The three-game sweep starts in Buffalo where the outside temperatures were well below 0°F but the New York Rangers stayed at least warm with a 3-1 win over the Sabres.
Rick Nash scored his 37th of the year in win over Sabres – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
New York started Mackenzie Skapski in net in relief of Cam Talbot who suddenly became human the last two starts.
With just 14 seconds gone in Skapski’s debut he yielded a goal on his first NHL shot to Matt Moulson who deflected a pass into the net.
“Yeah, it’s not the start I wanted, that’s for sure,” Skapski said. “I think I rebounded well from that, and I think I was fighting some pucks in the first period, and in the second and third I was pretty calm, cool and collected.”
From there, he stopped the next 24 he faced to secure the win.
“I’m very happy for him,” Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said. “You always want to remember your first NHL game. He’s going to remember it. He’s going to remember the first shot and the first goal, but after that he shut them down and that’s the important thing.”
Those saves included 13 in the final stanza.
“He just let his play do the talking,” Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh said. “He was real relaxed out there. Obviously at the start of the game, giving up a goal first shot is not ideal in that it could go either way for him. It could make him real nervous and antsy, but I thought he stayed with his strengths and just stayed relaxed and calm in there.
“I’m pretty sure he had a smile on his face all the way through the game. He made some big saves for us on the penalty kill as the game went and really did his part for us to get a big two points.”
In Edmonton, the Minnesota Wild’s Devan Dubnyk continued his stellar play in net as he blanked the Oilers in a 4-0 Wild win.
“That was just a really, really good road game by us, right from the get-go,” Dubnyk said. “We methodically chipped away at the game. We had good puck possession and we were coming back on top of pucks and we didn’t give them much of anything. We just played a great hockey game.”
Dubnyk made only 15 saves in a game the Wild needed to win; well they need every win at this point.
“The games are so important for us right now, it’s just one at a time,” Dubnyk said. “Every two points are so important for us and we’ve done a good job of just taking it one game at a time and we have been able to climb back in it. We’re going to take it one at a time.”
Dubnyk has posted 12-2-1 record since moving over from the Arizona Coyotes in January.
“We played solid, we had four lines all our defense, and obviously, Devan was there when we needed him,” Wild coach Mike Yeo said. “It was both ends of the ice for me, the way we defended, but also the way we executed. We didn’t allow them to spend a lot of time in the offensive zone.”
In Raleigh, Eric Staal and brother Jordan Staal scored in the first period to pace the Hurricanes to a 2-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
“Will that be the only way we win games? No, but it’s definitely a big way that we will,” Jordan Staal said. “It’s just a matter of not cheating the system and doing the things we’re asked. And on top of that, just find that extra shot.”
In the NHL if you need a win “who you gonna?”, the Maple Leafs.
Toronto is in now 4-22-2 in their last 28 games.
“Right now, after games is the hardest time,” Toronto coach Peter Horachek said. “You’ve got to deal with it for an hour, then you’ve got to move on.”
It is difficult to conceive of the play or status of Toronto since they won 12 of 11 back in 2014. And they were playing a Hurricanes team that has had issues of its own this season but came out of it with a positive approach are winning games.
“They’ve got a really good penalty kill, and it prevented our power play from getting scoring chances,” Toronto forward Daniel Winnik said. “They do a great job of standing at the blue line, and right when it gets moved to the wall, their defense jumps that guy automatically and their forwards are filling back.”
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