NHL: Preseason!

Panthers edge Hurricanes in shootout

Associated Press

9/18/2005 6:36:33 PM

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Nathan Horton scored the game-winning goal in a shootout as the Florida Panthers beat the Carolina Hurricanes 5-4 Sunday.

Horton slipped the puck beneath Martin Gerber's pads to give the Panthers the win in their first pre-season game.

Florida forced the game into a shootout after tying the game on a goal by Rostislav Olesz three minutes into the third period. Carolina forward Kevyn Adams missed a chance to win the game in overtime with about one minute left when his shot went off the crossbar.

Florida suffered through 17 penalties, but the Hurricanes were able to convert only twice as they were 2-for-16. Carolina had eight penalties and Florida went 1-for-7 on the power play.

Jamie McLennan started in goal for Florida and stopped 11 of 12 shots. Jean- Marc Pelletier relieved McLennan midway through the second period and finished the game. Pelletier made 15 saves against 18 shots and stopped all four in the shootout.

Trailing 2-0, the Hurricanes got four straight goals in the second period by Andrew Hutchinson, Niclas Wallin, Eric Staal and Mike Zigomanis.
 

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Hawks' Anderson blanks Wild

Associated Press

9/18/2005 9:00:55 PM

CHICAGO (AP) - Craig Anderson stopped 25 shots and Eric Daze and Mark Bell scored power-play goals to give the Chicago Blackhawks a 3-0 exhibition win over the Minnesota Wild on Sunday night.

Anderson and Michael Leighton are prime candidates to back up Blackhawks starter Nikolai Khabibulin this season.

Anderson played the entire game on Sunday after Leighton played all of Chicago's 5-4 win Saturday. He was especially sharp during the third period when Minnesota had 11 shots.

Minnesota goalie Josh Harding played the entire game as well, making 25 saves.

The Blackhawks took a 2-0 lead in the first period on a pair of power-play goals.

Daze opened the scoring 4:25 in when he shot from a sharp angle and the puck bounced in off Harding, who was down on the ice. Bell converted a rebound from the slot at 9:41.

Kyle Calder made it 3-0 just 15 seconds into the third, cutting to net from the right wing and sticking a shot past Harding.

Chicago was 2-for-9 on the power play, Minnesota wasted its eight power-play chances.
 

Habs win pre-season opener

Canadian Press

9/18/2005 8:56:15 PM

MONTREAL (CP) - First round draft choice Carey Price stopped all nine shots he faced in his Canadiens debut and Jan Bulis assisted on all three Montreal goals in a 3-2 exhibition victory Sunday over the Atlanta Thrashers.

Mike Ribeiro, Jonathan Ferland and Marcel Hossa scored for the Canadiens (1-0-0-0), while Francis Lessard and Jim Slater replied for the Thrashers (0-2-0-0).

The exhibition game was a chippy affair; both teams combined for 32 penalties.

The announced crowd of 16,893 let out a big cheer when the puck was dropped at 7:08 p.m. to mark the return of NHL hockey to Montreal, but it quickly became evident this wasn't the same game that was being played back in 2004.

Referees Stephane Auger and Don Van Massenhoven didn't take long to showcase the NHL's intolerance to obstruction, calling 14 penalties in the first period alone, including six for hooking.

Atlanta's Bobby Holik, making his debut in a Thrashers' uniform, was whistled for interference and hooking before the game was 15 minutes old.

In all, 17 of the 32 penalties were for either hooking or interference.

Price - the fifth overall pick in the 2005 draft who plays for the Tri-City Americans in the WHL - was very impressive in the Montreal net, making a save with the back of his leg while doing the splits in the first period. He also showed off his excellent puck handling skills by clearing the puck out of his zone during a first period Thrashers power play, and also hitting Ribeiro with a long, two-line pass early in the second period.

Canadiens rookie Alexander Perezhogin played his first game in North America after being suspended all last season for a stick swinging incident in the 2004 AHL playoffs. He played on a line with Ribeiro and Pierre Dagenais and was assessed three penalties, none for slashing. He scored the winning goal in the shootout as the Canadiens won 2-1. Every pre-season game will have a shootout this year no matter the score at the end of regulation.

Ribeiro opened the scoring midway through the first period, converting a nice give and go play with Bulis by flipping a backhand under the crossbar at 10:35.

Montreal went ahead 2-0 early in the second when Bulis slid a pass through the slot to Kyle Chipchura, who immediately fed Ferland in front for an easy tap-in goal at 2:51.

