The NHL slate featured three games from Wednesday night including the Flyers’ 4-1 win over the Chicago Blackhawks. Elsewhere, the Calgary Flames rescued a point from a near regulation loss to the Dallas Stars as they lost 4-3 in the skills competition.
“Every point is going to count at the end,” said Calgary defenseman Deryk Engelland, whose second goal of the game tied it in the third. “It’s a tight battle with a lot of teams, so we’ll take every point we can get. We’re trying for two every night, but if you get one, we’ll take it and go.”
Tyler Seguin had the winner in the talent portion of the game. After the game, Seguin spoke of the club’s wanting tin out ever since he returned from injury. He added quickly that he thought the rest of the team was thinking that before he got back.
“The thought has been win out really since I’ve come back from injury (on March 7),” Seguin said. “As long as I’ve been in the lineup that’s been the message. I’m sure the guys were saying it before as well. We’ve been playing some good hockey, we’ve been finding ways to win and that’s what it’s all about.
“We were saying right before overtime, ‘We’re here for two points; we’re not here for one.’ It was a playoff-type game. They had momentum at times. We had momentum. I think both teams made some mistakes and both teams made some great plays. Obviously we’re happy to walk away with both points.”
It’s commentary like this from Seguin that reinforces the perception that he is anything but a team player; none of the Stars had given a thought to “winning out” prior to his gracing the bench with his presence.
For Engelland, the two goals were his first two with the Flames since arriving.
“No matter if you score one or two or none, two points is what we need and coming down the stretch,” Engelland said. “We’ll take one but we needed that other one too.”
Kari Lehtonen made 31 saves for the win and Karri Ramo took the loss on 27 saves.
In Edmonton, the Oilers scored three times (goals from Martin Marincin, Jordan Eberle and Taylor Hall) in the first period on seven shots and chased Semyon Varlamov to the Colorado Avalanche’s bench.
Taylor Hall scored one of three first period Oilers goals – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
“We are all disappointed with the start of that game,” Avalanche coach Patrick Roy said. “I am proud with how the guys played afterwards, though. We had 44 shots on net and a lot of good chances. We did a lot of good things out there.”
Roy was proud because the Avs came all the way back to tie the game at three all in the third period with Ryan O’Reilly‘s goal early in the frame.
“That’s not the start we want to have in a game, it doesn’t matter who we are playing,” Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said. “That’s just not good enough. We were just losing battles in the first 10 minutes of the game and they ended up capitalizing on them. Scrivens made some big saves for them tonight. We believed all the way and we knew we could come back. We started playing the way that we can play. It’s disappointing to lose, for sure.”
Derek Roy scored on the power play for the Oilers at 10:42 of the third for the game-winner.
“When you think you have a team down, it’s never the case,” Hall said. “For us, even though we’re up three, we have to go for four or five and make sure that when teams come out for the second period they know the game is pretty much over.”
Ben Scrivens made 41 saves for the win while Reto Berra yielded the game-winner in relief of Varlamov.
“We got off to a good start and they battled back,” Oilers coach Todd Nelson said. “Then in the third period, there were chances traded back and forth. Both goaltenders made big saves and it was nice to get that power-play goal. They kept on coming and Benny made some huge saves for us down the stretch.”
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