Dougie Hamilton is closing out an impressive performance in a disappointing season for the Calgary Flames.
Hamilton’s league-leading 17th goal by a defenseman helped Calgary snap a seven-game losing streak with a 3-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday
night.
”Quick release. (His shot) comes on you in a hurry
Jackie Robinson Jersey ,” said Flames goaltender Mike Smith, who only has to stare it down in practice. ”He changes the angle really well. He’s definitely
got a good shot.”
Mikael Backlund had a goal and an assist and Garnet Hathaway also scored to help Calgary to its first win since a 1-0 victory over Edmonton on March 13.
Michael Frolik added two assists, and Smith stopped 34 shots.
Anton Slepyshev and Mike Cammalleri scored for Edmonton. Cam Talbot gave up three goals on seven shots before he was pulled 15 1/2 minutes in with the
Oilers trailing 3-1. Al Montoya came on and stopped all 13 shots he faced.
Edmonton grabbed the lead on Slepyshev’s sixth of the season 2:41 into the first, but the Flames responded with three goals in less than nine minutes.
Hamilton got it started with a wicked 30-foot wrist shot that beat Talbot at 6:43 on the Oilers’ first shot on goal. Hamilton has 13 goals since Jan. 1,
tying him with Sean Monahan for second on the team behind Matthew Tkachuk in
that stretch.
”It’s so heavy and his release is quick, he doesn’t need a wind-up to get the velocity on it. I thought Dougie had an excellent game,” Flames coach Glen
Gulutzan said.
Hathaway put the Flames in front at 11:54, beating Talbot on a wrist shot inside the post from nearly 60 feet out. The short-handed goal was Hathaway’s
first goal in 42 games.
Backlund neatly pulled the puck around Talbot and fired in his 14th goal of the season with 4:32 remaining in the first. That was it for Talbot.
”It wasn’t his best night,” Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. ”If we could get one of them back, we’d take it. But he’s been tremendous. In the last six weeks,
he’s been a rock for our team.”
The Oilers were the much better team in the second period
Authentic Daniel Kilgore Jersey , outshooting Calgary 12-5 and narrowing the deficit to 3-2 on Cammalleri’s deflection with 7:19 left.
”A tale of two teams. First period, not good, nothing to be proud of,” said Cammalleri, who hadn’t scored since Dec. 28. ”Second two (periods), probably
more how we want to play.”
In one sequence, Edmonton had three odd-man rushes within the same penalty kill, but it only got one shot out of it. On consecutive 2-on-1s, Connor McDavid
and Leon Draisaitl failed each time to get a shot on goal.
Early in the third, the same duo combined again, but Draisaitl rang a shot off the post.
NOTES: McDavid
Chad Thomas Color Rush Jersey , the NHL’s leading scorer, failed to pick up a point, snapping his six-game scoring streak (seven goals, seven assists). …
Edmonton was 0 for 5 on the power play. Calgary was 0 for 3 and fell to 1 for 47
over the last 16 games. … Calgary F Johnny Gaudreau returned to the lineup after
missing two games (family matter). His line centered by Nick Shore also had
Edmonton-born Spencer Foo, who made his NHL debut. … With the Travis Hamonic
(upper body) out, Matt Bartkowski returned to the lineup after being scratched
45 of the previous 46 games.
UP NEXT
Oilers: At Minnesota on Monday night before closing the season with two home games.
Flames: Host Arizona on Tuesday night.
Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom have spent their entire careers chasing the Pittsburgh Penguins and shouldering
their own franchise’s onerous history of playoff failures.
One brilliant end-to-end rush gave the two Washington Capitals teammates and their resilient club something they’ve rarely enjoyed against the two-time
defending Stanley Cup champions: momentum.
Ovechkin knocked his own rebound out of midair and by Matt Murray with 1:07 remaining to lift the Capitals to a 4-3 victory on Tuesday night in Game 3 of
their increasingly testy Eastern Conference semifinal series with
Pittsburgh.
Ovechkin’s initial shot smacked off the far post.
The Russian star, however, stayed with the play and with Murray out of position, he deftly flicked it into the open net to give the Capitals a 2-1
series lead.
