NHL Recap 10-6-09

Notes from Tuesday, Oct. 6

Stars of the night
--Mike Richards scored a hat trick, including two goals on the power play, in Philadelphia's 6-5, overtime win over Washington.
--Cam Ward made 29 saves and prevented two shooters from scoring in the shootout, and Carolina defeated Tampa Bay, 2-1.
--Pascal Leclaire rebounded from an inauspicious debut and allowed only one goal in Ottawa's 2-1 win at Toronto. Daniel Alfredsson scored the game-winner on a penalty shot in the second period.
--Eric Nystrom netted a pair of goals and Jarome Iginla his first as Calgary improved to 3-0 with a 4-3 win over Montreal. (Nystrom originally was credited with a hat trick but an official scoring change after the game took away the third goal and gave it to Staffan Kronwall. The goal is Kronwall's first of his career.)
--Martin Havlat had the primary assist on each of Minnesota's three third-period goals to erase a 3-0 deficit in the Wild's 4-3, overtime win over Anaheim.

Strong in defeat
--Alexanders Ovechkin and Semin continued their onslaught, both scoring two goals against Philadelphia. Ovechkin also had an assist and Nicklas Backstrom posted three helpers.
--Brenden Morrow scored twice and had an assist in the Stars' 5-4 shootout loss to Edmonton.
--Dany Heatley scored his first goal as a Shark and added two assists in San Jose's 6-4 loss at Los Angeles. Joe Thornton had three assists and Devin Setoguchi scored twice.

Working late
--Danny Briere scored the overtime winner for the Flyers.
--Sergei Samsonov and Tuomo Ruutu potted goals in the shootout for Carolina, with Ruutu's marker the clincher.
--Andrew Brunette capped an outstanding comeback for the Wild, as his power play goal in overtime gave Todd Richards his first victory.
--Edmonton's Ales Hemsky had the only shootout goal in the Oilers' victory. Nikolai Khabibulin made 30 saves and did not allow a goal in the shootout.

It looks good on the scoresheet
After San Jose scored four unanswered goals to tie its game with the Kings at 4-4, Teddy Purcell got a gift of a goal when he fired the puck from the corner at the Sharks net and it slipped through goaltender Thomas Greiss, who had replaced Evgeni Nabokov in the second period, for the game-winning goal. Anze Kopitar finished with a goal and two assists.

Quote of the night
"We'll find most of our forwards tomorrow. That was almost an embarrassing effort from seven or eight guys who we're really counting on heavily."
Toronto coach Ron Wilson, on his team's inability to generate goals Tuesday night.

Marquee matchup
(Note: New item documenting a key game on the night's schedule.)
Wednesday, Oct. 7
Not much to choose from, with only two games on the schedule, so we'll go with Phoenix at Pittsburgh (7:30 p.m. EDT). The defending champions look to improve to 3-0 against the Coyotes, who opened the season with an impressive 6-3 win at Los Angeles.