The sweep starts in San Jose, where it took only 19 seconds for Brent Burns to score a power play goal in extra time to defeat the Arizona Coyotes, 2-1 Tuesday night.
“A great shot,” Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said. “In that play, you’ve got Burns on one side and (Logan) Couture on the other loaded up for shots. You can go either way with it. It’s nice when you have weapons like that that can execute.”
WATCH: All Coyotes vs. Sharks highlights
Mike Smith made 40 saves in a busy night and kept the Coyotes competitive.
“Anytime you lose, there’s frustration,” Smith said. “I thought we started well. It was one of our better starts in this arena we’ve had in the first 10 minutes or so. And then it kind of got away from us.”
Max Domi gave the Coyotes a 1-0 lead in the second period after being outplayed in the first period.
“[Smith] played great, but we have to find a way to get our offense going outside of our zone a lot faster. That would make it easier to get some chances,” Domi said.
Chris Tierney tied it up with a goal in the second period as well.
Martin Jones made 18 saves for the win.
In Chicago, the Blackhawks faced the Florida Panthers who lost their head coach this week and needed a shootout to defeat the visitors, 2-1.
With new interim head coach Tom Rowe directing his fist NHL game, Corey Crawford made 38 saves to keep Rowe from his first win.
“I’m really proud of the guys,” Rowe said. “The effort was incredible to come into Chicago and go into the third period [down] 1-0, give yourself a chance to win the game, and then we tie it up and we get a point. It was a great effort by everyone.”
WATCH: All Panthers vs. Blackhawks highlights
For Chicago, it was their first home game since the completion of the “Circu Trip?
“That was a long trip there, and we were excited to come back home,” said Crawford, who made four saves in overtime to help kill 1:40 of carryover power-play time for the Panthers. “They came out pretty strong, but we played pretty solid and smart and we created a lot, where I think their guy made a bunch of saves, and we just found a way to win in this one.”
Roberto Luongo made 32 saves in the loss.
Richard Panik scored in the first for the Hawks and then potted the game-winner in the skills competition.
Florida’s goal came from Jaromir Jagr who scored just 35 seconds into the third period.
“We feel that we are on the right track with this game today and obviously after the events that happened before this. I think we are moving forward and in the right direction based on the way we played today,” — Panthers Aaron Ekblad said of his new coach.
In Edmonton, the slide of the Oilers continued with a 4-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs Tuesday.
Frederik Andersen stopped 27 shots for the Leafs win.
Rookie Auston Matthews scored his 10th of the season for the Maple Leafs.
“I think we stuck to the game plan, the whole 60 minutes and we didn’t get away from it too much,” Matthews said. “We got pucks in deep and kind of just played heavy down there, grinding them down low. They’re a very good rush team so we wanted to eliminate that from them, so I think we did a pretty good job of that tonight.”
WATCH: All Maple Leafs vs. Oilers highlights
The Oilers, who have three straight, got goals from Connor McDavid, and Andrej Sekera.
“We had some chances to do some damage [on the power play] but we didn’t capitalize,” McDavid said. “We had a 5-on-3 and didn’t convert. That could have changed the momentum.”
Cam Talbot had a difficult night making 10 saves through 40 minutes of action and was pulled at the start of the third in favor of Jonas Gustavsson,
“The second period, we didn’t give up more than four chances and they got three goals,” Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. “The difference between the two teams tonight was they valued checking. It was really important to them. We neglected it. The team that values it wins the game. The team that checks better eventually wins the game, and they did.”
Toronto picked up goals from James van Riemsdyk, Nazem Kadri and Zach Hyman in the win.
“It was a good win for our team, obviously. We were in the box way too much, which is disappointing,” Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock said. “I didn’t see it that way, but they don’t care what I think. I thought the kill was real good, we scored timely goals and I thought we did a lot of good things. We started heavy in the offensive zone in the first period in particular. Any time you’re on the road and you can get the lead, obviously that’s positive.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.