Five Minute Major

*Photo from the San Diego Union Tribune*     Sometimes, one goal does the trick. Dmitri Voronkov broke the scoreless tie as Elvis Merzlikins shined in net, leading the Columbus Blue Jackets to a 1-0 shutout win over the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday night in St. Louis.    Winning for just the 3rd time in their last 10 games, it was Merzlikins who carried the load in the game, recording his first shutout in over two years, with his last one coming against the Carolina Hurricanes on January 13, 2022. They end a 5 game road trip with a 2-2-1 record.    Blue Jackets head coach Pascal Vincent said of the win that "They’re all in. And they want to do things right and it’s like we’re growing as a team. The team chemistry is getting better and better. And they had to dig in. They had to really dig deep in order to compete today and do it the proper way. And that’s what they did. And most importantly I feel they do it for each other."    The first two periods of the game went scoreless,

*Photo from AP News*     How about a little comeback magic? Tim Stutzle had a goal and an assist, Claude Giroux scored the game winning goal, and the Ottawa Senators rallied past the Nashville Predators 4-3 in OT on Monday night in Ottawa.    Trailing by 3 goals after one period, the Senators ultimately scored 4 unanswered to win in extra time. It's their 4th win in 7 games and they now have a 5-3-2 record in their last 10. Brady Tkachuk also had a goal and an assist for the Senators.    Tkachuk, the Senators captain, said of the win "We showed our maturity from all the lessons that we’ve learned. In the past, it could’ve gotten away from us, but we stuck to it, stuck to our game and really emphasized doing it as a team versus trying to do it individually."    Michael McCarron started the scoring 8:26 into the game, giving the Predators a 1-0 lead on his 7th goal of the season. At the 16:30 mark of the period, Thomas Novak and Cody Glass assisted on Philip Tomasino's

*Photo from AOL*     Oliver Bjorkstrand had a two assist game, Jordan Eberle had two goals and an assist, and the Seattle Kraken defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets with a 4-2 victory on Sunday night in Seattle.    The Kraken won for the 5th time in 10 games, sitting at 21-18-10 and in 5th place in the Pacific Division. Seattle used multi point games from Eberle, Bjorkstrand, and Jared McCann as they scored 3 times in the first period to knock off Columbus.    Kraken head coach Dave Hakstol said after the game that "We were disappointed to lose the point the other night, but we came back and got the two points tonight that were critical. Anything less, we'd be walking out of this building tonight not feeling very good about ourselves."    On the power play 12:40 into the game, Eberle gave the Kraken a 1-0 lead with assists from Bjorkstrand and Vince Dunn. Jared McCann doubled the lead to 2-0 on his 20th goal of the season with assists going to Eberle and Tomas Tatar. Eberl

*Photo from CBS News*     This team loves playing in Philly. James van Riemsdyk had a goal and two assists, David Pastrnak had two goals and an assist, and the Boston Bruins rolled over the Philadelphia Flyers with a 6-2 victory on Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia.    The Bruins rode 4 first period goals in just over 4 minutes to win their second straight game and 7th of 8 heading into their bye week and all star break, jumping to the top of the league standings at 31-9-9. Pavel Zacha and Charlie McAvoy also contributed with multi point games for the Bruins.    Bruins forward Charlie Coyle said of the run of wins "That's what you want in that last game. You know what's right around the corner, but you make sure we focus, do all the right things, create our good habits still. You feel much better going into a break when you have a solid game. You win like that, you get to enjoy your break a little more."    Pastrnak started the scoring 14:09 into the game, making it

*Photo from Lancaster Online*     Things are humming along at a mile high. Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and an assist, Logan O'Connor scored two goals, and the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Los Angeles Kings 5-1 on Friday night in Denver.    Paced by multi point games from O'Connor, MacKinnon, and Ross Colton, the Avalanche secured their 3rd straight win and 4th out of 5 games entering their bye week before the all star break. They are also 7-3-0 in their last 10 games and 32-14-3 on the season, leading the Central Division.    Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar said after the game "Pretty happy with the way our guys played again tonight, from the goaltender out, against a really good team. It's nice to win a couple games and be playing some solid hockey going into the break. So guys feel good about it now and then get away from the game for a little bit, do a little bit of conditioning, and hopefully pick up where we left off."    It was O'Connor who started

