The three-game sweep starts in Raleigh where the Carolina Hurricanes hung a 3-0 shutout on the Washington Capitals.
“I thought we played good,” Hurricanes coach Bill Peters said. “But 5-on-5 we had a lot of jump and in the first period, we had the puck a lot off faceoffs. In this League, when you get the lead and can extend the lead, you’re in good shape.”
Anton Khudobin stopped 28 shots for the win.
“I had one really not-good game,” 
explained. “I came back to the hotel and he was on Skype. My mother called first and said, ‘Your father wants to talk to you.’ So he moved my mother away, and he yelled at me for like 30 seconds. I understood him, and then he said, ‘I’m done.’ And he was gone.
“The next game I got my first shutout.”
Brett Bellemore, Jeff Skinner and Nathan Gerbe all scored for the Canes in the solid win over a Caps team that is suddenly vulnerable.
“I kind of faked one way and [Holtby] kind of bit a little bit,” Bellemore said. “But when you fake, you’re a little off balance so I just tried to get it through. There was a good screen by Nestrasil and it had eyes for me.”
The Caps have now lost three straight and there is concern in the locker room.
Niklas Backstrom – file photo by Brent Clarke
“We really need to get going again,” Nicklas Backstrom said. “There’s only 19 games left and we need a little push here. Tonight was not good at all. When we had a good run there in December, we were shooting a lot more and creating a lot more traffic in front of the net. We’ve got to get back to that.”
In Tampa, Ben Bishop stopped 28 shots from the Chicago Blackhawks and Steven Stamkos scored twice in a 4-0 shelling of the Hawks Friday night.
“I wasn’t happy with my last couple of games at home, so it was nice to have this performance in front of the home fans,” Bishop said. “I thought the team played well, we played a full 60 minutes with penalty kill, power play and 5-on-5, so it was good to see.”
The Hawks the back end of a two-in-two set in Florida.
“It wasn’t our best game, and in a game like this we have to keep it simple, and it just seemed like we were playing into their hands too much,” Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith said. “They have a lot of speed and skill on all the lines. They can all skate and they can all make plays. We had to be a lot simpler tonight.”
Stamkos picked up his 33rd and 34th goals of the year.
“I thought we came out strong, I think we had a couple of penalties and that probably fired us up,” Stamkos said. “It was an energetic crowd, they have a big following, and I think the goal quieted some of the fans wearing red. It was a good shot from Garrison.”
In Dallas, the Colorado Avalanche scored three times in the third period including Gabriel Landeskog’s game-tying goal in the 13th minute. The goal forced extra time where nothing was settled until the skills competition where the Avs posted a 5-4 win on the road.
“Tonight was a good comeback,” Avalanche coach Patrick Roy said. “I think we can build on that third period. It’s nice to be Mr. Positive, but sometimes you need to win hockey games and that’s what we did tonight without being perfect after 40 minutes. That’s the reason why we play 60 minutes. We had 20 to redeem ourselves and that’s what the guys did.”
Ryan O’Reilly scored the only marker in the talent portion of the game to secure the win.
“It’s been a while since I’ve scored in that (the shootout),” O’Reilly said. “[Matt Duchene] gave me a little advice on what to do there. It was a great call by him. I just went down and luckily for me it went in.”
Kari Lehtonen took the loss on 19 saves and was promptly thrown under the bus by Stars coach Lindy Ruff.
“There’s one thing I see, and I know this is hard, but the goaltending performance doesn’t match the effort of the team,” Ruff said. “You need goaltending. It’s as simple as that. There’s nights that he has to steal games, there’s nights where he has to outperform the other guy. Our goaltending has been tough on our team, and I think that’s where the frustration is.”
Dallas played well through forty minutes of hockey but like the LA Kings they let off the throttle in the third and allowed the Avs back into a game they were clearly outmatched.
“I’m at a little bit of a loss for words,” Jason Spezza said of the loss. “We battle. We do such a good job for 40 minutes. We get a two-goal lead, and then we don’t do a good enough job of clearing them away in front of the net. It’s a different thing every night, though. Too many two-goal leads in the third period to lose as many as we have. If you win half those, we’re in a way better position. It should never happen to a team.”
The Avs swept the five-game season series from the Stars this year.
“We played 40 minutes of pretty good hockey so many times this year, and then we just stop playing in the third period and we let teams come back in the game,” Jamie Benn said. “We’ve got to learn to win in this League. We’ve got to learn how to win on this team, and you can put that on the leadership of myself.”
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