Saturday Night Hockey

Yesterday, Hockey Night In Canada was broad casted on CBC. It is really to bad that the national game was in Toronto , because there was a much more entertaining game than the Leafs vs Flyers.

The Ottawa Senators faced the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday. These 2 teams had a score to settle after these teams got in a brawl Thursday that resulted in 100 penalty minutes.

The game started with Henrik Tallinder putting the Sabres up by 1 just 2:27 into the game. Then, shorthanded, Jason Spezza potted his 7th in 7 games to tie it up. After Ottawa scored 3 and Buffalo scored 2 in the 2nd, Ottawa had the lead going into the 3rd. After both teams exchanged goals, the Sabres potted 2 in a row to tie it up. But then, with just under 5:00 left in the game, Jason Spezza scored his 2nd of the game to give the Sens the lead. In those last 5 minutes the Sabres pressed to tie it up. But then all hopes of a comeback were squandered after a too many men on the ice penalty. So the Sens got the job done. They won 2 fights and the game to send a message to the Sabres.

The Toronto Maple Leafs faced the Philadelphia Flyers in a key matchup for the Leafs.

This game started with the Flyers playing like themselves as they gave the 1st goal 11:16 into the game. Then, in the 2nd, the Leafs added 2 more goals to get a 3-0 lead. But late in the 2nd, Sami Kapanen potted his 9th to cut the lead to 2 goals. Then, in the 3rd the Leafs put the game away with 2 goals courtesy of Mats Sundin and John Pohl. Simon Gagne scored with 1 minute left, but the Leafs took this one 5-2. The Leafs are now 10th in the Conference and need 2 more points to get 7th and the Flyers are still the worst team in the league with 41 points.

The Montreal Canadiens faced the New York Islanders on Saturday.

The Habs continued their slump as they lost a crucial game to bring them out of a playoff spot. After both teams exchanged goals, Jason Blake gave the Islanders the lead. Then, Neilson scored his 1st in the 2nd to give New York a 2 goal lead. In the 3rd, Chris Higgins scored 3:00 in to give the Habs hope. But the Canadiens could not get another goal as the Isles won to take over 8th spot in the Eastern Conference. The Canadiens are now in 9th place as they continue their slump.

In the final Canadian game of the night, the Calgary Flames faced the San Jose Sharks.

The Flames came out strong scoring 2 in the 1st. Then, the Sharks scored 4 in the 2nd to the Flames 2 to tie it up. But the Flames ran away with it scoring 3 unanswered goals to win. The Flames are 8th in the Western Conference and 3 points away from from division leader Vancouver. The Sharks are 5th in the Conference.

Here are the rest of the scores:

Washington vs New Jersey: 4-2

Columbus vs NY Rangers: 3-2

Carolina vs Atlanta: 4-1

Boston vs Florida: 2-7

Detroit vs Nashville (OT): 3-4

Colorado vs Los Angeles (SO): 5-6

Eastern Conference
RK		GP	W	L		OT	PTS	GF	GA	HOME	AWAY	L10
1	BUFFALO*	62	41	16		5	87	234	182	22-7-3	19-9-2	7-2-1
2	NEW JERSEY*	62	38	18		6	82	167	147	22-7-4	16-11-2	7-3-0
3	TAMPA BAY*	63	35	25		3	73	201	195	17-14-0	18-11-3	7-2-1
4	OTTAWA	62	36	22		4	76	215	171	20-11-2	16-11-2	7-1-2
5	PITTSBURGH	60	33	18		9	75	210	188	18-8-4	15-10-5	8-1-1
6	ATLANTA	64	31	23		10	72	193	204	14-10-6	17-13-4	2-6-2
7	CAROLINA	64	32	25		7	71	193	198	16-12-4	16-13-3	6-3-1
8	NY ISLANDERS	62	31	23		8	70	183	174	17-10-4	14-13-4	6-2-2
9	MONTREAL	64	32	26		6	70	186	192	18-12-3	14-14-3	3-7-0
10	TORONTO	62	30	23		9	69	198	200	12-13-5	18-10-4	5-2-3
11	BOSTON	61	30	27		4	64	178	221	16-12-2	14-15-2	7-3-0
12	NY RANGERS	62	29	27		6	64	180	178	12-14-4	17-13-2	4-4-2
13	FLORIDA	63	24	26		13	61	180	202	17-10-4	7-16-9	4-3-3
14	WASHINGTON	62	24	28		10	58	186	216	14-12-5	10-16-5	3-4-3
15	PHILADELPHIA	62	16	37		9	41	161	235	5-18-7	11-19-2	3-5-2
Western Conference
RK		GP	W	L		OT	PTS	GF	GA	HOME	AWAY	L10
1	NASHVILLE*	63	41	18		4	86	215	161	23-5-4	18-13-0	5-4-1
2	ANAHEIM*	62	35	17		10	80	196	162	18-5-7	17-12-3	3-5-2
3	VANCOUVER*	61	36	21		4	76	163	154	19-9-2	17-12-2	8-2-0
4	DETROIT	63	39	16		8	86	195	155	22-3-4	17-13-4	6-2-2
5	SAN JOSE	62	38	23		1	77	187	159	18-11-1	20-12-0	5-5-0
6	DALLAS	60	36	21		3	75	163	145	20-9-1	16-12-2	7-2-1
7	MINNESOTA	62	34	23		5	73	177	160	21-5-4	13-18-1	7-2-1
8	CALGARY	62	32	21		9	73	200	169	25-6-1	7-15-8	3-4-3
9	EDMONTON	62	30	26		6	66	171	178	18-11-2	12-15-4	5-3-2
10	COLORADO	62	29	28		5	63	202	200	17-14-3	12-14-2	4-5-1
11	ST LOUIS	61	26	26		9	61	160	185	15-15-3	11-11-6	6-3-1
12	PHOENIX	61	26	32		3	55	163	209	14-13-2	12-19-1	3-6-1
13	COLUMBUS	62	24	32		6	54	153	193	14-15-3	10-17-3	3-6-1
14	CHICAGO	61	22	30		9	53	149	185	11-14-4	11-16-5	3-5-2
15	LOS ANGELES	63	21	32		10	52	178	219	12-13-8	9-19-2	4-2-4

x - clinched playoff spot	y - clinched division	z - clinched conference
p - clinched Presidents' Trophy (best record in NHL)

GP - Games Played	W - Wins
L - Losses	OT - OT/Shootout losses (worth one point)
PTS - Points
GF - Goals For	GA - Goals Against
HOME - Home Record	AWAY - Road Record
L10 - Record in last ten games