The condition of the T-Mobile Arena

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BOSTON (AP) The Columbus Blue Jackets felt like they were lucky to get a victory in their late-season push for one of the Eastern Conference’s playoff spots.Cam Atkinson scored 2:55 into overtime to lift the Blue Jackets to a 5-4 comeback victory over Boston on Monday night for their eighth straight win Adrian Kempe Jersey , spoiling a splendid NHL debut for Bruins forward Ryan Donato.”We stuck with it and that’s what good teams do,” Atkinson said. ”It wasn’t our prettiest by no means, but we found a way to get two huge points.”Sonny Milano, Boone Jenner, Thomas Vanek and Artemi Panarin also scored for the Blue Jackets. Nick Foligno and Ryan Murray had two assists, and Vanek and Jenner each added one. Joonas Korpisalo stopped 34 shots.Columbus moved into a tie with Philadelphia with 85 points, but the Flyers hold the tiebreaker for third place in the Metropolitan Division and the Blue Jackets hold the first wild card in the East. New Jersey,which has the second wild card, is three points behind.This one, though, may have been the Blue Jackets’ ugliest during the current run.”It just looked like as a whole group we didn’t seem to have our legs,” Columbus coach John Tortorella said. ”The turnovers hurt us, we turned the puck over quite a bit. But give them credit http://www.kingsproshop.com/authentic-alex-iafallo-jersey , they just ended up finding a way.”Atkinson cut in on the left wing and fired a wrister past Tuukka Rask for the game-winner.”You see it, there’s no traffic in front of you, but there’s more clear-cut chances,” Rask said of the 3-on-3 overtime format. ”Even that goal there, it looks like he’s going high-stick, but it goes under my hand.”Donato had a goal and two assists for Boston, which moved a point behind idle Tampa Bay for first in the Atlantic. Riley Nash, Brad Marchand and David Krejci also scored for the Bruins, and Rask finished with 20 saves.”It kind of felt like a dream,” Donato said. ”I really didn’t really get too warmed up because I was focused everything else.”The Blue Jackets trailed by two late in the second period before scoring three consecutive goals to take a 4-3 lead.Just 25 seconds after Nash had given the Bruins a 3-1 lead, Milano redirected Ryan Murray’s slap-pass from the right point to pull Columbus within one with just over three minutes remaining in the middle period.Vanek tipped in a shot from the slot, tying it 5:38 into the third, and Panarin put the Blue Jackets ahead off a faceoff with 8:30 left in regulation.However Womens Anze Kopitar Jersey , Donato slipped a short pass from the right circle to Krejci, who got the tying goal 20 seconds later while falling to one knee.Jenner got Columbus on the scoreboard first when he redirected Vanek’s pass by Rask 4:15 into the game.The Bruins scored three straight goals in the second to take the lead. Marchand tied it with his team-leading 31st of the season when he got the puck at the end of a 2-on-1 break, shifted to his right and tucked it behind Korpisalo 5:41 into the middle period.Donato, a Hobey Baker Finalist after leading Harvard in scoring this season, pushed Boston ahead with a one-timer that slipped inside the near post from the right faceoff circle at 7:28. The leading scorer on the U.S. team at the Pyeongchang Olympics signed a two-year, entry-level contract on Sunday.Nash’s power-play goal increased it to 3-1 as he banged home a rebound from the top of the crease with 3:28 remaining.NOTES: Boston F David Pastrnak got his 70th point on Marchand’s goal, matching his career-high. … Bruins F Rick Nash was a late scratch with an upper-body injury. … The Blue Jackets entered with the league’s second-worst power play and went 0 for 2 against the Bruins. … Local Olympians, including eight from the women’s Gold medal-winning hockey team, were honored during a ceremonial puck drop. … Bruins captain Zdeno Chara missed his third straight with an upper-body injury. … Columbus D Seth Jones missed his second straight with an upper-body injury.UP NEXTBlue Jackets: At the New York Rangers on Tuesday. Columbus won the only other meeting, 3-1 at home on Oct. 13.Bruins: At St. Louis on Thursday in the first of a four-game road trip. LAS VEGAS (AP) Gerard Gallant and the Vegas Golden Knights still think Tom Wilson’s third-period hit on Jonathan Marchessault in the Stanley Cup Final opener was too late and probably a bit dirty.The coach also believes it sparked his team’s comeback victory in that Game 1 thriller.So while he wasn’t happy to hear Wilson will face no discipline from the