Three games in the NHL Friday night and all had implications for winners and losers.
In St Paul, the Devan Dubnyk show continued as he made 23 saves to lift the Wild to a 4-2 win over the Calgary Flames.
After taking a big hit early in the third, Justin Fontaine set up Thomas Vanek for his 20th of the year as the Wild broke a one-all tie and went on to score two more to break the game open.
“I was pretty riled up by it,” Fontaine said. “I didn’t think it was the cleanest hit, but sometimes you come back and it motivates you and kind of get you going. Coming off the bench, I let him hear it a little bit.”
Vamek’s reappearance in the Wild scoresheet on a regular basis can be nothing but good news for Minnesota.
“Twenty is a great mark, it the first mark as a goal-scorer you want to hit every year,” Vanek said. “It was a struggle early on but I think I’ve stayed positive all year long and keep working and helping out my teammates. After Christmas, I really think my game has been trending the right way.”
Calgary missed a chance to leapfrog the Los Angeles Kings for the final wild card spot.
In Edmonton, former Dallas prospect, Richard Bachman, shutout the Stars, 4-0 behind 29 saves.
“On a selfish note, it feels good to beat them,” Bachman said. “Our guys did some really good things, blocking shots when I couldn’t see them and capitalizing on our opportunities. We gave them a few odd-man rushes that we probably didn’t like, but it was a really good hockey game.”
Kari Lehtonen made 23 saves for Dallas in the loss.
“That was a tough one; we didn’t play the game we have been playing lately that had made us successful,” Stars forward Shawn Horcoff said. “It cost us tonight. We had some chances, but we gave up way too many the other way. That’s the type of game we have been trying to get away from. Tonight we probably gave up more odd-man rushes than we had in our last 10 or 15. It is pretty disappointing. We still have to believe that we have a chance if we run the table from here.”
Dallas needed two points to get closer to the Flames.
“We got away from the way we like to play,” Stars defenseman Alex Goligoski said. “We turned a couple of pucks over and they have a lot of guys who can make plays on the rush. It was a back-and-forth game that we didn’t want it to be. We can’t afford to give up any points right now. We knew we probably had to win out, maybe room to lose a couple of points at best. This loss hurts.”
But the story was Bachman who gave the home side some ideas of the future.
“Richard was unbelievable, he was perfect,” Oilers coach Todd Nelson said. “In the second period, I thought we got away from our game, we started trading chances, and as team you can’t do that against them. He bailed us out with many opportunities against. He made some huge saves. We addressed it after the second period; our guys were better as a team in front of him in the third. I thought we had some good efforts, secondary efforts clearing the puck, and I thought our young defense played very well.”
In Chicago, the loser was feeling heat from below as the Blackhawks now lead Minnesota by a single point in the standings after a 5-2 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Sergei Bobrovsky got road win over Chicago Friday night – file photo by Brent Clark
“We just have to put our heads up and these things, we have to shake it off,” Chicago right wing Marian Hossa said. “There’s still lots of hockey in front of us. Stay positive and turn the page and just learn from our mistakes, because it’s getting [to be] too many of those mistakes. We just have to learn from it and get better, especially tighter defensively.”
Tip-ins and deflections cost the Hawks.
“We had more chances in that first period than we had in a long time in any game, but the quality [chances] against were self-generated,” Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. “I think we gave them the first three goals, and the fourth one was the icing on the cake. Tough to come back after that one.”
Sergei Bobrovsky made 31 saves for the road win, Columbus’ seventh straight.
Cam Atkinson finished off a hat trick with an empty net goal to close out the scoring.
“It’s great,” Atkinson said. “A lot of people say it’s hard to get motivated, especially if you’re not going to make the playoffs, but we’re playing for pride, playing for each other, and playing for our fans back in Columbus. I think they deserve it the most.”
After giving up four goals on just 13 shots, Corey Crawford was relieved by Scott Darling in the first period.
For Columbus, the win was about what can be next season.
“We want to get the momentum going into the summer and start strong next year,” said Atkinson, who scored into an empty net at 19:01 of the third for the hat trick. “It’s definitely been a tough season. Everyone keeps bringing [injuries] up, and you can say it’s an excuse, but when you have the majority of your top guys out, it makes a big difference.”
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