Wednesday Game Results

[KevanGuy]

Day 7
23 SABRES 3 BRUINS 4
24 SENATORS 0 CANADIENS 2
25 HURRICANES 5 LEAFS 1
26 WINGS 3 PANTHERS 6
27 WILD 0 BLUES 4
28 JACKETS 3 COYOTES 1
29 STARS 3 PREDATORS 1
30 AVALANCHE 3 HAWKS 2 (OT)
31 CANUCKS 2 FLAMES 3
32 SHARKS 1 OILERS 3
33 DUCKS 2 KINGS 4
34 NORDIQUE 3 JETS 3 (OT)
35 DEVILS 0 THRASHERS 3
36 CAPITALS 1 LIGHTNING 2
37 PENGUINS 3 FLYERS 2 (OT)

[HelloHockeyFans]

Originally Posted by KevanGuy

Day 7

30 AVALANCHE 3 HAWKS 2 (OT)

Becky's not gonna be happy...

[the_only_turek_fan]

STARS STEAL ONE IN NASHVILLE!!!!!!!!

The Dallas Stars have improved to 2-0-0 after an impressive 3-1 vicotry over the high powered Nashville Predators. Newly aqcuired Kevin Weekes paid immediate dividends and was named the games first star. Mike York who was brought in from the New York Rangers in the Robert Lang deal scored the game winner.

The Stars Power Play continued to struggle going 0/4. "We played very hard tonight. It was a gutsy effort on our part," explained coach Marc Crawford after the win. The Stars out shot the Preds 32-30 in the win! Jason Strudwich and Milan Michalek both tallied their first goals of the season in the win.

[Beerfund]

Canadiens Persistance Pays Off

The Montreal Canadiens fired 35 shots at former Hab, Kari Lehtonen. Only Martin St Louis was able to solve Lehtonen, he scored twice. The first came in the final minute of the second period, capping a period dominated by the Habs. The Canadiens outshot the Senators 22 to 10 over the first 2 periods.
The game continued to be a goaltenders battle and despite outshooting the Sens 13 to 8 in the third (35-18 game totals), it took until the 17 minute mark of the third before St.Louis would add the insurance goal.
The Reinprecht/St.Louis/Tkachuk line continued to show great chemistry accounting for 4 of the 5 Canadien goals in the first two games of the season.
On the other hand, Mike Modano was relegated to 4th line duty and saw only 8 minutes of ice time. Rumours abound about the future of the elite center in Montreal. GM Beerfund would only say that Modano was still a large part of the club and he would be needed if the Habs are to accomplish their goals this season. Ultimately, Modano may be a large part via a trade as opposed to helping the club on the ice.

[Knut]

Capitals with lacklustre performance

Rookie Steve Bernier and sophmore Zybnek Mihalek both got into penalty trouble, and Martin Havlat was once again held off the scoresheet in the 2-1 loss to the Lightning on Wednesday night.

Rick Dipietro was the lone brightspot as he once again played a solid game. However, he needs to offence in front of him to step up and start potting some goals.

Coach Bob Hartley had this to say "Those %^$&ing ungrateful rich *******s better start playing or Bob is going to choke a Czech!!"

[Noops]

Flyers Lose Two of Their First Three Games

The struggles continue for the Flyers as the team dropped their second game of the season in overtime to their state rival, the Pittsburgh Penguins.

“As a team, we should be really angry,” head Coach Ted Nolan said in his post-game press conference.

“We played really well, we had a chance to win it in the third, but took two stupid penalties which killed our momentum in the third, and then took another bad penalty in overtime.”

With just over a minute to go in overtime, Steve Staios took a shot from the point which was stopped by Gerber but then defenseman Janne Niinimaa skating backwards kicks the puck past his own goaltender. He admits that he should have never tried to take Bertuzzi out by throwing him into the net.

Olli Jokinen continued to shine for the Flyers scoring his third goal of the season, giving him a goal in each game this season. Jonathan Cheechoo scored the other Philadelphia goal, his first as a Flyer.

