The sweep starts in St Louis where the Blues’ Jaden Schwartz scored twice in a 4-3 shootout win over the Minnesota Wild.
Charlie Coyle forced overtime when he knotted the game at 3-3 with just over a minute left in regulation.
Center Charlie Coyle forced OT in St Louis – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
David Perron scored the game-winner in the fourth round of the skills competition.
“He (Devan Dubnyk) was staying low, but he was recovering pretty quickly,” Perron said of Dubnyk. “Just saw the other guys go and actually on the way down was thinking backhand like I like to do, and then I don’t know, I tried something different, and it went in.”
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Paul Stastny also scored for St. Louis who have been hot of late with a four-game streak going.
“Any time you get points in the division, it’s like gold right now,” Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said. “We’ve got to keep this going.”
Jake Allen made 28 saves for the win.
Mikko Koivu and Erik Haula also scored for the Wild and Dubnyk made 35 saves in the loss.
In Ottawa Saturday, Kyle Turris scored the game-winner to send the Senators to their third straight win and defat the Carolina Hurricanes, 2-1.
“I really like our mindset,” Senators coach Guy Boucher said. “It’s a playoff mindset of we’re not giving the game away, we’re not beating ourselves, and guys are really getting good at that.”
Craig Anderson made 32 saves in the win.
“You don’t want to get in the habit of playing from behind, but we’re showing good mental toughness by not letting a goal affect the way we play,” Anderson said. “We’re not altering the way we play trying to chase that goal. We’re sticking with it and being patient knowing that hopefully one is all they’re going to get, but we have the ability to score and not chase it.”
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Dion Phaneuf also scored for the Senators in the win.
Sebastian Aho was the Canes’ lone goal scorer.
Cam Ward took the loss on 22 saves.
“It is frustrating. Any time you give up a late goal, a game-winning goal, it is frustrating. It’s important we park it here when we fly back to Raleigh and get ready for Florida,” Ward said. “We have less than 24 hours to go back out there and continue to do what we’ve been doing. We’ve been playing strong. Tonight was no different. We just weren’t able to find the back of the net.”
In Denver, the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Colorado Avalanche, 3-2, in a shootout.
“Hockey-wise, it’s a really good trip for us,” Canucks goalie Jacob Markstrom said. ” . “We have to win these road trips.”
Markstrom made 33 saves to get the win and stopped three Avs shooters in the skills competition.
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“I haven’t played in a while so I felt really fresh,” Markstrom said. “I thought the guys really battled. It was almost shocking [neither team scored] in the overtime with all the chances.”
Markus Granlund picked up the decisive goal in the shootout in the first round,
Calvin Pickard got the start in the Avs net and made 29 saves in the loss.
“Granlund comes in and I’ve seen him in the American [Hockey] League a few times,” Pickard said. “A lefty coming in at that angle, the 5-hole is a bit of an option. I thought I had it, I got a piece of it with my stick, but obviously not enough, so we were behind the 8-ball after round one.”
Mikhail Grigorenko and Jarome Iginla scored in regulation for Colorado.
Alexandre Burrows and Loui Eriksson scored in regulation for the Canucks.
“It gets to a shootout and it’s a coin toss for me at that point. We need to score a goal if we’re going to win it in a shootout,” Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar said after the game.
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