CHICAGO — Coming out of a three-day holiday break
Womens Patrice Bergeron Jersey , the Chicago Blackhawks are hoping to re-establish some of the momentum they have built of late.Although their record isn’t close to where they would like it to be, the Blackhawks (13-20-6) are 4-2-1 over the past seven games heading into their home date with the Minnesota Wild on Thursday at the United Center.More Wild coveragePhotos of the Week: 12/30/18 – 1/5/19Wild Breakaway: Wild start slow, finish fast in beating OttawaSpurgeon scores twice, Wild beat Senators 4-3WATCH: Wild’s Spurgeon scores pair of goals vs. OttawaSt. Cloud State’s Ryan Poehling shines at World Junior ChampionshipDespite a 6-3 loss to the Florida Panthers on Sunday, Chicago — which remains without goalie Corey Crawford (concussion protocol) — has found a level of confidence that had been absent for much of the difficult stretch that cost Joel Quenneville his job in early November.Now, coming off a brief respite that will lead into the second half of the season, the Blackhawks hope to play with the kind of energy they were over the past few weeks.“We know we’re a good team,” Chicago forward Dylan Strome said after Sunday’s loss, according to the Chicago Tribune. “We’ve just got to play the right way and follow the game plan. I think when we’re getting pucks out along the walls and creating chances and we’re locking down defensively and not giving them second and third chances
Karl Alzner Jersey Womens , we’re a good team. Hopefully we can continue that after Christmas and continue the little good run that we’re on.”While it’s uncertain how long the Blackhawks will be without Crawford, the veteran goalie attended Chicago’s morning skate before Sunday’s game. Crawford, who has been out since Dec. 16, is eligible to come off of injured reserve on Thursday and coach Jeremy Colliton characterized Crawford’s attendance at the morning skate as a positive.Cam Ward has seen the majority of time in net since Crawford’s injury, but Collin Delia played well in his season debut last week. Colliton recently told reporters that he doesn’t have a plan in place of who will start on a nightly basis.“Performance will dictate (who plays),” Colliton said, according to the Tribune. “Both guys have been good lately and hopefully that keeps going.”Minnesota, meanwhile, enters Thursday’s game looking for its first victory since Dec. 13 and hasn’t played since Dec. 22 when it lost to the Dallas Stars 2-1 in overtime. The Wild have managed just three goals in their past four games and have yet to tally more than one goal since their 5-1 victory over the Florida Panthers on Dec. 13.Entering the Christmas break on a four-game losing streak wasn’t exactly ideal.“It’s frustrating and it’s disappointing
Joel Armia Jersey Womens ,” Wild coach Bruce Boudreau told reporters after Saturday’s loss, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. “I was really disappointed for the players because you can see they stayed on the bench and they hung their head. They really wanted (Saturday’s game).”The Wild (17-15-3) had chances to snap their three-game losing streak but couldn’t capitalize on three power-play chances they had against the Stars, including on four-minute chance they had with an extra attacker.Moving forward, Boudreau said his team has to be better when chances at scoring — and ultimately winning — are at stake.“Those are the times you’ve got to put teams away,” Boudreau said, according to the Star-Tribune. “You have no choice. That’s what you’ve got to do.” TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — The Tampa Bay Lightning are focused on trying to win another championship, not records and milestones along the way.Alex Killorn scored three goals for his first career hat trick, and the Lightning beat the Washington Capitals 6-3 Saturday night in the teams’ first meeting since last year’s Eastern Conference finals.Tampa Bay set team records for wins (55) and points (114) in a season
Torey Krug Jersey , becoming the 12th team in league history to get at least 55 victories in a season. They need five wins in the last 10 games to become the third team to win 60.“We don’t look at records or anything like that, we are focusing on the end goal right now and doing whatever it takes to be ready for that,” said Tyler Johnson, who scored his 26th goal of the season. “That’s all those little things that we can work on and improve.”Erik Cernak and Yanni Gourde also scored in the Lightning’s fourth straight win, and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 30 shots.Alex Ovechkin scored twice to give him 48 on the season, John Carlson also scored and Braden Holtby finished with 29 saves for Washington. The Capitals remained two points ahead of the New York Islanders atop the Metropolitan Division.“Disappointing to end up with a loss like that,” Washington coach Todd Reirden said. “I thought we did some decent things as the game went on but our first period we didn’t manage the puck well enough to give ourselves a chance.”Killorn, who entered the game with 13 goals on the season, capped off the hat trick with an empty-netter with 47 seconds left. Gourde capped the scoring with another empty-netter 45 seconds later.“When the third goal seals the victory a little bit
Womens Tuukka Rask Jersey , there’s (47) seconds left but to go up two goals ahead at that point, it felt pretty good,” Killorn said.The Lightning jumped on the Capitals quickly as Brayden Point set up Johnson on a 2-on-1 at 8:35 of the first. Killorn made it 2-0 as he sent the puck from the boards toward the front of the net where it bounced off Washington defenseman Dmitry Orlov and past Holtby at 10:33.Carlson cut the deficit in half as a blocked shot bounced out to the right point where he stepped into a one-timer for his 12th at 12:06.Killorn answered that as he forced his way up the ice and outmuscled Michal Kempny for an initial shot before putting his own rebound with 4:04 left in the period to make it 3-1.“You (can’t) start like that against a team, a high-caliber team, they can get away,” Washington forward T.J. Oshie said. “That’s what it was, we were chasing from behind the rest of the time and it was all mental errors.”After the Lightning failed to convert on 1:28 of 5-on-3 power play time, 42 seconds of which carried over into the second period, the Capitals struck on the power play after Carlson’s shot deflected off Oshie in the high slot and landed right in the path of Ovechkin for a quick wrist shot to make it 3-2 at 7:33.Ovechkin got his 246th career power-play goal
Zdeno Chara Jersey , tying Hall of Famer Phil Esposito for fifth place on the all-time list.Cernak regained Tampa Bay’s two-goal lead with his fourth of the season, coming open down the right circle before snapping a shot through Holtby’s legs at 2:45 of the third. Ovechik scored his second of the night off a carom from Orlov’s shot off the end boards to cut the Lightning lead to 4-3 at 12:56.The teams meet again Wednesday night at Washington.“I wouldn’t make too much of it,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said of the win. “It’s two first-place teams going at it and you would expect the games to be good. We’ll get them in their building in a couple of days and it will be different, it will be round two under different circumstances.”NOTES: Lightning D Dan Girardi (lower body) and D Anton Stralman (lower body) each missed their third consecutive game after neither took part in the full morning skate. … Washington D Nick Jensen appeared in his 200th career game. … Tampa Bay D Mikhail Sergachev left the game in the first period after taking a hit from Washington RW Tom Wilson along the boards but returned to start the second. … Ovechkin has 655 career goals, one shy of tying Brendan Shanahan for 13th place on the all-time list. … Tampa Bay RW Nikita Kucherov had two assists and reached 117 points on the season, the most since Sidney Crosby had 120 in 2006-07. Kucherov’s 82 assists on the season are the fourth-most in league history by a wing.UP NEXTLightning: Host Arizona on Monday night.Capitals: At New Jersey on Tuesday night.