The three-game sweep of the NHL starts in Toronto where the visiting Carolina Hurricanes continued their climb up the conference ladder with a 1-0 win over the Maple Leafs in overtime.
Jordan Staal scored at 2:54 of the extra session for the win.
“I was able to some speed in behind our net and I felt like I could get a step on their guy and get past him,” Staal said. “In 3-on-3, once you get a step on a guy there’s going to be an opportunity. I was able to get across their blue line and I saw [Faulk] was open, so I gave the puck to him. He is a guy who has a great shot, so when he shoots it’s either going in or there is going to be a rebound. The rebound bounced right to me and I was able to put it in.”
The Canes ended a two-game skid but have 11 points in their last seven games.
“The big story has been the young defensemen we have and the way they have played,” Staal said. “We’ve got a lot of guys who can move the puck and can skate as well. It makes it easier for the forwards. It’s a lot less demanding playing in our own end. You don’t have to worry about playing defense as much.”
Eddie Lack made 32 saves for the shutout win.
“Obviously I wasn’t happy with my game the other night and I wanted to have a good bounce-back performance,” Lack said. “I needed to get back on track and I felt that I saw the puck well today. It was fun playing against [Reimer]; I thought he had a really good game as well. I am extremely happy we got the two points in the end.”
James Reimer made 40 saves in the loss.
“I thought they worked hard and I thought we worked hard,” Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock said. “I thought they were better in the first 10 minutes, we were better in the next 30 minutes, and they were better in the third period. They skate better than we do. They have more guys that skate. I thought their kids were really good on the back end. You have to be really excited if you are the Hurricanes; they have four kids that look like they can play.”
In Columbus, the Blue Jackets continued their bad luck with a loss to the Calgary Flames and the loss of their number one goalie, Sergei Bobrovsky who suffered a lower-body injury.
“There’s no sense in me speculating and I don’t have an update,” Jackets coach John Tortorella said.
Sam Bennett had two goals and Johnny Gaudreau and Michael Frolik scored for Calgary.
“My linemates were flying,” Bennett said. “That’s huge when your linemates are going. I was getting a lot of chances, lot of looks.”
Karri Ramo made 27 saves for the Calgary win.
“There’s lot of confidence but it’s also great that he’s getting rewarded,” Calgary coach Bob Hartley said. “Look the way Sammy goes to the net. He’s hungry. He’s relentless and suddenly the red light is going on.”
Scott Hartnell and Brandon Dubinsky scored for the Jackets who fell to 17-27-4.
“We didn’t generate much offense. They didn’t either. They ended up scoring,” Tortorella said.
In Glendale, the San Jose Sharks got two first period goals from Tommy Wingels and Chris Tierney and went on to beat the Arizona Coyotes, 3-1.
“Every game is important, but this was especially important because we are close in the standings, in the same division and we play each other a lot going forward,” Wingels said. “These are two points you need, and I don’t think we’d be very happy with ourselves if we didn’t get them. Plus it’s our favorite game of the year with the dads here.”
Martin Jones made 23 saves for the win.
With the loss, the Coyotes fell behind the Sharks in the divisional race.
“I really liked our game,” San Jose coach Peter DeBoer said. “From our goalie to our special teams to the four lines and six defensemen, we got contributions from everybody. We’ve been a good road team all year and I was really comfortable that we were going to show up and play a good game.”
Brad Richardson scored the lone goal for the Coyotes and Louis Domingue made 20 saves in the loss.
“We were terrible in the first period so that probably cost us the game,” Richardson said. “Maybe it was just nerves. We knew it was a big game … sometimes you work yourself up for those games, you want it so bad that you’re kind of flat-footed and back.”
The Coyotes are now on a four-game losing streak at 0-3-1.
“We got better as the game went on,” Arizona coach Dave Tippett said. “But when you are talking about getting better as the game went on, that usually means you weren’t good at some point. We didn’t play at a good enough pace and we didn’t execute well enough to get off to a good start. We got behind and by the time we got up to pace we were behind.
“It was a measuring stick game, and we didn’t have enough players measuring up.”
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