Hype for January 01, 2010

If Los Angeles Kings coach Terry Murray was looking for a statement win to carry his team into the second half of the season, he got it.

Alexander Frolov scored twice and Michal Handzus added a goal and an assist as the Kings snapped a four-game losing streak by beating the Minnesota Wild 5-2 on Thursday night.

Erik Christensen figured there was only one way for the New York Rangers to atone for their most embarrassing loss of the season.

Go hard for three periods and win. Christensen, claimed off waivers from Anaheim on Dec. 2, had a goal and an assist as the Rangers rebounded from their worst loss and beat the Carolina Hurricanes 2-1 on Thursday night.

Cristobal Huet and the Chicago Blackhawks showed they could bounce back convincingly - and do it against one of the NHL's top teams.

Huet stopped 26 shots, and Jonathan Toews had a goal and an assist to lead the Blackhawks past the New Jersey Devils, 5-1 on Thursday night.

Ryan Shannon scored the winning goal Thursday and John Tavares missed the opportunity to extend shootout in the Ottawa Senators' 3-2 victory over the visiting New York Islanders.

Shannon, whose three-game goal streak came to end when he finally failed to score in regulation, was the hero after Alex Kovalev and Mike Fisher beat Dwayne Roloson on Ottawa's first two attempts.

Curtis Glencross tipped in a point shot by Mark Giordano on a third-period power play to lead the Calgary Flames to a 2-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday.

Craig Conroy also scored for the Flames (23-12-5), who have reeled off three straight victories after starting off the month of December with a 3-6-2 record.

Nobody appreciated the turn in weather at Fenway Park more than Patrice Bergeron on Thursday.

A six-centimetre snowfall transformed the venerable baseball stadium and its green monster into a magical white wonderland as the Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers went through their tune-up sessions for the Winter Classic on New Year’s Day.

Bergeron was 24 hours removed from listening to a congratulatory voice mail from Team Canada associate director Kevin Lowe for making the Olympic team. But it wasn’t beneath him to grab a shovel near the end of practice on Thursday to clear a path through the snow for a friendly shootout competition with his teammates.

What a comeback!

Seemingly dead and buried after staking the Blues a three-goal lead, the Vancouver Canucks scored four unanswered goals to record an amazing 4-3 overtime victory in St. Louis on Thursday night.

There's something about playing the Americans that brings out the best and worst in Canada's junior hockey team.

Exactly a year after fighting back from a 3-0 deficit to the United States at the world championships to take a big victory, the young Canadians again staged a remarkable New Year's Eve comeback, this time in Saskatoon.

This time they spotted Team USA a 4-2 lead early in the third period, came roaring back to tie the score and force overtime, then beat them on a Brandon Kozun shootout zipper through the five-hole of goaltender Jack Campbell to win 5-4.