Jonas Hiller made 42 saves as the lowly Anaheim Ducks recorded a 3-1 road victory over the high-flying Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday.
“Hillsy stole the game for us,” Corey Perry, who had Anaheim’s opening goal, told reporters. “Simple as that.”
Ducks coach Randy Carlyle agreed.
PHOTO: AFP
“He was probably single-handedly the most effective player on the ice,” Carlyle said. “And that’s what you ask from your guy.”
“You don’t ask for him to win you the game, but you ask him to give you a chance. He went above that. He won the hockey game for us,” he said.
Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville had a similar reaction after his team outshot the Ducks 43-12.
“He didn’t give any loose stuff around the net,” Quenneville said. “He was smothering a lot of pucks ... but he was effective.”
The Pacific Division’s worst team took a 2-0 lead with first period goals by Perry on seven minutes, 29 seconds and Saku Koivu nine minutes later.
Chicago’s Duncan Keith trimmed the advantage with a power-play goal at 15 minutes, seven seconds in the third period, but Teemu Selanne scored an empty netter with seconds to play to earn Anaheim (20-19-7) their fourth successive win.
The loss was the second in a row for the Blackhawks (31-11-4), the runaway leaders in the Central Division.
“It showed we were working,” Quenneville said of the big shot advantage.
But the loss did not set well with his players.
“It’s frustrating, considering how many shots we had on the net tonight and how hard we worked for those chances,” Chicago’s Jonathan Toews said.
■LIGHTNING VS DEVILS
AP, NEWARK, NEW JERSEY
Mike Smith made 33 saves as the Tampa Bay Lightning finished off the New Jersey Devils 4-2 on Sunday in the completion of an NHL game that was suspended two nights earlier because a lighting problem created a safety issue for the players.
Tampa Bay led 3-0 when play was suspended on Friday with nine minutes, 12 seconds left in the second period, then killed off the final 29 minutes, 12 seconds on Sunday to snap a 10-game losing streak against New Jersey. Only about 3,000 fans returned for the completion of the game.
Steven Stamkos scored twice — once on Friday and once on Sunday — and Steve Downie and Brandon Bochenski added goals in the game in which the players agreed not to protest playing three days in a row. On Saturday night, the Devils won 2-1 in overtime in Montreal and the Lightning fell 4-1 in Philadelphia.
Travis Zajac and Zach Parise scored for New Jersey.
HURRICANES 4, SENATORS 1
At Raleigh, North Carolina, Rod Brind’Amour scored the winning goal, and Cam Ward made 31 saves as Carolina handed Ottawa its fourth straight loss.
Tom Kostopoulos, Brett Carson and Eric Staal also scored to help Carolina win consecutive games for the first time since early December.
Chris Kelly scored for Ottawa, and Pascal LeClaire stopped 29 shots.
BLUE JACKETS 2, STARS 0
At Columbus, Ohio, Mathieu Garon made 26 saves for his second shutout of the season, and Raffi Torres and Antoine Vermette scored for Columbus.
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
Arne Slot has denied that Darwin Nunez was dropped from Liverpool’s win against West Ham because of a training-ground row with a member of his coaching staff. The Liverpool head coach on Sunday last week said that Nunez was absent from the 2-1 victory at Anfield, having felt unwell during training the day before, although the striker sat behind the substitutes throughout the game. Speculation has been rife that the Uruguay international, whom Slot criticized for his work rate against Wolves and Aston Villa in February, was left out for disciplinary reasons. Asked on Friday to clarify the situation, Slot said: “He
CUNNINGHAM CONNECTS: In the Eastern Conference, the Pistons snapped their record 15-game playoff losing streak by beating the Knicks to level their series at 1-1 Kawhi Leonard on Monday scored 39 points on 15-of-19 shooting as the Los Angeles Clippers evened their first-round NBA Playoffs series against the Nuggets with a 105-102 win in Denver. “It feels like he didn’t miss a shot,” James Harden said. “His shot-making ability is elite.” Good thing, too, because his teammates were a combined 26 of 66 for a 39 percent clip. “I made shots tonight,” Leonard said. “I just keep playing, try to stay in the zone no matter if I’m making or missing shots.” The fifth-seeded Clippers needed every bit of his brilliance to snatch the homecourt advantage in the series
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