The three-game sweep of the NHL from Tuesday night starts in St Paul where the Minnesota Wild proved that the Montreal Canadiens are an average team without Carey Price in net.
Jason Pominville and Charlie Coyle scored for the Wild in a 2-1 win Tuesday.
Darcy Kuemper made 24 saves to keep the Habs at bay until the third period when Daniel Carr scored for Montreal to cut the Wild lead in half.
“I think it’s been a week since my last start, so it was nice to get back in there and keep the good things going and keep the momentum going forward,” Kuemper said. “It’s nice when you get to play and get into a rhythm. I’m just trying to keep it right now.”
The game was a close quarters affair but the Wild bested the Habs at most phases of the game.
“That was a really tight game for both teams,” Canadiens coach Michel Therrien said. “Both teams stuck to their structure. They capitalized on the mistakes and we had two big ones.”
Mike Condon took the loss on 20 saves in a solid effort.
“We deserve better,” Montreal’s Nathan Beaulieu said. “We’ve had some bad games along this stretch but we’ve played some good hockey, especially tonight. Good goaltender, [defense] played well, forwards were playing our system. I know we keep saying, ‘It was just one of those nights,’ but we played a good hockey game tonight.”
In Glendale, the Arizona Coyotes benefitted from a strong game from Shane Doan who had two goals and three points on the night in a 3-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
His two goals came just 14 seconds apart in the first period.
Connor Murphy picked up the game-winner in the third period for Arizona.
“It was a sloppy game, but sometimes winning can be ugly,” Coyotes coach Dave Tippett said. “But Louis was real big in goal for us, and [Doan] took care of the offense.”
Nazem Kadri and James van Riemsdyk scored for the Leafs
Louis Domingue picked up the win with 37 saves.
“I have a totally different approach to my game as opposed to last year,” Domingue said. “I’m confident and I know what I’m getting into and I’m just trying to do my job and go day by day. Right now, that’s working.”
Jonathan Bernier made 23 saves in the loss for the Leafs who had a six-game point streak snapped.
In Tampa, the Vancouver Canucks got a goal from Daniel Sedin in the third period to edge the Lightning, 2-1, Tuesday.
“We have a good team, I thought we played well,” Canucks coach Willie Desjardins said. “Our 5-on-5 game was a good game tonight. The guys really sold out late in the third to block some huge shots. Markstrom played well.”
Sven Baertschi also scored for the Canucks.
Jacob Markstrom made 26 saves in the win.
“[This win] means a lot, especially now because we have a little break for a few days,” Markstrom said. “It’s good for the standings and in our locker room. The guys were getting a little grumpy, so it’s good to get a win.”
Jonathan Marchessault scored a power play goal for the Bolts; they were 1-for-10 on the power play.
“We have to take responsibility as players, there’s no excuses,” Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said. “We have to be better than what we played in the first and second period. In the third, we had some great looks but couldn’t get the puck in the net. I hit two posts. I had some good looks, it just wasn’t going my way tonight with regards to putting the puck in the net. We completely blew it.”
Ben Bishop made 17 saves for the Lightning in the loss.
“This is a game we should have won,” Tampa Bay defenseman Anton Stralman said. “We should have scored more goals, especially on the power play. This is unacceptable. We needed to come out with a good start, and that didn’t happen; our first period was really flat.”
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