Three Games, Several Posts: Night of 'Almost-Goals' That Kept Scores Close
From Washington to Boston to St. Louis, iron thudded off crossbars and posts — and a handful of players came painfully close to changing results
If those posts rattle in, tonight’s box scores look very different.
The Capitals–Hurricanes game saw three iron hits: Aliaksei Protas, Andrei Svechnikov, and Jordan Staal all struck iron, repeatedly turning high-danger chances into near-misses that kept the score tight late. In Boston–Winnipeg, three posts/crossbars also prevented goals, with Josh Morrissey, Kyle Connor, and Marat Khusnutdinov each pinging the iron on chances that could’ve swung momentum. And in St. Louis–Dallas, two iron strikes — by Mikko Rantanen and Tyler Seguin — left both teams scrambling for rebounds instead of celebrating goals; Cutter Gauthier was another player who came inches from a score in that game.
Across those rinks the box scores list saves and shots, but the story is the same: several almost-goals hit the framework instead of the back of the net, preserving one-goal margins and forcing goalies and defenses to survive tense sequences rather than answer on the scoreboard. For fans who remember the feel of a puck smacking the post and bouncing out, tonight offered multiple such moments — game-altering if luck had nudged the iron a few inches.