Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Morning After Skate

12/20/2013 at 9:35am EST

Welcome to the morning after! A recap of the games from the night before and quick hit hockey news.

In Case You Missed It

Boston Bruins at Buffalo Sabres

Good night for the home team in Buffalo as the last place team took on the Atlantic Division leader and beat them 4-2.

Penalties would be the mainstay in the first period as Sabres Marcus Foligno and Bruins Matt Fraser would drop the gloves less than four minutes into the game. Both teams trying to claim the momentum swing from the early fight saw Boston take a rash of penalties.

At the 11:17 mark it would be Torey Krug off for holding Drew Stafford; to be followed up by Patrice Bergeron at 11.36 when he hooked Cody Hodgson. At 11:56 Tyler Ennis would hook Zdeno Chara to round out a rough minute of play for the visiting Bruins.

It would take some roughing up between Bruins Milan Lucic and Sabres Mike Weber with Weber getting the addition holding on the play that would give the Bruins power play chance that lead to a short-handed goal from Buffalo’s Brian Flynn to open the scoring in the game.

Home team came into a the second period with the 1-0 lead over Boston and saw Lucic called less than a minute in for tripping Ville Leino. With lead in the game and an early power play the Sabres did what every last place team would do – the let Brad Marchand tie the game for Boston.

Marchand would score again minutes later to give the Bruins the lead only to have Marcus Foligno tie it up before heading to the second intermission.

A new game all tied up at two to start the third would see a push from Buffalo and Drew Stafford would score his third goal of the season on a wrap-around to give the Sabres the lead once again; and Tyler Myers would score just over a minute later for the two-goal lead win over the Bruins.

Phoenix Coyotes at Toronto Maple Leafs

HBO scored another winning game for one of the teams they are featuring on 24/7 that doesn’t happen to be the defaulted Florida Panthers (who are 3-0 on their HBO filmed games this season).

It would be a goaltending duel between Phoenix netminder Mike Smith and the home teams James Reimer. Both goaltenders would only give up a single regulation goal which would lead to a shootout.

After only allowing a goal apiece in regulation both would give up their first round shots which would lead to the third round winning goal from Leafs Joffrey Lupul. Guess someone will get more face time on HBO.

Columbus Blue Jackets at Philadelphia Flyers

Columbus would jump right in in Philadelphia as Cam Atkinson would net a short-handed goal while teammate Nikita Nikitin was called for holding Flyers Michael Raffl.

The Second period would see the Blue Jackets extend their lead by two with goals from both Jack Skille and Nick Foligno.

Scoreless against the Blue Jackets the Flyers came out in the third looking to make up for lost time. Just over four minutes into the third Jakub Voracek would get the Flyers on the scoreboard followed a minute later by Braydon Coburn to bring the home team within a goal.

Blake Comeau would score his third of the season as he put a snap shot past former Blue Jacket Steve Mason to give Columbus the 4-2 lead.

Erik Gustafsson would answer back for Philadelphia and bring the Flyers back within one before captain Claude Giroux would step in with two goals of his own to lead the home team over the division rival Blue Jackets for some much needed two points in the Metropolitan Division playoff race.

Minnesota Wild at Pittsburgh Penguins

Matt Cooke made his first appearance back in Pittsburgh after leaving this past summer for Minnesota as a free agent.

In a game with penalties a plenty Cooke would not be one of those to see time inside the penalty box.

Less than a minute after puck drop it would be Penguins Chris Kunitz with a wrist shot past Niklas Backstrom for the early lead.

Penguins Craig Adams would drop the gloves with Wild’s Zenon Konopka shortly after the goal. Exactly two-minutes after that fight another would break out between the home teams Chick Kobasew and the visiting Minnesota’s Keith Ballard.

So much to talk about and not even five minutes into the game. Things would calm down and the Penguins would end up with a power play when Minnesota Captain Mikko Koivu would hook Penguins Captain Sidney Crosby that wouldn’t net an additional goal.

