GAME NIGHT: OVI Gets 1,000, Forsberg's BIG Night, Ducks DULL Sabres, Vegas OUT DUELS Dallas

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Well madness isn't just reserved for basketball, what a great night of hockey across the league.

We have scoring milestone that has only been accomplished once before in the 108 year

history of the NHL.

A bunch of games went over 60 minutes plus we have a new league leader in total points.

All that and more coming up on this episode of Lockdown NHL Game Night.

When that final horn sounds, you know it's time for Lockdown NHL Game Night.

All the post-game reactions to every game across the league, every single night, with insight

only the hosts at Lockdown can provide.

Prepare to experience game day reactions like ever before only on Lockdown NHL Game Night,

14 every day.

Welcome into another episode of Lockdown NHL Game Night part of the Lockdown podcast

network, the number one sports podcast network.

For those of you checking out the audio version of the show, make sure you're tuned into

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Where did we get it right?

Where did we get it wrong?

And by the way, who are we?

Well, I'm TJ Shilot, play by play broadcaster here in the Charlotte area.

He's my host, a digital journalist and radio host on Sirius XM.

And we're going to call on the help of a couple of local experts here tonight to recap

the entire slate of the NHL to get you all caught up.

But we're going to start things off in the nation's capital where the caps played host

to the abs.

It was a milestone kind of night for the great eight.

And despite his team falling three, two, and over time, Ovechkin's goal late in the

third, not only tied it to enforce that OT, but it would be his 1,000th career goal, regular

season and playoffs combined that puts him on a very short list of just two names, Ovechkin

and Gretzky.

For more on this one, let's flip it over to the host of Lockdown Capitals, Dan Holme,

who has more for us by a score of three to two, but make no mistake about it.

This game was all about Alex Ovechkin as he scores his 1,000th career goal, combining

regular season and the playoffs, blasting it from where else.

His office, the left circle, Ovee now has 923 regular season goals and 77 playoff goals,

joining only Wayne Gretzky of a great one with 1,016.

So quite a night for Alex Ovechkin, Cole Hudson quietly grabs his first NHL assist on

the play.

Milestone night for both a legend and the rookie alike.

So you take a look at it, Ovechkin saying it's always nice to reach something and it

was an important goal as well, ultimately we're hoping for the Capitals to win a game

by the historic one for the great eight.

So he only needs 17 more to pass, Wayne Gretzky.

Do you think he gets there before the end of the season with 15 or so games left to go?

It's hard to bet against Alexander Ovechkin, especially when he

knows he has something to pursue, for sure.

I would say the odds are against him and also against him because he's not going to

have any playoff games to add to that overall combined total either to get 78 plus in the

post season.

So I would lean towards no, but I'm happy he has this.

I hope he comes back next year if he doesn't do it by the end of this season to definitely

get it all his loansome.

And I do think this provides something for him to play for next year because there's

been some commentary is this going to be it?

Will he retire if they're not really a playoff team?

Are they going to be one next year?

Will he keep on doing this?

He didn't appear too happy about the Carlson trade.

He's kind of been in down in the dumps and been in the funk as of late, not really scoring

that much until this goal.

So now that he has this, assuming he doesn't already get it by the end of the year, come

back and get it.

Maybe the capitals could get better.

Maybe they could find something in the off seat and make the team better.

And I've called him the most prolific goal score in league history throughout his whole

career.

He put a lot of these numbers during kind of a dead puck era after the lockout when

he first came into the league.

And he's been incredibly consistent all the way through for one franchise.

He now has the actual records to make that comment legit.

And the avalanche end up getting the victory here.

McKinnon doesn't score.

So another win when he doesn't score.

He's now gone several games without a goal, but they just showed their depth.

They show how they're the favorite to come out of the West, either them or Dallas that

will get to later on in this show.

But a game that almost got away from the avalanche and they need these points too, even though

they already got a playout of spot secure.

They want to make sure they have the seed to be what they wanted to be.

Yeah, they're still planning to play for.

Yeah.

So a big deal to get this win for them.

And they showed a lot to get this win in a game that yeah, they're facing a team that's

not going to be in the playoffs, but still a game that could have went away from them

and that they thought they were going to end up potentially losing it over time or not

get the winning regulation.

Of course, off the avatch can game tire and then they do get it in OT.

So a big win for Colorado, just to get the points and a big night.

Frogs in her avatch can kind of a cool story for him.

