The sweep of the NHL from Tuesday night starts in Glendale where the Arizona Coyotes benefitted from 39-save effort from Louis Domingue and defeated the San Jose Sharks, 3-2.
“We needed this game as a team,” said Domingue, who had five losses in six games this season. “They are a great team. It was a big test for us, and we responded very well. I have been feeling good and playing well in the first period, but it was about focusing for 60 minutes and getting the job done.”
It was an all around defensive effort from a porous Coyotes club; they blocked 27 shots on the night.
Brad Richardson, Lawson Crouse and Jamie McGinn scored for the Coyotes.
“You have to give their goalie credit; he was excellent,” San Jose coach Peter DeBoer said. “Their commitment to blocking shots … they haven’t won many games lately and you could see they were desperate to win tonight.”
Patrick Marleau and Mikkel Boedker scored for the Sharks.
Martin Jones made 27 saves in the Sharks’ fourth road loss of the season.
In Toronto, the Maple Leafs found a “A” game and took the down one of the hottest teams in the league as they defeated the Edmonton Oilers, 3-2, in overtime.
Nazem Kadri scored just 12 seconds into extra time for the win; it was his second goal of the game.
“I like to score goals too,” Kadri said . “I like to put up points, and obviously my responsibility is to shut down and make these players not want to play here.”
Anton Lander and Darnell Nurse scored for the Oilers.
Frederik Andersen made 44 saves in a busy night for the win.
“I think they just like to throw everything at the net,” Andersen said. “They didn’t make that many plays, they tried to see if there are some rebounds to jam in, but I think we were good at boxing them out and clearing the trash out front.”
Ben Smith also scored for the Leafs.
Cam Talbot had 28 saves in the loss.
In Denver, the Nashville Predators were on a three-game skid before playing the Avalanche Tuesday.
Craig Smith made sure the skid ended with two goals in a 5-1 pasting of the Avs.
Pekka Rinne had 28 saves in the win.
“It was good. Things are turning a little bit, just offensively,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. “We seem to be staying in a little bit longer, getting more looks, more attempts. With that is going to come more results. It’s nice to get those guys going. Sometimes seeing the points on the board builds confidence.”
Jarome Iginla was the lone goal scorer for the Avs and Semyon Varlamov made 31 saves in the loss. The Avs fell to 4-4-0 on the season after a fast start.
“It’s disappointing because it was a chance for us to go a couple games above .500, and now we’re just spinning in the mud again,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “It’s not at all how we want to play.”
Roman Josi, Ryan Johansen and Matt Irwin also scored for the Predators.
“That was really nice, actually,” Johansen said. “It always feels good to put pucks in the back of the net. That was nice we had five guys contributing tonight. It was a great all-around team effort. We did a lot of good things.”
For Nashville, the game was a shift away from incomplete game efforts.
“Sixty minutes of pretty much the same hockey, and that’s been our struggle in the last few games,” Filip Forsberg said. “We’ve been playing good for certain amounts in the games but not 60 minutes, and that was what changed for tonight.”
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