LAS VEGAS (AP) — They don’t call it the wild
Womens Niklas Hjalmarsson Jersey , wild West for nothing.The aptly named Minnesota Wild are still alive in the Western Conference playoff race after
Devan Dubnyk stopped 35 shots in a 3-2 win over the Vegas Golden Knights on
Friday night.Despite the loss, the Golden Knights clinched their second
consecutive playoff berth when playoff-contending Arizona lost in a shootout at
Colorado, which currently holds the second wild-card spot.Four teams sitting
below the Western Conference playoff line – Arizona, Minnesota, Chicago and
Edmonton – are within eight points of the second wild-card spot, currently held
by Colorado.“It’s desperate, we know where we’re at,” said Wild center Eric
Staal, who had a goal and an assist in the win. “We were crossing our fingers
that Arizona beat Colorado tonight just to kind of tighten it up a little bit
more. But we needed to win and we knew that going into tonight and we were
desperate. I thought we were solid, competitive through our lineup. We deserved
the win tonight, now you just have to follow it up Sunday for us.”The Wild, who
are six points back of the second Avalanche, face Arizona on Sunday. The Coyotes
are three points in front of Minnesota, which improved to 5-0-1 all-time against
Vegas, including a perfect 3-0-0 at T-Mobile Arena.“Sometimes against certain
teams you get good feelings and I think we’re confident in what we can do
against this team,” Staal said. “They got a good team. It’s always been a tight
battle every time we’ve played them. This is a great building. It’s pretty easy
to get up for the game. It was a good two points.”Minnesota coach Bruce Boudreau
said while he’s happy with another blue-collar win by his team, he acknowledged
it was hard not to keep one eye on the score of the Colorado-Arizona
game
Zach Bogosian Jersey Womens , as the Wild were hoping for a Coyotes win.“You came away with 18 players working together and a goalie playing really
well, and that’s how you win,” he said. “All we can worry about is ourselves. …
We’ve got to focus on our next game.”Minnesota came in mired in a 3-6-1 slide,
but fueled by a playoff hunt, opened the game with a 3-0 lead on goals by Greg
Pateryn, Staal and Kevin Fiala.Paul Stastny scored both of Vegas’ goals, and
Malcolm Subban made 30 saves. Subban dropped to 0-4-0 against the Wild.But it
was Dubnyk who was the star of the night, improving to 4-0-1 against the Golden
Knights with a 1.80 goals against average against the second-year franchise.The
6-foot-6 netminder made two of his biggest saves of the season during the game,
both of which defined how dominating he has been against Vegas.In the second
period, he laid out to stop Mark Stone on one side of the goal. Instead, Stone
skated with the puck behind the net and attempted to score on a wraparound, but
Dubnyk scrambled to make a highlight-reel glove save.“I shouldn’t have gone
fishing in the first place, that was where the problem started there,” Dubnyk
said. “I reached and couldn’t get there, so when he picked it up, I was kind of
in trouble and you’ve just got to find your shortest route back there. I usually
take pride in trying not to roll around like that, but sometimes you’ve got to
have some desperation and those are fun when you get a chance to make them.”In
the game’s waning moments
Scott Wedgewood Jersey Womens , Dubnyk extended his leg to stonewall Stastny with his pad to preserve the win for the Wild.The Golden Knights, who
are five points behind San Jose in the Pacific Division, travel to play the
Sharks on Saturday.“I’m real happy. I may not look it right now, but it’s an
82-game schedule and you try to make the playoffs,” Vegas coach Gerard Gallant.
“We would’ve loved to win the hockey game tonight . but we made the playoffs
tonight, so that’s a big accomplishment.”NOTES: Pateryn’s first-period goal
ended the longest active goalless drought in the NHL at 130 games. The longest
streak now belongs to Montreal’s Victor Mete at 116 games. … The game marked the
return of Brad Hunt, who was traded from Vegas to Minnesota after the Wild beat
the Golden Knights on Jan. 21. … The Twin Cities chapter of the Professional
Hockey Writers’ Association (PHWA) announced the nomination of Wild D Ryan Suter
for the NHL’s Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, presented annually to the player
who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication
to hockey. Vegas’ chapter of the PHWA nominated Golden Knights C Ryan Carpenter.
