Boston rookie Phil Kessel capped off an exciting back-and-forth match with the Pittsburgh Penguins with a goal in the fourth round of the shootout, leading the Bruins to a 5-4 victory tonight. Kessel is now two for two in shootouts in his career, unlike Penguins talents Sidney Crosby (a woeful two for eleven) and Evgeni Malkin (one for five). Kessel’s recent shoot-out victory over cancer is not counted in those stats.
There was another, far less likely game-winning goalscorer in Ottawa, where near-All Star Rory Fitzpatrick’s first goal of the year helped push the Vancouver Canucks over the Senators 2-1. Fitzpatrick was denied in his attempt to get even a third star of the night by the hometown preference for Daniel Alfredsson’s seventeenth goal of the year. Your voting system is a nepotistic sham, Ottawa, and you know it.