And I hope he gets it.

I'll say that.

Yeah, me too.

And I would love to see him come back next year, but it could pose as an interesting

scenario.

Does he come back?

Does he get the goal?

And then maybe retire?

We've heard him say about how his body has just not been up to the task a lot of times.

Or what happens?

He eats up a roster spot if you keep him on the team.

This is a Washington team that's trying to kind of move forward.

They've got a lot of young talent, including a guy like Justin Sordiff, who scored tonight,

his 14th of the year.

They've got Michael.

You've got Ethan Frank.

There's a lot of young talent on this team.

And you eat up another roster spot if you bring back Ovechkin.

But if you're going to bring back anyone, you bring back.

I mean, as you said, you're supposed to hold for it.

And he's earned that with that franchise as well on the other side here.

They got goals from Landis Gog, his 10th of the year, Nick Law, his eighth and Brock

Nelson.

Get the overtime winner for Colorado as this could have been a little bit of a hangover

game for them.

Yeah.

It's just a few nights ago.

It's been a team that's in the playoff picture as of right now.

So maybe they come out a little lethargic, especially considering this was indie.

So there was some travel to add to it.

But they end up, like you said, they show their depth.

Blackwood played a pretty darn good game.

He was good on 22 with the win.

And Colorado rolls.

I mean, right now, they're everybody's favorite to at least make the Western conference final.

You know, maybe even make it out of the West in the Stanley Cup finals there for Colorado.

So we'll see as they end up getting the full two points in this one.

But I want to take a look at another set of teams that went to overtime, but unlike Washington

and Colorado, neither of the New York Rangers nor the Winnipeg Jets have any trouble with

the year.

But it was a good one.

You know, the Jets get the win in the shootout three, two New York two goals in the third.

It was part of a total three goal period there for both teams.

And ultimately, they forced OT with Winnipeg getting markers from Kyle Connor and gave

Valarity who also scored in regulation.

They both beat Shasturkin in the shootout to earn the win.

Adam Lowry and Valarity scoring for Winnipeg, Ty Karchie and Zabinajad getting his 30th

of the season for the Rangers.

So I don't know, you know, when you look at these two teams, I kind of expected them to

go into overtime or a shootout.

When you look at their talent level and the way they've been playing this year, these

were two bottom dwellers, but they still went close one.

And the weird thing is the Rangers since the Olympic break have actually been competitive

to say the least.

And for a while, they had a four game win streak before they started losing recently.

So they've shown they can be competitive.

And really once they officially got out of the race, they play with a lot of heart and

the younger portion of the team have really shown that they can be a problem for a certain

team trying to gain some points.

Right now, of course, Winnipeg and points don't really matter.

They're going nowhere this year.

And hella buck, we didn't get to see Chirkin versus hella buck.

That would have been kind of cool for game that meant nothing.

We don't get to see that.

Not many hella buck starts as of late, really since the Olympics.

That three-week period is bright spot of the year winning gold for USA.

He's had a really, really rough year overall.

And then we don't see him in this one as well.

The result of this really doesn't mean much.

And I guess I can flip it to you.

Which one of these two franchises do you think is better suited for next year?

Because that's what you're playing for.

And maybe even next year that you're after that, and I would say comparison between these

two, I would say New York as well, maybe at least not as much uncertainty that maybe

could be around Winnipeg.

Although I do also think the Rangers are several years away.

I know going into this year, people thought they could contend or at least they thought

they could contend this season.

Chris Jury and James Dolan thought they could contend this season.

I think they're now two or three years away from really being a cup contender, but maybe

they could squeeze in the post season next year.

Winnipeg, it seems like that would be a tall task to ask them to even squeeze in next

year.

And then if you're not really going to do that, what do you do with Ellibuk and is he on

the market this off season or at the deadline next year if this same result duplicates itself?

So a nothing game that was oddly entertaining on this interesting Sunday and March with

a lot of madness.

Yeah, when I take a look at New York, you know, I see a younger team and some mid-level

guys who have been around for, you know, five or six years that are, you know, you got

your young guys that are still getting their feet wet.

You got your mid-level guys who are not playing up to potential.

They don't have a lot of older guys outside of his advantage ad.

Not now.

Not now.

Exactly.

They kind of finally admitted their situation.

They don't really have the Lynch-Pink top draft pick, though, to build like the Crosby,

the Echkin that we talked about in the last segment.

