Haula’s deft tip-in part of 2-minute 3rd-period blitz as Wild stun Ducks

The Minnesota Wild, man.

Down 3-2 to the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday with under six-and-a-half minutes to play in the third period, the offensive juggernaut - Minnesota's 150 goals lead the Western Conference - decided they were going to win the game. Sorry, Anaheim.

Erik Haula tied the game with a beautiful redirection at the 13:39 mark. Ryan Suter made it 4-3 at 14:15. And Jason Zucker put the Wild to bed at 15:38. Two minutes, three goals, goodnight Ducks.

"We stayed resilient," Zucker said postgame.

That resilience has the Wild on a 19-2-1 run over their last 22 games. That'll do.

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Jamie Benn plays through broken nose after Dmitry Orlov high stick

Playing through injuries is a tired narrative in hockey, but Jamie Benn shrugged off a big one.

The Dallas Stars forward suffered a broken nose when Washington Capitals defenseman Dmitry Orlov caught him with a high stick late in the second period Saturday night, according to Mark Stepneski of the Stars' official website.

Orlov was assessed a four-minute minor for the play, and Benn was seen sporting some new headgear when he returned.

Benn played nine shifts in the third period, but did not appear in the overtime session.

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Boyle: Lightning hitting last place ‘disgraceful’

There's nowhere for the Tampa Bay Lightning to go but up.

Jon Cooper's club hit rock bottom Saturday night, after being pasted by the Arizona Coyotes 5-3.

"It's disgraceful," Boyle said of the Lightning's place in the standings, according to the Tampa Bay Times' Joe Smith. "We have ourselves to blame. Doing too many of these interviews.

"Against a young team we just didn't respect, they came out and stomped us."

After opening a big six-game road trip with a win against the Los Angeles Kings, the Lightning leave the west coast having lost to Anaheim, San Jose, and Arizona.

Ben Bishop was exceptionally bad Saturday night, allowing five goals on 17 shots.

Victor Hedman, who returned to the lineup after last playing Jan. 13 due to illness, called his team's effort "unacceptable."

It doesn't get any easier: Tampa Bay's in Chicago on Tuesday and on the road in Sunrise, Fla., on Thursday.

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Add Guy Boucher to the list of people who hate the shootout

The list keeps getting longer.

The Ottawa Senators earned a rather large come-from-behind victory against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday, scoring with 71 seconds to tie the game before winning it in a shootout, 3-2, and Guy Boucher certainly enjoyed the 65 minutes of action.

But that's it.

"I think It's a team game and it should be decided with team play, but I understand that the game has got to end," Boucher said. "I don't know, I got into a habit of not looking, it makes no difference that I look or not, so I let the guys do their thing.

"I used to get involved, and talk to the guys, and you can do this and that, and I just stay out of the way now."

Asked again if he truly doesn't watch any of the attempts, Boucher was straight and to the point.

"Never. Nope."

He relies on the sounds from his bench, and the crowd, to let him know what happened.

With the win Saturday, Ottawa improved to 4-1 in shootouts. So Boucher's probably going to want to continue not watching, while also sending the right guys over the bench. It's working.

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Watch: Distraught Seguin drops stick after Grubauer’s robbery

It's one of those saves that even makes you question your own existence.

Philipp Grubauer stoned Tyler Seguin with an unbelievable blocker save Saturday night as the Capitals and Stars did in battle in Dallas. The save was so good it caused Seguin to drop his stick in dismay, and for good reason.

How did he stop that?

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Stars troll Trump, Spicer with embellished attendance figure

The Dallas Stars are no strangers to topical humor, and they're at it again.

This time, the NHL's most creative game operations crew poked fun at U.S. President Donald Trump, who claimed 1.5 million people attended his inauguration ceremony, despite a multitude of photographic and video evidence that backed up a much more modest estimate of about 250,000 people at the event in Washington, D.C., on Friday.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer falsely claimed Saturday that the event was observed by "the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period."

