Before we dig into last night's action, this was passed on to us here at FanHouse in the spirit of the holiday season. The National Hockey League and the Salvation Army have partnered up this year to help raise money during the holidays, and you can help the cause by creating your own online NHL team kettle (you provide the bell) to help raise money. The fan that raises the most money will win an All-Star prize package, including two tickets to the game in Montreal. You can find all the details right here.
As for the Wednesday night schedule, Henrik Lundqvist had a relatively short night in net for the Rangers, as he surrendered five goals on 17 shots in just over a period of action. He was ultimately lifted in favor of backup Steve Valiquette, as New York fell to Vancouver, 6-3, at the Garden.
Just five minutes into the second period, the Canucks had a 5-1 lead thanks to goals from Alexandre Burrows (two),Kyle Wellwood, Ryan Johnson and Pavol Demitra. Demitra's power play goal at the 5:33 mark of the second period was the final straw for Lundqvist, as coach Tom Renney sent in Valiquette, who turned aside all 15 shots he faced. Daniel Sedin added an empty net goal for Vancouver with three seconds to play in the third period.
Roberto Luongo made 39 saves for the Canucks, and gave up more than two goals for the first time in seven starts. Prior to last night's game, Luongo was sporting a 0.98 Goals Against Average and a .966 save percentage during the month of November. With Martin Brodeur on the shelf, Luongo would seem like a strong contender for the Vezina Tropy this year.
Markus Naslund registered an assist and three shots on goal in his first game against his former team.
Sports
The Bruins and Sabres combined for five goals in the first five minutes of the opening period Wednesday night, as Boston eventually came-from-behind and pulled away for a 7-4 win.
Buffalo found itself with a 4-2 lead in the first period, only to watch the Bruins score five unanswered goals over the final 40 minutes. In what was a rough night for big-name goalies, Ryan Miller was yanked after giving up seven goals on 20 shots for the Sabres, helping to waste a two goal (and three point) performance from Thomas Vanek, who now finds himself with a league-leading 15 goals.
Zdeno Chara and Chuck Kobasew each scored twice for the Bruins, who have now won seven of their past eight games. Marc Savard finished with a four point night, scoring his seventh goal of the season, while registering three assists.
Washington Beats Anaheim, Ovechkin Continues to DominateDespite being without Sergei Fedorov and Alexander Semin, the Washington Capitals were still able to roll to a 6-4 victory in Anaheim. Jonas Hiller received the start in goal for the Ducks, and he was chased after just seven minutes, giving up three goals on six shots. Once again, it was a bad night for goalies.
The Capitals received goals from six different players, including Alex Ovechkin who lit the lamp for the fifth consecutive game. He also picked up three assists, and has recorded 14 points in the Capitals past five games. During that stretch, Washington has picked up nine of a possible ten points, and jumped to the top spot of the Southeast Division.
Bobby Ryan scored a pair of goals and added an assist for the Ducks, while Corey Perry recorded three assists in the losing effort.
Completely Random StatAcross the league as a whole on Wednesday night, the three games resulted in 30 goals being scored. That's ten goals per game, which is like something out of the 1980's when 7-5 finals were all the rage. By comparison, on Tuesday night, the NHL had twice the number of games being played (six) and saw only 32 goals scored.
Yesterday's Newsmakers in the NHL: Rough Night for Goalies, Great Night for Offense originally appeared on NHL FanHouse on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 01:15:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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