The three-game sweep of the NHL starts in Edmonton where the visiting Colorado Avalanche edged the Oilers, 3-2.
Tyson Barrie scored twice to lead the Avs offense; John Mitchell also scored for Colorado.
“I thought we had a great start and we just kind of took it from there,” Barrie said. “We had a lot of offensive-zone time and limited their chances and when they had chances, [Pickard] was great. It was a good, solid road game for us.”
Calvin Pickard made 25 saves for the win that pushed the Avs ahead of the Nashville Predators into the first wild card spot; Nashville lost in overtime to the Los Angeles Kings Saturday.
“He is very good offensively,” Avalanche coach Patrick Roy said of Barrie, who leads Colorado’s defensemen with 10 goals and 40 points. “He supports the rush really well, and tonight what I liked about him [was that] he defended well as well and that was great performance by him.”
Edmonton got goals from Taylor Hall and Benoit Pouliot and Cam Talbot made 26 in the loss.
“We had a lot of chances, it’s just unfortunate that Teddy’s goal got disallowed,” Pouliot said. “I think it was kind of a weird call and that [Hall] got pushed a little. We had our chances. We were right there. We just came up a little short. Lately it has been like that for us. If one of those could count then it could turn things around for us. There’s not much we can do about it. We just have to play hard and keep going.”
The Avs needed the win to keep pace with the rest of the western conference.
“It was a good game, we played well,” Iginla said. “Our penalty kill was good. We would have loved to get one on the 5-on-3, but they did a good job killing it off. But we were able to keep them from getting a lot of momentum off that. Those 5-on-3s can be dangerous, if you score, you’re expected to, if you don’t, it can be a big boost for them. It was good that we were able to have a good third, but it got a little dicey at the end, they were pressuring in the last four minutes.”
In Ottawa, the Senators rallied with a late goal in regulation and then defeated the Detroit Red Wings, 3-2, in the skills competition.
The win is the third straight for the Senators.
Newly acquired Dion Phaneuf got the game-tying marker in the third and Kyle Turris was only goal scorer in the shootout.
“That was a huge homestand for us,” Turris said. “To come back late tonight and get the two points was massive for us in the standings and gives us momentum going on the road.”
Andreas Athanasiou and Brad Richards were the goal scorers for the Red Wings in regulation who have now lost three straight.
Zack Smith also scored for the Sens in regulation and Craig Anderson made 29 in the win.
Phaneuf’s goal was greeted with a standing ovation in Ottawa.
“To be received like that, after scoring, it’s something that I will never forget as a player,” Phaneuf said. “I saw it, it was a special moment for me.
“But the bottom line is we found a way to win a game against a team we’re chasing. I thought it was a real gutsy effort by everyone to stick with it. We knew what was on the line, points-wise, as a team. I thought we really showed well.”
In St Louis, the Blues got off to a fast start against the Arizona Coyotes and then held on for their fifth straight win, 6-4.
“You kept shaking your head and wondering if it was real,” said Blues captain David Backes, who capped the scoring into an empty net with 0.3 seconds left. “[Arizona] had 12 goals in their last two (games), and I don’t know if we had that many in the last eight or nine.
“It was a wild ride, but we found another way to get another win and five in a row is a good feeling. Different guys are stepping up all the time.”
The Blues scored four goals from Vladimir Tarasenko, Alexander Steen, Jaden Schwartz and Carl Gunnarsson in the first half of the opening stanza.
Brian Elliott made 18 saves in the improved and improved to 12-3-3 as the new number one goalie in St Louis; Jake Allen was injured in early January.
Coyotes coach Dave Tippett placed the blame at his goalie’s skates for the poor start to the game.
“Two of the first three goals I wouldn’t even classify as scoring chances,” Tippett said. “They are poor goals and should be stopped from that angle. The fourth one Connauton put in, so that’s not on him.
“We have a lot of guys giving us everything they’ve got, but we have other guys we need a lot more from. The turnovers we had, especially from veteran players, we can’t have that.”
Louis Domingue made 18 saves but the opening 10 minutes were brutal.
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