They don't really have that guy to build around as they're now in their rebuild.

How do they get that guy, I guess?

Do they get that guy in the draft?

Well, they had that opportunity with LaFranjaer, but we know how that worked out a few years ago.

Right.

That ship is sailed.

But I do think that they're going to have a brighter future.

On the Winnipeg side, they just don't have the talent.

They don't have the prospects.

They don't have the talent.

I think hella buck is your most marketable player out there and he's probably going to

be gone.

They would be smart to deal him in the off season, you know, if the right opportunity

comes up.

But, you know, out of those two teams, I do think New York has a little bit brighter

of a future, probably a little bit sooner.

But I do want to correct a major faux pas.

I had said the Kyle Conner and Valardi Beach has stuck and it was actually not just

stuck in in gold tonight.

It was Dylan Garand making his NHL debut.

He was 35 of 37.

So my apologies to Grant, skips to him.

I mean, getting a shootout lost against the Winnipeg team.

Good way to get out there and get it done.

So, you know, props to him making his debut.

I'm sure he wanted it to go a different way, but hella plenty of chances.

The 23 year old gold tender is going to have a lot of opportunity here in the near future.

I think that would be your one, two punch in New York.

Yeah, and I would imagine the rest of this year too.

I mean, this is what these franchises should be doing right now.

So that's kind of what we're seeing and that's what we've been seeing as of late as well.

And more of that to come for New York as they now are emitting their rebuild and we'll

see what their future holds.

But yeah, the Aaron gone, like they are finally admitting their rebuild and you kind of

like to end the year on kind of a high note, at least competitive note with with the young

kids playing well.

If you were in the midst of a rebuild and you had such a disappointing year, that makes

sense.

I guess for some optimism for Ranger fans from this year, yeah, absolutely.

But let's flip forward a little bit.

We're going to go to a game that has some more overtime.

The Preds and Blackhawks, they needed extra time to find a winner tonight.

And it was the visiting Predators who snuck away with the three to win.

Forsberg, a three point night for him, complete with two goals, including the game winner in

OT and Nashville has now won four straight games, Bedard and Lardus getting goals for Chicago.

This is the longest win streak of the season for the Predators who have turned it on as

a win.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Nashville has absolutely turned it on.

I mean, they are not going to go away quietly for sure and now 75 points on the year

for them.

For a team, speaking of teams that sold at the deadline and kind of way of the white flag

and said we're in a rebuild, Nashville was in the conversation of being one of those

sellers, thoughts where they were going to trade Stamcoes.

They decided not to and ever since deciding to stand pat, they have been red hot.

They are back in the race.

They are very much a team that nobody wants to play, whether it be now or if they would

meet in a playoff series and Phillip Forsberg just doing Phillip Forsberg things.

He's been scoring game winners and over times and late in games and late in third periods

and on these incredible breakaways and single-handedly getting by gold tenders for years

that's what he does with his speed.

So we saw that in this game as well and I think stick taps to the black hawks as well

as the Rangers and Jess that we were just talking about in terms of being competitive

with the season going nowhere.

They've shown they can be competitive with such a young team, unlike those two.

They went into the year knowing it was going to be a year that was really just about

the future and a rebuild year around Vidard.

They have really shown a lot this year, separate from the win loss record to me, that they are

maybe not as far as some would have thought.

They have the player they can build around, they're going to have the space, they have a lot

of work to do in the off season, maybe they're a year or so away still for me, a cup contender.

But they are a team for me to watch that I could see them squeezing in the postseason next

year.

If they keep playing like they've been this year, because again, they've been competitive

against teams that are flat out better than them talent-wise and they do have the piece

to build around.

But Nashville is pesky, man.

For sure.

Yeah, for sure.

We talk about one Ageless Wunder in Ovechkin, not too long ago, but how about Steven Stamco?

34 goals on the year.

He was one of those guys that was kind of rumored to maybe be on the move if they were sellers

at the deadline.

But he gets his 34th of the season.

Nashville media was even asking him if he wanted to be doubted or his thoughts about what

Demy wants to go to or how he would end his career or what his thought process and he didn't

even get traded.

And that's definitely the part of a team that is very much in the thing.

So, you know, he kind of let them know he didn't really want to go anywhere and they didn't

trade him.

And at that time, that was a nationally criticized decision because no one really thought the

team was going to go anywhere and that's a piece to maybe move regardless of what he

wants to do.

They just kind of honored him.

