Another day and another shakeup in the Western Conference playoff race. This is going to be one unforgettable race to lock up the final few postseason spots.
A summary of Wednesday’s NHL betting activity
The visiting Vegas Golden Knights picked up a goal and an assist from Jonathan Marchessault, while Logan Thompson recorded his first career NHL shutout in a 3-0 win over the Seattle Kraken.
Shea Theodore and Michael Amadio also scored as Vegas moved into the second and final wildcard spot in the Western Conference.
Defensemen Alec Martinez played in his second game since November and Brayden McNabb was in the lineup for the first time since March 3. Both veteran defensemen played more than 19 minutes as the Golden Knights won their third game in a row and posted their first shutout since February 8.
Thompson made 23 saves. Seattle had a goal by Jordan Eberle negated after a video review resulted in the Kraken being called for offsides.
“It’s getting better every day,” said Thompson, who has been thrust into a starting role due to an injury to Robin Lehner. “I feel really confident in the net and it is something that I want to keep building off of.”
The St. Louis Blues moved back into third place in the Central Division standings with a 4-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks.
Robert Thomas had a shorthanded goal and Ryan O’Reilly scored on the power play in a span of less than two minutes in the second period after Elias Pettersson gave Vancouver a one-goal lead.
Nathan Walker’s goal midway through the third period extended the lead to two. Pettersson scored again with 4:49 left but Ville Husson stopped the final six shots of the game to give St. Louis a huge win as the Blues leapfrogged idle Nashville in the Central Division standings although both teams are currently in playoff position.
Those who bet online might be interested to know that the Blues lost their last seven, one-goal games.
Petterson has four goals and two assists as Vancouver played five games in eight days and went 2-2-1. Vancouver is five points out of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid had goals and also scored in the shootout as the Edmonton Oilers edged the Los Angeles Kings 4-3 in a key Pacific Division showdown.
Quinton Byfield and Carl Grundstrom scored in the second period as Los Angeles rallied from a two-goal deficit to force overtime.
McDavid also had an assist to become the first player this season to hit the 100-point mark as Edmonton moved within a point of Los Angeles for second place in the Pacific Division.
Andrew Copp scored in overtime to give the visiting New York Rangers a 5-4 win over the Detroit Red Wings. The Rangers have scored at least four goals in four of their last five games and the five-goal outburst carried a Las Vegas odds payout of +280.
Copped a dub. #NoQuitInNY | @JagermeisterUSA pic.twitter.com/LfDhm8mUyU
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) March 31, 2022
It was the fourth win in a row for the Rangers who rallied from one-goal deficits three times to move within three points of first-place Carolina in the Metropolitan Division standings and have a three-point lead on Pittsburgh.
Artemi Panarin had a goal and two assists while Chris Kreider scored his NHL-leading 24th power-play goal. It was Kreider’s 46th goal of the season as the Rangers won a franchise-record 11 games in March.
The Rangers (+2000) are up to 10th in the odds to win the Stanley Cup.
Filip Chytil had his first goal in 13 games and Ryan Reaves also scored for the Rangers while Alexandar Georgiev had 38 saves for his fourth straight win.
“It was huge for us,” Georgiev said. “They guys were really good today, they bailed me out.”
Tyler Bertuzzi, Adam Erne, Michael Rasmussen, and Jakub Vrana scored while Moritz Seider had two assists for Detroit which had scored three goals or less in its last seven games.
Jan Jenik scored twice including the go-ahead goal in the third period as the Arizona Coyotes snapped a six-game losing streak with a 5-2 win over the visiting San Jose Sharks. They were the first two goals of the season for Jenik, playing in his fifth game. Barret Hayton and Nick Schmaltz added insurance goals as the Coyotes scored the most goals since a March 15 win over Montreal. The three-goal win carried an NHL lines payout of +900.
Schmaltz has 22 points in March, the most by an Arizona player in a month since the team began playing in Arizona in the 1996-97 season.
It was a costly win for the Coyotes as Clayton Keller, the team leader with 28 goals and 63 points, appeared to suffer a serious lower-body injury when he crashed legs first into the boards. He left the ice on a stretcher.
“We know it will be long term,” Coyotes coach Andre Tourigny said. “For now it is not the injury, it is the human. It is Kells the person. He competes so hard. Seeing him in pain and having a significant injury, that’s extremely tough.”
Scott Reedy had his first goal in 13 games and Brent Burns also scored for San Jose which is now 12 points out of the playoffs.
Blake Wheeler scored his 11th goal of the season and also had the deciding goal in the shootout as the visiting Winnipeg Jets edged the Buffalo Sabres 3-2.
Zemgus Girgensons, who had one goal in his last 10 games, scored twice for Buffalo. It was his first multiple-goal game since November 24, 2019.
Mason Appleton tied the game with 21 seconds left in the second period as Winnipeg twice rallied from one-goal deficits, the Jets are just two points out of the playoff spot after winning its third straight game, all decided in overtime or with a shootout.