Dallas' crew once played nothing but Nickelback for an entire period with the Vancouver Canucks in town, took aim at Toronto Maple Leafs fans with Justin Bieber jokes, and mercilessly mocked the city of Winnipeg.

The Stars weren't the only ones in the sports world to make fun of the new administration. Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers got in on it, too.

Laughter is the best medicine, after all.

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Another topsy-turvy night for goalies across the NHL

NHL goaltenders have had themselves a week.

Pucks have been going in like we're back in the 1980s, and Saturday saw multiple goalies get yanked, some leave due to injury, and a couple make saves that can only be described as "bananas." Here's a rundown on an eventful Saturday night for the keepers, with the bad news first:

  • In Calgary, Chad Johnson played only 5:58 for the Flames in another installment of the Battle of Alberta. He left down 3-0, stopping only one of the four shots he faced. Yikes.
  • More trouble for the last-place Tampa Bay Lightning, after Ben Bishop was pulled after 40 minutes in Arizona. The Coyotes roughed him up, scoring five times on only 17 shots.
  • In Philly, Michal Neuvirth was pulled after two periods with an undisclosed injury for precautionary reasons. The Flyers lost again, 4-1, coming out of their bye week with a dud.
  • In Anaheim, Ducks starter John Gibson was forced from the game after 14 minutes of play in the first period with an upper-body injury. Jonathan Bernier came in and allowed four goals on 16 shots as the Ducks blew a third-period lead and lost to Minnesota.
  • The Blues' Pheonix Copley got things started Saturday afternoon, allowing five goals on 29 shots in an emergency spot start for St. Louis.

Wait ...

It wasn't all bad. Really.

  • Mike Condon shined for the Ottawa Senators in a come-from-behind win over the Toronto Maple Leafs. He stopped 31 of 33 shots and two of three in the shootout.
  • Robin Lehner and Carey Price made 36 and 35 saves respectively in Buffalo's 3-2 win over Montreal, and both goalies made incredible glove saves in overtime. Here's Lehner's, and here's Price's.
  • Sergei Bobrovsky made 35 saves in Columbus' 3-2 win over Carolina. Bob has 28 wins before the All-Star break, and his career high in a season is 32.
  • Jean-Francois Berube earned his first win of the season, coming up big for Doug Weight's New York Islanders in a 4-2 win over a strong Los Angeles Kings team. Berube went into the game with a .904 save percentage, and stopped 34 of 36 shots.

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Marner scores cheeky, controversial shootout goal

Mitch Marner pulled out all the moves on Saturday night, one too many if you ask Mike Condon.

The Toronto Maple Leafs rookie scored a cheeky shootout goal, dangling Condon before dragging the puck around him and slamming it into the net.

The goal was magical, but according to Condon, it shouldn't have counted, as he argued to officials that the puck had come to a complete stop.

Nevertheless, the goal would stand.

As for Condon, the Senators would prevail in the fourth-round thanks to a goal by Tom Pyatt.

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Lehner takes game-winner away from Galchenyuk with insane glove stop

Robin Lehner and Carey Price went save for save on Saturday night.

After Price made a miraculous glove save on Rasmus Ristolainen to send the game to overtime, Lehner stole the show making a desperation diving glove save on Alex Galchenyuk for the save of the game and arguably the year.

Related - Watch: Price absolutely robs Ristolainen with huge glove save

The Sabres would not let Lehner's work go unrewarded, as Zach Bogosian would score the game-winning goal just seconds later.

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Watch: Price absolutely robs Ristolainen with huge glove save

Carey Price is just fine, thank you very much.

The Montreal Canadiens goaltender made an incredible save in the waning moments of regulation against the Buffalo Sabres, committing grand larceny on Rasmus Ristolainen with about six seconds to go in the third period of a tie game.

Related: Lehner takes game-winner away from Galchenyuk with insane glove stop

Price made 35 saves on the night, but he didn't stop the one that mattered most. Zach Bogosian won it for the Sabres less than two minutes into overtime with his first goal of the season.

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