| The Wings got to celebrate when it looked like they were done. (Getty Images) |
There's always a Winner and a Loser in the NHL, and this is a new nightly look at some of the winners and losers in the biggest games and biggest situations across the league.
Winners
Detroit Red Wings: When you're down 2-0 in St. Louis against the Blues this season, you can pretty much count on getting no points for the night. But not on Wednesday, not for the Red Wings .
After giving up a short-handed goal to David Perron and then a 4-on-4 tally to Andy McDonald, the Wings faced a daunting task of overcoming a two-goal deficit against a goalie that hadn't given up a goal in more than 240 consecutive minutes. Enter Pavel Datsyuk and Johan Franzen. They teamed up to get the Red Wings to overtime and a shootout. From there it was Todd Bertuzzi, the shootout magician's turn.
That angry yell you heard came from Nashville. Because that means that the Wings are back in front in their see-saw battle for the fourth seed. Two games to go and the difference between them is one point. With the Predators having the ROW advantage, Detroit must beat them outright, so two wins in the final two games gets that fourth spot clinched.
Now you see how big a comeback like that was on Wednesday.
American Canadiens: Before this season there had never been an American-born player score 30 goals in a season for the Montreal Canadiens. This season they have not one but two. And they both had big nights on Wednesday.
In a game involving two teams out of the playoff race, the only real interest regarding individual scoring. That's because everybody wants to see if Lightning sniper Steven Stamkos is going to reach 60 goals this season. After a goalless showing on Monday, he has two games to score two and hit the 60 mark.
No, but Max Pacioretty and Erik Cole were the ones doing the scoring. Cole scored twice to give him goals No. 33 and 34 on the season while Pacioretty had his 31st and 32nd. You knows it's an odd time when the Canadiens are being paced by a couple of Americans.
On the Stammer watch the Lightning final two games are in Toronto and Winnipeg, not exactly two teams known for the defense this season.
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Losers
St. Louis Blues: Not that I think losing a late two-goal lead is going to do much to shake this team's confidence. It will take a lot more than that in one game after the season they've had.
But what the loss does do is give the Canucks a clear upperhand in the race for the top seed in the Western Conference. Now the Blues find themselves two points back with two games to go for each team. (For the record, it's nice to not have to refer to games in hand right now, every team has now played 80 games.)
As mentioned above, the 3-2 shootout loss brought the end of Brian Elliott's shutout streak too. He was nearing in on four consecutive games until the Red Wings got on the board late in the third period. That's one heck of a streak for a "backup" goaltender.
Goal of the night
Maybe I should call this one the blooper of the night. Thankfully for Peter Budaj the Canadiens overcame this mistake and won big, but this sure was a pretty "assist" to Vincent Lecavalier.
This is worthy of one big OOF!
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