And here they are.

Absolutely.

Here they are.

And obviously they've got some changes at the top that are going to affect things, you

know, moving forward here.

So we'll see what they decide to do.

Are they going to be a re-tool candidate going forward or are they more of a rebuild?

In the case of Chicago, much to your point, I do think they're more of a re-tool.

They just need to learn how to win without Bedard in the event that he's injured like he

was this year.

I think, you know, if they were able to find, if they could have won half of those games

that they had lost without Bedard this year, I think we're talking about an entirely

different Chicago team and where they're placed in the standings and maybe making a playoff

push.

They're going to learn to win without him because they do have a lot of great talent around

him and young talent, too, to build on as they move forward.

But coming up, we're going to take a look at the Buffalo Sabers.

They're doing battle with the Pacific Leading Ducks, Dallas and Vegas squared off and yet another

one-goal game for the Golden Knights in Tampa is struggling out in Calgary.

Could they pull it out?

Stay tuned.

We've got plenty more on Locked-On NHL Game Night.

What's up, everybody?

This is Ross Jackson, one of the hosts of the Locked-On podcast network, and if you haven't

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We had a pair of division leaders taking the ice tonight in Buffalo and Anaheim.

11 total goals in this game.

I think in Alex New Year's fields world, this would be the drunkest game of the night as

he likes to bring it out.

But the ducks fly away with this one.

Six-five in, you guessed it, overtime.

Host of Locked-On ducks, Kyle Carr has more on their victory in this one.

Well, after an exciting back and forth game, the ducks come away with the win over Buffalo

and O.T.

Troy Terry, 51 points in 50 games played.

He has been phenomenal since returning back into the lineup with another multi-point.

This time, a multi-goal game.

And Beckett Seneca finally getting back into the goal column as well.

He had a beautiful goal tonight.

Just great, great effort by the entire team.

But congratulations to Troy Terry on 51 points in 50 games.

Just absolutely killing it.

Great post-game speech talking about just how awesome the locker room is and how all of

these guys are jellin' together.

You'll love to hear that fly together.

That's a good point.

They are flyin' together right now and if you're Buffalo, you do are in the point, which

is nice.

It ends their four-game win streak, but they've got a five-game point streak that's still

very much alive.

They've got goals from Tuck Done, Quinn, Power, and Zach Benson.

On the other side, Anaheim would get the 22nd of the year from Chris Crider.

We heard about Seneca.

Beckett Seneca.

He's got 21.

Terry with the two goals.

Anaheim, they were kind of fallen off the wagon there for a little bit right before the

Olympic break and even a little bit after the Olympic break.

But they have certainly climbed back up to the team that we were expecting to see from

them.

The big division, a lot of people think, is the weakest division, especially when you

look at it.

If you were to put Anaheim in, say, the Metro, you know, they're not even fifth place

in the Metro division or even you could look at the Atlantic division and say the same

thing.

But Anaheim with a good win here.

Yeah.

I mean, this could be a cup final preview as maybe as insane as someone who fought entering

the year and I don't know if National TV wants this, but in terms of entertaining hockey,

it could deliver and we saw it deliver on this day.

Ducks flying together.

Well, they flew together and the Sabers flew as well and you get a high scoring game in

overtime and Viliuso ends up in net for the ducks.

So able to show a chance to win no matter who's there and just a really deep team.

I mean, people forget Chris Criter is there.

They have play of experience.

Chris Criter able to lead that way and then you mentioned kind of a jumpstart at the

trade deadline and after the Olympic break, they bring in John Carlson 17 years of Washington.

We talked about it depressed of Etchkin.

Well, it ignited the ducks and even Carlson a little bit only a minus one in this game,

only a couple points since coming over.

But he has been an impact player and just such a leader for this team.

And I think it symbolizes this franchise saying, no, yeah, we're a year ahead of schedule,

but we're going to go for it now.

Let's not just get in.

Be happy.

Let's try to win some series.

But championship-laden head coach and a very young team that don't tell them they haven't

been there before and they have no shot.

They're playing.

They can beat anybody and we saw it.

They can beat anybody, including maybe a cup champion favorite or an East favorite in

Buffalo, who has been red hot as of like going into the game.

So really, really entertaining game.

The most entertaining game of the day for me, maybe one of the more entertaining games

we've seen a while really between two contending teams.

And I don't think this loss means much negatively for Buffalo.

