The Philadelphia Flyers continued to tumble, the Edmonton Oilers won consecutive games for the first time in a while, and five of the eight games played on Tuesday night were either tied or one-goal affairs.
Here’s the breakdown for those who bet online as we moved one day closer to the All-Star break.
An entertaining night of hockey kicked off with a pair of Stanley Cup contenders squaring off in Carolina.
The visiting Vegas Golden Knights got third-period goals from Brett Howden and Nicolas Hague to erase a two-goal deficit and force overtime. It was just the second game this month for Hague and his first goal in more than two months. Sebastian Aho’s second goal of the game came in overtime to lift the Carolina Hurricanes to the 4-3 win.
Carolina (-225), which improved to 14-4-1 at home, came in as the favorite, although Vegas covered as the underdog. With no goals in the first period, the game was looking good to go under the six-goal total but that changed after the Golden Knights rallied in the third period.
Vegas (+850) has the fourth-best odds to win the Stanley Cup is sixth at +1100.
The New Jersey Devils weren’t quite as fortunate when hosting a Western Conference foe that is fighting to move into playoff position.
Joe Pavelski scored twice in the first period, including one just 14 seconds into the game, as the Dallas Stars rolled to a 5-1 win despite being outshot 37-32 and giving up two more power-play opportunities than they earned.
Jesper Bratt’s power-play in the second period prevented the shutout while Dallas defenseman Jani Hakanpaa’s first goal in seven games and first tally on the road completed the scoring as the game landed on the six-goal total.
History was made in two different ways by the Philadelphia Flyers. Defenseman Keith Yandle set the NHL record by playing in his 965th consecutive game. However, the New York Islanders won 4-3 to hand the Flyers a franchise-record 13th loss in a row.
Philadelphia led 2-0 in the first period but couldn’t hold on. Zach Parise scored for the second game in a row and his goal at 11:51 of the third period gave the Islanders the 4-3 win. It was the seventh straight time that Philadelphia came out on the wrong end of a one-score game.
The Flyers were listed by the NHL betting lines as underdogs for the 10th time during the 13-game losing streak.
On a night dominated by tight affairs, there was another contest decided early on as Tyler Ennis, who hadn’t scored in the last 29 games, had three goals to lead the visiting Ottawa Senators to a 5-0 win over the Buffalo Sabres.
Ottawa’s last five games were decided by either one or two goals. It was the Senators’ most lopsided victory since defeating Montreal 7-2 on Oct. 1. Tuesday’s five-goal margin of victory carried odds of +850.
Buffalo finished 0-for-5 on the power-play and veteran forward Cody Eakin was the only skater for the Sabres to not have a negative plus/minus rating.
It could prove to be a costly win for Ottawa as Drake Batherson, second on the team with 13 goals, left the game and could miss some time for what is being reported as a possible high-ankle sprain.
Sources say Drake Batherson has a high ankle sprain. Once the swelling goes down the club will have a better idea on the time line. One way or another it’s long-term and sprains can be worse than a break. #Sens
— Bruce Garrioch (@SunGarrioch) January 26, 2022
The least-surprising result of the night came when the Pittsburgh Penguins scored the final four goals to erase a one-goal deficit in the third period to top the visiting Arizona Coyotes 6-3. Pittsburgh’s Stanley-Cup odds are +1600 while Arizona is currently at +10000, which is tied for the worst in the league.
Arizona managed only 16 shots on goal, including 13 coming at even strength. Defenseman Kris Letang has his first two-goal game for Pittsburgh while a two-goal effort by Nick Schmaltz was wasted. He came into the game with a +140 money line to go over one-half of a point while Letang’s multi-point game paid +170. Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby’s goal at 7:10 of the third period proved to be the game-winner and put the game over the six-goal total.
Arizona (+370) was the biggest underdog of the night with good reason. The Coyotes have the fewest points in the Western Conference and only Montreal and Seattle have recorded fewer wins on the road.
Carter Verhaeghe scored midway through the second period and Sam Bennett had the only goal in the third period as the visiting Florida Panthers won a wide-open affair against the Winnipeg Jets.
The teams went over the 6½-goal total set by the Las Vegas odds despite combining to score just once in seven power-play opportunities in Florida’s 5-3 win. Mason Marchment, who hadn’t scored in 12 games, had two goals and an assist for his multi-point game since Oct. 21. Rookie Anton Lundell added a goal and an assist for Florida, including his 10th goal. He has 11 points in 12 games in January after managing 15 in his first 27 NHL games.
The visiting Edmonton Oilers hadn’t won consecutive games in more than a month, but that changed when they rallied from two goals down against the Vancouver Canucks to win 3-2 on Connor McDavid’s overtime goal. One of the two games with a 6½-goal total went under, even though the Oilers peppered Vancouver goalie Spencer Martin with 50 shots on goal and had another 25 shots blocked. It was Edmonton’s first one-goal win since late November.
The Nashville Predators scored all four goals in the final five minutes of periods to defeat the host Seattle Kraken 4-2. Matt Duchesne’s power-play goal with 4:09 left provided the insurance goal and also put the game over the 5½-goal total.
Nashville picked up its Western Conference-leading 14th road win.
