Nightly Scrap: Blackhawks beat Thrashers in shootout
Jonathan Toews and the Chicago Blackhawks found a way to beat their former teammates currently on the Atlanta Thrashers.
However, it would take 65 minutes and a shootout to decide which team would win. Patrick Kane and Toews led their team with two goals each, playing with each other and the young Viktor Stalberg— who would eventually decide the shootout. The team traded Dustin Byfuglien, Ben Eager, Brent Sopel and Andrew Ladd to the Thrashers with the belief that their star players would step up and carry the scoring. Suffice to say, the plan worked last night.
Nik Antropov, Alex Burmistrov, Evander Kane and Rich Peverley all scored for their team while the former Blackhawks combined for three assists in the contest. Ondrej Pavelec is also still looking for his first win of the season, taking his second overtime loss in three decisions.
Despite a small letdown by putting Tuukka Rask between the pipes, the Bruins and Blues played a spirited battle, also deciding their game via shootout. Vladimir Sobotka and Gregory Campbell each scored their first goals of the year but it was Brad Boyes who eventually sealed the team’s sixth straight win.
Meanwhile in Toronto, rookie Jhonas Enroth found his first career victory with a shootout win and 23 saves. The Buffalo Sabres had to come back from a 2-0 deficit, sprung on them early by Mikhail Grabovski and Nikolai Kulemin. Derek Roy started the comeback trail with Jochen Hecht extending the game to overtime with his first of the season. With last night’s win the Sabres broke a five game losing streak.
The Pittsburgh Penguins and Marc-Andre Fleury traveled to Phoenix to take on the Coyotes. After letting in two goals on five shots the team decided to pull their starting goalie and actually got the win behind backup Brent Johnson. Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Chris Kunitz all scored in regulation while Eric Belanger, Wojtek Wolski and Radim Vrbata did the same before Mark Letestu got the game winner in the shootout.
Peter Budaj and the Colorado Avalanche simply steamrolled the streaking Dallas Stars 5-0, ending their three game winning streak. Led by their fourth line of Philippe Dupuis, David Van der Gulik, Kevin Porter the Avs scored more than four goals for the sixth time this season. The second line of Matt Duchene, Brandon Yip and Milan Hejduk also combined for two goals and Budaj earned his first shutout of the season.
Surprisingly this game was the only game won by shutout.
Due to time restraints we will not get to every game. The Ottawa Senators won again, defeating the Montreal Canadiens 3-2… Carolina avoided back-to-back losses to the Florida Panthers, with the Canes winning 3-2… Jose Theodore got his first win as a Wild as Minnesota beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-2… The Flyers and Sergei Bobrovsky now have won six straight… The Los Angeles Kings have now won four straight games, beating the slumping Nashville Predators… Vancouver Canucks won over the Detroit Red Wings and have won six straight as well… Antero Niittmaki won his fifth start in seven tries with the Sharks beating the Lightning 5-2.