They play it again tomorrow.

It might be six, five in favor of the sabers and you know, you flip it from what happened

in this game.

But regardless, a really, really entertaining game and the ducks, they are for real.

Like they are legit for real.

No one maybe saw this coming, but they are for real.

And offensively, they have the firepower.

Do they have enough gold tending?

Can it stay throughout a whole playoff run is sometimes the question with them, depending

on what you think of their situation in net.

But offense to offense, they did it in this one, that's what they had to do to get this

win.

Yeah.

Lucas Dostal, I think, you know, we've seen him on the world stage at the Olympics and

he played pretty well.

It's a totally different beast though than playing seven game series for four straight

series.

100%.

It's a little bit different.

Yeah.

He's the guy.

But getting this win without him and net is a big deal no matter how they had to get

it done because you could argue the way they played and what happened in net defensively.

Maybe would have led to a loss, but they're end up, they kind of get a win on the

less because of their offense.

And you put this off into firepower in front of Dostal, which is what they've been doing

all year.

Yeah, you can win a series or so.

So we will see what happens with them, but a gigantic win in it and really a motivator

and probably a big win emotionally and just another confidence builder for a young team.

Absolutely.

Let's go ahead and take a look at the Metro division.

We saw a battle of two top teams in there.

Caroline and Pittsburgh, a little lopsided on Sunday.

Her games blown out the pens, five one behind three goals in the second period for the

canes.

And that was just too much for Pittsburgh.

The canes did lead four one at one point in the third before Pittsburgh.

Finally, excuse me, it was for nothing in the third before Pittsburgh finally got their

first goal of the game with just over five minutes to play.

It was kind of a consolation goal at that regard.

And then Carolina would tack on the empty netter to make it a five one game.

Ajo gets his 25th of the year on the power play.

Nikolai Ailer's gets his 21st of the year on the power plate.

Jarvis, it's 29th on the power play.

Do you sense a trend here?

Pittsburgh's TK did not come to play hockey today.

No, and that's been the problem for the penguins this year when they do lose games like

this.

They allow too many penalties.

And then the penalty kill doesn't get it done.

It doesn't stop anybody, especially against elite teams like Carolina and this penguins

team getting Crosby back, talk about an injection into a team, even playing well after the

Olympic break, even without him, without him and Malcolm, able to kind of hold water and

doing up to stay in the standings, the conversation during that five day stretch was Malcolm's suspension

was so stupid.

It's going to ruin the year for the penguins because the Crosby injury.

It has not done that at all.

There's still a playoff team right now and Crosby's played well when in there.

They are still a team that nobody wants to play and still could be good.

They're well above expectations entering the year again, do I think they're going to make

a cup run?

No, but it depends on who they get in the playoffs depends on the format.

But in this game, they got the doors blown off of them and they kind of got their balloon

popped a little bit.

I don't think anyone in Pittsburgh.

I'm in Pittsburgh here.

I don't think anyone was expecting a result like that, but it could have been a witness

test on what you do against the good team, not just teams equal or worse than you like

even playing.

And it didn't work out in their favorite all Carolina is a contender for sure.

Do they have enough in that brain emboss?

He's always the question.

If they have enough in that, I believe I believe you said you actually are high on him

and speaking about it's really is not.

So we already are polarizing here amongst the crew of locked in on a Joe game night or

whether he's going to be able to lead them on the charge.

And they need the offense to click for me to make a deep run.

I think he can be good enough.

But for the penguin comparison, maybe kind of he'll have to do with flurry day to no

nine.

Just be good enough and rely on the team in front of you.

He's not going to win games by himself, maybe at this point in his career.

So we will see, but a gigantic win for Carolina and, you know, wired a wire.

They got the job done and kind of embarrassed the penguins a little bit too.

And shows you why people didn't think this penguin team was going to go anywhere.

I mean, there are weaknesses here.

There are depth problems here and there are defensive issues here that have really not

been corrected all year, even while they were contenders and did make some moves.

And Skinner, who had been great since coming over to Pittsburgh.

At the Jory's been so bad with Edmonton.

He had that streak where he won seven or so games in a row.

He's come back down to earth a little bit.

I think Edmonton fans are watching saying, yeah, it's kind of what happened in the cup

final of a few of those games.

And why we didn't win the cup those two years, the penguin's not living with that right

now, but they could turn it around next game.

You just don't know.

Yeah, I think you're absolutely right in regards to Carolina just being a powerhouse

right now.

