2013-14, his first full season a

DETROIT — The Colorado Avalanche San Jose Sharks Hoodies Womens , one of the hottest teams in the NHL with the league’s top two scorers, face a Detroit Red Wings team playing the second of back-to-back games on Sunday night at Little Caesars Arena.The Avalanche (15-6-5) are 8-0-2 in their last 10 after a 3-2 overtime loss to the St. Louis Blues on Friday night in Denver. Colorado trailed 2-0 after the first period and rallied to force overtime and get a point.“I really liked how our team responded in the third,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said after Friday night’s game. “We find ourselves in a two-goal deficit there, and we were able come and dig our way out of that and get it to overtime.Article continues below ...“It’s a big point, it’s an important point, would have liked to have two, but sometimes that is the way it goes. Our guys played hard.”Colorado right winger Mikko Rantanen is the NHL’s leading scorer with 43 points on 11 goals and 32 assists. Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon is second with 41 points on 18 goals and 23 assists.MacKinnon was the league’s second star for November. His 23 points (nine goals, 14 assists) tied the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov for the league lead for the month. MacKinnon’s 23 points equal the Avalanche record for scoring in November, set by Peter Forsberg in 1995-96.The Red Wings (12-11-3) beat the Boston Bruins 4-2 on the road Saturday night. It was Detroit’s first regular-season win in Boston since October 2013 (0-9-2).“I think it’s the first time in my career we’ve won here,” said center Dylan Larkin, who had a power-play goal and leads Detroit with 22 points. “We were ready to play from the goalie out, a good team win.”Red Wings center Frans Nielsen’s first goal of the season broke a 2-2 tie with 8:07 left.“You do (worry you’re never going to score again) a little bit San Jose Sharks Hats Womens ,” Nielsen said. “But at the same time you just go out and play your game and it will go in sooner or later.”Tyler Bertuzzi also scored Saturday night to give him three goals in the past two games. He scored twice in a 4-3 win over St. Louis on Wednesday night at Little Caesars Arena, including the tiebreaking game-winner with less than seven minutes left. Bertuzzi has nine goals for the season.“We didn’t stop pushing. We just kept on going,” Bertuzzi said about Saturday night’s win.Goaltender Jimmy Howard made 38 saves and right winger Gustav Nyquist had an empty-net goal and two assists.“Huge win. Just for the fact that we’ve gone into the building (TD Garden) and struggled the past few years,” Nielsen said.The Red Wings have been on a hot streak of their own, going 11-4-1 in their past 16.“Great test tomorrow night, great test,” Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. “We’re going to get back (to Detroit) at a decent time and see how we stack up against one of the best.” ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) The Washington Capitals have never used more rookies during a single postseason than the half-dozen who helped Alex Ovechkin and Co. reach the Eastern Conference final.They’re contributing in various ways, including with secondary scoring and a freedom from the past playoff failures that became a burden for Capitals veterans.”Man, they gave us a big boost with their energy and enthusiasm,” said Matt Niskanen, a defenseman in his 11th NHL season. ”It’s infectious.”It’s part of a league-wide trend Custom San Jose Sharks Jerseys , too: The 50 rookie skaters in these playoffs are the most since teams used 54 in 2005-06. That could be a reflection of teams having greater trust in young players arriving from junior hockey or college, or the need to stock rosters with cheap talent as a greater percentage of the salary cap is devoted to the elite.”The way you build your hockey teams, those kids get a chance to play all season long. They get put in positions where they can succeed,” Vegas Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant said. ”Over the last 10 or 15 years, they’re more prepared.”The Capitals advanced to face the Tampa Bay Lightning in a series beginning Friday night by using five rookies during a clinching 2-1 overtime victory against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round. One of the fresh faces, Nathan Walker, assisted on a goal.In Washington’s Game 5 win over Pittsburgh, another rookie, right wing Jakub Vrana, was bumped from the third line to the top one and delivered an assist on the tying score before putting the go-ahead goal in the net. And to think: Vrana played a tad under seven minutes in Washington’s opening playoff game, then was a healthy scratch for the second. Played every game since, though.”I got an opportunity and I was ready www.mapleleafsshoponline.com ,” said Vrana, a 22-year-old from the Czech Republic. ”I didn’t get a whole lot of minutes at the beginning, but even if I get eight minutes, I still go out there and do my best and try to make those eight minutes count.”Similarly, defenseman Christian Djoos sat out Washington’s first two games but played in the other 10.Vrana and Djoos were expected to appear in Game 1 at Tampa Bay, perhaps joined by forwards Chandler Stephenson and Travis Boyd, who skated together on the third line at practice Wednesday. Walker and another rookie who faced Pittsburgh, Shane Gersich, are also part of the group that matched the franchise record of six playoff rookies set in 1989-90.”There’s two kinds of things that happen with young guys. They’re naive and just play and have a lot of fun and it doesn’t bother `em. … There’s other ones that get the starry-eyed, saucer-eyed (look) and they have to sort of work through that,” Capitals coach Barry Trotz said. ”Early in the Columbus series, (Vrana) had a little bit of those saucer eyes. And then he sort of grew out of it.”The Lightning’s trio of rookies combined for 12 playoff points through two rounds: Anthony Cirelli Toronto Maple Leafs T-Shirts Womens , Yanni Gourde and defenseman Mikhail Sergachev. Cirelli has played a key defensive center role after getting into just 18 regular-season games.There are fewer youngsters in the Western Conference final.Alex Tuch, who turned 22 on Thursday, has four goals and three assists as the sole postseason rookie for the Golden Knights. Their opponent, Winnipeg, has three rookies, but only one has logged regular playing time – left wing Kyle Connor broke out with two goals and an assist in Game 5 of the second round against Nashville, then had two assists in the Jets’ 5-1 victory over the Predators in Game 7 on Thursday night.Back in 2013-14, his first full season as an NHL coach, Tampa Bay’s Jon Cooper used nine rookies in the playoffs, a total no team has eclipsed since.That Lightning club was swept in the first round.”I don’t think we were necessarily prepared for it,” said Tyler Johnson, one of four members of that precocious crop who also has appeared in the playoffs for Tampa Bay this time around. ”We didn’t know what to expect.”That’s the thing about newcomers Toronto Maple Leafs Hoodies Womens , of course. They don’t know how they’ll react to being in the faster, more physical, higher-quality, higher-pressure playoffs.Nor do coaches or teammates.”There’s a little bit of the enthusiasm of the youth, something about the young guys. They’ve always got the smile on. Sometimes they’re funny. Sometimes they’re naive,” Trotz said. ”Sometimes they just sort of need a little bit of tightening from their peers or their coach.”—AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno, AP Sports Writer Fred Goodall in Tampa, Florida, and AP freelancer W.G. Ramirez in Las Vegas contributed to this report.—