A busy Tuesday night featured more than one surprising outcome as only three of the 11 favorites covered against the NHL betting lines.
The visiting Colorado Avalanche, who lead the NHL in points, fell 5-3 against the New Jersey Devils after taking an early three-goal lead.
Jesper Bratt and Jack Hughes combined for five assists as the Devils scored the game’s final five goals to snap a four-game losing streak against the Avalanche. The Devils winning by two goals paid +800.
The Devils scored twice on the power play and then Yegor Sharangovich capped the win with a shorthanded goal with 1:41 left to play.
Cale Makar had a goal and an assist to extend his points streak to 13 straight games and has at least one assist in each of those games.
“It was a great win obviously,” said Tomas Tatar who started the Devils’ biggest comeback win of the season with a second-period goal that was also his 400th career NHL point. “We are trying to create a winning mentality and these kinds of games give it to you.”
Mikko Rantanen and Nathan MacKinnon scored for Colorado which suffered its first regulation loss in eight games this season playing the second day in a back-to-back situation.
The Philadelphia Flyers won consecutive games for just the second time in 2022 topping the visiting Vegas Golden Knights 2-1. The Philadelphia win had a Las Vegas odds payout of +145.
Justin Braun and Oskar Lindblom had first-period goals while Carter Hart had a career-high 47 saves for Philadelphia, which had lost 21 of 24 games before home wins against Chicago and Vegas. Four of the Flyers’ five wins in 2022 came as underdogs at home. Hart’s previous career-high in saves came in a win over Vegas on December 10 when he stopped 41 shots.
Evgenii Dadonov, who hadn’t scored in his previous 17 games, had the goal for the Golden Knights,
Another of the top Stanley Cup contenders suffered an upset loss as the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning allowed four goals in the third period in a 7-4 loss to the Winnipeg Jets.
Pierre-Luc Dubois scored on the power play and less than two minutes later Kyle Connor had a shorthanded goal to start the scoring onslaught. Josh Morrissey and Paul Stastny also scored in the third period for Winnipeg.
Stastny scored twice while Mark Schiefele had three assists for Winnipeg. The three-goal win carried a Moneyline of +1000.
“Big win against a big team!”
Pierre-Luc Dubois earned the helmet after he scored a big power play goal as the #NHLJets beat Tampa Bay 7-4!#GoJetsGo | #TBLvsWPG pic.twitter.com/1vothvYUM3
— Winnipeg Jets (@NHLJets) March 9, 2022
Tampa Bay rallied from a two-goal deficit to tie the game when Alex Killorn and Victor Hedman scored in a span of 1:29 late in the second period to tie the game at 3.
Another of the “we didn’t see that coming” games took place when the St. Louis Blues fell to the visiting Ottawa Senators 4-1. Tim Stutzle and Josh Norris each had a goal and two assists as Ottawa snapped a four-game losing streak on the road. Stutzle has a goal and five assists in the last three games while Norris has two goals and two assists in his first four contests back after missing more than a month.
Ottawa scored on both of its power-play opportunities to snap a five-game losing streak.
David Perron had a first-period goal for St. Louis.
Not all the favorites ended up on the wrong side of the scoreboard.
Auston Matthews added to his NHL-leading goal total with three goals in the Toronto Maple Leafs‘ 6-4 win over the visiting Seattle Kraken. Matthews has 43 goals, including six in the last three games. Matthews has scored 23 times since January 1. Mitchell Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander each had a goal and an assist moved within two points of Tampa Bay for second place in the Atlantic Division.
Colin Blackwell had a goal and an assist for Seattle which lost its third game in a row.
Speaking of the Atlantic Division, the first-place Florida Panthers won perhaps the highest-profile game of the night between playoff contenders in the Eastern Conference with a 4-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Anthony Duclair scored the go-ahead goal in the second period and Carter Verhaeghe scored in the third period to make it a two-goal lead before a late goal by Sidney Crosby made things interesting. Pittsburgh outshot Florida 35-28 but failed to score on three power-play opportunities.
Aaron Ekblad and Sam Reinhart also had goals for Florida which is tied with Carolina for the most points (83) in the Eastern Conference.
Speaking of showdowns between teams expected to contend for the Stanley Cup title, the visiting Washington Capitals edged the Calgary Flames 5-4 as Alexander Ovechkin scored twice to move into a tie for third place on the NHL’s career scoring list.
Calgary took the early two-goal lead as Elias Lindholm and Adam Ruzicka scored. Lindholm has 18 goals since January 1 which is tied for sixth in the NHL over that span.
Ovechkin scored what proved to be the winning goal with 1:48 left to play before Lindholm brought Calgary within one with four seconds to play.
Something of interest to those who bet online, it was the third time in the last four games than a Washington game finished over the total.
In another game between teams currently in playoff position, Kevin Fiala scored twice in the second period as the Minnesota Wild defeated the visiting New York Rangers 5-2.
Marcus Foligno had a goal and two assists for Minnesota which had lost six of its last seven games. The Wild also snapped a three-game losing streak at home. Ryan Hartman and Joel Eriksson Ek gave Minnesota a 2-0 lead before Dryden Hunt scored his first goal in 31 games and Mika Zibanejad had a shorthanded goal for the Rangers to tie the game.
With the win, Minnesota holds onto the third spot in the Central Division with Nashville a point behind and Dallas just two points back.
The Nashville Predators got a goal from Roman Josi with 1:22 remaining in a 2-1 win over the Dallas Stars.
Dallas defenseman John Klingberg opened the scoring early in the third period before Ryan Johansen tied the game with 6:52 left to play.
On a night of surprises, it seems only fitting that two of the lowest-scoring teams in the NHL accounted for the most goals.
Patrick Kane has a goal and five assists while linemates Dylan Strome (three goals, one assist) and Alex DeBrincat (goal, three assists) had four-point nights as the Chicago Blackhawks blasted the visiting Anaheim Ducks 8-3.
Chicago scored five times in the first period and went up 6-0 early in the second period before Jakob Silfverberg, Trevor Zegras and Adam Henrique scored in a span of 3½ minutes for Anaheim. Chicago’s scoring onslaught took place despite the Blackhawks failing to score on its two power-play opportunities.
Nick Schmaltz had two goals and two assists while Nick Ritchie also scored twice as the visiting Arizona Coyotes topped the Detroit Red Wings 9-2.
Jakob Chychrun had two goals and an assist, Barrett Hayton three assists and Clayton Keller a goal and two assists for Arizona. The Coyotes scored 17 goals in their last two games after managing a total of 19 in its previous seven.
Robby Fabbri and Jakub Vrana had power-play goals for Detroit. It was Vrana’s season debut for the Red Wings.
