Flyers and Caps Put on Quite a Display

If you didn't come away impressed from Tuesday night's contest between the Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals, I guess I'll never convince you what a great sport this truly is.  Just an astounding amount of scoring between these two.  Mike Richards of the Flyers ended up with a hat trick, two of which came on the power play.  The first one by Richards got Philly on the board and after that Richard scored two within 58 seconds, all in the second period.  And get this Flyers defenseman Matt Carle who did well to keep the puck in the offensive zone to set up Richards' hatter, had four assists on the game himself all of which also came in the second.

The Alexander's also came up strong for Washington, Ovechkin with two goals and an assist and Semin with two goals including one on the power play that got the Caps back tied 4-4 in the third.  Former Albany River Rat Brendan Morrison scored his third of the season putting the Caps on top 5-4.  Yet late in the third Philly rallied on a PPG from Scotty Hartnell who evened things up at 5-5.  In OT it was Danny Briere hoping to have a healthy bounce back season who put away the winner for Philadelphia 6-5.

In Toronto it was Daniel Alfredsson's second period penalty shot against fellow Swede Jonas Gustavsson that turned out to be the eventual winner as the Ottawa Senators took out the Maple Leafs 2-1.

Down in Raleigh it was a former member of the 'Ning Dynasty, Jussi Jokinen lighting the lamp on the power play for Carolina in the first.  Tampa Bay countered with one of their own in the second from Ryan Malone.  This game also saw former Albany River Rats defenseman Tim Conboy get in a scrap for the Hurricanes with Zenon Konopka.  Another former Albany defenseman David Hale took a tripping penalty late in OT but it wouldn't matter.  Heading into the shootout, shockingly Jokinen who has one of the better moves in the league was kept at bay, but goals from Sergei Samsonov and Tuomo Ruttu were the difference in beating Mike Smith.  Cam Ward and the boys bounce back from two absolute clunkers against Philly and Boston and win 2-1 against the Lightning.

Out in the Midwest, that "other game" in Minnesota, the Minnesota Wild taking on the Anaheim Ducks.  This one saw the Duck charge out front early in the second.  Former Montreal captain Saku Koivu netted his first as a Duck on the power play, following tallies by Joffrey Lupul and Evgeny Artyukhin hoisting Anaheim to a 3-0 lead after two.  But Saku's little brother Mikko would have none of it in the third and the Wild made a hard charge back.  This Koivu also scored on the power play.  Then it was former Albany River Rat Petr Sykora with his first goal in a Minnesota sweater cutting it to one goal.  Eric Belanger tied things at three with a PPG late in the third and sent this one to OT.  That's where Andrew Brunette rocked home a power play goal to give the Wild a dramatic comeback over the Ducks 4-3.  Another big part of the three goal comeback was Martin Havlat who recorded three assists on the evening.

In the great Northwest the Edmonton Oilers faced off against the Dallas Stars.  Mr. Hilary Duff, Mike Comrie back in Edmonton, got his Oilers on the board in the first.  Brenden Morrow netted his first of two on the night for Dallas tying things at one.  After trading off goals in the latter two periods both teams went to a shootout with things stading at four all.  Ales Hemsky notched the winner for Edmonton in a 5-4 victory over the Stars.  Stars goalie Marty Turco picked up a short-handed assist in the loss for Dallas.

Finally in a battle of Cali, the Los Angeles Kings upended the San Jose Sharks in a 6-4 barn burner.  L.A. jumped out to a four goal edge, chasing Evgeni Nabokov midaway through the third with scoring capped off by Anze Kopitar.  The Sharks countered with four straight goals of their own however and with all coming compliments of the extra man advantage.  Devin Setoguchi notched two, former King defenseman and captain Rob Blake picked one up as well and newly acquired Dany Heatly scored his first as a Shark to knot things at 4-4 midway through the third.  But Teddy Purcell put in a quick dagger just 26 ticks later for the Kings, in essence sucking the life right out of San Jose and their valiant comeback attempt.  The Kings beat the Sharks 6-4 with a late empty netter.