They kind of wavered a little bit.

Now one three in a row.

And I am high on Brandon Bussey.

I'm curious to see how they'll deploy him in the playoffs because that is such a different

beast for a rookie right now.

Freddie Anderson, he's been the guy.

He was 18 of 19 in the game tonight for the win.

He's now won his last five starts for Carolina.

So he's taking a little bit of that pressure off of Brandon Bussey.

So maybe we see the hurricanes go with a 1A1B and kind of old time.

I was going to say, yeah, they could be the team and we see this every year.

And this is why the NHL and Santa got playoffs are so different than any of the sport.

We see a team every single postseason have a guy that led them throughout the regular

season like Bussey has.

And then if he falters one game or so and they may be down in a series when they should

be up getting pulled Anderson coming in.

And if he plays well for a while, keeping the job and then having the playoff run wouldn't

shock anybody.

We've seen it before.

We've seen a similar situation go down.

So yeah, Anderson's providing a reason why I would imagine Bussey would start game one

of the postseason for what he's been all year.

I would imagine even though Anderson's been hot.

But that least cannot be long with a team that is supposed to go far.

And they've had those expectations a lot over the last few years and have not been able

to get over the hump.

So we'll see what they can do there.

Speaking of playoff teams Utah, they came into Sunday night leading the wild card race

out West with 78 points and following Nashville's win over Chicago, the Pregs had 75.

So the odd team out, let's see LA Kings with 72 points going into the night.

Could the King steal two huge points from the mammoth to tighten the race?

Well, they didn't get two, but they did get one is Utah gets the victory for three in

overtime.

Logan Krause and Nick Schmaltz each with a pair of goals in this one for Utah Schmaltz

gets the game winner La Ferriere's 18th, Bifield's 15th and Artemis Panarin with one of the

most more insane goals that I've seen in a while just flinging a shot from the wall.

And that's why they tell you put rubber on net.

You never know.

It hits off something out in front and fools the netminder from Elko, but ultimately

didn't matter as Utah comes out on top in this one.

Yeah, Utah comes out on top.

Utah to me certainly seems secure, although the Kings are just that team that people wrote

off all year.

I wrote off most of the season, especially when Copa Tar was out, but really the story

of their season has been whenever Copa Tar would play the opposing team with shake hands

with them as he would go off the ice.

That's been their story up until a month ago when all of a sudden you look at the standings,

Edmonton Fades, Vegas has been hot and cold, even though getting a win here.

And the Kings once they got Panarin, they kind of jump started themselves a little bit.

And Copa Tar has also scored some goals recently.

He's even been playing well, setting a franchise record.

And Panarin, a little bit of kind of a feeling around process those first few games.

Clearly now, you mentioned the lucky, really talented goal, a highly real goal.

You get those as you said because you're putting the puck on net.

And recently he has been a shots on net phenom, which is what he was with the Rangers.

He's kind of getting back to that player.

He was a little skittish early in his tenure with the Kings here.

Clearly also I talked about this with our locked on Kings host as part of our Karate Garcia

the last time I was doing one of these.

And they also kind of have a sea change of their style.

The Kings for so many years with Copa Tar, even those cup years were grinded out when

a game two to one great goal tendering quick and whoever else has been the goal tender more

recently.

But now with Panarin, they've been playing more of a really fast, get the puck on the

net, catch up to it, dump it out.

There and rush the net and let's play aggressive.

And it's work to get them back in the race now.

And you have a Kings team that do I think they're really going to make noise in the post

season, not really.

But for them to even be in this spot is kind of amazing because again, everyone wrote

them off as recent as a month ago.

So they don't get this win.

They do get a point.

And recently a lot of these games have been they get a point not to if they would get

these two.

If they would have won multiple of these games and over time, then they already would

be secure right now.

But Utah is there in the Kings.

If I had to predict they might think, you know, they're probably going to fall just shy.

But for them to even be in the race right now is amazing.

Well, final segments coming up.

We've got three games to cover.

We're going to get through them real quick.

Vegas playing Dallas in another one goal game.

We have a new league leader in points.

Nikita Kutcherov and his lightning look to extinguish the flame.

Stay tuned.

Any more coming up on the final segment here of locked on NHL game night.

All right, Mike, let's turn our attention to the biggest golden nights and Dallas stars

two teams that are getting ready for a playoff race.