Atlanta cut Montreal's lead in half at 16:11 of the second when Serge Aubin slid a perfect feed through the crease to a rushing Ferland, who tapped the puck Danis on the first shot he faced in the game.

The Canadiens made it 3-1 in the third while Holik sat out his third penalty of the game, with Hossa converting a nice feed from Bulis out of the corner at 4:57, but Atlanta got back to within one when Slater scored his second of the pre-season on a power play at 10:06 of the third.

Notes: The Canadiens did not dress captain Saku Koivu, goalie Jose Theodore, winger Alex Kovalev or defencemen Craig Rivet, Sheldon Souray and Andrei Markov. Canadiens defenceman Mike Komisarek didn't dress due to the flu, and winger Michael Ryder was nursing a sprained ankle suffered in practice Friday. Mathieu Dandenault took Komisarek's place, making his Canadiens debut after singing with Montreal in the off-season. ... The Thrashers' Marian Hossa did not make the road trip.
 

Sens dump Leafs in pre-season

Canadian Press

9/18/2005 9:26:56 PM

TORONTO (CP) - Brandon Bochenski is being given every chance to make the Senators and the former North Dakota star took advantage of it in his first pre-season game Sunday night, scoring a goal and adding an assist as Ottawa beat Toronto 5-2.

Andrej Meszaros, Mike Fisher, Jason Spezza and Daniel Alfredsson also scored for the Sens, who rallied to beat their Ontario rivals in the NHL exhibition opener for both clubs before 18,948 at Air Canada Centre.

Nik Antropov and Alexei Ponikarovsky scored first-period goals for the Leafs, who like the Senators found the penalty box rather often as the new crackdown on obstruction was in full force. The two teams combined for 19 power plays, more than double the nine man advantages the NHL averaged in 2003-04.

The result was a more open affair Sunday night, with players going to the net without a stick or a glove slowing them down. Allowing the two-line pass also showed early results, Spezza and Bochenski both sent in alone with long-bomb passes but failing to score.

Bochenski, 23, was noticeable, looking dangerous on a line with Spezza and Dany Heatley. The line was in on three goals and spent most of the night in Toronto's zone. Bochenski, who had 70 points (34-36) in 75 AHL games last season, appears ready to make the jump.

''He's a natural goal-scorer,'' Sens GM John Muckler said between periods. ''He's scored at every level he's played at. (Head coach) Bryan (Murray) is giving him a real chance to show what he can do.''

The biggest knock on the six-foot, 180-pounder is his skating, but he makes up for that with great positioning and good anticipation.

''He's real smart player, he reads the play well,'' Muckler said.

Bochenski tied the game 2-2 at 10:32 of the second period, snapping a wrist shot from the slot over Mikael Tellqvist's right shoulder. Alfredsson then scored the winner at 12:03, blasting a slapshot to the top left corner and popping the water bottle off the top of the net behind J.S. Aubin.

Meszaros, a highly touted Slovak prospect on defence, made it 4-2 after he moved in from the point and snapped a wrist shot between Aubin's goal nine minutes into the third period - play started with Bochenski's forechecking in the Toronto zone. Fisher added an empty-net goal to complete the scoring.

The Battle of Ontario was not the battle of no-names as one might have expected for pre-season hockey. Both clubs had most of their regulars in the lineup although 40-year-old goalies Dominik Hasek of the Senators and Ed Belfour of the Leafs got the night off. Ray Emery went all the way in goal for Ottawa and stopped 19 of 21 shots.

The Leafs won the penalty shootout after the game after Mats Sundin and Eric Lindros - who had a quiet game - scored on Emery while Heatley and Alfredsson were stopped by Aubin.

Notes: The Leafs next play Boston in Hamilton on Tuesday while the Senators face Pittsburgh in Binghamton on Friday ... Brian McGratton, who had 551 penalty minutes in the AHL last season, got into a spirited bout with Wade Belak in the first period, with both tough guys connecting major blows.
 

Sharks edge Kings on late goal

Associated Press

9/18/2005 9:47:30 PM

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Ryane Clowe scored with three minutes, 48 seconds remaining to lift the San Jose Sharks to a 4-3 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday night.

Nils Ekman scored early in the third period for the Sharks to tie the game 3-3.

Devin Setoguchi and Wayne Primeau also scored for the Sharks, who hosted a hockey game for the first time since losing to the Calgary Flames in the fifth game of the Western Conference finals on May 17, 2004.

