The three-game sweep of the NHL is full of surprise endings as the sweep starts in St Paul where Devan Dubnyk and the Minnesota Wild shutout the Chicago Blackhawks, 3-0.
“That was just an incredible game by our guys,” Dubnyk said. “When they’re working 
that hard and they’re on top of just about every puck, it allows me to read plays easily. I know what’s available and I trust that the guys got covered what’s not and it makes it a much easier game for me.”
Mikko Koivu and Jason Zucker scored in the first period to stake the Wild to a lead and then bottled up the Hawks for the rest of the game.
“We’re fast when we have the puck moving north and that was an example of it,” Yeo said. “That was a long pass from our [defenseman] straight up to a forward. There wasn’t a lot of east-west plays.”
Mikael Granlund had the third goal for Minnesota.
“With the skill that they have, we wanted to keep pressing,” Koivu said. “All four lines were rolling, and from the defensive zone to the offensive zone, I thought we were a good package and that’s what we need to do.”
Corey Crawford faced 43 shots in the Hawks net including 24 in the second period, a Wild franchise record.
“He was rock-solid,” Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. “He had a decent first as well. He looked big and square. I thought he did a good job of controlling the dangerous shots.”
The second surprise came in Montreal, where the Buffalo Sabres snapped their 14-game skid with a 3-2 win over the Canadiens.
Drew Stafford, Matt Moulson and Brian Gionta scored in the first to give the Sabres a big lead they held.
“We’ve got a lot of proud guys in this room, guys that had been on good teams, and it’s one of those things that no one wants to be a part of and it’s nice that we were able to get that one behind us,” Gionta said.
Jhonas Enroth made 32 saves for the win.
“We had heard about it and we definitely didn’t want to get that and we just tried to stay positive, and like I said [Monday], I think everyone in here believed that we can beat this team,” Enroth said. “We had beaten this team twice before this year, so that was great to have that belief in our mind.”
Brandon Prust and David Desharnais scored for the Habs who have now lost two straight after a string of impressive wins on the road.
“There’s peaks and valleys to the season,” said Canadiens left wing Max Pacioretty, who assisted on Desharnais’ goal at 4:20 of the third period. “I’ve kind of gotten to realize that’s how it goes. You obviously want to work as hard as you can to dig yourselves out of it and dig the team out of it. As the years go on you realize these things happen, and the only way to get out of it is staying positive and working hard. We did that in the third; we have to do it from puck drop next game and do it for 60 minutes.”
The Sabres came out in the opening frame to dominate play and position for a full twenty minutes, surprising the Canadiens a bit.
“I think we lost the game in the first period,” Canadiens center Lars Eller said. “Yes, a bad bounce here and there, but overall it’s small mistakes that could have been avoided with better communication a couple of times. Small things that us players know in between ourselves but maybe aren’t visible from above. Fixable. Details. Important. Make a difference.”
The third surprise on the night was the effort given by the Toronto Maple Leafs in Nashville in a 4-3 loss to the Predators.
Colin Wilson‘s goal late in the third made the difference for the Preds.
“Just trying to go to the net and put pucks at the net,” Wilson said. “I think that’s about it. Just trying to stay engaged in every game.”
Nashville is now 20-2-1 at home.
“We just take a lot of pride,” Predators defenseman Shea Weber said. “I think a lot of teams in this league take a lot of pride in playing at home, and we especially do. We want to make it tough for teams to come into this building and play. That’s a big advantage when you can have that kind of record at home.”
After the Leafs struck for two quick goals the Predators took a time out to settle the game down.
“Not too surprising,” Nashville goaltender Carter Hutton said. “I think we’ve kind of showed that all year. We’re never really out of games at any point. We didn’t think it was our best game. We weren’t happy with our second, and the third didn’t start the way we wanted it to. We stuck with it, and that’s huge.”
Hutton made a highlight reel save late in the third when spun around in the crease and paddled the puck away just before it would have crossed the line.
“I think that in the first period we turned the puck over too many times,” Maple Leafs coach Peter Horachek said. “We were undisciplined with that part of the game, and that hurt us. I think the goals they scored were totally on us, and I didn’t think we were playing the way we were capable of.”
Despite scoring three straight to take a lead, the Leafs were their typical unimpressive selves including a dreadful back pass from Nazem Kadri in the first that led to a breakaway goal. It was the kind of play you might expect from a rec league game and a play that can cost someone a position or place on the roster.
The loss was the Maple Leafs’ 10th straight (0-9-1) tying a dubious franchise mark.
You must be logged in to post a comment.