NFHL Game of the Night

When talking about the Campbell Conference race, the Edmonton Oilers aren't brought up. And to be fair, they aren't really in the mix with Minnesota, Colorado and Winnipeg for top spot.  But suddenly, they are very much in the conversation for a top four seed.  Tonight, they slipped by the aforementioned Jets by a score of 3-2 to close to within 2 points of 4th place Detroit in the conference.  They are also 1 point up on Columbus and 3 points up on Vancouver, though they give up a game in hand to the Red Wings and Canucks. In tonight's game, Bob Froese battled Allan Bester all game, with each team firing 30+ shots.  But it was Valeri Kamensky who fired the last meaningful one, snapping a 2-2 tie with just 4 and a half minutes left in the game.  Timo Bloqvist had scored earlier in the 3rd to give Edmonton a 2-0 lead before Al MacInnis and Jari Kurri scored 3 minutes apart to tie the game.  Doug Weight scored a solo power play goal in the 1st period. The loss was costly to Winnipeg as they fell 3 points back of Minnesota, who won their game tonight.  But they are now just 8 points up on Edmonton for the Smythe Division lead.  Likely too much to overcome, but maybe enough to cause the Jets to look over their shoulder occasionally. 

NFHL HQ recently detected a glitch in their systems that they just realized prevented them from releasing the winners of last month's Skater and Goalie of the Month.  These $250,000 prizes are long overdue.  The Skater of the Month was won, for the second month in a row, by a Colorado Rockie.  This time it was defenseman Mathieu Schneider.  Schneider, fresh off being voted as a starter for the upcoming All Star game, had 9 goals and 20 assists for 29 points in 19 games last month.  He was a staggering +22, with 61 shots and 70 hits in those games.  He narrowly edged out teammate, and last month's winner, Brett Hull, as well as another teammate, Mario Tremblay.  Laurie Boschman and Eric Desjardins from New Jersey were also considered.  The top goalie prize went to Winnipeg's Allan Bester.  Bester had a sparkling 12-3-2 record with 2 shut outs in 17 appearances over the month. He stopped 357 of 395 shots for a .904 save percentage.  Winnipeg's Martin Brodeur, New Jersey's Jeff Reese and Don Beaupre from the Whalers were also considered for the $250,000 prize.

The weekly prize saw familiar faces being bandied about, but eventually claimed by newcomers.  Minnesota's Dmitri Khristich took the Skater of the Week prize of $100,000 after scoring 4 goals and 8 assists for 12 points in 5 games this past week. He was +8 with 12 shots and 10 hits to run away with the honour.  He beat out a duo of teammates, Jeremy Roenick and David Shaw, as well as Columbus' Daryl  Evans and Colorado's Ron Francis.  On the goalie side, New Jersey's Jeff Reese won the prize.  Reese was 2-0 with a shut out in 3 games, stopping 42 of 44 shots for a .955 save percentage and the $100,000 prize.  A Colorado goalie likely would have won if they hadn't split duties, as both were in the running.  Kelly Hrudey and Murray Bannerman each fell just short, as did Pittsburgh's Sean Burke.

Three Stars of the Night

	Mark Hunter (NYR) - 3 Goals (10), 2 Assists, +4, 5 Shots, 1 Hit
	Tony Amonte (PIT) - 2 Goals (19), 1 Assist, +2, 4 Shots, 1 Hit
	Steve Thomas (FLA) - 1 Goal (18), 2 Assists, +2, 2 Shots, 4 Hits