[OILFAN #81]

0 (1-2-0)
3 (3-0-0)

THRASHERS SHUT OUT DEVILS TO IMPROVE TO 3-0-0 ON SEASON

(Atlanta - AP)

The Atlanta Thrashers continued to roll along this season with a 3-0 shutout of the New Jersey Devils Wednesday evening to improve to 3-0-0 on the season. The Thrashers used strong team defense limiting the Devils to only 20 shots on goal. Marc Denis was stellar in goal for the Thrashers stopping all 20 shots he faced.

"Marc didn't have a heavy workload tonight but was there every time we needed him to make the save. The first period was pretty even and Marc made some key saves." - Thrashers GM Sutaria

Mattias Norstrom started the scoring for the Thrashers in the 1st period and broke the game open with 3rd period goals from Peter Forsberg and Steve Sullivan. Trent Whitfield had a good game. He only played 5 minutes in the game on the 4th line but had 2 assists. The Thrashers now face the Jets on Friday.

Shots on Goal:

Devils 20
Thrashers 33

Power Play's:

Devils 0 for 3
Thrashers 1 for 6

3 Stars:

1st - Marc Denis (Thrashers)
2nd - Peter Forsberg (Thrashers)
3rd - Trent Whitfield (Thrashers)

Goalies:

L : NJD - Khabibulin 1-2-0 (30 saves)
W: ATL - Denis 3-0-0 (20 saves)

[Antithesis]

Congratulations to the Thrashers on their shutout victory tonight.

Hopefully the team will be able to turn things around quickly ... some line changes will likely be in order.

[sasketoon66]

Blues blank the Wild

The Minnesota Wild faced off against the St.Louis Blues, two teams with players in common. Gomez, Hasek, Hemsky, Campolli are all names that have played for both squads. Tonight, it was the Dominator's turn to shine as he set only 18 shots aside to pick up the shutout and a 4-0 victory over the favored Wild.



Ryan Whitney started the scoring with his 1st goal of the season on a blistering shot from the point that eluded goaltender Nabokov. Lindros and a couple of goals by Ovechkin sealed the deal to send the Blues to an impressive 2-0 start.

The Blues will now fly off to Ottawa to face the Senators.

[Goffie]

Raycroft answers questions in win

Andrew Raycroft stepped up to the plate in his first game as a Penguin and stopped 26 shots to led the Pens to an 3-2 overtime win. Todd Bertuzzi and saku Koivu led the offensive attack for the Pens. Koivu added 3 assists while Bertuzzi added a goal and an assist. The Pens have two more games in the next two games against rival Panthers and Bruins and it is unknown if Coach Ruff will ride the hot hand and give Raycroft the start tommorow vs the Panthers or if he will go back to starter Jose Theodore.

[Rink Rat]

Oil PK comes up huge.

The Oil came out with 2 points in penalty fest home opener with the Sharks. The Oil registered 13 minor penalties, but the PK unit held the fort keeping the Sharks scoreless in 9 PP opportunities. Robyn Regehr logged 28 minutes and recorded 7 hits tonight….. if your coming over our blue line keep your head up.

Iggy (short handed goal!), Vinny and Bouwmeester all scored their first of the season. Martin is starting to look in mid season form giving very few rebounds tonight, as the D was able to keep the forwards to the outside for most of the contest. And keeping the Sharks to 22 shots is a good sign.

Next up: The Oil get to do it again with the sharks - with an early rematch

[nyrcrisfer]

Well the fans showed up for the Leafs home opener Wednesday night but where were the Leafs players?

After a solid win in Ottawa two nights ago the Leafs took a step back tonight, getting outshot by 19 and outscored by 4. Marty Turco didn't play as well as he did on opening night and the first line of Smyth-Marleau-Cooke which scored 4 times against Ottawa was shut out.

Jed Ortmeyer was thrown out of the game after a minor penalty... must have had a few words for the ref and they must not have been very nice.

The best thing a team can do after a 5-1 loss is get back on the ice so it's a good thing is the Leafs play in NJ tommorow night.

[Young Guns]

Ohhhh man, Wings get Spanked again. Dunham yanked for the 2nd game in a row. Losing Konowalchuk was huge as he was my only defensive forward. To early to panic but good lord. 12 goals in two games.

[MJK]

Kovalchuk Leads Panthers to a 6-3 Win!

