In the three-game sweep of the NHL, there is a theme of persistence in all three reviews. We start in St Paul where the Minnesota Wild used a strong opening 40 minutes of play to down the St Louis Blues, 6-3.
The prognosticators of the NHL see the Blues and Wild as a potential fist round match-up.
“The playoffs are so far away, we have to worry about just getting there,” Wild forward Zach Parise said. “We’re playing well and it’s a big win for us against these guys. They’re always a tough opponent.”
It was the second loss to the Wild in a week for the Blues and this one Saturday stung a bit.
“In our building [last week], I don’t think we disliked the way we played at all. We deserved two points; we had a lapse, they scored twice and their goalie made 40 saves,” Blues captain David Backes said. “Tonight, they were the better team. They were on their toes, they were jumping on us, putting pucks in the right spot and playing a fast game. To combat that, we have to play our hard, heavy game and we just never got to it.”
Thomas Vanek has ramped up his game and potted his 18th of the season in the first period.
“They don’t give you anything easy,” Vanek said. “My goal was just getting hard to the net. It hit my arm and had some solid backspin.”
The Blues tried to downplay the loss by denigrating the quality of the scores.
“They were goofy, deflection goals,” Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said. “Some of the goals were once-in-a-lifetime goals, but still, they scored six goals.”
For real persistence, look no further than Ottawa where the Sens’ Andrew Hammond remained undefeated in regulation with a 5-3 win over the hapless Toronto Maple Leafs.
“We can’t really worry about what [Boston] is doing. We just need to keep going,” Hammond said. “We all know that’s the team we’re chasing, but we can’t let that frustrate us, that they’re still picking up points. Luckily we were able to pick up another point tonight.”
The win put the Sens just a point back of the fading Boston Bruins in the chase for the final wild card spot in the east.
Kyle Turris scored twice for the Sens.
“We’ve just got to keep winning,” Turris said.
Erik Karlsson, Curtis Lazar and Mike Hoffman also added goals for the Sens.
“Except for the second period I think for the most part we played better than they did,” Karlsson said. “We wanted it more. We made it tough for their top lines. They couldn’t really get any quality scoring chances on us.”
The Leafs remain a befuddled looking group of skaters on the ice.
“I thought the guys worked to get back in it,” Leafs coach Peter Horachek, said. “That’s the positive thing you’re going to take out of it. We still, at the inappropriate times, had a couple of turnovers that went the wrong way. They jumped with four guys and got chances and too many shots.
“At the end, when we got back into the game, the shots were pretty close. The third period there wasn’t enough push. When they scored that power-play goal at the end of the second period, that was a real dagger.”
The third game of persistence was the Columbus Blue Jackets’ 3-2 win over the Calgary Flames in extra time.
Rene Bourque scored his sixth of the season with just under a minute left in overtime to secure the win.
“It’s never an easy road trip for an Eastern team,” Bourque said. “In the East, there’s never time changes. It’s a long flight, a couple back-to-back games. Credit to the guys in the locker room for a big three games. We never gave up once. We were down a couple goals in almost every game and we were able to climb, fight our way back in. Guys didn’t quit. That’s what we want to see.”
There is no post season for the Jackets this year but the team has never given up on the effort. The number of injuries over the season was daunting but the club has remained competitive.
“Overtime, I just tried to get in front of the net,” Bourque said. “I don’t know if it went off the goalie or a D-man. It just kind popped out in front of me, and I was able to get control of it and put it past Ramo.”
For Calgary, it was a loss of a much needed point.
“We need two points and losing that one in overtime is tough to swallow right now,” Calgary defenseman Kris Russell said. “At the same time, we’re going to take that point and try and build off it. We’ve got a few games left at home, so we’ve got to grab some momentum before we head on the road.”
Persistence pays off.
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