Friday Night Hockey

It was a quiet Friday night, game wise at least, with only four being played.

 

Edmonton Oilers v Carolina Hurricanes

1-3

Nino Niederreiter scored twice to lift the Carolina Hurricanes to a 3-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers at PNC Arena.

Curtis McElhinney made 40 saves for the hosts, who moved within a point of the Pittsburgh Penguins for the second Wild Card place in the Eastern Conference, with their seventh win in nine games.

McElhinney has a perfect record (7-0-0) against the Oilers in his NHL career.

Lucas Wallmark netted the other goal for the Hurricanes and Sebastian Aho registered two assists, to set new career highs in assists (42) and points (66). The Finn is the first Canes player to record that many assists and points in one season since Eric Staal tallied 46 assists and 70pts in 2011/12.

It wasn’t just the players making and breaking records on Friday, head coach Rod Brind’Amour reached the 30 win mark faster than other in franchise history (58 games).

Leon Draisaitl scored his 10th goal in his last nine games for the Oilers, who have lost three in succession and are 1-7-2 in their last 10. Mikko Koskinen made 24 saves.

It was a lightning start to the game with Carolina taking a 1-0 lead after just 37 seconds, before the Oilers equalized at 1:32 of the first, only for the Canes to take jump ahead again 2:16 in.

Up Next:

Oilers v Islanders – Saturday, February 16th (7pm)

Stars v Canes – Saturday, February 16th (8pm)

 

New York Rangers v Buffalo Sabres

6-2

Vladislav Namestnikov had two goals and an assist for the New York Rangers, who scored twice in eight seconds in the third period to lift them to a 6-2 hammering of the Buffalo Sabres.

Boo Nieves, Jesper Fast, Jimmy Vesey and Pavel Buchnevich also scored for New York, who trail the Penguins and that Wild Card slot by nine points. Alexander Georgiev made 31 saves in his third consecutive win.

Jeff Skinner scored both for Buffalo, who are 4pts behind the Pens and haven’t won consecutive games since mid-December. Linus Ullmark made 23 saves.

 

New Jersey Devils v Minnesota Wild

5-4 (OT)

Cory Schneider finally earned his first regular-season win in nearly 14 months as the New Jersey Devils rallied from three goal down to a 5-4 overtime victory over the Minnesota Wild.

Schneider made 15 saves in relief for New Jersey and ended his regular-season losing streak at 21, he hadn’t won a game since December 27th, 2017 and was 0-7-2 this season.

Marcus Johansson, Will Butcher, Kyle Palmieri and Ben Lovejoy scored for the Devils in regulation, with Nico Hischier getting the OT winner.

Mikael Granlund and Brad Hunt each had a goal and an assist for the Wild, who lost their third straight. Their only win in their last eight games was a 4-2 victory in New Jersey on Feb. 9.

Nick Seeler and Joel Eriksson Ek also scored, and Devan Dubnyk made 23 saves.

Up Next:

Sabres v Devils – Sunday, February 17th (6pm)

Blues v Wild – Sunday, February 17th (3pm – NBC)

 

Boston Bruins v Anaheim Ducks

3-0

Jaroslav Halak made 30 saves for the Boston Bruins to secure their fourth successive win, 3-0 against the Anaheim Ducks.

It was Halak‘s fourth shutout of the season and his 46th in the NHL.

Noel Acciari, Jake DeBrusk and Chris Wagner scored, with Sean Kuraly recording two assists for Boston, who are 6-0-1 this month.

Kevin Boyle made 26 saves for Anaheim just two days after getting a shutout in his first NHL start (1-0 v Vancouver). The Ducks are 1-8-0 in their past nine and 3-16-4 since Mid-December.

Up Next:

Bruins v Kings – Saturday, February 16th (10:30pm)

Capitals v Ducks – Sunday, February 17th (9pm – ESPN+)

 

KEY

 

ALL TIMES U.S. EASTERN