*Photo from KTVN*     Absolutely no one can stop Edmonton right now. Leon Draisaitl had 3 assists, Connor McDavid had two goals and an assist, and the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Chicago Blackhawks with a 3-0 victory on Thursday night in Edmonton.    The Oilers have surged to 3rd place in the Pacific Division with the tear they're on, winning their 15th straight game to improve to 28-15-1. They become only the 5th team in NHL history with at least 15 straight wins, with the 1992-1993 Pittsburgh Penguins holding the record with 17 straight wins.    Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said of the win streak that "Right now, the way the team’s started chasing teams, I think everyone’s just really excited to be moving up in the standings and giving ourselves a bit of breathing room. I think we’re trying to take it one game at a time. We’re just playing good enough to win right now. I think we’ve got a lot more in our group. As a coaching staff, we’re always pushing our guys to try a

*Photo from NHL.com*     Gloria was played with this win. Robert Thomas had two assists, Brayden Schenn scored in overtime, and the St. Louis Blues defeated the Vancouver Canucks with a 4-3 overtime victory on Wednesday night in Vancouver.    The Blues picked up their 3rd straight win and are 6-3-1 in their last 10, sitting in 5th place in the Central Division with a 24-20-2 record. Thomas and Jake Neighbours led the Blues on the scoresheet, with Thomas recording two assists and Neighbours having a goal and an assist.    Neighbours said of the Blues win streak that "We're playing good hockey right now for the most part, and we're building our game, and you can see we're really starting to come together as a team and play for each other and support each other. It's really fun to see, and it's fun to be a part of and just got to kind of keep her going."    Getting the scoring started for the Blues was Neighbours. With Thomas getting the lone assist, he score

*Photo from the Santa Maria Times*     Things getting Wild in the Northwest. Marcus Foligno had a goal and an assist, Marcus Johansson scored twice, and the Minnesota Wild defeated the Washington Capitals with a 5-3 victory on Tuesday night in Saint Paul.    The Wild picked up their 3rd straight win as they got back to .500 at 21-21-5 on the season. Joel Eriksson Ek also had a goal and an assist as the Wild saw 11 different skaters register a point, emerging from losing 8 of their last 9 games.    Wild head coach John Hynes said that "I really liked the mindset that we came home with coming off the road, and the style of game that we need to be able to play. And just the consistency of it was important for us to be able to get to that game tonight, and I thought we did a pretty good job of it."    The Wild got on the board early in the game. Brock Faber got the scoring started 1:37 into the game to make it a 1-0 game with assists from Marco Rossi and Mats Zuccarello. At the 4

*Photo from Arizona Sports*     At long last, they finally did it. Nick Bjugstad scored, Jason Zucker had a goal and an assist, and the Arizona Coyotes defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins with a 5-2 victory on Monday night in Tempe.    The Coyotes won their second straight game and their 4th in 10 games. Entering the game, they had a 11 game losing streak against the Penguins, which they were able to snap in large part thanks to Zucker, who had a multi point game against his old team.    Zucker scored the only goal of the first period, giving the Coyotes a 1-0 lead 2:23 into the game on his 7th goal of the season. Lars Eller scored 4:50 into the second period to get the Penguins on the board, tying the game 1-1. Juuso Valimaki scored his first goal of the season 11:04 into the period to make it 2-1 Coyotes.    Later in the second period, the Penguins tied the score again. At the 16:30 mark of the period, Sidney Crosby scored his 27th goal of the season to make it 2-2 with Evgeni Malkin an

*Photo from Lighthouse Hockey*     Welcome back to the NHL coach. Noah Dobson had two assists, Bo Horvat scored in overtime, and the New York Islanders defeated the Dallas Stars 3-2 in overtime on Sunday night on Long Island.    The Islanders picked up just their 3rd win in 10 games by beating the Stars at home. Dobson and Mathew Barzal were the multi point players as they won the first game coached by Patrick Roy, hired by the Islanders after they fired Lane Lambert.    Roy said of the win that "You always want to win that first game. And I'm very thankful to our players for the effort that they put out there, and I was just hoping to give a good show to our fans as well and have them enjoy their night."    The only goal of the first period came from the Islanders. Alexander Romanov scored his 5th goal of the season 2:52 into the game with assists coming from Dobson and Barzal. Jason Robertson scored 11:35 into the second period to tie the game 1-1. Nils Lundkvist added