… Since a 10-1-0 run, Vegas is 0-3-1 in its last four games.UP NEXTMinnesota:
Visits Arizona on Sunday.Vegas: Visits San Jose on Saturday. CALGARY, Alberta
(AP) — Johnny Gaudreau and the Calgary Flames showed off their resilience in
another impressive win.Gaudreau scored 35 seconds into overtime, and the Flames
rallied to beat the Philadelphia Flyers 6-5 on Wednesday night.Calgary trailed
5-3 before Sean Monahan and Rasmus Andersson scored in the final 68 seconds of
third period. Gaudreau then secured the Flames’ sixth win in seven games with
his 13th goal of the season.“Huge win,” Gaudreau said. “We stuck with and found
a way to play a little bit harder in the third and get the two points.“Ending up
finding a couple of greasy goals there in the last two minutes and winning in
overtime. The building was electric.”Matthew Tkachuk had four assists for the
Flames (20-10-2), who leapfrogged idle Nashville for the top spot in the Western
Conference. Monahan had two goals and an assist, and Gaudreau and Mark Giordano
each had a goal and two assists.Philadelphia (12-13-4) lost for the third time
in four games. Sean Couturier had two goals and an assist for the Flyers in his
return to the lineup after missing two games with a lower-body injury. Travis
Sanheim, James van Riemsdyk and Dale Weise also scored.Gaudreau missed the final
part of the first period after taking a knee to the head from Philadelphia’s
Radko Gudas, but was back on the bench to start the second.With the Flames
driving to the net in overtime
Conor Sheary Jersey Womens , he scored the winner on a second rebound.“We had a lot of chances,” Calgary coach Bill Peters said. “We gave up more than we
liked. We were fortunate to get enough action at the net late and were
rewarded.”David Rittich earned the win with four saves in relief of Mike Smith,
who stopped 10 of 14 shots through two periods. Peters said he didn’t pull Smith
out because of his performance.“I got news he wasn’t right after 40 (minutes).
It was real late. Just before we went on the ice, I was told Ritter was going
in,” Peters said. “Smitty wasn’t quite feeling right. Tried to play through it
and couldn’t.”Anthony Stolarz made 35 saves in the loss.The Flyers killed off
four power plays in the third period, but couldn’t hold off the Flames at the
end.“The penalties set the table for the two tying goals,” Flyers coach Dave
Hakstol said. “That kills the bench, kills your energy.“But even at 4-2 and a
two-goal lead in the third period, we’re still trying to make fancy plays that
end up in turnovers in the neutral zone, when we should be locking down a
game.”Couturier stripped Calgary defenseman Noah Hanafin at the point and went
in alone for a short-handed goal that made it 5-3 Flyers 11:10 into the
third.Sam Bennett’s fifth goal of the season gave Calgary a 1-0 lead after one,
but the teams combined for six goals in the second.Philadelphia opened a 4-2
lead by scoring three times in 108 seconds.Van Riemsdyk tied it at 2 when he
pounced on a loose puck off a broken play and beat Smith stick side for a
power-play goal at 5:55. Couturier got behind Monahan for a back-door pass from
Jakub Voracek and his 11th of the season at 6:27. Weise fooled Smith with a soft
shot from just inside the blue line at 7:43.Monahan’s power-play goal at 10:13
of the second pulled Calgary within one. Tkachuk dished to Monahan in the slot
for his team-leading 19th goal.“You don’t want to have a game like that when
you’re chasing, but you stick with it and obviously we got the two points,”
Monahan said.NOTES: Giordano returned to the lineup after serving a two-game
suspension for kneeing Minnesota Wild captain Mikko Koivu on Dec. 6. …
Philadelphia broke an eight-game power-play drought with its first goal since
Nov. 17. … Calgary C Mikael Backlund sat out a third game after taking a hard
hit from Wild defenseman Matt Dumba last week.UP NEXTFlyers: Visit Edmonton on
Friday night.Flames: Visit Minnesota on Saturday.
