The sweep of the NHL from Sunday starts in Chicago where the Minnesota Wild continued their success against the Blackhawks this season with a 3-2 win the shootout.
Charlie Coyle netted the game-winner; his was the only goal in the skills competition.
“It says a lot,” Wild coach John Torchetti said. “It says that [our guys] want it. Some people are questioning us that we want it, but not me. I think we want it.”
Charlie Coyle’s SO goal gave Wild win over Hawks – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Devan Dubnyk made 29 saves through extra time and then stopped Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Artemi Panarin in the shootout.
Erik Haula and Nino Niederreiter scored for the Wild in regulation.
“Hard-fought game,” Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith said. “It’s tough not to get that extra point. I still think it’s a step in the right direction from the way we played before. We wanted to build off the game in Winnipeg (a 4-0 win on Friday). I thought we did a lot of good things, but at the same time there’s still a ways that we can go to get where we want to be, and where we need to be.”
Andrew Shaw and Richard Panik scored for the Hawks in regulation and Scott Darling made 31 saves in the loss.
“We needed to play a patient game,” Shaw said. “They got an early lead and put us behind the eight-ball, but we knew if we kept sticking to our game, we could fight our way back. And that’s exactly what we did.”
In San Jose, a rejuvenated James Reimer made 25 saves in a 3-0 shutout of the Arizona Coyotes.
“He was really solid,” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. “I thought we did a good job in front of him, letting him see most shots, but he made a couple big saves too at the right time. That’s a great luxury to have, both guys playing the way they are right now.”
Joel Ward, Tomas Hertl and Joe Pavelski had the goals for the Sharks.
Joe Pavelski sealed win with empty-netter – File photo by Jack Lima
“It’s hard to take credit for that one tonight,” Reimer said. “I thought our team played one of the better games I’ve seen them play in a long time, especially with it being a back-to-back. I thought they were up, they were skating, and they were outworking them. For me, it was just a matter of sitting back there and watching them do their thing.”
Mike Smith made 33 saves in the loss. It was the second straight game where the Coyotes were blanked; they lost 2-0 to the Lightning Saturday.
“Obviously it was a tough turnaround,” Smith said. “We didn’t have the start we wanted to. But we got going as the game wore on. We had some chances. When you are struggling to put the puck in the net, it seems it’s a lot harder to get going
“It was one of those games where it was full of power plays and penalty kills. Our penalty kill did a pretty good job. Obviously the one that got through was a bad bounce. It was like a pinball goal. Unfortunate bounces for us.”
In Edmonton, the visiting Colorado Avalanche picked up a much-needed two points in a 3-2 win over the Oilers.
Gabriel Landeskog returned from a three-game suspension and had a goal and two points on the night.
“I felt good.” Landeskog said. “It’s tough watching, and I was hungry and ready to go. But the guys have done a great job throughout the road trip to make sure we’re in a great spot, and I was just hungry to come out and help out.”
Tyson Barrie and Blake Comeau also scored for the Avs.
Gabriel Landeskog returned to Avs lineup with goal, assist in win over Oilers – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Calvin Pickard made 26 saves for the Avs in the win.
“We played really well,” Avalanche coach Patrick Roy said. “I thought we had a great start and our power play was outstanding. Our puck possession was outstanding, we were able to hold on to the puck in the O-zone and we had a lot of shots. I was very happy with the performance of the team.”
The Oilers got their goals from Matt Hendricks and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.
“For me, the difference was the power play,” Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. “There’s nothing close. Their power play zipped it around. We couldn’t win faceoffs, so they stayed in our end for two minutes, zipped it around, scored goals and lined up again. And ours turned it over and went to break out again, and then turned it over and went to break out again and then — guess what — we turned it over again.”
Laurent Brossoit was in net for the Oilers and took the loss on 22 saves; his record fell to -4-1.
“It’s another loss and I want to contribute in a positive way, and I still have yet to do that,” Brossoit said. “I need to make more adjustments, more work to do. The win is the most important part. I couldn’t care less about my statistics, I want the win.”
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