Auston Matthews beats the Canadiens with Two Goals on Hockey Night in Canada

[Event Summary]
[Pension Plan Puppets]

Auston Matthews was the entire show tonight in Montreal; a Hockey Night in Canada game. The Maple Leafs - who run things like the Runnin' Rebels on ice - won 4-3 in overtime to improve to 4-1-0 got two goals from their star to win the game, including an overtime winner.

The Maple Leafs also had goals from Marleau and James van Riemsdyk.

Matthews' 4th goal of the season:


Auston Matthews' 5th goal of the season, and GWG:


*A. Matthews (2 G, 0 A)
**J. Drouin (MTL) (1 G, 1 A)
***J. Petry (MTL) (1 G, 0 A)

This was Mike Babcock's 600th career win. It snapped a 14-game losing streak to the Canadiens for the Leafs.

Here are the Goal leaders after a couple of weeks, as of tonight:

AUSTON MATTHEWS WITH THE OT GAME WINNER

[Event Summary]
[Pension Plan Puppets]

This was Matthews' second of the season. The Maple Leafs are now 3-0-0.

*A. Matthews (1 G, 1 A)
**C. Brown (1 G, 0 A)
***R. Panik (CHI)

Notables:
Toronto
N. Zaitsev 1 G, 1 A, +2
J. van Riemsdyk 1 G
F. Andersen 18 S, 3 GA

Chicago
J. Toews 1 G
J. Rutta 1 G, 1 A

Quote:

"I just walked in and tried to fake a pass, get (Forsberg) leaning a bit and snuck it by him," Matthews said.
"I thought we showed a lot of poise being able to crawl back into it," he added. "As the game went on we got better and better and that's the way you want to play."

Connor McDavid: 1, Jack Eichel: 0

[Event Summary]

[Cult of Hockey] [Die by the Blade]

I'm sad I wasn't watching this one on NHL Gamecentre. I missed one of Connor McDavid's first true great moments. 

He opened up scoring with his quickest goal to open a game in his career. Just :22 into the ballgame, McDavid got his 11th goal of the season on a little backhander. It looked easy. 

Then in overtime with about 80 seconds left before a shootout, Jack Eichel missed the Oilers goal. McDavid gets the puck at the bottom of the screen and decided to use his speed; his finest tool, to take the game and deliver it to the Oilers.



It was McDavid's second goal of the night, the game-winner in OT; and his 12th of the season. Clearly, the guy has the edge over a fine young player in Jack Eichel.

In what is shaping up to be another miserable season for the 24-34-7 Oilers, McDavid did all the work and delivered the Oilers a win in Buffalo.

Hall nets #20, Oilers lose 4-3 in OT to Maple Leafs

[Event Summary]

[Cult of Hockey]

This one was a late 10:00 PM start time that I would have preferred played on a  Thursday, Friday, or Saturday evening.  As it was, I fell asleep before the third period began and didn't wake up until the Oilers had lost again.

Here's a look at Hallsy's 20th goal of the year. This tied the game at 2-2.

Oilers lose 3-2 Ovetime Thriller to Canucks

[Event Summary]
[Cult of Hockey]

I'm glad I watched this overtime, it was action-packed and high flying. The Oilers fell on the short end of the stick in a shootout after Ales Hemsky tied it up.

Taylor Hall, Goal #16. This one of the re-direct variety on the powerplay:

Hall's Overtime Wrister beats Kings 2-1

[Event Summary]

[Cult of Hockey]

I didn't have the chance to watch the Oilers last night other than periodic glances at the box score throughout the game. Right as I was going to bed, Taylor Hall hit the winning shot in overtime, his 15th goal of the season to finally snap the Oilers losing streak. Great passes by Hemsky and Horcoff set up the winning wrist shot by Hall from 18 feet out. 

Here's what Cult of Hockey had to say about Hall's game, and he scored another great game on their 'game score' scale.

Taylor Hall, 8 – He and linemates Gagner and Hemsky brought it all night, and were finally rewarded when Hall struck for the game winner on an overtime powerplay. The personal rivalry between Hall and Drew Doughty (both pictured) is already exceptional, and promises to go to another level at such time as realignment gets approved.



Tomorrow night my friend and I are going to be attending the Oilers game here in Columbus, sitting on the glass. It's the first time I've ever gotten to see a hockey game up that close, so I'm pretty excited.

The Champions fall in Vancouver

[Nucks Misconduct]

[Box Score]

It would have been nice to have seen this game instead of getting a text in the form of an ESPN alert. But unless I was watching the game illegally on the net somewhere or paying extra dollars to have Versus, there was no way for me to watch this game.

From NHL.com:

"This is what legends are made of," Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo said, referencing what was spoken inside the relatively quiet room. "Game 7, OT. It doesn't get any better than that. Somebody is going to become a hero."

Take a bow Alex Burrows. It was you.

Burrows capped off one of the craziest emotional roller-coaster nights in the Canucks’ 40 NHL seasons in Vancouver by ripping a knuckling slap shot over Chicago goalie Corey Crawford's right shoulder 5:22 into overtime. Vancouver's 2-1 victory set off a wild celebration on the ice, in the stands and in the streets while relieving an insane amount of tension from the entire city.

The win sends the Canucks into the Western Conference Semifinals, where they will face the Nashville Predators. All Vancouver had to do was withstand a near-miraculous comeback from the Blackhawks, both in the series and in Game 7.

Chicago became the seventh team in NHL history to force a Game 7 after losing the first three games of a series, but the fourth to lose the final game after winning Games 4-6. The Hawks also trailed 1-0 heading into the final two minutes of regulation Tuesday, but Jonathan Toews scored a game-tying shorthanded goal to send this one into overtime.

The champs are all finished. Toews got them close but could not get them past the Canucks. The picture above says 1,000 words. It's a shame that more of this country can't see games like this to make them fall for hockey. The drama, irony, and all that is rich this time of year.