It wasn't exactly a marquee goaltending match-up when the Blackhawks and Ducks faced off Tuesday night. Anaheim's John Gibson and Chicago's Scott Darling aren't exactly candidates for the All-Star Game, but they stood out above all once it was over.
NHL scores: Ducks’ Gibson shuts out Blackhawks; Wild comeback stuns Bruins
The Minnesota Wild must have learned from their own mistakes on Tuesday. Elsewhere, John Gibson shut out the Blackhawks in a busy night in the NHL.
Gibson stopped 38 shots to earn his first shutout of the season and third (including playoffs) of his young career. The 21-year-old kept Chicago's arsenal of offensive weapons off the board and came away with the win because of a shorthanded goal from Devante Smith-Pelly midway through the third period.
For Gibson, it's his second consecutive solid start after getting bombed by the Pittsburgh Penguins for six goals on opening night.
Darling stopped 25 Ducks shots in just his second career NHL start and was the victim of a Brent Seabrook turnover that led to the only goal of the game.
Elsewhere, the Minnesota Wild proved having a selective short memory goes a long way. After they blew a 3-0 third period lead against the New York Rangers on Monday, they came back from being down 3-1 in the third against the Boston Bruins to win 4-3.
The Wild got third period goals from Zach Parise, Justin Fontaine, and Marco Scandella to stun Tuukka Rask and the Bruins. The win spoiled a great game from Bruins rookie Seth Griffith who had two goals and an assist including a second period goal that reminded us all of how incredible Bobby Orr's Stanley Cup-winning goal in 1970 was.
All the NHL scores
Wild 4, Bruins 3
Penguins 8, Devils 3
Senators 5, Blue Jackets 2
Leafs 4, Sabres 0
Ducks 1, Blackhawks 0
Canucks 4, Hurricanes 1
Three Things We Learned
1. Vladimir Tarasenko can be scary good when he's able to shoot. He had a hat trick and four points in St. Louis' 4-3 win against Dallas and scored the game-winning goal in overtime. While his three goals gave him four for the season, Tarasenko seems poised for a big season.
2. Is it time to start getting worried about Mike Smith in Arizona? He stopped 24 of 30 shots before being pulled in the third period against Tampa Bay. His stats early on this season are less-than encouraging with a .858 save percentage and a 4.29 goals-against average. Devan Dubnyk hasn't been much better with a .889 save percentage in three games.
3. What’s going on with Alex Semin in Carolina? Semin was benched for the final 11:14 of the third period of the Hurricanes’ 4-1 loss to Vancouver. He has no goals and two assists in eight games and is signed through 2018. Times may be bad now, but Eric Staal’s return should help out. Staal, meanwhile, played 19:50 in his first game back following an upper-body injury.
Impact Moment
The Tampa Bay Lightning always seem to have young players popping up and having success and Nikita Kucherov is the latest. Kucherov had a hat trick against Arizona in a 7-3 win. After scoring 9 goals with 18 points last season in 52 games, he now has four goals in 10 games this season. Sure, a hat trick helps out, but he has nine points and seven in the past three games. Streaky player or breaking out?
Stat of the Night
It's hard to look past the anemic number of shots the Buffalo Sabres put up in a 4-0 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Sabres put up a franchise-worst 10 shots on goal on Tuesday and they dropped to 2-8-0 this season. Coincidentally enough, 10 is the same number of goals the Sabres have scored this season and it's the same number of games they've played. For what it's worth, Torrey Mitchell had 20-percent of Buffalo's shots on goal against Toronto. That's not exactly a silver lining.
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