Hockey Today - November 8
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SCOREBOARD
Thursday, November 8
Washington at Ottawa (7:30 p.m. EST)
The Senators are off to the best start in NHL history through 14 games with a 13-1-0 mark and a record total of 26 points.
STARS
Wednesday
-Peter Mueller, Coyotes, recorded his first career hat trick as Phoenix edged Anaheim 6-5 in overtime on Shane Doan's goal.
-Mike Modano, Stars, scored twice to become the U.S.-born points leader, helping Dallas to a 3-1 victory over San Jose.
-Clarke MacArthur, Sabres, called up from Rochester of the AHL the previous night, scored 3:16 into overtime, giving Buffalo a 2-1 victory over Boston.
-Ian Laperriere, Avalanche, had two goals and an assist as Colorado won in a shootout, 4-3 over Edmonton.
RECORDS
Dallas center Mike Modano broke Phil Housley's NHL record for career points by an American-born player with two quick goals in the opening minutes of the Stars' 3-1 victory against San Jose on Wednesday night. Modano has 1,233 points and 511 goals in 1,253 regular-season games - 242 games fewer than Housley - good for 35th and 34th on the NHL's career list.
SNAPPED
Philadelphia's 3-1 victory Wednesday night was its first in Pittsburgh in five games since Jan. 21, 2006. The Flyers went 0-8 against the Penguins last season. ... Tampa Bay snapped a six-game losing streak with a 3-1 victory over Florida.
SOARING
Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg scored shootout goals to give Detroit a 3-2 victory over Nashville on Wednesday night, the Red Wings' eighth straight win. Detroit leads the Western Conference with 12 wins and 25 points. Goalie Chris Osgood made 28 saves to improve to 8-0.
STOPS
Ryan Miller stopped 25 shots as Buffalo ended a three-game losing streak with a 2-1 overtime victory over Boston on Wednesday night.
STREAKS
Chicago ended Columbus' six-game unbeaten streak (5-0-1) with a 5-2 victory Wednesday night.
SWINGS
Colorado's 4-3 shootout victory Wednesday night was its sixth win in seven games and Edmonton's fourth straight loss.
HEAD START
Philadelphia is 7-0 when scoring the first goal, including Wednesday night's 3-1 victory over Pittsburgh.
SPEAKING
''With so many new faces, we didn't think it would be the same. There weren't a a lot of guys who were here last year, but we wanted to put that behind us. It's a new season and a fresh start.'' - Philadelphia defenseman Jason Smith after beating Pittsburgh for the first time since the 2005-06 season, 3-1 Wednesday night.
Thursday's key NHL matchup notes
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Philadelphia Flyers at New Jersey Devils
The Flyers look to win in New Jersey for the first time in almost four years Thursday night when they conclude an eight-game road trip with a visit to the new Prudential Center.
Pittsburgh Penguins at New York Rangers
The Rangers have won five of their last seven home games against the Penguins (7-7-1), but have dropped four of the last five overall. Evgeni Malkin scored the lone goal in Pittsburgh's 1-0 home win on Oct. 23 in the only previous meeting between the teams this season, and Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 36 shots.
Tampa Bay Lightning at Carolina Hurricanes
Carolina is 0-2-1 at home against Tampa Bay after winning four straight over them there. The Hurricanes also have dropped four in a row overall to the Lightning, who are 0-7-0 on the road this season.
Washington Capitals at Ottawa Senators
Ottawa is one of the highest-scoring teams in the NHL behind Alfredsson and Dany Heatley. The Senators have scored 50 goals through 14 games. Washington is among the league's lowest-scoring teams with 34 goals and owns the worst record in the East. The Caps have scored just three goals during their current four-game losing streak.
Montreal Canadiens at Boston Bruins
After winning five of its first seven games, Boston (7-5-2) has gone just 2-3-2. They have lost four straight against the the Canadiens.
Vancouver Canucks at Calgary Flames
Daniel Sedin has six goals and 13 points in his last nine games against the Flames (6-6-3). He has been particularly good in his last seven trips to Calgary, with five goals and 12 points while netting two game-winners in Vancouver's five victories during that span.
Dallas Stars at Phoenix Coyotes
The Stars won 5-3 at Phoenix on Oct. 27, but the Coyotes defeated Dallas on the road 5-0 on Friday. Mikael Tellqvist stopped 35 shots in that contest after allowing 11 goals in his previous two starts against the Stars.
