The three-game sweep of the NHL from Wednesday starts in Calgary where the Minnesota Wild won their second straight game under interim head coach John Torchetti.
“It’s a good win,” Torchetti said. “Any win on the road is a good win. They’ve got a great team and they come through the neutral zone with great speed. We didn’t get out to the quickest start that I thought we would; it seemed like we left our legs in Vancouver. But then we got a go
al and the last seven minutes of the [first period] were good.”
The Wild defeated the Flames, 5-3, behind goals from Jason Pominville, Erik Haula, Mikko Koivu, Jason Zucker, and Charlie Coyle.
“It is nice,” Pominville said. “We weren’t that far off, but at the same time at key moments of the game we weren’t finding ways to win. Now we are. We’ve got to keep it going and keep this streak alive.”
Devan Dubnyk made 25 saves for the Minnesota win.
“I think the message is, ‘Let’s start to work, let’s start to compete, and let’s start to get the puck back,’ “said Minnesota forward Zach Parise. “We’ve responded well the first two games. Now we’d love to finish the road trip with another win. So far we’ve done pretty well, I think.”
For all the losing the Wild have done of late, they are just two points back of the Nashville Predators for a wild card spot.
“We can’t think that right now,” Koivu said of the playoffs. “We’ve got to build our game and build our confidence back. It’s not going to happen by two games, but that’s a good start. We’ve just go to build on it.”
Deryk Engelland, David Jones and Mikael Backlund had goals for Calgary who cannot seem to maintain any consistency this season. After winning three in a row, they have now lost three straight.
“It’s maybe a little frustrating when we look at the standings and see how far down we are, but it’s a business and we have to come and winning’s the result everyone wants,” Jones said. “Things are tough when you’re not winning. We’re really putting ourselves behind the eight-ball starting games here.”
In New York, the Chicago Blackhawks rallied from a 3-2 deficit to defeat the Rangers, 5-3. Artemi Panarin had a hat trick for the Hawks.
“He’s been good for us this year,” Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews said of Panarin, who leads all rookies with 22 goals and 57 points. “Tonight, he scored a big goal with the second unit that went out for the power play. He wants to score and when he finally gets a few here tonight, he plays with so much more confidence and energy. When he goes out there, things happen every single shift. You saw that again tonight.”
Chicago had three power play goals in the game as the Rangers continue to befuddle observers; are they good, bad or just plain ugly?
“You just have to forget it,” New York’s Henrik Lundqvist said. “It doesn’t matter win or lose, you move on and you start over tomorrow. I think you analyze this one quickly. I thought we played a really strong game, it’s just their power play killed us. Five-on-5, our power play, it was really good.”
The inconsistency on Broadway has been maddening to fans.
“We played a good game,” Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said. “In my mind, we outshot them, outchanced them. We had some good offensive-zone time. Unfortunately on our PK, we made three bad reads and the puck ended up in the back of the net. We definitely need to be better than that, especially on a night like tonight where the power play comes up big for us.
“We’re down by a goal after two great periods, the power play comes up big. We’ve got to find a way to be able to get it done.”
Where consistency does exist it is unwanted. In Denver Wednesday, the Montreal Canadiens lost, 3-2, to the Avalanche.
Jarome Iginla scored twice for the Avs; his second was the game-winner late in the third period.
“[ Mikhail Grigorenko‘] saw me, there was great poise there, just to wait a little bit so the goalie slides a little more and then it’s a wide-open net, and he put a nice one in there,” Iginla said. “You dream of those open nets late. It was a gutsy win for us.”
Iginla now has 17 goals on the season.
“I was just trying to keep pressure on Subban,” Grigorenko said. “I was pressuring him and trying to get my stick on the puck. I was successful and he tripped. I was just thinking, ‘Keep skating, keep skating,’ and then I saw [Duchene] had more speed, so I gave it to him. I just kept skating as hard as I can and tried to get open. When the puck was coming to me, I thought I was probably going to pass it. I was waiting for the [defenseman] to turn his stick so I could slide it (by him). I knew Jarome was there.”
The Habs consistency is in their losing. They have lost all three of the games on their current road trip and have seven of their last 10 games.
“We played hard, I thought we played a really solid game,” Habs coach Michel Therrien said. “It’s too bad that an individual mistake cost the game, late in the game. If you look at the effort, there’s a lot of positive. I thought he could’ve [made] a better decision at the blue line. He moved the puck behind and he put himself in a tough position.”
Montreal fell to 27-27-4 on the season.
“It’s a good win for us,” Colorado coach Patrick Roy said. “The good thing is winning a game without having our A game, that’s what I like about it. I know we can play better, we just found a way to score that big goal.”
Lars Eller and Andrei Markov scored for the Canadiens.
Ben Scrivens took the loss for the Habs.
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