*Photo from The Hockey News*     You can only have one first goal in the NHL, and the kid made it count. Ivan Barbashev had two assists, Brendan Brisson scored, and the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins with a 3-2 victory on Saturday night in Las Vegas.    The Golden Knights improved to 27-14-5 and have won 3 straight games by beating the Penguins on home ice. They scored 3 unanswered goals to do it, and Brisson's first career goal was the exclamation point on the win for Vegas in just his 3rd NHL game.    Vegas head coach Bruce Cassidy said of the win that "We were going down that path after the second of another shutout, which has happened a lot to us where we didn’t have enough push back when it was necessary. I liked our push, and we kept pushing. We didn’t sit back on our heels. I liked our whole mentality. You need that every once in a while. It keeps the momentum rolling. It could be games you look at later and say, ‘It could have springboard into th

*Photo from the Lima News*     One period can be the difference sometimes. Nico Hischier scored, Vitek Vanecek shined in net, and the New Jersey Devils defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets with a 4-1 victory on Friday night in Columbus.    In a battle of the two worst teams record-wise in the Metropolitan Division, it was the Devils who came out on top, ending their two game losing streak to improve to 23-17-3 on the season. 8 different skaters recorded a point for the Devils, with no one having a multi point night.    Columbus got it started in this one. Cole Sillinger scored 4:21 into the game to make it 1-0 on his 8th goal of the season, assisted by Johnny Gaudreau and Yegor Chinakhov. Just 28 seconds into the second period, the Devils tied the score 1-1 thanks to John Marino's 3rd goal of the season, with the lone assist going to Simon Nemec.    Alexander Holtz gave the Devils the lead 8:40 into the second, scoring his 12th goal of the season with Cal Foote and Max Willman gettin

*Photo from Buffalo Hockey Beat*     Things are trending up in western New York. Ryan Johnson had two assists, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen shined again, and the Buffalo Sabres shut out the Chicago Blackhawks with a 3-0 victory on Thursday night in Buffalo.    With the game moved back a day due to snow pummeling the Buffalo area, the Sabres were still able to win their second straight game and are now 6-4-0 in their last 10 games despite still holding 7th place in the Atlantic Division. Johnson's two assists made him the Sabres only multi point player.    The spotlight was on Luukkonen all night. He shut out the Blackhawks for his second straight shutout after stonewalling the San Jose Sharks on Monday, stopping all 19 Chicago shots in this one. Dating back to the second period of a 1-0 loss to the Vancouver Canucks, Luukkonen has an active shutout streak of 157:55. It's also the 3rd shutout of his NHL career.    Luukkonen said of his shutout success that "It feels great. Especial

*Photo from Reuters*     The motor city is beginning to hum along. Olli Maatta had two assists, Dylan Larkin had the winning goal, and the Detroit Red Wings defeated the Florida Panthers with a 3-2 overtime victory on Wednesday night in Sunrise.    The Red Wings have surged up to 3rd place in the Atlantic Division, holding a 23-16-5 record, a 7-2-1 streak in their last 10 games, and 3 straight wins. Maatta had two assists and Michael Rasmussen had a goal and an assist for the Red Wings to lead them on the scoresheet.    Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde said of the win that "We battled for 40 minutes, were down 2-1 going into the third, and had a chance. Give these guys credit, it is very hard to win in this league. It is hard to win on the road. It is hard beating a top-echelon team, especially trailing going into the third. Good on our guys."    After a scoreless first period, the Panthers got the scoring started in the second period. Sam Reinhart scored shorthanded to giv

