Rangers Stop the Red Wings, Blackhawks Seek to Snap Ducks’ Win Streak

In a game that remained scoreless until the last six minutes, the goal by New York Rangers (25-21-3) Mats Zuccarello got his team a 1-0 victory over the Detroit Red Wings (20-17-10) on Thursday night.

For most of the game, it was a duel of two Olympic goalies: the Red Wings Jimmy Howard vs. the Rangers Henrik Lundqvist. But in the end Zuccarello was the Rangers MVP with his sole score. This represented his team-leading 12th goal for the year.

Henrik Lundqvist

Rangers goalie Lundqvist got his third shutout for the season and No. 48th in his league career. For the night, Lundqvist, had 38 stopped shots but almost let a shot in with 45 seconds remaining. He said of it via the Associated Press, “You kind of wait for a reaction when you hear it hits the post, but then you don’t get a reaction, so you know it’s behind you somewhere. You don’t want to make too big of a move, so I just turned around, and it was right there. It’s fun when you get some puck luck. Maybe I earned it after a few tough bounces.”

For the Rangers, they have gone 9-3-1 over their last 13 games. Next up for them is the Ottawa Senators (21-18-9) on Saturday. The Rangers sit at 28/1 to win the 2014 Stanley Cup.

As for Red Wings goalie Howard, he stopped 47 of 48 shots for the night and is getting in good shape for the Olympics. The team has now lost two games in a row and hope to turn things around on Saturday against the Los Angeles Kings (29-14-5). Detroit sits at 33/1 to win the 2014 Stanley Cup.

Blackhawks vs. the Ducks

In a sparse Friday night for NHL games, the Chicago Blackhawks (30-8-11) will take on the Anaheim Ducks (36-8-5)

The Ducks are coming off a big Wednesday night franchise-record 9-1 win against the Vancouver Canucks (24-16-9). They are on a roll winning, seeing 18 victories in their last 19 games and enduring an eight-game win streak. This has lead them to the top of the league with their record and enabling them to have one of the more dominant runs in team history as they’ve scored the greatest number of goals (166) and have given up the fewest (116) over 49 games.

Ryan Getzlaf

The Ducks have played well at home, amassing a 20-0-2 record that includes 10 consecutive wins. This has them tying for the league’s longest season-opening home point streak in 34 years, according to the Associated Press. Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf said, “We know we’ve got a good team. But we also know we can’t stop proving it.”

This weekend, they’ll leave the warm confines of southern California and head to the cold Midwest to play Chicago on Friday. While the Ducks sit six points ahead of the Blackhawks, the defending champions still bring a lot to the table. They currently sit at the top of the Central Division.

In 17 of their last 19 games, Chicago has earned at least one point in these but it’s been 1-1-3 over the last five games. On Tuesday, the Blackhawks lost in overtime, 3-2, to the Colorado Avalanche on their home ice.

They’ll hope Friday’s game won’t result in OT again as it doesn’t usually go their way: they have lost seven straight games that have gone over regulation time. This dates back to Nov.29 when they defeated the Dallas Stars (21-19-7) 2-1 in a shootout. When games go past the 60-minute mark, they’re 4-11 including 0-5 in OT and 4-6 with shootouts.

And yes in their last game against the Ducks on Dec. 6, they lost 3-2 in a shootout.

Perhaps the Blackhawks are thinking of this as a redemption game. Vegas gives them the win (-137, 5.5 o/u) and 11/2 to take home the 2014 Stanley Cup.