PITTSBURGH (AP) — Sidney Crosby had a goal and two assists and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Arizona Coyotes 6-2 on Thursday night in the season opener for both teams.
Jake Guentzel, Jason Zucker and Bryan Rust each had a goal and an assist, and Evgeni Malkin and Kasperi Kapanen also scored for Pittsburgh. Kris Letang and Danton Heinen each added two assists, and Tristan Jarry stopped 26 shots.
Nick Ritchie scored twice for the rebuilding Coyotes. Karel Vejmelka struggled early but improved as the game wore on to finish with 47 saves.
GOLDEN KNIGHTS 1, BLACKHAWKS 0
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Paul Cotter scored and Logan Thompson stopped 27 shots as Vegas beat Chicago.
The victory marked the fourth time in the Golden Knights’ first six seasons in the NHL they opened 2-0-0, while the Blackhawks (0-2-0) have now lost their first two games in four straight seasons.
Thompson, making just his 22nd NHL appearance, got his second career shutout. It was his third time facing the Blackhawks and he improved to 2-0-1 against them.
Alex Stalock was excellent in net for Chicago, finishing with 36 saves in his first start of the season.
MAPLE LEAFS 3, CAPITALS 2
TORONTO (AP) — Auston Matthews broke a third-period tie, Ilya Samsonov made 24 saves against his former team and Toronto beat Washington.
John Tavares and Calle Jarnkrok also scored and Morgan Rielly added two assists to help the Maple Leafs rebound from an opening 4-3 loss at Montreal on Wednesday night.
Nic Dowd and Marcus Johansson scored for Washington, coming off a 5-2 home loss to Boston on Wednesday night. Charlie Lindgren stopped 36 shots.
PANTHERS 3, ISLANDERS 1
NEW YORK (AP) — Patric Hornqvist scored the tiebreaking goal in the third period, Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 31 shots and Florida beat New York to give Paul Maurice a win in his first game as Panthers coach.
Eetu Luostarinen scored in the second period and Matthew Tkachuk added an empty-netter late in the third for Florida. The Panthers won their season opener a year after winning their first eight games and starting 10-0-1.
Noah Dobson scored for the Islanders and Ilya Sorokin made 26 saves. New York, starting the season with four straight at home a year after a franchise-record 13-game season-opening road trip while construction of UBS Arena finished, lost its home opener for the second straight year.
FLAMES 5, AVALANCHE 3
CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Dillon Dube scored short-handed and Calgary won its season opener for the first time since 2009.
Dube and Rasmus Andersson scored in the second period, Elias Lindholm and Tyler Toffoli had power-play goals in the third and Brett Ritchie also scored. Jacob Markstrom made 22 saves to help the Flames end an 0-10-2 funk in openers.
Defenseman MacKenzie Weegar had a pair of assists. He joined Calgary’s other offseason acquisitions — Jonathan Huberdeau, Nazem Kadri (one assist) and Kevin Rooney — in making their regular-season debuts for the Flames. .
Bowen Byram, Nathan MacKinnon and Valeri Nichushkin scored for Colorado, and Pavel Francouz stopped 22 shots.
STARS 4, PREDATORS 1
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Mason Marchment scored twice, Jake Oettinger made 30 saves and Dallas beat Nashville.
Joe Pavelski and Wyatt Johnston also scored and Tyler Seguin added three assists for the Stars, who won their opener for the fourth time in the last five seasons.
Ryan Johansen scored and Juuse Saros made 25 saves for Nashville. After scoring seven goals in securing two season-opening victories over the San Jose Sharks last weekend in Prague, the Predators could not find a way to beat Oettinger until the third period.
KRAKEN 4, KINGS 1
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Brandon Tanev scored the go-ahead goal early in the second period and Seattle rebounded from an opening loss.
Jaden Schwartz, Alex Wennberg and Adam Larsson also scored for the Kraken and Martin Jones made 28 saves. Seattle bounced back from a 5-4 overtime loss to Anaheim on Wednesday night when the Kraken squandered a two-goal lead in the third period.
Alex Iafallo had Los Angeles’ lone goal and Jonathan Quick stopped 18 shots. The Kings have dropped their first two games.
RANGERS 7, WILD 3
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Artemi Panarin had a goal and three assists and Chris Kreider scored twice as New York spoiled Minnesota’s season opener.
Kreider and Adam Fox had the first two goals as the Rangers took a 3-0 lead into the first intermission, and Filip Chytil scored in the second period to push the lead back to three. Vincent Trocheck and Kaapo Kakko tacked on goals in the third period to neutralize two for the Wild by Matt Boldy in a whiplash stretch of 2:02 in which both teams scored twice.
Until then, Igor Shesterkin was as sharp as ever in the net, robbing the Wild more than once while they outshot the Rangers 12-2 in the early going. Shesterkin finished with 33 saves.
Mats Zuccarello had a power play goal for the Wild, who fell to 16-2-4 in their home openers. Marc-Andre Fleury had 28 saves.
SABRES 4, SENATORS 1
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Rasmus Dahlin and rookie JJ Peterka scored 2:54 apart in the second period, and Buffalo rallied to beat Ottawa.
Craig Anderson stopped 35 shots and Victor Olofsson sealed the victory by scoring two empty-net goals in the final 42 seconds.
Senators captain Brady Tkachuk opened the scoring midway through the first period and Anton Forsberg stopped 32 shots for Ottawa.
FLYERS 5, DEVILS 2
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Travis Konecny and Morgan Frost each scored twice and Philadelphia won coach John Tortorella’s Flyers debut.
Wade Allison also scored and Carter Hart stopped 34 shots for the Flyers.
Alexander Holtz and Damon Severson scored for the Devils. Mackenzie Blackwood had 20 saves.
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