And this one was as tight as you expect the night slip by Dallas three two with a late

third period goal from Riley Smith.

Despite Casey Dismith playing a stellar game in the blue paint, I've been highly critical

of Casey Dismith all season.

I even said as recently as last week that, you know, when the stars get to the playoffs

assuming they make the playoffs and I know that's not a big assumption, but that they're

going to have to ride out and you're and just wear him down to the treads.

But the way Dismith has been playing in relief has been really strong, but just not good

enough in this one is Vegas gets the OT win three two.

McNabb and barberschev getting goals in this one in addition to Riley Smith, Wyatt

Johnston and Justin Ritzkoe in getting the goals for Dallas.

I mean, this is obviously a playoff matchup here and it felt like it.

And Vegas much like we talked about with the Kings losing all those games and over time,

you get one point.

But if you had to look where you'd be in the standings, Vegas is in the race.

But they have had so many overtime losses throughout this year.

Those one points have helped them be in this, but imagine if those were two points, they

get the two points here.

That's a big deal for them as they've been very much hot and cold in a rollercoaster

ride this season and even Hill who won them a cup and has been a good goal tender and

we've seen a deep run yet 11 wins just a few years ago in a postseason.

He has been very much up and down and was able to be fortunate not facing too many shots

on that in this game, but you mentioned it with the stars.

I mean, losing this game is not the end of the world they're going to be there.

They have the recent playoff wins against Colorado.

They feel that they can beat anybody.

If not the avalanche, they are everybody else's Western conference favor.

Maybe even Vegas is Western conference favorite and I don't mean the Vegas Golden Knights.

I mean, Vegas, the sportsbooks betting on the stars right now to come out of the West.

But it will depend on what happens in that and Ahtenger has taken them so far.

You imagine it's going to be him as the main guy, of course.

He's the better goal tender, but as much as people have been critical of cases to Smith

and I've seen him over the years for sure and I'm critical too, but the stars have always

never wavered.

They want to play him.

They want to get him games.

They always throw him out there once a week or so to get him out there and now he's playing

well.

And if Smith plays like this, CJ, they could argue as the best goalie tandem going into

the posties and that then could win them a cup and it's been a long time for them, but

that could get them over the hump.

Absolutely.

He was good on 30 of 33 tonight in the loss and Dallas comes up one point short of clinching

the playoff spot.

You would have gotten the two over Vegas tonight.

They would have been in tonight, so it's pretty much all but a formality now at this point

for Dallas.

And I really like Dallas.

I have like Dallas for a long time.

I'm always kind of pulling for that franchise to get a little bit further, but we'll see

how they do in the playoffs.

Yeah.

Very, very consistent.

You could argue and I've called him this before, the best North American pro franchise

the last 25 years that hasn't won a cup or hasn't won a championship.

They've last won in 99, but so close, so many times getting over the hump several years

ago and still not winning the cup, like they are right there that it almost seems only

a matter of time.

Maybe this is the year.

All right.

Let's go to the island.

Not a lot of offense in this one, but it only take one to win a game in the NHL and that's

just what New York got.

They shut out the Blue Jackets one.

Nothing.

Thanks to 26 saves from Ilya Sirokin with more on this one.

Let's flip it over to Gil Martin, host of Lockdown Isles.

Islanders defeat the Columbus Blue Jackets one to nothing in a gritty win.

Ilya Sirokin with 24 saves to earn the shut out and this was just what the doctor ordered

for the New York Islanders coming off a bad third period collapse in Montreal.

They play off style hockey, defense first, limit the high danger chances that the Columbus

Blue Jackets had and earn the win.

Bohorvat, the only goal of the game on the very first Islanders shot on goal of the game

and after that it was just an even battle between two teams fighting for playoff position

and got to give the NHL again, you just shake your head as they call off an apparent

goal by Anders Lee for goalie interference but this performance was just how the Islanders

needed to bounce back from Saturday's loss.

For more in-depth daily coverage of your New York Islanders, check out the Lockdown Islanders

podcast.

I don't think they needed that goal.

It's fine, Gil.

They still won the game one nothing, we don't need a bark of that, but Sirokin was good

on 26 of 26, Grieves good on 21 of 22 in the loss and now the Isles pulled into a tie

with Columbus.

They each have 85 points for third in the Metro.

Columbus still owns the spot because they do have a game in hand, so yeah, one nothing

in this one.

