on first shift, the power play got a couple of chances and buried them and they didn’t really have an answer. They had a bit of a push back, we knew they would, but (goaltender Ben Scrivens) was there to not let any in.”
The Oilers scored all four goals in the first 11 minutes of the game.
James van Riemsdyk scored the lone Leafs goal.
“It’s definitely not the start we were looking for,” Reimer said. “I thought we had a lot of energy and I thought we were prepared well, but we came out and made some early mistakes. They got some bounces and made some great shots and that was kind of the game. It’s hard to come back down four goals in this League. We played well for two periods, but we weren’t able to get our goals.”
For the last 49 minutes of the game it was mostly back and forth with little to show for the effort.
“We had a good first period, it is just unfortunate that we didn’t play the same way in the second and the third,” Pouliot said “We had such a comfortable lead that maybe we thought it was going to be easy from then on, but they pushed back. But it’s good to be on the other side of a game like that. The confidence of the guys was so high after we got off to the start we had. The guys felt great, it was just a little unfortunate that we didn’t do the same things for the last 40 minutes.”
In Tampa, Steven Stamkos scored twice and Valtteri Filppula and Victor Hedman added markers in a 4-2 for the Lightning over the Montreal Canadiens.
“We had our legs tonight,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “Right out of the game I thought we started strong. To kill off that double-minor early and that save [Ben] Bishop made on [Alex] Galchenyuk…we kind of took it from there.”
Carey Price made 30 saves in the loss for the Habs.
“We played a solid game, we were engaged and hard a good start,” Canadiens coach Michel Therrien said. “But we made a huge mistake on the second goal and they had a lucky bounce on their power play goal but those things happen. We had tons of quality scoring chances but to win hockey games you need some breaks, tonight we didn’t have any breaks.”
Ben Bishop made 32 saves for the win.
“I didn’t do us any favors by turning the puck over and giving them all the momentum but after that we buckled down and made a huge kill late in the third and got that empty netter,” Bishop said. “It was one of those situations where you bend but you don’t break. It was nice to get a 3-0 lead and guys stepped up in the third period, blocking shots and doing the little things to win.”
In Buffalo, the Sabres put quite a fight in their 4-3 loss to the Washington Capitals in the skills competition.
Washington’s Evgeny Kuznetsov scored in regulation and then again in the talent portion of the game to lift the Caps to the win.
“This shootout is like poker,” Kuznetsov said. “If you don’t have a card, you’ll never win. If you have a lucky win, it’s all about luck.”
The win pushed the Caps within reach of third Place Pittsburgh in the Metropolitan Division.
Kuznetsov had eight shots on goal for the night and his coach was complimentary of his effort.
“He’s got a really good release and we want him to shoot more,” Capitals coach Barry Trotz said. “The odd time that he holds on too long, goaltenders are too good … but he’s learning. He’s had a great tournament in this building, this is his building. When he was in the world juniors here, he was fantastic in the world juniors, so he’s got a lot of good mojo in this building.”
Braden Holtby made 30 saves in the win and stopped all three shooters in the shootout.
“It wasn’t pretty by any means for any of us,” Holtby said. “It was one of those games I think it may have been an emotional letdown after last game with Boston. It’s our fault for not getting up enough. But you have to give that team credit. They earned everything they got tonight. You look at that team how they played tonight; you would never believe their record. You’ve got to give them a lot of credit to earn that point.”
Anders Lindback took the loss on 35 saves.
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