Given the teams playing Sunday night, you wouldn't think the Arizona Coyotes and the Carolina Hurricanes would carry most of the offense, and the fun, but here we are. Sure, three other teams put up four-spots on their opponents, but goals in the opening and closing minute bookended a highlight of a game that saw the lead change hands three times.
NHL scores 2015: Bad goaltending of Arizona, Carolina carry slow night of NHL action
Bad defense and even worse goaltending highlighted the NHL’s most exciting Sunday game.
James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports
A combined nine goals between the 13th- and 28th-ranked teams in goals for is quite an adventure for a late Sunday afternoon match. Maybe more interesting is the low shot totals, with Arizona edging out the Hurricanes 23-18 and only the Coyotes hitting double digits in the second period. Talk about old fashioned, no-defense hockey right there.
The game started and ended in essentially the same fashion, a goal within the opening and closing minutes. Arizona held the upper hand with Tobias Rieder's sixth of the season off bad positioning of Cam Ward 49 seconds into the game on sustained zone pressure. Three more goals were scored in the first period, flip flopping between the Hurricanes and Coyotes, with all the goals in question off of misplays by net minders or defense.
Possibly the best goal of the evening came off an unfortunate turnover by the Coyotes. Kris Versteeg's stick tipped Arizona's cross-ice pass on a breakout, and all Elias Lindholm had to do was hold stickhandle with the puck beside the cage -- deciding to make the pass instead of take the short breakaway -- before finding the lane to Eric Staal for the 3-2 tiebreaker in the second period.
Carolina got the last laugh on Arizona, despite giving the lead back late in the third period. A soft goal from Anders Lindback and an bad penalty with less than a minute left put the Hurricanes in prime position to win, and they did not waste it on Justin Faulk's wrister with 17 seconds to play.
Sure, bad goaltending and defense might be hard to watch depending on your rooting interests, but given the snoozefest across almost the rest of the board -- looking at you Pittsburgh and Anaheim -- we clearly peaked early in our Sunday hockey action.
Scores
Carolina Hurricanes 5, Arizona Coyotes 4
3 things we learned
1. Patrick Kane broke the Blackhawks record like we all knew he would
In a move that surprised no one, Kane finally broke Bobby Hull's 43-year-old Blackhawks record for consecutive games with a point. The old record stood at 21 games and with a gloved assist on Artemi Panarin's empty-net goal with less than two minutes to play in their win, Kane now has the record at 22. The record is, of course, impressive and indicative of the hell of a year he's having on the ice, as he continues to lead the NHL in points, now with 42. Of all the ways he could have broken the streak, it happened on a play he had very little to do with.
2. The Oilers are rolling after winning three straight
After taking down the Stars only a few nights earlier, Edmonton used the momentum from one of their biggest wins of the year to churn out a four-goal performance over the Sabres. Now, somehow, the Oilers are three points out of a playoff spot, despite being four spots out of the Wild Card race. Thanks to the close race in the middle of the Pacific Division, Edmonton is three points behind the Coyotes and within sniffing distance of distancing themselves from the bottom of the league. The play of goaltender Anders Nilsson has also helped the Oilers through the past week, with his recent numbers a huge factor in Edmonton's streak.
Oilers now 3 points out of a playoff spot. Stay tuned tomorrow to see which NHL Star of the Week Anders Nilsson lands. 3-0, .957 this week.
— Jack Michaels (@EdmontonJack) December 7, 2015 3. Andrei Vasilevskiy given a short leash against the Kings
It took just 39 seconds into the second period for Lightning coach Jon Cooper to pull goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy. Stopping eight shots out of 10 isn't the complete worst scenario, but allowing a goal 12 seconds after tying the game 1-1 was apparently enough for Cooper to yank Vasilevskiy in favor of Ben Bishop. Tampa Bay's normal starter didn't fare much better than his teammate, lasting just three minutes before allowing the Kings a goal to make it 3-1 with fewer than four minutes gone in the middle period. Not a good evening for the Lightning net minders.
Impact Moment
Trevor Daley left Chicago's game after taking a knee to the head and did not return. The hit was clearly an accident on Chris Thorburn's part, as Daley was falling over after tripping over his own skates. A stretcher was needed, but there was no word on if he went to the hospital after the incident.
Stat of the Night
A goal and two assists for McDonagh ties a career high for him
— Steve Zipay (@stevezipay) December 7, 2015 Thanks for making the final night of my fantasy hockey matchup much tighter than it should have been, Ryan McDonagh.
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