But I'm not a bad exterminator...Oilers 4 Red Wings 3 (shootout): Joey MacDonald, the Halifax native, will have some story to tell his grandkids some day about his first NHL start. MacDonald played fairly well, but the Warren Zevon of goalies, Dwayne Roloson, had 38 saves on the night and bounced back after the Oilers gave up the tying goal with four seconds left in regulation. It went to a shootout, which lasted seven rounds before Raffi Torres came in on MacDonald, faked not once, but twice, but thrice, and then slid the puck along with the ice to put the Oilers ahead. Roloson, who'd already stopped three game-winning shots, then denied Robert Lang to seal the win.
Senators 4 Sabres 1: If Ray Emery hadn't stopped Chris Drury on an early breakaway after a ghastly, straight-outta-Junior-B giveaway (didn't catch which Sen was guilty), the buzzword "fragile" might have been dropped quite a bit in the post-mortems. The Sens hung in, and came away with a big win.
The Senators will need time to shed this win-one, lose-one routine for a while, but for their sake, at least they carried Friday's strong third period over and beat a good team. Dany Heatley put the Sens ahead for good early in the third, then later set Chris Phillips up with an out-of-the-penalty-box breakaway goal. It was nice, to this disinterested observer, to see Phillips ice the win, since he rarely gets a scoring chance and often seems to be a whipping boy for Sens fans.
Daniel Alfredsson, Heatley and Jason Spezza come in for it first since they're the captain and the stars, then it's the goalie ("Martin Garbage," anyone?), but Phillips always hears it. Top-four defencemen like Phillips, who aren't offensive defencemen or teeth-rattling bodycheckers, probably always get criticized quicker since their contributions to a winning effort are always subtle and don't show up in the summaries or the TV highlight. Since it's harder to see what they do to help the team win, when the teams lose, well...
Devils 2 Leafs 1: Karma... the Leafs got a point they didn't deserve the other night in Boston, so naturally they ended up with nothing when they should have had two, as Martin Brodeur made 33 saves in the third period.
Habs 3 Thrashers 1: Cristobal Huet makes 39 saves for Montreal, sending Atlanta to a fourth straight loss.
Penguins 3 Rangers 1: Did anyone think that a Russian defenceman was going to let a Czech, Jaromir Jagr, score his 600th career goal in the rink he used to star in? Sergei Gonchar wasn't going to let it happen on his watch, and he and defence partner Josef Melichar (who's actually Czech, thus spoiling the analogy), helped shut out No. 68. Mark Recchi, who played on with Jagr on the '91 Cup-winning Penguins when Sidney Crosby was three and Jordan Staal was two, got the game-winning and insurance goalies for Pittsburgh.
Elsewhere: Sharks 6 Flyers 1; Preds 4 Jackets 2; Avs 2 Wild 1 (shootout); Kings 5 Coyotes 3; 'Canes 5 Stars 4; Bruins 3 Capitals 2 (overtime); Islanders 4 Panthers 1 (no, Rick DiPietro didn't play, why do you ask?).
HOMETOWN BREAKDOWN
Well, you can call them the Surging Tide That Is The Kingston Frontenacs again. Matt Kang and Chris Stewart each scored shorties last night and Cory Emmerton sealed a 5-2 win with two insurance goals, completing a three-win road trip that put them back at .500 (10-10-2-1). Granted, the Fronts didn't get to see Steagle Colbeagle the Eagle on their trip through mid-Michigan and southwestern Ontario since they didn't play the Saginaw Spirit. They won't get to see Steagle until Feb. 18.The 67's didn't fare any better in their return game with Belleville, losing 5-3. By the way, the Ontario Hockey League schedulemaker is on the "on notice" board for not having the 67's playing at home today or next Sunday, both of which I have free.
Just another reminder: Our own Neil Acharya will grace the Rogers broadcast of today's London-St. Mike's game (2 p.m., live in the GTA).
That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.
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