Saturday Night Hockey

Yesterday was Hockey Night In Canada. In the Eastern Conference, there is a race going on for the 8th and final playoff spot in that conference, and yesterday, many teams looked like they really wanted that playoff spot.

In the 1st game, the Toronto Maple Leafs faced the Montreal Canadiens in a key matchup for each team as they were only separated by 1 point going into the game.

Early in the game, call-up Andrei Kostitsyn scored his 1st NHL goal to give the Habs the lead. Then, on the powerplay, Kyle Wellwood potted his 10th to tie the game up. The period was capped off by a Darcy Tucker and Francis Bouillon fight at 13:42 of the period. In the 2nd, Saku Koivu scored his 19th and 5th against the Leafs togive Montreal the lead. In the 3rd period, the team were playing 4-4. Darcy Tucker stormed up the ice and dropped it to Kyle Wellwood. He then dropped it to Pavel Kubina who wired it passed Halak to tie up the game 2-2. The game went scoreless for the rest of the 3rd and went into O.T. In that overtime period, both teams pressed to end the game. Shot after shot it looked like the game might end, but the goalies saned their teams. The game then went into a shootout. In the shootout, the 1st 3 shooters missed to give way to Mats Sundin. He came in and wired one top shelf to give the Leafs the 1-0 lead in the shootout. Saku Koivu then had to score to keep the Habs in the game. He made about 5 moves and beat Raycroft to prolong the game. After a miss by the Leafs, Andrei Kostitsyn came in and scored to give the Habs the lead. It was up Darcy Tucker to tie it up. He came in and got stopped by Halak for the Canadiens to win it. The Habs are now 11th in the Eastern Conference with 78 points and the Leafs are 10th in the Conference with 78 points.

In the last Eastern Conference Canadian game of the night, the Ottawa Senators faced the Philadelphia Flyers in a game that the Sens supposedly should have blown out.

The game started with both teams exchanging late 1st period goals After a period that saw Mike Comrie give the Sens the lead, the 3rd started. In the 3rd, Peter Schaefer scored 09:42 into the period to give the Sens a 2 goal lead. The Flyers though looked to play spoiler as Derian Hatcher scored late in the game to give the Flyers a chance to tie it. But the Flyers couldn't score another as the Ottawa Senators won another game at home. The Senators are now 4th place in the Eastern Conference but only 1 point a head of 5th Pittsburgh while the Flyers are still last in the league.

Pavel Datsyuk opened the scoring in the game just 06:05 into the game on a powerplay to give the Wings a 1 goal lead. Then, Bryon Smolinski tied it up 5 minutes after Datsyuk's goal. In the 2nd, the Canucks started pulling away from the Wings as they scored 2 goals in the period courtesy of Lucas Krajicek and Brendan Morrison. In the 3rd period the Red Wings looked to tie it up as they threw shot after shot at MVP candidate Roberto Luongo, but Luongo stopped them all. Trever Linden added a late goal as the Canucks won a huge game against the best team in the league. The win gives the Canucks a bigger lead in the Northwest Division and sit 3rd in the Western Conference while Detroit is 4th in the Conference, just 1 points behind league leader Nashville.

In another Western Conference game, the slumping Edmonton Oilers faced the St. Louis Blues.The Oilers looked to stop a 9 game losing streak that started when Ryan Smyth was traded to the NY Islanders.

The game started out slow in the 1st as there was no scoring early, but then with about 3 minutes left in the period, Peter Cajanek scored to give the Blues the lead. But the Oilers came back scoring just 00:40 after Cajanek's goal. The only goal of the 2nd came from the stick of Jeff Woywitka for the Blues to garb the lead 2-1. In the 3rd, the Oilers tied up the game as Shawn Horcoff scored on the powerplay with just over 10 minutes left in the period. The game went scoreless until overtime. In that overtime period, former Oiler Eric Brewer scored in between the legs of Roloson to grab the win. The Oilers have now dropped 10 straight since losing Smyth and are 11th in the Western Conference with 67 points. The Blues however are a head of the Oilers with 72 points.

