The three-game sweep of the NHL starts in Chicago, where the Blackhawks were boosted on two goals from rookie Artemi Panarin in a 4-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers.
Patrick Kane had a goal and four points on the night.
Artem Anisimov added a power play goal with time winding down.
“That group together has been fun to watch,” said Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville, who put Panarin on the top line for a couple of games looking for scoring balance. “Tonight, I’m sure they were happy to be back together again, and got it going right off the hop. So, it was a good night for that line, and they continue to be, a lot of nights, the only form of production we’re getting.”
Corey Crawford had 34 saves in the win.
“That one felt pretty good,” Crawford said. “I kind of struggled in the last couple games. I wanted to come back strong, especially when your coach gives you the net again. You want to prove him right, do well for him. I felt a lot better. I was seeing the puck well.”
Cam Talbot took the loss on 24 saves and once again was victimized by a poor defensive effort in front of him.
“It seems like with our team right now, we have to get the garbage out or fall behind and then play from there,” Edmonton coach Todd McLellan said. “Some of that has a lot to do, or at least I believe a lot to do, with our belief system. We have to believe that we can play against these types of teams. We fall behind and then we got nothing to lose, so we go and we play hard, but that has to happen right off the bat and I think that’s mental.”
In Newark, Kyle Palmieri scored a power play goal in overtime to give the New Jersey Devils a 4-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks.
“[Cammalleri] made a great play,” Palmieri said. “We had a couple plays that didn’t work and frustration might have been settling in, but the goal was kind of a broken little forecheck where the puck went to [Cammalleri]. The Canucks know he’s a shooter, and when he pumped he froze everybody, so all I had to do was put it in the empty net.”
Adam Henrique scored a shorthanded goal for the Devils.
“Specialty teams can win you games and we were fortunate to get that one in overtime,” Devils goalie Keith Kinkaid said. “It’s a good feeling. Our penalty kill is strong, we’re blocking shots and getting it done. We had to keep them in check and probably gave them a few too many power plays, but we stayed with it.”
Chris Higgins, Alexander Edler and Sven Baertschi had goals for the Canucks and Ryan Miller made 24 saves in the loss.
“The close games have been slipping away from us,” Baertschi said. “There’s reasons for it. It might be tiny little mistakes. In the end, we have the group to win those games. We have smart enough players, we have enough skill to win those games. Eventually we’re going to figure it out. Those games are going to be big for us.”
In Detroit, the visiting Dallas Stars got goals from Patrick Sharp, Tyler Seguin, Valeri Nichushkin, and Cody Eakin in a 4-1 win over the Red Wings.
“We wanted to get off to a good start and we have and we’ll enjoy it for a while. And we’ll put it behind us in an hour,” Dallas Coach Lindy Ruff said.
Two empty net goals late in the contest made the score look more wide open than it was.
“We’ve got to be comfortable. It was a 4-1 game, but we’ve got to be comfortable playing 2-1, 3-2, one-goal games,” Seguin said. “Obviously, we’re happy with the way we played.”
Jimmy Howard made 20 saves before being hit the head with a knee from Jason Spezza. Petr Mrazek faced two shots in the balance of the game and stopped both.
Kari Lehtonen made 21 saves in the win.
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