*Photo from the Bozeman Daily Chronicle*     The victories continue to pile up in Edmonton. Evan Bouchard had a goal and an assist, Ryan McLeod had an identical line, and the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs with a 4-2 victory on Tuesday night in Edmonton.    With the win, the Oilers set a franchise record for longest win streak, reaching 11 straight wins to improve to 24-15-1 and have risen all the way from last to 4th place in the Pacific Division. Bouchard and McLeod were the leaders on the scoresheet for the Oilers as the only players with two points.    Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl said of the win that "I thought it was a competitive, good hockey game. It’s a good team over there, lots of skill and they defend really well actually for how much skill they have. Obviously, we showed some composure again and stuck with it, so it’s another huge win for us."    Auston Matthews scored just 27 seconds into the game for the Maple Leafs, making it 1-0 on the only

*Photo from LA Kings Insider*     The downfall is temporarily over in SoCal. Phillip Danault had a goal and two assists, Trevor Moore had two goals, and the Los Angeles Kings defeated the Carolina Hurricanes with a 5-2 victory on Monday afternoon in Raleigh.    On game 5 of a 6 game road trip, the Kings snapped a losing streak of 8 games, having gone 0-4-4. The Kings had several players with multi point games, as Danault, Moore, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Matt Roy, Mikey Anderson, and Vladislav Gavrikov.    Kings head coach Todd McClellan said of snapping the losing streak that "I think relief is a word you would hear from a lot of guys. But I would rather choose reward because we did do a lot of things the right way, and we have on this trip. That’s a good sign for us. A lot of energy and emotion went into that game for us."    Moore scored the only goal of the first period, giving the Kings a 1-0 lead on his 19th goal of the season, assisted by Gavrikov and Danault. Jordan Martinoo

*Photo from The Rink Live*     You don't need to blow out your opponents, you just need one more goal. The New York Rangers scored twice in the first period to defeat the Washington Capitals with a 2-1 victory on Sunday afternoon in Manhattan.    The Rangers ended a 4 game losing streak with this win, maintaining their hold on the Metropolitan Division with a 27-13-2 record. They also avenged a Saturday loss to the Capitals as the teams split a home and home over the weekend.    New York forward Alexis Lafreniere said of snapping the losing streak that "We know we can play better than we played the past couple of games before today. I think today we played a better game. Defensively we were better. That's why we were winning early on, just playing hard defense and offense came after."    Just 50 seconds into the game, the Rangers had the lead. Artemi Panarin got it started with his 27th goal of the season with assists going to Vincent Trocheck and Jacob Trouba. With 5

*Photo from Reuters*     Who doesn't love some last second drama? Tim Stutzle had 4 assists, Vladimir Tarasenko scored a last second goal, and the Ottawa Senators defeated the San Jose Sharks with a 5-4 victory on Saturday in Ottawa.    The Senators won their first game of 2024 and snapped a 5 game losing streak in the process. Tarasenko, Brady Tkachuk, and Drake Batherson all had a goal and an assist in the win, while Artem Zub chipped in 3 assists to go with Stutzle's 4 assist game.    Senators interim head coach Jacques Martin said of the win that "I thought we had a great effort, we played very well. We’ve just got to keep learning about managing the puck better, recognizing situations. Maybe their first goal tonight, we gave it to them. Those are things that we have to clean up, but it’s nice to see us getting some goals. It was well deserved. We had lots of shots, and I thought we were better as far as going to the net and carrying the play."    Claude Giroux ki

*Photo from the Kileen Daily Herald*     So much for a happy return to action. Roman Josi had 3 assists, Ryan O'Reilly had a goal and two assists, and the Nashville Predators defeated the Dallas Stars with a 6-3 victory on Friday night in Dallas.    The Predators secured their 4th win in 6 games by knocking off the Stars, sitting at 23-18-1 on the season. In addition to 3 point games from Josi and O'Reilly, Filip Forsberg also added a goal and an assist for the Nashville attack.    Predators head coach Andrew Brunette said "I thought we were really good. Besides the first five minutes of the game, I thought we did all things we like to do. I don’t think we gave them a lot of space. We nullified their rush game. In the third period, we made it a little harder on ourselves than needed, but it was a great 20-man effort. Everybody was pulling their own tonight."    After a scoreless first period, Jeremy Lauzon got the Predators a 1-0 lead 9:22 into the second period on hi