Avalanche clear forward Brad Richardson, send him to minors in Lake Erie
ASSOCIATED PRESS
DENVER -- Colorado forward Brad Richardson, sidelined by an offseason wrist injury, was cleared to play Wednesday and reassigned to the Avalanche's AHL affiliate.
He'll play for the Lake Erie Monsters in Cleveland.
Richardson, who was injured during offseason workouts before training camp, posted career highs in games played (73), goals (14) and points (22) last season with the Avalanche. Richardson had three shorthanded goals and three game-winning goals last season.
Hasek taken off IR
November 7th
Detroit, MI (Sports Network) - The Detroit Red Wings activated goaltender Dominik Hasek off the injured reserve Wednesday, and are expected to give him the start Friday against Columbus.
Hasek has been sidelined for two weeks with a hip injury. The standout netminder is 4-2 with a 2.68 goals-against average this season.
A huge loss puts damper on big win
Team leader may miss rest of season; Hawks tally 4 in 3rd
The Blackhawks talked all week about being better-prepared for the start of games to avoid their recent trend of falling behind and not being able to rally for victories.
"With young players, sometimes how you prepare is going to hurt your game," coach Denis Savard said. "We went through that session the other day with each of our young players and even our veteran players on what we do on the road should be the same thing at home.
"[It's] how you prepare—your breakfast, your pregame prep, your lunch, your nap, that shouldn't change. Hockey players always have had routines and they shouldn't change."
Savard's message finally must have hit home as the Hawks snapped a three-game losing streak at the United Center with a 5-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday night.
The Hawks suffered a big loss when veteran center Kevyn Adams went down with a knee injury with 8 minutes 27 seconds left in the first period. Adams, the leader of the Hawks both on and off the ice, was checked into the boards and his left knee appeared to buckle.
"It looks like the ACL and MCL, and he will be out for quite a while," Savard said. "We lose a great leader, but it gives somebody a chance to get an opportunity. He has been awesome in the locker room."
After falling behind 2-1 early in the third period, the Hawks stormed back on goals by Jonathan Toews, Brent Seabrook, Duncan Keith and Patrick Sharp (empty-netter).
Toews scored his sixth goal of the season to tie it 2-2 when he took a cross-ice pass from Tuomo Ruutu and fired a wrist shot from the right faceoff dot past Columbus goalie Fredrik Norrena with 12 minutes 44 seconds remaining.
The Hawks took a 3-2 lead 2:10 later when Seabrook got by Blue Jackets defender Jan Hejda and put a backhand shot past Norrena for his second goal of the season.
Keith scored his second goal of the season with 8:47 remaining to make it 4-2 off a nice pass from Dave Bolland. The rookie sent a pass along the goal line to Keith, who put it into the net.
The Hawks, who were 3-5 at home and 4-2 on the road entering Wednesday night, came out stronger than in recent home efforts, outshooting the Blue Jackets 15-4 in the first period. But they couldn't get one past Norrena.
They finally solved him with 11:31 remaining in the second period when James Wisniewski scored his fourth goal of the season after some nice passing by Robert Lang and Jason Williams.
"We talked about all year that if you have an opportunity to jump up into the play, you jump up," Wisniewski said. "Everything kicked in and a couple of us buried it."
"We've been struggling a little bit at home, and having a one-goal lead going into the third period and then giving it up, we showed a lot of character to come back and score four unanswered goals."
Hawks goalie Patrick Lalime wasn't tested much during the first two periods, with his best save on a one-time shot by Nikolai Zherdev at the 7:30 mark of the second.
The Blue Jackets tied it 1-1 on Rostislav Klesla's goal just 1:11 into the third.
The defenseman fired a wrist shot from just inside the blueline and past Lalime for his fourth of the season.
Columbus took a 2-1 lead 1:15 later when Zherdev tipped in Michael Peca's shot.
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Calgary-Vancouver under 5.5 Centrebet 1.77 8/10 units!
From all NHL games tonight , these two teams have the lowest shots on goal for and against combined and the number is 54. They were both underish last year and i expect the same this year. The starting goalies Kiprusoff and Luongo are still not in form, but there are manny games left and i am sure their numbers will be better soon. They are both one of those that start almoast every game and that has of course a bad influence on their performances. This time they both had more than 2 days rest, which will help them. Both teams are fresh and that means less mistakes.
Other picks for tonight on our site.