Tampa Bay beat San Jose – Hedman praises Carlson
NEW YORK: Eric Carlson started playing like 2017 again and scored twice in Tampa last night – but it was Victor Hedman who won the friendly with an own goal and, above all, the last minute win.
– It’s a shame that this is not the Olympics this year, when Eric is like this you want to play with him in the national team. Although we won and that was really cool, ‘Fig’ tells Sportbladet after the 4-3 win.
The San Jose Sharks and Tampa Bay Lightning were the ones he met at the Sharktank, but as a Swede, you’d be forgiven if you had a hard time not seeing the meeting as a duel between blue and yellow back giants — and close friends — Victor Hedman and Eric Carlson.
After all, it started by scoring “Vigge” after 32 seconds – and after 50 seconds Eric equalized.
This was exactly the kind of scenario plotted during dinner at the Carlson family home the night before, one can imagine….
Well, we didn’t succeed this time. But we are very good friends and of course we talked a lot before this meeting. Victor says when we spoke to him before the long flight back to Florida on the other side of the continent, it was fun that things turned out this way.
Eric scored another superb goal later in the game and now, as in his glory days, has an early lead in scoring for the full-back.
– Yeah, I really feel like it’s 2017 again. You have to be careful when you play against him, he is great. I think it’s a pity that we don’t have a big tournament for the national team, like the Olympics, to look forward to this year. When Erik is in this shape, you’ll want to play with him, praises Pole from Ångermanland.
But no matter how good “EK65” was, Tampa finally managed to win last night, after a very beautiful goal by Nikita Kucherov in the last minute.
– It was really cool. Applause, Victor agrees.
– All in all, it’s good that we won this match. We’ve won four of our last five matches, most of them away. it is good.
Anton Forsberg tied the club’s record with a 53-shot suspension last night.
However, the Ottawa Senators lost 5-3 to a crazy Florida attacking machine – so the 29-year-old from Härnösand wasn’t too happy.
– I was not tired, on the contrary, I felt energetic. But I did some sloppy tacks and I think I should have scored at least two goals. He says it seems like a huge loss.
Just as in the first encounter, Mikael Backlund scored when the second round of the season was decided at the Battle of Alberta in Calgary last night – this time at a disadvantage after a pass from Elias Lindholm.
But despite the hosts’ 2-1 lead after two stints, it was Edmonton’s turn to win this time. Conor McDavid (who also had two assists, of course) equalized after Jacob Markstrom mishandled the ball behind the box and Zach Heymann scored.
– But Markstrom was good. The problem was that we didn’t score more goals. Two goals against Edmonton, that’s not enough, says coach Daryl Sutter.
Who also shows his most candid side when asked why superstar Jonathan Huberdeau disappeared from the booth in the second period and replies:
– I think he had to go and swallow.
Montreal continues to roar. Away against St. Louis last night, they had lost 3-1 in the first half but turned around and won 7-4.
Christian Dvorak completed a hat-trick, Cole Caufield scored two pucks and even Juraj Slavkowski got the score sheet.
– I’ve been close to him several times, but I’ve never scored three goals before. Dvorak says it looks very cool.
Another big surprise team, Philadelphia, came back from 0-2 down at home against Carolina – and even beat it. But then they themselves lost their lead and in overtime Brent Burns was able to decide on the visitors – in his 1100th match.
It smells good to end up losing, but my players should be proud of this result, says Flyers coach John Tortorella.
New Yorkers are more and more convincing. Last night they had lost 3-0 to defending champion Colorado at home on Long Island, but they came back and turned around and eventually won 5-4.
“Everyone in the team thought we’d come back and pressed, pushed and pushed,” said goal scorer Anthony Bouvier.
For the Nashville Predators, cancer continues. Last night, Washington kicked them out–at their home at Bridgestone Arena on a Saturday and all.
– Huge disappointment, team captain Roman Josie sighs, we were simply not good enough.
For Darcy Comber, who won the Stanley Cup with Colorado last summer, that was a first zero with Washington.
Another team in trouble is the Pittsburgh Penguins. They also couldn’t score any points against the Kraken in Seattle, so they now have four losses in a row.
– But I know we’re a good hockey team. “We have the ability and we have to keep working,” said coach Mike Sullivan after the devastating 3-1 loss.
Alex Weinberg has been certified with the help of the Kraken team.