The Three-game sweep starts in Dallas where the visiting San Jose Sharks managed to right their ship and get a 5-2 road win ahead of their outdoor game this weekend.
Andrew Desjardins scored twice to lead the offense for the Sharks.
“He played a really good game,” Sharks coach Todd McLellan said of Desjardins, who had scored three goals all season entering Thursday. “That line (Tomas Hertl, Chris Tierney and Desjardins), for the minutes they got, were responsible defensively, provided us some momentum and scored two big goals, so they all deserve a lot of credit.”
The Sharks hold the second wild card spot ahead of the Los Angeles Kings but the Kings hold three games-in-hand.
“We’ve got to start winning. This was a huge game. We’ve got these guys right there, so I think this was a huge game for us,” Desjardins said. “We’ve got to start learning to win and start getting on the winning track again, so I think this was a big start.”
In Montreal, Brendan Gallagher staked the Canadiens to a 2-0 lead in the second period then the Habs watched as the Florida Panthers rallied to win 3-2 in the talent portion of the game.
It was a big two points for the Panthers who saw those around them lose in shootouts.
“It definitely helps us,” coach Gerard Gallant said. “I mean, it’s one game, we got a big win, but it gets us that [much] closer to the spot we want to be. I mean, we’re one point behind Boston now, and we’re playing well and we’ve got three more tough games on the road trip so it’s definitely a big win for us. I don’t know if it’s a turning point or not but we’ll see when we play the next 25 games but it was definitely a huge win for us.”
Roberto Luongo made 37 saves for the win.
“Roberto Luongo was phenomenal; he was tough to beat,” Canadiens coach Michel Therrien said. “If we didn’t score more than two goals it wasn’t because of a lack of effort.”
Carey Price took the loss on 19 saves off 21 shots and came just short in the skills competition.
“He’s been unbelievable in the shootout,” Luongo said. “I think he’s only let in one goal before [Thursday], if I’m not mistaken, so it wasn’t going to be easy and after [Pacioretty] scored the first one I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. But [Bjugstad] scored a big one there to tie it up, and then I just wanted to make as many saves as I could and hopefully we could get another by him.”
In Pittsburgh, the Columbus Blue Jackets’ Brandon Dubinsky scored a shorthanded goal at 17:43 of the third and the Jackets held on for a 2-1 win over the Penguins.
“It feels great to beat these guys, in their building especially,” Dubinsky said. “I just really liked how we stuck with it for 60 (minutes). That’s something we’ve talked about, that consistency and just sticking with our plan. The last game in Philly, we played the first and third (periods) that way. Tonight, I think we played all three.
“Everybody made good plays and stepped up, and obviously that’s a great team. We played really well tonight.”
Dubinsky and Sidney Crosby engaged in some extra-curricular activity in the game as well as both went at in the second period.
“[Crosby’s] the best player in the world,” Blue Jackets center Ryan Johansen said. “If you can aggravate him and get him off of his game, which [Dubinsky] definitely did tonight, that’s great. I think that was his best game of the year so far, and he’s definitely a big part of the win tonight.”
The altercation stiffened the Jackets’ resolve but had little impact on the Pens.
“The fight of Sid, it was at the end of the period, but still it should’ve been a big rallying point,” Penguins coach Mike Johnston said. “I think to a degree, it was. But the 5-on-3 kill, our killers did an outstanding job on that 5-on-3. It’s tough to kill a 5-on-3. We’ve had back-to-back 5-on-3s against us in these last two games, and I don’t think we’ve had a 5-on-3 for ourselves since November maybe. So, it’s rare to see that and to kill it is huge, and that’s the types of things we should be rallying around.
“We had a power play late, and when you talk about power plays, you have the puck in your hands as a power-play unit late in the game, those are critical moments. Critical moments in games, you need to respond to those.”
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