With the NHL All Star break in the past, the three-game sweep of the schedule is back and starts in Edmonton where the Oilers were hosting one of the bigger disappoints of the first half of the season, the Minnesota Wild.
Charlie Coyle scored the game-winner with less than five minutes to go in regulation and gave the Wild a tight 2-1 win over the Oilers.
“It’s good to get the two points, and definitely, there are some opportunities to learn a few lessons in that game,” Wild coach Mike Yeo said. “Our puck management was poor, very poor, against a team that we stressed how good they were on the counterattack and the skill they have in the lineup. I think the way we managed the puck led to a lot of odd-man rushes or chances against. We pride ourselves on being a team that can defend well, but when you’re turning pucks over like that, you’re not in a position to defend.
“Charlie’s goal couldn’t have come at a better time. We had started to lose momentum because of the turnovers that we had and so when you get an opportunity like that and you get to capitalize on it, that’s obviously huge.”
The win snapped a two-game skid by the Wild who need wins to make amends for a dreadful first half.
“It’s always hard that first game back from a long break,” Wild forward Zach Parise said. “It was a pretty boring game; there was not much going either way, just a lot of chipping pucks, throwing it off the glass, not much in the way of sustained pressure either way. But fortunately, we were able to win. It’s really hard when you haven’t felt the puck or you don’t have your legs. That first game coming back is always a tough one.”
Turnovers killed the Oilers’ efforts especially the on the game-winner.
“There were too many turnovers tonight. Two of them were costly,” Oilers coach Todd Nelson said. “We could have managed the puck a lot better. I thought we fought the puck a bit tonight, especially early on.”
In Nashville, the Predators yielded a late goal to the Colorado Avalanche to tie the game at four all before Craig Smith scored with 2:14 remaining in e3xtra time to seal the win for the Preds.
“I think in overtime you have to be patient,” Smith said. “[Nashville goaltender Carter Hutton] made some great saves there at the end. We were scrambling a little bit to hang on to the puck and make a tape-to-tape pass, but [Ribeiro] got the puck, put his head up and made a nice saucer pass through the middle.”
The Avs’ Nick Holden had tied things up with 36 seconds left in regulation.
“That’s certainly not what we want to do at the end of the game,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. “I thought our guys played really hard in the second period and the third period. I liked the fact that we scored early in the third period and continued to press for the entire time. Those last two or three minutes, you’re trying to close out a game and they’ve got the extra attacker. There’s more bodies for them on the ice than we can cover.”
Filip Forsberg scored his 16th of the year just 32 seconds into the third period to give Nashville a 4-3 lead.
“I was just trying to get the first shot on net, and then obviously the rebound came right out,” Forsberg said. “I just tried to get it back at the net. I didn’t really see if it went in or not, but I kind of heard everyone celebrating.”
In Raleigh, the Carolina Hurricanes are a sparkling 7-2-1 for 2015. On Tuesday, they picked up where they left off with the break and defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-2.
“It’s a different dynamic what we have going on now, where guys are situated, the roles guys are asked to play,” Eric Staal said. “We competed with a lot of teams early in the year. We weren’t getting smoked every game. We were playing properly. We just weren’t winning.”
Anton Khudobin made 28 saves for the win, many of them stellar and necessary as the Canes got a little lazy with a lead.
“He came up huge at big times,” Canes head coach Bill Peters said of Khudobin. “Once it was 2-0, I thought we were standing around watching. Maybe a little false sense of security when it was 2-0, but there shouldn’t be.”
The early 2-0 hole the Bolts found themselves in was too big for the club to rebound.
“It was a little frustrating we came out down because we carried the last half of the first period,” Tampa head coach Jon Cooper said. “Their goalie, he made the saves. It’s tough because we come on the road and give up four goals. That means you have to score five to win. It’s tough to do in this league.”
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