| DALLAS (AP) — on Sunday night — and it wasn’t even the most bizarre goal of the game.Nick Leddy’s shot from the top of the slot hit the left post and caromed to Anton Khudobin’s right skate Brandon Montour Jersey Kids , where Lee poked the puck between the Dallas goalie’s legs for a tiebreaking power-play goal with 10:10 to play that sent the New York Islanders to a 3-1 victory over the Stars.“We’ve had a couple of odd ones like that,” Lee said. “Good things happen when you get pucks to the net. Huge little boost for us, a little momentum swing. They don’t always ask how they go in.”The Islanders’ first two goals went in off Khudobin, actually.Tyler Pitlick scored the game’s first goal for the Stars in the second period before Casey Cizikas tied it with a fluke goal at 14:10. Cizikas skated behind the net and shot a backhand that went off Khudobin’s mask and back before dropping behind the goal line.“It hit my head, bent over,” Khudobin said. “It hit the bar of the net. It started rolling back (down) and hit my back.”Bad breaks?“Yeah, lucky ones. It happens in hockey,” he said.Leo Komarov added an empty-net goal with a minute remaining.Khudobin finished with 25 saves.Islanders goalie Robin Lehner made 19 saves, six in the third period against a listless Dallas offense on the second night of a back-to-back.“You kind of get used to these types of games,” Lehner said. “There’s long periods of time when you don’t have much to do but (are) required to make a save here and there. I’m getting more comfortable with it.”Pitlick, a healthy scratch Saturday night at Minnesota, wouldn’t accept fatigue or losing a center to injury each night as an excuse.“It’s tough that the guys have to double shift http://www.officialducks.com/authentic-adidas-cam-fowler-jersey , especially coming off a back-to-back. But we’ve got to find a way to dig in and get those points,” he said.New York has won four of its last five games to move within two points of Pittsburgh for third place in the Metropolitan Division.The Stars had won two of three. Dallas dropped behind Edmonton in the race for the Western Conference’s second wild card.In the first period, the Islanders outshot Dallas 9-7 and had two power plays to the Stars’ one. There were no shots on goal during any of the three man advantages.Pitlick scored 6:20 into the second. He stickhandled in from the left along the goal line, moved the puck to his forehand and shot it inside the right post.“I was looking to pass but they just kind of let me walk in,” Pitlick said.Islanders coach Barry Trotz liked the result, especially with the team heading into a four-day holiday break.“We took a high-octane type of team and shut them down for the most part. There’s some pretty dynamic talent on that team. We did a really good job against their top players,” Trotz said.NOTES: Each team started its No. 2 goaltender. … Islanders D Devon Toews, 24, made his NHL debut because Johnny Boychuk returned to New York with his wife due to deliver their third child. … Dallas C Jason Dickinson was scratched from the lineup after leaving Saturday’s game because of an upper-body injury. C Martin Hanzal (upper body) did not play after the first period. … The players wearing No. 47, Komarov and Stars RW Alexander Radulov, scrapped and drew roughing penalties twice in the second period. Radulov had 20 penalty minutes in his first 26 games but added eight more against the Islanders. … Entering the game, New York and Dallas were among the seven NHL teams that had allowed fewer than 100 goals. The Islanders now have given up 98 and the Stars 102.UP NEXTIslanders: Return home to face Ottawa on Friday.Stars: Play at Nashville on Thursday. ST. PAUL Womens Corey Perry Jersey , Minn. (AP) Those Minnesota Wild fans waiting in concession lines or lingering too long in the concourse during the first intermission sure missed a show.Eric Staal has put on quite the must-see performance himself this season.Staal’s second goal of the night for Minnesota capped a franchise-record flurry to start the second period, and the Wild cruised to a 6-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night.”Everything he touches,” coach Bruce Boudreau said, invoking the Greek mythological king Midas, ”it turns into gold.”Staal, the second overall