And the Islanders are that team that if they don't get in and nothing is guaranteed right

now, it really would seem like a what if story and I mean, I'm not an Islanders fan,

I have no dog in the fight, but it would just be disappointing.

An historic season not only for the franchise, but with shafers doing this year, an historic

season for him in terms of defense and throughout the league history.

And you mentioned Sirokin getting the shut out here, he becomes the first gold tender

in Islanders history to record two separate seasons of seven shutouts.

I know this because I wrote about it tonight for Yard Barker, read the article, I will

hype up my content.

He has been enough to say the least this year for that team as strong as they are defensively.

And you'll set it best at the open, all you need to say, a gritty win.

It was a gritty win.

They grinded you.

They were gritty and they were the more gritty team in this game to get the W and no

one's going to want to face them in that gritty business in the postseason if they do

get there.

But again, that's not for sure, but they had to get this win.

Columbus had been so hot, they end up getting the victory.

To hold on, a minute 25, I believe was the time of that first gold to hold on and get

that win that way, really, really impressive.

Again, for a franchise that some were thinking was starting to fade after that mantra

all lost, they lost a couple games, no, clearly not the case.

So a big deal and a gold tender that's again proving he's enough right now.

All right.

And our final game will get through this one pretty quick.

The Tampa Bay Lightning finish out there, Western Canada road trip against Calgary,

but it's the flames who end up burning the lightning finals score.

This one four to three flames at a three one lead midway through the game.

Tampa did manage to get a couple of late goals in the second and third force over time.

But Ryan Strollm is the hero and over time gets the game winner.

Just 26 seconds into the extra frame, Ryan McDonough, Darren Radish and Pontus Holmberg,

your goal scores for Tampa, Victor Olivesin, Morgan Frost, Backland and Strollm, your goal

scores for Calgary.

Meanwhile, Devon Cooley, good on 32 of 35 in the win is he's starting to pick it up the

young gold tender.

That's a very young goalie duo out in Calgary with Wolf and Cooley.

Jonas Johansson was in net for Tampa Bay.

He is saddled with the loss 25 of 29, just a couple of quick short thoughts on this one.

Yeah.

I mean, Tampa Bay losing this is no big deal.

There's still certainly a cup contender who could easily beat anybody and McDonough's been

that mainstay from what he did with the rangers to part of their cup dynasty era and then coming

back their last couple of years, maybe jump starting a new era for the lightning.

They're going to be fine.

It's no big deal.

The flames are showing something for the future there, certainly with Cooley and net, which

is good for them, even though their fans have been to secretly want them to just keep

on stacking losses.

It's an interesting result for sure, but Tampa Bay is not going to go home and cry themselves

to sleep over this, even though it's a pretty odd result.

But that lightning team is still showing how freaking good and deep they are even when

they don't win.

You leave the game and press with that team and that's kind of the situation here.

They will be coming home and they got a tough customer in the Minnesota wild that is traveling

to Florida for their next game.

So we'll see how they bounce back.

But that'll do it for another episode of locked on NHL game night.

Make sure you check us out each and every night as we bring you the insights and recaps

on every game on the NHL schedule.

But before we sign off tonight, I want to take a moment to recognize the lives that were

lost in Minnesota on Saturday.

Jesse Pierce, a writer, contributor for NHL.com, the athletic and a podcaster in her own

right.

She tragically lost her life in a house fire that also claimed the lives of her three young

children.

Jesse was a light in the hockey world.

Anyone who met her knew she was a warm soul.

She was just unbelievable at what she did, not only with the coverage, but just connecting

with people for the Minnesota wild, the Minnesota frost, and so many different outlets.

And she was an incredible friend of so many in this industry.

We are thinking of Jesse, Hudson, Caden, and Avery.

And our sympathy is whether husband, Mike, who lost his entire family in this tragedy.

Yeah, I can't even imagine.

I mean, as a father, a family man, myself, two girls at home, that's your worst nightmare

of what happened for sure.

And not only is she great at what she does or what she did, unfortunately, but a great

family woman herself and just so, so sad.

She's way too young to go at that age, but then her kids as well.

So rest in peace for sure.

We'll certainly be thinking about the Pierce family as we move forward.

But for the rest of you, thanks so much for joining us tonight for Mike Oste.

I'm TJ Shalot, saying so long, game night will be back tomorrow with even more insight

and recaps.

This is locked on NHL game night.

Part of the locked on NHL podcast network, your teams every day.