NHL scores: Jonas Hiller shuts down Blackhawks; Boedker’s hat trick leads Coyotes

If you liked overtime and a lot of random absurdity, Wednesday night was a night for you in the National Hockey League.

Oct 16, 2014, 1:00 PM UTC

Jonathan Daniel

There were only three NHL games on Wednesday night, but they managed to pack an awful lot of entertainment. We had two overtime games, some great goaltending performances, the penalty box eating equipment, flying pucks taking out coaches and even a hat trick. We even had a Harry and Lloyd sighting in Arizona.

The story of the night came from Calgary Flames goalie Jonas Hiller stealing a couple of points for his team thanks to 49 saves in a 2-1 overtime win over the Chicago Blackhawks. Meanwhile, in Detroit, the Boston Bruins were 3-2 shootout winners over the Red Wings, while the Arizona Coyotes were the latest team to stomp all over the Edmonton Oilers thanks to a hat trick from Mikkel Boedker.

All the NHL Scores

Bruins 3, Red Wings 2

Flames 2, Blackhawks 1

Coyotes 7, Oilers 4

Three Things We Learned

1. Mike Babcock wasn't very pleased with his team. At least, the players on his team that weren't starting goaltender Jimmy Howard. And that's not an unfair position for him to take. The Red Wings were badly outplayed for most of the night, but at least managed to come away with a point in the shootout loss thanks almost entirely to the play of Howard in net.

#RedWings Babcock: Howie was good. That’s about it.
— Dana Wakiji (@FSDwakiji) October 16, 2014

2. Sometimes goalies steal games. Howard almost did it for Detroit, Hiller did do it for Calgary. Hiller stopped 49 of the 50 shots he faced in a 2-1 overtime win for the Flames, providing a nice reminder that weird things can happen in a single game and that the best team on a given night may not always win.

3. The Oilers are a bad defensive team. And shockingly, they seem to be getting worse. Add in some bad Milhouse Vanhouten-level goaltending and you have a team that has already given up 23 goals in only four games. Chances of competing for the Stanley Cup, or even a playoff spot, with that type of goal prevention? Maybe one in a million. Maybe.

Impact Moment

Mikael Backlund's game-winning goal in the final minute of overtime to lift the Flames to a 2-1 win over the Blackhawks. It was a pretty stunning win for the Flames seeing as how they were outshot 50-18, but they all count the same in the standings. It's just extremely rare to win a game when you're outshot by that ridiculous of a margin.

Stat of the Night

Even with their win on Wednesday against the Red Wings, the Bruins are off to a slow start this season. They have just two wins in their first five games and have scored six goals. To put that into some perspective, they did not have a single five-game stretch all of last season where they scored fewer than 10 goals.