In the final Canadian game of the night, the Calgary Flames faced the Minnesota Wild

The Flames came out strong scoring just 00:32 into the game. The Flames held that lead until the 18:03 mark of the period as Marion Gaborik scored to tie up the game. After the teams exchanged goals in the 2nd, the 3rd started with the game notted up at 2. In the 3rd, the Wild pulled away as Brian Roloson and Pavol Demitra both scored to give the Wild the 2 goal lead. The Flames couldn't come back from that as the Wild took the game, 4-2. The Flames are now sitting in 8th spot in the Western Conference while the Wild is 7th.

Here are the rest of the scores:

FINAL		1	2	3	T
	Carolina	1	4	2	7
	New Jersey	0	1	1	2

	FINAL 1 2 3 T Boston 0 0 0 0 NY Rangers 1 6 0 7

FINAL		1	2	3	T
	NY Islanders	3	0	2	5
	Florida	3	1	4	8

FINAL 1 2 3 T Dallas 0 1 1 2 Nashville 0 3 0 3

FINAL		1	2	3	T
	Colorado	2	1	3	6
	Phoenix	1	2	0	3

FINAL		1	2	3	T
	Columbus	0	2	1	3
	Los Angeles	2	3	0	5

Eastern Conference
RK		GP	W	L		OT	PTS	GF	GA	HOME	AWAY	L10
1	BUFFALO*	71	46	19		6	98	268	210	23-10-3	23-9-3	5-4-1
2	NEW JERSEY*	72	43	21		8	94	191	179	22-10-5	21-11-3	5-3-2
3	ATLANTA*	73	38	25		10	86	223	222	20-10-6	18-15-4	7-3-0
4	OTTAWA	72	42	23		7	91	249	197	24-11-3	18-12-4	6-1-3
5	PITTSBURGH	71	40	21		10	90	246	220	22-9-5	18-12-5	7-2-1
6	TAMPA BAY	72	39	29		4	82	225	222	18-15-1	21-14-3	4-5-1
7	CAROLINA	73	36	29		8	80	215	217	18-14-4	18-15-4	5-4-1
8	NY RANGERS	72	35	28		9	79	208	195	17-15-5	18-13-4	6-1-3
9	NY ISLANDERS	71	34	27		10	78	214	208	19-11-5	15-16-5	4-4-2
10	TORONTO	72	34	28		10	78	222	235	15-15-5	19-13-5	4-5-1
11	MONTREAL	73	36	31		6	78	214	231	21-12-3	15-19-3	4-6-0
12	BOSTON	71	34	32		5	73	202	251	18-15-3	16-17-2	4-5-1
13	FLORIDA	72	30	29		13	73	213	230	21-11-4	9-18-9	7-3-0
14	WASHINGTON	72	25	34		13	63	211	256	15-15-7	10-19-6	1-6-3
15	PHILADELPHIA	72	20	41		11	51	190	267	8-19-7	12-22-4	4-4-2
Western Conference
RK		GP	W	L		OT	PTS	GF	GA	HOME	AWAY	L10
1	NASHVILLE*	73	47	20		6	100	249	192	26-6-4	21-14-2	6-2-2
2	ANAHEIM*	72	43	17		12	98	233	185	25-5-8	18-12-4	8-0-2
3	VANCOUVER*	72	43	23		6	92	195	179	24-9-3	19-14-3	7-2-1
4	DETROIT	72	45	18		9	99	228	181	26-4-5	19-14-4	6-2-2
5	SAN JOSE	72	44	25		3	91	219	173	21-12-3	23-13-0	6-2-2
6	MINNESOTA	73	42	24		7	91	209	179	23-6-4	19-18-3	7-1-2
7	DALLAS	71	42	24		5	89	189	171	24-10-2	18-14-3	5-3-2
8	CALGARY	72	37	25		10	84	231	200	28-7-2	9-18-8	5-4-1
9	COLORADO	71	36	29		6	78	234	221	19-14-3	17-15-3	7-1-2
10	ST LOUIS	71	30	29		12	72	188	217	17-17-3	13-12-9	4-3-3
11	EDMONTON	72	30	35		7	67	180	215	18-16-3	12-19-4	0-9-1
12	CHICAGO	71	27	35		9	63	179	225	14-16-4	13-19-5	5-5-0
13	COLUMBUS	72	28	37		7	63	177	224	15-16-4	13-21-3	4-5-1
14	LOS ANGELES	72	24	34		14	62	205	249	15-14-9	9-20-5	4-2-4
15	PHOENIX	71	28	40		3	59	190	246	15-18-2	13-22-1	2-8-0

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