Friday's hockey: Jackson's Mazur has three points for Griffins; Vernon vs. Roy extremely rare
Carter Mazur's three-point night helped Grand Rapids extend its point streak to 17 games on Friday.
Mazur (Jackson) had a goal and two assists in the Griffins' 4-3 win against the Iowa Wild at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids.
Michael Hutchinson stopped 28-of-31 shots and Jonatan Berggren extended his scoring streak to four games with a goal.
Grand Rapids inched closer to tie the franchise-record, 19-game point streak (15-0-3-1) from Feb. 4-March 20, 2015.
Michigan State 5, Wisconsin 2
South Lyon's Trey Augustine stopped 44-of-46 shots in Michigan State's 5-2 road win against Wisconsin on Friday.
The victory clinched the Spartans' first Big Ten regular-season title in program history.
More:MSU hockey clinches program's first Big Ten title with 5-2 win at Wisconsin
Minnesota 6, Michigan 2
Rutger McGroarty had a goal and an assist and Garrett Schifsky also scored in Michigan's 6-2 loss in Minnesota on Friday.
Jake Barczewski allowed five goals in 40 minutes and Noah West allowed one goal in the third period.
Waterloo 7, NTDP 18s 4
Kamil Bednarik had a goal and two assists for the NTDP U18s in a 7-4 loss against Waterloo on Friday at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth.
Also Friday, the NTDP U17s lost 6-3 in Cedar Rapids. Donny Bracco had a goal and an assist.
Friday's NHL games
Arizona 5, (at) Ottawa 3: Dylan Guenther scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period o snap a 14-game losing streak.
Michael Carcone, J.J. Moser, Nick Schmaltz and Matias Maccelli also scored to help the Coyotes get their first win since Jan. 22 to end a an 0-12-2 skid. Karel Vejmelka stopped 34 shots to get his first win since Dec. 27 after going 0-8-0 in 10 appearances since.
Vladimir Tarasenko, Drake Batherson and Shane Pinto scored for the Senators, who have lost three in a row. Anton Forsberg had 26 saves as a late replacement for Joonas Korpisalo (illness).
Guenther scored a power-play goal at 4:18 of the third, beating Forsberg under the arm to give the Coyotes a 4-3 lead after they gave up a three-goal advantage. Maccelli had an empty-netter with 1:15 remaining to seal the win.
(At) Washington 5, Philadelphia 2: Alex Ovechkin scored his 839th career goal and helped set up John Carlson’s go-ahead goal, and Washington rallied to beat Philadelphia in a massive victory for its playoff hopes.
The Capitals moved four points back of the Flyers for third place in the Metropolitan Division and also sit five back of Tampa Bay for the second and final wild card in the Eastern Conference. Washington has won five of seven to stay in the the thick of the race.
Dylan Strome had a goal and two assists, Sonny Milano and Anthony Mantha also scored, and Hendrix Lapierre, Tom Wilson and Max Pacioretty each had two assists for Washington. Charlie Lindgren finished with 21 saves.
Owen Tippett had a goal and an assist, and Bobby Brink also scored for the Flyers. Samuel Ersson gave up five goals on 21 shots.
(At) Anaheim 4, New Jersey 3: Lukas Dostal made 52 saves and stopped Jack Hughes’ penalty shot attempt with 2.1 seconds to play, and Anaheim held on to beat New Jersey.
Frank Vatrano scored two goals and Adam Henrique added his 18th goal for the Ducks. Max Jones had a goal and an assist as Anaheim opened a five-game homestand with its first win at Honda Center since January.
Hughes had a goal and two assists for New Jersey, but he botched the penalty shot by turning over the puck during his tentative approach to Dostal.
Timo Meier also scored for the Devils, who dropped to 1-1-0 on their three-game California road swing. Tyler Toffoli scored his 26th goal of the season with goalie Akira Schmid pulled for an extra attacker with 2:57 to play.
Nico Daws made 10 saves on 14 shots in the first two periods for the Devils before Schmid replaced him for the third. Schmid stopped all nine shots he faced but New Jersey lost for the fourth time in six games.
Goalie fights have almost disappeared
Watching fights between Colorado's Patrick Roy and Detroit's Mike Vernon in the 1990s, Martin Biron recalled, he always wanted to be the goaltender who could win a bout as the spunky underdog.
Then he got into one against Ray Emery and asked himself, “What were you thinking?”
Two decades since Robert Esche and Patrick Lalime went at it as part of the Philadelphia Flyers-Ottawa Senators brawl that set the NHL record for penalty minutes, goalie fighting has essentially disappeared from the league. There has not been one since before the pandemic, and only three have taken place over the past 10 years.
The disappearance of two heavily padded goalies trading blows is due to the fact there are almost no teamwide slugfests anymore, prohibitive rules and fewer netminders willing to take the risks.
“I think goalies have gotten smarter and they’re like, no, there’s no reason to get in a fight,” Biron said. “Fighting is not as prevalent as it once was, and you don’t have the kind of brawls that we used to have sometimes where you’re like, ‘OK, I’m going to join in.’”
Biron and Emery in 2007 is one of just seven goalie vs. goalie fights since the 2004-05 lockout and 43 overall dating to 1954, according to HockeyFights.com (there are 141 other times where at least one goalie was involved in a tussle).
The vast majority of these unusual crowd favorites came between the late '70s and late ’90s during an era when masked men with an edge were all over the place, from Hextall, Potvin and Roy to Hall of Famer Billy Smith, Steve Shields and Sean Burke.
“There had to be at least 80 fights a year, so the opportunity was at least once a night for something to break out to extend beyond two guys fighting,” said retired former Red Wings goaltender Glen Hanlon, who got into five scraps in the NHL, including two against another goalie.
“Back then, watching the two turtles race to center ice to have a fight didn’t seem that crazy and it was a lot of excitement. There was a lot more squaring off, a lot more 5-on-5 fighting – just a bunch more situations.”
Playoff tracker
Atlantic
▶ Bruins (84)
▶ Panthers (84)
▶ Maple Leafs (76)
Metropolitan
▶ Rangers (83)
▶ Hurricanes (78)
▶ Flyers (69)
Wild card
▶ Red Wings (72)
▶ Lightning (70)
(Top two wild-card teams make the playoffs)
▶ Capitals (65)
▶ Devils (64)
▶ Islanders (64)
▶ Pittsburgh (62)
▶ Sabres (60)
Michigan-area hockey this week
Friday
▶ Grand Rapids 4, Iowa 3
▶ Michigan State 5, Wisconsin 2
▶ Minnesota 6, Michigan 2
▶ North Dakota 5, Western Michigan 3
▶ St. Thomas 2, Michigan Tech 0
▶ Northern Michigan 4, Bowling Green 1
▶ Lake Superior State 4, Ferris State 1
▶ Waterloo 7, NTDP U18s 4
▶ Cedar Rapids 6, NTDP U17s 3
Saturday
▶ Florida at Red Wings, 3 (ABC/97.1)
▶ Rockford at Grand Rapids, 7 (AHL/106.9/1300)
▶ Michigan State at Wisconsin, 8 (Big Ten+/730)
▶ Michigan at Minnesota, 7:30 (Big Ten)
▶ Western Michigan at North Dakota, 7
▶ St. Thomas at Michigan Tech, 6
▶ Bowling Green at Northern Michigan, 6
▶ Madison at NTDP U18s, 7
▶ NTDP U17s at Cedar Rapids, 8
Thursday
▶ N.Y. Islanders 5, Red Wings 3
Wednesday
▶ Grand Rapids 3, Iowa 2 (OT)
Tuesday
▶ Red Wings 8, Capitals 3