Already seriously affected by injuries, the Colorado Avalanche made things worse on Monday in a 5-3 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers.
Nathan MacKinnon retired to the locker room in the first period of the game. The Avalanche announced that he would not be back in the second intermission due to an upper body injury.
The circumstances surrounding this injury remain somewhat unclear. He took a few good checks near the Flyers bench that made him wince and could be the cause. He later fired a wrist shot towards the net and suddenly leaned forward in pain before stepping back and being assessed by medics.
It was a 1-1 tie between the two teams at that time.
The Avalanche are without the services of Gabriel Landeskog, Valeri Nichushkin, Artturi Lehkonen and Evan Rodrigues in particular, and only healthy Mikko Rantanen remains among the top-6 in attack.
MacKinnon had time to contribute to the first goal for his team, the first of two from Alex Newhook, who opened the scoring after 3:50. MacKinnon thus collected an eighth point in his last six meetings.
The Flyers, however, took the opportunity to distance themselves. Tanner Laczynski gave the Flyers the lead soon after by jumping on Joel Farabee’s throw return, then returning from the first intermission, Tony DeAngelo made it 3-1 on the power play when his shot wormed its way through the traffic.
Owen Tippet extended the lead midway through the third period with his seventh goal of the campaign and Travis Konecny completed the scoring in an empty net.
Rantanen was the other scorer in the Avalanche’s loss. Charles Hudon was playing his first game in an Avalanche uniform. He took seven shots on goal and was 14:28 on the ice.
Goaltender Carter Hart completed his night’s work with 29 saves.
An excellent 3rd saves the Rangers
K’Andre Miller, Alexis Lafrenière and Chris Kreider hit the target in the third period as the New York Rangers came from behind to defeat the St. Louis Blues 6-4 on Monday night.
Vincent Trocheck contributed to the win with a goal and an assist. Braden Schneider and Adam Fox scored the other goals for Rangers, who won for the second time in seven games (2-4-1). They also ended a four game winless streak at home (0-3-1).
Artemi Panarin had two assists, Lafrenière added one and goaltender Igor Shesterkin stopped 25 shots.
In the loss, Jordan Kyrou scored a goal and added an assist. Other Blues goals were scored by Pavel Buchnevich, Vladimir Tarasenko and Ryan O’Reilly. Goaltender Jordan Binnington stopped 18 pucks.
For the Blues, it is the sixth loss in seven outings after a seven-game winning streak.
The Blues were leading 4-3 after 40 minutes when Miller tied the score with his first of the season at 4:48 of the third period.
Lafrenière broke the tie at 8:16 when he deflected a long shot from Mika Zibanejad for his fourth goal of the season.
After Trocheck was caught for hooking with 6:21 to go, Kreider rattled the shorthanded ropes 25 seconds into the penalty.
That 13th goal from Kreider sent an outpouring of joy among the spectators at Madison Square Garden, where the Rangers had squandered leads in three of their four losses.
It’s the first time this season that the Blues have lost a game they were leading after two periods, after seven wins.
Kadri assists in all three Flames goals
Nazem Kadri got his third point of the game at 15:42 of the final period, and the Calgary Flames snatched a 3-2 win over the Arizona Coyotes.
It was the ninth goal of the season for Kadri, who joined the Flames as a free agent late in the offseason.
While Jakob Chychrun was in jail, the Calgary No. 91 completed a nice trade with Jonathan Huberdeau and Tyler Toffoli near Karel Vejmelka’s net.
Daniel Vladar was the winning goalkeeper. The latter faced 20 shots from the Coyotes, who scored late in the second and early in the third to tie the game 2-2.
Shayne Gostisbehere and Chychrun were the scorers for André Tourigny’s squad.
Huberdeau also picked up an assist on Elias Lindholm’s ninth goal of the campaign.
The Quebec winger now has four goals and nine assists to his name in 21 games.
Dan Vladar was called up to make his fifth start in the Flames’ last seven games.
Caps throw 50 times at Skinner
Nic Dowd scored the game-winning goal as the Washington Capitals snapped a short two-game losing streak with a 3-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers.
Lars Eller and TJ Oshie also found the back of the net for the Capitals (11-12-4), who are 2-5-3 in their last 10 road outings.
Charlie Lindgren made 28 saves.
Brett Kulak and Connor McDavid offered the response of the Oilers (14-12-0), who have lost two of their last three meetings.
Stuart Skinner blocked 47 shots.
The Oilers returned to the locker room after the first period without giving up a goal, despite outshooting the Capitals 22-12.
The Oilers broke the 0-0 tie at 1:44 of the second period, when Kulak fired a hard shot from the blue line, with heavy traffic in front of Lindgren’s net. It was his first of the season.
Less than six minutes later, the Capitals tied the game. Leon Draisaitl lost control of the puck in his zone, giving Eller the chance to come into the net. Thanks to a fake, Eller scored his fourth goal of the season.
The Oilers regained the lead with 4:35 left in the middle period when McDavid intercepted a pass from John Carlson before scooting to Lindgren, who he beat with a shorthanded shot between the pads.
It was his 22nd goal of the season, his best career start after 26 games.
The Capitals tied the score again on the same power play when Oshie completed a three-game.
Dowd scored the game-clinching goal at 7:13 of the third period on a play started by Aliaksei Protas.