Second period is much like the first as an early Penguins goal, this time from Brandon Sutter, would give Pittsburgh a 2-0 lead on home ice. Seconds later it would be Nino Niederreiter called for interference that would give the Penguins another power play opportunity that they capitalized on as Matt Niskanen would put a slapshot past Backstrom for his second goal of the season.

Up 3-0 over the Wild things would get rough midway through the game. Just over ten minutes into the second it would be Minnesota’s Keith Ballard called for clipping (and fighting) James Neal while Neal was called for roughing and a fighting major; just before Kunitz would make it 4-0 with an assist from Crosby.

Jason Pominville would tip-in a shot from Niederreiter to get the Wild on the scoreboard before heading off for the second intermission.

With the momentum shift in the second it would be Dany Heatley early in the third to cut the Penguins lead in half only to have three consecutive Penguin penalties called- one of which leading to a short-handed penalty shot goal from Penguins Olli Maatta giving Pittsburgh the 5-2 win at home.

Florida Panthers at Ottawa Senators

While they were not being filmed facing one of the two teams being featured on HBO’s 24/7 that didn’t stop the Panthers in Ottawa.

An early goal from Jimmy Hayes would give the Panthers the lead over the hometown Senators before they would rally back. Chris Neil would tie the game nearing the midway point in the period before a Tomas Kopeckey penalty for tripping Ottawa’s Colin Greening would lead to a power play goal from Jason Spezza and 2-1 led for the Senators.

End of the period would see Panthers Jonathan Huberdeau called for slashing Erik Condra while Condra was coincidently called for tripping Huberdeau.

The second period would see Florida tie the game before penalties in the third saw a slapshot power play goal from Panthers Tom Gilbert give Florida the led and less than a minute later Kopecky would score short handed for 4-2 win in Ottawa.

Calgary Flames at Detroit Red Wings

How Swede it is in Detroit. A team well known for their high concentration of Swedish players filling their roster.

It would take one of Detroit’s newest Swedish imports Daniel Alfredsson just 26 seconds to open the scoring and give the home team a lead.

Calgary would respond with a goal from Mikael Backlund minutes later to tie it up in Hockeytown.

Penalties would be a plenty in the second as Joakim Andersson would get called for cross checking Paul Byron. Andersson would then score the Red Wings second goal of the night off of a deflected shot from fellow countryman Alfredsson.

Detroit would head to the box repeatedly as Tomas Jurco would get called at 13:28 for tripping Mark Giordano and then Brendan Smith would join Jurco after tripping TH Brodie. Having two young players in the box was not enough as on the penalty kill veteran defenseman Jonathan Ericsson would get caught hi-sticking Curtis Glencross. Eventually the Flames netted a power play goal to tie the game.

With a 2-2 game to start the third both teams would come out somewhat cautious. Each team would get a chance on the power play in the final regulation period but neither Karri Ramo nor Jonas Gustavsson would give up a goal and force overtime.

It would be Alfredsson with the overtime goal giving the Red Wings their first filmed win since HBO 24/7 started and the much needed two point to keep them in wildcard position for the playoffs.

Nashville Predators at Tampa Bay Lightning

The Tampa Bay Lightning would waste no time as the hosted the Nashville Predators last night. Alexander Killorn would open the scoring early to give the home team the early lead.

Early goals can lead to early frustration from the other team as minutes later Predators Matt Hendricks would drop the gloves with Lightning’s BJ Crombeen; yet it would be a late penalty to Predators Craig Smith would lend way to a power play goal from Martin St. Louis for a 2-0 lead.

Smith would come out in the second looking to make up for his role in the late goal in the first by scoring one of own to cut Tampa’s lead in half.

Valtteri Filppula would get the assist on a Teddy Purcell goal to regain the Lighting’s two goal lead nearing the midway point in the game.

A roughing call to Radko Gudas would lead to a power play goal for Smith for his second of the night.

Less than a minute after the Predators brought the game within one it would be Richard Panik with his second goal of the season as he tipped-in shot from Eric Brewer to give the Lightning the 4-2 win.

