Welcome to a (somewhat) daily post that I’m calling The Scores. I’ll be recapping hockey games that happened yesterday. And to start us off, It’ll be Ottawa visiting New Jersey.
Wayne Simmonds started off the scoring for NJ, followed by Ottawa scoring with Jean-Gabriel Pageau to tie the game. Will Butcher gave New Jersey the lead in the closing seconds of the first, making the score 1-2. Nobody scored in the second, but in the third, it was all Ottawa Senators! Mark Borowiecki tied the game again, followed by Pageau scoring not once, but twice to earn the first regular season hat trick of his NHL career. The final score was 4-2.
Next up, the Maple Leafs visit the Islanders. A lot of goals were scored in this game, and since I’m typing this at a place where I have limited time, I’ll briefly summarize the game. Anthony Beauvillier scored twice, and Derick Brassard scored a power play goal, giving the Isles the big win, 4-5.
Washington vs Philadelphia was a very low scoring game. And by very low scoring, i mean only two players scored at all: Brendan Leipsic for the Washington Capitals, and Claude Giroux for the Philadelphia Flyers. Overtime saw no victor, so a shootout was done. TJ Oshie and Evgeny Kuznetsov helped the Caps pick up the win in the Wells Fargo Center, 2-1.
The C of Red were looking for a win, but sadly, the Stars of Dallas denied the Saddledome of their victory. With Joe Pavelski putting the biscuit in the basket twice (with Justin Dowling getting his first NHL goal), the Stars braved the harsh C, and left the Scotiabank Saddledome with their heads held high thanks to their 3-1 score.
The Final Game of yesterday was a big one. Chicago visited the bright lights of Las Vegas, and entered The Fortress (T-Mobile Arena) with one goal in mind: Defeat the Golden Knights. Since they’ve been 0-5-2 this season against Vegas, they didn’t just want this win, they needed it. And it didn’t look like they get it at first, with Carrier and Karlsson giving the 2-0 lead to the hometown team. But Patrick Kane struck Marc Andre-Fleury hard, leading to Calvin de Haan, Erik Gustaffson, Kirby Dach, and Dylan Strome scoring and giving the original six franchise a strong lead against the team that almost won it all in their expansion year. Even though Nate Schmidt tried to make a difference, the writing was on the wall: Chicago wins, 5-3.
And that’s it for yesterday’s games. For tonight’s games, Jordan Staal and the Bunch of Jerks from Raleigh, North Carolina head to Buffalo New York to face off against Jack Eichel and the Buffalo Sabres, who as a franchise are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year.
The New York Rangers will visit Amalie Arena to take on the Tampa Bay Lightning, who had the BEST regular season last year, but got swept by the Blue Jackets in the first round of the playoffs.
The Winnipeg Jets will fly to BB&T Center in Sunrise Florida to take on the Florida Panthers, and the Arizona Coyotes will ride to Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul Minnesota, where they’ll take on the Wild. Will the Coyotes howl to another victory? Or will the Wild prove why Minnesota is the “State of Hockey”?
The Colorado Avalanche will head to Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada to take on the Edmonton Oilers, and the Dallas Stars will head to Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia Canada to take on the Vancouver Canucks, who are also celebrating their 50th anniversary along side Buffalo.
The San Jose Sharks will chomp their way to the Honda Center to face the Anaheim Ducks, who are just 5 hours away from The Shark Tank (SAP Center). And finally, the Detroit Red Wings will head to the bright lights of Los Angeles California to take on the Los Angeles Kings at the STAPLES Center.
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