Luc Robitaille, Jeff Cowan and Noah Clarke scored for the Kings, who last played on April 4, 2004 _ in San Jose.

Evgeni Nabokov played the entire game in goal for the Sharks, recording 11 saves.

Jason LaBarbera had 23 saves on 25 shots for the Kings in nearly 30 minutes. Adam Hauser had 13 saves.

Clowe, a right wing who stands a good chance of making the team, intercepted a pass near the blue line, skated to the right and got Hauser on the ground before slipping the puck into an unattended net.

The Sharks were 1-of-11 on power plays while the Kings converted one of five opportunities.
 

Polak shines as Stars edge Oilers

Associated Press

9/18/2005 11:15:07 PM

EDMONTON (CP) - Vojtech Polak didn't give post-game interviews, but his second game for the Dallas Stars spoke loudly to his coach.

Polak scored twice, added two assists and had the shootout winner as Dallas beat the Edmonton Oilers 6-5 in NHL pre-season action.

''He probably speaks a little better (English) than he lets on,'' Dallas head coach Dave Tippett said of the native of the Czech Republic. ''On the ice he is doing just fine.''

The 2003 second-round pick of the Stars had two points in the first two minutes with a goal past Ty Conklin 54 seconds and an assist on Matt Nickerson's goal 25 seconds later.

Dallas had three goals on their first eight shots following Yared Hagos unassisted dribbler through Conklin's legs at 10:49.

Polak jammed his second goal in from the side of the net in the second as Conklin got the hook after surrendering four goals on 18 shots.

''Guys are going to struggle,'' said Oilers coach Craig MacTavish, who sad he still intends to start Conklin in the Oilers Oct. 5 regular-season home opener against Colorado.

''The first night jitters are there for everybody. That's why they play the pre-season.''

Polak also assisted on Junior Lessard's goal in the third, which came 18 seconds after Fernando Pisani scored for Edmonton (1-1) to tie the game 4-4.

Polak capped his big night by sliding a wrist shot under Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers in the shootout as the third Dallas shooter.

''He certainly hasn't hurt his chances with us,'' Tippett said.

Both the Oilers' pre-season contests have gone past regulation after Ryan Smyth's sudden-death winner in a 2-1 home victory over Calgary on Friday.

The Stars (1-1) arrived in Edmonton early Sunday morning after opening the season with a 4-2 loss in Colorado Saturday.

''I thought fatigue kind of set in,'' Tippett said. ''There were a lot of mistakes but that's how young players learn.''

Veteran Edmonton defenceman Steve Staios scored with under a minute left in regulation to force overtime.

Raffi Torres added a power-play goal and rookies Marc-Antoine Pouliot and Zack Stortini also scored for Edmonton before 13,242 at Rexall Place.

Pouliot nearly tied the game in the third but rang a shot off the post.

Pesky forward Mike Peca made his Oilers debut, logging 13:20 with no shots after starting the game on a line with rookie J.J. Hunter and speedy sophomore Ales Hemsky.
 

Knightfall1972 said:
Mathieu Dandenault took Komisarek's place, making his Canadiens debut after singing with Montreal in the off-season.
Click to expand...

:D
So that's what Dandenault did this summer.

Allouette, gentile allouette,
Allouette, je te plumerais.
 

Agamon said:
:D
So that's what Dandenault did this summer.

Allouette, gentile allouette,
Allouette, je te plumerais.
Click to expand...

Well, I just cut and paste 'em, I don't write 'em. :p

St. Louis and Lightning strike Red Wings

Associated Press

9/19/2005 9:22:04 PM

DETROIT (AP) - Many other NHL coaches will certainly echo Mike Babcock's thoughts about the league's new mandate against interference-type penalties.

''We're going to have to learn the rules and how to play,'' he said after watching his Detroit Red Wings drop a 5-3 decision to the defending-Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning in the first exhibition game for both teams on Monday night.

It featured 18 power plays and almost half of the contest (29 minutes, 26 seconds) was played with one of the teams holding a manpower advantage.

Four of the eight goals came on the power play.

''It seems there's going to be a lot of specialty teams,'' said Kris Draper, who scored two of Detroit's goals and assisted on the other. ''Basically, how are we going to adjust to it is what it comes down to.''

Players with speed, skating ability and skill will have no problems making the adjustment. Draper is one of the NHL's fastest skaters.

