But Tuukka Rask also factored after Krug made a frighteningly slow, diagonal pass that got intercepted by big D Jonathan Ericsson.
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Blashill, though, trusted Mrazek enough after the game against Pittsburgh to put him back in two games later against the Montreal Canadiens, even though it was Howard who helped stabilize the Red Wings with 18 saves in a 3-2 win against the Buffalo Sabres the night before.
The loss guarantees that the Flyers can not clinch a playoff berth on Thursday no matter what happens in their game against Toronto or in the Red Wings’ game against the Bruins in Boston.
The rest of the first period went without any scoring, though both teams had one power play to go along with it and some decent looks here and there.
The Flyers fell a point behind Boston and Detroit for the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference. With two road games left in the regular season, the Bolts have won 20 road games (already two more than last year’s club). Boston had a 3-1 lead after two periods when the Bruins scored twice in the first 45 seconds of the third for a 5-1 lead. They are tied with Boston but have a game in hand on the Bruins. The Red Wings were trying to tie the St. Louis Blues (1980-2004) for third place on the NHL’s all-time playoff streak list at 25.
With just 16 goals this season, Datsyuk admitted he wasn’t pleased with his form and didn’t rule out returning to Russian Federation at some point.
When the Atlantic Division members face off Thursday night in Boston, one can secure a playoff spot and the other essentially needs to win for a shot to get there. For the B’s to get the wild card, they need to beat Ottawa and have the Flyers lose one of a possible four points against the Penguins (tomorrow, 3 p.m.) and the Islanders (Sunday, 7 p.m.).
Tonight probably was the Wings’ most complete game of the season, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
The Red Wings still control their destiny. Look at the Red Wings and Bruins now. “I don’t think you have time to think about it”, forward Jakub Voracek said of the busy slate for the Flyers, who are clinging to the second wild-card spot.
As the Bruins prepare for game No. 82, let’s take a spin through some notes from No. 81. Obviously with what we’ve been going through here just kind of gave our guys some real good confidence there and loosened them up a little bit and took off from there.
Draisaitl’s third-period, power-play goal, scored at 18:03, went down as the final goal scored in the history of Rexall Place. But if the Bruins can’t escape TD Garden picking up two points on the Wings (that is, beating them in regulation), they’ll be on life support. “We played really good in the second and third period”.
It was the final NHL game at Rexall, where the Oilers have played since 1974, when they were in the World Hockey Association. Marchenko’s goal snapped a 12-game scoreless stretch and was his first point since an assist on February 23 vs. Columbus….
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Bergeron’s line produced two of Boston’s five goals – one by Marchand, one by Stempniak – and the young trio of fourth-liners brought the same blend of speed and physicality it showed flashes of in its brief time together last month. Id also say weve done a better job of finding ways to deliver the puck to the net and getting people to the net. F Max Talbot was an emergency recall by the Bruins on Wednesday and was in the lineup for the 37th time this season, while RW Jimmy Hayes was out with an undisclosed injury suffered in Tuesday night’s game….
