The longtime adage is that a hot goaltender can get a team through the playoffs. It worked for the Minnesota Wild and Anaheim Ducks in 2003 when they met for the Western Conference finals. Nine years later, the Ducks have a hot goaltender in Jonas Hillier while the Wild are hoping Niklas Backstrom can heat up as both teams hope to ascend to the top eight in the West.
1) Niklas Backstrom, Minnesota Wild - Before Sunday, Backstrom was 0-3-2 in his last five starts. It wasn't that he necessarily terrible but it's tough to win when teammates score eight times. Yesterday, the offense was at a premium in a 2-0 win over the Boston Bruins but Backstrom made it stand with a 48-save performance. Backstrom made 22 stops during the third period after Chad Rau and Matt Cullen scored 5:15 apart during the second. Backstrom posted his fourth shutout of the season and in those games, the 12th-place Wild have totaled seven goals.
2) Jonas Hillier, Anaheim Ducks - Hillier has made 18 straight starts and has allowed two goals or less 14 times. One of those instances was a 2-0 win in Florida when Hillier made 31 saves. Teemu Selanne became the oldest player to score 20 goals in a season since 1976-77 (Johnny Bucyk) and Niklas Hagman added an empty-netter for Anaheim. Anaheim has a point in nine straight games (6-0-3) and is 12-2-4 in the last 18 games but is five points out of eighth place with 23 games remaining.
3) Blake Wheeler, Winnipeg Jets - The Jets play in front of one of the NHL's most raucous crowd. The crowd had to be extremely pleased watching Blake Wheeler's first career four-point game in a 5-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche. During the game that moved the Jets into an eighth-place tie with the Maple Leafs, Wheeler had primary assists on power-play goals by Andrew Ladd and Bryan Little in the third period. In the second, Wheeler had the secondary assist on goals by Little and Kyle Wellwood. Evander Kane had the other goal and Ondrej Pavlec made 31 saves as the Jets improved to 18-9-2 at home and are just one point behind first place Florida in the Southeast Division.
Goals of the Night
Henrik Zetterberg pretty much did this in one motion. He made a turn with the puck, went through traffic and backhanded it into the net between Colin White's legs in Detroit's 23rd straight home win.
Derek Roy made a nice move on this goal that put Buffalo up 2-0 in the opening minutes. He managed to score by going from the forehand to the backhand despite the tough grasps from defenseman Brooks Orpik.
Saves of the Night
Joey MacDonald made a heckuva pad save on this attempt by Joe Thornton and appropriately enough, the PA system in Detroit played Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall".
The way Evgeni Malkin is going, he likely scores on most breakaways but when he encountered Ryan Miller, the puck stayed out of the net.
Tribute of the Night
Before last night's 3-1 loss to the Devils, the Canadiens did a nice thing. They showed a five-minute video tribute to Gary Carter, the first Hall of Famer to go in as a Montreal Expo.
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