Saturday Night Hockey

Yesterday, 5 out of 6 Canadian teams played as part of Hockey Night In Canada.

In the first of three 7:00pm starts, the Toronto Maple Leafs faced the Edmonton Oilers.

scored on a power play 12 minutes into the game on a beautiful pass from The game started late because of a ceremony honouring the 1967 Maple Leaf Stanley Cup champions. Then the game started. Mats Sundin scored on a powerplay from a beautiful pass from Kaberle. In the 2nd period, John Pohl scored his 9th to give the Leafs a 2-0 lead. But then just 47 seconds after Pohl's goal, Steve Staios scored his 2nd on a point shoot. After the teams traded goals the 3rd started. 10:55 into the period, Mats Sundin scored his 25th to give the Leafs a 2 goal advantage. Then with the goalie pulled, Edmonton scored to make it a 1 goal game, but the Leafs held on for 4-3 win. The Leafs now find themselves 1 point out of 7th and they have 2 games to get they 1 point. And the Oilers are now 7 points out of a playoff spot and have no games at hand.

In the second game, the Montreal Canadiens faced the Carolina Hurricanes.

Late in the 1st, Sheldon Souray scored to give the Habs the lead. Then in the second Rod Brind'amour scored to tie it up. After the teams traded goals, the Canes started to run away with it. First scored again, and than Cole. Finally, Eric Stall scored to Late in the 1st, Sheldon Souray let a blast go and beat Cam Ward. But then early in the 2nd , Rod Brind'amour scored to clinch the win for the Hurricanes. The Canes now sit 7th in the Conference and the Canadiens find themselves on the outside looking in as they are now in 10th place.

In the final 7:00pm start of the day, the Ottawa Senators faced the Atlanta Thrashers.

This was a huge game for each team. The game's 1st goal was scored by Steve McCarthy 11 minutes into the 1st. Then with just over half a minute left in the period, Peter Schaefer potted his 11th to tie the game up at 1 a piece. Then in the 2nd the Thrashers scored 2 and the Sens 1 for the Thrashers to grab the lead 3-2 going into the 3rd. In the 3rd, Ottawa started there come back. First Comrie scored his 20th to tie it up, then Dean Mcammond scored to give the Sens the lead. Finally Fisher scored an empty-netter to give the Senators the 5-3 win. The Sens are now 5th in the Conference and the Thrashers are now 6th.

The final Canadian game of the night was the Calgary Flames against the Colorado Avalanche.

2:59 into the 2nd, Huselius scored his 26th to give the Flames the lead. Then the Avalanche scored 2 goals in a row curtsy of Paul Stastny and Andrew Brunette. Bu then the Flames came back with 2 of their own goals from Iginla and Dion Phaneuf. Going into the 3rd the score was 3-2 for the Flames. In the 3rd the Flames got 2 insurance goals from Huselius and Stephan Yelle. The Flames are now 7th in the Conference and the Avalanche are 10th and are at the bottom of their division.

Here are the rest of the scores:

Philadelphia vs NY Rangers: 5 - 3
Boston vs Buffalo: 4 - 3 (SO)
New Jersey vs NY Islanders: 2 - 0
Tampa Bay vs Florida: 4 - 5
Minnesota vs Nashville: 4 - 1
Detroit vs Phoenix: 4 - 1

Eastern Conference
RK		GP	W	L		OT	PTS	GF	GA	HOME	AWAY	L10
1	Buffalo	59	39	15		5	83	217	168	20-7-3	19-8-2	6-3-1
2	NEW JERSEY*	59	36	17		6	78	160	140	21-6-4	15-11-2	6-3-1
3	TAMPA BAY*	60	33	24		3	69	191	183	16-13-0	17-11-3	7-2-1
4	PITTSBURGH	57	31	17		9	71	200	179	17-8-4	14-9-5	9-0-1
5	OTTAWA	59	34	22		3	71	200	157	18-11-2	16-11-1	7-2-1
6	ATLANTA	61	30	22		9	69	185	194	14-9-5	16-13-4	2-7-1
7	CAROLINA	61	30	24		7	67	185	192	15-11-4	15-13-3	4-5-1
8	TORONTO	59	29	22		8	66	191	192	12-12-5	17-10-3	7-1-2
9	NY ISLANDERS	59	28	23		8	64	171	165	14-10-4	14-13-4	5-2-3
10	MONTREAL	60	29	25		6	64	170	179	17-12-3	12-13-3	2-7-1
11	NY RANGERS	58	28	25		5	61	173	169	11-13-3	17-12-2	5-4-1
12	BOSTON	57	27	26		4	58	161	209	16-12-2	11-14-2	5-5-0
13	FLORIDA	60	23	26		11	57	170	195	16-10-3	7-16-8	5-4-1
14	WASHINGTON	58	23	26		9	55	175	203	14-12-4	9-14-5	3-5-2
15	PHILADELPHIA	58	16	34		8	40	151	215	5-16-7	11-18-1	5-2-3
Western Conference
RK		GP	W	L		OT	PTS	GF	GA	HOME	AWAY	L10
1	DETROIT*	60	38	16		6	82	185	145	21-3-3	17-13-3	8-2-0
2	ANAHEIM*	59	35	16		8	78	190	151	18-5-5	17-11-3	5-5-0
3	VANCOUVER*	58	33	21		4	70	152	146	18-9-2	15-12-2	6-2-2
4	NASHVILLE	60	39	18		3	81	202	151	21-5-3	18-13-0	4-6-0
5	SAN JOSE	58	36	21		1	73	176	145	18-11-1	18-10-0	4-5-1
6	DALLAS	57	34	21		2	70	153	140	18-9-1	16-12-1	6-3-1
7	CALGARY	59	31	20		8	70	188	158	24-6-1	7-14-7	5-3-2
8	MINNESOTA	59	32	22		5	69	168	151	20-5-4	12-17-1	7-2-1
9	EDMONTON	59	28	26		5	61	160	171	18-11-2	10-15-3	5-4-1
10	COLORADO	58	28	26		4	60	186	182	16-13-3	12-13-1	4-6-0
11	ST LOUIS	59	24	26		9	57	150	178	13-15-3	11-11-6	4-5-1
12	CHICAGO	58	22	27		9	53	146	177	11-13-4	11-14-5	5-3-2
13	PHOENIX	59	25	31		3	53	159	203	13-13-2	12-18-1	2-7-1
14	COLUMBUS	58	23	30		5	51	144	179	14-13-3	9-17-2	5-5-0
15	LOS ANGELES	60	19	31		10	48	166	208	11-12-8	8-19-2	3-3-4