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Top-4: Patrick Roy’s Islanders back in the playoff picture

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Top-4: Patrick Roy’s Islanders back in the playoff picture
Credit: Capture d'écran / Screenshot
Yesterday was a fairly quiet day in the NHL, with only five games on the schedule.

Without further ado, here’s what caught the eye on the Bettman circuit:

1. Patrick Roy’s Islanders back in the playoff picture

For the past few games, the New York Islanders have been unstoppable. Prior to yesterday’s game, they had won their last five games, and were looking to make it six in a row last night.

For the occasion, they faced the poor Ducks… and it quickly became clear that the Islanders wouldn’t have too much trouble extending their streak.

By the middle of the first period, the visitors were already 3-0 up.

The Ducks held their own in the second period, but in the third, the Islanders put their foot back on the gas pedal to secure victory.

Bo Horvat found the back of the net for the third consecutive game.

In the end, the Islanders prevailed by a score of 6-1… and in doing so, they are now back in the playoff picture, having overtaken the Red Wings in the standings following yesterday’s win (both teams have 72 points, and the Islanders still have a game in hand).

If the season were to end this morning, Patrick Roy would have succeeded in getting his club into the playoffs. And that’s without taking into account the fact that the Islanders are currently pushing to continue climbing the standings. They are currently the second team drafted, but the Lightning (first team drafted) and the Flyers (third place in the Metropolitan) are only two points behind, and the Islanders still have two games in hand on both teams.

2. Connor Bedard scores a goal from behind the net

Connor Bedard had been in a bit of a goal-scoring slump for a few weeks. In fact, his last goal came on February 19, when he failed to hit the target in his next eight games (collecting four assists in the process).

Quite often, then, guys need a bit of luck to break out of their slump in such situations. And yesterday, Bedard got his lucky break, scoring a goal from behind the net.

Scorer’s instinct, like.

And sure enough, after a slightly “luckier” goal, the floodgates opened for the Blackhawks’ young prodigy.

We saw him score a beauty of a goal later in the game, and this one might just restore his confidence.

And as if scoring goals wasn’t enough, Bedard also reminded everyone that he has excellent passing skills in his toolbox.

Tyler Johnson took advantage of this, while his young teammate made a clever pass to feed him. It put the defense to sleep, and all Johnson had to do was complete it.

A 7-4 Blackhawks victory in the end, with only Seth Jones (four assists) collecting more points than Bedard for the Blackhawks.

Special mention to Colin Blackwell, who scored his first career hat trick in the victory.

3. Jesperi Kotkaniemi scores two points in the same game for the first time in over four months

Jesperi Kotkaniemi is having a difficult season. The Habs veteran, who started the year as a lion, had gone more than four consecutive months without scoring two points in a game.

In fact, we had to go back to November 4 to find the last game in which he had scored twice.

His first point came on a face-off win. He passed the disc to Jaccob Slavin, who then fed Brent Burns for a ball on landing,

Then, late in the game, KK got his second point of the match on a rather bizarre sequence. He passed the disc to Teuvo Teravainen, but the puck deflected off the latter’s skate.

The puck ended up in the air… and Teravainen simply “slammed” it into the goal.

A pretty convincing win for the Hurricanes, then, who prevailed by a score of 7-2. Evgeny Kuznetsov, playing his first game in his new uniform, had no points, while Jake Guentzel was out of uniform.

Frederik Andersen also made a magnificent save, turning aside 17 of 19 shots in a fairly quiet game for the Canes goaltender.

4. Connor McDavid makes short work of the Penguins

Things have been going very badly for the Penguins in recent days. Jake Guentzel was traded on Thursday night, and the club has lost its last two games by scores of 6-0 and 5-1.

These are clearly tough losses.

Yesterday afternoon, the Penguins had a chance to bounce back against the Oilers… but after 68 seconds of play, the Oilers already had the lead.

Connor McDavid got the ball rolling.

And then McDavid let his playmaking skills do the talking. After collecting an assist on Mattias Ekholm’s goal, he fed Darnell Nurse for his third point of the game.

It was his 79th assist of the season.

Nurse added a second goal a few minutes later, making it 4-0 to the Oilers.

Another tough loss for the Penguins, who were blanked. However, Calvin Pickard briefly left the game late in the second period (before returning for the third), so it was a “shared shutout” between Pickard and Stuart Skinner. Skinner didn’t stop a single puck, however, while Pickard turned aside 41.


Extension

– We were treated to a wild finish between the Wild and Predators.

– Nice goal from Clayton Keller.

– Legend has it that Dan Vladar is still looking for the puck this morning.

– Michael McCarron and Marcus Foligno fought a heavyweight bout.

– Results from the previous day.

– Last night’s top scorers.

(Credit: Screenshot/NHL.com)

– Four games on the schedule today.

(Credit: Screenshot/Google)

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