Tampa Bay is one of the league's most skilled teams and it showed on Monday night. Martin St. Louis had a goal and two assists, Fredrik Modin had two goals and an assist and Brad Richards had a goal and an assist.

''It's going to free up a lot of opportunities to score,'' said Red Wings' goaltender Manny Legace, who played the first two periods. ''Guys are going to have to let guys go. You have to, or it's a penalty.''

St. Louis broke a tie with a power-play goal 46 seconds into the third period. It was the first professional shot faced by goalie Jimmy Howard, who signed with Detroit after three seasons of college hockey at Maine.

Just 1:16 later, Evgeny Artyukhin made it two goals on the first three shots against Howard.

Draper scored his second goal with 1:34 left and Howard pulled for an extra skater.

Modin's second goal came into an empty net with 3.3 seconds remaining.

Nicklas Lidstrom scored a power-play goal for the Red Wings 3:11 into the game and Richards tied it at 5:57. Modin and Draper scored power-play goals in the second period.

As all NHL exhibition games will this season, the contest featured a shootout. Another new rule is that games tied after regulation time and the five-minute overtime period will be decided by a shootout.

The Lightning also won the shootout as St. Louis and Richard beat Howard and Jason Williams was the only Detroit player to beat John Grahame in the format.

''I had it (the shootout) in the ''I'' (the now defunct International Hockey League). The fans liked it,'' said Legace. ''From a goaltender's standpoint, I don't like it.''
 

Blue Jackets down Penguins in shootout

Associated Press

9/19/2005 9:33:30 PM

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Jaroslav Balastik's shootout goal gave the Columbus Blue Jackets a 3-2 exhibition win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday night.

The game was sloppy for both clubs, with play constantly disrupted by penalties. The Blue Jackets were just 1-for-16 on power-play chances - failing to convert the last 12. The Penguins, playing without Mario Lemieux and No. 1 draft pick Sidney Crosby, were 1-for-10 with the man advantage.

Nikolai Zherdev scored against Marc-Andre Fleury in the shootout, with Pittsburgh's Konstantin Koltsov beating Columbus goaltender Pascal Leclaire low on the stick side to tie it.

Balastik, the final player in the three-man rotation, swerved far to the right before swooping in on Fleury and beating him high on the stick side for the winner.

Balastik, Columbus' ninth pick in the 2002 draft, led the Czech Elite League in goals each of the last two years.

The Penguins took a 1-0 lead just 3:02 in when Ryan Malone redirected Ric Jackman's shot from the point on the power play. Michel Ouellet then made it 2-0, making a nifty deke on Columbus goaltender Marc Denis.

The Blue Jackets, who lost their exhibition opener 3-2 to Buffalo on Sunday night, tied it on Manny Malhotra's power-play goal and Todd Marchant's 2-on-1 score off a setup pass from Brandon Sugden.

The Penguins, playing their first exhibition game, had a prime chance to win in the 5-minute overtime. On the power play, former Blue Jacket Lasse Pirjeta's hard shot from the right dot was deflected with 30 seconds remaining.

The Blue Jackets are without their top player, Rick Nash, who is sidelined for the next week or two with an ankle sprain.
 

Tuesday's Games...

Wild answer back to beat Sabres

Associated Press

9/20/2005 9:56:20 PM

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Pascal Dupuis had a goal and three assists, and the Minnesota Wild scored six unanswered goals in the final two periods to beat the Buffalo Sabres 6-3 Tuesday night.

Wes Walz got the game-winner when he tipped a long shot from Daniel Tjarnqvist past Mika Noronen at 7:39 of the third period. The goal came 38 seconds after Andrei Zyuzin scored on his own rebound for the Wild. Kyle Wanvig added two third-period goals for Minnesota.

Dupuis and Matt Foy scored in the second period for Minnesota (2-2), which got two assists from Alexander Daigle and Todd White.

Daniel Briere scored twice on the power play and Jeff Jillson at even strength to put Buffalo (2-1) in front 3-0 after one period. Former University of Minnesota star Thomas Vanek and J.P. Dupont each had two assists for the Sabres.

The tightly called game featured 33 penalties. Buffalo was 2-for-11 on the power play; Minnesota 1-for-13.

Manny Fernandez stopped 25 shots. Noronen had 23 saves in his first action of the pre-season.

Minnesota was again without its top player, Marian Gaborik, who is sidelined with a strained groin. The right wing has yet to play in the pre-season.
 

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