NHL, Gallant is hoping his team will remember the hit – and more importantly, how they played right after it – when they attempt to take a 2-0 series lead on the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night on the Strip.”The good thing about the hit is it really woke our team up,” Gallant said after an optional practice at the Golden Knights’ suburban training complex. ”I think it was a 4-4 game?”Indeed Authentic Derek Forbort Jersey Kids , two novice Stanley Cup finalists were deep into an entertainingly ramshackle opener, but the Knights took charge after that fateful collision left Marchessault sprawled on the ice. Vegas quickly got Tomas Nosek’s go-ahead goal , eventually won 6-4 and surged one game closer to an improbable championship.The focused aggression necessary to be a successful postseason team is a delicate concoction. The Golden Knights and Caps both had it during the conference playoffs, but they both admit it got away from them in Game 1.”I think both teams can be better,” Washington coach Barry Trotz said. ”It was a pretty sloppy game.”After one game to get used to the sky-high stakes of the last round of this tournament, both teams intend to channel their nervous energy more constructively in the future. Both coaches stressed the importance of discipline, completing assignments and not allowing the frenetic Vegas crowd to overwhelm their emotions.”There’s obviously nerves,” Washington’s Jay Beagle said. ”I’m not surprised at anything anymore, but in the Stanley Cup Final, usually it’s 2-1 or 1-0, not (6-4). But you don’t know what to expect from a team that you don’t know that much. Now we’ve got to know them a little bit more.”The mistakes that worry coaches also lead to exciting hockey, and the opener was thoroughly entertaining even before Wilson lowered the boom on Marchessault. The teams combined for a Final-record four lead changes in the highest-scoring opener in eight years for this final round.Wilson, who served a three-game suspension in the second round for breaking the jaw of Pittsburgh’s Zach Aston-Reese Youth Dion Phaneuf Jersey , and the Capitals still insist the hard-charging forward did nothing wrong when he leveled the Golden Knights’ top playoff scorer.”It’s within the rules,” Wilson said after practice at T-Mobile Arena. ”It’s a clean hit. I don’t know why it got so much media attention, to be honest. It’s a hard hit, but that’s the day and age we’re in. … I’m trying to play my game. There’s a lot of those hits that are going on, but it’s the Stanley Cup Final, and it’s within the rules.”The NHL Department of Player Safety agreed when it decided not to discipline Wilson for the shoulder-to-shoulder hit, clearly deciding that Wilson’s timing wasn’t extraordinarily late.Marchessault went to the dressing room and was examined for a possible concussion, but returned to the game. Gallant said the forward is feeling fine for Game 2.The Capitals had their own complaint about Vegas forward David Perron, who jumped on the ice after the whistle and made contact with Washington captain Alex Ovechkin during the scuffles immediately after the hit.Once the emotions died down, both teams realized they’ve got to check their more primal urges if they hope to play a solid game on the NHL’s biggest stage. The atmosphere in Las Vegas for the city’s first Final has been electric, but the Caps weren’t intimidated by the frenzied crowd.Washington goalie Braden Holtby said the biggest difference about playing in Vegas is ”the bass they put in the building. Maybe that’s a little false when … you’re literally shaking from the bass. That’s the only difference. (Their) fans are loud. Our fans are loud. Tampa’s, Pitt’s, Columbus http://www.kingsproshop.com/authentic-drew-doughty-jersey , all fans are loud.”The condition of the T-Mobile Arena ice also caused occasional problems for both teams with its inconsistencies and general roughness, but nobody is claiming the first-year NHL building has any unusual problems. The conditions certainly didn’t hurt the offensive players in any meaningful way, given the final score.”Ice isn’t an excuse, because it’s the same for both teams,” Holtby said. ”You just want to figure it out quicker than them, and obviously they’ve had the advantage playing here for a while. Our ice isn’t any different than it is here. It’s just little differences. When it’s that hot out, there’s always one thing that’s not great. We’re just figuring out what you can and can’t do.”—More Stanley Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/StanleyCupFinals
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