Capitals’ Hathaway ejected for spitting on Ducks’ Gudbranson

WASHINGTON — Washington Capitals forward Garnet Hathaway has been ejected from a game for spitting on a player from the Anaheim Ducks.

Hathaway spit on defenseman Erik Gudbranson during a brawl late in the second period Monday night with referee Peter MacDougall standing a few feet away. Officials reviewed video before confirming the five-minute match penalty that triggers a game misconduct.


Tempers flared during the first 40 minutes between Washington and Anaheim and boiled over with 33.4 seconds remaining in the second. Capitals forward Brendan Leipsic bulldozed the Ducks’ Derek Grant behind the net, sparking several fights between the teams’ fourth lines.

Hathaway was involved with Grant, Gudbranson and Nick Ritchie during the scrum before being thrown out.

source: sports.inquirer.net

Stanley Cup: Bounce here, bounce there and Blues, Bruins now tied 2-2

ST. LOUIS — It usually takes a lucky bounce here and there to win the Stanley Cup.

Game 4 of the final between the Bruins and the Blues had a whole lot of bounces — and not a lot of luck for goaltenders Tuukka Rask and Jordan Binnington.

Whether it was nerves, fatigue or simply traffic in front, Rask and Binnington each gave up rebounds aplenty and both teams cashed in on the prime scoring chances Monday night. The Blues’ Alex Pietrangelo pounded a slap shot that seemed to handcuff Rask and the juicy rebound left the puck in midair where Ryan O’Reilly swatted it into the net.

The goal put the Blues up 3-2 and turned out to the game-winner in the 4-2 victory that knotted the final at 2-2.

Binnington chalked up the second-chance goals to smart shooting.

“Players were doing a good job and shooting the puck, but you know, yeah, there were some rebounds tonight but nothing out of the ordinary, I’d say,” Binnington said.


Both of O’Reilly’s goals came off rebounds. He took a rebound off of a Zach Sanford shot behind the net and beat Rask on a wrap-around to the right side just 43 seconds into the game.

Charlie Coyle evened things up with 6:46 left in the first after he found himself alone in front of the Blues net to bang home the rebound from a Zdeno Chara shot.

The Blues took advantage of another second-chance opportunity at 15:30 in the first. This time it was Vladimir Tarasenko pouncing on a big rebound in the slot off of a Pietrangelo shot to make it 2-1.

“To find your chances, you need to go in the red zones and score some greasy goals maybe,” Tarasenko said. “If you look on our goals, it pays off for us. It kind of was the game plan, so we try to keep it same way and create traffic for Rask and try to get rebounds.”

Rask struggled again during a Boston power play in the second period as O’Reilly almost poked in his own rebound on a short-handed rush.


“You try to control them all, but sometimes you do, sometimes you don’t,” Rask said.

The Bruins capitalized shorthanded at 14:19 of the second as Brandon Carlo found the back of the net for the first time this postseason after Binnington couldn’t handle a Patrice Bergeron shot with the puck caroming off of his pad.

“First shot he might get stuck a little bit,” Carlo said. “From there, you can try to get him moving side to side and ultimately put the pucks past him and it’s great that we can crash the net. Hopefully we can learn from that and utilize it in the next couple of games.”

The goal quieted the Enterprise Center and took away the momentum St. Louis generated during a prolonged shift in the Boston zone, which featured several line changes and dangerous scoring chances as well as creating the power play that led to the short-handed goal.

Then came O’Reilly’s heroics and the first Stanley Cup Final victory at home in St. Louis franchise history. Game 5 in the best-of-seven series is Thursday night in Boston.

“I felt like it was going to be tough to go to Boston down 3-1 and have a chance to win so we had to make sure we came out with our best game,” Blues defenseman Colton Parayko said. “We’ve been a good rebound team all year long and all playoffs long. That was the biggest thing. We were a confident group coming into tonight and I think we showed it.”

source: sports.inquirer.net

Oops! Laine shoots into own goal, costing Jets vs Oilers

EDMONTON, Alberta — Patrik Laine has scored a lot of big goals in his first NHL season, including a few game-winners.

His latest was anything but.

Laine shot the puck into his own net midway through the third period, costing the Winnipeg Jets in a 3-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday night.

Edmonton’s Mark Letestu was credited with his second goal of the game when Laine fired the rebound of Letestu’s slap shot directly into his own wide-open cage.

“I think everybody saw what happened. That’s my comments,” said the Finnish rookie, who has 17 goals in his first 32 NHL games. “It was just a bad position for me. An unfortunate goal.”

Captain Blake Wheeler put an arm around Laine to console him when he returned to the bench.

“He’s 18 years old. He feels terrible,” Wheeler said. “These things happen. I’ve done it many times.”

Oscar Klefbom also scored and Cam Talbot made 29 saves for the Oilers.

Mathieu Perreault and Chris Thorburn had goals for the Jets, who have now lost four straight games. Connor Hellebuyck stopped 27 shots.

Winnipeg started the scoring with 5:10 left in the first period. Bryan Little’s tip went off the post, but Perreault got two whacks at it, eventually sweeping it in past Talbot.

Edmonton came close late in the first on a power play, but Jordan Eberle’s one-timer hit the crossbar behind Hellebuyck.

The Oilers tied the game about two minutes into the second period when a huge rebound from Tyler Pitlick’s shot came to Klefbom, who hammered in his fifth of the season.

Winnipeg regained the lead with 8 minutes to play in the second when Thorburn scored on a nice feed in front from Marko Dano.

Edmonton appeared to pull even again two minutes later, but Zack Kassian’s breakaway goal was overturned for offsides on review.

The Oilers made it 2-2 2:28 into the third period on the power play when Connor McDavid set up Letestu for a goal in front.

That set up Edmonton’s fortunate break, when Laine one-timed the puck with some authority into his own cage. Laine appeared surprised when the rebound of Letestu’s shot came his way, quickly putting a second hand on his stick and smacking at the puck, possibly in an attempt to clear it out of the zone.

“Every guy in the National Hockey League’s got a goal like that,” Winnipeg coach Paul Maurice said. “Every defenseman, it goes in off them, so he has a story to tell.”

Five of Letestu’s six goals this season have come against Winnipeg.

“I can’t really explain it,” Letestu said. “The puck just goes in on certain nights. I think it’s just coincidental that it’s been against this team. A really lucky third goal and on the power play, Connor (McDavid) finds me in a good spot.”

NOTES: It was the third and final meeting between the two teams this season. The Oilers won both previous games in Winnipeg, shutting out the Jets 3-0 at the Heritage Classic in October, and then won the second game 6-3 to start December. … Winnipeg’s Brandon Tanev leads all NHL rookies in hits, coming into the contest with 74 in 30 games.

UP NEXT

Jets: Are off until Thursday night, when they host Florida.

Oilers: Remain at home to play Columbus on Tuesday night.

source: sports.inquirer.net