”It’s a good thing I didn’t raise my arms up (after the first shot), you know to (celebrate) the play,” Ovechkin said after scoring his eighth goal of the
playoffs. ”Got lucky.”
Matt Niskanen
http://www.raidersauthorizedshops.com/authentic-brandon-parker-jersey , John Carlson and Chandler Stephenson also scored for Washington, which improved
to 4-0 on the road in the postseason. Braden Holtby finished with 19 saves.
Backstrom had three assists, including the helper on Ovechkin’s winner.
”It’s huge, huge goal,” Ovechkin said. ”Obviously for our team, you know we want to win tonight and we did. It doesn’t matter what, it doesn’t matter who
scored. We sacrifice. We play hard. And we have to do the same moving
forward.”
Game 4 is in Pittsburgh on Thursday night.
Jake Guentzel had a goal and an assist for Pittsburgh. Sidney Crosby and Patric Hornqvist also scored, but the Penguins lost consecutive playoff games
for only the fourth time since the start of their run to consecutive Stanley
Cups began in 2016.
Pittsburgh also lost forward Zach Aston-Reese to a broken jaw and a concussion following a violent collision with Washington’s Tom Wilson at the
game’s midway point.
Aston-Reese was stickhandling near the Washington bench when Wilson slammed into him, sending the 6-foot-4 Aston-Reese to the ice.
Wilson was not penalized on the play, the second time in as many games he was not disciplined for a borderline hit.
Pittsburgh defenseman Brian Dumoulin went into the league’s concussion protocol after Wilson blindsided him in Game 2 while Dumoulin was bracing for a
collision with Ovechkin.
The NHL’s Department of Player safety didn’t ask Wilson to explain himself during a hearing and Dumoulin was back in the lineup to start Game 3.
Both teams stressed the need to move forward with so much at stake. But that was before Aston-Reese slowly made his way off the ice, flinging one of his
gloves at the Washington bench in frustration
http://www.texansauthorizedshops.com/authentic-keke-coutee-jersey , his jaw mangled and his status for the rest of the postseason uncertain.
The initial point of contact was hard to discern, even on replay. Was it the shoulders? The head? Either way the tenor changed considerably.
Asked afterward about the hit, Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan replied ”at some point we hope the league might do something.”
Maybe not. Officials conferred for several minutes before deciding to take no action against Wilson.
”They all got together and they said, `You know what, we’ve got a good, clean check here,”’ NHL on-site supervisor Paul Devorski said through a pool
reporter.
Stephenson tied the game shortly after the sequence and a crescendo of pushing, shoving and jawing followed.
Crosby put the Penguins back in front with 3:33 left in the second when he took a pretty pass from Guentzel – who occupied three Capitals before sliding
the puck to his teammate – and buried it into an open net.
Niskanen, who spent four seasons in Pittsburgh before signing with Washington in the summer of 2014, blasted a one-timer by Murray 5:06 into the third to set
up the finish.
Ovechkin and Backstrom’s two-on-one gave the Capitals the series lead over Washington for the first time since they won Game 1 of the 2016 Eastern
Conference semifinal.
Of course, the Capitals lost that series. As they almost always do when the Penguins are on the other side of the ice.
The champions have proven to be an impossible out during their current reign. Three tight games in
Rashaan Gaulden Color Rush Jersey , Washington is well aware there’s little margin for error.
”It’s a funny game,” Niskanen said. ”Boy, sometimes the puck takes a different bounce and the score can be completely different.”
NOTES: Penguins C Evgeni Malkin played 19:07 and assisted on Hornqvist’s goal in his return after missing three games with a lower-body injury. … The Penguins
hosted Humboldt Broncos junior hockey player Brayden Camrud , a survivor of the
bus crash that killed 16 people – many of them teammates – last month. …
Pittsburgh F Carl Hagelin skated with his teammates for a second straight day,
but remained out of the lineup. Hagelin is dealing with an upper-body injury and
has worn a full face shield while on the ice. … Both teams went 1 for 4 on the
power play. … Guentzel has recorded a point in seven straight playoff games.
—
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