Taking a night off from his modeling career, Ilya Kovalchuk decided to show up tonight to help the Panthers beat the lowly Wings. After going down 2-0 early in the game, the Panthers scored 6 stright goals to bury the wings.

"I play well tonight" said Kovalchuk. "Top line is working and we played good to get win."

Kovalchuk scored a goal and added two helpers on the night. The top line was rock solid and simply outplayed the Wings top line all night long.

Nic Lidstrom continues to get a ton of icetime but it hasn't seemed to bother him. Lidstrom had 3 assists and was a +3 on the night.

"This is a fun team to play on right now" said Lidstrom. "We are off to a great start and we hope that it can continue!"

Goalie Statistics Mike Dunham (WIN), 15 saves out of 20 shots, L, 0-2-0
Johan Hedberg (WIN), 11 saves out of 12 shots
Manny Fernandez (PAN), 20 saves out of 23 shots, W, 2-0-0

Power Play Conversions
WINGS 1 for 3
PANTHERS 1 for 6

Game Stars
1 - Glen Murray (PAN)
2 - Ilya Kovalchuk (PAN)
3 - Nicklas Lidstrom (PAN)

[JiriHrdina]

Wild Fail To Show Up

Early in the season one hopes to look at game results and to build off the positives shown. On Wednesday night, in their 2nd game, the Wild made that a very difficult thing to do, being shutout 4-0 by the Blues.

GM Andy Murray said the team didn't even test Dominik Hasek.

"We only got 18 shots on goal, and I'd say the number of actual quality scoring opportunities we had was maybe 6. It was a putrid effort.".

Meanwhile, the high octane offense of the Wild has been silenced early in the season, only scoring 3 goals in 2 games. Among those looking for their first points of the year are Joe Sakic, Hank Zetterberg, Petr Bondra, and Matt Cullen.

The Wild play next Friday in Toronto.

[droopydrew19]

Bolts Rebound

After suffering the first loss of the season at the hands of Noob's Isles the Lightning rebounded to edge the Caps to get back in the win column.

Goaltender Vesa Toskala was sensational in net stopping 24 of the 25 shots he faced. Top off season acquision Milan Hejduk notched his 3rd goal of the season and was named the games 3rd star

Game Stars
1 - Vesa Toskala (LIG)
2 - Daniel Sedin (CAP)
3 - Milan Hejduk (LIG)

Injury Updates

Philip Kuba left the game with an undisclosed mid inner exterior injury. He is expected to be back in the line up for the next game.

Randy Robitalle is back skating and his return is imminent as well.

[Flickered Flame]

Well its disappointing not getting the 2 points tonight but at least we didn't lose to the Nords. Brent Johnson was solid in his debute but I am looking to package Johnson and Jackman together to land a better tender. After the game the Jets sent Jordin Tootoo to the Ducks for Dominic Moore and Jeff Hoggan.

[looooob]

Sabres woes continue
Bruins 4 Sabres 3

Sabres continue to lose games to conference competitors, this time a close 4-3 loss to the Bruins. The bright spot for the Sabres is they swept the 3 star selections, but who cares. Letowski as usual led the way. Sabres will need to tinker with lines prior to tomorrow's rematch. Rochester won big....again as the other bright spot for the Sabres org

[Mango]

The Canucks' 1st line is no where to be found...

Record (1-1-0-0)
Game story -
Coach Tippett was happy with his team's effort for the most part, but he was disappointed in the play of his first line. The secondary scoring has been great this young season, and tonight's match against the Calgary Flames was no different. Coach Tippett alluded to some line changes for their next tilt against the Avs on Friday evening.

Powerplay: 0 / 3
Penalty kill: 2 / 3
Winner of the Marshmallow (Unsung Hero) Award: Dallas Drake. The assistant captain had a strong game and used his experience to try to motivate his fellow teammates.

Up next: Colorado Avalanche

[jam26]

Fernando Pisani is the OT hero and Huet comes up big for the Avs as they hang on to beat the Hawks. The Avs were badly outshot and relied on some stellar goaltending by Huet, who took first star honours.
The Avs improve to 1-1 and Huet appears to be the starter of choice for now. The Avs hope to weather the storm during the first couple weeks during a very difficult stretch of games.