pick in the 2003 draft by the Hurricanes who spent 13 years with the club until a late-season trade, has 64 goals in 149 games with the Wild. That’s tied for ninth in the NHL over the last two years. He’s also tied for 17th with 132 points, and he’s older than every player ahead of him in that span.This season, he’s tied for fourth in the league with 36 goals, trailing Washington’s Alex Ovechkin, Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin and Winnipeg’s Patrik Laine.”I’ve got a lot of work to do if I want to catch or be around those guys,” Staal said with a slight smile. ”I’m just going to keep playing.”Nino Niederreiter Kyle Brodziak Jersey Womens , Zach Parise, Daniel Winnik and Staal scored in a span of 3:28, the fastest four-goal stretch in Wild history that gave the home team a huge lead less than four minutes after the first intermission ended.The sign that this was the Wild’s night came quickly in the second period, when Jared Spurgeon’s slap shot from the point bounced off the neck of a ducking Niederreiter and past goalie Cam Ward with just 23 seconds elapsed.”We’ve got to come out of the dressing room a little bit more organized and ready to play,” Hurricanes coach Bill Peters said.Winnik scored on his 33rd birthday, prompting Peters to pull Ward for Scott Darling. Then, just 15 seconds later, on the first shot Darling faced, Staal broke free in the Carolina zone, faked right and dragged the puck left to poke a backhander in for his 10th goal in the last nine games .”I want to win every time I get on the ice,” Staal said. ”But when you pump ’em in like that for a bit, I think you feel a little bad.”In seven games since Jason Zucker and Mikael Granlund joined Staal on the first line Jakob Silfverberg Jersey , the trio has combined for 16 goals and 19 assists. With 15 games to go, Staal has a solid chance at the third 40-goal season of his career.”I don’t think anybody would’ve thought he’d have 36 goals at this stage of the game,” Boudreau said. ”I remember when we signed him, when we were talking in the room, and thinking if he could give us 50 to 60 points we would think it was a great signing.”Staal’s first score came 4:35 into the game on the power play after a tripping call on Victor Rask, adding to Carolina’s NHL-leading penalty total. Parise’s goal was also with the man advantage for the Wild, who entered the game ranked eighth in the league on the power play. The Hurricanes came in 22nd on the penalty kill.The Wild, whose post-New Year’s Day surge has thrust them into third place in the Central Division, are 10-3-2 in their last 12 games. They pushed their lead over fourth-place Dallas, which controls the first wild card spot, to three points.Devan Dubnyk made 29 saves for his fifth win in his last six starts, and the Wild raised their home record to an NHL-leading 24-5-6. Matt Cullen http://www.officialducks.com/authentic-adidas-john-gibson-jersey , another long-time former Hurricanes player who teamed with Staal on the 2006 Stanley Cup champion squad, scored late for the Wild.Phillip Di Giuseppe and Derek Ryan scored for Carolina in the third period on Dubnyk, who has allowed only nine goals over his last five victories.The Hurricanes lost points on each of the competitors in the Eastern Conference wild card race, with New Jersey (76) and Columbus (73) currently holding the two spots and Florida (71) also ahead of Carolina (69).”Let’s look past this one,” Ryan said. ”Let’s get rid of it and move on.”NOTESDubnyk’s last shutout was on Feb. 10, a 44-save performance against Chicago. … Wild rookie D Nick Seeler was ruled out with a strained right biceps, two nights after he engaged in an old-style, bloody fight with Detroit’s Luke Witkowski. … Hurricanes LW Joakim Nordstrom missed his fourth straight game because of an upper-body injury. … Spurgeon and Ryan Suter had two assists apiece. Wild defensemen have 166 points in 67 games, the second-most in the NHL behind Nashville. The franchise record is 169. … The Hurricanes had 31 shots on goal and lead the NHL with 52 games of 30-plus shots.UP NEXTHurricanes: Play at Chicago on Thursday, their last of three straight games against Central Division foes.Wild: Play at Vancouver on Friday, followed by a back-to-back game at Edmonton on Saturday.— |