Montreal Canadiens at St. Louis Blues

It would be a rough night for the Canadiens in St. Louis.

St. Louis would take two penalties in rapid fire off the bat, yet it would be a St. Louis short-handed goal to open the scoring at Alexander Steen would put a wrist shot in past Carey Price.

Up 1-0 over the visiting Canadiens would not be enough for Steen as minutes later he would increase it to a 2-0 lead before the penalty calls would swing the other way.

Just over ten minutes in Montreal’s Alexei Yemelin would get called for hooking TJ Oshie. St. Louis would fail on the power play yet score at even strength to go up 3-3 and yet still end up with another shortly after when Brandon Prust would be called for hooking and roughing Oshie.

It would take a tip-in goal from Brendan Gallagher in the second to get the Canadiens on the boxscore for something other than penalties.

Third period would see Jaden Schwartz his ninth of the season to bring the Blues lead 4-1 while Maxim Lapierre would net a slapshot for the 5-1 win.

Vancouver Canucks at Dallas Stars

Jamie Benn opened the scoring for Dallas with a wrist shot and Colton Sceviour would follow it up seconds later with a tip-in off a Rich Peverley shot to make it 2-0 for the Stars before the five minute mark in the first.

Chris Higgins would net the only goal for Vancouver as he put a wrist shot past Kari Lehtonen.

Erik Cole would make it 3-1 for the Stars late in the second and then Valeri Nichushkin would make it the 4-1 win over the visiting Canucks.

Edmonton Oilers at Colorado Avalanche

Taylor Hall would open the scoring for the game with a late goal for the Oilers before teammate Sam Gagner would get called for coincidental cross checking of Paul Stasney and a game misconduct. Hall himself would get an unsportsmanlike conduct at the end of the period.

With the Oilers in meltdown mode at the end of the first the second period would see a slapshot power play goal for Tyson Barrie to tie the game.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins would give the Oilers the lead again only to have Ryan O’Reilly negate it with a goal of his own. With a penlty called on Patrick Bordeleu for interference on David Perron the Oilers headed to the power play. It would be a short-handed backhand shot from Maxime Talbot to give the Avalanche the 3-2 lead over the Oilers.

The Third period would see the Oilers pull Devin Dubnyk for the extra skater to make a late push only to have Matt Duchene score on the empty net as the Avalanche would beat the Oilers 4-2.

San Jose Sharks at Los Angeles Kings

A battle took place in California between the Sharks and the Kings in LA that saw a scoreless first period end with Kings captain Dustin Brown tossed at the 18:59 mark for a kneeing major on Tomas Hertl and also a game misconduct. Sharks Brent Burns would get called for interference on the same play against Martin Jones.

The second period would see a push from the home team now without their captain for the remainder of the game. Alec Martinez would open the scoring early in the second and have it followed up with again from Tyler Toffoli to give the Kings the 2-0 lead heading into the third.

Jeff Carter would tip-in a shot from Dwight King thirty-six seconds in to make it 3-0 while King would score his own goal for a 4-0 lead over the Sharks.

Patrick Marleau would score his sixteenth of the season as he would net the Sharks only goal late in the third and the Kings would take the two points in this late night California battle.

Wrap Around News

The NHL is on a roster freeze. At midnight the NHL went into their holiday roster freeze until after the Christmas holiday.

Buffalo Sabres acquired forward Linus Omark from the Edmonton Oilers last night in exchange for a conditional sixth-round pick in this coming 2014 NHL Entry Draft.

Today’s Line Up

Anaheim Ducks at New Jersey Devils

New York Islanders at New York Rangers

Washington Capitals at Carolina Hurricanes

Vancouver Canucks at Chicago Blackhawks

Florida Panthers at Winnipeg Jets

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About Kukla's Korner Hockey

Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

From breaking news to in-depth stories around the league, KK Hockey is updated with fresh stories all day long and will bring you the latest news as quickly as possible.

Email Paul anytime at [email protected]

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